“If Timmy Mallet made hotels, this would be it”. – Jonny Blair. A short intro first – I stayed here in 2013 (so five years ago and never finished this article) BUT this is far and away the most ridiculous hotel in my backpacking history. A hotel shaped like a boat in the middle of Read more about One of the Most Ridiculous Places I Have Slept In: The Eclectic Hotel in Vank, Nagorno Karabakh[…]
Burnt out trucks, tanks chasing me, a country that doesn’t exist, a once vibrant city that is completely destroyed, angry stray dogs, dead end roads, rubble. My Halloween experience in 2013 was a tad eerie, spooky, scary and extreme. It was up there with my visit to Saddam Hussein’s House of Horrors in Iraq, the Venezuela border Read more about The Front Line: My Halloween Visit to the Destroyed City of Agdam, Nagorno Karabakh[…]
I couldn’t decide whether this was a Thirsty Thursdays or a Friday’s Featured Food but I ate quite a bit and so I’ve gone with food. You might also be thinking “what is so special about pizza and beer?” And you’d be right – essentially nothing. Pizza and Beer are what I love – there Read more about Friday’s Featured Food: Pizza and Beers on a Night Out in Stepanakert, Nagorno Karabakh[…]
The tiny republic of Nagorno Karabakh is easily one of the oddest places I have ever been. It completely feels like a separate country here. It should be and while I’ll certainly class it as a country on my own terms having seen the place with my eyes, United Nations and FIFA still don’t recognise Read more about Backpacking in Stepanakert, Nagorno Karabakh: Top 13 Things to See and Do[…]
Don’t paint yourself a picture of travelling as beaches, hot sun and cocktails please. That’s not backpacking, and in all honesty it’s not reflective of travel as a whole and it’s certainly biased. You’re only seeing the good things. Yes we love the good moments, but on my travels I feel the need to explore Read more about 5 Most Horrific Places To Go Backpacking In[…]
Vank is an extraordinary place that you can’t believe it exists. This wannabe tourist resort is nestled into unknown countryside in the enigma that is Nagorno Karabakh. Vank is a small town which has some crazy things going on in it, and is also the perfect base for exploring Gandzasar Monastery. Local lad Levon Hairapetian Read more about Backpacking in Nagorno Karabakh: 5 Things to see and do in Vank[…]
OK so down the years, I’ve been on some crazy types of transport on my travels and some absolutely manic journeys: – Turbo Jet in New Zealand (world’s fastest speedboat) – Cruise Ship to Antarctica – Mini-bus to Harar, Ethiopia (broke down, killed a cow, got stopped by police, windscreen smashed, stopped off for 4 Read more about Crazy Mini-Bus/ Marshrutky from Stepanakert to Vank, Nagorno Karabakh[…]
While backpacking in Nagorno Karabakh, there are more sights to see and things to do than I first imagined. In the end 3 days and 3 nights in the region wasn’t enough, but we did squeeze in some awesome stuff in that time. Having a choice between Dadivank and Gandzasar Monasteries (we didn’t have time Read more about Visiting Gandzasar Monastery Near Vank, Nagorno Karabakh[…]