Installing laminate flooring, painting walls

29 March, 2022 | Home Remodeling | 18 seen

During the weekend I did a lot at our Vilgāle apartment, fixed some electric plugs, painted walls, and installed the floor, but first things first - it was agreed to save huge on the floor by choosing laminate instead of parquet.

We paid less than EUR 9/m2 for laminate and saved on installation as I did it myself. Parquet would cost about EUR 40-50/m2.

I chose DEPO store in Riga to buy the floor and tools

In total paid EUR 378 for about 32m2 laminate, figure saw and wooden fiber boards (the green ones)

Before proceeding, I had to remove 9 bags of trash from the room

Looks quite cozy already. Unfortunetly that afternoon there was a very heavy storm and our village was cut off from the electricity so I had to pause any works (figure saw needs electricity)

Unbelievable, the room looks very good. There are still some details to finish, but I'm already very happy

Later i will add tiles for the kitchen area

I'm looking to resume works here in June 2022

Cost so far:

• Water plumbing: EUR 60
• Sadales Tīkls: EUR 60
• Electrician: EUR 155
• Architect: EUR 800
• Removing walls and floor: EUR 775
• Chalk removing, / wiring: EUR 500
• Wall plastering/frame for drywall ceiling (bedroom): EUR 875
• New windows: EUR 1,252 
• Window replacement: EUR 200
• Estrich floor with an underfloor heating system and all plumbing: EUR 1,916
• Rock wool for the ceiling, drywall constructions, drywall, and some wiring: EUR 866
• Plastering bedroom and living room: EUR 1,200
• Chimneysweep: EUR 30
• More drywall, rock wool, electric cables, plumbing, and others: EUR 1094
• Doors for bedroom and bathroom: EUR 291.58
• More sauna, more drywall, more plumbing, more wiring EUR 1,992.56
• More sauna, more drywall, more electricity: EUR 370
• more plastering: EUR 340
• Paint and tools (paintbrush, rolls, gloves, scotch): EUR 74.86
• 27 Liter of ready-made plaster, dozen of electricity plugs, rolls, screwdrivers: EUR 45
• Paint for walls, additional electricity plugs and switches: EUR 50
• Laminate flooring and tools: EUR 378

TOTAL: EUR 13,325

How to Fix Apache Configuration Error AH00558: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name

28 March, 2022 | Servers | 127 seen

Not the biggest Apache fan here, but today working on a server while setting up Apache as a reverse proxy for the JBoss application, after trying to restart the apache service I faced the following issue Apache Configuration Error AH00558: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name.

Luckily, a quick Google helped to find the solution: 

Long story short (For Debian / Ubuntu)

sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Add a line containing ServerName 127.0.0.1 to the end of the file

Polishing, Painting and some cable works

25 March, 2022 | Home Remodeling | 10 seen

I spent another day at our Vilgāle apt, today's plan was to polish the ceiling and wall (I yesterday plastered) and add the base layer of paint for the living room and hallway.

In the morning we went to Majai un darzam store in Kuldīga, where I bought a bucket of paint, some plugs, and switches, special screws for drywall, so I can properly install the lamp from IKEA, and the day started.

Yesterday I decided to apply more plaster on kitchen wall (under the window) today Ibpolished it and applied freh layer of paint

More paint will be applied here later

Looks quite light

Now, looks really nice already - like a qualitative rental location

Living area, kitchen and hallway. I hope to trade stocks some day from this apartment

Spent some time, figuring it out, how to connect switch the right way. 

Wall Plastering, Ceiling Paint, Some Electricity works

23 March, 2022 | Home Remodeling | 10 seen

It has been a while since the latest update from the Vilgale apartment, in fact, it has been 3 months since I last visited it. Now, having a Spring break from QSI school in Tbilisi, we decided to visit Latvia for some 2 weeks and do some things - like continuing with the renovation works at the Vilgāle apt.

I bought some materials back in Riga at the Depo store and was the very happy and enthusiastic starting day today at Vilgāle.

This is where we were left before the New Year of 2022. Today I decided to plaster walls in the hallway.

After couple of hours I was done. Saved a few hundred euros I guess.

Most of the plasteting works should be done now

After plastering works, I decided to apply the second layer of paint for the ceiling

We bought this lamp at the end of 2021 in IKEA store. 

Indeed I feel I have saved at least a few hundred euros today.

Cost so far:

• Water plumbing: EUR 60
• Sadales Tīkls: EUR 60
• Electrician: EUR 155
• Architect: EUR 800
• Removing walls and floor: EUR 775
• Chalk removing, / wiring: EUR 500
• Wall plastering/frame for drywall ceiling (bedroom): EUR 875
• New windows: EUR 1,252 
• Window replacement: EUR 200
• Estrich floor with an underfloor heating system and all plumbing: EUR 1,916
• Rock wool for the ceiling, drywall constructions, drywall, and some wiring: EUR 866
• Plastering bedroom and living room: EUR 1,200
• Chimneysweep: EUR 30
• More drywall, rock wool, electric cables, plumbing, and others: EUR 1094
• Doors for bedroom and bathroom: EUR 291.58
• More sauna, more drywall, more plumbing, more wiring EUR 1,992.56
• More sauna, more drywall, more electricity: EUR 370
• more plastering: EUR 340
• Paint and tools (paintbrush, rolls, gloves, scothc): EUR 74.86
• 27 Liter of ready-made plaster, dozen of electricity plugs, rolls, screwdrivers: EUR 45

TOTAL: EUR 12,897

Svan Tower in Tbilisi (Turtle Lake)

22 March, 2022 | Tourism objects | 114 seen

Svan Tower near Turtle lake is a well seen, but less visited tourist attraction in Tbilisi. Best reached while hiking near Turtle lake.

• Hiking Trails in Tbilisi - Turtle Lake (Kus Tba) - Tskneti
• Hiking trails near Turtle lake, Tbilisi in Winter

We visited the Svan Tower again in Tbilisi at the end of February 2022 and had a lovely picnic in the footsteps of the tower. See this short video I made: Hiking trip near Turtle Lake

The hiking route towards Swan tower from the Turtle lake, shouldn't take more than 20 minutes 

To visit the real Svan towers, you should consider a trip to Svaneti and especially the town of Mestia.

Buying a car in Riga

21 March, 2022 | | 41 seen

A few years ago I wrote an article on how to buy a used car in Georgia, now it is time to write about our experience buying a used car in Riga Latvia.

For the past couple of years, we were using mostly car rentals and enjoyed it a lot - I mean no headaches about servicing the car, someone brings your car to the airport, you drop it at the airport. Quite nice, also quite expensive. It was agreed we could buy some used car and use it for some two years to come and then let's see what happens. 

A few years ago we had a reliable Honda CRV car here in Latvia, we used it a lot during the Summer months and the car suited well during winter months too, unfortunately, the investment the car asked for was too high and in the end car ended in a car cemetery. 

For looking cars in Latvia - ss. lv is a way to go. I opened SS.lv looked for a few Honda CRVs (younger models) made a few phone calls and made appointments. I should note it happened on Sunday.

The first Honda we were looking for was listed for EUR 2,100, the other I looked at was EUR 3,300. This was our approximate budget Something reliable for not a huge money. To make it more fun and have some assistance I called my friend Leo, Leo agreed and in one hour we went to a parking lot on Lubanas street, where the first car was parked. Once we arrived, the other guys already paid EUR 2,000 in cash and literally bought this car in front of our noses. Well, what to do. I called the guy who was selling Honda for EUR 3,300. He was located in Imanta, said he has some more cars. 

Once arrived at the parking lot in Imanta, we looked at Honda CRV for EUR 3,300 which had both petrol/gas engines - I personally don't find it attractive using gas ...well that's just my preference.. we started to look that Honda CRV and literally we didn't like what we saw.

Next to the Honda CRV car, there was it - Mercedes Benz ML 400 diesel, listed for EUR 3,300. As we are driving VW Touareg back in Tbilisi, we said that let's check this car and literally wanted it. So we tested the car, did a test drive, agreed that the car is premium junk, but I would better pay EUR 3,000 for something comfortable and EUR 1,000 once a year fixing things than buying some second-hand car for EUR 10,000. Our goal is not to resell this car in a year or two, nope. Once the car is done we can utilize, size it. I won't cry about EUR 3,000 spent on it today. 

Once we agreed to buy the car, it was just the matter of transferring money to the seller's bank account (via SEB bank), he made some paperwork to give to CSDD (so we can register the vehicle in our name), additionally bought online OCTA, and we were done. The next morning we went to Bauskas street to register a vehicle, paid a tax of about EUR 200. and were Done.

Overall the buying process was quite simple. Hope the car will suit us for years to come.

Diaries from Tbilisi or Fun Friday with school, office, options trading and flying

18 March, 2022 | Living in Georgia | 6 seen

The day started with a lot of snow here in Tbilisi, yesterday we parked our VW Touareg at Archi Tower paid underground parking (paying about GEL 200 / month), and decided to rely on taxi service until Friday's flight to Riga.

A few days ago my personal Driver David refused to make a trip to the QSI international school and back to our apartment for GEL 20 (roundtrip). Well what to do, now we need to rely on BOLT or drive ourselves. Sad our area is not served by school bus. 

We dropped kiddo at school and drive to the office in Vake. I installed one PC with Windows and MS products, had a nice chat with office personnel, and at the end of the day talked to Shorena, a smart Georgian girl helping us with PC equipment. I counted we now have about 15 machines. Intel i3 and Intel i5. Ram ranging from 4 GB (for the older models) to 16GB (never)

I wanted to return the old look on my blog, the one you are currently reading, the Bootstrap look, there were some system errors after I did the Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 upgrade last Summer. Now I decided to investigate and fix that. Had to get my hands dirty, using Siri as an assistant and ssh terminal on MacBook too. It was fun digging through the PHPMyAdmin and locating the issues. Fixed. Switched the look.

It was time to pick up the kiddo from the school, again with the Help of Bolt. We arrived at school some 30 minutes earlier, decided to use my phone as a hotspot, and fine-tuned the look of the blog from the backseat in the taxi.

For this ride paid GEL 30. Probably my driver was right, I was paying him too less, probably. well, what to do. But if there is a lesson I have learned the hard way - never take back the ones you have sacked. Sorry, David!

Back at the home, Nina, the cleaning lady waited, gave her some instructions on how to upkeep the apartment while we will be abroad. 

The stock market opened, most of my positions were challenged, decided to let get called away 100 shares with PFE and 100 shares with SPCE. Rolled up DOW and closed one call position with WBA. Sold additional credit spread on PFE and waited for a chance to open position on Barrick gold.

Meantime bathed our kiddo, ordered some chicken wings and noodles with shrimps from Jackie Chan restaurant. 

Now a few more hours in the stock market, and we can fly to Riga.

Buying Amazon stock on margin (NASDAQ:AMZN) before stock split to sell covered calls

17 March, 2022 | Investments | 31 seen

On March 17, 2022, I assisted in buying 1 share of AMZN stock for my fiancee. She paid USD 3,101.99 for 1 share.

Our goal is to have 5 shares by June 6, 2022. My fiancee is having her birthday on June 10 and by that time I hope I will be able to assist her in selling the first covered call on AMZN stock as well.

Book my Covered Calls Course | How to Generate Income from Options

Now, long story short AMZN stock is doing a 1:20 stock split on June 6, 2022:

On March 9, 2022, the Board of Directors of Amazon.com, Inc. (the “Company”) approved a 20-for-1 split of the Company’s common stock to be effected through an amendment to the Company’s Restated Certificate of Incorporation (the “Amendment”). The Amendment will also effect a proportionate increase in the number of shares of authorized common stock.

The stock split and the proportionate authorized share increase are subject to shareholder approval of the Amendment at the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the “Annual Meeting”), which is currently scheduled to take place on May 25, 2022. The Company’s definitive proxy statement relating to the Annual Meeting will include additional details regarding the Amendment.

Subject to shareholder approval of the Amendment, each Company shareholder of record at the close of business on May 27, 2022 will have 19 additional shares for every one share held as of such date reflected in their accounts on or about June 3, 2022. Trading is expected to begin on a split-adjusted basis on June 6, 2022.

Amazon is a company that has brought in more than 100K to me in form of Amazon Associates. Most of my money invested in the stock market comes from the money made on Amazon. I find it double important to buy this stock and have it in our portfolios.

As we actually don't have 15K to buy 5 shares, I have an idea to buy these shares on margin (which is about 6.66x for our Interactive Brokers account). Instead of paying 15K to buy 5 shares, we will actually invest about USD 2,250. This means after this deal we will have a large negative cash balance of about -13K.

But after the stock split, we will have 100 shares priced at about USD 150 each, and we will be able to start selling covered calls. As we still need to buy 4 shares before May 27, I still don't know what will be our average buy price, but in case it will be close to the current or above the current stock price I'm looking at some $150 weekly / $500 monthly from selling covered calls on this stock.

Also, our goal is to keep this stock in the portfolio for at least one year.

here is what stock analysts think about AMZN stock:

The 45 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Amazon.com Inc have a median target of 4,100.00, with a high estimate of 5,000.00 and a low estimate of 3,041.00. The median estimate represents a +33.31% increase from the last price of 3,075.60.

Subscribe to my newsletter about investing with covered calls

Gudaleti Monastery Complex

15 March, 2022 | Churches and Monasteries | 29 seen

Gudaleti monastery complex is located in the village of Gudaleti on an elevated spot, on the edge of a high gorge on the river Gudaleura. The church is located about 1 hour and 20 minutes drive from Tbilisi. The complex includes the Church of the Assumption and a tower fortress.

We discovered this church by chance while driving through the village of Gudaleti to visit a friend who has bought a house in the same village.

Seems the church is under renovation and is being completely rebuilt (2022)

The Church of the Mother of God is a cross-domed building, built at the turn of the XIII - XIV centuries, built of cut stone, cobblestone and bricks are also used. 

I was able to find some additional info about this church in Georgian here

I guess it is just a matter of time, when a good asphalt road will be laid also in the Gudaleti village, making this place an attractive spot to visit. 

How to Open Investment Brokerage Account in Georgia (Galt & Taggart)

14 March, 2022 | Living in Georgia | 49 seen

The other day I received a cold call from my bank (Bank of Georgia) offering to become a prime customer at their SOLO banking. I listened to what they have to offer, was not very interested in access to 1,200 airport business lounges, but instead decided to give it a look on their investment banking account.

For the first time in Georgia, with Bank of Georgia Investments, you can buy full or fractional shares on NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchange, available directly in the mobile banking application.

As I'm already a bank customer I was able to apply, open and fund my new brokerage account in less than 5 minutes - all online. Wow. 

I opened a brokerage account with less than $25.. wow.. all online, with a $1 commission on stock buys..though no options, but still awesome. If there is a reason to relocate to Georgia, then the Bank of Georgia will help and even save huge on commissions. JP Morgan owns a stake in BOG.. bought 0.85 fractional shares of NIO. Awesome.

Here are just a few benefits:

• With BoG investments, you have affordable access to thousands of securities listed on NASDAQ and NYSE
• For the first time in Georgia, you can buy fractional shares and start investing with just 1$
• Only 2 commissions: $1.0* on each transaction and monthly commission fee of $2.0*$ 0.02 per share sold / minimum, $ 1.0 and 0.01% of the monthly service fee portfolio value, at least $ 2.0
• Your investment account is insured up to $500,000 by Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC)
• For Georgian citizens, capital gains on purchased securities are not taxed.

How to Open an Investment account in Georgia

Strange but the investment account works only as an app on iPhone's or Android. I would prefer a standalone desktop version or at least access from the web. Well, better than nothing.

I don't have huge plans on BoG Investments account (at least yet), but I'm looking to invest say $25 every week to buy some growth stock.

How to Setup XTRF with Apache HTTP server as a reverse proxy and SSL from Let's Encrypt

11 March, 2022 | Servers | 44 seen

XTRF is a Polish translation management system available to install as SAAS or on your own server (both Windows and Linux). In today's article, I will keep notes on How to Setup XTRF with Apache HTTP server as a reverse proxy and SSL from Let's Encrypt

The company I'm assisting in server works has been using the XTRF translation management system since 2011 (if not earlier). A few years ago I helped to perform a major upgrade (from version 2 to version 8).

How To Install XTRF 8 on Ubuntu 18.04

The system was launched over the internet, but recently the latest Google Chrome update stopped supporting the system saying: ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH

XTRF runs on some Jboss server, something I'm not very well familiar with, but as a few years ago we already had a similar problem with ciphers,  at the start I was looking to fix this in JBoss settings (standalone.xml)

How To Fix "Server has a weak ephemeral Dillie-Heffman public key" For Jboss Server

Though, after a few emails with the XTRF support team I got a few pointers to start with, and for my surprise, they were recommending using Apache as a reverse proxy/  here is the article from the XTRF knowledge base: SSL Certificate Installation 

First things first - A record should be configured for DNS purposes, Apache with modules should be enabled, for SSL part I decided to use Let's Encrypt free SSL certificate, last but not least we should configure virtual hosts.

Let's start with Apache:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/xtrf.conf

paste

# SSL Stapling configuration
#SSLUseStapling on SSLStaplingCache "shmcb:logs/stapling-cache(150000)"
 
<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName xtrf.caucasustranslations.com
 
 
        <Directory />
                Options none
                AllowOverride None
        </Directory>
 
        #just redirect everything to https
        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
        RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}
        ProxyRequests Off
        LogLevel notice
        ServerSignature Off
 
        ErrorLog "/var/log/apache2/error-xtrf.log"
        CustomLog "/var/log/apache2/access-xtrf.eu.log" combined
 
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =xtrf.caucasustranslations.com
RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>
 
<VirtualHost *:443>
        ServerAdmin info@caucasustranslations.com
        ServerName xtrf.caucasustranslations.com
        
 
        <Directory />
                Options none
                AllowOverride None
        </Directory>
 
        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteRule ^[/]?$ /xtrf/ [R]
        ProxyRequests Off
 
        ProxyPreserveHost On
        SetEnv proxy-nokeepalive 1
 
        LogLevel notice
        ServerSignature Off
 
#        SSLEngine On
 #       SSLProxyEngine On
 #      SSLProxyVerify none
 #     SSLProxyCheckPeerCN off
  #    SSLProxyCheckPeerName off
 
#    SSLCompression off
#    SSLCipherSuite EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA128:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA128:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA128:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA128:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA128:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:AES128-GCM-SHA384:AES128-SHA128:AES128-SHA128:AES128-SHA:AES128-SHA:HIGH:!aNULL:!eNULL:!EXPORT:!DES:!MD5:!PSK:!RC4
#      SSLProtocol All -SSLv2 -SSLv3 -TLSv1 -TLSv1.1
#    SSLHonorCipherOrder On
    Header always set X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN
    Header always set X-Content-Type-Options nosniff

        ProxyPass /server-status !
        ProxyPass / ajp://127.0.0.1:8009/
       
        LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" **%T/%D** \"%{Content-Type}o\"" combined2
        ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error-xtrf_ssl.log
        CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access-xtrf_ssl.log combined2
SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/xtrf.caucasustranslations.com/fullchain.pem
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/xtrf.caucasustranslations.com/privkey.pem
Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf
</VirtualHost>

now enable it

sudo a2ensite xtrf.conf

restart apache

sudo systemctl restart apache2

if there are no errors, you can proceed, if there are errors, follow the instructions on screen

Installing Certbot

How To Secure Apache with Let's Encrypt on Ubuntu 18.04

To obtain an SSL certificate with Let’s Encrypt, you need to install the Certbot software on your server. For this tutorial, we’ll use the default Ubuntu package repositories to install Certbot.

Run the following command, which will install two packages: certbot and python3-certbot-apache. The latter is a plugin that integrates Certbot with Apache, so that it’s possible to automate obtaining a certificate and configuring HTTPS within your web server with a single command:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-apache

once installation is finished, enter

sudo certbot --apache

now the certbot should do the rest, and we should just answer on a few answers. If you allowed, certbot will also cofnigure virtual host and add all the nescesarry lines 

Hope it helps!
 

Postcards from Pasanauri

9 March, 2022 | | 28 seen

Pasanauri is a small town in Georgia, situated in the Dusheti district, Mtskheta-Mtianeti region.

We have been traveling this small town through zillions of times, mostly when heading to Gudauri or Kazbegi, but never had we made a stop here and explored more. 

It was in the mid-February 2022, we headed to Gudauri, but as the road was blocked and not willing to wait more we turned our car around and headed back to Tbilisi, but decided to make a stop at Pasanauri to make a drone photo of black and white Aragvi

I couldn't catch the colours today, but I guess I was making a photo at the wrong season and should return here in Spring / Summer.

Pasanauri lies about 90 kilometers (56 mi) north of the nation’s capital of Tbilisi,at elevation of 1,050 m. above sea level. Located on the Georgian Military Road, Pasanauri is flanked by the Aragvi River, and surrounded by the Caucasus Mountains. The average winter temperature is 0 degrees Celsius but often falls below 10 degrees Celsius. 

Due to its picturesque location and the proximity to nearby historical sites as well as for its mineral water, hiking routes, handcrafted items and food, Pasanauri became a popular tourist destination in the Soviet period, but suffered decay during the years of post-Soviet crisis.

Bristol Hotel and Spa Bakuriani

8 March, 2022 | Hotel reviews | 26 seen

Bristol Hotel and Spa Bakuriani is offering accommodations in Bakuriani. The property provides ski-to-door access and ski storage space, as well as a restaurant and a bar. The hotel features an indoor pool, sauna, karaoke and a 24-hour front desk.

We booked Bristol Hotel and Spa Bakuriani hotel at the end of January 2022, for a two night stay, paying about $250 (breakfast included)

When visiting such hotels it's always about personal, not interior or location (which both are great for this hotel). 

During our stay here we faced several issues, which luckily where solved, but I was left wondering why they even happened first hand - like, they have little nice indoor swimming pool and sauna, which they forget to turn on... or forget about towels in a room after housekeeping...ahh.. just regular little things complaining about

Very nice indoor pool, with water temperature +30 C... amazing after day in the cold winter.

The hotel will provide guests with air-conditioned rooms with a desk, an electric tea pot, a minibar, a safety deposit box, a flat-screen TV and a private bathroom with a shower. Free WiFi is available to all guests, while certain rooms include a balcony. At Bristol Hotel and Spa Bakuriani each room comes with bed linen and towels.

Guests at the accommodation can enjoy a buffet breakfast.

Excellent location, excellent interior and exterior, heart breakfast.. just the missing from the staff. If you are Okay with something missing or lower your expectations you will enjoy the place.

Book now on Booking.com

Spice and Herbal Garden No7 near Bentota, Sri Lanka

7 March, 2022 | Shopping Venues | 428 seen

Spice and Herbal garden No7 is located next to the Galle - Hambantota - Wellawaya Hwy near Bentota in Sri Lanka.

We visited this place during a day trip from our hotel (Taj Resort & Spa) to Madu Ganga river when returning back to our hotel. We didn't have any special plans to visit this place, but our driver (s) just took us there. 

Once here I didn't understand how this works and thought - oh, nice we are enjoying a nice excursion at the spice and herbal garden which indeed was nice, but at the end of the tour we were taken to the shop and they tried to sell us some expensive things we really didn't need or we could get for free back in our hotel.

I kindly refused but left some small donations to the Buddha statue as a thank you gift for the excusrion.

It was a nice little excursion with discovering many interesting plants, herbs and spices.

For me, it was a huge surprise learning that the cocoa has been growing on cacao trees. Awesome

Hiking trip near Turtle Lake

4 March, 2022 | Living in Georgia | 16 seen

Hiking trip near Turtle lake in Tbilisi, dining with Rapunzel and other fictional Disney characters near the Svan Tower, meeting real South African and Georgian friends near Bazaleti, tracing numbers and bitcoins back in Tbilisi. enjoy and thumbs up!