Overnight Sleeper to Tbilisi, Georgia

Thursday, April 18, 2019

Yerevan Railway Station, Yerevan, Armenia

Next I was taking an overnight sleeper train from Yerevan, Armenia to Tbilisi, Georgia. I'd taken overnight sleepers before during my trip to Kazakhstan but not an international border crossing. Similar to Kazakhstan I'd bought my tickets beforehand thru Advantour to navigate the bureaucracy and online payment problems.

I had four hours to kill before my 930pm train. Surprisingly there were no washrooms in the station. I later found out they were in the underground shopping arcade which had closed by the time I figured that out.

To pass the time one section had been transformed into a railway museum with exhibits of old equipment and documentation.

I found a plug outlet and was charging my phone. A drunken seeming guy tried to get my attention walking past, I was half ignoring. He asked if I was going to Tbilisi and seemed excited when I said yes. Was he a fellow passenger?

As expected he started asking for money. He had a beer bottle in his hand. I just played dumb and said I couldnt understand him as he couldnt speak English. He sat next to me, kept trying to overcome the language barrier, and wouldn't get the message.

My camera was laying next to me so I tried to casually pick it up. This made him upset and he started yelling "normal" that he was not a thief. Nonetheless he continued trying to ask for money and as I kept playing dumb so he was tapping my wallet in my cargo pants. Even more frustrated as I continued to play dumb he tried putting fingers in my pocket to hold my wallet.

Obviously I knew what he wanted but he was just getting too pushy starting to put fingers into my pockets to touch my wallet. I decided to unplug my charging phone and move to another section where there were more people. Realizing what I was doing he said 'no' and leaned back against my bag which was sitting next to me to block it. I grabbled the handles from behind him and just pulled it out from under him. He tried hovering around again as moved into the waiting room and was yelled at by some local woman.

By 9pm we were able to board our train. It was an older carriage even though I was travelling first class. I'm spoilt by the trains in Kazakhstan which were brand new, had ensuite bathrooms with shower.

See also Kazakhstan sleeper train - http://v2.travelark.org/travel-blog-entry/londone7/44/1539732155

I had to move rooms as another American mother and daughter were put in separate carriages so they asked to switch to be seated together. Mostly they were westerners in this first class international train. My roommate ended up being an American from Seattle visiting his girlfriend in Georgia.

The 'first class' bathrooms did not have working taps in the toilets for running water. Also there was a cigarette smell. We later found out our conductor smoked in her room the entire way and ended getting yelled at by a Norwegian who had a room beside.

We went thru border control at 4am which was annoying trying to sleep as both sets of border officials come on board at each side of the border. Also the train does not go the direct route but rather winds to Gyumri connecting the population centres hence lengthening the route.