August 2, 2001
I took half of a dozen kids to Sissian. The kids were mostly grade eight students from Toronto enrolled in summer art camp project. Each day they attended art school for three hours and then went out to visit historic sites around Sissian and to have fun.
Water and fun are inseparable for teenagers. Went to Shake's Fall for a picnic. The fall is privatized. The rumor is that the owner paid 70 thousand dollars and even in the first year he made that amount by selling electricity. The drawback for the rest of us is either we won't be able to see the full force of Shake or we have to pay in dollars. The waterholder has realized the meaning of the idiom 'time is money'.
Three of the kids climbed all the way to the top, most of them stood under the fall and tested 'the force' of Shake. As for the picnic, all ate barbecued potatoes, few touched barbecued lamb.
Hot waters of Sissian. Mineral hot waters spring from the ground. The locals claim that it has healing powers. The new owner has built a small 'basein' (pool) in the middle of nowhere. The drive from Sissian was 30-40 minutes and their first reaction was 'it's like a Jacuzzi in someone's backyard, did we drive all this way for this!' There are built in seats in the basein to enjoy an alcoholic drink while bathing. The owner did it's best to attract us: emptied the basein, swept it with thread make broom while the kids were discussing algae treatment in English. Half an hour later two kids walked into the pool cautiously, two others were thrown in fully dressed, an all-against-all fight started and then no one paid attention to the poor surrounding and the stares.
There's a 'phasenda' in Ashodavan. The place is located on the river and has a good size swimming pool, and several ponds where Ishkhan, Garmrakhayd and other fish are bred. The road to Ashodavan is atrocious, but the final destination is a nice hidden spot in nature. The place is a hunter's dream: skins of bear, wild cat, fox decorate the walls and the floor. The local facilitator who had introduced us a couple of months ago arranged a booking and reconfirmed it on Sunday morning. After a long Datev trip when the kids were looking forward to fishing and swimming expedition one of my friends got sick and we decided to drop her off at the villa, the facilitator called the phasenda to caution them that we'd be there in 20 minutes and discovered that we were cancelled. A minister was there at the phasenda .
Yesterday kids went back to Toronto with good memories. They loved Armenia, one of the top places they had fun was the hot water fight at Sissian, one of the foods they hated was the lamb barbecue.
As for what happened with the phasenda at Ashodavan, when it's the 1701, 1702, 1703 anniversary will the visitors keep coming only for the monasteries, for drops of Shake's Falls? Or will diasporans keep coming because they have Armenian origin and don't care about cancellations and political whims? Do we care? Let's ask the opinions of the energy minister, the head of electoral committee of Syunik, and the proprietor of Shake Falls.
I took half of a dozen kids to Sissian. The kids were mostly grade eight students from Toronto enrolled in summer art camp project. Each day they attended art school for three hours and then went out to visit historic sites around Sissian and to have fun.
Water and fun are inseparable for teenagers. Went to Shake's Fall for a picnic. The fall is privatized. The rumor is that the owner paid 70 thousand dollars and even in the first year he made that amount by selling electricity. The drawback for the rest of us is either we won't be able to see the full force of Shake or we have to pay in dollars. The waterholder has realized the meaning of the idiom 'time is money'.
Three of the kids climbed all the way to the top, most of them stood under the fall and tested 'the force' of Shake. As for the picnic, all ate barbecued potatoes, few touched barbecued lamb.
Hot waters of Sissian. Mineral hot waters spring from the ground. The locals claim that it has healing powers. The new owner has built a small 'basein' (pool) in the middle of nowhere. The drive from Sissian was 30-40 minutes and their first reaction was 'it's like a Jacuzzi in someone's backyard, did we drive all this way for this!' There are built in seats in the basein to enjoy an alcoholic drink while bathing. The owner did it's best to attract us: emptied the basein, swept it with thread make broom while the kids were discussing algae treatment in English. Half an hour later two kids walked into the pool cautiously, two others were thrown in fully dressed, an all-against-all fight started and then no one paid attention to the poor surrounding and the stares.
There's a 'phasenda' in Ashodavan. The place is located on the river and has a good size swimming pool, and several ponds where Ishkhan, Garmrakhayd and other fish are bred. The road to Ashodavan is atrocious, but the final destination is a nice hidden spot in nature. The place is a hunter's dream: skins of bear, wild cat, fox decorate the walls and the floor. The local facilitator who had introduced us a couple of months ago arranged a booking and reconfirmed it on Sunday morning. After a long Datev trip when the kids were looking forward to fishing and swimming expedition one of my friends got sick and we decided to drop her off at the villa, the facilitator called the phasenda to caution them that we'd be there in 20 minutes and discovered that we were cancelled. A minister was there at the phasenda .
Yesterday kids went back to Toronto with good memories. They loved Armenia, one of the top places they had fun was the hot water fight at Sissian, one of the foods they hated was the lamb barbecue.
As for what happened with the phasenda at Ashodavan, when it's the 1701, 1702, 1703 anniversary will the visitors keep coming only for the monasteries, for drops of Shake's Falls? Or will diasporans keep coming because they have Armenian origin and don't care about cancellations and political whims? Do we care? Let's ask the opinions of the energy minister, the head of electoral committee of Syunik, and the proprietor of Shake Falls.
posted by Nigol at 8:29 PM
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