Armenia Trip Thus Far- Bits and Pieces
I have been in Armenia since June 10. Because I have not been able to connect my PowerBook to an internet connection, my detailed journal and blogs won't make it to the Cilicia.com airwaves. But, I will try to condence my experience thus far halfway through my trip.
Let's get some things out of the way first. The heat is hitting about 95-100 degrees on a daily basis and it has made things a bit uncomfortable. Without air conditioning, the nights are pretty rough. Buying a fan will help, but, ultimately, I may need to move to a place with AC. That being said, during the day when it is scorching hot, there are some options to hit a swimming pool. There is the Congress Hotel which sells daily passes for $20, weekly passes for about $40, and monthly passes for about $120. The problem there is that the passes are usually all sold out. Another place is the Golden Tulip Yerevan Hotel which has the same general prices. The Congress is generally considered a better and bigger pool on the ground level, where the Golden Tulip is on the 6th floor. You can get passes at the Tulip easliy. The last two places include Water World which is a water theme park. That costs about $7 a day. There is the Vahakni Country Club (Hovnanian) for $20 a day for a country club and pool experience about 15 minutes outside of Yerevan. Lastly, there is Lake Sevan which is generally free, but, rentals of boats are extra, etc. As the heat rises in Yerevan, people flock to cooler places in the country as well as swimming pools. I agree with Raffi Kojian that a series of Park District type of free public swimming pools should be planned and offered to Armenians.
The next issue for me that has preoccupied my time besides work is the CD shops here in Yerevan. It's been touched upon here many times. However, it does literally floor me how CD's are freely copied and sold at most record shops in town. Out of professional respect to artists and labels, I have resisted the temptation to purchase any CD's that are copied. The prices range from 1500 drams ($4) to 2500 drams for MP3 collections. Again, the problem remains that either the original copies are too expensive to import and purchase for the general public, thus a black market is created selling these things. Only, the black market is legalized and encouraged by the Armenian government by not cracking down on the piracy. For labels such as Pomegranate, we have chosen to create legitimate simple CD's for a local price of 4000 Drams ($10) and we'll see how it goes. Right now, I am working on a deal with Nina Hovnanian's Treasures of Armenia store on Abovian to have them be our exclusive original CD outlet, with less expensive copies in the general stores. Thus, there is a two tier product and pricing issue. My request from Diasporans visiting Armenia is the boycott purchasing copied CD's so as not to enable the illegal piracy that is seemingly supported by the Armenian government. Otherwise, the CD shops would be shut down, right?
After working hours for YerazArt, I have been spending time with Lilit Pipoyan and family. They are kind of my Armenian family here in Yerevan. We are hard at work producing her next album which has taken about 7 months thus far to record. I am pulling Arsineh Khachikian into the mix for design ideas as well as photography from acclaimed Armenian photographer Zaven Khachikyan (no relation to Arsineh). I would have gone with Onnik Krikorian if Lilit had not had a previous working relationship with Zaven. I like Onnik's style as well and hopefully he can work again with Pomegranate and YerazArt. There have been trips to the VEM studio to work on the mixing. I sit and watch the process and let Sergey and Lilit do their thing. Yet, the challenge now is to craft an image and style for Lilit to be able to market the album to a global community.
I have run into many people during my stay here. However, the one I am thrilled about is my old Camp Hayastan camper Sonya Varoujian. She was always musically talented and even had a semi-popular NYC band called "7". She moved to London and has been in Yerevan now for three months cutting a record. She will be performing her new Armenian works at Naregatsi Art Institute on Tuesday at 8pm. It's great to see Diasporans who had been out of touch with their Armenian side suddenly blossom and feel connected to Armenia just by being here. I hope more do the same. With that said, I have seen tons of people here touring in Armenia with most flights and hotels booked. It is incredible. The streets look clean and neat, with some minor eyesores such as Northern BLVD. I hate the look and how there was an semi-illegal landgrab to obtain the property from ordinary citizens.
Natacha and I did the typical tourist thing by using two services. The first was Hyur Service and the second was Satie Travel. I recommend them both. The prices were perfect and both tours included lunch. The gals that were our tour guides work 7 days a week with no breaks during the week. Many have second jobs. They earn about $200-$350 per month. Natacha and I became close with one of our tour guides, Rima, who is originally from Gyrumri. A graduate of the Brusov Institute, she is one of the most polished people we have met thus far. As prices are rising drastically in Yerevan and with the dollar falling, her and others like her face an uphill battle to pay the rent and put food on the table. I have heard and seen the sob stories- real and fake many times here in Yerevan. But, for the working class in Yerevan, it is amazing how they can get by for so little. There is a small lower middle class developing, but, slowly and so few in numbers.
Yerevan oddities:
1. Businesses watering their sidewalks three times a day. Apparenty, shopkeepers are obsessed with keeping their sidewalks clean and dust-free.
2. Obtaining change from businesses- If you walk into a store and pay for an item and have a large bill, the cashier will shift the burden to provide exact change. Sometimes, they will not sell you an item if you don't have change. Or, in the case of an internet cafe I use, they will just let you use it for free.
3. Yerevan drivers- The cars still have the right of way. They will not stop for you.
4. Women dancing in front of mirrors in clubs- Yup, it still happens.
5. Kids out at 1am with families- This is such as family friendly and safe city, you would not be able to compare it to any city in the US.
6 Soccer fever- Every cafe and restaurant has big screen TV's showing the world cup soccer matches. Armenians tend to like Brazil.
7. Cafe Culture- Granted, I have been to a few like Santa Fe and Jazzve and enjoyed it. But, really, there are so many in town and ill placed at locations such as the Opera House that is really looks ugly at times. Plus, who knows who own those things and whose money our money is going into.
8. Yerevan Fashion- Look, I am married. But, both my wife and I think the women are really fashionable and good looking here. If you are a single man, this is the place to be in the summer.
9. Armenian Men- Lots of them just standing around seemingly doing nothing.
10. Stray dogs- I was coming out of the Caucasus Restaurant with Natacha and Josh and 3am one morning and we were almost attacked by a pack of 16 stray dogs on Hanrapetetyun. We jumped into a cab just in the nick of time and howled with laughter as we escaped the CUJO's.
That's it for now, more on the way. Hopefully, I can get my pics uploaded.
Let's get some things out of the way first. The heat is hitting about 95-100 degrees on a daily basis and it has made things a bit uncomfortable. Without air conditioning, the nights are pretty rough. Buying a fan will help, but, ultimately, I may need to move to a place with AC. That being said, during the day when it is scorching hot, there are some options to hit a swimming pool. There is the Congress Hotel which sells daily passes for $20, weekly passes for about $40, and monthly passes for about $120. The problem there is that the passes are usually all sold out. Another place is the Golden Tulip Yerevan Hotel which has the same general prices. The Congress is generally considered a better and bigger pool on the ground level, where the Golden Tulip is on the 6th floor. You can get passes at the Tulip easliy. The last two places include Water World which is a water theme park. That costs about $7 a day. There is the Vahakni Country Club (Hovnanian) for $20 a day for a country club and pool experience about 15 minutes outside of Yerevan. Lastly, there is Lake Sevan which is generally free, but, rentals of boats are extra, etc. As the heat rises in Yerevan, people flock to cooler places in the country as well as swimming pools. I agree with Raffi Kojian that a series of Park District type of free public swimming pools should be planned and offered to Armenians.
The next issue for me that has preoccupied my time besides work is the CD shops here in Yerevan. It's been touched upon here many times. However, it does literally floor me how CD's are freely copied and sold at most record shops in town. Out of professional respect to artists and labels, I have resisted the temptation to purchase any CD's that are copied. The prices range from 1500 drams ($4) to 2500 drams for MP3 collections. Again, the problem remains that either the original copies are too expensive to import and purchase for the general public, thus a black market is created selling these things. Only, the black market is legalized and encouraged by the Armenian government by not cracking down on the piracy. For labels such as Pomegranate, we have chosen to create legitimate simple CD's for a local price of 4000 Drams ($10) and we'll see how it goes. Right now, I am working on a deal with Nina Hovnanian's Treasures of Armenia store on Abovian to have them be our exclusive original CD outlet, with less expensive copies in the general stores. Thus, there is a two tier product and pricing issue. My request from Diasporans visiting Armenia is the boycott purchasing copied CD's so as not to enable the illegal piracy that is seemingly supported by the Armenian government. Otherwise, the CD shops would be shut down, right?
After working hours for YerazArt, I have been spending time with Lilit Pipoyan and family. They are kind of my Armenian family here in Yerevan. We are hard at work producing her next album which has taken about 7 months thus far to record. I am pulling Arsineh Khachikian into the mix for design ideas as well as photography from acclaimed Armenian photographer Zaven Khachikyan (no relation to Arsineh). I would have gone with Onnik Krikorian if Lilit had not had a previous working relationship with Zaven. I like Onnik's style as well and hopefully he can work again with Pomegranate and YerazArt. There have been trips to the VEM studio to work on the mixing. I sit and watch the process and let Sergey and Lilit do their thing. Yet, the challenge now is to craft an image and style for Lilit to be able to market the album to a global community.
I have run into many people during my stay here. However, the one I am thrilled about is my old Camp Hayastan camper Sonya Varoujian. She was always musically talented and even had a semi-popular NYC band called "7". She moved to London and has been in Yerevan now for three months cutting a record. She will be performing her new Armenian works at Naregatsi Art Institute on Tuesday at 8pm. It's great to see Diasporans who had been out of touch with their Armenian side suddenly blossom and feel connected to Armenia just by being here. I hope more do the same. With that said, I have seen tons of people here touring in Armenia with most flights and hotels booked. It is incredible. The streets look clean and neat, with some minor eyesores such as Northern BLVD. I hate the look and how there was an semi-illegal landgrab to obtain the property from ordinary citizens.
Natacha and I did the typical tourist thing by using two services. The first was Hyur Service and the second was Satie Travel. I recommend them both. The prices were perfect and both tours included lunch. The gals that were our tour guides work 7 days a week with no breaks during the week. Many have second jobs. They earn about $200-$350 per month. Natacha and I became close with one of our tour guides, Rima, who is originally from Gyrumri. A graduate of the Brusov Institute, she is one of the most polished people we have met thus far. As prices are rising drastically in Yerevan and with the dollar falling, her and others like her face an uphill battle to pay the rent and put food on the table. I have heard and seen the sob stories- real and fake many times here in Yerevan. But, for the working class in Yerevan, it is amazing how they can get by for so little. There is a small lower middle class developing, but, slowly and so few in numbers.
Yerevan oddities:
1. Businesses watering their sidewalks three times a day. Apparenty, shopkeepers are obsessed with keeping their sidewalks clean and dust-free.
2. Obtaining change from businesses- If you walk into a store and pay for an item and have a large bill, the cashier will shift the burden to provide exact change. Sometimes, they will not sell you an item if you don't have change. Or, in the case of an internet cafe I use, they will just let you use it for free.
3. Yerevan drivers- The cars still have the right of way. They will not stop for you.
4. Women dancing in front of mirrors in clubs- Yup, it still happens.
5. Kids out at 1am with families- This is such as family friendly and safe city, you would not be able to compare it to any city in the US.
6 Soccer fever- Every cafe and restaurant has big screen TV's showing the world cup soccer matches. Armenians tend to like Brazil.
7. Cafe Culture- Granted, I have been to a few like Santa Fe and Jazzve and enjoyed it. But, really, there are so many in town and ill placed at locations such as the Opera House that is really looks ugly at times. Plus, who knows who own those things and whose money our money is going into.
8. Yerevan Fashion- Look, I am married. But, both my wife and I think the women are really fashionable and good looking here. If you are a single man, this is the place to be in the summer.
9. Armenian Men- Lots of them just standing around seemingly doing nothing.
10. Stray dogs- I was coming out of the Caucasus Restaurant with Natacha and Josh and 3am one morning and we were almost attacked by a pack of 16 stray dogs on Hanrapetetyun. We jumped into a cab just in the nick of time and howled with laughter as we escaped the CUJO's.
That's it for now, more on the way. Hopefully, I can get my pics uploaded.
posted by Raffi at 12:03 AM
4 Comments:
raffi, are you and josh still here? let's get together before you take off.
Hello Alex or Anyone Else who wants to meet up while I am in Yerevan until the 11th of July. My mobile number is 091-46-14-58. I work until 6pm everyday and am free afterwards and on weekends.
Also, Josh is coming back into town today until the 9th.
Raff - great stuff. Glad you are thrilled I am cutting a record and to catch up after 15 years. Its been great to see you too! Your 10 points on Armenia are valid and extremely well put!!!
The dogs probably wanted a hug.
I've never encountered a stray dog (or a cat) in Armenia that behaved aggressively. They usually mind their own business. It's quite funny to see them hang around in the outdoor cafes and restaurants hoping for a handout :) Fortunately most of the people don't mind them.
What I hated was the 'animal control' shooting them at night. The cries of a dieing dog are one of the worst sounds one can encounter.
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