In October 2023, I decided to trace my parents’ footsteps through Central Asia and Caucus Mountain region. They worked for various Chinese embassies and consulates in the 80s and 90s. Georgia is a name that’s very familiar to me. I remember receiving a few bottles of Georgian wines from my parents one day. The wine bottles look old-fashioned and made out of clay, which I love. The wine itself didn’t quite do it for me, though. I ended up cooking with it. My parents told me how locals love to make wine at home, which is cool.

Since I lived in Berlin and Wizz Air has a direct flight to Kutaisi, I took the offer and hopped on the plane. There, I met the nicest passenger I’ve ever encountered. This A Georgian girl sitting at my aisle, with another passenger from Germany visiting Georgia is sitting between us. We ended up chatting, and next thing I know, the Georgian girl bought a small bottle of sparkling wine to share with us. Upon landing, her boyfriend came to pick her up. And they dropped us off at our respective hotels.

The next few days in Kutaisi were both interesting and mundane. Kutaisi is a very small town. Out of habit, I must visit local grocery stores to check out what they have, what locals buy, and what they eat. I found that their milk was delicious. It makes non-fat Costco milk taste like water. It’s probably illogical, but that’s the first thing that popped up in my mind after tasting the Georgian milk.

Then I took the train to Tbilisi, where my parents lived for 2 years. They have prepped me for the trip with anecdotes from the 90s. At that time, Georgia was quite close to Russia (unlike it is today in 2025). And Russia and China were not exactly on good terms. They kept it to themselves as the locals treated them with polite distance. They worked at the Chinese embassy and went home after work, driven by a designated driver for security reasons.