October 2023 I decided to trace my parents foot steps through central Asia and Caucus Mountain region. They worked for various Chinese embassy and consulates in the 80’s and 90’s. Georgia is a name that’s very familiar to me. I remember receiving a few bottles of Georgian wines from parents one day. The wine bottles looks 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 ever. This Georgian girl sitting at my isle, with another passenger from Germany visiting Georgia sitting in 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 was interesting as well as mundane. Kutaisi is a very small town. Out of habit, I ‘must’ visit local groceries stores to check out what they have, what locals buy and 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 popped up in my mind after tasting the Georgian milk.

Then I took the train to Tblisi, where my parents lived for 2 years. They have prepped me for the trip with anecdotes from 90s. At time 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 they were treated by the locals with a polite distance. They worked at the Chinese embassy and went home after work driven by a designated driver for security reasons.