Tag 23 Armenia - Yerevan

Today was a day for general tinkering and gaming.

Since the van has been sounding louder in the past few days, I took some time today to check it out. It turns out that the exhaust pipe was loose. It's not surprising considering that one of the three studs broke before the trip and wasn't replaced due to lack of time and motivation. I quickly tightened the nuts on the two remaining studs, so it should be fine for now. If it holds up for another 5000 km, then everything is alright.

Other than that, I did some cleaning up and took inventory of the supplies in the van. It's amazing how much I brought along just in case and now probably don't need. But it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it...

Then I went back to my Armenian friends, who I've been spending time with in the past few days. There's a VW LT40 4x4 with engine problems there. I had the urge to tinker again today, so the owner and I dove into it. We were able to narrow down the possible causes of the problems, but unfortunately, we didn't have the spare parts. After a quick internet search, I realized that the parts are no longer available new. They stopped production of the part in 2002, just 10 years after the van was made. That's not very sustainable.

I managed to find someone on classified ads who actually has the part as a new piece, but finding it used is not looking good. The model is just too rare and the van is too old. I'm now trying to purchase the part and will probably bring it to Armenia on the next leg of the journey in July.

Then I returned to the hotel. There was a vehicle from the Russian Military Traffic Police and a Russian press vehicle in the yard. I wonder what that's all about?

By the way, we now know why we saw a Russian military vehicle at the Armenian-Turkish border yesterday. Russia and Armenia have an agreement for Russian military to control that border. It's meant to prevent armed conflicts between the unfriendly Armenians and Turks. It's a bit like in Karabakh...

We spent the evening in the spirit of international understanding with mixed food and drinks... Armenian brandy (which by the way can only be labeled in Cyrillic as Коньяк for legal reasons), American whiskey, homemade Georgian brandy, accompanied by Vita-Cola, Radeberger Salami, and chocolate from Germany formed the basis for this wonderful evening with Armenians and Russians from various origins.

And if you take some time, you can discuss pretty much any topic with a mix of Russian and English.

To be honest, the Armenian brandy was so delicious that we would have spoiled the taste experience with the other drinks. And so we stuck with this kind of brandy, chocolate, and salami.