Society

Hardly it will be interesting to tell something about the vacationists lives, because there is no beach in Tavush region, no wanderful bars or restaurants, and no other new places for spending time to tell about. I.e. there is not beach at all, and the bars and restarants are limited with barbecues, “Shant” isecream, Fanta, Cola and uninteresting things like that. And the market relations here are met close to a not clear lake, which is called as “Clear Lake”, where they let you have a little bit rest in a small bower for 5.000 dram. To the logical question, that why 5.000 dram, they don’t answer that they clean the district and so on. Later we found out, that all the clening work is done by a NGO called as “Burg”. And they answered to our question, why 5.000 dram, that they could make the price down. And to the question how much they could make the price down, they answered, that about for 1.000 dram, which lets us think, that the market treatment in our own nature costs a litle bit less than ten dollars.

  Actually this bower blongrf to the restaurant on the left bank of an unclean lake, which was called as “Clean Lake”, and this 5.000 dram was a “punishment” for the people, who didn’t want to use the restaurant services, for those, who managed to go there with their own food. And I asked whether we had to pay if we ordered something from them (barbecues or something like that). “No bro”,-says the businessman of the nature,-“it is free for the clients”.

  Just at the first day of my holiday I left that place with the feeling of javing been entrapped, not even thinking about, that somewhere else, not far from a museum, they would ask 200 dram from me for parking the car. Thinking, that probably this is one of the 40.000 vacancies the president had promissed somehow, I paid that money, and the inspector of that district, seeing that I worried, came up to me and whispered, that it was cheaper for local people. I understand the foreign armenians and the foreigners, who somehow come here, and who already know, that tourism is a way of making money with all the possible ways. And they not only know this, but also sometimes they come here to teach tourism management to the villagers. Not far from another well-known museum we wanted to buy some mint, which was for sale on a table. I asked the price. The seller looked my family and me very long to find out whether we were local or not. And when got assured, that we were eastern armenians, said that the one in a plastic bag costed 500 dram, and the other one in a cotton bag costed 1.000 dram. The cotton bag, on which they wrote “mint” in an unskilful way and painted a flower, which was not connected with mint at all, made the price up for more than one dollar. It turned out, that some “instructor” passed near there, and leaving management and marketing aside, explained to them, that mint culd be twice more expensive in a cotton bag.

  I have nothing to say, even more, I don’t want anyone to think that I don’t like the economical relations and especially tourism, but after the state-planned economy collapsed, I can not understand the process of forming the prices. Even understanding the theoretical ideas of demand and supply, I can not understand how we can pay 100-200 dram for parking a car once, and 70-100 dram for one kilo of cucumber. And how the price for entering a hystorical museum public art, which has not changed anything for a century, be 1.000 dram (5*200), when you can buy 3-4 kilos of dewberry. For those people information, who don’t know about this, I would like to say, that though they don’t make any efforts for this fruit growing, but it is very difficult to pick them up and it is enough for the price to be minimum twice more.

  I found a paper among the papers in that building with a circle stamp, according to which it was stated, that each person had to pay 200 dram for enjoying the hystorical things there. 200 dram without telling about those things, and the lady working there asked: “Do you want me to tell about these things?” Those people who want to have a good rest, of course, shouldn’t refuse her service, but looking at the show plates, I didn’t understand what was this young girl gonna tell me. The fact, that a self-tought sculptor tried to carve the monument of Andranik, but later it turned out that it is more like Gevorg Chaush, is clear without any explanations. That the painting of an artist is called “Calm” doesn’t give me reasons for asking anything, as I would ask in case of being “Silence”, “Grief”,”Misery” or something like that. For the fact that they wrote “Plate” under the arms of the Soviet Union carved on wood, no explanation will help. And that our grandmothers had made thread with the instrument shown there was clear, because we know that from our childhood from the poem of Ghazaros Aghayan “Chakharak” (the old instrument for making thread from wool), one of the heros of which, Tigranik (don’t dispute with the author please), which hero had no socks and “went to the grassland without having any socks put on”.

  At the end, the worker of the museum, who hadn’t been given a chance to explain everything there, asked the tourists, who had enjoyed everything in the best way, go to the souvenir place close to it, which is actually a show of earthenware. The three number prices were met seldom there. Mainly the prices were four number prices, and actually those earthenwares didn’t concern the hystory or the culture of that place and would not remind them about their holiday in any way. The young man, who was probably the author of those pieces of “art”, didn’t wait for the moment we would burgain with him, and made the price down himself, sometimes making the four numbers down to three numbers. Anyway, I thought probably this was one of the 40.000 vacancies, president had promissed. Here I bought a little ewer as a favour. The young man took the 5.000 note and run somewhere to exchange. He returned in half an hour. “The ten days of my holiday was lost without any sense”,- I thought captiously, and then turning back and looking around, I noted how beautiful our country’s.