Hotel Report Marriott Tblisi Georgia
January 28, 2009
From Tbilisi Georgia. Georgia the country that is. Sitting in the executive lounge at 2 am having a little coffee and dried apricots and chocolate cookies. Waiting for time to leave for the airport. I took a pill and tried to sleep which I did for about 4 hours, but then woke up and could not get back to sleep at all. So I figured I might as well get up and get dressed and come down for a little coffee. For now the stomach seems okay, although I am sure I will crash again before long. I have been suffering from what I think is giardia all week. Clearly it was from Guatemala. I ate sushi there, and I ate an apple in the gym. I did not eat salad, but I have to think it came from one of those sources. This is really annoying. I sort of knew I was taking a chance, but I really thought it was okay when I felt fine. Anyway – struggling with bad stomach and diarrhea and fatigue all during this Georgia trip which has made it doubly hard to deal with the 9 hour time difference.
All of that said, I think it was a good week and we got done what we needed to. Had some nice wine, which I did not enjoy as much as I could have. It just seemed that at the end of each day all I wanted was bed or toilet. The food was delicious, but really heavy stuff. You have to go easy on it. So that’s one good thing – I could have pigged out big time but since I felt bad I kept it light. I did make it to the club twice for light workouts.
This Marriott is very nice, and the people have been nice too. The lounge turned out to be great because there was no coffee pot in the room – again!! I am going to have to start carrying my own pot I guess. Very clean and well designed hotel. Only a slight cigarette smell in the rooms or the hallways. But in the P restaurant, where I went for ice cream the other night, the cigarette smoke was so thick I could not stand to stay in there any longer than absolutely necessary. Worst I have ever seen in a long time! Funny, even on the flight (Georgia Airways) from Amsterdam someone was smoking. I don’t know whether it was a passenger or pilot, but in spite of the non smoking sign, there was someone smoking all through the 4 hours flight. It was like a throw back to my childhood days when there was a smoking section on the plane!!
Bed – extremely comfortable with lots of good pillows and soft soft sheets.
Towels – good all around, not huge but certainly fine.
Water provided on the first day, not the second, but plenty on days three and four (might have had to do with tip I left on second day)
Shower pressure and water temperature – average. Pressure was not that great, and the water waivered between hot and cold.
Bathroom amenities – nice toiletries, better than the usual Marriott stuff.
Iron, safe a good size.
TV – very good selection of channels esp in English. Large flat screen.
Internet access worked great, wireless and DSL.
Desk area was fully functional. The lighting was okay – still tended to be a little dark, but all in all better than most.
Size of this particular room was small, but functional.
Minibar pretty well stocked. The local beer tasted a bit strange. Kind of sweet or something.
Local mineral water – Boromi, I think – was really delicious. Kind of tasted like alkaselzer, but it sure did hit the spot for my stomach problems. Felt like I was drinking something very healthy.
Gym – nice and bright, with a good selection of machines and weights. The machines were not new, but reasonably good condition. Moderate size, with enough room for stretching so long as you did not have too many people in there at one time. There were TVs but not individual ones on the machines.
I did not try the restaurant or room service in this hotel.
Heat in the room as problematic. I was cold a lot of the time. Turned the heat up, but it did not really work all that well. On the other hand, I would rather be a little bit too cold than too hot.
This whole trip it seemed that I was cold a lot. The wind was blowing all the time, which they say was unusual for the city anyway. Out at the embassy it was blowing so hard that I could hardly stand up walking to the door! Really wild. Felt like it funnels down through the valley between the mountains or something. Then when we took the Russian jeep up to see the project site, bouncing all over the ruts (and it was very very bouncy) it was all I could do to keep my head kind of pressed against the seat so that my neck wasn’t jerked out of place. At the top of the hill, you could see all around and down to the city, and the wind was blowing like across a steppe. I don’t know what it would be like to live up there – really, I am not sure that someone would want to have a house there if the wind blows like that all the time.