Sakartvelo on My Mind

The Republic of Georgia (known as Sakartvelo/საქართველო to locals) has been on my mind for what feels like forever.

When I first dipped my toes into the world of former Soviet Republics I remember hearing a vague buzz about how Georgia was the former SSR to beat. But it was while in Kazakhstan I really learned what an out-sized reputation this tiny country has within the former soviet sphere.

Stalin was born there and his Bolshevik comrades made generous use of Georgia’s food, wine, mineral water, spas, mountains, and Black Sea coast. Although the USSR is no more (despite Putin’s best efforts), you can find a lot of love for Georgia in the former republics. When I lived in Almaty, I saw Georgian restaurants everywhere. Georgian wine, Borjomi mineral water, and bright green, ostensibly tarragon flavored “Tarhun” soda took up serious shelf space in the grocery stores. Most importantly, there were nonstop flights available between Tbilisi and Almaty, making it practically obligatory to take a mini-break there.

Once a secret delight hidden behind the iron curtain, Georgia is now regularly luring western European tourists with their amazing food, wine, history, and natural beauty. Even Americans are starting to take notice. Which is how, back in early 2020, I managed to convince American friends to meet me there.

And then…

But dammit, I couldn’t just toss my Lonely Planet Caucuses into the garbage. Instead, I spent the next three years plotting a redo. When I landed in my current post with its special incentives (a free R&R ticket + extra vacation days) I decided to at least broach the subject of getting the band back together for Georgia redux. In a delightful turn of events, they were game.

Of course, since Uncle Sam was buying my ticket I had to wait for the party that runs (a chunk of) our government but doesn’t believe in the government to fund the government before I could get my ticket. But now, a Christmas miracle! I am in possession of a ticket courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer.

The trip isn’t until March and yes, the superstitious part of me worries that publishing my intentions on the internet is a sure fire way to jinx the whole enterprise, but I am also so excited that I can’t help myself.

So how do I while away the days until then?

There’s supporting the local economy of course. Retail therapy has never been easier than in Pakistan. A last minute ticket to “embassy prom” (aka the Marine Ball) meant a last minute purchase of a dress. I talked myself out of a fun necklace at our annual holiday vendor fair, but then when the same vendor with the same necklace showed up at another event, I melted. And I rewarded myself for a successful bidding season with a custom coffee table from one of the community’s favorite furniture makers.

But after my shipment of household effects finally arrived from China, I felt like my apartment was plenty full. So no more shopping!

I’ve also hit up the local options for sightseeing as much as possible, while staying within security guidelines.

Generally that means just going on whatever trip is available, regardless of my level of interest.

Railway museum? Sure!

Man frying pakora

Golra Sharif Railway museum is also a working train station dating from 1881. The highlight was the pakora and chai stand on the platform.

Hikes in the Margala Hills (technically foothills of the Himalayas and murderously steep in places)? Why not?

Trail Six: Leopard Pawprint

Trail Six: Banyan Tree

Trail Three: Start

Trail Three: Monkey

Trail Three

Trail Three: Mosque View

Trail Three: Hope on the Horizon (Brunch Stop)

Trail Three: Ending/my gravestone

But other outings have been to places I’d be interested in visiting even if all of Pakistan was open to me.

The ruined Buddhist monastery of Jaulian (2nd century CE) is near the city of Taxila, which is somehow also famous for making these hideous disco cats.

The Disco Leopards of Taxila

Buddhist monastery of Jaulian

You don’t find a lot of Hindus in Muslim-dominated Pakistan, but there is still an active temple at Katas Raj, where the pond is said to have been created from the teardrops of Shiva, after the death of his wife Sati.

Katas Raj Temple Complex

Then, when a friend I worked with in Guangzhou invited me to visit her in her new post (Bangkok), I decided, why not? I’ve only taken two short trips to Thailand but in my limited experience, you can always count on old Siam to bring the bling.

The Royal Palace and Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha)

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Wat Pho, Temple of the (GIANT) Reclining Buddha

My favorite temple, of this visit and perhaps of all Buddhist temples I’ve ever visited (at this point a not insignificant number), was Wat Arun, which is across the river from the royal palace and covered with broken ceramics repurposed into mosaic-like decor. The ultimate in upcycling.

Across the river to Wat Arun

So that’s been me keeping busy-ish in the final months of the year. I’ve got one last trip in 2023 and then I can officially start counting down to Georgia in 2024. I better not have jinxed it!

Shuffleboard on the Lido Deck, SIP Style

In any Special Incentive Post (SIP), there are limits to our activities that cause a certain amount of stir-craziness. Enter the Community Liaison Office, every embassy’s Julie McCoy, your cruise director. Even most “normal” posts have a CLO. But at an SIP post, they have a mandate to go the extra mile to keep us entertained.

Every week there’s a calendar of shopping and socializing activities on compound. There’s the weekly farmer’s market plus specialty events like carpets and cocktails or an art fair of local artists’ work. There are “dive” in movies at the embassy pool, trivia nights at the on-compound bar, and seasonally themed events like the recent Oktoberfest. If you have a special interest and want to start a group for it, they will help you organize it.

Most importantly (to me), CLO also offers field trips to select tourist sights.

For security reasons, participation is very limited. We don’t need to provide any nefarious actors with a conveniently gathered group of 50+ Americans to target. Consequently, when trip registration opens it’s like trying to score Taylor Swift tickets. The recent Khewra Salt Mines tour filled up in one minute, twenty seconds.

But guess who was one of the lucky few to get a spot?

Why is everyone so hyped about a visit to a salt mine? It’s famous! Have you ever bought Himalayan Pink Salt in your local supermarket? Or seen the lamps marketed for their healing properties? All that “Himalayan Pink Salt” comes from this mine, the largest salt mine in Asia, second largest in the world, allegedly discovered by Alexander the Great. Or his horse.

This is probably the farthest trip from the Embassy we can do, about 100 miles south of Islamabad, the last few miles of which are over very bumpy roads that make for slow driving. It was a 10-hour day with over six hours spent in the car. Fortunately I don’t get car sick. Also, this long distance drive gave me my first encounter with Pakistan’s famous “jingle trucks.” 

We passed through dusty villages where sadly, we are not allowed to stop, and saw all kinds of roadside livestock including goats, camels, cows, and water buffalo.

Finally, we arrived!

We hopped on an exceptionally non-OSHA compliant tram to actually go down into the mine.

 

Standard disclaimer that the photos don’t really do justice to all the colors that were on display. But the pink really is pink!

Within the mine is a clinic, a model of the Minar-e-Pakistan, and a mosque, all made of carved salt.

Accompanying us was a guide and a couple of armed guards who were not there for our benefit, but the benefit of a solo female traveler/Instagramer/influencer who is doing a motorcycle trip through the region.

Afterwards, it was time for shopping.

While I’m skeptical of the healing powers of Himalayan salt, I strongly believe in the powers of salt to season food. And of tchotchkes to help my apartment look less forlorn as I await shipment of my stuff (which people tell me might not arrive for four more weeks or six more weeks or four months!)

Did I buy enough?

The following weekend, I went on a much closer to home CLO trip, to Faisal Mosque in the Margalla Hills of Islamabad, which are actually part of the Himalayan foothills. This trip filled up too, but I was able to secure a spot a whole seven minutes after registration opened so it wasn’t quite as in-demand as the salt mine.

Faisal Mosque as seen from higher in Margalla Hills

The exterior of the mosque is supposed to evoke a Bedouin tent

Much of the construction was  funded by Saudi Arabia, which is why the mosque is named after their late king. But the giant chandelier was funded by the Chinese.

 

Small watercolor of Faisal Mosque, purchased at the CLO sponsored art fair!

There are probably only a half dozen CLO trips total and while I’d like to go on all of them, we’ll see how I continue to fare at securing spots in the eleven months I have left (Because I have already been here one whole month of my 12 month tour!)

China→USA→Qatar→Pakistan

Home leave was exhausting! Don’t get me wrong. I was happy to see everyone. People hosted me, massively rearranged their schedules to make time for me, and/or worked with my last minute availability. I am so appreciative. But all the bouncing around (Seattle, Minnesota and Michigan, California, D.C., Connecticut) was a LOT.

Bloody Mary garnished with a Slim Jim

Best Potato Chips in the world

Really?

Questionable Food and Beverage Choices in the Midwest

First time since 2011 (?) all eight of us were there?

The Marenisco July 4 Parade

How to spend the perfect day

Cabin time in the upper peninsula of Michigan

Add lost luggage and cancelled flights to the mix, and I have to figure out something different for my next home leave. My preference would be to chill out in/near Seattle. If I rented a house with spare bedrooms would people visit? Seattle’s amazing in the summer!

The mountain is out!

Anyway, I have two years to figure that out.

During my time in D.C. I took a short class at FSI (Foreign Service Institute), which is back to in-person classes. When I started in 2018, I learned the FSI cafeteria was the place to witness reunions among people who had served together at one post or another but hadn’t seen each other in awhile. “Will that be me someday?” I wondered. Yep. Literally day one, five minutes in.

I also saw my sister, got in some final meals, and managed one bit of sightseeing with a visit to Arlington House, home of traitor to his country Robert E. Lee.

Arlington House seen from the cemetery

This looks like marble and sandstone but, like Robert E. Lee’s patriotism, is a cheap façade.

Quarters for enslaved people

kitchen where enslaved people worked for the Lee family

Then it was off to Islamabad, with a one-night rest stop in Doha where I wondered about the wisdom of scheduling said rest stop in a city where August temps reach 115°during the day. I did venture out, but only by night.

The old market, Souq Waqif, was a short but sweaty (at least it’s a dry heat!) walk from my hotel and I loved it. It was like Disneyland Morocco. While it was one hundred percent an Arab souk, and therefore familiar and comforting, it had none of the catcalling or the hygiene concerns that I expect from a visit to Marrakech or Fes. I got enough of a taste of Doha to want to return (in the winter), which is great because it’s an easy long weekend away from Islamabad.

Art!

Art?

Traditional dhows, which used to be part of the fishing and pearl diving industry, now carry tourists for a view of the modern skyline

Ice cream stand

Buying sweets

Daytime view from my hotel ,where checking my weather app and touching the glass of the window made me decide I should not go outside.

Remember how when I was in China I was basically locked inside the country for 18 months (because of Chinese policies) and couldn’t do leisure travel anywhere else? Here in Pakistan I have very restricted movements within the country (because of U.S. policies) and can only do leisure travel somewhere else. Who wants to meet me in Istanbul, Doha, or Muscat (Oman)?

Speaking of freedom of movement, I need to dispel some misconceptions. Yes, I live on compound here. And with three restaurants, a bar, and a commissary on embassy grounds, I don’t necessarily need to leave. But I am not confined to compound.

I can stray, with some caveats. We have a curfew (1:00 am – 5:00 am, as if I’ve been out during those hours any time in the last decade).There are areas of the city we are not allowed to visit or may only visit with permission. I can freely walk around the diplomatic enclave (the area surrounding the U.S. embassy), but have been told that after dark I may encounter wild boars. I am not allowed to use local transport, but am allowed to use government cars and drivers as my own personal taxi service.

In my first two weeks I have left compound to visit my colleague’s favorite bookstore, two of her favorite carpet and textiles vendors, three of her favorite restaurants (Thai, Pakistani, Afghan), and her tailor. I see bespoke linen dresses in my future. (A-line to hide the food baby I’ll be growing with all these samosas and chapati and kebabs.)

These were all within the area I am allowed to roam, but on another day we went to my colleague’s favorite furniture maker, in a “with permission only” section of the city, requiring a bit more advance planning.

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This furniture maker uses reclaimed wood from abandoned buildings to fashion into new pieces

Some “special incentive posts” allow you to save money not just because of the extra pay, but because you can’t really leave your house and there is nothing to spend your money on. That is clearly not going to be the case in Pakistan.

I could really use some new pieces to spice up my bland apartment! But the apartment is fine, if not as fancy as what I had in China. There’s definitely no robot bringing me takeout orders. I can hire a housekeeper, but there’s also no in-house cleaning service providing light vacuuming and twice a week sheets/towels/toilet paper refresh for a mere $600 a year. I am longing for my HHE (household effects) to arrive with my precious robovac! Once I get my stuff and I purchase the inevitable rugs and custom made furniture, I hope to be pretty comfortable here for the next year.

Mind Your Own Bidness

Or, why I’m still not going to western Europe or Australia or the Caribbean…

TL;DR: next stop Islamabad!

China’s been rough lately. Colleagues in Shanghai are slowly emerging from a brutal lockdown. Beijing experienced smaller scale lockdowns, accompanied by testing every 24-48 hours. Guangzhou avoided the worst of China’s zero-COVID policies, but the entire country has been on edge for months.

English-language WeChat advertising started targeting those fleeing:

Lockdown-inspired promotional emails became increasingly unhinged:

Travel plans I made in a burst of optimism were mostly cancelled. Optimism briefly rose again when Sydney, our official R&R point, opened up for tourism. Then the embassy rejected my travel request to OUR OFFICIAL R&R SPOT, giving me the exciting options of taking R&R in…the U.S. or in China.

CHINA? The whole point is to get OUT of China!

THE UNITED STATES?!?! Hopping about to multiple locations trying to see everyone in two to three weeks sounds neither restful not recuperative. But choosing only one location inevitably pleases few and annoys many.

So other than sulking, what have I been up to?

Well, there was the visit to the ceramics factory:

Three floors of this to contend with!

I feel I showed restraint by walking away with only four pieces. 

I helped plan food and beverage for a diplomatic community street hockey tournament:

The most I’ve ever participated in sports

I was super inspired to meet local queer activists at the consulate’s Pride film festival:

I read a fun cabin/beach novel involving a counterfeit handbag caper that namedrops the Guangzhou Baiyun World Leather Trading Centre, and decided a visit was in order:

The fake Gucci featuring a kitten riding a jackelope was
bonkers enough to briefly tempt me.

And…I bid on my next post.

[Note: in the middle of all this the Supreme Court did…stuff I am not going to address here. If you are a person in need of abortion care who doesn’t know how to navigate the system(s) and somehow found your way to this random blog, feel free to reach out to me privately for assistance connecting with people who can help. Christ, America. Your ability to break my heart always astounds.]

I just wanted my brain out of China and thought I could best accomplish that by focusing on what comes next.

Impatiently waiting for regular bidding to start in September, I realized Special Incentive Post (SIP) bidding started on May 31.

What is a Special Incentive Post? It’s a place where you get perks in exchange for lifestyle compromises. At an SIP, personal movement is limited. You may live on and be confined to the embassy or consulate compound. There’s some combo of can’t bring your spouse (maybe), pets (probably), or kids (definitely). You likely can’t host visitors from home. You might have to have a roommate (!) or live alone in a converted shipping container or an apartment without windows that open.

In exchange you have high “post differential” pay (basically “life is hard here” pay) plus danger pay plus two to three R&Rs each year. Be assured I confirmed they actually take their R&Rs, in a place of their choosing. Also, you choose either a single or two year tour.

The reaction from people I told about bidding SIP was…mixed. Within Foreign Service, everyone understands these positions’ benefits. Outside of FS, either out of concern (the word “danger” is right there in the phrase “danger pay!”) or self-interest (wouldn’t I rather chose a post they’d like to visit?), there was skepticism.

As I explained my reasoning, a lot of it came down to, “It often feels like I’m already at an SIP. Why not get the money and the extra R&Rs to actually do it?”

I don’t want to exaggerate the level of difficulty in Guangzhou. I can move about the city freely (provided my health code is green), don’t have any roommates, have windows that open in a spacious apartment not made of a shipping container (although magnetic walls sound tempting!) and I have, with effort, been able to complete some travel within the country.

But half my trips get cancelled.

My first non-COVID trip cancellation! A typhoon cut short a day trip to the Zhaoqing area of Guangdong Province 

And no visitors can overcome China’s COVID policies to take advantage of my spacious apartment with guest bedroom. And now my one R&R opportunity has been restricted to two countries, both of which infuriate me on the reg? Suddenly bidding on SIP posts seemed compelling.

But here’s the deal: Almaty and Guangzhou were entry-level “directed tours.” You’re given a list, told to rank choices, and assigned a spot. From #3 tour on, it’s a whole new bidding process:

1. Search expected vacancies to find positions that match your timeline and skills. This can change on a dime. If someone scheduled to leave next year curtails from post now, the vacancy date changes and no longer matches your timeline.
2. Reach out to the post to indicate interest.
3. Compile a resume and references.
4. Submit info to the Department’s internal bidding systems (annoyingly, plural systems) and to the contact person at the post. If you know people who know people, you might ask them to put in a good word.
5. Interview.
6. Engage in the weird game of “where are we on your bid list?” They want to know, if they offer you the job, will you take it? And you worry that if you tell the truth, that this position is lower on your list (but you’d still take it if the higher ups don’t want you!) then they won’t bother offering and then if your #1 doesn’t want you, you’ll wind up with nothing. You could flat out lie, but not if you are bidding on multiple positions in the same mission or bureau because they consult with each other. If you bid in different bureaus (e.g.: Africa and Near East Affairs) then you could straight up lie, but if you ultimately reject a job you swore up and down was your top choice, you look bad and word can get around. It’s kind of an icky process because the power is with the bureau or the mission. You can say Guangzhou is your top choice and Guangzhou can say you’re their top choice, but if Shenyang was also on your list, the Mission (China) or the bureau (EAP: East Asian and Pacific) may well decide to put you in Shenyang.

After bidding on multiple jobs in Pakistan, Iraq, and South Sudan, I ranked my list. While I didn’t get my number one, I did get my number three, in Islamabad, which made me pretty happy (For comparison, Almaty was #1 and Guangzhou was either #9 or #10).

Islamabad comes with real apartments (no roommates or shipping containers) and two R&Rs a year. Supposedly I can even have visitors. As I approach my one year anniversary in China, at least I have a focal point for the world beyond. Here’s to 2023!