9 March 2025 - Leaving Yerevan, Armenia

The vacation in Armenia had been thoroughly enjoyable with a mixture of the fading winter weather and the emerging summer season. Armenia once again proved to me that people make the country what it is. Friendly and honest, law abiding, deeply religious without wearing it on their sleeves, proud of their heritage and protective of their environment and monuments, the Armenians are.

Law and order are maintained with all seriousness. The visibility of police is all pervading. They are there in every street corner, every busy marketplace and on weekends their numbers are almost double. So is the case with traffic patrols. They are there everywhere. The seven days that I drove around in the country, urban, rural and highways, their presence was felt without any let up. Therefore, people adhered to road rules and traffic restrictions. Yes, there are always exceptions to the norm. However, the crazy drivers were few and far between.

It has no recourse to revenue source from natural resources. The per capita income, is however, twice that of India on PPP terms as per 2023 data. According to information supplied by the city walk tour guide in Gyumri, Aram, a family of four can get by on a monthly income of USD 250, which includes housing, food, transport and education.

Another feature is that you don't find homeless persons and people living in slums, in abject poverty. People don't have to pay for water as sweet water from the mountains slake their thirst. In every city, town and village there are public water fountains, which the Armenians call "pulpulak". At the time of checking into hotels and guesthouses I was told that tap water is safe and there is no need to buy water. They say it with a matter of pride.

Pedestrians use only zebra crossings to cross the road, be it in the cities, towns or even in rural area. A jay walker is a rare animal and is normally frowned upon. Where the pedestrian crossing is not governed by a signal, vehicles stop to give the right of way to one who steps on to a zebra crossing.

Similarly, the discipline of using the traffic roundabout is another noteworthy feature. Moving into the roundabout after giving precedence to vehicular traffic that is already in the roundabout from the left is a given. No need for signals and traffic policemen. Level crossing gates cover only that side of the road which is meant for the incoming traffic. It does not cover the entire stretch of the road from end to end as it does in India.

During the tour of Armenia, I noticed that there is a fairly large population of stray dogs in the country. But most of them had a round tag on their ears. I thought that the local authorities used it as a means of identification of the stray population. However, in Gyumri I sought a confirmation of my reasoning from Aram, the city walk tour guide. He told me that the tag indicated that the stray was castrated!

When I received the car from AutoUnion, the service provider of the car rental, I was requested to download the Yandex Navi App for navigation within Armenia. The company representative told me that Google Maps was not that reliable in the country. I did as suggested, and used it for the entire duration of my drive in Armenia. However, it too was not entirely dependable.

Twice, I was taken on the wrong route, and I used Google Maps to back to the right one. One, in fact, was almost within Yerevan. I was led to some godforsaken street when I had set Yandex Navi to Erebuni fortress. The second was when I had set the route to the ski resort, Tsaghkadzor. I landed up where I could not go any further with the entire place drowned in snow! Moral of the story: no navigation app is flawless; use it with caution.

During the entire duration of the Armenian tour, I never came across wantonly strewn garbage or unclean streets and public places. Cleanliness was the norm. People kept disposables with them till they found a bin; non-availability of a garbage bin was no excuse to fling them about. Besides, even in the toughest of situations, municipal workers could be seen clearing the road of ice and bins of garbage. Thus, a combination of responsible citizenry and accountable public workers ensured public hygiene and cleanliness.

I was most taken in by the TUMO initiative to skill teens living in Armenia. The 12- to 18-year-olds are given free vocational training and that is producing a generation of smart hands ready to serve the needs of an emerging country. It is probably this initiative that ensures that the young steer clear of crime and socially unacceptable behaviour. They are trained to be socially and professionally productive; a moulding process is in place to instill in them a sense of self-worth.