Вы плохо говорю по русски (we speak Russian badly)

Sam and Andrew. When you are staying in a backpackers place you meet all sorts of fellow travelers. The good ones are great! These two had us in stitches..... We hope they will come and visit us at home one day (they are both Americans who have escaped from Arizona....to Oxford and Freiberg respectively). They speak American, German, and they have forgotten their Hebrew. Do not ask Andrew what the point is..... he will never get there and you will die laughing

Dodo and Theo. Dodo is in her 70's and its her "home stay" that most budget travelers in Tblisi end up in. She is interested in everybody and frightened of nobody. She thinks westerners are all phobic about putting sugar in their tea "why not?" she says.. and will ask the young Fins why they have tattoed their bodies.. "What for" she says "It is painfull, no?" Here she is listening and correcting Theo's Russian. Theo is another escaped American who also rides a bike. He speaks American French German Arabic and quite a lot of Russian (though not up to Dodo's exacting standards) Dodo speaks Georgian and Russian fluently and her own brand of English.

Sasha and Shalwan.. On our last night in Tbilisi we had a great night out with these two. We went to a Georgian restaurant that had some proper live traditional singing. We did not drink too many bears (contrary to normal habits) so after we wandered around the city looking at the lit up buildings (my favorite is the flashing tall tv tower that is obviosly sending and receiving messages from space aliens) Sasha speaks Russian Armenian Georgian (when Shalwan makes him) and English. Shalwan speaks Georgian Russian and better English... he is always laughing.

Dashkan, Ali and the Chai shop owner ( not the mafia) Once we had crossed the border into Azerbaijan we were back into tea drinking culture, where it is often hard to make progress because of all the kind offers to drink tea. These lovely guys from the small village of Cho ban chol, also made us stop for a meal with them too.. a delicious sort of omlette / kebeb mix with minty yougurt and fresh bred. Dashkan spoke good English as well as fluent Azeri and Russian. Ali spoke Azeri and Ruski and had very good sign language!

Aysel and Anurag with some other oldish fellow at the burning rocks near Baku. With our usual luck we were found by these two and rescued from our aimless city wanderings to join them on a more cultural excursion. Aysel is from Baku and knows lots of interesting things and Anurag is an Indian who is living in Cyprus and its thanks to him that we find ourselves currently in unusualy luxurious living accomodation (Jon will explain later but at the moment he is rivited by the 4x4 motorcross on tv. No doubt its the Russki commentary that is holding his attention.)

Anurag can speak Hindi English German and Software. Aysal can speak Azeri, Russki, English, Turkish, Spanish, Persian, German and French. She says she is never going to bother to learn Chinese!