From eastern Turkey I headed for Georgia tagging along with the Dutch ladies. This involved a long bus ride to the town of Hopa and then a taxi ride to Sarp which was at the border. From there we walked through the border controls which was really very straight forward and only involved a brief interrogation on the Georgian side. Once through, there was another short taxi ride to Batumi.
Batumi can best be described as the Georgian Las Vegas on the sea. It’s essentially a giant beach resort with lots of casinos. My first evening and the following day were fairly uneventful. I explored and ate some local food. The hostel I was in was pretty quiet and didn’t have much atmosphere. That was until until a Dutchman called Bram strolled in and parked himself on the bean bag beside me. We got chatting and ended up going for some food and few beers.
Bram was a happy go lucky chap who was on a holiday in Georgia taking a break from his role as a civil servant back home. He was well-travelled and had no shortage of entertaining stories. At dinner, he announced his desire to go to a Casino. It made sense. The town revolves around the casinos so why not see what it was all about. I didn’t take much persuading. We were both novices. I’d been to a casino once or twice before as had Bram but never a big fancy one.
Following our meal and already pretty well oiled, we walked around the corner to the Raddison blue hotel and enquired with the doorman as to where we might find the biggest, fanciest casino in town. He initially seemed unsure but we were eventually directed to the Sheraton Hotel and off we went.
(My photographic skills weren’t at their finest so I borrowed this image from https://old.cbw.ge)
The foyer was grand, the whole place was. I’m not sure we were the usual type to walk in there looking as causal as we did. Nevertheless, we strolled in and announced our desire to hit the tables. It wasn’t long before one of the glamorous ladies came around from behind her desk to look us up and down and immediately identified the flip flops I was wearing. We were refused entry these grounds but she said that I could come in with shoes and so, not to be defeated we headed back to the hostel.
My travelling wardrobe is very limited. I only have a handful of t-shirts and my outdoor gear and so I had to choose between my hiking shoes or my bright blue running shoes. The hiking shoes seemed appropriate. Grabbing one more for the road we eagerly headed back.
We returned to the lobby and success! Our excitement was quickly dampened however when we were told that it would be $100 for a ticket to enter. I think this did include chips but we politely pointed out that we were merely poor travellers and that would go elsewhere to lose our money. Maybe this was a sign.
Undeterred we headed instead for the Golden Palace Casino right near our hostel. The ladies at the reception were much less hostile and we were delighted to find out that it was free to enter although we were informed that we’d need our passports. Sigh. This meant another trip back to the hostel but fourth time lucky we eventually made it in!
I really felt the part. Hiking shoes, socks, shorts and a North Face t-shirt. Bram was rocking some shorts and a t-shirt with trainers. We bore all the hallmarks of a couple of high rollers. We ordered $34 worth of chips, an amount we’d agreed we’d be happy to lose/pay for the experience. Unsure what to do next we ordered a couple of drinks at the bar. They didn’t want any money. Fearing a scam we had to check with a couple of people to discover that they were in fact free. The evening was getting better. I felt my large glass of Georgian red wine really completed my look, the high-net-worth mountaineer.
We circulated for a while sussing the place out and then hovered around the Roulette table. It was crowded and we didn’t really understand how we actually got into the game. Almost everyone was Georgian but we then met a couple at the table, a Swiss lady and Israeli gentleman who were about our age. After working up to it we chucked in our $25 dollar chips and away we went.
I actually started winning! We were just betting $1 at a time spreading our bets over a few numbers. It was really good fun although the locals looked entirely serious the whole time. Bram became obsessed with the number 8 and had been trying to win in it for a while on it so we decided we’d all go for a dollar on 8, myself Bram and the couple. And then boom! We won. A lot of high fiving ensued. The rest of the table remained completely emotionless. We’d just netted 35 big ones.
Our neighbours at the table were betting much, much bigger amounts and seemed to gain little joy from the experience. In contrast to our one chip at a time strategy some of the guys were pacing hundreds down all over the place, and losing them.
My winning streak continued. The dealer was giving me extra chips as a reward and I did exactly as they wanted me too and stuck them all on red or black. There was a point where I’d more than tripled my money but alas I got greedy and my pot started to become diminished. After about an hour and a half of laughs I decided to call it quits having still more than doubled what I’d put in. Hardly a life changing sum of money but great fun. Bram hadn’t done so well but as he kept pointing out to me as he was sinking beers and whisky ‘You win at the bar man, you win at the bar’.
The following day, and still bathing in the glory of the previous night’s successes, we started to contemplate a second outing to the Casino. It probably wasn’t a good idea but I was up and it was hardly big money. As before, we ate, drank and the headed to the Golden Palace.
I knew how this story was going to end before I even set foot in the door. You don’t get lucky twice and I did not. We stuck $25 on the roulette table. Nothing quite seemed the same. The money quickly went. We decided to cash in a little more but the losing streak continued. We quickly cashed out and discovered the automated roulette machines where the minimum bet was 10 cents. This was more our game we decided. Here we met a guy from Nigeria and a lady from the Ukraine who were in a ‘couch surfer meet up’. They were an unlikely pair. The guy had all sorts of systems which he was insistent worked and he’d occasionally share some ‘hot’ numbers. They never worked.
Very quickly the free drinks dried up. You’d order them but the waitress just wouldn’t ever come back, even if you asked a second time. I think they had us sussed. The machines just weren’t as fun and money we put slowly disappeared. Once it was gone we cashed out what little we had left and bid a retreat. We’d still had a good laugh though and a good few drinks.
I did some sums the following morning and worked out my total loss over both nights was about £9 which is hardly going to break the bank. Totally worth it for the entertain. Best not to divulge quite how many drinks we consumed but whilst we may have left empty handed I can safely say we definitely won at the bar!
Wandering Henry 