Find it, Buy it: Tbilisi

No, this isn’t my new set of brass knuckles. They are something rarer than all publicly sold jewelry in Georgia, but cost almost nothing, available only second hand. They aren’t made of any precious metals, contain no precious stones. But finding them was a major piece of detective shopping, and I bought almost all the examples I found. This is my hose clamp collection.

Being in Tbilisi for the school holidays, I had made a shopping list of all the things likely unavailable elsewhere: peanut butter (though I might roast and blend my own), laptop RAM, rechargeable batteries, the cheapest good dark roast coffee beans, and so on. And these things, as another weapon in my arsenal against water issues in DIY Svaneti.

The first few I found at one GEL each in the leftover used hardware section of my Metro’s bazaar. I had had to begin only by looking, as describing them was beyond my Georgian abilities. Snapped them all up, as one does with an item known to be so elusive. Now that I have these ones, though, I can simply show one of them elsewhere and ask if anyone has any. Easy!

You manipulate them with a pair of pliers, but I’d be doing this anyway with the previous alternative, which is simply wire. Purpose: to join a piece of pipe to another snugly. That’s all. Simple, well designed; likely to outlive me, quite unlike the wire.

My second shopping stop for the things was actually the only location where I’d expected to find them in all Georgia: the main Eliava bazaar.

(Aside: the area of Tbilisi where this bazaar is found is named for a Soviet-era institution which produced world-renowned populations of… bacteriophage, i.e. bacteria which eat other bacteria. These life forms have important medical implications in the real world. They are also featured in a bio-sci-fi thriller by Greg Bear, Vitals, in which Stalin is discovered never to have died, but been kept alive by the little critters.)

The Eliava bazaar, come to think of it, likely grows its own unique pharmacologies of micro-organisms. It certainly has enough spillage of petroleum products and other chemicals to provide a novel environment for extremophiles to flourish in, just before they vanish in the hellish aftermath of a single carelessly dropped cigarette, that is. Seriously, why the whole huge place hasn’t had a catastrophic fiery meltdown ever is simply beyond me.

But there’s no place better to find, along with the biggest selection of building materials, old pieces of anything electro-mechanical. Failing that, to have exactly what you need made by hand from a block of solid metal by a guy with a machine the size of your dining table and more knobs, levers and other parts than a locomotive engine. Your item will be ready in minutes and cost a few GEL.

So my second hoard of hose clamps did turn up here, after a simple walk down Junk Lane quizzing the stall patrons one at a time, “Got any of these?” and showing one of my rings. Again, only one seller did have any, and again I bought almost all he had, once he’d asked me what I paid for my first batch and offered his for the same low price.

I now have a selection in a few different sizes. They feel solid enough never to break, and are stainless and rust-free into the bargain. I have now have the biggest collection of them in the whole country, or there may be someone else in another city, Kutaisi or Batumi, who’s holding out until his are the very last and he can sell them for whatever he pleases. But mine are enough for my needs, and I don’t expect ever to want or need to sell them in this way, because I bought them to use in my faraway fastness. You have to get it done, whatever it takes. Must have running water, for goodness’ sake, that’s what this is all about!

Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with over 1350 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/

He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri:

www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti

Tony Hanmer