It was my third trip to this ancient and fascinating land, land of a thousand churches spread through out the country in places that one would not think of. These churches were built during times when Christianity was not a welcome religion, the people who built and worshipped in these churches wanted a safe place for their place of worship so they built them in places that were not easily accessible.
My first two trips were in the year 2000 and on my third trip of October 2005 I was not expecting too much change from what I had seen in the trips prior. I was wrong, at least in Yerevan, the capital there were a lot of changes. Changes to the better, with outdoor cafes and restaurants everywhere, entertainment and celebrations of all kind throughout the city, one cannot get bored easily.
You can walk the streets during the day and see many happy faces on the thousands of young students of the many universities walking around or having a gathering in an outdoor coffee shop. At night many people go out, again to the cafes, concerts, ballets or opera. Many new shops have opened all around and a major construction boom is going on in Yerevan and to a lesser extend in other places.

I took many photos of Armenia in panoramic format & 3D for this site.
I traveled from Yerevan all the way to Alaverdi (North of the country) and I must say I didn't expect to see what I saw and that is the breathtaking beauty of this rocky land.
As I have always said “every Armenian should visit that land at least once in their lives” and you are bound to fall in love with the land and the people!

The future is very bright for Armenia and it could advance much faster if there were less corruption, less laziness, and more nationalism, better civil education and etiquette.

Aside from the above what is needed is a more decisive and responsible government. It is the government’s job to educate its people. To teach them right from wrong, good sanitation, good discipline and so on.

One of the best examples of such acts of government is the lowering of the smoking levels in the U.S. that have taken so many years of educating the population. As a result, now the cigarette consumption in the United States is much lower that it was twenty years ago.

Some of the other things that need improvement in Armenia are very visible shortcomings. For a country that needs tourism, it has a long way to go to get up to the normal standards.

There are many ancient churches that are visited by tourists all the time. In all these places, including the biggest one “Etchmiadzin” there is a complete lack of basic needs such as a simple restroom!

There are several wealthy Armenians who help develop Armenia, they should take the initiative and construct the basic sanitation needs in such places. Millions are being spent in the capital at the expense of everywhere else in the country. Why should these rich Armenians spend the money to construct such facilities? Because the government either doesn’t care to do so or is incapable of doing so, either way it’s something that needs to be addressed. The cost of building little coffee shops with restrooms in places like Geghart, Haghardzin, and Garni would pale in comparison to what’s being spent in the capital, yet those churches are the main reason visitors travel to Armenia.

Another idea would be to turn the whole country in an art museum. It might sound far fetched but it would provide income to many extremely talented Armenian artists, sculptures and painters as it would make the country a very unique place in the world to visit. Sculptures could be a simple full size woman walking a dog on a sidewalk. A young couple sitting on a bench, a few children playing on the pool in front of the museum in the Republic square and so on. Give the artist to express him/herself.

Very simple ideas like these could turn the country to a must see tourist destination, if and only if there were some initiative.