(un)Comfortable life
One of my russian friends told me the other day: hope you don't stay for long in those cheap countries. Couldn't have said it better. All those CIS countries are not ok. Costs are close to european and salaries are close to russian. Both urban and rural environment are disgusting pretty much everywhere because of dirt, garbage and ignorant people.
Only in Yerevan center you may have a walk for 10 minutes, choosing your route carefully and feel it like some tidy beautiful city. And only in summertime.
In Almaty you may see a lot or really beautiful places, kept well and clean, but just around the corner you get into a shithole village. It is in any part of the city, there is no center in Almaty in my understanding.
Tbilisi is totally dirty, it's deownind in mud and dogshit. Only Agmashenebeli pedestrian area looks good, maybe two-three more places. It's so frustrating to see the ancient town in a perfect climate zone in such a deplorable state.
It's not worth mentioning other places, they are even more dismal.
Those are just the things that catch the eye. A lot of other factors determine the term of "The cheap country". But with this term I finally got it what is wrong with my feeling uncomfortable around there.