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Day tours to Montenegro are touted in many agencies but a

casual pass on the Lapad waterfront in Dubrovnik at a path side

tented agency brought forth a casual sales pitch that proved to be

the enticement to book tomorrow’s trip. The daily tour was the same

DAS Turist Agency tour sold at the Pile gate Info Office but at a saving

of 60 Kuna  and the transport varies according to the number going either 4 passengers in a Peugeot 605 or if more

a mini bus. Atlas Tours also advertise a trip but does not go everyday so it is all aboard with the ubiquitous Mr Vladimir

and an 8am lift off from the Hilton Hotel the predetermined pickup place.

Today’s play in the Tour De Kotor stakes was an effort due to there only being 4 starters but the extra two were two non

English speaking “sauerkrauts’ in the guise of Bernard and Heinz. The backseat gymnastics to fit the bigarexic juggernauts,

black sox and sandaled into the backseat with one small Australian wife required a degree in vocational science. The tight

torts were not the only problem on the 3 hour trip to Kotor as the temperature was a hot and stuffy 27 C without the

upcoming border fiasco. The Montenegrin border is a 250 meter passage past the Croatian checkpoint past four duty-free

stores leading to a frustrating 35 minute wait as the vehicles stacked into two lines. The only repartee was now with our

Driver Josip who pointed out where the Serbian and Montenegrin troops had mined the valley and decimated the country

side during the Balkan Wars. The Croatian people had their cattle and lively hoods taken and the driver’s village decimated

during the conflict but he needed the 6 months work the Tourist driving gave him so he put up with the current situation

stoically. He commutes 2.5 hours from his village to Dubrovnik to drive and when the season finishes returns to sheep

raising until the next year.

Montenegro has borders with Bosnia-Herzegovina,

Serbia, Croatia, Albania and the Adriatic and the

capital Podgorica has the apt English translation of

‘under the Trees’. The roads are manageable but

the pace is slow amidst the Trabant like Yugo cars,

ancient Serbian trucks of nefarious vintage and

the omnipresent Polizia. The predominance of

Montenegrins finest is explained by Josip with

relative indifference because corrupt fine

collection is an endemic fact of life so why would

there not be plenty of them. Soon the outlet to

the coast is reached and the standard of

construction and life in general lifts revealing the

southern most fjords in the northern

hemisphere.

 The fully fledged Fjord has tumbling cliffs and is

a picturesque framework to play traffic dodgems

around the perimeter. The mayhem of Kotor

looms with the parking of a large cruise ship

butting against the roadway alongside the village

wall. The new European tribes playing cruise boat

crunchola poured off the boat streaming into the

narrow ancient gates and passageways in what

verges on a guided rabble.

This bad timing crowd wise impacted at the ATMs with the

financial system sucked dry for Montenegro had declared the Euro as currency ,even though not part of the European Union,

as a sign of Serbian separation. The spectacle of spending time jostling the elephantine terror tourists took some gloss of

what is a pert example of a walled enclave climbing to hilltop fort

but the crowds led to a strategic retreat. Kotor has had a

chequered career from Romans, Saracens, Serbians, to

Bulgar’s Venetians and Austrians but the most damage has

been through an earthquake in 1979. The Venetians had a

dynastic period from1420 to 1790 and the remanent town is

largely of a baroque style due to this influence leading to

protection under UNESCO world patrimony.

The motor from Kotor pressed hard toward the town of

Budva the oldest settlement on the Adriatic hosting Greek

and Roman beginnings but nurtured and again cultured

during 400 years of Venetian rule. The major stop is to eat

lunch and the revelation that the tour stops at the same

restaurant, a particular Café Porto restaurant, alerted the

rip-off radar and sent it spinning into overdrive. The

scepticism of Tourist fare was immediately alleviated by both

the cheapness and fresh quality of the seafood that was

promptly served. Fresh mussels, fish soup, tomato soup,

fish risotto, bread and cream cheese under the grill, and the

house vino verging on 9 out of ten a bargain at the princely

sum of E22 a couple.

Roadway entry into Budva is nondescript, hidden behind pallid

architecture, but driving to the jetty soon reveals a different picture

as the old town fuses into the waterfront. From a distance the

old town Budva is almost like a Hollywood neo-kitsch village

set in the Principality of Yachts. Questions reveal that this

is a favourite playground of the mega wealthy Russians,

rich in petrodollars, going into overdrive in the search

for sea, apartments and holidays. There is a sense of

largess in the guise of leviathan luxury cruisers

incongruously providing the modern framework for

the old town gates. The floating palaces are not

quite on the scale of Dubai but with pristine waters

and an oligarch tossing funds at the monster Hotel

Splendid perhaps there is some competition. A walk

through the old town reveals cleanliness ,shops of

designer chic, a sense of pride in the purity of

presentation but the enduring opulence an overt

measure of wealth lay bobbing at the stonewalls.

Heading out of Budva for 8 kilometres the exclusive area

of Seveti Stefan is the outer extremity of the tour and

another chance for photos and photosynthesis as the beach

umbrellas shade the shores. This halt is a chance to visit San

Stefan the road access island enclave of 20 residences now the

favoured retreat of the new Montenegrin President and other wealthy

technocrats. The beach is a favoured bathing place fringed by manicured lawns

but has a light shingle coating as the small Montenegrin coastal access has little sand due to the rubble from broken down

cliffs being the major component.

Return to Dubrovnik is via the same route but to

save driving around the whole bay again a short 10

minute ferry across prior to Kotor cuts a large

repeat journey and after a busy 11 hours the

ejecting border is quick now that the Euros have

evaporated.

 

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