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Published: October 23rd 2008
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On a glorious day it’s nice to look out over the Caspian Sea. It’s even nicer to take a boat trip out to get a different view of the city. That’s exactly what we did a short while ago.
Halfway along the
Bulvar promenade two boats constantly do half-hour trips around the bay. It’s ridiculously cheap and when the waters are calm (luckily for Trish we chose a good day!) it makes for a pleasant excursion. We weren’t even subjected to the loud crass music we had expected.
As the boat pulls out from the shore you get a good look at the resting cormorants. You also get a terrific panorama of Baku from the bay. It’s quite picturesque but you really get a perspective of just how much development work is going on all around when you see how many skyscrapers are currently under construction.
The boat trip doesn’t take you all the way out to the oil rigs but you get a decent look at them, especially if you take a pair of binoculars with you. There are usually plenty of oil tankers and the occasional yacht to look at too. As you sweep around the
bay, the imposing
Dom Soviet, a real relic of a bygone era, looks ever more impressive.
Back on terra firma we have had a bit more of a look around town. Inside the old city we climbed the
Maiden’s Tower which was very interesting with small museum pieces on each floor. The view from the roof was pretty good too. We also went to the Shirvanshas Palace complex in the heart of the old city. It was rather disappointing as we could only look around the courtyards and gardens, plus the old mosque. We had expected to be able to explore all of the buildings but it was expensive to see the private collection held inside and also to obtain permission to take photos! Our advice? Just go to the Maiden’s Tower.
The area where we live is called Bayil and is a few kilometres from the city centre. We decided to take a walk away from Baku and found ourselves in an area where every other house seemed to have a
nodding donkey oil pump in the garden. Parts of the area are a derelict wasteland whilst other areas are undergoing serious redevelopment. We did see a
rather nice monument to the oil workers though, where “black gold” is running through a pair of outstretched hands.
Also in Bayil the world’s largest flagpole is under construction. We have a great view of it from our apartment and we’ll keep you updated with its progress. It is already enormous and will eventually reach over 500 feet into the air, surpassing the current record held by Turkmenistan (apparently). We are told the flag itself will be the size of half a football pitch!
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