Blogs from Azerbaijan, Asia - page 4

Sheki If it is a border crossing day, it must be raining! Another border crossing in the rain. That makes five in a row. The contrast between Tbilisi and the rest of Georgia is huge. Tbilisi is full of BMWs and Mercedes. The country side is less full of old and unrecognizable vevicles and the Sprinter van minibuses with crazy drivers. The country side looks quite poor and provided new traffic hazards to avoid - horse and donkey carts in abundance, and a few tractors with very wide plows. We have seen a few carts before, but today there were dozens hauling all kinds of farm stuff. The Azerbaijan border crossing was less trouble than Georgia. In Azerbaijan almost everybody waves or honks or flashes their lights. Lots of school kids were taking pictures with their ... read more

Driving gives you so much more freedom - freedom to explore, freedom to discover, and as we quickly discovered this morning, freedom to get completely and utterly lost. Today, the plan was simple - hire a car, drive about 1.5 hours south to see mud volcanoes and prehistoric cave paintings, drive another 1.5 hours to see a mountain that has been on fire for 50 years, and then if time allows it, see some old Zoroastrian fire temple. And do all of that without a map. Simple no? Luckily the rental car guy recommended getting a GPS. I've never trusted a GPS in my life, preferring good old paper maps and the old nose to direct myself. But our lack of maps of Azerbaijan suggested GPS would be a good idea. Alas, the stupid GPS proved ... read more

I began to pass through a back street of Baku, edging my way past some parked Ladas. Across the road, a large woman wearing a headscarf was leading a small child by the hand, and above me, leaning over an upstairs balcony was a middle-aged man in a string vest, smoking a cigarette. I carried on past them until I came to another narrow street filled with fruit and vegetable shops. It was just near a huge sandstone-coloured mosque with gorgeous golden domes. I noticed an overflowing bin with a clear plastic bag tied to one end. The bag contained pieces of bread. I’d already read about this strange custom, which had nothing to do with how full the bin was. Bread was regarded as a holy thing in Azerbaijan and could not be discarded with ... read more

The Pleasure of Good Neighbors I think almost a miracle must have happened to get me this flat: good price, great location, and, as I have discovered, really nice neighbors, including my landlord and landlady. I must admit, when we first drove up to this place that first Friday, I thought it looked a bit like a shanty town (actually, I still kind of do, but the inside of my room is nice, and there are children around, which I take as fun and a good sign). Several evenings, my landlady has popped by, and she’s always friendly. The neighborhood children run around and play like scamps. The odd board blocking the path to my flat and two others functions as a playpen, and I’ve concluded that the random series of knocks on doors is probably ... read more

So I guess its been about 50 days since I have set foot in Azerbaijan, and this means its time for another blog update. The last month or so has been pretty damn crazy. A massive list of random things have occurred and also I learnt a hell of a lot more about surviving in Azerbaijan. Guess we can start with what happened around the 20th of last month. So I managed to get my self food poisoning, which was honestly the closest I have come to wanting to die on the spot. Thanks to the dam Turkish restaurant nearby I ended up spending 2 days alternating between lying in bed trying not to die and throwing up. Not a fun experience but at least Im a LOT more careful about what I eat now days. ... read more