Blogs from Azerbaijan, Asia - page 5

k so its been a pretty busy week for me. Started work, as well as finding my way around here. Ive learnt a few new things and also finally met Tatiana the MCP of AIESEC Azerbaijan and also one of my flat mates. I also learnt how to find a few new places and walk around on my own and generally start building the foundations of living here. Ive also found my arch enemy here. Taxi Drivers. So I guess we can start with work since its probably the central feature of my life. I work as a Study Abroad Manager which is a fancy name for someone that helps students going overseas to study with their university and visa applications. I now know more than I ever wanted to about Germany University and Visa processes. ... read more

After the little France holiday I expected to be doing a bit of engineering work in Yorkshire for a while. However, two days after arriving back from Paris I was on the way to Azerbaijan for some more gold mine work. This wasn’t quite as unexpected as it sounds, I had already been offered the Azerbaijan work and I’d already gone through the rigmarole of acquiring the visa, I just didn’t expect to be going so soon - excessive rains leading to the postponement of a lot of construction work in the UK this summer. Similar to the Mexico blog a few blogs ago (which was another construction project on a gold mine), I don’t want to go into what I was doing too much – construction of a heap leach pad, a tailings dam and ... read more

Seki is in the countryside, 6 hours minibus ride from Baku. Not remote like Laza, the town has an old and new section and is surrounded by hills. Although even in the villages the men's fashion remains skinny jeans and thin striped shirts. They seem to look better than Western European men in skinny jeans, I think they are built correctly for the look. Older men wear black flat caps. I have to resort to much persuasion to get to Seki in a day from Laza. The big 2pm bus from Baku is full and there are many people waiting to buy tickets for the 3pm and it's only just gone 1. A minibus is almost full and has a space for me but not with luggage. I decide to wait around anyway and finally the ... read more

Time for a trip slightly more off the beaten track, mainly because I had airmiles to use :) Transport The amusing start to my visit to Azerbaijan starts on the airport tarmac. Usually the pilot is told a gate number then follows the numbering system of the airport lanes and turnings. In this airport, those signs do not exist so a small Lada turns up with large yellow lighting on its roof, flashing FOLLOW ME. It then drives around the airport twice as we follow in the plane. Interesting. Turns out that the majority of people drive Ladas. On the surface you'd think that Baku has a structured traffic system. The roads are paved, multi lane motorways in places, street lighting lines the roads, lanes are clearly marked and there are numerous road signs. This does ... read more

China is.. We arrived at Xi'an train station after a pretty horrific train journey sat in an overcrowded carriage on a hard seat for the whole night. We had arranged for our hostel to pick us up but when we emerged from the station there was no one to be found. We waited for a bit and then got in a taxi after several dismissive no's from drivers and made our way to the hostel where upon we were told the pick up guy was sick... Thanks for the notice guys!  We were both tired but I forced myself to stay awake and headed into town to sort out our train tickets out of Xi'an whilst Rhian slept. This turned out to be the most uncomfortable thing I've had to do on the whole trip! I ... read more