Best Eastern Icheri Shaher Baku

The relief to enter the harbor at Baku and then to actually dock and not anchor-off as we half expected was fantastic. We could finally get off the boat!<br><br>The actual process of getting off took seemingly hours of course and we were through to the Customs in Baku.<br><br>Fun and games ensued with Pete in particular taking the brunt of the wrath of a couple of 'Jobs-worth' officials with lots of ...

Well, it's taken all day, but we've made it onto the boat. This is one dodgy affair. Happily the few other passengers on this filthy freighter are mostly British, travelling around the world on motorbikes. Everything is filthy, and there is nothing but Molly's ...

Chris didn't feel great, so Damien and I went into town to investigate the ferry, and while we were relieved to discover there was one the next day, we were surprised to find they were after over $600 for the privilege. We got a bit separated ...

... ciutat no es veu ni de molt lluny la revolta de l home pasta (1). Al quart dia ens refugiem sota les parres de les barraques d entre vies, ben a propet de les portes secretes que han d anunciar la bonanova. *Manat es el simpatic nom de la moneda azerbaijana, que dona bastant de joc, i a Baku porta ales. (1) per a mes informacio sobre la revolta de l home pasta podeu seguir l enllas d autobombo i plateret que espero que el Jordi tingui l amabilitat de penjar.

... DP made herself an alfoil packed lunch for 'ron, as only 12.30, and had a late breakfast. A couple of clapped-out motorbike-and-sidecars ridden by full-on local louts turned up, but didn't bother the group, but did give Kat a hard time, as she had wandered a discreet distance across the flat dam floor for privacy. Rather than go back the circuitous route we arrived on, the drivers checked out a gravel ramp on the face of the dam ...

... the time I'd pitched my tent. Sure as hell, the boys were'nt lying. There came a chorus of howling in the distance. I got inside my tent and slept for a few hours but was woken up at 2 am by more howling, this time not too far away. Suddenly it dawned on me what I sitting duck I was. This tent was going to be no protection for a pack of hungry wolves. I could hear the constant barking in the distance of sheppards dogs trying to protect the flocks of sheep against these ...

After a day driving across the beautifully varied, but increasingly barren landscape we arrived in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. We're due to stay here for two days. The Lonely Planet draws your attention to the crude oil seeping out of the ground and the hundreds of small nodding donkeys, or oil derriks, in peoples' back yards. But perhaps the most striking thing after arriving here from Georgia only a couple of days ago, is the sense there is money here ...

... our group still somewhere out on the Caspian Sea, we started with some sight seeing. Our first stop was the ancient Zoroastrian temple on Bakus outskirts. Zoroastrian was the religion of most countries in Central Asia before Muslims came and converted them all. Zoroastrians worshipped fire and it was interesting learning all about their religion. More interesting was that due to the natural gas that lay below the ground, they could continually burn fires ...

... to be most of the people on the coach. Third stop was a somewhat unexpected coach malfunction, which left 50 England fans stranded over an hour outside Baku (and 2 hours from the next intended stop) in the Central Asian desert.    Rumours circulated that the drivers was just after more money.   But it seemed unlikely when all 50 of us jumped aboard a passing local bus ...

... I packed up, checked out and walked out to the sea side were people were busily walking to work down the street and life began to awake in Baku. I walked over to the waist high wall separating the park from the Caspian and looked out. Oil rigs could be seen sucking the ocean floor from it's oil in the distance and a mist danced over the water. I did a quick shoulder check around and took out my digital camera to snap a few pictures. When I finished a few shots, I noticed that ...