Park Hyatt Baku

... perfect English, having he told us, recently returned from several years at London School of Economics! His mate then led us in his Merc at breakneck speed dodging the racing Porches and Ferrari's to a small hotel where we booked in and immediately demolished the mini-bars in both rooms. Off to bed at around 3 in the morning and hopefully ready to crack-on to Georgia in the morning.

Cheers, Rick.

... to stop her sliding off the oily deck into the sea. Fantastic. I have met a Russian lorry driver called Alexander, who has taught me to play Kazio. He thinks the crossing will take 3 days. I hope he's wrong but he has apparently done this journey many times.

... lost on the metro, but eventually got back to the Gordons. They had a few friends over and we spent all evening outside chatting and barbequeing. It was fantastic and we will all be reluctant to leave the land of real food, showers and beds.

... a lEst, cal que esperem que un ferry imprevisible es planti al port, cosa que -segons diuen- passa entre cada quatre i deu dies. Hem passat tres dies desplassant nos entre Bakus; per sota i per sobre, a peu, en taxi, i en mini bus; hem trepitjat la ciuta emmurallada, els suburbis, el boulevar, les ambaixades i els pous de petroli; hem conegut els homes pasta que es van a forjar als States i els homes pasta formats aqui; el nou model i el de tota la vida; en ...

... onto a rough track which skirted a village, and worked our way back through the edge of the village, past an old shepherd taking it easy in a hammock with two legs at the end, and a big tree at the head, and down to the lake bed for a very sun-blasted lunch. MP improved the situation a bit by moving the food table into the shade at the back of the truck. As usual, lunch of sausage, bread, tomato and cheese quite tasty and ...

... until I explained I was gonna sleep here for the night. No! one of them said shaking his head with a really serious expression on his face and went on to make kyote sounding howling noises, and explaining rain was due. I'd been dealing with dogs chasing me since Turkey and had my golf club, so wasn't too phased. Before they left I asked 'would I be ok?" They shrugged their shoulders and turned the palms of their hands upwards. I ate my pasta and it was starting to get dark ...

Chached my trip. I go straight from Crimea to Germany, Purschwitz-City to my parents house. End of the trip. Visit of the fire temple and fire mountain near Baku as well as the mud volcanos and stone-age paintings near Gobustan 60km away from Baku.

... buildings and some mansions that were built with oil money. There were people everywhere and they all seemed to be happy, which was a refreshing change. It was a perfect blend of Europe and Asia. It seemed that there was an oversupply of mobile phone shops and money exchange places; two out of every three shops was one of the above. Still I could never have enough money exchange places after the troubles we have had in obtaining money. We came back to ...

... tour were some old rock carvings (500BC, but looked as though they could have been scratched on yesterday.  "Women with big breasts, small waist, big hips" (as our tour guide delighted in telling us, several times), and lots of pictures of men hunting.   Pretty dull. Second stop were some mud volcanoes - far more entertaining.   Great for fans of whoopee cushions, which ...

... lost the night before. Rovshan dropped me off at the Cenub hotel and promised to pick me up to drive me to the airport the next day for my flight to Syria. I marched up to my room, promptly tiger balmed my rash of itching mosquito bites and passed out. -- Luc and his stalker When I awoke on my last day in the city, I had a short day planned out. A quick stroll along the Caspian and a visit to the Zoroastrian Fire Temple outside the city to finish the day catching my flight to ...