Ramada 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.<br><br>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.

Spent the day in Baku and met up with the Gordons in the early evening. We had showers! I was disappointed to find that most of my tan was ingrained dirt. Graeme took us out for a curry and few beers and we returned to sleep in beds! Chris and I shared a double bed, but he only hugged me once in his sleep. It was a special moment.

Salut à Tous, Me voila point trop dépaysé dans ce djan qui a stan traîné à venir (eh oui, le premier projet de voyage ici date de 2005, souvenez-vous, mais à l'époque j'avais préferé vous assommer avec des chinoiseries sans contrepéteries. Il est a noter que pour un pays d'Asie centrale et du Caucase, la liaison avec une compagnie officiellement reconnue et membre de SkyTeam comme Lufthansa est un confort appréciable. Ca change des Dragon Airlines qui ...

... sea, and of an archaeological Russian bus. Back down the hill, and around the coast toward Baku. Lots of third world brick-walled empty compounds, some beachfront resort development, and a massive shipyard building a production platform, lying on its side. Other rigs moored to wharfs, and out at sea. Closer to town, the landscape is an ecological nightmare, with lots of "nodding donkey" oil pumps scattered through the residential ...

... recht teuer ist, kann ich es eigentlich nicht empfehlen. Kirgisien ist ein recht armes Land. Es hat aber eine sehr schoene Landschaft, die Menschen sind recht freundlich und meiner Ansicht nach das best value for the money aller *stans. Es ist nicht ganz billig, aber man bekommt auch was fuer sein Geld. Und man kann sehr schoene Wanderungen unternehmen. Alles in allem das wohl beste Urlaubsland. Tajikistan ist ein noch aermeres Land, die meisten Auslaender arbeiten fuer ...

... beach! The signs prohibit swimming but, being a beach, many were swimming anyway! The next day, we visited a Zoroastrian Fire temple as well as the "Burning Hill." The hill is literally burning from the natural gas emitted from the ground! The journey to get there was something else; oil derricks everywhere like I have never seen before; so many and so concentrated.

... taste of this when it is time to head to the river for our evening bath. We have already changed our clothes and are wearing traditional pange's like all the other women in the village. We do wear tops, although most of the women under 40 are in bra's and the older women are bare breasted. Being 45 I probably fit in the bare breasted category but did choose to leave my top on, or tied my pange up under my armpits! I'm sure in the heat I would have been burnt to a ...

... at last. The irony of the whole situation was that when we got on the ship there was room for at least 200 people on board, yet they had allowed just eight of us on board. I later found out the reason for this. In 2002 a ferry sank in the Caspian Sea and some people were killed. The ferry was going from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan. As a result Turkmenistan were reluctant to put too many people on any ferry in case there was an accident and bad news was reported about the country ...