Azerbaijan

So, Azerbaijan. Crossed over from Georgia, had packed my Lonely Planet into my rucksack as it warned that previous editions had been known to be confiscated on the border, but hadn't packed it deep enough, so when the customs man asked me to empty my rucksack, out it came. He immediately pounced on it, gave it to his superior, who looked at it, shrugged his shoulders, gave it back to me and let me through. So that was a bit of relief, losing the guidebook would be a major pain given my complete lack of linguistic skills for the region. A taxi into Balakan, the border town, then a bit of haggling to get a shared taxi on to Zaqatala, but it did mean waiting for others to turn up before it left. So I was standing there, minding my own business, flicking through the guidebook to decide whether or not to stay overnight in Zaqatala or head onwards, when a police van pulled up, unloaded its cargo of officers, one of whom asked for my passport, took my book off me, then promptly indicated that I should get into the back of the van. I figured doing as I was told was probably a wise move, so in I climbed, and got whisked off to the local police station. I was outside there for a good fifteen minutes, with various questions behind fired at me in Azeri (but reasonably friendly to be fair), all of which I responded to by smiling a lot and saying, tourist, Baku, British a lot. Eventually I got led upstairs to see the head honcho, who again showed great interest in my book, and this time they found someone who could speak a little English, so he asked me what I was doing, and where I'd been before, so I explained that I was just a tourist, been through Turkey, Georgia and Armenia (which they would have known from the stamps in the passport). Armenia was the one that particularly piqued them (and I assume the reason they pulled me in, since the guidebook has Armenia on the cover), and I got a bit more of a quizzing about that – all due to the fact that Armenia invaded/backed a separatist movement in the Azeri region of Nagorno Karabakh, which is now outside of Azeri control, and nominally independent (although effectively Armenia calls the shots), and so Azerbaijan and Armenia are still at war, even though there's been a semi ceasefire for years. Anyway, eventually they seemed satisfied with my innocent tourist routine and that the Lonely Planet wasn't a pro Armenian tract being smuggled into the country, apologised for detaining me, before dropping me back off at the cab rank and wishing me a pleasant stay in their country. Wasn't quite the welcome I was expecting, but it's a great comedy travelling story, and I never felt at any point like I was in any trouble, I knew my documents were all in order, the worst they could have done was confiscate the guidebook.

So after the police incident, on to Zaqatala, spent the afternoon and the night there, pleasant small town and a nearby rural hill village to wander round, then on the next day to Saki (having almost watched the bus and my rucksack drive away while I was having a morning cup of tea – note to self, must always check if the time has changed after a border crossing). A couple of days in and around there, the first night spent in the hill village of Kis, mainly to visit the reconstructed Albanian church which is now an Albanian museum (Albania being a Christian state in the area during the sixth century, nothing to do with the European Albania). The reconstruction was funded by the Norwegian government, and there was a statue of Thor Heyerdahl there (of Contiki/Easter Island fame, the guy who believed that Easter Islanders originated in South America, not Polynesia, and sailed a raft there to prove it was possible), since another of his more controversial theories is that Scandinavians originated from the Azerbaija region, due to the similarities between boat petroglyphs found there and in Scandinavia, as well as apparently the myth of Odin refers to him coming from the 'Azeri'. Stayed in a local homestay, with no one but the old grandmother and grandfather, zero communication possible but she understood that I wanted a bed, and gave me some food so had a very pleasant evening reading my book on their balcony.

Back down to Saki the following morning, and checked into the Caravansaray hotel, which was a very cool little place, a caravansary being an old inn built along trade routes like the Silk Road back in the day where merchants and traders used to stay, feed their camels/horses and occasionally conduct their business. This one has been repaired and renovated, so it's a two level building, facing and surrounding an inner courtyard with a series of small, arched, brick rooms. Nothing particularly luxurious, but a great place to stay the night and dream of what it was like centuries ago. Saki itself was an important town and was the seat of a khanate for a period (khanates being small semi-independent states), meaning that it contains an eighteenth century khan's palace.

The palace, although relatively small, two storeys, one room deep and three rooms long is probably the most beautiful building in the Caucasus. The front facade has beautiful arabesque stonework, patterned tiling and large wooden stained glass windows, each individual piece of glass held in place by carved pieces of wood. Once you get inside the effect of the stained glass is apparent, with the sunlight pouring in through the windows, lighting them up and casting coloured darts of light all over the interior. The interiors themselves are also incredible, every single wall and ceiling covered with murals, ranging from flowers in the female rooms, hunting scenes in the male ones, geometric patterns everywhere, and the piece de resistance, a room long mural depicting the khan's prowess on the field of battle, complete with armies ready for battle, unfurled flags and decapitated enemies. The good thing about it too was that it was actually a bit of a surprise, the guidebook talks about it but not in a particularly detailed way, so it was one of those times when you walk in somewhere and think 'wow, this is amazing'.

Onward then from Saki, heading south, a detour up to Lahij, a coppersmith's village up in the mountains, a pleasant afternoon hike there and an evening in a local homestay along with a fair few shots of vodka with the owner, who I think was using me as an excuse to drink (even us single men can recognise the tone of voice of a wife telling her husband that he really shouldn't be drinking, and his 'I have to, he's a guest' response, regardless of the language it's said in), before heading down to Baku the following day.

Overnight in Baku, then back up north into the mountains to the little village of Xinaliq, actually not that far as the crow flies from Lahij, but the other side of impassable mountains hence the need for the four hour detour to Baku and back up. To get to Xinaliq was a journey in itself, an overnight stay in the small town of Quba, then negotiations with a jeep driver to go up the mountain road to Xinaliq. I was expecting an arduous process of haggling to get a fair price (the guidebook suggested that would be the case), but the driver quoted me a fair price for the whole jeep, or I could wait until there were three others, and pay a fourth of the price. After two hours of waiting, only one more local had turned up, so we agreed to pay half each, and off we went. The journey up was spectacular though, and worth the fare on its own, winding up and down mountain valleys, through rocky canyons, snow capped peaks in the distance, a stop off at in a small village to drop off the local and his various bags of purchases, along with the obligatory cup of tea, before eventually ending up in Xinaliq, where the taxi driver dropped me off at a home he knew would put me up, and arranged to pick me up the following day. Xinaliq itself is a small village composed of stone built houses in a stunning setting, perched on a ridge surrounded by mountain ranges on all sides, so a good place for some hiking. Did a great hike in the afternoon, up a nearby ridge, which ended up with absolutely spectacular 360 degree views of the Caucasuses on all sides, from snow capped peaks in one direction, rocky cliff faces in another, and carpeted green fields with the obligatory sheep in another. It even had a small rocky outcrop at the top to climb up for a real king of the world moment. Definitely one of the trip highlights so far. Overnight there with the family, of which there seemed to be an almost infinite number of children, but who were very welcoming despite the language barrier, before heading back down to Baku the following day.

A couple of days in Baku then, which is a surprisingly pretty city, at least in the centre where the old town is still standing, along with various buildings from the turn of the 20^th century when Baku had its first oil boom. It's now in the throes of its second one, and you can see the money being poured into renovation and building work, so much so that the city at times feels like one big building site, with large numbers of buildings covered in scaffolding as well as most of the main squares being closed off. It will probably be lovely in a couple of years time, although you do wonder whether it's really the best use of the oil money, given that outside of the capital there's still significant poverty. I guess Baku is their face to the world and they want to show that off.

Met a bunch of cyclists in Baku as well, first other travellers I'd seen since Georgia, all doing various routes from Europe across Asia, and waiting for the ferry across to Kazakhstan (as opposed to the Turkmenistan one I had to get). Was seriously impressed though, it's enough of an effort doing it by effectively public transport, let alone cycle the whole thing. The Caspian Sea ferry thing was easier than I thought, the Turkmenistan one goes pretty regularly, although at no set time, you just have to go down to the port and ask if it's going that day - I got told that it was leaving imminently so had to run back to the hostel to collect my bag, run back (with no time to stop to buy much food), and of course then sat around for another four hours before it actually left. So that was Azerbaijan and the Caucasus, on then across the Caspian to Central Asia.