Bukhta-Il’icha

We landed in Baku at 3am (which was 4am to us because of the time difference) and after successfully getting through the airport in about 15 minutes, had the very warm welcome of being immediately nearly scammed by a taxi driver, who drove us out the front gate and then tried to insist that we should pay 70 manat instead of 7 manat because "brother, parking, manat per kilometre". We bailed, walked back to the airport, and tried again, finally getting to bed at 4am. 

The chaos and ensuing haze sort of characterised our time in Baku: we spent some time just resting and recovering, sort of pleased that we were staying in a hotel that looked fancy and grateful for the space, but had such quirks as, the "spa" was actually a jacuzzi bath in the basement (which we still enjoyed), none of the sheets or duvets on the bed were long enough to cover one whole person, and we had a table with no tabletop. Elli's runs on the basement running machine were met with looks of utter confusion by the staff, implying that no-one had ever turned it on before.

It's a bit unfair on Baku that we were more in recovery mode than discovery mode, but this wasn't helped by the local cats, of which there were millions but the second one that Chris made friends with was so surprised by his approach that it launched itself at him and scratched his hand until it bled. So we had the fun travel experience of a trip to get a rabies vaccine, but he may now be immune for life. Entertainingly enough we saw the same cat in the same place two days later being taunted by a local boy, and it scratched him too, so at least it's not personal. 

Baku is a bit of an oddity really: part international city with lots of activity and lots of wealth, big cars, fancy shopping malls with expensive shops, and a parade of very shiny large buildings, which do look quite impressive although the "crescent" (a big hotel which looks more like a doughnut than a croissant) was completely empty and apparently unfinished. The seafront is the best bit of the city, with a long boulevard that goes all the way round the bay and makes for good people watching and really interesting public realm. We had some tasty meals, all in restaurants that were very well decorated and full of people dressed up and having parties, which at least weren't heinously expensive, but which all felt quite weird after several months of quiet cafes with plov. 

On the other hand it's traffic dominated, and clearly still has a lot of poverty, and a walk that we did through town to the Heydar Aliev centre was unpleasant, with no pavements to speak of and was an interesting tour of all of the actively crumbling Soviet housing that people live in. 

Still, we really appreciated the comfort and the bits of more developed infrastructure, the chance to do some planning for the next bit of the trip, the existence of McDonalds which we hadn't seen in months, and the ability to deliver food to our door, and by the time we left we were feeling mostly human.Read more