We finally gave up the Caspian Sea ferry crossing.It was more reasonable to fly for one hour by Azerbaijan Airlines instead of a 3 day sea trip. We will sleep overnight in Aktau and then try to catch a train to Nukus, Uzbekistan.
It is difficult to decide whether we are in the middle of nowhere or just an abandoned somewhere, a ghost city. Nearly a quarter of the population is of Russian origin, like a lost abandoned tribe by motherland Russia
We are now in 3rd/4th class social mix. The only difference is that 3rdclass get to choose their seats and the 4th take the remaining seats.
Border pass formalities were smooth and easy with the immigration and customs officers joking to us naming all the French celebrities. Zidane always comes first.
The landscape is dry, barren till the horizon with a few horses and wild camels. These are sometimes domestic animals. There is no tarred road to Uzbekistan and all the goods trucks and cars ride on sand tracks with a long dust trail behind. Paris-Texas film scenes and landscapes.
The real action starts at the Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan border at Karakalpakstan. All the vendors jump on board the train and start selling their wares. I have only seen that before on a bus between Douala and Yaoundé in Cameroon. The vendors are young, and old children, women, men shouting and advertising their products. You can be fed – Pilmieni, Samsa, Shashlik. You can drink, coke, water, tea, beer. You can smoke – cigarettes. You can wash yourself after – Kleenex, soap, razor blades and toothpaste. You can get dressed and/or dress your kin – girls’ dresses, t-shirts, trousers, shawls. You can go home loaded with gifts – toys, napkins, DVD, loudspeakers, perfumes or play the music yourself – Musical instruments. You can call/write home – mobile phones and sim cards, pens and notebooks. And if you don’t have local currency, the black market exchange comes to you; 50 US$ gets you a book thick of 1000 som notes (biggest note = 0,25 US$) . It is an uninterrupted flow of vendors up and down the corridor.
The blog is now operational again as we leave Azerbaijan.
We resume the trip where we were.
On the way to Seki. I am amazed by the wealth of culture present in this part of the world. The Azeris love life and culture. They will spend hours at the table feasting with their guests. Each toast is a poetic tribute to life, to their values (family, beauty and emotions). Mugham, their traditional music, has exceptional qualities. Their modern versions have jazz tones and even “fusionned” with jazz at the Montreux Festival. Each traditional song is immediately embraced by the whole restaurant singing passionately their love for their country’s landscape or just some happy/sad love story. Till now they have poetry national competitions (des joutes oratories) widely followed and discussed by the whole population. Poets become national heroes and are remembered till now. The theatres and opera house have a full spring-summer programme from ballet to Don Quixote, Aida and Carmen.
Wine is another wonderful surprise. I would know whether we should qualify their wine as coming from the New World since it was an exceptional Shiraz, given that Shiraz the Iranian city is just a few km away. Yet another example of a very moderate form of Islamic practice. A discreet and respectful way of following one’s religion.
Arrival without any problem to Baku round 11H00. We are so amazed and surprised by the quality of the City centre and the quality of its renovation programme. Our hotel is in the Old City. It is really becoming a world city. A interesting and surprising mix of old ladas and latest BMWs, soviet style apartment blocks revamped and gentryfied, the 19th century Hausmanian architecture in several boulevards give it a cosmopolitan air with some middle eastern flavor. Just as much as the teahouses, expats pubs, the young dressed in the latest fashion strolling in the pedestrian avenues.
The Azeri architects seem to compete in hospitality. The 8-course meal (Lunch/Dinner) finished at 19H30. There some kind of uneasiness to sit in this revolving restaurant at the 27th storey high tower eating caviar and overlooking some slum neighbourhoods at our feet. The chief architect Abbas shared his dry sense of humour and amazing Azeri Cabernet Sauvignon to ooze the discomfort.
Seki is a lovely little town near the Caucasus. The landscape is impressive especially in spring. Thick forests at the foot of snowy mountains. The village remains timeless till now. Pre-christianity temples of the Caucasian Albania. In the days of the Silk Road, caravans from Tbilisi and Baku use to converge here before going through the Caucasian mountains round the Caspian Sea through the Dagestan and Astrakhan. No wonder a small silk production still remains in the town. One of the five caravanserais still operates as a hotel. The small 1762 Xan Sarayi palace is a little jewel under the shade of its two 500 years platane. The most amazing elements are the coloured glass sebeke (a kind of moucharabieh).
The Old City is the oriental counterpart of this European city with the fortress walls, the mosque domes, the hammam, the Sirvanshakh palace and the caravan seray. All the winding roads delicately paved and all the old buildings almost completely renovated. Our hotel is one of those in the old town.
Tbilisi-Baku train. We are in “First Class” Slepny Vagon, soviet style in its most glorious time. Platform 4 and compartment 5-6 were waiting for us. Two beds/couches with flowery sheets matching the brown Scottish tartan blankets complete with a pair of pillows, a large (used?) one with cotton pillow case with the I Vaqon Deposu logo and a second more modern one without pillow case. Clean bed sheets are supplied once the train is on the way. Central Asian undefined carpet on the in between corridor. Sliding door with heavy duty lock to ensure our privacy. Net shelf for each for our minor accessories. Private bedside lamp with general ceiling fluorescent light. Fixed window with embroided gold lace curtain to frame the view.. Individual hangers for the comfort of our clothes. We have taken photos for our interior designer friends for new inspirations.