Azerbaijan

We had wanted to take the overnight train from Tbilisi to Baku, but the land border between Georgia and Azerbaijan has been closed since COVID. It is clear to everyone that the reason is not COVID, but no-one could explain why it was still closed. The government had announced that the border would be closed until at least the 1st March, so we were holding out making plans until then, hoping to still be able to take the train on the 2nd March. However, towards the end of February the government extended the date to May, so we had to either abandon Azerbaijan or take an expensive flight. Azerbaijan, which bills itself as the Land of Fire, had been described by Emily Lush as the most in interesting country in the world. Of course, that claim is likely to be contested, but as the only majority Muslim country in the Caucasus, with a Soviet history and large reserves of oil, we didn’t want to miss seeing what this country is about. The capital, Baku, is an oasis in the desert, located on a peninsula on the western side of the Caspian Sea. It sounded too good to miss. We bought the flight.

We have come to learn that you cannot judge a country by its taxi drivers, especially those that hang out at airports – these are the worst. We were aware of this and had a whole strategy when we arrived at the Baku airport. Nix has an Airalo eSim, which allows her to have internet access as soon as we enter a new country – a real bonus. So we sat down and sorted out the internet and ordered ourselves a Bolt taxi before exiting into the throng of taxi touts. The only problem was that there were about 200 taxis in the parking lot and it was impossible to find our guy. And when we did find the car it was unoccupied. We had to cancel a few times until a guy approached us and told us that he was our Bolt driver. I was skeptical, but then he phoned me on WhatsApp, so he was legit and we followed him. Except not. He started going on about how all the roads were closed because of fog, and a conference, and we would have to pay double or more, and then he surreptitiously cancelled the Bolt ride.  We smelt the rat and just walked away. A few frustrating minutes later we found another taxi - as we got out on the other side he started demanding extra for the airport parking, which I probably would have given him, but I had absolutely no cash on me. We just left him fuming in the road. Taxi drivers, urgh.

Our trip from the airport into the city was enlightening. Baku was a tiny little oriental town until oil was discovered in the Caspian Sea and the place got rich, but at the same time was claimed by the Russians. So a lot of growth and development happened under imperialist Russia and then under the communist rule as part of the Soviet Union. Since the fall of the USSR in 1990, the place has boomed with modern buildings. They also marked the establishment of their independence from the USSR by pulling down a number of soviet buildings and transforming them into beautiful open public spaces, spending a lot on planting around the city to make it green. The feeling one gets on entering Baku is of a smart, modern, wealthy and functional city.

Our place was a 13-storey block of flats close to the sea and the old town. Our half-Russian, half-Azerbaijani hostess didn’t speak any English, so we experienced our first check in conducted entirely through Google Translate. It was quite comical as she spoke Russian into her phone while pointing at the washing machine and then showed us the (usually quite cryptic) translation on the phone. This continued from room to room until she cheerfully waved us goodbye and we were on our own. We were left puzzling at a few things after she had gone – including our microwave… We decided we’d test it out later and headed downstairs for a stroll around town before it got dark.

The first thing we noticed as we exited our building and walked down the street was that it was SO INCREDIBLY CLEAN! We haven’t been to Singapore yet but we are keen to see if Baku can be bettered. It is not only the absence of litter and dirt, everything is so neat, tidy and well-maintained and no graffiti anywhere. We wondered how they did it, until after being there for a few days we surmised two linked reasons – the first was a good number of people washing streets, picking up litter, trimming hedges, etc., and the second was a culture of having pride in one’s environment and not littering. Even at random bus stops on the edges of town, we noticed people putting their rubbish into bins or one of the numerous cardboard boxes tucked into corners. Environments that are cared for stimulate behaviour that respects this – we noticed this in ourselves, taking extra care not to drop anything on the ground mistakenly. Is this culture an old soviet patterning of ‘discipline’ or a new pride in independence? So much more to learn!

We have learned that walking tours are a great way to learn about a city if you have limited time, so we booked a Free Walking Tour of Baku and met up with our guide, Ziya, the next morning.  He explained that the locals differentiate the old town from the more modern city by referring to the ‘inner city’ (Icherisheher) and ‘outer city’. He gave us a history of the formation of Baku, noting that it was not the first choice of capital for the Shirvanshah dynasty, but their preferred spot was ravaged by earthquakes multiple times, so they settled for Baku on the coast of the Caspian Sea. They protected the city with two layers of walls. Around the outer wall was an outer moat filled with water. Between the walls was an inner moat which they filled with their abundant supply of oil and set alight if an enemy approached. A pretty effective strategy, we reckon. The old inner city, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been very carefully and preciously preserved. It is interesting and lovely to walk around, but has a bit of a curated, museum-y feel. Ziya explained the many myths behind the famous Maiden Tower (most of them involving a young girl leaping out of the top window to her death), and took us past the oldest mosque in the town, damaged by Russian cannons during one of many invasions. An unexpected gem in the heart of the old town was the miniature book museum. It is the private collection of an Azerbaijani woman who has collected miniature books from around the globe and now holds the Guinness World Record. There are over 8,000 books on display, including the smallest book in the world – a Japanese book the size of a rice grain – and the oldest miniature book – a Koran from Saudi Arabia. We stopped at the Shirvanshah Palace on the top of the hill (home to Ali’s family, of the Ali and Nino story). From here you can appreciate the many layers of architecture visibly radiating out from that one spot, starting with the oriental old town, then classical imperialist Russian, then brutalist Soviet, ending with ultra-modern glass and steel. 

The first of the two incredible natural wonders of Azerbaijan are the mud volcanoes, located in the desert about an hour south-west of Baku. The volcanoes near to the Gobustan National Park, which boast petroglyphs from every era of civilization from neolithic to the middle ages. We decided to try and visit both, but in the absence of hiring a car, transport was a bit of a challenge. Our first attempt at catching a bus failed, so we opted for a Bolt taxi. Much to our surprise, the hour-long journey only cost us R150! (It helps when petrol is R8/l.) As soon as we left the formal city, we got to appreciate the environment in which Baku is situated – desolate sand and rock – as well as its raison d’etre – the oil. All over the place are small-scale oil farmers, with hundreds of small well-heads bobbing up and down across the dusty landscape. Not attractive to look at, but it is what makes the place tick.

Arriving at the national park, we were accosted by police, who tried to hook us up with a private taxi to take us to the mud volcanoes. We’d read that the police+taxi scam quadruples the journey rate, so we politely declined and pressed on. However, it began to dawn on us that we may have bitten off more than we could chew. The park was very remote, and the museum where we were dropped off was 2km from the petroglyphs. We visited the mildly interesting museum to help us identify what we could see up on the mountain, and then set off bravely up the hill. Most of us were buoyed by the sunny weather and wide expanses, remarking how it made us think of home and camping, and how much we missed that. Most of us except for one… Happypants Daniel. He started grumbling from the get-go and by the top of the hill he was unplayable. Admittedly, the petroglyphs were underwhelming, so we had a look around and decided to head on to the mud volcanoes. We tried to buy a coke at the café with a credit card (preserving our cash for the uncertain journey onwards), but when we couldn’t, the lady behind the counter took pity on the kids (or the parents) and surprisingly just gave us the coke. A policeman in the parking lot then offered to organise his taxi and we had to just roll with it – sure, man, bring it on. 

A few minutes later, his mate rocks up and we manage to bargain a fairly reasonable price to take us to the mud volcanoes. He turned out to be a really nice guy and in broken English/Russian/Azerbaijani, we talked about politics and the economy in Azerbaijan, children, and the indestructibility of Ladas. We didn’t really know where he was taking us and after a surprisingly long and bumpy ride through the veld, we arrived at the mud volcanoes. And they were…amazing! The first and largest one he took us to, was a 4m-high cone with a 2m-diameter mud pool at the top which would bubble, burp and fart methane and mud every few seconds in the most bizarre and amusing way. The cold mud then oozed down the side of the cone, the consistency of shiny grey paint. The kids absolutely loved it. There are hundreds of mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan that are fuelled by hydrocarbon gas chambers under the ground, some of them 400m high and 10-12km deep.  Next to the volcano was a salt pool that bubbled and spat, and a little way away was a field of little min-volcanoes that provided even more entertainment before we headed home. 

We negotiated yet again for the taxi driver to take us most of the way back to Baku. He dropped us off at a manic traffic circle where we managed to navigate onto a municipal bus, grateful to avoid the many police blockades on the main road. From talking to the taxi driver and observing the heavy police presence, it seems that Azerbaijan has a history of autocratic leaders and nepotism. I guess this is a logical consequence of communism, a politically unstable region and oil wealth. It is very telling that all the public monuments are either dedicated to, or gushingly acknowledge, the current or previous president (father and son) – or their wives. 

We were starving by the time we neared our apartment, and although we were spattered with mud, we figured that the traditional Azerbaijani restaurant that we had chosen was unlikely to turn away tourists, even if they looked a little grubby. We sampled a good selection of soups and plov (spicy mutton with apricots and rice) and enjoyed the live local music.  

We reserved our final day to see the second of Azerbaijan’s amazing natural wonders – the eternal flames of Yanar Dag. Legend has it that in the 1950’s a shepherd discarded a cigarette and inadvertently lit a stream of gas exiting a rock face, which has been burning ever since. Our trip out to the site was so interesting, first taking the basic but slick metro, followed by a local bus. We struck up a conversation with a very chatty local who spoke some English, with the conversation centering around how he was single, how much trouble women were, and whether it would be possible to organise a nice English girl from Africa for our Armenian bus driver…. Local buses are the best!

The eternal flames, referred to by the kids as Everblaze, are not massive – they stretch across a rock face about 10m long and burn up to 3m high, but it is just so strange to see flames gushing out of the rock, without any visible fuel source. It was also deliciously warm and we spent ages just standing in front of the flames.  We took a stroll to try and find some more mud volcanoes (that didn’t seem to exist) and visited the small but surprisingly good little info centre, which included this cool wall that converted your shadows into digital flames.

In the vicinity of Yanar Dag was an ancient Zoroastrian fire temple, which we were curious to see. We now know a whole lot more about Zoroastrianism than we did before we got there – which was nearly zero! The temple is very well preserved and cared for. It turns out that the current temple is relatively new (mid-19th Century), but it is layered (as we have learned most historic sites are) with remnants from various eras. We were surprised to learn that the temple had been used and largely funded by Hindu travelers from India, and many of the exhibits showed Hindu ascetics and how they lived in the temple, alongside the Zoroastrians. We were confused about the Hindu connection, but learned that because fire is also such an important element of Hinduism, many sages moved from India to Azerbaijan on learning about the never-ending fire through tales told by the Old Silk Road travelers. The fires that were part of the Zoroastrian theology used to burn from natural gas (much like Yanar Dag), but this ran out some time ago and it is now piped in to keep the eternal flame burning in the centre of the temple. 

To get back to Baku, we took another series of busses and metros, marveling at the efficiency of Baku’s public transport and their integrated electronic ticketing system. If only in SA…. We had still not bought any souvenirs from Azerbaijan, so returned to the old town to brave the tourist stalls. Haggling is my least favourite thing in the world, so I turned a blind eye and the kids climbed a tree while Nix bought a decorative copper plate. We also had not yet visited the renowned boulevard along the seashore, so headed down just before sunset. It is yet another of Baku’s exceptional public spaces – wide, neat, intricately decorated, punctuated by interesting statues, and even accompanied by classical Azerbaijani music that is piped through speakers at multiple points along the walkway. It was a magic evening. We took a stroll back through the fountain square, enjoying the vibe – with buskers and so many people out in the streets, all very orderly and cool. And in terms of the underpass rating, Azerbaijan scores the highest by a long shot. Underpasses in Baku are like high-end shopping malls – covered in marble with downlighters and gentle music – I kid you not! We topped off the evening with our third visit to our favourite kebab van in the fountain square for their excellent doner kebab and Ayran special!

As we rode Baku’s excellent public transport to the airport, passed the unbelievable architecture of the Heyder Aliyev Centre (named after the first president, of course), we had a chance to reflect on our impressions of Azerbaijan and Baku. It is certainly a country worth visiting, and we would love to come again and explore a bit more of the out-of-the way places. It has a rich and interesting history that the oil money has allowed them to preserve really well. The Soviet influence is evident, but not overwhelming, and the Azerbaijanis have managed to create a post-Soviet identity that is strong. If anything, the Azerbaijanis have retained the best of the Soviet era, with excellent infrastructure and a well-planned capital city. The political strong-man vibe is not great, but at least they are thinking of a country beyond oil, when either the market or the supply of oil and gas dry out. 

We remarked that crossing from Georgia to Azerbaijan was a stark difference regarding Ukraine sympathy. While Georgia had a massive outpouring of support for Ukraine visible across the country, we did not see a single shred of anything blue and yellow in Azerbaijan. Instead, there was much sympathy visible for Turkey and the earthquake survivors – a marker of being one of the Turkic states of the region. These neighbours, Georgia and Azerbaijan, are close in geography but so different in landscape and culture. The other thing we noticed was that although 97% of Azerbaijanis self-identify as Muslim, the daily practice seems very light touch – we hardly heard a muezzin call, and mosques were few and far between. It seems 71 years of soviet rule has beaten practice out of most of the people, and it rang true when we read that Azerbaijan is the most secular Muslim state in the world. We were truly impressed by the place, and although we joke about how incredibly clean it was, we believe this speaks to a proud culture and an organised society