Country #140: A Land of Surprises

Azerbaijan, country #140, genuinely caught me by surprise. Repeatedly. It's not like I went in unprepared. Naturally, I did a fair amount of research. I obtained my e-visa, which was super easy, booked a hostel and signed up for a couple of tours- all before setting foot in Baku. It's just that what I had seen created a certain expectation. I imagined this was going to be very Uzbekistan-ish. Silk road ancient city with formidable walls, teeny tiny lanes and historic buildings possibly housing souvenir shops. And to be fair, that version definitely exists.

I covered a lot of it on my first day, thanks to a wonderful free walking tour, which I actually tried to cancel when I realized I was the only attendee. Thankfully, Nijat, the guide insisted and gave me both necessary context and helpful hints for my next few days. 

The thing is there is another side to the capital city which had become apparent on the bus ride from the airport into the old town. On that short drive, I saw enough modern, dynamic architecture to allow a comparison to a mini- Dubai/ Qatar, that becomes more pronounced at night when the LED lights kick in. What's wild is that these two facets are literally side by side. You can make a turn on the cobblestone streets of the Old Town and find yourself face to face with iconic Flame Towers. 

Thanks to a combination of exhaustion from the long travel day and an early tour the next morning, I only initially caught a quick glimpse of night Baku but the plans were set to delve in deeper. 

I awoke early the next morning, walked over to the Caspian Sea- which, surprise, is not actually a sea but  the world's largest lake- to watch the sunrise and then took a seat on a bench by my tour's meeting spot, the Maiden Tower. I had been sitting there a while, happily reviewing my photos and scrolling on my phone, when I heard police screaming in Azerbaijani. I glanced up, saw nothing of interest and returned to my phone. The intensity of the screaming increased so I took another look. That's when I saw 3-4 officers running my way. I did the universal Robert de Niro "You talking to me?" face and realized that they were in fact talking to me. This is how I learned that the President commutes down the main boulevard every morning causing the street to be cleared- including clueless tourists sitting there minding their own business. I was directed to a nearby alleyway and told not to take pictures. All I could think was that surely there must be some back roads the president could take that would cause less disruption, but the whole thing was over in less than five minutes. The real disruption occurs during the Formula One races, which take place on these same roads. You wanna get an Azerbaijani talking? Ask them how bad traffic is during the Formula 1 races.

Our tour's first stop was the world's first oil rig, dating back to 1846, which sits right by Bibi-Haybat mosque. The original mosque was destroyed by the Soviets and later rebuilt by the first president. The oil rig remained untouched. 

A representation of the tomb of Fatima al-Sughra, a descendant of Mohammed

The region's continued access to oil goes a long way towards explaining both the Old town's grand buildings, many of which were homes to international oil barons and the flashy new Baku built by superstar architects. My personal favorite was the Heydar Aliyev center,  designed by Zaha Hadid, the first woman to ever win the Pritzker Architecture Prize and just a general badass. 

Next was a stop at a local market, followed by a visit to the "pink lake", which was not in the least bit pink. Seeing as this is a seasonal thing, caused by bacterial activity, this did not make the list of surprising things- although I did question the point of including it on the tour. 

We were promised better results with our next stop, the Beshbarmaq- or Five Finger- mountains. Sure enough, they were there and feature a trail that leads you to the very top of one of the fingers. The mountains also hold a spiritual significance and are a pilgrimage site, although on this particular days, the locals were more about picnicking on a bench at the uppermost platform.

The final stop were the Candy Cane mountains. The color variations are caused by oxidation of the iron compounds in the soil and do create a very otherworldly look, although candy canes are not the first thing that comes to mind. I propose renaming them the Swirly-swirly mountains. 

Back in town, I booked a $5 night tour to better appreciate the light show. The meeting point was near Nizami Street, the busy pedestrian area where all generations gather to hang out.

I was already nearby when I got a text the tour was running an hour late due to traffic. Probably the President had some errands to run. With the extra time, I asked ChatGPT for some suggestions and say what you will about AI but she delivered. Among the recommendations was Biblioteka, a hip bar in a library setting.

This gave me the opportunity to try the pomegranate wine I kept hearing about and wait out the rain a bit. 

In the end, I think the rain may have helped create even better photos, although it did make me rethink my packing strategy of only bringing one not so waterproof hoodie. 

We travelled from one scenic viewpoint to the next, making it the best spend $5 in recent memory.

The lights were cool and all but one of the most delightful things about Baku is the cats. They are simply everywhere and have zero hesitation about jumping in your lap if you sit still for too long. The next morning, as I was having breakfast- yes, I ordered lentil soup for breakfast and it was delicious- one handsome fellow joined me at my table. I asked about buying him something to eat and the waiter told me to not bother as the restaurants already feed them for free. 

Not sure if he is a good spokesman for tolerance but I love him just the same. 

My next tour brought with it yet more surprises. One of the things I was most looking forward to was the mud volcanoes. Azerbaijan has over 350 of them, granting them the title of mud volcano capital of the world. There are plenty of companies that offer this tour but I chose the one that included the 4x4 vehicle required to get to the mud field. I pictured we would transfer from our sprinter van to SUV's and go off-roading for a bit. What I wasn't prepared for was that we were going to stop along a dirt road and be shuttled into a battalion of little old Russian cars. We had officially joined the Lada League. 

I wasn't the only one to find this immensely cool. The same Formula One drivers that torment the locals on an annual basis had swapped their race cars for Ladas and zipped around these very roads.

Next surprise, this mud is not hot. I had seen burbling mud in Yellowstone Park, only it was surrounded by warning signs that it would cook you like a crawfish. Having the guide advise us to only stick one finger in- due to possible allergens- felt like something I would wait for others to try first.

Next on the agenda was Qobustan National Park, an UNESCO world heritage site known for its petroglyphs. Spread throughout the park, there are over 6000 rock carvings, created over the past 40,000 years. 

With so much art to discover, it has the potential to be a really fun scavenger hunt. Unfortunately, we had limited time so we had to settle for the handful of carvings our guide pointed out. 

Not so much a petroglyph as a warning that there are venomous snakes hanging out among the art. 

Perhaps part of the rush was because we had a burning mountain to visit.  Azerbaijan has also been known as the Land of Fire and this is the why. Underground reserves of natural gas seep up through fissures in the earth. Once it come in contacts with oxygen, the result is Fire!! (pronounced ala Beavis)

Yanar Dag and mountains like it have been burning continuously for centuries leading even Marco Polo, who visited in the 13th century to write about this strange flaming land. Today, the most obvious celebration is the three flame towers dominating the Baku skyline. 

                             

Not surprisingly, this natural phenomena attracted Zoroastrian followers to the area. The ancient Persian religion saw fire as a purifying gift from their god, Ahura Mazda. If your faith requires you to keep a fire burning, what better place than one that's already aflame. 

This led us to the final stop of the day, the Ateshgash Temple, a Zoroastrian temple that at times did double duty as a caravanserai.

It was my final night in Baku. There was no early tour the next day- only an early 1 hr flight to Tbilisi- so I chose to celebrate a successful visit to country #141 at a nearby Jazz club. At one point, a Chinese guest asked to get up to sing a Samba song, because of course she did. Expecting the unexpected was the theme of the trip.

But Baku had one final surprise in store. I was flying Azerbaijan Airlines. Although the airport is huge and very modern, our aircraft was parked at a remote gate, meaning we had to take a bus out to the hardstand. Imagine my shock, stepping off the bus and coming face to face with an AzAl A319 named Ganja. Not even Air Jamaica has an aircraft named Ganja. 

Turns out the land of Fire and Mud Volcanoes also has a city named Ganja. That no one has thought to host a reggae festival has got to be the biggest surprise of all.