#  >  > Non Asia Travel Forums >  >  > Travel the World Travellers Tales Forum >  >  A Brief Weekend in Azerbaijan

## OhOh

This is a brief weekend trip I took with part of my family to see one of my sons who was working in Baku, Azerbaijan.

For those of you who are unsure as to the location of Azerbaijan here is a location map. Baku, the capital is located on the caspian Sea on the piece that juts out.



A little history about Azerbaijan. More can be found here:

Azerbaijan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bounded by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, while having a short borderline with Turkey to the northwest."

The city is probably everything one can expect of an ex Soviet city. Large avenues, suitable for parades or military manoeuvres. Lots of statues, bronze or marble and flags. 



Ladas and Mercs are the popular cars.



Not quite up to Venice standards but all very clean.





My sons apartment, part of his package. Large rooms, sparse furniture but lots of marble.









Yes they are everywhere.



Above the city on a hill is a large tower with an eternal flame in a bronze bowl. They have a lot of natural gas. There are lots of marble graves for the war causalities. They are all kept spotless by a team of ladies.





 Looking down to the city from the hill. The view out to the Caspian Sea is somewhat ruined by numerous offshore production platforms.



The next day we awoke to my son arriving at the hotel with his driver and the company Range Rover, how the other half live. We were to be taken to the the "Wall of Flame". To get there we travelled through the countryside.







Yes the roads were tarmacadam, it's that somebody forgot to tell them to bury the oil pipes underneath the road. Pretty gruesome pollution, lakes of raw oil everywhere.

Arriving at the "wall of flame" we found a derelict building and a large ditch. The far side of the ditch had lots of flames just coming out of the ground.



Of course my daughter had to get close to warm up.



The derelict building could have been a cafe, it certainly had it's own gas meter. Probably just stuck a pipe in the ground.



If this had been in the western world someone would have covered it over, put up a turnstile and be charging admittance. The visitor would have to change into fireproof clothse and peer through a protective glass window. No such H&S rules here.

Walk up light a cigarette or grill a steak.

That evening we were taken to a lavish restaurant. Very lavish good food and wine. Seating for a hundred diners, but other than us there was just the staff!





During the day we had been taken to a Bistro place on the top of a building which was very upmarket. Lots of money being spent in there. We also visited one of my sons regular haunts, a German run restaurant, much cosier and again excellent food drink and company.

Plenty of police around and everywhere you look there are groups of moustacheod men in leather jackets and berets.




Strange country I am sure that there are plenty of "dubious" places to see but kept on the straight and narrow for this trip.


Edit, all pictures resized to suit the discerning viewer.

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## kingwilly

How interesting, cheers.

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## Bangyai

Interesting thread OhOh and some nice pictures as well. Be nice if they were a bit bigger though as there is a lot of detail in them well worth looking at.

The street scenes seem very quiet for a big city. Was it a Sunday ?

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## Airportwo

I crewchanged out off Baku for a while a few years back, interesting  place, supposed to be Muslim but there are good bars all over the city  and no restrictions on alcohol. Believe the government has been spending  a lot on infrastructure lately as they were trying to get the world cup  and the Olympic games held there.
Weather extreme freezing cold in the winter, hot and humid in the summer and windy!
Remember the airport was painful, lots of security slow and expensive visa's..

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## nigelandjan

> everywhere you look there are groups of moustacheod men in leather jackets and berets.


   I can see Kwang booking an air ticket ASAP   :Smile: 


 Interesting thread mate , but pic size ?  would like to see them buildings bigger

 Are the hotels expensive ?

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## daveboy

Fess up you went for Eurovision 2012 didn't you.

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## kingwilly

> How interesting, cheers.



This post gets a red ?  :Confused:  

 A Brief Weekend in... 09-06-2012 01:16 PM aging one see why you leave it off willy. If you knew the whole story, which of course you dont.

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## OhOh

> Be nice if they were a bit bigger


Done




> Was it a Sunday


We were there for long week end, sat to mon. I cant say that the traffic was much different. Shops and bars open every day. The wide roads and not much traffic make it seem empty. In the market/bazaar areas lots of locals and tourists. But as I say on every street corner and every other table in the cafes there was the leather jacketed, ,beret wearing guy.  :Smile: 




> the airport was painful, lots of security slow and expensive visa's..


Small airport for sure, but the staff were helpful with visas and photos. The visit was a couple of years ago.




> Fess up you went for Eurovision 2012 didn't you.


If you have ever had a teenage daughter sleep over you don't need the Eurovision to be subjected to "singing".




> Interesting thread mate , but pic size ? would like to see them buildings bigger
> 
> Are the hotels expensive ?


Done.

In those "little brown envelope" days money wasn't a problem. Cheaper than Rome, more than Bangkok

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## Butterfly

good work, didn't know you were that old, I thought you were in your 20s like Socal  :Razz:

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## Bangyai

Wow....you see. Size does count !!. All the detail comes out now you've enlarged them. Some very nice looking buildings there. Sort of Muslim meets Gothic style. Very interesting. 

Always wanted to check out that part of the world. Next time you go take me as your valet or something. I'm cheap to maintain. :Smile: 

The leather jackets and beret blokes sound like Frank Spencers hard case brother !

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## OhOh

> good work, didn't know you were that old, I thought you were in your 20s like Socal


I'm just a nipper really who's had a stressful life. Not sure if the socal similarity is a good thing.

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## Hampsha

Great pics Ohoh. Thanks.

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## nigelandjan

^ Well said Hampsha BUT what I don't understand about these threads ( and believe me they take time and effort to submit ) there is over 200 views on here and yet less than 10% of the viewers can be arsed to reply. ???


  If a few more viewers was to have a go at doing a thread with pictures like this you would mabe appreciate a bit more what the OP has done , and perhaps leave a comment one way or the other ,, most people like the pic threads , so come on lads have a gander then share your views  :tieme:

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## Kwang

I have a great friend from there OhOh, I never envisaged him living there. I had this image of Deserts and Camels and those Hubbly Bubbly pipes, turkish slippers,  tents and belly dancers

Wicked Photos though

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## kingwilly

> ^ Well said Hampsha BUT what I don't understand about these threads ( and believe me they take time and effort to submit ) there is over 200 views on here and yet less than 10% of the viewers can be arsed to reply. ???
> 
> 
>   If a few more viewers was to have a go at doing a thread with pictures like this you would mabe appreciate a bit more what the OP has done , and perhaps leave a comment one way or the other ,, most people like the pic threads , so come on lads have a gander then share your views


I think people get put off about a string of posts saying 'great pics' 

Perhaps we need a facebook like button...

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## rawlins

Good thread. Great pics.

Green sent.

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## nigelandjan

> I think people get put off about a string of posts saying 'great pics'


 Possibly , but I am sure the OP would rather see that than nothing ,, however more along the lines of what I was thinking about , is little tit bits of info like Kwang has added above ,, this often jogs the memory of others to contribute a little  :Smile: 


  TBH this thread has inspired me to get outta the usual places to visit mode ( well for me anyway ) and put Berlin on the list of places to go  :Smile:

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## kingwilly

> Originally Posted by Sir Wilson
> 
> I think people get put off about a string of posts saying 'great pics' 
> 
> 
>  Possibly , but I am sure the OP would rather see that than nothing ,, however more along the lines of what I was thinking about , is little tit bits of info like Kwang has added above ,, this often jogs the memory of others to contribute a little 
> 
> 
>   TBH this thread has inspired me to get outta the usual places to visit mode ( well for me anyway ) and put Berlin on the list of places to go



true, true. 

I sort of agree with you, but was throwing out a possible reason. 

Another consideration is that if the OP has put in the effort to make a thread, they deserve a little bit of effort in return.

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## aging one

> This post gets a red ?  A Brief Weekend in... (A Brief Weekend in Azerbaijan) 09-06-2012 01:16 PM aging one see why you leave it off willy. If you knew the whole story, which of course you dont.


A really nice thread, and its nice you could enjoy the company of your family as well. 



Willy you know why, dont you?

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## OhOh

> Another consideration is that if the OP has put in the effort to make a thread, they deserve a little bit of effort in return.


Ounces of gold gladly accepted, but kinds words always welcome.   :Smile:  

Baku was a place I had never thought I would visit and the opportunity came because of my son. The long week end was far to short to see anything than a very small portion. It made a nice change.

To be honest the most time consuming act, in creating the report, is sizing the photos, pixels as well as megabyte. The correct size for display/detail and the correct upload size but under the mbyte limit frustrated me, but live and learn eh?. 

The selection of images to be uploaded is also difficult - some add interest but may be too open to abuse for those shown.

Then the "comments" need to be created and positioned.

A good couple of hours for me to organise and complete.

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## OhOh

> A really nice thread, and its nice you could enjoy the company of your family as well.


Thanks. It was new country for all of us. Overseas travel is nothing new for me but to the then wife and kids a trip in an air plane and hotel accommodation and it's amazing how the diaries clear.

My son took control over where we went and what we saw. We paid for all, but it was a first time he took control. 

I have also been on "family" trips where they have not ended well.  :Smile: 




> I have a great friend from there OhOh, I never envisaged him living there. I had this image of Deserts and Camels and those Hubbly Bubbly pipes, turkish slippers, tents and belly dancers


As I said the trip was very short and I am sure there are many beautiful places we could have been show. The belly dancers are there if you have the desire.

I recommended a film called Agrarian Utopia a while back. That film portrays the life of a Thai family trying to survive by growing rice. If you like long shots of rice blowing in the wind it's great.

I have just watched a film Tulpan. This portrays the life of sheep herders living on the Asian steppes. It's pretty harrowing, but again the family survives.

http://kat.ph/tulpan-2008-dvdrip-xvi...-t4011263.html

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## gusG

Good thread. Great pics.

Can't green, none left.  :Sorry1:

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## natalie8

> ^ Well said Hampsha BUT what I don't understand about these threads ( and believe me they take time and effort to submit ) there is over 200 views on here and yet less than 10% of the viewers can be arsed to reply. ???


This is one thing that sucks about this region (The Gulf). I've been in Dubai for two weeks now and being reminded of the strange, inconsistent censoring here. I can see all of Mathos's pics on his Lancashire thread adn I can see pictures in news threads or in The Lounge, but on these nice travel threads, I can't see any pics.

Also, on the funny pics thread, I can see some but not others. It's a pain in the a$$. So, three nice travel threads up - yours to Cambridge, misskit's to Japan and now this on, I can't see any of the pics. I keep trying, thinking I'll be lucky one time, but no go. Now I have to wait till I get back to London.

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## dcpublius

This doesn't sound like a trip originating from Thailand?  Or if it did, it must've been a pain, in terms of flying, costs, visas?

Your report reminds me of a little coal mining town in Pennsylvania.  About 35 years ago, there was a fire in the coal mine.  And it is still burning.  There are cracks in the ground in some places and you can see some smoke/steam - particularly on cold days.  Because it was impossible/impractical to put out the fire, this Pennsylvania town was abandoned and moved a few miles away.

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## nigelandjan

^ Global warming ?

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## ShilohJim

Nice trip report, the oil fields really look deplorable but I'm fairly sure they look much like new fields anywhere else in the world.
Good pictures, typical former Soviet city.

Shiloh Jim

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## natalie8

Great thread OhOh! Now that I've been able to see the pics, my curiosity about this area has grown even more. Time for some well deserved green if the system lets me.

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## OhOh

It wasn't so much the pools of oil/water as the pipes, presumably either full of gas or oil, being used as sleeping policeman speed bumps on the roads.

having never driven through producing oil and gas fields I don't know if this is typical. My experience of western refineries is that they are very safety concious.

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## woolyback

nice thread interesting

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## OhOh

Thanks

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## jizzybloke

Missed this until now somehow, nice thread. Thanks!

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## wasabi

Apples originate from this region. In the hills and mountains are the original apple trees,and American scientists are collecting the DNA.
Interesting region,nice pics.

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## Lorenzo

Just saw the thread now ... Nice one

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## supernovadw

Great thread!

I have a fascination with ex soviet countries! If I hadn't of met my now wife in Laos in 2009 then I would probably be in Kazakhstan or one of it's neighbors now! I will however make sure that I visit the region in future.

It looks very clean and tidy in the pictures of Baku you posted which I didn't expect to be honest.

Great thread!

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