Dates: 11-18 November 2019.

With Cymru playing a Euro 2020 qualifier in Baku, I took the opportunity to spend a week exploring Azerbaijan. The flight from Gatwick to Istanbul was at a sensible time, but that meant landing in Baku in the early morning. A gloomy one at that:

After exiting the airport, I realised the bus ticket vending machine only took cash, so I re-entered the airport via x-ray scanners, withdrew some Manats and purchased a bus ticket for pennies.

The day became brighter as I walked to the old town to my accommodation:

Jaywalking is heavily frowned upon which, with the addition of numerous traffic and security personnel around, meant my walk took twice as long as it should have!

The Hilton en route to the old town:

Approaching the old town it was impossible to miss the ever-present Flame Towers:

Finding the hotel proved a chore. The address given was for a men’s store next door and the hotel door had no sign whatsoever. Thankfully, some other guest helped as they were heading in.

It was worth it though as I had a great view from the balcony, with the Maiden Town literally next door to the hotel:

After a power nap and shower I headed out for a self-guided tour of the old town. My hotel was right next to the famous Maiden Tower that makes up part of the old town walls, and a lot of the streets within the walls are a labyrinth of alleyways leading into little squares:

A lot of the town wall and towers are “over restored” but it still makes for a pleasant walk:

After encircling the old town I headed along the promenade en route to “Little Venice”. Looking back at the new town with the Hilton on the left and the Port Baku South Tower in the centre:

“Little Venice” is a man-made attempt to replicate Venice. There were little gondolas piloted by gondoliers too. The impressive building on the left is just a mall, while the one just above the little bridge is a rug museum!:

I jumped on the funicular to visit the Flame Towers and the Eternal Flame. The towers are pretty impressive:

The Eternal Flame is a monument created to remember those killed in January 1990 with the flame accompanied by the Azerbaijan flag:

I couldn’t get bored of this view from my room:

The plan for day two was to visit the mud volcanoes near Gobustan and the burning mountain near Yanardağ. Public transport or a selection of taxis was the original plan but I opted to take an organised trip which also took in the Bibi-Heybat Mosque, the petroglyphs site at the Gobustan National Park, and the Surakhani Fire Temple.

I ended up in an MPV with two Indian couples and the guide, the very cute Elara. First up was the Bibi-Heybat Mosque which was only a few minutes out of the city centre. As nice as the mosque was, I was more interested in the view out over the Caspian Sea:

After arriving at a little village off the main highway we had to switch to off-road vehicles for the drive to the volcano area. The Indian couple actually had a 4×4, Elara and I had to do with a superbly decrepit Lada Riva, complete with some local music! With so many vehicles heading in the same direction but taking different routes it felt like something out of Wacky Races.

The landscape was lunar-esque:

The mud volcanoes were very cool. Seeing and feeling cold mud bubbling up through triangular formations in a sparse landscape was pretty impressive:

Here is a poor video clip of the mud in action. The mud was cold and wet, and easy to write in, #WalesAway:

The landscape was impressively sparse, which in combination with the eerie quietness, gave the place a very remote and serene feel:

So many volcanoes:

There was also a volcano big enough to bath in that bubbled away like a large cauldron:

The perfect off-road vehicle it seems:

After switching back to the MPV we headed to the see the petroglyphs. Elara did her best to engage with the group but it was difficult to keep the two Indian couples away from the stray cats and their hobby of taking group selfies with everything!

The views from the Gobustan National Park were excellent. The place was stark but peaceful:

Some petroglyph examples:

Next was a buffet lunch in a nearby town and then on to the Surakhani Fire Temple. The journey to and from the temple passed through some very poor areas. Elara explained that some villages have no running water or sewage systems, and what appeared to be lakes were actually just sewage.

Like the town walls, the Surakhani Fire Temple has been heavily restored and rebuilt. Yet another peaceful place in the middle of nowhere:

The final destination of the trip was to witness the burning mountain near Yanardağ. It’s a geological phenomenon that involves natural gas seeping up through the porous rocks to feed a so-called everlasting fire. The heat generated was substantial which was ideal in the dropping temperatures:

It was a such a cool thing to see up close. Here is a short video clip showing the eternal fire in action.

The drop-off point was at the impressive-looking Heydar Aliyev Centre, named (just like the airport) after the big cheese himself:

It was a long walk back to the hotel but I saw this fella en route:

And my hotel’s neighbour, the maiden Tower:

On the third day, I left Baku in order to spend a night in the small village of Lahıc (pronounced Lahij), famed for it’s copper, an hour south of Ismailli. The bus to Ismailli will drop people off at the main junction to Lahıc. It’s then a case of getting a taxi the rest of the way.

The adventure began with a taxi to the main bus station which is a few miles from the old town. Unfortunately, I made the schoolboy error of getting in the taxi before asking the price. Needless to say I was charged double… The driver even tried to get a selfie with me via his rear view mirror. Perhaps he was passing his good fortune on to his colleagues…

As with most bus stations across eastern Europe and the Caucasus it’s very much a case of your bus will find you rather than the other way around. A few mentions of Lahıc and Ismailli soon got me to the right bus stand. Unfortunately, the 11.20 (which I was over half an hour early for) had clearly departed. The advantage of this was a prime seat on the 13.30.

The drive north offered some fantastic vistas. As with the previous day, the greens of Baku gave way to yellows and browns, and more lunar-esque landscapes:

Every so often a little settlement would appear and shepherds could be seen going about their business:

Around the two-thirds mark, the bus pulled over for a short pit-stop. After setting back off I heard the driver reassuringly mutter something about Lahıc to his companion – I hadn’t been forgotten about!

The dried-up river Ghirdiman with the Niyal Mountain chain in the distance:

As anticipated the bus pulled over at a deserted crossroads, save for a petrol station on one side and a few shops and some police cars on the other. Not a taxi in site. As the driver got my case from the back I uttered the word “taxi” in a hopeful voice. Amazingly, he shouted over to some guys at the petrol station, mentioning Lahıc and the next thing I know I’m handing over about £7 and getting into another battered Lada Riva.

I groped for the seat belt much to the amusement of the driver who wagged a finger at me with a chuckle…the belt was missing!

Before we could head to Lahıc my driver indicated he needed to take a five minute diversion…which ended up being because he’d left his mobile at home! Next up he needed to nip into one of the aforementioned shops for cigarettes.

Eventually we were on the road to Lahıc. I’d read that these taxi drivers know what tourists are after when they visit Lahıc so it wasn’t long before my driver indicated we could stop to take pictures.

First up was the rope bridge over the river Ghirdiman. Unfortunately, unbeknownst until later, I buggered up my attempts at some video clips, so this is all I managed:

The video would have given a much better feel for the narrowness of the bridge and the vastness of the surrounding area, and again, so peaceful and remote.

The scenery was just incredible, helped by the strange lighting, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking:

The road narrowed at points, and even though I’d read that there were sheer drops to the river below, it was actually not as bad as I’d pictured:

There’s the main man. He knew five words of English and I knew about ten of Azerbaijani, but we got on like a house on fire. And I only thought for a fraction of a second that he’d drive off without me but with my case in the boot:

Actually, the drops did become more sheer as we approached Lahıc

Finding my guesthouse wasn’t straightforward. The entrance to Lahıc is guarded by a man and a gate and he wasn’t going to let us in, so my driver and I used Google Maps to navigate into the village from a side road off the bypass road. After a few false turns we arrived at the furthest most point of the village. The cobbled stone road made for a roller-coaster of a ride.

My driver gave me a huge smile and a high five as we parted company. A life affirming moment if ever there was one.

The guesthouse owner wasn’t around for the whole stay so the housekeeper and I got by with a handful of words and hand gestures. Payment was cash only so I headed out to find the only ATM in town.

The place was eerily quiet but very atmospheric, especially when the call to prayer sang out. All bar the odd shop was closed as I wandered up and down the main artery through the village:

The only traffic encountered was of the livestock variety here and then the haunting call to prayer sang out here. As soon as the sun went down the temperature plummeted and I needed my phone’s torch to make the final hundred yards or so home. 

The following day, after a quick breakfast, I managed to negotiate some bus details out of the housekeeper. The bus stop wasn’t obvious, even when marked on the map, but when I saw the 11.00 bus pass me on my wanderings I felt confident that at least they existed.

Lahıc is famed for its copperware but I only found one place open for business, due to it being off-season. The river Ghirdiman was all but a trickle which offered an unusual landscape at the bottom of the valley:

After walking past the town guard at the end of the above road I ambled along the bypass road and the river wall:

There’s a short video clip of the peaceful valley floor here. There were frail looking buildings perched precariously on the hill above, and occasionally rubbish was poured down from the buildings to the floor below:

The view north from the bridge over the river:

I didn’t have time to visit the local salon:

I arrived at what I thought was the bus stop 45 minutes early as the previous bus was rammed when it drove past me earlier. As I bought some snacks a local guy starting chatting to me. His English was really good and he told me I was waiting in the wrong place for the bus.

He was keen to talk and to show me his guesthouse and shop. He spoke with pride about his guesthouse, Azerbaijan and his family. He insisted I take his son’s phone number in case I needed any help when back in Baku!

After purchasing a bit of copperware (it was a decent trade-off for not missing the bus) he took me down to the guard house and as he predicted the bus turned-up almost bang on time. He even gave another passenger some details on where I was going. A lovely guy.

After a curious journey that involved children and businessmen alike getting on and off the battered minibus, we approached Ismailli and the driver indicated to me where I should be able to pick-up a bus to Baku – my route had obviously been passed-on and understood.

Unlike the Lahıc junction, Ismailli was crawling with taxis, and although it felt like “cheating”, I opted to share an E-series Mercedes taxi with another guy for all of £9 for the two and half hour journey. We overtook the Baku-bound bus en route thanks to some serious and often hair-raising overtaking maneuvers!

Since the taxi was only going as far as the outskirts of Baku, the taxi driver and other passenger helped me organise a local taxi to take me the rest of the way. Very helpful people.

After checking into the same hotel and being told (via Google Translate) that my room was cancelled but it’s okay to stay (trying to swiz Booking.com I believe), I met some of the #WalesAway gang for a catch-up and lots of beer. We ended-up at the superbly-named Crazzy Bear (sic) where we chatted to some locals and sang along to that classic hit by The Cranberries, Zombie!

The penultimate day of the trip was match day, and we started the pre-match beers in this curious place:

I was oddly confident that we’d win the game 2-0, and so it came to pass with two first half goals from Kieffer Moore and Harry Wilson.

The Bakcell Arena:

We of course needed Croatia to beat Slovakia in Osijek to make sure a win in our final game at home to Hungary would be mean qualification for Euro 2020.

After borrowing free WiFi outside various bars and trying to persuade the staff to find the Croatia/Slovakia game, we gave up and headed to Haley and Ian’s apartment to watch the game with a few cans. I think we celebrated Croatia’s equaliser and second goal more than we celebrated our goals against Azerbaijan!

For my final day in Baku I headed northeast, not really sure what I was going to do or see. I found myself wandering aimlessly around a sparse looking industrial area:

Then walking towards Boyukshor Lake only to find out I couldn’t reach it on foot. So I headed to Koroghlu to grab a kebab, and a view of the Olympic Stadium before heading back to the old town one last time:

There was time for one last adventure at 05.00 the next morning. The Bolt taxi I’d ordered whilst in my room didn’t arrive. I had 25 Manats on me but the first taxi I flagged down wanted 50.

I headed towards the Radisson in the hope I could order a taxi from there and get more cash but thankfully a taxi flagged me down. I offered him all I had and after a few moments of deep thought and looking at his clock he beckoned me into his car – utter relief!

I had an interesting chat with the passport control guy. He’d spotted I’d been to Georgia and wanted to know what I thought of Tbilisi versus Baki. I wanted to get through security but I didn’t want to talk down one of my favourite places so I mentioned something about Tbilisi still having a very Soviet feel about the place while Baku felt modern. My diplomacy won me a smile and I was home-bound…

I thoroughly enjoyed Azerbaijan. I liked having to use both Azeri and Russian; I liked how the Baku locals only wore black, grey or blackish grey; I liked the stark contrast between green and lush Baku and the brown lunar landscapes of the rest of the places I saw. And I really enjoyed the haphazard trip to and from the enchanting and remote Lahıc.