On the Train to Georgia.

Chilling on the train!

At 8:30p, the train pulled away from the station in Baku and it was time to say goodbye to Azerbaijan and switch our thoughts to our upcoming days touring Georgia.  We would be arriving into Tbilisi around 10:30a.

Last Views of Baku.

Pat with Yalchin Mammadov (owner of Gobustan Private Tours) and Rafael.

From Sumqayit, we continued our roadtrip to Baku, driving along a road that followed the shoreline of the Caspian Sea.  We had left behind the mountains, the forests and the fields.  We were back to arid lands. 

Last Views of Azerbaijan. Quba and Sumqayit.

Pat munching on popcorn in Sumqayit. She's a happy camper though she wished it had more melted butter! :-)

I can't believe this is our last day in Azerbaijan and tonight we'll be on our way to Georgia.  But we still had at least 12 hours to go before then and we made the most of it.

Pat and I had our last Azeri breakfast in the hotel dining room.  I was pretty certain that we were the only two guests staying at the hotel and the empty dining room confirmed that! 

Into The Remote Heart of the Caucausus Mountains. Quba and Khinaliq.

On the way to Khinaliq.

We arrived into Baku last evening.  It was already dark by the time Rafael parked the car outside his family home.

We got to meet the whole clan -  his mother, father, brother, sister in-law, niece, nephew, uncle and grandmother.  I still could not believe that he simply called home that afternoon, told his mother that he was bringing two complete strangers home not just for dinner but also to spend the night and then have breakfast!  Apparently, she was okay with all that.  If it was me, I would have said....no.  Thankfully, Azeris are far more hospitable than I am.

Ganja.

Posing with a pair of complete strangers, across the street from the Bottle House in Ganja.  They approached us and asked for us to
stand with them.  Oddly, the photo was taken with my camera!  We never got their names.

We woke up to a cold and very foggy morning in Sheki. The night mist had covered the hills. It would lift as the day went on.   We checked out of our hotel shortly after 9a this morning and went back to the place we had dinner to have light breakfast. We ordered bread, butter, cheese, egg which came prepared like an omelet, and a small pot of tea which we shared with Rafael. We've come to know his eating habits well these past few days. He only needs a cup of tea and a bit of something sweet to get him going in the morning.

Sheki.

In Sheki.

Our Azeri roadtrip continued. This morning we left Qabala and tonight, we're in Sheki.

I woke up very well rested.  Nothing beats sleeping in a cool, quiet, dark room on a comfy bed with a blanket to keep me warm.

Chef Rafael.

Chef Rafael.

We spent the rest of our only day in Qabala in our guesthouse.  As far as guesthouses were concerned, we only checked out one place.  We probably should have checked out a couple more but I think we were feeling really lazy and the first place we went to got Pat's thumb of approval so that's where we ended up.  The owner, his wife and their young son were there to greet us when we arrived.  They were so friendly and hospitable from the get go that even if the accommodations turned out to be so so, I would have stayed just because they were so kind.

On the Way to Qabala.

Riding the ski lift at the Qafqaz Tufandag Mountain Resort Hotel in Qabala.

Pat was still asleep when I opened my eyes at 7:30a. But just a few minutes later and she was up.

At 8a we walked out our front door.  The sun was out but brrr....It was another chilly morning.

Day's End in Qaraqaya.

Rafael with our host who is getting the grill ready for cooking our dinner!

After visting Lahij, we returned to the house in Qaraqaya and got ourselves settled in.  As we unpacked a few items from our suitcases, we both commented on the weather.  It was a cold and chilly afternoon.  We were both glad we brought some cold weather clothes with us.

Road Trip to Lahij.

In Lahij.

We finally left the big city today to explore places in and around the Caucasus mountains! We'll be spending the next several days in small towns and villages around the northern region of the country. According to our itinerary, we would be spending some time in the small mountain village of Lahij("La-heej").  On the way, we would make a quick visit to Juma (Friday) mosque in the town of Shamakhi.  It was a long day's journey!

A Mosque, An Icon and Somethings Teeny Weeny.

Posing in front of Shirvanshah Palace Complex and a sculpture by Nail Alakbarov.

After spending a few hours in Gobustan, it was back to Baku. On the way, we made a short pit stop at Bibi-Heybat Mosque, located just on the outskirts of the city. The current structure, which was built in the 1990s, is a recreation of the mosque with the same name built in the 13th century by Shirvanshah Farrukhzad II Ibn Ahsitan II. The original 13th century mosque was blown up by the Bolsheviks in 1934 as part of the Soviet anti-religion campaign.

To Gobustan We Go!

Posing among the mud volcanoes at Gobustan National Park.

I was off to a great start this morning mainly because I had an wesome night's rest last night.  I woke up feeling well rested and ready to go! My foot felt 100% better. I think the cast kept my ankle straight through the night so there was no chance of further injuring it as I moved around in my sleep.

Oh No, Not Again!

Getting a plaster cast on my left ankle.

Ishall start off this post with a big THANK YOU to Pat and Rafael. Without them, by my side today, I would not have survived today as well I felt I did.

Today I had a flashback to when I dislocated my left elbow on my 2007 trip to Aswan Egypt. It was exactly on the 3rd morning of my time in Aswan that I fell and injured myself. I ended up with my left arm in a plaster cast which I wore for the duration of my trip through Egypt and Jordan.

More of Baku.

Taking a photo of the old walls of Icherisheher.

I woke up around 6:30a. I was toasty warm under covers.  There was enough light filtering through the curtains that I could tell it was a sunny day.  A quick check of the weather on my phone told me it was cold day.  I guess it's not yet time to pack away my down vest.

The bad news is that my left ankle is feeling sore from walking yesterday.  It looks like I've not fully recovered from my sprain nearly 2 months ago!! I decided to switch from my walking shoes to my hiking shoes and will just wear them from now on.

Greetings from Baku!

Greetings from Baku!  Photo taken on the promenade alongside the Caspian Sea.  The Flame Towers in the background.
Pat came out a bit fuzzy in the photo but she was happy to be where she was!

Pand I arrived into Baku Heydar Aliyev airport with no issue. We cleared through immigration in a breeze- our evisas were all in order.   As we exited the arrival hall, I scanned the room looking for someone holding up a sign with my name - I had arranged for our local guide to come pick us up at the airport.

Then I saw a man approaching. I heard him ask "Julee?" I nodded and replied, "Yes". It was our guide, Yalchin. I was relieved to see him!  I greeted him with a huge smile and while he did not exactly smile back, there was a kind look to his face.

Before we left the terminal, we had to get some local currency.  So, Pat and I each exchanged $100 USD at the exchange counter. In return, we each got 145 manat. I made a mental note to see how good or bad that rate is when we get to our hotel.

Packing List. The Caucasus.

Advertisement for for Louis Vuitton July 1898.
From from Villanova Digital Library.
 Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

I wasn't planning on putting together my packing list for the Caucasus until I got home from my Thailand and Myanmar trip but now that I'm sidelined with a sprained ankle, I might as well use the time to come up with the list.

Pat and I are headed to the Caucasus pretty much around the same time that we went to Central Asia in 2015.  The one thing we learned from that trip was that we were not well prepared for the cold weather that faced us.  It was 23 degrees Fahrenheit the morning after we arrived into Tashkent!

With El Niño affecting weather world wide this year, it's going to be more difficult than usual to predict what the temperatures will be like when we are in the Caucasus.  I've been keeping watch and  even in February, there are days that the temps are unseasonably warm, some days unseasonably cold.  So, I think I will err on the side of cold than warm meaning packing in more long sleeve shirts than short, bringing along a down vest and my lightweight down jacket.  Good thing is that shirt wise, Pat and I are the same size so we can borrow clothing from each other if need be.

Luckily, with the exception of our time in Azerbaijan where we will be staying in hotels and guesthouses, our accommodations in Georgia and Armenia will be mainly Airbnb apartments, all of which are equipped with washers so we can do laundry.  This will lighten the load of the clothes we need to bring along with us.  Otherwise, I will pretty much follow my Central Asia packing list.

Mud Volcanoes of Azerbaijan.

Bubbling volcano. 
(Photo by Peretz Partensky.  Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.)

Apparently, there are such things as mud volcanoes?  And apparently, there are around 850 mud volcanoes in the world and over 300 of them can be found in Azerbaijan alone.  Who knew?

Mud volcanoes are the little-known relatives of the more common magmatic variety.  Instead of spewing out lava when they erupt, they bubble up mud.  Unlike their magma cousins, they are not considered to be dangerous when they do erupt.

Mud volcanoes come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but those most common in Azerbaijan have several small cones, or vents, up to about four meters (13 feet) in height, sometimes topping a hill that is several hundred meters in height.   These small mud volcano cones emit cold mud, water and gas almost continually.

Money Matters.

Photo by Veronidae.  Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The trips to Thailand and Myanmar and the Caucasus are pretty happening back to back so while I was reading up the currency and money issues for Thailand and Myanmar, I decided I would just read up for the three Caucasus countries at the same time.

The Food of Azerbaijan.

Tava (fish) kebab.  (Photo from advantour.com)

Both Pat and I love good food. As much as we enjoyed our visit to Central Asia, the same cannot be said of the food. Sorry, but we were not fans of plov, lagman or manti.  We did like the shashlyk, especially when it was pork shashlyk but in countries where pork is rarely eaten, it was a real treat for us when we got to eat it.

Before we left for Central Asia, Pat and I headed to an Uzbek restaurant in Brooklyn, New York to try out the food.  For this trip, we have been to an Armenian restaurant but not Azeri or Georgian.

Introducing Azerbaijan.

One of the gates of Icherisheher (Old City) of Baku.
Photo by Khortan.  Licensed under CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.)

Yay!! I have finally wrapped planning the Thailand/Myanmar trip so I can now return my attention to the Caucusus trip. Much has happened since I last posted up anything on this trip.

I managed to find a reasonably priced hotel for our stay in Baku.  For our visa, we have to get a hotel voucher, printed on hotel letterhead.  I reached out to the hotel and got an email back this morning informing me that they are having issues with their printer and I can expect to get the voucher in two days.  Of course, I am anxiously awaiting for that day to come around.  I just hope they don't forget!  In anticipation that our names might have to appear on the voucher, I replied back to let them know that there are two travelers and what are names are.  Fingers crossed that I will see something in my email inbox on Wednesday, Thursday at the latest.