Starcity.dk - Azerbaijan

From 27th April 2006 until 1st May 2006 Marina and I traveled to Azerbaijan on vacation. Azerbaijan is maybe not the most well-known place for tourism on the planet, but our quest also had another purpose than just going there to enjoy the sun - which only made rare appearances during our visit:-( Thus Marina lived with her family near the border with Iran almost 15 years ago while the USSR still was the counterpart of the United States. The majority of the pictures on this page and the following are from Baku, since the border city Astara is not the most interesting city in the world. In fact; there is nothing to do there; no work nor any entertainment, resulting in various problems as unemployment and drug addiction. Even though the place is far from being on the world locomotive we only meet nice and friendly people there - and this by the way goes for all Azeri people we meet.

If you feel like going there yourself you will most likely need a visa, but this can easily be done in the Baku airport at arrival. I got one valid for 7 days for only 40 $ (remember two photos of yourself). They speak English at the visa office at the airport and can even provide you with a 30 day tourist visa (for a bigger fee I think). You can find more information about visa rules etc. on the website of Azerbaijan's ministry of foreign affairs.

We lived in approximately 3 different hotels while staying in Baku. The first hotel carried the fine name Karat Inn and their 90 $ double bed hotel room was very nice. As in many other Muslim countries our bathroom facilities also boosted a device for cleaning your back part of your body:-) Day 2 we abandoned our "prestige" hotel for cheaper and more adventures 20 $ hotels.

We lived in 3 different hotels while staying in Baku. The first hotel carried the fine name Karat Inn and their 90 $ double bed hotel room was very nice. As in many other Muslim countries our bathroom facilities also boosted a device for cleaning the back part of your body:-) Day 2 we abandoned our "prestige" hotel for cheaper and more adventures 20 $ hotels.

This picture is not taken more than 500 m from the central railway station in Baku - we almost felt like in the country side.

Cartoon crisis or not, they happily served Danish butter for breakfast at hotel Karat Inn. I did not flag with the fact that I was a Dane, but when asked directly I always answered that I was from Denmark - at least in Baku. Here people were friendly even though that probably disagreed with my belief and with what Jyllands-Posten published.

The beautiful Russian orthodox church in Baku. The church is unusual for an orthodox church because it was painted in traditional mosque colors.

Marina looking at carpets in central Baku. Our salesman on the right was a school teacher and originally from Dagestan in Russia. Even though I am not very much into these kinds of carpets (except flying ones) we spent almost an hour speaking with him, but left empty handed. For you information carpets in Baku are in general of good quality and fairly priced in compare to for example the prices in Moscow.

Some beautiful cats guarding the old city of Baku. Many wild cats can be found around in Baku so I guess the living conditions for cats must be top class.

The second hotel we tried out was the Azerbaijan Inturist hotel - at least that was what was written on the facade of the building. We tried to call this hotel several times from Moscow but never got through to anybody there. Actually we where told that it was closed for reconstruction or even demolition, therefore we were quite astonished to see that we could actually get access to the hotel. By the entrance a policeman was standing and asking us what we wanted. We told him that we needed a room for the next day. That was absolutely no problem, he asked of our price range and asked us to follow him to the elevator. The panel in the elevator was half destroyed but we were lifted all 11 floors up without a glitch. A lady was sitting in hall of the floor and the policeman spoke a bit with her. She gave him a key and he followed us to our soon to become room. It was destroyed but at least clean and with a good view over the bay so we paid the policeman and got an old Inturist access card by the lady before we went away.

So it looked like the official Inturist hotel had closed down and not the black economy had taken over the building and the rooms, with the local police somehow being in charge of the ruins of the hotel.

Latest update: 03-09-2006 email: asp@person.dk icq: 36111595