Sheki

En route to the Azeri-Georgian border, we spent 2 nights in Sheki. Sheki is cupped in beautiful wooded mountains with an 18th century palace, picturesque old town (with plenty of melons being sold by the roadside for dirt cheap prices) and a characteristic caravaneserai (travellers' inn which olden day Silk Road traders would stop and stay at). Unfortunately, the caravaneserai was full so we homestayed with a family nearby instead. We enjoyed an evening meal at the garden restaurant at the caravaneserai on the first night with Bjorn and Christian, two German backpackers who also stayed at the same homestay as us.

The great thing about a homestay is that we could catch up with our chores and use the family's big buckets and clothes line to hand wash and dry our clothes. There are plenty of unglamorous aspects to backpacking too!

Kenneth got addicted to the sweet coated nuts that the little confectionery shop along the old town shopping strip produced. We also sampled extraordinarily schweeeeeeeeet baclava from this shop. The charm of this street lies in the fact that the cobbler, the music instrument mender, the butcher, the tailor, the confectioner, the copper tooler, the antique restorer ... all still go about their day like they did during the glory days of the ancient Silk Road.

A Touch of Paris

Our ferry docked at the port of Baku at approximately 2am. The hours on the ferry were long and arduous, not to mention the ride set us back $US90 each despite being a cargo ferry! Nevertheless the trip was made enjoyable with the company of David (from France) and Thomas (from Norway), our new friends and fellow backpackers both on their way home by land and sea after spending a year studying in Shanghai.

By the time we cleared immigration and arrived at the backpackers' joint recommended by Lonely Planet, it was already 3am and the backpackers' was full. 'You come tomorrow ... 10 o'clock... and I have room for you! Now full!' declared the young boisterous Azeri attendant. We ended up 'homelessly' wandering through Baku by night which startled us with its modern chic boutiques and Parisien styled architecture. Baku is in the midst of its second oil boom and the oil barons are pumping cash into upgrading almost every building fascade there is in the city. Baku certainly posseses some of the most exquisite architecture I have ever seen. Having done it tough in Central Asia in terms of material comforts over the past month (despite the very rich cultural experiences we had), we appreciated Baku so much more. In a zombie-like state, we ended up finding a 24 hour restaurant at 4am to have breakfast at and then took it in turns over the next 4 hours to crash into the comfortable couches to catch up with some Zzzzzzzzzs.

The rest of our 2 days in Baku was immensely enjoyable. We soaked in the atmosphere and enjoyed stopping by a particular bakery for delicious pastries and local treats like baclava. We made the most of being able to savour fine dining experiences for under US$10 each! David and Thomas continued to be entertaining and interesting travel partners and we dicovered our shared passion for good food and adventure as we scoured the city for interesting sights and walked along almost every quaintly cobbled street in the Old Town of Baku.

Baku, you'll be fondly remembered and recommended to our family and friends!

Azerbaijan

The initial plan was to simply whiz through the Causasus countries (Azerbaijan, Georgia and perhaps Armenia) so we can fulfill our mission to travel from Beijing to Venice (Marco Polo's route in reverse) entirely by land and sea. However, the Caucasus has proven to be a remarkably astonishing region of the world totally unknown to us up until 1.5 weeks ago.

Here is an excerpt from Lonely Planet on Azerbaijan which aptly summarises our experiences and impressions of the country:

Neither Asia nor Europe, Azerbaijan is an incredible tangle of contradictions and contrasts. It's a fascinating nexus of ancient historical empires. Yet, it's also a new nation finding its feet as it emerges from a war-torm post-Soviet chrysalis on a petroleum-funded gust of optimism. Surrounded by semi-desert on the oil-rich Caspian Sea, the nation's cosmopolitan capital, Baku, is a dynamic boomtown where flashy limousines and mushrooming skyscrapers sweep around a Unesco listed ancient core (a palace). Yet barely three hours' away lies an entirely different world - timeless villages clad in lush orchards from which shepherd tracks lead into the soaring Caucasus mountains. Where Baku is multi-lingual and go-ahead, the provinces shuffle to the gently paces click of nard (backgammon) on tree shaded tea-house terraces while women stay home, herds of cattle wander aimlessly along highways and potbellied bureaucrats scratch their heads in confusion on finding that an outsider has wandered into their territory.