Travels with Kathryn

Well, I have learnt that 10 days of “rest time” is too long… It was good for a couple of days, but I am definitely ready to move on now. Today is Friday, so tomorrow I shall be leaving my AirBnB and transferring to a hotel before the tour starts/Mum and Keith arrive on Sunday. Huzzah!

Here is a list of what I have achieved:

• The bag has been fully unpacked and given a good clean (I have managed to remove some of the marks). Today, it gets repacked.
• Multiple loads of laundry have been done – I shall be ready to start my tour with fully clean clothes (and shoes).
• Notified all utility companies to close my accounts on my OLD flat and settled final bills (only 1 semi-alludes me, more below). I have also changed the addresses of all my ongoing contracts (I think).
• Fully conquered Baku’s public transport system. Yes, I admit, buses were a stretch, but I am now almost local.
• Registered to vote at Mum’s address (just in case an election happens soon and my vote will probably more value to try and oust Michael Fabricant – urgh. I felt dirty even typing his name).
• Eaten a curry (oh the joy of spice).
• 1 massage/spa day – t’was lovely.
• Started on a tentative plan for stage 3 – I will update my homepage soon.
• Finished my current cross stitch project (just in time to start a new one for stage 2).

and of things I have failed to achieve:

• Fully cancel/pay up my broadband contract – turns out you need to know either your landline number (which doesn’t work) or an account number (which we can not find!) and no way of contacting them other than by phone… It has taken me many hours, and my Mum many additional hours to cancel (thanks Mum!) my EE broadband contract, so I’m just waiting for my final bill. Note to self – choose another provider next time.
• Have my Swiss apartment deposit returned – I moved out (techinically) nearly a month ago, but on check out they could not find the TV remote (which is hilarious as its definately still there – why wouldn’t it be?!) so they need to buy a new one and deduct it from said deposit, and then I can have it back. Basically, they are witholding nearly 10,000francs over a 10franc remote. Most irritating.

Anyway, I feel I have ticked off the main sites of Baku (other than those I know I am covering with my group), and below are some favourite photos from the last couple of days:

There were just 2 excursions missing, so yesterday I had a trip (I had to join a trip as could not find a way to each and back by public transport) to see the Burning Mountain and Fire Temple. My learning points from this experience are:

• Do not book a tour via Viatour – it’s great for research, but I definitely paid over the odds for what was essentially a glorified mode of transport and very little guiding.
• Maybe avoid day/short tours unless strictly necessary, and although this was pretty necessary, I could have probably done a deal with a taxi driver for less money (and I was, imho, more knowledgeable than the guide having done some pre-reading).
• Check reviews for organisation – so, the tour was advertised as starting at 1pm with a meeting point in the Old Town. It ended up being a 2.30pm taxi pick-up to be dropped off at a restaurant, waiting for the rest of the group to finish lunch (as my half-day tour was part of a full-day tour), before setting off at 3.24pm (having had to wait for someone to have their phone delivered who had left it at the restaurant). Not great.

However, let us focus on what I actually saw: First stop – Yanar Dag. This is Baku’s Burning Mountain, about a 30-minute drive out of the city centre. It even used to have three flames (hence where the flame towers got its inspiration). Now let us be honest, having seen the Darava Crater in Turkmenistan, this is just a wee bit meh – its like a few flames escaping from the side of a small hill. However, other people seemed to be impressed, so I did try and muster enthusiasm… I really did, but there is a reason I am not including a selfie – my face said it all. There is a nice story about the early beliefs, and there is a cave nearby known as the wolf’s nest, and they believed that if a wolf saw the flames, it would be turned into a human. From the 7th century, it was a place of worship for the Zorostrians, with many Silk Road travellers stopping off to worship at its flames. In the 1940s Stalin decided (for who knows what reason?) that it should be “turned off” and large amounts of water, and then sand were thrown over the flames to try and turn them off – neither worked.

A short drive (and a rather loose lecture on Zororastrianism) to the Atashgah Fire Temple. Atashgah means “house of fire” in Azerbijani, so it’s nothing like calling something what it is! This was another natural fire over which a temple complex was built in the 2nd century. It was originally a Zororastrianism temple, but in the 7th century when Azerbijan became part of the Persian Empire, and although there was no forced conversion to Islam, very high taxes were imposed – this resulted in the Zororastian community moving to India. You’ll never guess who passed through the temple in the 13th century? Gengis and his hoard of merry men (obviously), however, they did not destroy the complex (unusually), but only because it had mostly already fallen down! The temple was rebuilt in the 18th/19th century, but unfortunately, in 1883, nearby oil drilling also released the natural gas deposit (something about crack drilling?), which destinguished the flames. Later pipes were installed (at the express instruction of Tsar Alexander III no less who visited in 1888), and the fires were back!

I have already visited many religious sites on this trip, but I did find this place quite spiritiual – maybe it was a little deja-vu me riding in on my camel as a Silk Road traveller, but who knows?

Anyway, I have now packed so I am ready for my move tomorrow and finished off the last of my curry (I shall not miss this AirBnB’s extremely slow wifi as this post has taken me quite some time to upload this post including photos). Hopefully, I’ll be back in touch from the hotel tomorrow.