Azerbaijan - Baku and Caspian Sea

(pictures are in reversed order....)
Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan is a very expensive city. Internet in the hotel was US$15 per day and there were 22 of us. A handful of us were desparate to be on line.

The city is modern - too modern for me, anyway. The shops are mainly designer-labelled; similar to mid-town Manhattan.

There is an old city (Icheri Sheher) within the modern city. The old castle wall has been fully restored (see picture). There are several karavansarais in within and most have been restored to be restaurants/hotels (see picture - the one with a dining table in the alcove). The other picture shows an old karavansaria being excavated. There is also a round watch tower in the old city - in perfect condition.

Unfortunate for Tim and Cheryl though. It was a tough time for them; very stressful really. All because there was no set time for ferry sailing to Kazakstan (remember we had to make a detour to Kaz becuase Turmenistan closed its border due to Swine Flu?). Tim was camping at the ferry teminal trying to keep his ears to the ground -literary - to hear the rail wagons being loaded onto the roll-on-roll-off ferry. Ferry company seemed to be cagey about when the ferry might sail and when it would arrive at Aktau (Kazakstan).

We eventually boarded late afternoon and the ferry set sail 8:30pm for the expected 19hr sailing across the Caspian Sea. Picture of sun-setting over the Caspian Sea. There were not that many passengers on board and none of the service areas were opened, except the kitchen where they only served tea and beer. Only one toilet to be shared by all and no lights in it for most of the time.

We got to Kazakstan waters in good time but we "parked" it in the bay until dark (I guess it is cheaper for the ferry owner to dock in early hours than daylight hours). We got kicked out of our cabins shortly after midnight and waited again. All the old Soviet countries we visited still have a long way to learn about customer service.