Day 28_to_32

Today we’ll drive to Baku, the country’s capital city. Robin and Pixie are faster than us, so they leave a little bit earlier the hotel, anyway we’ll keep in touch to see us again on the city. We’re looking forwards it, they are so nice and friendly!

There is a huge difference between Georgia and Azerbaijan, the people is really really opened with us and the çai is back! It’s not that the Georgians are not nice or friendly of course! Is just that they don’t show it from the first moment.

It’s going to be a really hot day (the temperature has to reach the 37C) and we haven’t chosen yet our route, so we ask for it in one petrol station. What a thing! We stay there almost for an hour, they where really excited to see us! We drink our çai and they manage to say that we should take the road which goes to the mountains (they say a lot of times that we should visit Qabala).

We really want to arrive to Baku, and we don’t really know how the pavement is on the mountain road… So we just take the highway (even when we were said that this part of the country is like Sahara). We are surrounded by desert and anything else. We cross this beautiful empty fields until Baku. At some point we stop on the side of the highway to buy drinks. The guy there asks us to take a photo of the motorbike, we say yes of course, and then… he seats on the motorbike! Tià’s face it’s so funny… But it’s fine… He just wants a selfie!

As nearer we are, stronger is the wind. We have a hard time with some gusts, but it’s fine.

We don’t know what to expect from Baku, but what we find it nothing alike what we thought!!! it’s an incredible modern and fancy city in the middle of the desert! What a surprise! We are done after lunch, so we just go to the hotel to rest.

Next day first in the morning we have to go to the Uzbeck’s embassy, our route has changed and now we’ve decided to enter also to this country. When we arrive there is local people waiting, we think Robin and Pixie are already inside, again we were too lazy and too late! A good thing is that while we wait we start meeting other tourists, they are travelling through a similar route than us, and it’s nice to share experiences. Most of them wanted to take the same ship as us, so probably we’ll meet again on the vessel.

After more than an hour waiting, and some discrepancies about who had to enter, the guardians say that we are the next ones. We have to fill the paperwork and wait 2 or 3 days for a mail, then pay the taxes and come back to the office to get our visa. Easy enough.

In the afternoon we are ready to continue visiting Baku. We need to buy some stuff and that could be our last chance. The buildings are truly impressive, they have impossible shapes and materials. What to say about the malls and shops… We can’t buy anything there! There is luxoury everywhere!

Somebody need some diamonds???

After dinner in an “Italian” restaurant (they also serve sushi?!?), we walk through the promenade (they say it is the longest in the world, who knows?!). We have the opportunity to see the skyline during the night, we were just speechless. The towers of fire are quite impressive, so we stay there just looking at them like an hour!

Next day we’ll move to the kiwi’s hotel, we miss them and it’s really near to the Uzbeck embassy so we don’t need to think much about it. We start the day slowly as we don’t need to do anything, but then Robin writes us that is possible to buy the ship tickets in Alat, so we get ready to go there. Baku is surrounded by desert and petrol fields, and fabrics… The landscape it’s not that beautiful on this side of the country. We reach Alat after an hour thanks to Robin indications, we reach the port and we are shocked. It’s a port in the middle of nowhere, there is anything!!! we manage to find where to buy the tickets, and we get them. It supposed that the ship will leave tomorrow, but we have to phone to the office and they’ll say.

We go directly to the hotel, and by luck we find Pixie and Robin at the hall! We talk for a while and then we go to the Old city. Two days here and we haven’t visited it! It’s a nice place, but a little bit too much touristic. It’s full of people trying to sell something to you! We get lost in purpose, and we have a nice walk until we return to the hotel with a taxi.

We want to go to check for our visa at the Uzbeck embassy, so we get up early the next day to be the first there. Actually when we arrive there are 2 families before us. We have to wait for more than an hour until the first is called to enter. After that anything is moving. In summary, we stay there for almost 4 hours to get anything, because the approbation mail from Uzbekistan is not there, so nobody can do anything.

We are nervous because we were said that the ship was going to departure today, so we go back to the hotel to see if the kiwis have news… and they have some. We have to phone at 17:00 again to see if it’s leaving tonight. Surprise! when we phone again they say that we try tomorrow morning at 10:00! Our next step with the Uzbeck visa is to try to obtain the E-Visa. It’s a brand new system so we didn’t want to use it, because if it doesn’t work at the border… then we have a problem! Tià needs 2 hours to fulfill the application, crazy!!!!!

We decide to share a taxi (with Robin and Pixie) and go to eat something at the center of the city, we end up at a fast food restaurant, and then we go to the promenade to have some ice-cream… Not a bad plan, isn’t it??

Again We go to the embassy first thing in the morning to see what’s going on with our visas. We arrive there at 10:00 and there is anybody. That’s normal, if you think that the embassy is closed for the tourists today. We need our visas before the ship departs.

We end up waiting almost until 12:00, nobody is there working. The secretary says to us to try to phone later, and see if somebody can help us. It seem here everything works with phone calls!!! When we are about to leave the embassy, we meet Pixie, she was searching us to say that the ship will leave tonight. Great!!! But we’ll have to leave without our sticker on the passport. We have a lazy day at the hotel until the evening, when we pack and ride to Alat.

We arrive there at 21:00 and we meet some familiar and new faces. It seems we’re going to be a long time waiting there. Some decide to camp while, but we spend the whole night speaking with other travellers. It’s so exciting and interesting to hear them!