Oilfields and Mountains!Oct 27, 2007
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Azerbaijan and Baku are built on oil - it is everywhere. Our hotel in Bacu was called the Absheron named after the peninsular it is on... The Absheron peninsular is famous for being (arguably) the most polluted place on the planet! Everywhere you look there are nodding donkeys extracting oil, large lakes of black water and strange smells and waste everywhere. Kids play here and not surprisingly the area suffers from the highest poisoning rates in the world and has a massive kids and babies graveyard - awful... We didnt hang around here very long - a quick pit stop at a fire temple (origionally a natural gas flame - now fake) and we headed south to Qobusan. This area again is influenced by natural resourses. The mud volcanoes found here are amazing, natural gas pockets under the earths surface heat the clay causing mini volcanoes, making farting noises! We camped in an area nearby famous for Petraglyphs - stick drawings... (more impressive than ones we had seen in Uzbekistan) and spent the night recieving texted rugby quarter final results!
Long drive day next up to the north of the country to a town called Seki - here we stayed in a Caravanseri which was amazing - this part of the country is very different to the semi arid southern areas - It was nice to see trees and feel autumn.
Another border crossing - this time into Georgia! It all went swimmingly! In fact we didnt really have to even get off the truck! A record at 2 and a half hours - skirted the granny mafia (didnt work our what they were smuggling this time) and we were in!
A quick currency update... remember the 22,000 Turk Menats to the USD? well Azerbaijan is quite the opposite - 0.86 Menats to the USD and Georgia - 1.64 Lari to the USD. We are very confused now!
Georgia is a stunningly beautiful country - its highly mountainous with the Caucuses dominating and is covered in autumnul deciduous woods, a lovely change after the central asian deserts and baren landscapes. Georgia is also one of the few non Islamic countries we are visiting on this trip! It makes up for it by being covered in stunning ancient Orthodox Christian churches and there are pigs and piglets everywhere... (We are longing for a bacon sandwich)! The people are tough and used to war and trouble, most are armed. they are also highly religious and very orthodox, you must cover your heads in churches and most people visit a chuch every day.
Spent a couple of nights camping in this beautiful scenery, just outside a town called Telavi, visited a monastary and a couple of stunning churches. While we were here we also discovered Georgias other perk... Wine! Spent a great afternoon wine tasting and touring a local winerey. Most of the stuff was fairly rough (we will not be bringing any home) however we did manage to find ourselves a tipple to enjoy. Gorged ourselves on bottles of Red (made up for the lack over the last few months)that evening! If you ever go to this great country under no circumstances do you ever get into a toast with a local. You will be drunk under the table! They are a very passionate people who like to drink and there is no such thing as a sip! Down in One!!!
Next stop Tblisi - as we have already written, the central Asians like their great leaders to be advertised on massive billboards all over the place - shaking hands, holding babies and being generally shown off as the greatest leaders who ever lived... You can imagine our surprise as we drove through a random town to see a massive bill board with a huge picture of non other than George Bush on it!!! Tblisi is a fantastic city - its very european and full of culture and stunning architecture. Our hotel was very centrally located and had great views, unfortunately it didnt serve any bacon so the search continues.
We were supposed to have a guide throughout Georgia - to now we had only glimpsed him very briefly from a tent. He finally turned up in Tblisi and gave us a highly amusing tour. Zar-Zar is his name and he is a large Georgian Alcoholic! He would have sped us through the entire city in about 1 hour flat if he had had a choice! Anyway tour done we retired to the cafe culture of the city and chilled out with a G+T and still no bacon!
One of the highlights was that I had remembered that Martha was working in Tblisi and got her number and called her! how mad is that! Martha is Barking and is working for the Foreign office of sorts - she is basically a negotiator and facillitator working on behalf of a un agency, communicating between the various war-ing factions in Georgia! She operates in a totally unethical manner - using Sex as her weapon of choice! Very cloak and dagger! It was hillarious!
Picture heavily armed men in combats standing on a cold snowy road - looking like they have lived in the hills for months... a car door opens and out sweeps a 6ft 2, black, Bohemienesque Diva, wearing a full lengh coat with Fur Collar, full make-up, long french manicured false nails, high heals, a massive fur hat, and the biggest cleavage you have ever seen! "Darlings" is her standard greeting followed by a very sexy kiss and hug!
Really!- that is how she operates and by all accounts is very very good at her job! How I laughed! She was on top form and lives in a fab apartment in Tblisi.. She also has numerous lovers and has seduced varous diplomats and politicians! She once punched a senior Russian Diplomat as he had tried to kiss her!. We drank Chablis Premiere Cru and Bollinger... and her maid cooked us supper! bonkers eh! Another entertaining night!
From the entertainment of Tblisi it was off to Gori and the birthplace of Stalin and a very positive picture of one of the worlds biggest Despots, he quite clearly never sent anyone to siberia or the gallows... Next a ruined ancient city called Uplistsikhe and off to Kutasi for a homestay and the rugby cup semi final!(which we managed to watch on georgian tv - they love their rugby). forgot to mention the Georgian Flag is the George Cross and they love us Brits as like them we are a family of fighters!
From this very hospitable homestay it was off to the high Caucus Mountains and another homestay in a region called Svaneti in a village called Mestia. A very beautiful part of the world unfortunately it has been very war ravaged and this is evident by the fact that all men carry guns. We passed a couple of heavily armed UN Checkpoints which was slightly unnerving. The area is a case of who you know and we were fortunate to be staying with a fantastic family in an amazing house. The family matriach was a great cook and we would have been fed solidly 24 hours a day had we let her!
Unfortunately some of the most beautiful scenery and best hospitallity we have had the entire journey was marred by the weather. We cannot really complain as this is the first spate of rain we have had all trip - It did not stop raining however for 3 days - and was still raining when we crossed the border into Turkey at Batumi.... x
