Way to Russia Talk Lounge

Loulou · Just Starting Joined: 11 Nov 2007 Posts: 6

I have been in Azerbaijan last summer and i really liked this country...

First i visited Shaki, it was founded near 2600 years ago. There were a lot of huge barrows and necrologies, ancient fortresses and settlements, towers and mosques, old beautiful Albanian churches, tomb of the famous Haji Murat.

I stopped at Karvan Saray...it is hotel with restaurant, build as old Muslim Palace...the price is from 14$ for person (if you are not alone and take the room with smb else they make discounts)...you have to taste PAKHLAVA - very delicious!!!

Also i visited Lahij...It is an old city - the land of craftspeople with ancient history, considerable culture and natural amenities. It is surrounded with Great Caucasus mountains from four sides...There are many waterfalls, old mosques, bridges, paved streets, bath-houses built in 18 century...You will meet a lot of tinkers, carpetmakers, sock weavers, chasers etc...

http://www.delaet.biz/extra/travel_info_Azerbaijan.html

Some days later after my vacation in Baku, i went to Nabran. It is a district between a big beautiful forest with rich flora and fauna and Caspian Seaside. I lived in 'Sport Line' camp (rest in which was offered and organized by Travelazerbaijan company), in the big tent (two rooms) and had triple feed (breakfast, dinner, supper) from natural foodstuffs. There were: a football field, a disco-bar, a cafe, a canteen, a shower cubicles with cold/hot water round the clock.
In the afternoon i was swimming in the sea and was taking sunbath, in the evening i was walking in the forest, enjoying fresh air, at night i was dancing with all campers in discotheque, playing different sport games.

The main reason to go to Azerbaijan is a capital - Baku.

Baku is very beautiful and ancient city with a lot of architectural buildings, museums, monuments and shops etc...Also a lot of different restaurants.
I liked Avtoretroclub restaurant most of all.Design of this restaurant is so uncommon: they separated restaurant to some different parts (Russian cottages - izba, Muslim cottages, big public banquet room with wood furniture, beautiful garden with waterfall and lake, also many rarities and ancient motorcycles and cars in the garden, living music ).
There are European, Muslim, Russian dishes and also you can smoke hookah...Prices are very low...I had many different dishes and drinks and paid 10$ for everything...
The director of this restaurant is very intellectual sportive ( little English, fluent Azeri and Russian speaking man), his name is Elshan...He likes travelers and makes them big discount.

What about accommodation. Good hotels in the centre are very expensive Sad

.
So i decided to find any cheap hotel in different travel forums. On Travelblog and Lonelyplanet forum i have found some hotels, but i did not like them as other travelers did.

For example, hotel ARAZ, indisputably, it was chip (20-50$ per night), but it was far from the centre of the city, it was very dirty, with terrible black-beetles everywhere, without bathroom and kitchen (i thought that if i would stay there i had to spend my money for traffic to reach the centre, for feed to eat at the restaurant/cafe/snack/ and for laundry to wash me and my clothiers )...Or hotel CANUB, the same bad conditions, but more expensive than ARAZ, cos it is in the centre - 45-80$ per night.

So, i decided that to rent an apartment would be more comfortable and cheaper. I contacted with an agent from TRAVELAZERBAIJAN company (they were also advised on travel forums)and they offered me to preview any apartment for free. I chose the apartment in the centre with all conditions by 30$ per day. I liked it very much - it was really in the centre in 5 min walking from Fountain Square(i had not spent my money for traffic), had lavatory (i was able to take my bath and to wash my clothes there), kitchen with all plates and dishes (i was able to cook) and lovely room with furniture, phone, TV and clean linen and towels.

So, i found out that personal accommodation is the best alternative to any hotel (of course, if you will stay in any country more than 2-3 days...):

1 reason- BUDGET!!! To rent the apartment is cheaper than to book a room in the hotel...2 reason- COMFORT!!! If you rent the apartment you will have an opportunity to have your own house holding: a room, a bathroom and a kitchen, which you will not have in any cheap hotel...All these also save your budget...3 reason- PERSONALITY!!! Also if you rent the apartment, you will get your own temporary accommodation and can do there all you want (to invite smb, to come back home at any time you want etc...)

Light · Just Starting Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4

Hello,

I will be traveling with my wife from the USA to visit her parents in Baku in a few weeks. I am an American citizen and She is still a Russian citizen. We want to stay for about 10 days. I have been told I can get a Visa at the airport if I have a travel voucher. I'm not sure what a travel voucher is. I have also been told I should get an invitation. An invitation from who Question

I have also been told I don't need any thing to get a visa. Just get the airline tickets and get my Visa Can anyone sort this out for me?

Loulou · Just Starting Joined: 11 Nov 2007 Posts: 6

Hello,

you can obtain your Azeri visa at Baku airport without any LOI, vouchers etc... but the fees depends of your nationality

This is info about visa and cheap accommodations in Baku Azerbaijan

Visa - www.mfa.gov.az/eng/ for Azerbaijan
www.travelazerbaijan.land.ru
www.bakurealestate.net

surfguy · Lounge Wizard Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 6996

http://www.buyusa.gov/azerbaijan/en/businesstraveltips.html

Light · Just Starting Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4

Can anyone provide info on travelling from Baku to Tbilisi? Is there a day time bus, mini bus or train service? Is there any Indian restaurant in Baku, Azerbaijan ? Names, Addresses or Telephone number ?

Loulou · Just Starting Joined: 11 Nov 2007 Posts: 6

Here are several Indian restaurants, which i have found in Baku:

BUDDHA - 2'Z.Tagiyev str., 4931005/4931043
MAHARAJA - 131'Alovsat Guliyev str., 4946300/4924334
TAJ MAHAL - 18'Khagani str., 4980362/4930049

Enjoy your meal Smile

)

Larki · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 10:43 pm Post subject:

Some particulars:

The Bebe Heybat oilfield there is perhaps the oldest producing in the world. (The Israelite history of Genesis refers to oil pits in the valley of Siddim.) Men collected the oil of the Caspian shores in sheepskin bags and dug the wells by hand, breathing and dying in the vapors. Caravans took their black wealth to the Mediterranean cities and to the China dynasties and to the barbarian traders of the steppes. The ancient Egyptians embalmed their dead with crude oil, probably from there; passing nomads in later centuries found mummies and used them for fuel, as they were hardened with asphaltic oils, brought by camel from the banks of the Caspian Sea. Marco Polo wrote about the wells of Baku and the industry of them.

Zarathustra came to the Abshoron sands, which burned with the eternal fire of escaping natural gas. He founded the first great religion of men, and temples still remain there, dedicated to Zoroastrianism. A thousand years later, Genghis Khan conquered, yet spared the ancient temples of the priests who alone once decided upon the men to be Emperors from Byzantium to Bucharia. It's said that pilgrims still occasionally appear in the desert night from far to the south. They are the Parsees, and practice fire worship and self-mutilation for the appeasement of their ancient and bright god, Ahura-mazda, and the dark one, Angro-marya.

It is a land of kings and khans, of priests and wisemen and tyrants. Once ruled by Persia, Media, or the Mongolian Golden Horde, it has welcomed or resisted great men and small; Alexander the Great, Peter the Great, Tamerlane. Persian, Turkish, Arabic and Greek orthodox Christian cultures have all struggled in the unceasing winds of Baku. The faces of its people carry the memory of fragments of passing mankind: Ossetians, a remnant of early Gothic tribes - Aisors, who survived the Sumerian Empire with its Semitic dialect intact - the amazonian Jessian, whose men do no work.

Industrialization and development came to the growing oilfields of the late nineteenth century, and Joseph Dishugaschvili, the son of a Georgian shoemaker, worked there as an impoverished laborer. He began a small printing operation and named his first tar-smudged little newspaper, "The Workman of Baku". He later changed his name upon moving to Russia, and instituted an new era of bloodied rule. History knows him as Joseph Stalin. Governments and armies and theologies have ruled and given way to ever new rulers, Romans to Russians, and again to the Turkic people of the ever deepening history of the sands. In the cave of Azykh, proto-humans huddled about their campfires and left stone and bone remnants for future wanderers and wonderers. They were as old as the Olduvia culture in Africa. The Azeri word for 'I', is 'man', and the word for 'name' is 'adam'. Apples still grow on the slopes of the Caucasus mountains, perhaps left there from the seeds dropped by an earlier Adam, and an earlier Eve. It's to this oil-stained Eden I will hopefully travel again, and plant trees of olives and figs before I return.