5th September: Baku, Azerbaijan to Sheki, Azerbaijan
We left the hostel to wind howling through the city streets. At least that’ll clear the smog for a day! Getting to the bus station was an adventure. After catching the metro for the first time – cheap (about 22p to go anywhere), but doesn’t really go anywhere useful – we had to cross a 7 lane road at rush hour with no crossing points to get from the metro to the bus station. Finding the bus itself was easy. After a 10-minute delay, seemingly to allow sellers of bread, fruit, water, snacks, t-shirts, socks, and tobacco on board, we were off! The first overland leg of our trip which feels like the proper start of the adventure. Of course, 3 separate levels of bureaucracy and paperwork had to be completed by the driver and his mate before we were asked to actually leave the bus station, which gave the water and snacks lady another chance to sneak on board!
I would describe the multiple levels of needless bureaucracy as Central Asia ‘Lite’. Not quite the paperwork in triplicate at seven different windows of Turkmenistani borders crossings but it does feel like that might be the ambition here. Another observation are the number of pointless jobs. As well as the vast number of bureaucratic roles, jobs we’ve seen include drivers mate, bollard cleaner, grass waterer (in the midday sun), automatic ticket machine operator to buy your ticket for you, automatic ticket machine operator to put your ticket in the machine two metres later, person who finds your size for you in clothes shops, and person who weights your veg at the supermarket. Things you could easily do yourself, you are not allowed to do as it is someone’s job that they must justify. Presumably, jobs are created for people to keep them happy enough and include them within the system. They then spend most of their salaries on taxes or at companies owned by the ruling family anyway. Of course, most jobs under western capitalism are also inherently pointless and designed to funnel money to a wealthy elite, but it does feel even more obvious here.
The howling winds swayed the bus as we passed through a bit of a sandstorm after leaving the city, the driver seemingly unable to decide which of the outside two lanes to drive in so straddling them instead. Apparently, a driving license is available for around 1,200 Manat (£550) to anyone who can pay, which goes some way to explaining the driving standards. People only follow the rules when the police are watching, which is actually most of the time in Baku as there are huge numbers of them.
The road junctions in Azerbaijan are fascinating in their own right. On roundabouts, cars already on the circle give way to those entering. There are u-turn lanes, from the fast lane of the highways in one direction into the fast lane on the other, often with no slip roads on either side – fuel stations are also accessed in this manner. Lane markings randomly move a metre or two left or right immediately. The main road into the city from the airport (Heydar Aliyev Prospekti, of course) in 8 lanes wide at points in each direction, with people waiting for buses or a ride on the shoulder. Diverging diamond interchanges on fast highways with 3 lanes of traffic each direction are governed purely with give way signs! It’s chaos!
The journey was fairly uneventful, except for nearly getting left behind when we made a chay stop! Once in Sheki, 5 and a half hours after leaving Baku, we got a cheap local taxi up to our accommodation in the old town. We are surprisingly high here at around 750 metres, which makes for a pleasant difference in temperature from sweltering below-sea-level Baku. Tomorrow is even forecast to be cloudy!
We had a quick walk around the quiet and beautiful old town at sunset, with verdant hills in three directions. We also managed to find some much-needed veggies for dinner after mainly eating various sweet and savoury breads throughout the day. We have two full days here, so will take it easy and try to rest after the stress of the bag situation. Sheki seems like the perfect place for that.