Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Candy Cane Mountains
I'll let the photos speak for themselves. I was pleasantly surprised to see something besides oil detritus once we got out of town. The unofficially named Candy Cane Mountains, an ex-pat landmark because of the red/white stripes in the rock, are near the town of Gilazi about an hour drive north of Baku. Enjoy!
Monday, December 11, 2006
He's Doing What?
Friday night the Baku Bicycle Club (BBC) hosted a presentation by fellow cyclist Rob Thomas. Rob, a 26-yr old New Zealander, is cycling solo from Japan to London on a recumbent bike. . . during the winter. He's already crossed Japan, South Korea, China, the Stans, and the Caspian Sea (he took a ferry for that one). Rob is spending a few days in Baku before continuing his journey. On Monday he sets off across Azerbaijan towards Tblisi, Georgia.
Check out Rob's blog 14 Degrees.
Rory and I did the "Candy Cane" mountain ride with the BBC on Sunday. One of Rob's comments is about how aggressive the dogs are. My fastest speeds on Sunday were when the dogs were chasing me. A snarling, snapping dog is quite the motivator.
If you look closely at the picture of Spike the dog in Rob's Day 140 entry (Dec. 9), you'll see that Spike has no ears. The villagers cut the ears off the dogs so that wolves can't grab them by the ears. That's also the reason for the thick collar Spike wears: so the wolf can't grab the dog by the neck. Aggressive dogs are prized possessions because they're more likely to survive a wolf attack. True or not, it's hard for an animal lover to see these beautiful dogs all with chopped off ears.
Check out Rob's blog 14 Degrees.
Rory and I did the "Candy Cane" mountain ride with the BBC on Sunday. One of Rob's comments is about how aggressive the dogs are. My fastest speeds on Sunday were when the dogs were chasing me. A snarling, snapping dog is quite the motivator.
If you look closely at the picture of Spike the dog in Rob's Day 140 entry (Dec. 9), you'll see that Spike has no ears. The villagers cut the ears off the dogs so that wolves can't grab them by the ears. That's also the reason for the thick collar Spike wears: so the wolf can't grab the dog by the neck. Aggressive dogs are prized possessions because they're more likely to survive a wolf attack. True or not, it's hard for an animal lover to see these beautiful dogs all with chopped off ears.
Sunday, December 3, 2006
First Discoveries
Baku is situated on the Absheron Peninsula in Azerbaijan. We spent the afternoon driving back roads (or maybe they were main roads) looking for tourist attractions listed in our Mark Elliott Azerbaijan guide book. Mapless except for the 2-inch maps in the guidebook we did pretty well.
How to describe the Absheron Peninsula? Mark Elliott says it best in his book: If Azerbaijan is an eagle flying towards the Caspian Sea, the Absheron is its eczema-plagued beak. The landscape is faintly disturbing -- an eerily fascinating wasteland of parched hillocks and plains which sprout pylons, nodding-donkey oil derricks and pools of oily effluent amongst ragged scrub. It is not the most immediately appealing area for tourism. But with your expectations suitably lowered, there are a fair number of curiosities."
How to describe the Absheron Peninsula? Mark Elliott says it best in his book: If Azerbaijan is an eagle flying towards the Caspian Sea, the Absheron is its eczema-plagued beak. The landscape is faintly disturbing -- an eerily fascinating wasteland of parched hillocks and plains which sprout pylons, nodding-donkey oil derricks and pools of oily effluent amongst ragged scrub. It is not the most immediately appealing area for tourism. But with your expectations suitably lowered, there are a fair number of curiosities."
We lowered our expectations and went searching for something interesting yet easy to find. First stop was the castle in the village of Ramana. According to the guidebook, this castle is the most impressive in the Absheron. With that description we just had to see it. We walked around the perimeter in the rain and never bothered to find the guy with the key so we could go inside. Doesn't look too bad does it? Castle on a hill, green grass......
Now check out the view immediately behind us. That's our Pajero in the foreground.
Wow! Literally a 180 in both direction and content. That's a working oil field and the "ponds" are a sludgy mix of oil and water. Nasty.
Next stop was a little place called Yanar Dag. How to find it? Look for the fire coming out of the ground. The fire burns constantly because of underground gas leaking up to the surface. The gas was accidentally ignited in 1958 and has burned ever since. See what you're missing? In addition to warming up by the fire, we very nearly adopted a puppy at this place. If anyone is interested in adopting this cute little guy, let us know and we'll ship him to you.
Building Boom In Baku
The Azerbaijan economy is growing so fast at the moment there is a building boom going on, and we are part of it. The Baku skyline is peppered with really tall apartment blocks, just like the one we live in, and more are being built all the time.
In our apartment, the glass bottles which get dropped into the trash-chute by the residents above us reach terminal velocity by the time they get to our level, the level at which (for the first time) they normally bounce off the side-walls of the chute. When this happens, our building booms.
In our apartment, the glass bottles which get dropped into the trash-chute by the residents above us reach terminal velocity by the time they get to our level, the level at which (for the first time) they normally bounce off the side-walls of the chute. When this happens, our building booms.