Day 24 – 15th June,2012 : Baku, Azerbaijan

Baku , Azerbaijan

The fact that I felt a little cold in the morning though I hadn’t used the AC last night put me on alert. I will drink lemon tea and became alright.  I had a strong coffee at the moment. I checked my mail and found that Sudhanshu had replied. He had gone to Copenhagen while Himanshu was in Dubai. They were both returning today. 
I went out for breakfast at 9 am and found a large buffet. The mushroom omelet I ordered left me stuffed and with no desires for lunch. At 11.15, I reached the Georgian Embassy. When I gave my letter from the Indian Embassy to the man at the counter, he asked me to fill a form and attach two photographs. He took my passport and the Georgian Visa. Again I was suggested to be patient and that the Indian Embassy would be informed. Fortunately, I had predicted this and already had a single entry Georgian Visa. After that I walked to the Indian Embassy and met Mr. Singh. I told him about what had transpired at the Georgian Embassy; he told me to take some reference from the embassy and try from Tbilisi. I was surprised to know that there was no Indian Mission in Tbilisi while Georgia had it in New Delhi. I chatted with Mr.Singh for a while and then returned to my hotel. I didn’t think I could get the Visa by Monday but there was no point of staying in Georgia if I could go there now. The original plan was to spend 4 days in Azerbaijan and I decided to stick to it. 3 days in Armenia.  If I couldn’t go there, I would spend some days in Georgia. Later I had a chat with the hotel manager Nismi and we became good friends. He discounted all the rates by 10%. 

I have received a mail from Mr Bastan from Bishkek to speak to him. I have sent him mails earlier and they were all bounced back. I phoned him now. He was happy to speak to me. He told me that Junus (his friend) and himself have recovered three items I,e, i-pad, still and movie camera from Dastan (thief)but not the mobile. They will handover to Indian Embassy or bring it to Delhi in August. They are Ex-Police detectives and I was confident they will recover stolen items from my room. They became very good friends of Ms Damira, woman Police officer. I did not write this in my writings at their request. I had bought a camera and mobile at Bishkek but it is not possible to buy sim card in different countries. I had no particular feeling of happiness.

I asked if he knew about the trains to Tbilisi, he checked it on the internet and told me that there was a train going to Tbilisi tomorrow morning at 8.45 pm. He even gave me the directions to the Baku Railway Station. 

For lunch, I ate the fixed meal of pilov, curd, lassi and salad and it cost me 10 manat. At 6 pm, I took Nismi’s advice and wore a cap to fight the heat before going outside. I walked for fifteen minutes and boarded bus number 88, which was headed to “Ichari Sehar”, the Old Baku Town. After a 20 minutes ride through the main streets, I got down at the Old city. 

Old Town Baku

Old Town Baku

There was a boulevard by the sea; there were many parks and fountains. I walked inside and realized that the city was made inside an enclosure and the walls surrounding it were still intact. I got into an electric open car for 2 manat and was shown around the city. The city was nice and clean and was a home to many Ambassadors. It even had many souvenir shops and restaurants. It was a national holiday that day and a firework show had been organized for the evening near the Boulevard. Since I didn’t wish to stay that long and having found Ichari Sahar metro station, I decided to come back later by the metro. The woman at the counter was very helpful. For 2 manat, she gave me a metro card with one manat value credited to it. She even asked two young boys to inform me when the train reached Gunjilika station. I thanked her and boarded the metro with the boys. Once I got off the metro, I asked for directions to my hotel. The directions given to me proved to be longer than the normal route, but the long walk helped me learn the ways around and I even bought some fruits and tomatoes. 

Once I returned to the hotel, I bought some bread from the hotel’s restaurant and was asked to take a call. It was Sudhanshu and Himanshu. They had met at Basel. I told Himanshu to book my ticket from Chinua to Vienna by Air Moldova. After a short discussion, it was planned that it would be done on the 7th of July. I would stay in Vienna and take a train for Maribor in the morning. I also had to try to get a transit visa from Ukraine to Moldova. 

Later I returned and had my dinner of tomatoes and bread. My TV wasn’t working so I asked Nismi to change it. I made a strong cup of coffee and watched TV till 1 am.