Travel Forum Planet Topic: Baku Travel

Travel Forum Planet Topic: Baku Travel http://www.travelforumplanet.com/ Travel Forum Planet Topic: Baku Travel en Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:37:11 +0000 bodor on "Baku Travel" http://www.travelforumplanet.com/topic/866#post-1801 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:20:35 +0000 bodor 1801@http://www.travelforumplanet.com/ I do make a living at writing. Unfortunately, its not travel writing. I am an engineer who works as a technical writer. You must not have clicked on "more about Cdn-Trvl_Writer" - I explain a bit of my history in my profile there. I certainly aspire to writing more as it regards to travel in the future. Right now, I'm getting back to my creative writing roots, and trying to put the travel spin into my fiction writing. I do it for enjoyment - nothing more at this point. I daresay that you have a good gift for it yourself, as I said, especially regarding the history lesson .... As for "retiring to Canada and looking at flowers for the rest of your life," well ... there are a great many people who do come here. Unfortunately, various regions in Canada do experience quite the winter extremes. I would rather retire to Mexico if at all possible. My wife doesn't mind some time there, but ... c'est la vie. erupon on "Baku Travel" http://www.travelforumplanet.com/topic/866#post-1800 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:19:39 +0000 erupon 1800@http://www.travelforumplanet.com/ That's a truly nice comment, coming from one who evidently makes a living at travel writing - everyone's dream job! I've published a few magazine articles, mostly humor, since that's what seems to sell. But hopefully, I'll still get the chance to return to Azerbaijan and have part in the environmental cleanup operations. (Either that, or I'll retire to Canada and look at flowers for the rest of my life - LOL) bodor on "Baku Travel" http://www.travelforumplanet.com/topic/866#post-1799 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:18:21 +0000 bodor 1799@http://www.travelforumplanet.com/ per your last post also, I would say you have a knack or gift for writing. The historical "spin" you put on Baku and Azerbaijan is much the same as I heard spoke by a (policeman) tour guide while I was there. It is an area truly steeped in man's evolutionary history - no pun intended. erupon on "Baku Travel" http://www.travelforumplanet.com/topic/866#post-1798 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:17:13 +0000 erupon 1798@http://www.travelforumplanet.com/ Hi, my friend! I did, indeed, become enamored with Baku in the few days I visited. I only wish I had had more time and opportunity to explore beyond the city. I've done quite a lot of research for the project I proposed, and I guess, by that I was drawn into the history and culture of the country. 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. bodor on "Baku Travel" http://www.travelforumplanet.com/topic/866#post-1797 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:16:11 +0000 bodor 1797@http://www.travelforumplanet.com/ it sounds like you were as equally enamoured of the country, especially Baku, as was I. I visited the Baku and the country-side back in 2009 for a month of business. erupon on "Baku Travel" http://www.travelforumplanet.com/topic/866#post-1796 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:14:41 +0000 erupon 1796@http://www.travelforumplanet.com/ Hi, Actually, Baku, along with most of the Caspian shore regions, were developed for oil very early on. Marco Polo wrote about the oilfield at Baku when he traveled through - and it was old then! When the Soviets pulled out, the infrastructure was just left to rot and ruin, not only on the oil fields, but in places like the industrial city of Sumgait, just to the north of the Abshoran peninsula. That particular place was identified as one of the ten worst polluted sites on earth, but the Blacksmith Institute, last year. The Azeris, however, seem sincere about doing the hard work they have inherited with the old oilfields. Not only the one in Baku, which is being worked on now, but also the several that are out farther on the peninsula. It will be a tremendous project that will take several years, but one which will pay dividends of health and well-being for the generations to come. Of course, there's still a lot of oil reserves that the country needs to capitalize upon as well, but modern companies such as BP are working in that area now, and perhaps there won't be the century-old pollution problems when they are finished. All-in-all, I do hope to return to Azerbaijan. I found it a beautiful country (what I saw of it) with friendly and beautiful people. If the project is accepted as I've proposed, I will probably return for at least 4 years. I feel confident about bringing my family as well, and that's a pretty good recommendation for any country, especially one in an area which is so uncertain in American consciousness. Thanks for the reply, and go see Baku, should you get the chance. Just remember to watch out for the porters at the airport; they will get a few extra bucks from you if they get the chance. werbot on "Baku Travel" http://www.travelforumplanet.com/topic/866#post-1795 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:13:38 +0000 werbot 1795@http://www.travelforumplanet.com/ Nice post erupon Has Baku been spoilt by the oil industry ? erupon on "Baku Travel" http://www.travelforumplanet.com/topic/866#post-1794 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:12:23 +0000 erupon 1794@http://www.travelforumplanet.com/ A few friends have asked about my recent trip to Baku, Azerbaijan. I went there on business, to consult on the environmental clean up of old oilfields, but in a few scattered moments got a wonderful memory of the city and the beautiful people there. Here's some scattered thoughts from my travel notes: Continental flight from Houston- They canceled the flight to Amsterdam, so this one to London is filled. I am in the middle section of seats, and a lovely Pakistani girl just sat down beside me. I notice that she is giving medicine to her toddler, and smile a greeting. She replies that the medicine is because her 3-year-old has an earache. It is to be an eight-hour flight, and I think briefly about just ending my life right here and being done with it. Actually, the kid isn't bad at all; the meds knock him right out, and we both get some sleep and drool on ourselves. Taxi ride from Gatwick to Heathrow, London - We're so careful with history in America; we've got so little of it to cherish. But here, they treat it with careless abandon. It's simply left lying about, everywhere one looks, like careless roadside litter - the glorious detritus of men's centuries on these emerald fields. Baku airport, Saturday night arrival near midnight - The cold hits us with a blast in the little corridor as we leave the heated plane. We are the last ones off the last plane for the night and by the time we have processed our visas the whole airport is empty. Even the soldiers who had been loitering near the girls at the passport desks have gone. The soldiers are all young and handsome in uniforms of rich fabrics the color of dark loden green. One helps us find the visa office, offering his welcome with a brilliant smile. It starts to snow again, and the lobby echoes with the squeak of our luggage wheels. The hotel hasn't sent a car, so we rent two taxis, making the drivers momentarily wealthy, since it is snowing and since we are obviously rich and dumb Americans. Still, the streets are beautifully empty except for the lights in the trees and our two lonely little cabs. Park Hyatt hotel, Baku- Ali is the young, late-shift Bell Captain. He is 19 years old and has taught himself English with the help of CNN on the television. He questions me about the best place to rear children in America. He is curious about American women, of course, and we agree after some discussion that every culture, everywhere, delights in spoiling their girls. I try to assure him that Azeri girls are the most beautiful, and I believe he appreciates the thought. Farida is my waitress this morning in the hotel cafe. At 6 a.m., everyone else is sleeping late on a snowy Sunday. I order coffee first, to set a lingering pace and try to rid the cobwebs of 27 hours of jet lag. After two cups, my head is spinning slightly. Did I mention that they like their coffee strong here? They have no breakfast pastries to go with my coffee, but I begin to get the caffeine shakes, so I order the 'English' breakfast; they don't seem to offer a more indigenous selection. No one else comes down to breakfast. I would love to call my wife; it's 10 p.m. back home. 'Back home' - what a lonely phrase. I miss her at breakfast; she loves strong coffee. My eggs come with a side dish of green and black olives. Oh yeah! I'm gonna like it here. -------- My travel notes fail at this point, as I become involved and devoured by business meetings. For eight days, I see only the inside of the hotel, the inside of taxis, the inside of meeting rooms, and the windswept desolation of the contaminated oilfields. We stop for one hour, to see the ancient 'Maiden's Tower' and get to buy some silk scarves for our wives. The young guy selling them is named Samir, and speaks English very well. He shows us ancient carpets and gives us an impromptu education on the qualities and distinctions of them. He knows we can't take them out of the country, but shows them to us anyway. I think he is truly proud of his heritage, and is so typical of the other Azeri people I meet along the way. The return home is very much the same. I remember how much I hate air travel. I'm supposed to get a long afternoon and overnight layover in Dublin and plan to see a few sites. Then in London, the airplane behind us crashes on the runway and we're delayed, waiting three hours on the tarmac. When we finally land in Dublin, it's dark and raining. I get a pint of Smitties in the hotel bar, and go to bed early. I leave Dublin in the dark and rain the next morning, and stop briefly at New York. I see for the first time, the famous skyline and the lady in the harbor. I've never been here before, yet feel strangely comfortable. The guy sitting beside me owns a coffee company in County Cork; we trade email addresses. I land in Houston to find the Irish rain has followed me home. My ears won't unstop for twelve more hours. The one enduring thing I've learned about travel is that a stranger's smile can salvage even the soggiest trip. My visit to Baku was rushed, tiring, chilly, and absolutely filled with the smiles of strangers. I hope to return soon.