The Azeri

Tbilisi (Georiga) --> Baku --> Xinaliq --> Lahic --> Shaki --> Zaqatala --> Lagodekhi (Georgia)

I went to Baku by overnight train from Tbilisi - no problems, no incidents. Baku is a town clearly in redevelopment (no doubt fuelled by oil money). There are plenty of big, impressive buildings (which all look shiny and new) in the centre and a delightful old town. There is also, a few kilometres south of the city, an oilfield (called the "James Bond" oilfield in Lonely Planet as the opening scene of "The World Is Not Enough" was filmed there). It's bleak and full of the old-fashined 'nodding donkey' oilwells; the Baku - Tbilisi - Turkey pipeline leaves from here. Offshore from the oilfield you can see maybe 3 - 4 oil platforms in Baku Bay. I doubt you'd be surprised to hear that there is a mini oil-slick on Baku's harbour front and the occasional whiff of petrochemicals in the air.

The cream of Azerbaijan, however, lies in the hills. I went to two different mountain villages: Xinaliq (pronounced Hinalig) and Lahic (pron. Lahij). Both were fantastic. Xinaliq is at least 30 km from the nearest 'big' city of Quba up a winding mountain valley. I had a great time there with clear blue skies and spent my full day there climbing a nearby hill. However Xinaliq in incredibly small and so I had a logistical problem ... how to leave. "There's a car at 3pm," said one local; "There's a car at 2pm," said another by mime. Conclusion: I'm not sure they really knew. The only other 'outsiders' in the village were a ethnographic film team so I did the logical thing and started walking back to Quba at 7.30 am. 6 hours and (according to distance markers) about 24km later a car comes past and the driver stops when I wave him down ... tourists from Xinaliq. They kindly took me the rest of the way although it was over a week until I stopped hobbling. I did see lots of locals during the walk back to Quba but they were all going the other way, towards Xinaliq, to see the site of a car crash: apparently the night before I left a car with five people in it went over the edge of a pretty steep gorge and the wreckage was now a top attraction.

I finished Azerbaijan by town-hopping from Baku to Lahic (because it's a beautiful old village, with a traditional coppersmith industry), Shaki (to see the Khan's palace, dating from when Azerbaijan was 18 different 'Khanates') and then exit back to Georgia. The good weather that I had enjoyed until then ended in Lahic with the first snow of the season which meant that Shaki and Zaqatala were cold, wet, shrouded in fog and incredibly cold. Despite all this the day I re-entered Georgia was another bright and beautiful, sunny day.