Around Asia
We’re planning a short trip “Around Asia”, specifically Burma, Cambodia and Vietnam in January 2010. We’ve booked the flights, our visas are being processed (perhaps we should have done that the other way around…) and we’re looking forward to joining our friends in Bangkok en-route to Yangon.
A day in Baku
Location: Baku, Azerbaijan
Summary: Got our Iranian visas, saw the old city, bought some rugs and ate at a great restaurant!
So, both Lonely Planet and the Trailblazer guide to Azerbaijan are advising people to go to the Iranian Embassy near Old Baku to pickup visas. This information is now out of date. You have to go to the following address, right over the road from the Nizami Metro Station:
On the left, the Iranian Consulate. On the right, Nizami Metro Station.
Iran Islam Respublikasinin Bakidaki Sefirliyinin Konsulluq
C. Cabbarli 10
Baku, Azerbaijan
They were exceptionally friendly there, and one of the gentlemen spoke excellent English. You have to fill in a form (1 page), provide a single passport photo and a single copy of the information of your passport, and some cash. It’s currently EUR 85 for Brits and EUR 65 for Americans. I’ve no idea why Kristy got a discount! Anyway, this money has to be changed at the bank for some kind of money order thing, but a fixer did this for us – it took him about 45 minutes and he was based in a building right next to the consulate.
He didn’t charge us a penny…
We dropped everything back off at the Embassy, and came back 3 hours later to issued visas, many smiles, much handshaking and a demand to enjoy our visit to Iran!
Next up, we walked to the Old City. This is the medieval walled city in the center of Baku. It was a relief to get away from the traffic and honking horns, it is much quieter and less busy in there. Like all medieval towns, it’s full of character and alleyways just waiting to be explored. As these places tend to be dynamic, it was a wonderful mix of old and new (well, as new as early 20th century). It reminded us of small Iberian mountain villages.
The most imposing part of the old city is the Shirvanshah’s Palace.
It costs AZN 2 per person, about USD 2.4, and we almost had the place to ourselves. Well, we thought we did until we rounded a corner and realised that the mosque was in full swing! Maybe there’s a better way to describe it, but anyway, we left.
We wandered past the infamous carpet sellers, which were very mild and polite by global carpet selling standards! We even bought a couple (don’t ask how much), very fine silk specimens which we were assured were not made in China! Actually, they’re really nice and we loved them – which is really the only criteria you can apply if you’re going to lug the things by hand for the next 3 weeks and 5000 miles…
After wrapping up the carpet-bagging, we continued around the Old City, passing by the Maidens Tower.
It was 1820. It closed at 1800… Next time…
Finally, we were aiming for a restaurant I’d read about earlier – the Karavansaray. It’s wonderfully atmospheric, situated in an old caravanserai. Small rooms off the main courtyard contain the tables and a roaring gas fire – it’s very cosy. Vegetables like you’d forgotten they could taste (what do we do with our veg in the US and UK?), fine caviar for USD 50 a plate-load (and I do mean load), hunks of meat and grilled veg. We spent about USD 150 on the best meal we’d had in ages. Highly recommended.
A quick walk back through the double gates and fountains square and we were back to the Radisson, which BTW has a great central location.
