Queen Victoria of Baku Port

As Andy has already said Baku is a lovely city, we all make assumptions that unknown cities will be different and a little bit frightening but once you arrive settle in and get your bearings they turn out to be just as good as the previous places you have visited. Baku is no exception, it’s is generally clean and has several social areas that are sparsely populated during the day but become a vibrant gathering of local people in he evenings

Today, Sunday, we had a semi relaxing day. We were given three days on our visa before we had to register our car with the port authorities. We had no idea where the contact for booking the ferry to Turkmenistan, the Customs office for registering our Car and the Turkmenistan embassy for getting our visa. Browsing the Internet and information at our Hotel reception helped us locate the Embassy and the Port. Today Sunday the Embassy is shut and the port is running with a skeleton staff. So we walked to the port along the sea front passing three uniformed people of authority who asked if we had any cigarettes, after a brief chat explaining we were non smokers and where we from,we continued our journey to the port. There is massive development in the harbour, we entered the obvious big official building and were faced with the same problem, language. After talking for 45 minutes not understanding a word he said we managed to get two telephone numbers for Victoria the queen of Baku port!! Despite many calls we did not get through to Victoria, however, per chance we headed east along the adjacent road front and found what looked like the customs entrance. We asked the gateman if he knew where Victoria was, he pointed to a door behind us which we entered to meet Victoria, who spoke English and knew everything that was going on! What a relief. Queen Victoria of Baku Port!!! We found the Customs office which meant that we had just to find the Turkmenistan Embassy the next day.

The rest of the evening was for us to relax which unfortunately Andy C could not fully participate. To explain this let me take you back a few days. You remember from a previous blog how Andy got into the back of a vegetable van and started swigging vodka.

Well shortly afterwards we came across a man with a stall displaying bottles that contained this dubious looking liquid with a portrait of a chicken above!

We could not decide whether this liquid was for drinking, applying to your skin or for spreading on the garden. I was convinced it was a chicken garden manure. Andy C was convinced it was for drinking. We each purchased a bottle, Andy being a man if his word must have drunk it. We have both suffered since Andy spending his days on the toilet and me being denied access to the aforesaid.

Joking aside Andy has suffered these past few days but you will be pleased to hear he is on the mend and returning to his normal self. Roll on tomorrow for the visas