Finally in Azerbaijan

Onwards to Baku on standby

I dozed for about 5h on the flight from Kuala Lumpur aided by a sleeping pill.  We landed in Istanbul at 0410, 20 mins earlier than our scheduled time.

I have a scheduled 2h45 connection here in Istanbul, to await my standby flight to Baku.  Walking past immigration I noticed that it wasn’t busy and I probably would have been OK if I had to go through in order to re-check-in.

But fortunately, I was able to collect my boarding pass from the transfer desk instead.  The bad news was that they gave me a standby pass to wait at the gate on the departures level, saying that I will be confirmed when boarding commences.  The process was relatively easy, taking about 20 mins from disembarkation to getting the boarding pass.  It was largely walking time and a pitstop.

I had just missed the quiet moment at transit security and a short queue had built up. It was another 25 mins before I was seated at the lounge to kill about 45 mins.

At the gate an hour before departure, I waited for boarding to start.  Staff then told me to wait until boarding had finished before they would confirm me.  I had my documents (visa, outward ticket and vaccination) checked using my standby pass to save some time later on.

When the boarding queue finished, I was given seat 26B, a seat between two people on the last row of the B737-800.  Being one of the last to board, I took a spare row which I later shared with someone else. I had counted about 20 empty seats on board, so I was surprised the staff hadn’t been more accommodating with letting me on earlier and giving me a better seat.  [Edit: my ground staff friend agreed, so I’m not being unreasonably high with expectations.]

The flight took us through Kars before crossing into Armenia (despite no relations with Turkey) before entering Azerbaijan.  We did a big round over the Caspian Sea before landing on time at 1055 in Baku amidst a few gusts in otherwise still conditions.

Arrival in Baku

Even though it was late morning, the light conditions felt like afternoon to me.  We waited for a VIP to disembark and be limo’ed away on the tarmac.

Inside the terminal building there was an ATM and visa-on-arrival facilities (limited nationalities and conditions apply), which meant extra queueing and delay.  The passport control queue itself already seemed long.  It took me about 35 mins to get to the front with a couple of queue-management mishaps as they directed people to other counters and then sent them back because they only wanted to direct locals to those desks.  Those at the front became at the back!  But people just put up with it with no complaints.

The passport lady was welcomed me to Azerbaijan and I was at baggage claim ready to make my way into a new country!   I was pleased to be here after the uncertainty of two standby flights.

Getting to the city

The ATM had a limit of AZN200 so I made two withdrawals to pay for my accommodation and expenses.  It spat out large AZN50 notes whereas I needed small notes for the bus.

I saw a McDonald’s upstairs and placed an order on the self-service screens for a small cone, opting to pay cash at the counter.  At the counter, the lady gave me a dirty look but I got my cone and my small change.  Follow me for more great travel tips!

It took me about 20 mins to resolve my money hassles before proceeding into the fresh air outside.  I had just missed the hourly bus service to the city.  Damn!

With the bus/metro combo to the hotel costing less than AZN2, I thought I would forget about the taxi.  My hotel had quoted me AZN25 but I probably should have been more receptive to the taxi drivers who beckoned me.  I was afraid that they would pester me endlessly once I showed interest, even if the price was disagreeable.

My public transport experience wasn’t the best start to my visit:

• There was a 45 min wait for the bus in the hot sun with limited shade.
• The bus ride was fast until it was caught in traffic near the station, making the journey under an hour.
• I had hassles finding the correct metro entrance.
• I got on the wrong train at the station with a split line, meaning I had to backtrack to restart.
• The metro was ridiculously crowded and I couldn’t board one of the trains but had to wait.
• The whole journey from the airport to the Old Stone Hotel took about 1h30 plus the 45 min waiting, meaning that I got to my hotel around 1430, about 3h30 after landing.

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On the bus ride from the airport, I had a first taste of Bakuvian modern architecture:  the water supply authority building was in the form of a water droplet, there was a twisty spiral square skyscraper and there were some modern buildings built in old style.  All the buildings looked well-built.

First explorations of Baku

The weather had turned cloudy and muggy as I headed out around 1545.  I did a brief take of the old city before heading on the boulevard for a longish walk.  From the boulevard I saw the iconic Flame Tower, Maiden Tower and the upcoming Crescent Moon building.

Heading back inland, I grabbed a simple early dinner of a shawarma and salad before stumbling into the Fountain Square and Nizami Street area.  The atmosphere here was lovely but I wasn’t in the mood to linger after my long journey.

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Buying a SIM card

I enquired about SIM cards here and it can be easily purchased by tourists.  Prices varied greatly in my three enquiries at different stores:

• Azercell:  3GB for AZN25 and 6GB for AZN35 (prohibitive, really)
• Bakcell:  5GB for AZN18 and
• Bakcell:  11GB for AZN15

The third one was cheap enough to justify for 10 days as a non-essential expenditure.  They sign-up process was quick.  I learnt during the interaction that most young people speak English, Russian and Azeri.  It was very different from Central Asia where very little English was spoken.

I returned to my room for an early night.  I realised that my New Zealand SIM wasn’t working here (even though it was meant to) and I wouldn’t be able to do online bank payments to new payees or do online credit card transactions.  Fortunately, I do have a backup with a functioning Malaysian SIM and cards.