Day 14 - Caspian Sea

Well in truth, most of the day was spent trying to get onto the Caspian Sea. Getting across the water has proven to be one of the bigger challenges this trip. In fact it's been a nightmare and there are many pieces to the jigsaw puzzle;

Taxi to the Ro-Ro terminal to discover there I had to come back tomorrow to find out more information (Friday)

Numerous phone calls to discover there as no sailings today (Saturday)

Phone call to confirm there is a sailing today (Sunday)

Taxi back to the Ro-Ro terminal 

Buy ticket 

Take a mini-bus to Alyat (sp?) 70km away to get to port of departure. This bit didn't become clear until after money had changed hands ($90). 

Drive to terminal

Wait in the terminal car park for six hours

Spend two hours getting through passport control and customs

Get on boat* and wait another 4 hours for loading to complete

Hand over passport and ticket to random guy and was left to wander into the ship to find a cabin - somehow. 

Depart. 

*The ticket office itself is a good 5km out of town, in I thought, the docks (Ro-Ro terminal) where I would catch a boat. Not so, for me anyway. The ticket office number is (+99) 0504200905 and can be found down a road just the Baku side of Nargila Cafe on the opposite side of the road. Taxi drivers seem to know Nargila Cafe. I asked the hotel receptionist to make the necessary calls to the office. 

Once through customs etc. I walked to the two vessels docked and followed the passengers ahead of me onto the nearest one. I lost the other passengers as they wove through the interior. After getting on walking around for a bit, I finally found someone and presented them with my passport. They looked a bit confused and after a while, we jointly worked out that I was on a cargo boat headed to Kazakhstan. So hurriedly got off and ran to the next boat. The correct boat. 

So I set sail on the good ship 'Azerbaycan' after a lot of running around and waiting. It is true to say that there are some things that I'm missing from home. A jumper might be one example but there are others. Still, this old war horse can now handle a bit of cold and the occasional hob-nob craving.

I'm counting that as the end of the first leg of my journey. From night bus to Istanbul, ferry across the Bosporus, bullet/sleeper trains across Turkey, Georgian homestay, first beer in Tbilisi, to delays and confusion in Baku, it feels like it's been a busy week and a bit. I HAVE found it a challenge at times but I've managed to do what I set out to do and done so in good humour (for the most part). I wouldn't change any of these experiences even if I were able to. I've met some very generous people, I've seen parts of countries not everyone gets to see, I've staying in some nice places and some awful ones but it's been a very rich and rewarding journey so far! 

The ticket office in the Ro-Ro terminal Baku

A fellow passenger. My first prisoner of the campaign. I think I bored him into surrendering with too much talk about the role supermarkets can play in the UK Horticulture market.

One of me during the long wait at the border. 

Hazy Baku sunset