The best of Baku

Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan and the largest city in the Caucasus' certainly stands out.  It's a buzzing metropolis where flashy opulence seemingly goes hand in hand with tradition.  It's a place that seems to span the divide between east and west in an easy going and welcoming manner.  The historic heart of the city, complete with walls and narrow alleys showcase the best of the old city and its heritage.  Here it's easy to get lost in the maze of cobbled lanes, and narrow stone steps leading from street to street.  Look up and the houses are adorned with cast iron balconies, paint chipping and walls flaking, shade is provided naturally in these narrow passages a welcome relief from temperatures in the high thirties.  It's worth seeking out a room here to enjoy the best the area has to offer both day and night.  Small boutiques and restaurants hidden in cellars are there to tempt. 

 

Not to be missed is the Shirvanshahs Palace, built in the 15th century and restored complete with ceremonial courts, carvings and great views out to Baku Bay beyond.  The maidens tower also looked promising, but unfortunately was closed for renovation.

Maidens Tower

Breaking free from the old city walls and entering the new modern heart of Baku is a pleasant surprise.  Wide tree lined boulevards surround leafy squares and a cosmopolitan city awaits.  Exceptionally well dressed locals parade round the square in the latest designer fashions.  Mothers in super high shoes show amazing dexterity chasing their small children round the park.  Whilst other locals take in the designer boutiques that line the main roads and luxury cars are seen parked along the waterfront.  All of this a strange juxtaposition with the old and dated tower blocks, the remnants of the cities soviet past, that can still be seen in some neighbourhoods.  The best vantage point for all this is from above and trendy bars selling cold beer and cocktails look down over the main square, complete with glass balconies and comfortable sofas.

Modern architecture is certainly a feature of the 'new Baku' and the Heydar Aliyev cultural centre is a gem of a building. 

Its distinctive white curves and flowing lines reject all form of angles, it's not often you can sit on the side walls of a building, but the bright white tiles and sleek exterior are impressive and provide for some fun photos.

Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre

Another group of buildings that are difficult to avoid are the Flame towers, 3 of the tallest buildings in Baku, each covered in LED screens that light up at night and alternate in their display of moving flames and the waving flag of Azerbaijan.  It's an impressive site on Baku's new modernist skyline.  One of the building houses the 5 star Fairmount hotel and even as badly dressed backpackers we managed to blag our way in an to get a hotel tour.  If you can afford it, a stay here would provide great views and a fair amount of comfort, although they are clearly expecting everyone to drive up as crossing the busy duel lane highway in from proved to be quite a challenge.

Flame Towers

One of the standout selling points of Baku is its position on the Caspian sea.  Evidence of its oil rich industry can still be seen, but somehow this has been moved further round the bay and instead the shore is lined with wide tree lined, shady parks and pedestrian only walkways stretching from a brand new Mall and Freedom Square at one end to Azerbaijan's giant flag pole and exhibition centre at the other.  This 3km curve is  a great place to sit and looks at locals enjoying activities whatever time of day, and is especially welcoming in the evening, when the heat of the day disappears and the temperatures become more comfortable.  At the nearest point to the underpass into the city centre are also some bars and restaurants full of families of all ages late into the night.

On the final day of our travels in Azerbaijan, we decided to do something very touristy and surreal but surprisingly enjoyable.  We look a boat ride in the mini canals built into the promenade, a Disney kind of experience, complete with gondolas and bridges.  Definitely not something we imagined doing but somehow seemingly appropriate in this the best of cities.

Visiting the Kent coast, UK

It's not as spectacular as Cornwall, or as rugged as the western parts of Scotland, or as gorgeous as the Welsh coast with is sweeping beaches.  But if you look closely enough you can find parts of the Kent coast with their own appeal.  It's easy to take in the three town of Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate in a couple of days, you can even walk or cycle between them if you're feeling energetic.



Margate seafront

First stop Margate, we had heard of the recently renovated and opened 'Dreamland'.  The website promised much and who can resist such a name.  Dreamland still needs some work if it really is going to be the place of dreams, although it's possible to see what they are trying to  achieve.  Old seaside fairground rides have been redeveloped and spruced up, offering a quaint charm to the day tripper.  The colours and paintings of the rides conjures up images of old seaside postcards of a time when a week at the British seaside was still a thing.  There is the carousel, the helter-skelter, the big wheel and the most exciting of all a wooden roller coaster seemingly attracting kids, teenagers and adults alike.  If they can sort out the surrounding environment they might be on to something here.

Dreamland

The seafront was nice enough to amble along, the town looked tired, a seaside resort in winter can be a grey thing.  Boarded up ice cream parlours, cafes and chip shops, and closed arcades.  It all seemed a bit sad.  I am sure things would be different in the summer when the place gets weekenders from London, seeking an escape from the city and some sea air.  There were a couple of places that seemed to be attracting the visitors braving the high winds and chilly air.  The first was the Turner Contemporary gallery a new interesting looking building on the water front, a place of temporary exhibitions of  modern art, and sorry to say not a Turner in sight, just the type of art that gets people saying 'what's that?'.  The old town still offered up some small town fishing port charm,  old brick buildings with large sash windows lined narrow streets and offered a glimpse of better times in the past.  We decided to move on.

Dreamland

We were staying in Broadstairs in The Royal Albion hotel.  Right on the sea front this pub / restaurant with rooms has balconies with sweeping views of Viking bay, and a terrace that in the summer would offer a great space for summer drinks with friends.  The food was good tasty pub food, pies, fish and chips, just right after a long walk on the beach and promenade below.  The town is built on the cliff above and steep steps or weirdly a lift carry you to the beach below.  This is lined with colourful beach huts, small boats and even some old fashioned swing boats.

Broadstairs

A good idea is to follow the coast around, handily a seawall has been built to provide protection from coastal erosion and this doubles up as a promenade walk way just a metre or so above the beach.  Walking out that day we saw only other hardy types, all wrapped up in hats and scarves from the bracing sea air.  The following morning the sun came out and with it more tourists to enjoy the beach.

There's a good choice of pubs and several appealing looking places to eat in Broadstairs, this combined with its sandy beach makes it far more appealing for an overnight stay than Margate.

Further round the coast is Ramsgate.  We had the idea to visit here after the 'Lifeboat' charity had such an appealing picture of it on its 2015 calendar.  It was raining when we arrived but we parked up to explore.  The harbour itself is nice enough, good use has been made of the arches around the harbour, each now enclosed with buildings going back into the cliff.  Workshops, sail makers, cafes are all set up here providing services to locals and tourists alike.  The harbour is pretty big and you can walk down sides of the harbour arms which jut out to sea.  From the end you can look back at Ramsgate and see its long beach and town rising above.  It wasn't quite as picturesque as the calendar made it seem.

Kent coast for a few days, yes maybe, a week and I would head to Dorset instead.

 

Travelling the long way -Trans-Mongolian train - Beijing to Moscow

This was the stuff of travel programmes, old fashioned novels and views from coffee table books.  I couldn't believe we were finally boarding the train, a journey of five and a half days that would take us out from Beijing across China to Mongolia, where we would cross great plains and vast open spaces before eventually arriving in Moscow.  Of course we could have flown, but that's not what great journeys are about is it.

Buying our tickets at some back of beyond travel agency in Shanghai meant we were doing the trip ourselves.  Letters of 'invitation' had been downloaded from a promising website, and now two pristine full page visa stickers graced our passports, our official permission to enter two of the most closed and intriguing countries at the time.

We had a compartment back in second class, bunks enough for four, the three of us and an unsuspecting young Chinese man 'Fu' who was leaving China for the first time and was to be an interesting travelling companion.  Unlike the Chinese trains we had been travelling on with their open corridors of bunks, our room even had a lockable door and the first class facilities of a mirror, bed lights and a small table fixed to the wall.  This was to be our space for the best part of a week.

 

The train pulled out of the station at 7.40am, we celebrated with an iced coffee as we stared out of the window as the train past the Great Wall.  Sitting by the window just looking would take up much of our time over the next few days.  Magnificent views were not hard to come by on this trip, remote farmland, vast open spaces with the occasional isolated settlement, horses galloping across the plains, cattle grazing, a yurt in the middle of nothingness.  Forests, fields, train stations in places with no signs of human habitation, and the vast lakes of southern Russia.  Just one day of this would have been awesome, 5 days seemed over indulgent somehow.  What a privilege to be able to see all of these things.

 

Of course sitting on a train for 5 and a half days does sometimes get tiresome.  We created activities to keep us occupied.  Reading, diary writing, cards, a Chinese board game and thinking ahead we had even brought a guitar.

But a lot of our entertainment came from our fellow passengers, we were the only Westerners on board.  The rest of the train was full of Chinese and Russian men, travelling to and from work contracts.  The Chinese quickly settled in, we must have missed the memo, as soon as we pulled out of Beijing station travel pyjamas appeared on all and were to remain until Moscow.  We also missed the bit of info about bringing a lot of food on board.  Many, many pot noodles were consumed on the train and the smell of instant noodles became our constant travelling companion.  Of course with the number of Russians on board there was also a fair amount of drinking.  The Chinese with their Baijiu and the Russians with bottles of Vodka and as the journey progressed the mixing of both as new found friends invited each other for parties in their cabins. 

Changing the 'bogies' at the border

Our new cabin friend 'Fu', allowed out for the first time took the opportunity to get involved with these activities.  Late one night he sneaked in like a naughty child sneaking home late and trying not to wake his parents, something he failed in spectacularly as he threw up all over the floor.  His devastation of the night before was obvious the following morning and we spent the rest of the day turning down constant offers of noodles and feed.  We were slightly pleased that it didn't stop his enthusiasm the following evening, a break out from the constrains and expectations of being a Chinese man in a sometimes controlling society.

 

We sometimes ate in the dining car with its yellowing 'lace' curtains, Formica tables and formidable waitress.  It was never full, food here was not tasty or particularly cheap.  Strangely we could see the appeal of the noodles.  Instead we took the opportunity to jump off the train at its daily stop where ever that may be and buy items from the ladies that had baskets of goods, their offerings changing at each different stops.  Meals were created with bread, dumplings and potatoes, all brought hot from the baskets.

 

The time passed with surprising speed as the days fell into an easy routine of sleep, eat, look, play.  And before we knew it we were approaching the outskirts of Moscow and the next stage in our journey the long way home.  Would I do this journey again? in a shot if I got the chance.  It's rare to find the time in this life just to sit and stare and there's no better place to do this than from the carriage of a train ,with its constant and reassuring noise as the train winds its way across great distances into the horizon of bright blue vast open skies ahead.