Transiting the Russian border into Azerbaijan took almost three hours. The first 20 minutes was spent waiting for the Russian border guards to complete their shift change. Once that was done, Alex took the car and dealt with that while Vova and Mike went through the foot crossing side, but not before taking every bag that contained clothes or electronics out to be x-rayed by customs. We realised that this border was a fairly sensitive one based on the stacks of riot shields in the passport office, the enormous gates and the general state of alertness of the border guards.
Once we crossed onto the Azeri side of the border Vova and Mike were sent to the passenger terminal and Alex took the car and carried on. While registering the car, Alex was asked how many days we wanted to stay in Azerbaijan. If we wanted to stay for more than 3 days we would have to pay a deposit. He asked the border guard the size of the deposit: $10,000! It was then that the necessity of the safe stacked with sums of money became apparent.
Once insurance had been bought and the import tax and road duty paid it was off to get the car searched. At that point several bags had to be x-rayed. In the meantime the chap operating the x-ray scanner disappeared. Twenty minutes later he came back. Once the bags were x-rayed he decided to x-ray another two bags. When asked why it, he said was for form's sake! One of the bags was a sleeping bag! Finally after re-loading the car, Alex needed to go and get his passport stamped. The passport officer came up with a big smile and said - No need to ask you any questions as we already know everything about you! While getting the requisite entry stamps a couple of Ukrainian lorry drivers put the whole thing into perspective by having a massive bitch about the fact that they had spent four days waiting to cross the border!
In the meantime Vova and Mike were drinking tea on the other side - although the consolation for Alex was that Mike was providing a varied diet to the local mosquitoes! 3 hours later we then drove to Baku and arrived at around 4am.
Baku has a ridiculous amount of money compared to the rest of the towns we passed through. Almost everything is modern, there is tons of construction, and the word in a lot of the hotels and apartments: Luxury. We got to experience this first hand when Mike used his Hilton points for a free stay at the Baku Hilton, and they gave us an upgrade to an amazing suite.
A modern street in Baku
We had planned to do some sightseeing, but the car had some issues we had to sort out first, so we took it to a garage. There, for 130 manat, we had the seal on the rear differential replaced, and the fluid topped up. For most of the drive, we noticed the car was leaking oil, but we couldn't figure out where it was coming from. It was the diff, and good thing we had it looked at as almost all the fluid had drained away.
Our car on the lift....again
Losing our time for sightseeing, we drove to a high point in Baku to take some landscape photos and photos of the car.
A word about driving in Azerbaijan - it is not for the faint-hearted. Everyone drives during the night with their headlights on full-beam and driving down the wrong side of the motorway on the hard shoulder is de rigueur. In the meantime people happily walk across the motorway during the middle of the night dressed in dark clothing - we lost count of the number of times we had to swerve to avoid someone. Mike received a crash course in Russian swearing from Alex and Vova. Add to this a number of trucks that would have one rear light working in the best of circumstances but often none and random potholes.
On our way we passed a roadside house and decided to stop. It was a proper old school stand. There were plastic tables and chairs next to a small canal, and the only source of cooking was an open charcoal grill and a samovar producing tea. It was one of the best meals we’ve had so far. A bit of grilled lamb, salad, and tea, and it only cost the equivalent of $15.
The epic meal we had at the roadside rest stop
Very full, and slightly less tired, we soldiered on to the border. Luckily it didn’t take anything like entering Azerbaijan. In half an hour we were through, complete with a singing Azeri border guard, who sung in between each passport check.
Finally, after another long drive and a 4am arrival, we got to our hotel.