Baku, Azerbaijan
Thursday, July 2, 2009
We foolishly wasted the morning playing birthday, but then we weren't to know that it would take 7 hours to get through the Azeri border. It was certainly an adventure. Despite being the main entry point from Georgia, the border was a run down disorganised affair, patrolled by heavily armed teenage soldiers. The first of many issues is that apparently, because Molly's steering wheel is on the wrong side, we are only allowed in the country for 3 days, despite having 30 day visas. Glad we paid for those. I was carted away, alone, to buy the car insurance. This is becoming routine – only the registered owner of the vehicle can do it, and has to do it by himself. The insurance office was rammed with shouting truck drivers, and I would never have made it to the front if it wasn't for a well timed prayer session which allowed me to sneak to the front. I was now on the other side of the border from Chris and Damien, but they had my passport, so I lurked outside the railings, chatting in bad French and sign language with Elmir, armed teenager and life long Man U fan. We eventually got in, with 3 days to get on a ferry out of Baku. Chris had to swerve to avoid a Lada that pulled out in front of us. Despite having kept his cool and avoided a crash, we were rewarded with a $100 fine. And only because we said we didn't have $150. It was clearly a corrupt deal, but we didn't have the time to try and take it down official lines. The roads were awful and we spent the night in a building site, leaving at 6am to beat the traffic.
