You should never judge a place by the area surrounding its airport - but by any standards, the drive into Baku is not a pretty one. Oil derricks, rubble and smoke abound - it sometimes seemed as if I was heading towards the gates of hell. Once in the Azerbaijan capital, however, things changed and I was soon gliding down Parisian-style boulevards until we reached the shores of the tempestuous-looking Caspian Sea.
Evocative: Baku's old walled city recalls the days when it sat on the Silk Road
Whenever I hear the words Caspian Sea I think of only one thing: caviar. I have a terrible weakness for the stuff and this was probably enough in itself to get me to Azerbaijan. But just in case I was undecided, a local billionaire invited me to fly to Baku aboard a private jet. I'm a sucker for private jets, so this was the clincher.
Azerbaijan is a secular, democratic Muslim country in the Caucasus. This is pretty unusual in itself. In fact, the country gave women the vote before Britain and the United States did.
I was actually rather excited to visit Baku, which has an interesting history. In the late 19th Century it was a serious boomtown, producing more than half the world's oil, and a huge international community was based there.
Opulent villas were built all along the seafront, earning Baku the nickname 'Little Paris'. Then came the Russian Revolution and Azerbaijan was swallowed up into the Soviet Union.
Now it's keen to welcome visitors back. The old walled city, a World Heritage Site, is being restored, and I read on the internet that 'Baku is one of world's top ten party cities for having ultimate experience'.
I'm always up for having 'ultimate experience', and since I'd been invited to attend the opening of a glitzy new nightclub - an event so huge that one of the many incarnations of the Sugababes had been asked to perform there - I was very much looking forward to it all.
The Maiden Tower is the main historical sight in Baku, but nobody seemed entirely sure how old it was. The name also seemed to be in question - there was one story about a maiden being thrown from the top, another story insisted it picked up its tag because nobody had ever conquered it (surely the Virgin Tower, then?).
A slice of local life: Tea in a caravanserai was one of the highlights of Dom's trip
Whatever the truth, it was actually pretty dull, but apparently Baku had a lot more to tempt me with. This is, after all, the place where the world's first fireplace was discovered. Then, after further research, I found that it was the world's second fireplace. But one thing is certain: the fireplace has been here for... quite a long time.
Having freshened up in my rather lavish boutique hotel, I set off to further explore the city. Being on the edge of the old walled town, I started there. Clearly, it had once been quite a sight but a lot of it is rather rundown at present, although restoration work is well under way. Money does not appear to be an issue and a huge effort is being made to spruce up the place.
One of the more innovative refurbishment methods is to allow local artists to move into a building as long as they help with the restoration work. I popped into several of these projects and they were all wonderfully quirky. One had a crazy-looking bohemian-type person living in a kind of self-hewn rocky den with everything imaginable hanging from the walls - bones, antique machines, insane paintings - I loved it.
In another low-ceilinged building, a woman showed me her patchworks (not a euphemism). She had a beautifully cosy place and her table was groaning under all sorts of food that she tried to force me to eat.
Finally managing to extract myself from her hospitality, I continued to wander through cobbled alleyways. Occasionally I would spot a wooden balcony protruding from the stonework - these looked so comfortable, a place to sit, smoke and contemplate.
I'm always on the lookout for quirkier tourist experiences and there can be few odder than the Baku Miniature Book Museum. After looking around the site, I kept asking myself one question: Why?
A vociferous old lady explained that she had once seen some tiny books in a Moscow shop and was instantly smitten. There must have been about 5,000 tiny books on show, books the size of matchboxes. Rather worryingly, an Azerbaijani book on human rights was particularly tiny. It reminded me of that line from Fawlty Towers about Things To Do In Torquay being one of the world's shortest books.
Having sated my desire for tiny books, I wandered along more cobbled streets until I reached a thick stone gate. I ducked inside and entered a beautiful courtyard containing an ornate fountain.
All around this courtyard were small openings leading into high-vaulted rooms. This was a caravanserai. Baku was on the Silk Road and this was a place where caravans would stop for the night. Camels would be watered and fed in the courtyard while their owners would be fed and put up in the surrounding rooms. It was one of the most evocative buildings I have ever set foot in.
I sat in one of the cave-like dining rooms and drank sweet tea while an old fire (not, as far as I knew, the second oldest in the world) gently warmed the space. The place reeked of history. I tried to imagine what conversations had occurred here. What deals had been struck? What travellers' tales had been spun?
I lounged on a pile of rugs and occasionally a man would come in and stoke the fire and refill my cup. I could have stayed there all day - I vowed to return one day and host a party there.
Parties, as it turns out, are something Azerbaijan does very well. People certainly weren't holding back at the launch of Chinar nightclub. Chefs from London restaurant Hakkasan provided the posh nosh while a couple of top international DJs were suitably annoying.
One of them, a fat man, wobbled and tottered about in his DJ booth, lording it over the dancers beneath him. At one stage I wanted to warn them that the booth looked precarious. Occasionally the DJ would grab the microphone and scream something nonsensical such as: 'Can you rock it now?'
Sour note: The Sugababes did not shine on the Baku club scene
Then the Sugababes came on stage. I'm afraid to say they were appalling. There can't be many international pop groups visiting Baku but, nevertheless, by the third song, the audience was drifting away back to the drinks and canapes.
I left the club fairly early, determined to take a long walk down to the windy promenade along the shore of the Caspian Sea. As I stepped outside the club, I felt the sea breeze on my face. Fashionably late guests were still arriving at the club and the paparazzi hung about outside taking photographs.
I immediately noticed something a bit odd about them, so I took a closer look. I realised that they weren't using flashbulbs on their cameras. I got even closer and saw that they were using antique cameras - without any film in them. I chatted to one of the ' photographers', a charming student who spoke excellent English. It turned out that the group had been paid by the organisers to stand around and create a 'scene'.
The people of Baku might not have to wait too long for the real thing.
Travel Facts
BMI (www.flybmi.com) offers return flights from Heathrow to Baku from £832.50pp.
Steppes Travel (01285 880 980, www.steppestravel.co.uk) offers a nine-day journey to Azerbaijan including a walking tour of Baku, an excursion to Absheron Peninsula, and a visit to a volcanic desert south of Baku to see rock paintings and mud volcanoes. Prices start at £2,085pp, including flights.
Regent Holidays (0845 277 3317, www.regent-holidays.co.uk) offers a three-night break in Baku with return flights with Azerbaijan Airlines and bed-and-breakfast accommodation in the three-star Empire Hotel from £693pp.
Credit by :http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1297564/Amazing-Azerbaijan-Baku-future-capital-city-edge-Europe.html
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