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- Travel & Leisure
Azerbaijan with excursions to Georgia
by: Mark Elliott
UPDATES
Thank you to Balint Toth for the following update. The information has not yet been checked by Trailblazer but it will be for the next edition.
First of all let me congratulate on your book, it is brilliant.
I'd like to add footnotes here to a possible future edition.
I just came back from Azerbaijan(August 2010), i spent a week there.
I and my friend tried to find the mud vulcanoes near Baku. To save money we got off a bus at the right place, in front of the "oil factory site", not far from the petrol station. We started walking up the hill but after 10 minutes we had to go back down because the police were after us. They took our passports. Their biggest concern was that we both had cameras with us. We had to follow them, got into a police car and we ended up in their headquarters in Baku not far from the airport where we were interrogated. I am a photographer so i take lots of photos. They searched our bags, viewed all of my photos, many of them they found suspicious, i had to explain why i took them then i had to delete them. After 5 hours we were free again.
So i dont recommend anyone to try and find the mud vulcanoes alone especially with a camera. Much better to take a taxi.
They told me i cannot take any photos of the following objects: anything that has to do with oil, army, navy, trains, train stations, airports, metro, metro stations, anything that can be considered strategic.
I stayed at the Caspian hostel which is a very nice place.
In Xinaliq i was warned 2 times not to cross the way of the soldiers, not to go in that direction at all. Maybe with a local guide it is possible.
I got to Xinaliq through a driver arranged by Kheyraddin, i would recommend him to anyone, the driver was in time at my hostel in Baku, everything was done perfectly. I was the only guest at the guesthouse.
From Robert Younger and family, August 2010:
My family and I have traveled most everywhere in Azerbaijan & Georgia and have found your guide invaluable. We have even made the epic vehicle journey from Baku to Batumi. We have spent the last week on holiday in Azerbaijan and I thought I pass along some information that I gathered along the way. There are some new hotels in Lahic and Ilisu. We stayed in the Evi Motel in Lahic and quite enjoyed it there. There is a place to stay in Ilisu - did not stay, but was quite surprised by the large swimming pool. There are new tourist information centers popping-up in many of the tourist destinations eg Sheki. If you have not been in Azerbaijan in some time, I think you will be surprised at how things are continuing to develop.
p.167 Map and text on page 191,Hazra to Samur. We were pleasantly surprised to find a new road connecting Hazra to Samur.
