Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan

We wake up and head over to the breakfast room. Sat at our breakfast table are a Swiss financier and a young French lady. Banter quickly turns to our trip and Georgia - The Swiss guy asks if we had any problems with the police in Azerbaijan.. I fill him in with the gory details. And Georgia? No, not a single problem with the police.

He goes on to explain that Georgia used to have a very bad reputation for corrupt cops hassling people. Apparently as soon as the current president came to power, he set about sacking the entire traffic police and re-hiring new people who were very well paid. The transformation has been amazing and his plan worked perfectly. Its amazing what you can learn over a full English breakfast!

We head outside to explore downtown Baku to search for the notorious ferry port and ticket office. The city itself is very smart and clean - The pockets of the upper classes here have been swelled by the relatively recent oil boom. They obviously have money to burn, and the shops are ready to help them burn it. Designer label outlets line both sides of the street, and enroute to the docks we pass a new Bentley showroom…

There’s a new paved sidewalk under construction down at the sea front. It winds its way along the sea front through lush green gardens peppered with benches and popcorn vendors. It’s a pleasant stroll to the docks where we find the entrance to the ticket office, a small unmarked door at the side of a narrow alleyway. The clerk is out to lunch, but we hang around and sure enough he eventually makes an appearance.

He speaks no English but gestures the ship is leaving tonight, and that we should return at 8pm that evening to arrange the paperwork. A definite stroke of luck, there is no schedule for our ship which often runs only every 3^rd or 4^th day, we could have ended up waiting the rest of the week in Baku.

The ship itself is an ageing Russian cargo ship, operating a freight service between Baku and Turkmenbashi Port, Turkmenistan. Its not designed to ferry passengers, but a crew cabin can be hired for $20 or so.

When I woke up this morning I had the dreaded stomach twinges, these lead on to frequent loo stops….Could I have contracted Rebeccas dodgy stomach illness!? With the lengthy ferry trip looming and our next 10 days to be spent in the bad lands of the ’Stans, I decided it would be best to check us into the best medical facility in town for a once over. We jumped in a cab & headed over to the Baku “Mediclub” where we made an appointment to speak with an English speaking doctor.

The hospital was more like a luxury hotel than the military field hospital we experienced in Georgia! Our doctor came out to meet us, I explained our problem, he confirmed that becoming ill in Tukmenistan would be less than ideal & came up with a brilliant plan. I was to have a blood test, poo test, ultra sound and general check up. For Bex he would check her existing prescription and carry out an ultra sound test on her stomach.

They ran the tests as high priority and within an hour we’d both recived the all clear. As a precautionary measure I was also prescribed three different types of drugs, which he assured me would almost definitely fix me up. The results of more involved tests would be emailed to me in a few days time, great service!

Boosted by our results we went straight to the nearest Kebab house for a late lunch. In hindsight, the chilli donor kebab & lager probably wasn’t the smartest of moves...

Down at the docks we started the agonisingly protracted process of buying a ticket and getting customs clearance for the car - As you might imagine, this wasn’t the easiest of things to arrange at midnight in pitch black docks, especially when the only spoken language is Russian.

I use some dead time to clean the air filter elements on the carbs which are now black with dust and dirt - This draws a small crowd of friendly locals who seem utterly bewildered by our choice of car. “Misooobishi cruiser, good!” “Porscha mashin, no good!”. 

Later on I find one person that speaks some English, he points me towards the Customs office and we chat briefly. Suddenly a body builder type chap walks into the room - The guy leans over and in a hushed voice says “ Him, my brother. Him Chechen rebel fighter” .Gulp. I make my excuses and head back to the car.

Five hours later and we board the good ship “Ms Mercuri” for our voyage to Turkmenistan. Jerry is parked in the cargo hold, sandwiched between two lines of train carriages that were shunted in by a pair of knackered Russian trains an hour or so before.

We made our way up the gangway and into the ship, before being shown to our crew quarters. At the booking office we’d opted for the more expensive officers quarters. A pretty good room complete with ensuite vacuum flush toilet & shower, bunk beds and an opening window. It shows its age and stinks pretty badly, but the bathroom is a life saver and its actually pretty comfortable. Bex said it reminds her of her horsebox living area.

We spend that evening exploring the very large ship which is deserted all but about 10 passengers. At 1am we sail off into the night, destination Turkmenbashi. I hope their radar isn’t as rusty as the ship…!