Nakchivan

Last weekend, Jo and I took at trip to Azerbaijan's exclave, Nakchivan. It's supposed to be the cultural heart of the country and has a very ancient feel -- much like Iran just across the border. Very interesting!!

Because it's one of the only destinations going out of Baku's domestic terminal, the airport had a bus station feeling. We had to go up two flights of stairs with our suitcases, and there was even a ticket booth like in a bus or tram station. You can't buy your return journey until you get there! It certainly gives the illusion of being cut off instead of connected! Jo and I commented on the bizarre feeling -- two guys were racing remote control cars and boxes and boxes of goods were there, with one guy even flying with car parts. The flights are subsidized for nationals of course (and exorbitant for expats), and there is no land route there except through Iran. Our boarding pass said 12.50 but that's the "old time" (I wonder when Nakchivan was ever on that time -- the Ottoman Empire perhaps?) but we were leaving at 9. The cafe had friendlier people, and we noted the irony of there being no milk for my tea, but yet other customers had received a full omlette complete with pan. They loved the fact that my name was Natalya, and I believe I remember hearing someone saying 'Take off your clothes': before you get excited, they were talking about my jacket.

We arrived and took a taxi straight from the airport via Jolfa and the Aza bridge to the southernmost village of Ordubad -- what a great town! While it was once on the main road to Nagorno-Karabakh, it is now a sleepy place at the very end of the road. Jammed in the bottom triangle of Nakchivan, squeezed between a non-bridged river border with Iran, and hostile Armenia, it is a quaint forgotten sort of place. It had lovely crumbling mud brick walls and restored mosques. It had a lovely old square with a teashop under a giant cinar tree. The madrasa was being renovated and there was a cool bridge house under repair. Through narrow streets where the taxi driver, Shamil, would simply stop and sigh with exasperation when a car would happen by and need to get past. Jo found it amusing when Shamil was directing me to a better picture on the other side of the Aza bridge where there ended up being a garish yellow pipeline, ubiquitous to Azerbaijan to ruin the picture.

Stopping for lunch at a little place on the side of the road on the way back, we enjoyed our salads (and for me, kebabs) right above a dammed reservoir full of the most interesting fish, lizards and floating snakes. It was quite astonishing, in fact, to see 3 yellow snakes, a turtle, multiple ducks, and a cat all sharing the same space as the fish!

To Naxcivan city, where we negotiated being able to stay in the hotel of our choice (and not Shamil's), we wandered to the famous mausoleum just before it closed and huge storm rolled in. It was quite an exciting storm, but alas, we had no jackets. Tea (again), and I eat the whole bowl of sweets as it's already 6pm! We then wandered through the melted mud citadel collecting tile fragments (probably modern), scampering down banks and gawping at modern reconstructions of mud-brick (quite amazing actually, that they are not making them out of concrete). I was most fascinated that there was a mud-brick fort exactly like Merv (Mary) in Turkmenistan. Past closed Imamzade (over renovated!) to town, we felt quite accomplished for our first day. A Turkish dinner and ghastly green restaurant in the hotel for drinks (yucky decor and wine, price, etc).

We had arranged to meet at 9.15 through unlucky translator son Ali. After two museums we only sort of wanted to see (but Shamil wanted to show us) -- one was Heydar Aliyev's, and another was a more interesting carpet museum. We debated about what famous people's museums should have -- their breakfast food, favorite TV programs, a look at the inside of the house -- but these were not present in Heydar Aliyev's museum. To the ticket office to buy our flight back (and for Shamil to collect a secret package), finally we were on the way to where we actually wanted to go!

The mountains were high and spectacularly snow-capped, and we drove up into the passes where there are the famed islands within lakes that move location. We drove to Qarabaglar, a charming little village with the best Islamic structure I've seen in ages. Quaint homes and rusticly left-alone. Batabat -- not even a town, it turns out, is just lakes up a mountain pass. Spectacular scenery, but disappointing to have no village. We had a lovely little picnic ala Shamil under the cautious eyes of the army post above us (who were no doubt amused by us going to the toilet on the side of the road). Tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese and lavash. Yum!

He then took us to his home past stones holding house roofs down, poppy fields, rivers, bridges, cliffs. We had tea with his wife and family and then tea again at the airport (this is after tea on the side of the road as well). We were the only women at the airport drinking tea, but the best part was the plane ride. Wow! What a jump back in history. It was a 1970s plane with an ashtray and sharp pointy things on the tray table, which was also extra high. However, the seats were more padded, and there was actually leg room, even if the seats did fall down like dominoes because there was no such thing as a recline! There was the oldest life jacket I've ever seen (thank goodness we weren't going over water). The window shutter is down because the window is cracked. It's also very hot! The toilet is retro complete with paisley walls and a wooden seat. No water! They moved our seat 'more up' to Business Class, but all the other rich people were late (in their own time). We were shocked to see a stretcher appear outside the window (contemplating the ghastly thought of an air-evacuation from here!). The stretcher went up the stairs, then down them, then up again as they tried to find a part of the airplane to accommodate this awkward passenger. We were barred from going backward, eventually, as he was given the middle part of the plane.

More photos at this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=437032&id=668335330&l=6fa70d45ad

If you are interested in how another traveller found it, check out this link:
http://joestrippin.blogspot.com/2009/04/naxchivan.html

My archway

This, my friends, is the archway of my courtyard... this hole now has concrete, but the other two (at extreme left and right) do not. That big wet pile of rubbish smells as disgusting as it looks, and those bins are usually overflowing everywhere. I'm pretty sure it doesn't meet BP safety standards, but the bonus is that while this construction is going on, there are no cars in the courtyard. The clean-it-up scheme for Nizami doesn't usually include courtyards, so I'm wondering how it will look, and how far the tiles will go in when it's all done!

Building... gone!!

One day I was walking home and the building I used to buy eggs from, and watch the cat sleep under the mannequins in the long corridor, was gone. I had bought a coat, and other clothes there, and the whole building was demolished, just like that. You can see the pile of rubble that was left behind above.

Now it's a huge construction site, usually completely blocked off from public eyes, but I managed to sneak in the other day and see what's happening. It means that the street that was almost finished with construction, Nizami, will now be blocked off for at least a couple of years.

I wonder how much warning the residents had? There was another building on the boulevard in front of the Maiden's Tower that went down in the same time frame. Apparently there was some dissent about removing it, so it was declared "unstable" yet the turn of the century walls were so thick they had trouble removing them. It's now a nice square of grass, in case anyone was wondering. Prime real estate for you!!

Baku Construction

Baku has been a construction site since at least September last year. I just thought I'd share some photos so you can get an idea of how bad it is!!

Samoa

23 March 2010

I’ve arrived in Samoa!! This is country number 67 – and my first small Pacific island. I remember when I was little and watching the commonwealth games, I remember thinking that the Samoans and the Tongans and the Fijians were so different from us. They were the epitome of foreignness. It’s funny and ironic, but arriving in Samoa is the complete opposite. I feel like I’ve come to as close to a tropical home as I could have. I think it must be because I am finally on a Polynesian tropical island, and Polynesia is home. I’ve seen other tropical paradises, so much so that I feel at home in the tropics, but I have always felt them to be more foreign than this one. Make no mistake, I am not home, this is still a foreign country, but it has familiarity. Perhaps once I’ve been here a while, I’ll change my mind, but the faces and the looks of the people are lovely.

There are slatted glass windows of the 80s in every home, but no mosquito nets. Everything is open. I even saw a lady’s breasts through her open windows as she got changed to lie down on the mat on the floor! There are lovely open fales where just the pillars of the sides exist and roofs (no walls), and everyone sits communally and shares the breeze then lies down to sleep right there.

It’s really quite funny to see all the pigs walking around. Dogs are everywhere too, but there is something different to have this huge snorting beast wandering past. Pork is probably the most important food here – though expensive too. Big feasts require killing an entire beast, of course!

We got a flat tire on the way home from the airport, and since they certainly aren’t wasting electricity here, one would think it would be a scary situation, but when everyone’s homes are communal and open to the public, it doesn’t seem possible. I wasn’t being taken to some crazy place to disappear forever. They are too nice and too small town and too local. There must be crime, but perhaps not in the same way that we have? Am I being naïve?

I’m sleeping in an open fale where I hope I don’t roast (it's very hot here), and tomorrow I will have a lovely tropical fruit breakfast and wander around town. I hope I get to dive and swim and relax and get my paper done. I will discover what Guadalcanal really is because I mentioned it being here, but it isn't. Because the reef disappears into the deepest of oceans just off the coast, the color of the sea in Samoa is very dark! What spectacular ocean, though. My freckles have come out! It must be something about the southern sun.

I took the bus out to the coast, and what a fun experience! Even though we spent an hour waiting for it to depart, it was a prime example of the wetness of humanity (sticky bodies leaning in above boxes of leaking produce, bread, etc. There was a complex order of sitting, foreigners and women and elderly were first, but I didn’t need to worry about it because they just told me where to go.

Some of my interesting conversation: The top 5 questions I was asked: Where are you from? (NZ – a common answer here) What do you do? How long in Samoa? Why Samoa? Have you been to Savai’i? The beach? The mountains? Are you married? (No) What? Why not? Do you want to meet a Samoan man? (Perhaps I do -- They do all the cooking!) Actually, I probably don't as everything is shared with the entire family, so one income is everyone's.

Samoans are happy in their own skin and have lovely wide smiles. They seem content with life, even if life isn’t so easy for them sometimes.

Photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=412105&id=668335330&l=20be0585f2

Video to family and friends

So I finally finished my Christmas video! What a saga. A month of back and forth with so many roadblocks. There are lots of problems with it, but it's been a learning experience. Basically, I decided that instead of regaling my friends and family with copious travel stories (as there are many!) I would make a video of my photos to send. It is rather amateur and dorky, the sound quality is quite poor because I have a crappy microphone, and I have all sorts of other issues with it, not to mention my own voice sounding hideous!

Next time I will ensure that the picture size is reduced before I add it to the film -- it made for a huge (200MB) file. Because it was over 10 mins (It's 12 mins long and that's with very rapid image changes) YouTube wouldn't take it (although it took about 100 upload attempts to discover this). Then there was the fact that due to music copyrights I had to change some of the songs (but, of course, it doesn't tell you which one, so I changed all before I discovered it was the last one - Murphy's Law). Who knew that Alice Cooper's 'School's Out for Summer' would be so strict when it's so appropriate? I still have my doubts about the Frank Sinatra and Nickleback ones as well, but at least it now plays, which is more than it did before.

So, if you would like to view my slideshow movie, I had to break it into two parts on you tube (and I do find it amusing that many of my friends and family have chosen to watch only the first part -- I have stats to check!).

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJLV1rUpspA
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9cwHnjODYM

If you’re on facebook, you’ll also find it here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=374696&id=668335330&saved#/video/video.php?v=419981490330&ref=mf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_banned_by_the_BBC

Found this interesting website in my notes! How times have changed -- what people found sensitive would now be common conversation. I wonder if they bother to ban any songs in this day and age, but I'm sure they think about it!!

Some interesting examples:

• Lou Reed's 'Walk on the Wild Side' was banned because of "giving head"
• The Smoke's 'My Friend Jack' for "eats sugar lumps".
• Billie Holiday's song 'Gloomy Sunday' was about suicide, so it was banned in 1941
• The Sex Pistol's 'God Save the Queen' in 1977, because BBC has to be patriotic! 
• John Lennon's 'Imagine' was banned during the Gulf War

Just an interesting selection!! :) Even songs about banning songs like the Beverly Sisters 'We Have to Be so Careful' of the 1950s and Norman Long's 'We Can't Let You Broadcast That' in 1932.

Cancer

Have had connections to two people with cancer this month that have really given me food for thought -- I just want to send my best wishes out to them -- Katie's fight is my yoga teacher's friend (see website link http://katiesfight.blogspot.com/), and then there's my cousin Lana in NZ... my thoughts are with you both. xxoo

I'm alive

Well, this is absolutely appalling -- I haven't posted anything travel related for almost 6 months. I guess that's because I've been so busy... travelling.

I'm aiming to get caught up on this. It's just a matter of how much time it will take me. I am also aiming on working on my webpage as well, but haven't gotten there either. The fact is that my picture quota on my blog has almost run out and it didn't seem worth it to post without pictures (or I couldn't be bothered adjusting)! I will just have to reduce the images! Will try and get Iran, Greece, Cyprus, Brunei, NZ, the USA and camping in Azerbaijan up soon! Whew!

Am back at work in Baku, Azerbaijan, and we're well into our second month of the school year. So far, life has been pretty uneventful -- some small trips out of the country, planning for the term, doing my Master's Courses (am doing a really exciting one on Archaeology in SEAsia and the Pacific which is great). I am teaching English, Humanities, Economics and Art this year, so can that be my busyness excuse? Am also in process of trying to buy a car. Things are changing this year!!

25 things about me...

1. I am the ultimate vagabond. I bewilder half my friends with stories of places they would never have otherwise heard of, and feel a constant drive to get to the rest of the world that I haven't been to. I realised that if I want to get everywhere by the age of 60 I have to go to at least 4 new countries in each year. I have an enormous thirst to see it all, but I'm always aware that the path is quite a lonely one to have chosen.

2. I didn't want to be a teacher, I just sort of ended up doing it. But, because I'm naturally good at telling others what to do (!), it seems like a good fit, whether I want to admit it or not. I want to be working with humanitarian aid agencies in emergency relief, but I can't stand the politics of NGOs and the constant requests for funding that are all about who you know. I would also love to work for UNESCO relating to something like the World Heritage Sites, but I also think that the UN contradicts itself enormously in the ludicrously large salary and benefits packages they give.

3. I love cats. I really really adore then, but I don't think I really want one of my own. I've gotten too independent and selfish and want nothing to be responsible for, except myself. It's been nice cat-sitting though, even if Lenin is a karate-jumping, horse-racing, love-you-one-minute-bite-you-the-next maniac.

4. My family are one of the most important things in my world. I love spending time with them and sharing my life with them. Whereever they are is still home, and I enjoy going back there. I would live at home, if that was the city and job that I wanted, though it will stifle my social life!

5. I have too much stuff. I collect memories and beautiful things. I've tried to make a lot of it digital, but my computer hard drive bursts with my efforts. Moving constantly and being forced to kull it is the only thing that allows me to live in a house I can move around in. I do love my books and movies, even if I never have time to read/watch them. No matter how long a photo, painting or piece of art stays on my wall, I never tire at staring at it. I used to keep all photos, cards, letters, and items that were given to me--I even collect ticket stubs-- but I've made them digital images so at least I can pretend that I don't have a lot of things and they don't really take up any space.

6. I love thinking about how all my friends are doing. I'm not very good at translating that into actually telling them I'm thinking or asking how they're doing, but I hate the thought that people drift apart -- I try and fight that! 


7. I like cheesy movies and books.

8. I love history and have decided that archaeology is the best way to feel like I will ever have some sort of impact on it.

9. I'm always sad that I seem to pick friends from completely different walks of life, societies, groups, cliques and cultures that don't get along with one another. I feel like I have to keep them all separate, when all I want is to bring everyone I love together and have happy times.

10. I'm a natural blonde, and in the sun, it bleaches. I love my hair, but I hate it when there's dry static. I've only died it twice in my life -- once made the fringe red (bad idea as it emphasized the zits and blemishes), and once brown because I was sick of Filipinos saying, 'Wow, your blonde hair is so gorgeous, I want your hair." It made my head hotter.

11. I want to visit Antarctica, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Patagonia, Teotihuacan, Libya, Yemen, Ethiopia, and do the Trans-Siberian Express, but not until my Russian is better.

12. I want to speak Arabic fluently -- what a beautiful language!!!

13. I wish I had more time in my days. I do not understand boredom and always have to be doing as many things at once as I can, and I still don't have time to do everything I want to do. I want to have a photography exhibition. I want to be a published writer of short articles. I want to paint. I want to make jewelry and other crafts to sell. I want to have a beautiful website with all my interests displayed and organized and connecting to all my friends and the interesting places I've seen and done. I want to read all the novels that sit on my shelf and have time to watch movies. I want to cook healthy meals for myself every night and have the odd opportunity to sew myself beautiful clothes. I want to walk outside more often and leave Baku to go to the country.

14. I love coffee shops, but I hate coffee. I think idling away a couple of hours chatting with a friend, people-watching the world go by is a delightful way to pass time, and I can drink copious amounts of tea, with cup after cup.

15. Not every single item in this list should begin with 'I'.

16. Maroon is my favorite color. I had always thought purple or lavender was, but all of a sudden, when I was about 16, I realised that all sorts of items I owned were maroon. I don't like red much at all, however. Don't even talk to me about yellow, orange and green, especially the primary colored ones.

17. I often wish that I could play a musical instrument, not for lack of trying. I really did give up the piano for lack of interest and the practicing of both it and the guitar just didn't seem to fit into my schedule. I sometimes wish I could sing, but get such stage fright that at other times I'm very glad that I can't.

18. While being single has it's perks, I would love to meet a lovely man who would be a good match for me! 

19. World politics and human nature fascinate me and sadden me. I try to be optimistic, but am so incredibly realist by nature.

20. I have recently discovered unitarianism which sounds very interesting to me.

21. I don't mind if I die tomorrow, but of course I don't want to.

22. I'm late for dinner........

21. I don't mind if I die tomorrow, but of course I don't want to, but if that's meant to be I feel like I've still checked off a lot of my 'I want to do this before I die' list (but it keeps growing of course)

22. I'm discovering how unhealthy it is to live alone for too long. I get so prickly when I don't have to share time/space/things with others, and I hate it when I'm deliberately rude or difficult just because I'm feeling grumpy.

23. When I was a child I had nightmares that someone was chasing me and my family with a chainsaw, and while it was alarming, it was mostly a frantic run as opposed to terrifying stress.


24. My handwriting is some of the messiest you've probably ever seen, and it changes daily so that I don't have one style that stands out as mine. I pity my poor students who receive my marking.

25. I have almost 60 GB of music on my hard drive from all over the world, and 90 GB of photos that I have taken. I love the digital world, but still carry a notebook of numbers, addresses, tips, dressmaking/jewelry/art ideas, books to read/movies to see ideas. I would be devastated if my computer crashed, so I try and back it up repeatedly.