Azerbaijan - Day 1

Day-1 27/10/24

We had heard about Azerbaijan as a tourist place from few of my wife’s friends. She along with our friend in Goa planned a trip to Azerbaijan, we were six of us. The plan was for 6 days including the days of travel. We got the help from an agency to do the required air-line bookings and the local transport after reaching the destination. The places of stay at various locations were finalised by the young members of the family and off we went, me and my wife from Pune and 4 of them from Goa.

We were to meet at Sharjah and continue together till the end of the trip. 

We reached Baku at 11am on scheduled time via Sharjah by Air Arabia. For two of us our first flight from Mumbai to Sharjah was delayed by some 50 minutes and we were the last to board on flight to Baku the capital of Azerbaijan. The way we were whisked to board the flight, was like a nail-biting finish, in any sports event with equal adrenaline rush. Our friends breathed a sigh of relief as they were already boarded and anxiously waiting for us to show up.  Thus, it was a dramatic start for our trip to Azerbaijan.

We had our reservation for two days at Kings Apartments on 6th floor, at Sahil metro station. (The Apartment is built on underground metro station). The apartment was spacious and looked welcoming but for the available services and the behaviour of the company staff. I would strongly recommend checking through multiple sources for reviews before booking any such apartments and certainly, not the one we stayed in.    

We had our lunch at xilə bagevi or xilə bag-evi the restaurant, recommended by our driver. He was to be with us during our stay in Azerbaijan. We ordered mixed kebab with mutton & chicken, which was served with saffron rice. As the most favourite of the restaurant, we ordered Shahi pilaff with chicken. The shahi pilaff was served wrapped in round cake shaped crispy chapati with garnishing of pomegranate seeds. (~204 ₼ including service charge). 

It was cut open ceremoniously exposing steamed saffron rice with tender chicken pieces.
After sumptuous, bit expensive lunch at xilə bagevi or xilə bag-evi we planned to visit two places one was Yanardag (Mountain of fire -Yanardag ), and Atesgah (Fire Temple).

Yanar Dag is a small ever-burning natural fire-vent on mountain side/ slope. Yanar Dag is a natural gas fire which blazes continuously on a hillside on the Absheron Peninsula on the Caspian Sea near Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. As long as there's gas, the flames keep burning. This has been going on for centuries, making Yanar Dag a fascinating and unique sight and a must visit place at Baku. It features a 10-metre wall of fire that burns continuously along the edge of a hill. If you are lucky, you may get to see flames as tall as 3 meters. The surrounding is pleasantly warm considering the cold weather. Most of the tourists including us had selfies and took photographs of each other on the background of burning fire, we also had our share.

The unique Suraxant: Fire temple (Atasan Mabadi) - 18th-century fire temple, whose centre piece is a flaming hearth, above which, arches a pillared stone dome with four side flues. These flues also spit dragon breath but only on special occasions, notably the four Tuesdays leading up to Novruz. The fire altar sits in a roughly triangular courtyard surrounded by simple stone cellars of former devotees with well over a dozen, now hosting a well-explained museum. Allow around an hour to see it all. Although the site was originally a place of worship for Zoroastrians, the fortified complex we see today was built by 18th-century Indian Shiva devotees & that explains one of the cellars having Ganesh idol and in another recording being played of ॐ गं गणपतये नमः (Om Gam Ganapataye namaha), and a Yagnya. Other cells are having traditional dresses of Zoroastrian male, some old artefacts.

We returned to apartment. We were tired due to our journey from Mumbai and Goa respectively. The flights for both families were at wee hours on the same day and were forced to spend sleepless night. We decided to have light dinner and retire to bed early.

The next day we had plans to visit mud volcanoes. None of us had seen one before and all of us were excited to start the next day.