2025-2026 Central Asia Adventure – Baku Azerbaijan
Today’s Huntington’s Disease report is that the mutant huntingtin protein may influence sleep disturbances years before other symptoms appear, serving as an early biomarker. Research found that pre-manifest HD carriers exhibit disrupted sleep patterns such as reduced REM sleep, increased awakenings, and irregular circadian rhythms detectable up to 10-15 years prior to motor or cognitive onset. This is linked to mHTT’s disruption of the hypothalamus and basal ganglia, areas critical for sleep regulation. These findings suggest sleep monitoring could aid early diagnosis and guide future therapies targeting circadian restoration. My wife Allie was a lifelong insomniac, so this confirms a likely link.
Hello from Baku, the thirteenth stop on the trip and my 71st visited country. BUT WAIT! I landed on Azerbaijani soil but did I safely walk out of the Baku airport terminal or did I get bounced back out of the country at the immigration desk? Read on to find out!
To set up this trip segment I need to re-draw your attention to the fact that, despite my best efforts, I have Armenia stamps in my passport. That’s a big No-No for both Azerbaijan and Turkey due to the political issues I previously outlined. So today I attempt to roll the dice and get into Baku. Fingers crossed!
Below is the standard summary:
– Cool Ranch Doritos: No :^(
– Spain & Wise Debit Cards Work: Yes
– Airalo Worldwide Telephone/Data/SMS eSIM Works: Yes
– VPN Works: Yes
– Cost of Living: $
– Currency: USD $1 ~ 1.7 Manat, Euro â¬1 ~ 1.97 Manat
– English Language Issues: No problems
– Language: Azerbaijani, similar to Turkish. Unofficial Russian with a little English
РGovernment: Democratic Republic, but largely a fa̤ade for an authoritarian regime. Citizens benefit from stability and growth but endure authoritarianism and inequality.
Your Short History Lesson:
As with all the other countries I’ve been to, Azerbaijan is located at the crossroads of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. With a long shoreline on the Caspian Sea, it has a rich history spanning over 5,000 years, shaped by its strategic position in the Caucasus region along the Silk Road . From 3000 BCE – 4th Century CE the region was inhabited by tribes like the Albanians, but not the modern Balkan Albanians. It fell under Persian and later Roman influence, with Zoroastrianism and early Christianity taking root. After Arab conquests in the 7th century, Islam spread, and the region became part of various caliphates and local dynasties. Mongol invasions came in the 13th century and Timurid rule followed, with Baku emerging as a trade center. By the 16th century, it was contested between Safavid Persia and Ottoman Turkey. Russia annexed Azerbaijan in the early 19th century after the Russo-Persian Wars, dividing it with Persia. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, the short-lived Azerbaijan Democratic Republic from 1918 to 1920 was the first secular republic in the Muslim world, but it was absorbed into the Soviet Union as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic in 1920. Soviet rule brought modernization but also repression, with oil nationalized. Azerbaijan gained independence on October 18, 1991, amid the Soviet collapse. Heydar Aliyev was a KGB officer who lead the Azerbaijan SSR from 1969 to 1982 and then seized power in a coup in 1993 and became President of independent Azerbaijan. He was succeeded by his son Ilham in 2003 in a controversial election, continuing the family business. Critics accuse his regime of corruption, media suppression, and human rights abuses, with Freedom House rating Azerbaijan “Not Free” with a score of 7/100.
Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is world-renowned for oil production, earning the nickname “City of Fire” due to seeping natural gas from the earth and an industrial boom. The first modern oil well in the world was drilled here in 1846. By 1901, Baku produced half the world’s oil, fueling the Russian Empire and early 20th-century industry. Today it produces ~700,000 barrels/day, with offshore Caspian Sea fields supplying 90% of output. Oil & gas drives 50% of GDP. The population is 95% Muslim but society is largely liberal and not religiously dominated, perhaps a holdover from the Soviet times and the desire by Aliyev to maintain total control.
In the morning I packed up in Tbilisi and checked out of the hotel. I talked with Karina about the possibility of getting rejected and she said my room is open tonight if needed. She is so sweet! She booked an electric Nissan Leaf through the Bolt taxi service for my 30 minute ride to the airport. I easily found the Azerbaijan Airlines counter, only 1 person ahead of me. A hundred people are in line for a RedWings flight to Moscow. Only two people ahead of me at Security, nobody in line at passport control. I went from the car to my gate in 15 minutes! Bought a Coke Zero, plugged in the laptop and phone for power, got on the ‘Tbilisi Loves You’ free Wifi, with my VPN switched on of course. The plane was an Embraer 190, a first for me. The seats are designated A, C, H, L. Weird, they must be trying to maintain a lettering system that is compatible with their wide-body fleet. We were in the air for only 48 minutes to Baku.
I walked through to immigration, behind 3 little old Japanese ladies who had no idea how to go through the rope line. My agent is a mean looking woman, I hope the old ladies softened her up a little bit. I passed my passport, boarding pass and a printout of my e-visa to her with a smile, but I’m sweating and shaking! She had me step back to take a picture. She riffled through the first couple of pages in the passport and stamped me in. I know she didn’t go far enough through the pages to see the Armenia stamps so she must have made a determination that I’m not a bad guy. Whew! I had a whole speech about Armenia planned… I could feel my body just relax as I took my passport back – this instant has been a load on my mind for weeks! I’m in, yeah baby!
I tried to book a Bolt taxi to the hotel but they’re all busy. The going price seems to be 20 Manat. A rogue taxi guy walked over, offered 30 to my hotel. I counter with the Bolt 20, we agree on 25. I confirmed twice that he will take my Visa card. Yes – twice. He’s got an old but still nice condition Mercedes. We get onto the road and 5 minutes later he asks if I have cash. I saw this coming! I say no, he says “OK I get 25 petrol and you pay.” I thought about it and agreed. We pulled into a petrol station, got 25, I paid with my card, everything worked well. He dropped me right at the front of the hotel. Nice guy other than the tricky payment strategy.
My Amazon Hotel looks a little Trumpy, but the price is right at 125 Monat for 3 nights, or 21 Euros per night, the room is large and comfortable. Also included is a 30 minute massage, which is listed at 40 Manat itself!
I got Grok to give me a walking path for an hour through my part of the city and get some dinner. I walked to a large fruit & veg market, then to a closed restaurant. I found another restaurant, had chicken kebab, salad, rice & bread. They Tried to get me to pay cash but relented to my card.
The next morning I asked ChatGPT to give me a walking tour of the Formula 1 track. F1 has been racing here in Baku since 2016 as a street circuit, with the narrowest track section of all current F1 race tracks. The race was on September 21 so it was only about 3 weeks ago, hopefully I can see some of the remnants as the disassembly continues. I walked to the first data point and saw evidence of the track, with concrete barriers, sponsor logos and an overhead walkway. I think this was the location that Lewis lost the Championship to Max with the Magic button in 2021. I walked along the long straightaway along the waterfront, into the grandstand area as it was being dismantled. I got to the other end and it was boxed in by fences, no way to get out. A guard came out of a box, wagging his finger. I mimic trying to get out, he waves his finger all around – not helpful. I finally see a break in the fence with a small barrier in front of it, I walked to it and he moved the barrier and I walked through. Then he asked me for a cigarette. Jeez. I continued walking until i came to a multi-level shopping mall, had a chicken Caesar salad and Oreo milkshake at Beverly Hills Diner, with old style cars as tables and a stage with a plastic Elvis. My legs are aching and I’m feeling discomfort in my right hip socket. I feel like I’m not walking upright, but at an angle, with a limp. I need to do something about this. I continued my walk into the old town, trying to find that super narrow spot on the F1 track next to the castle wall. A badged tour guide spotted me, showed me a brochure for a tour for tomorrow that I had been thinking about anyway. I agreed and he took me to his office to sign up, including pickup and dropoff at my hotel. He directed me to the narrow spot on the track, and I took a drivers-view video as I walked up and through it. I’ll edit it to speed it up a bit and you can watch it.
At the crack of dawn I was picked up for the tour. It was a full-day in a minibus with about 10 people so I’ll just hit the highlights, you can check out the pictures. We first went to the location of the first production oil wells. Azerbaijan seems to be looking towards a better future however and hosted COP29 in November 2024 where they imported 100 electric buses from China that are still running in the city’s bus system. We then drove a long way out of the city to a dirt road, piled out and loaded up into beat up old Ladas, then went high-speed rally-car off-roading-style to a mud volcano area. Well, more like mud mounds with a few ploops of natural gas bubbling out. On the way back out the engine in our car died but like a pit stop in Formula 1 the driver jumped out, popped the hood, tightened something with a wrench and we were off again. Oh and his door kept popping open so he’s got one hand on the steering wheel and one hand on the door as we’re sliding sideways along a dry bumpy riverbed. Back in the van and we went to an indoor & outdoor archeological museum. Inside were standard excavated pieces but outside were preserved rock carvings and paintings. At lunch I talked with two guys from Pakistan who were both SpaceX and Formula 1 fans. Next we went to Burning Mountain which was again less than whelming, really just a small hillside with a natural gas leak that’s been burning for 4000 years. Next we went to Fire Temple, a Hindu religious structure built in the 17th century around a natural gas leak. That leak has since run out so there’s now a pipe providing the flame. Not whelmed again at the size but it is very hot as you get close. As we returned home our guide said it was her birthday so we sang her the song. She was good, knowledgeable, funny and kept the group on schedule which I always appreciate.
Back at the hotel I got an email confirming my next plane ticket. This hurts my soul as a programmer, this is why we TEST TEST TEST! The subject line was:
Are you ready for the flight $decidableAction.getTranslationMap().get($depCity).getTranslation() â Aktau?âï¸ Check-in online free!
Exhausted from the trip I walked to a nearby restaurant called Fistik and had a fantastic chicken kebab and something that looked like shrimp gambas. I tried to pay with my card but their machine gave an error instantly as my phone got near. I got them to try another machine, and it worked first time. Whew!
The next morning I went down at 10am for my free 30 minute massage. Door locked, she hasn’t arrived yet. She brought me in about 10:25. She started with suction cups, I never had that before. Then she went to hot stones – ow! More cupping, more stones, little actual massage. She gets to my neck and says I have a big problem. She cracked my neck right and left, but still not happy. Says I should get massage and physical therapy daily for 5 days. Turns out she’s a Doctor of Physical Therapy in Iran. I wonder if this is related to my hip problem – an imbalance starting all the way up in my neck?
With my flight coming up this afternoon, I packed up and dropped off my bags at the front desk. I went for a walk, came across Picasso cafe and had a chicken wrap. I continued on and came to a huge park with a conference center and art museum. The art museum had a car collection on the underground -3 floor. Quite a nice collection with a lot of Soviet cars and some beautiful western cars like an Jaguar E-Type and Mercedes 300SL. Took lots of pictures.
Next stop: Aktau Kazakhstan
