Huckbody Environmental Ltd

It’s been five years since I was in Baku, where I had a base for 1.5 years. My new hotel is literally a stone’s throw from the old place. Things have changed to some extent over the past five years, mainly new high rise apartment blocks and a seemingly city-wide face lift, even Fountain’s Square and the sea front are under renovation. Countries like Azerbaijan don’t appear to be following many other ‘developed’ cities by installing cycle paths or other green measures, and their choice of construction materials is still influenced by the brash-design-catalogue, as I refer to it. Hence there are a whole range of paving and kerb materials, from concrete and ornamental cut stone, to long lengths of marble!
Unfortunately the car is still very much king here, with drivers racing flat out between the inevitable red light at the next block in this grid designed city. They are generally oblivious to pedestrians and like so many other countries, the zebra crossing simply represents a location where the pedestrians are more concentrated, rather than a safe place for those on foot to cross.
Being nostalgic, it is nice to see that black is still the colour of choice for clothing, especially amongst males, where any bright colour would stand out a mile.
Walking the city it appears to my ears that there is definitely less Russian language being spoken and a lot more Azeri, which is nice to ‘see’.
Baku seems to be well on the road towards economic development and eventual prosperity, with the oil revenues etc, but harsh conditions still see the ‘old’ innovative ways of making money, like the guy with a set of weighing scales in the heart of the city, where you pay to weigh yourself; the ladies selling lemons and limes; the shoe shine stools; the guys with polishing or welding gear all congregating in the same street to pick up work etc.
Walked along the sea front, that if you squinted very hard has some similarity with the cornice of Doha, where I spent many months this year. But the differences are striking; the tourist dhows and million dollar motor cruisers of Qatar give way to battered ex-Russian ships and oil infrastructure and the yacht club is a million miles from that of Doha for sure.

Nicely lit building

The rig fountain near Dom Soviet

The famous Maiden's Tower - 12th Century or earlier

Fontain Square statues

15 years since I last visited Warsaw. The city has changed dramatically and is now a vibrant, modern city with extensive shopping centres and boutiques, modernised trolley buses (trams) and metro, with more extensions planned; unfortunately traffic is very heavy. It was nice to take a walk down to the old centre and the city walls, where I went all those years ago. The area is very pleasant with many fine restaurants and beer houses.

Can't seem to lose weight, despite these light snacks...

Palace of culture, permanent land mark.

Old city

Old Town Market Square

My many months in Cairo, Egypt last year were spent unavoidably inhaling the aromas and fruit tobacco of the shisha, which seemed to be everywhere, from local cafes, restaurants and dozens around the pool in the Four Seasons Hotel where I lived.
Since they re-developed the Souk area in Doha (looked like something out of Indiana Jones when I first knew it), the outside cafes are numerous and shisha is available in virtually all of them. One of the alleys is used to store the shishas in advance of them being ordered – reminded me of little soldiers waiting to go into battle.

Soldier pipes waiting for action

For hundreds of years, Middle Eastern people have flocked to this exotic water pipe — more popularly known as shisha or hookah — to smoke fruit-flavored tobacco, talk and watch the world pass by.
This deep-rooted cultural practice of smoking shisha has now become an almost integral part of the Arabs — social life and their culture and is rapidly growing in popularity all over the world.
It began hundreds of years before the invasion of the big American cigarette companies and is one of the most common and interesting lifestyles of the Arab world. Some say it originated in Turkey over 500 years ago, some say it originated in Syria, others claim it originated in India.
Undoubtedly, shisha is among the most instantly recognizable symbols of popular Arab culture and the ever-growing demand from locals, residents and tourists bears ample testimony to the modern-day appeal of the ancient water pipe.
It is now a thriving — and, apparently, extremely lucrative — shisha culture. The number of shisha outlets mushrooming in the Arab world is, indeed, remarkable and, is a clear indication of the profitability of such outlets.

Pipes for sale - a popular tourist souvenir

My few weeks out of Qatar, two of them in Tajikistan, remind me on my return of the ever changing scenery of Doha on its march skywards. During my first visits here in 92, driving around was easy going, but the traffic has got a whole lot worse, to the point of grid lock during rush hours. The roads department is busy trimming several roundabouts and widening slip ways etc to try to ease congestion at several key junctions. Meanwhile the road construction of major routes continues, along with large residential developments; I can’t help wondering how all these will be filled.
The land of contrast continues, evident in housing, standards of living and car-pedestrian interface. I noticed that in Tajikistan the vast majority of drivers will actively stop to allow you to cross the road, even when you are not actually expecting it. Here it’s another story; they largely drive with total disregard to pedestrians, especially those in the ubiquitous land cruisers…

View from my flat, West Bay in the distance

There are some nice sights to see in the city and it is very easy to get around. There is little hassle from the corrupt policemen on the streets (I have experienced far worse ‘passport checkers’; eg Kazakhstan); but try to blend in, otherwise they will seek you out; even I had to fend a couple off. Be careful at monuments as police routinely try to extort money from you for ‘permission’ to take photos; mind you they are in cahoots with the ‘official’ photographers – guys with cameras from whom you buy your tourist photo. The same system as in Ashgabad, Turkmenistan.
The main street Rudake is pleasant; not too much to buy in the shops, but a few small shops and the Tsum mean that there is enough, including tourist souvenirs etc. A short distance down is a very nice monument and not far is the Formal function palace – can’t recall its name; it was built to host official functions at a reputed cost of ca. $300 million.

Fruits are fantastic in Tajikistan

Function palace

Nuts anyone?

Monument on Rudake

Colourful market on Ishmail Somoni