I wonder, How many Georgians are drinking beers and clinking to Russia, Putin, and Medvedev right now?

Find out what happens when Vladimir Putin’s nickname sounds like the English word for a part of the female anatomy…

On some lighter notes about Georgia: excellent cuisine, singing kids from Tbilisi, funny guys in the wine region, mountain men and terrifying drivers.

And for the visually inclined: Georgian Food and Markets, Tbilisi, Kakheti: Wine Region, Svaneti (Caucasus Mountains), and other sights around Georgia.

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We’ll likely never know.

Zugdidi was not much of a tourist destination, but it was home to one of our tastiest and most touching experiences.

Now it’s at the front of a growing conflict in and around Georgia and the disputed regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The latest reports from Zugdidi indicate that it has just been occupied by Russian military troops.

We previously wrote of the lingering effects of civil conflict throughout Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in the 1990s in a piece we entitled This Land is Not Your Land. The latest conflict is yet another chapter of personal stories, refugees and displacement in the Caucasus — a region that may yet prove to be the Powder Keg of Asia.

The News Becomes Personal
Yesterday, as we consumed the news wires for stories on South Ossetia, Georgia and Russia, we exchanged emails and SMS text messages with friends in Georgia to find out if they were safe.

A friend in Tbilisi sent us the following SMS:

We are wondering where this is all headed. Something tells us that neither the pundits nor the geopolitical experts know for certain.

In the meantime, the faces of people we met last year in Georgia play in an endless loop in our minds.

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Best Scenery: The Pamirs
The Pamir Mountain region – from southern Kyrgyzstan to eastern Tajikistan (area around Murghab and Wakhan Valley) features truly spectacular mountain landscapes.

Most Gregarious Kids: Tbilisi, Georgia
The kids who rock the most: the kids from the Sololaki (Sololaky) neighborhood in Tbilisi, Georgia. Make sure to listen to the audio clip.
Honorable Mention: The kids in Tatev, Armenia. There’s no church tour quite like this one, where the local kids take you around their musty, pitch black little church.

Most Memorable Random Act of Kindness:
It’s a toss up between our feast in Zugdidi, Georgia and Khiva, Uzbekistan. In Khiva, an 8-months pregnant woman and her friend abandoned their table and insisted that we and our friend Dave eat their lunch. Touchingly, they fetched some tomatoes, cucumbers and bread to round out our meal.
Honorable Mention: The Kazakh family who gave us a ride to Almaty’s town center after we almost stranded ourselves in the Tian Shan Mountains.

Best Smile: Murghab, Tajikistan
This is a tough one. We’ll never forget the smiles, whether they were pearly white or glinted with gold, like the one pictured here.

Small World Award: Karakol, Kyrgyzstan
We were hosted by a woman in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan whose first visit to the U.S. happened to be to Dan’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Honorable Mention: Tatev, Armenia (near the Iranian border)
Our home-stay family featured a woman whose daughter now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and works at the same place Dan’s sister worked at over 10 years ago. Our Armenian host flipped through photo album pages that chronicled her recent visit to Northern California, including Monterey, California where Audrey got her MBA.

Best City – Tbilisi, Georgia
The city whose people, neighborhoods and history won our hearts.
Honorable Mention: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan for a little bit of the laid back in Central Asia.

Best Donkeys: Tajikistan’s Wakhan Valley
“Why Donkeys?” you ask? Melancholy (think Eeyore) and under-appreciated, these animals mark a nostalgic trail to the past from today’s rapidly developing world.

If Kashgar were included it would win due to its vast donkey parking lots. Since Kashgar is technically part of China, however, the prize goes to Tajikistan’s Wakhan Valley which featured large gatherings of these under-appreciated beasts of burden. When a group rounds the bend with the Hindu Kush in the background, it just doesn’t get any better for us donkey lovers.

Best Cemetery: Mizdakhan near Nukus, Uzbekistan
We really enjoyed cemeteries throughout this region. They were places of unusual beauty, benevolent tranquility and much-needed reflection. Central Asian cemeteries are fascinating, none more so than Mizdakhan outside of Nukus in western Uzbekistan.

Best Museum: Savitsky Museum – Nukus Uzbekistan
Nukus is an unlikely location for an art museum, which is exactly the reason why Savitsky managed to put together a museum of banished art from the Soviet Union there. Rounding out the museum is an ethnography exhibition on the Karakalpakstan region in western Uzbekistan.

Honorable Mention: State Historical Museum – Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Once called the Lenin Museum, the State Historical Museum still features a Lenin shrine on the second floor. Make sure you look up to take in the ceiling murals of Lenin leading people to liberation in the Bolshevik Revolution. The third floor features a man riding a nuclear warhead. Strangely Dr. Strangelove.

Best Camels: Turkmenistan
183 of them herding near Gonur Depe and 100s of others skulking about in the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan.
Honorable Mention: To the lone and peaceful wooly Bactrian camel (with a fallen hump) on the road between Murghab and Langar in Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains. Go and visit him. He could use the company.

Best Lenin Statue: Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
We considered sending an official invitation to the governments of the ‘Stans for formal submissions, but alas we ran out of time on our visas. Our favorite in this category is the Lenin statue in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan whose base features traditional Turkmen carpet designs. Vladimir Ilyich’s head often serves as a bird lavatory and his arms as bird posts.

Best Place to Catch a Wedding: Shakhrisabz, Uzbekistan
We were engulfed in a sea of revelers and it felt like a carnival. Before we knew it, we were having our photos taken with the bride and groom and a horde of friendly strangers.

Longest Limousines: Almaty, Kazkahstan
The longer the limousine, the longer the marriage? If so, the couple inside of this this Hummer limousine has a record-breaking one ahead of them. “It’s like driving a school bus,” the chauffeur told us.

Best Dressed (Women): Turkmenistan
Dressed in floor-length, brightly colored dresses with colorful neck embroidery, Turkmen women seem to glide as they walk. Their colorful scarves were pretty spiffy, too.

Best Hat: The Kyrgyz Kalpak
Lively competition including Lahic hats, Turkmen head-covers, and Muslim headwear, but the prize goes to all the Kyrgyz men who emphatically extoll the virtues of the Kyrgyz kalpak: keeps cool in summer, stays warm in winter, and sheds water to boot.

Best Soviet Architectural Aesthetic: Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Although it may be criminal in some circles to follow the word “Soviet” with the word “aesthetic,” Tashkent is as admirable as a completely Soviet built city could possibly be. For the historically curious, Tashkent was completely rebuilt after it was leveled by an earthquake in 1966.

Best Religious Buildings:
Best Church: Svititskhoveli, outside of Tbilisi, Georgia
The incense, the ritual, the people. The atmosphere there is transcendent.
Best Monastery: Sapara near Akhaltsikhe, Georgia
Nestled in a beautiful forest and mountain setting, monastic life doesn’t seem to get any more peaceful than Sapara. If you go, ask for George, the friendly English-speaking monk who is more than happy to show you around.
Best Mosque: Karakol, Kyrgyzstan
We’re certain to catch some flack for not choosing one of the Silk Road Mosques, but our most lasting impressions in this sub-category belong to the Chinese-style Mosque in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan and the friendly, talkative imam who minds it.

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Worst Toilet: Svaneti Region of Georgia
Competition in this category was exceptionally fierce, but the nod goes to Svaneti. Although we highly recommend a visit to the region, we suggest you pack your hip waders for visits to the outhouse.
The irony here is that Georgia is endowed with river upon river of spectacularly flowing water, particularly in the mountains. None of that water runs in the direction of the toilets, however. We won’t mention specific villages. After all, we would like you to visit and patronize the people who live there.

One outhouse seemed to be inadvertently booby trapped with some kind of poop catapult by way of a loose board that would flip and flop like a seesaw as one exited and entered the shack. There’s a patent pending on this unique design.

Just down the road (cue the horror film soundtrack), you know you are in trouble when the base of the outhouse throbs, writhes and pulses with life (i.e., maggots), almost to the point of being able to take a walk down the road. And they say there is no such thing as perpetual motion. Bah! This outhouse is on the move – it will never die.

Outhouse with the Best View: Tajikistan
The prize goes to this pleasantly airy mud hut near the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border. Temperatures well below zero discourage lingering.

Most Creative Toilet: Bus Stop near Taraz, Kazakhstan
Squat pots are separated only by foot-high privacy barriers and a little boy sweeps around you, mid-business. Truly bizarre.

OK, enough of the toilet talk. No more…at least until we resume writing about China.

Most Absurdly and Ironically-Named Post-Soviet Agency: Dushanbe, Tajikistan
We hadn’t planned an award in this category, but Tajikistan’s “Agency of State Financial Control and Struggle with Corruption” begged us to create one. To fully comprehend the irony, come to Tajikistan and experience the bureaucratic abyss that is this country. We didn’t get a photo of this winner because the hordes of militia on the streets of Dushanbe simply wouldn’t allow it.

Best Travel Tip for Central Asia: “Pack your own Lada window cranks.”
Virtually all Ladas, especially the Soviet-era relics, feature windows whose cranks are missing their handles. Imagine this in a car with no air conditioning in the 40 C (100+ F) degree heat.

Worst Accommodation: Ismaili, Azerbaijan
To describe the Hotel Ismaili in Ismaili, Azerbaijan as “pestilential” is beyond generous. This pit of human despair cries out for the wrecking ball and represents the worst accommodation value in the history of traveling man. The Lonely Planet says this is the better of the two options in town; we break out in fungus and bed rash just thinking about the other option. Two-seat rows plucked from a defunct local Soviet-era cinema take turns soaking and dry-rotting out front as victims take in the surroundings and down beer served by a mistreated 10-year-old indentured servant. We’re not even going to begin to describe the toilets. Shhh, don’t speak. Survival at The Hostel, from the film so named, would be a better bet. All this for $25/night.

Best Postal Experience: Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Although it functioned much like the Pony Express and the counter woman preferred an abacus to her old computer, the Uzbek Post got our Turkmen camel shawl to the United States in 10 days. What put Tashkent in the lead for this award: the postal woman hand-sewed a burlap sack with our contents inside and then sealed the whole thing with numerous hot wax stamps. Now that’s postal nostalgia.

Apologies to our friend Dave who arrived at the post office with a 50-lb. backpack of stuff to send, only to find that he couldn’t send money or coins, regardless of their age; newspapers and print material could be sent, but only from the Tashkent post office branch across town; something else couldn’t be sent until Monday. The remaining items had to be separated into two kilogram parcels. Do your sanity a favor and only send postcards or hangings that fit in small burlap bags from here.

Worst Postal Experience: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Though Georgian kindness is missing in the downtown Tbilisi branch of the Georgian Post and Kazakhstan’s postal police are always on guard, postal pall finds a comfortable home in Bishkek. The women who work the parcel post office there have a Catch-22 style routine that would make Vladimir Putin cry (perhaps with pride). Imagine Three-Card Monte being played with your package. After taking two hours to wrap 2 parcels, the woman informed us that the string she used to tie it would vault us into the next pricing tier – and cost us $35 more. After unwrapping the insides (we had a special wedding box made for $5 and 90 minutes of excruciating labor across the street), we had to tear the whole thing open. The wedding gift arrived in 2 weeks. The other packages, also sent by air mail, didn’t arrive for 3 months. Save yourself the tears and leave the country if you need to send a package.

Best Tourist Infrastructure: Kyrgyzstan
Whether you’d like to arrange a tour or do it all yourself, Community Based Tourism (CBT) Kyrgyzstan efficiently dishes out information and can help anyone assemble an authentic and satisfying experience complete with home stays, horse treks and mountain treks.
Honorable Mention: If anyone wants to see a thorough, slick, information-rich tourist bureau with informed employees, check out the Armenian Tourist Bureau in Yerevan.

Worst Men’s Haircut: Yerevan, Armenia
It’s almost always true what they say: you get what you pay for. And for 500 Armenian Dram ($1.70 at the time), Dan received the worst haircut of his life. Well, maybe his first haircut in Prague was worse (where he had to guide the hairdresser’s scissors hair-by-hair back over the damage she’d done). Anyhow, he doesn’t recommend a visit to the hair butcher at the Yerevan bus station for their Armensky variant (Armenian variation), unless you happen to be bald and are interested in some fascinating conversation with the locals.

Best Men’s Haircut: Almaty, Kazakhstan
When Dan was in desperate need to be relieved of the outgrowth of his Armensky variant he consulted a Kazakh friend in Almaty. Four dollars, a spasm of anxiety and a surprising amount of attention to each hair later, all was done and done well.

Most Terrifying Shave: Lahic, Azerbaijan
If you come across this man in Lahic, wave, chat, smile. Do whatever, but by no means should you get into his barber chair. He’s friendly enough, but a shave by him will leave you plagued with flashbacks. The guillotine is a cleaner cut. To make matters worse, he has an arsenal of powders, gels and other foul-smelling tonic that he’ll apply to the battle scene once he’s finished.

After having his neck gored, Dan forbid the barber to cut his hair. The man obeyed and instead saturated it with some kind of greasy tonic and comb-styled it in the fashion of the latest Azerbaijani butt-cut. No photos please!

Best Flight: Tajik Air from Khorog to Dushanbe in Tajikistan
Though the bureaucracy and ticket purchasing process were laughable, the Tajik Air flight from Khorog to Dushanbe qualifies as the most thrilling and terrifying flight…of our lives. Hair-raising!

Worst Roads: Murghab to Langar, Pamir Mountains, Tajikistan
We wonder if these coarse boulder-strewn paths even qualify as roads. There were times we thought we would tumble over the hill out of Tajikistan and into Afghanistan.
Honorable Mention: Road between Ushguli and Mestia in Georgia.
When we walked this road, we were certain it couldn’t possibly be the same road that carried cars. Appropriate for sure-footed cows maybe, but not automobiles.

Worst Drivers: Georgia
Somewhere between self-destruction and machismo, a road is carved for sadistic Georgian drivers whose driving habits have the ability to transform an atheist into a believer.

Best Internet Connections: Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Although other travelers may argue with us, the best connectivity in former Soviet Central Asia goes to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Given the government’s penchant for censorship and the formidable internet controls in the western parts of the country, we were shocked by the plentiful, inexpensive, and reliable internet and wifi cafes in Tashkent.

Worst Visa Bureaucracy
Every country in the region shares this award equally, with the exception of Georgia (90-day, no fee visa) and Armenia (easy $30 visa at the border). Turkmenistan, a country in which an extended visit is impossible without going through a travel agent, serves as the living definition of bureaucratic opacity.

Most Egregious Rip-off: National Bank of Uzbekistan, Urgench branch
Never let your guard down, particularly when things are supposed to be “official.”

Best Train: Bukhara to Samarkand, Uzbekistan
The morning express train is inexpensive and delightfully undelapidated. Even though the train ticket buying process (and prices) are foggy, journeys are relatively inexpensive. You get a ride on a smooth express train, air conditioning, television (including a disturbing show that features pre-pubescent belly-dancing girls) and edible food.

Most Creative Train Ticket: Uzbekistan
We just LOVE the way they cut around the corners to tell you how much you just paid.

Hottest Location: Gonur Depe, Turkmenistan
Upwards of 50 degrees Celsius and dry as the bones we kicked up under our feet

Coldest Location: Sary Tash, Kyrgyzstan
-15 Celsius and brutal winds that carve red streaks in innocent cheeks

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Although there’s no shortage of internet cafes in capital cities throughout the Caucasus and Central Asia, almost none of them would allow us to hook up our laptop directly, leaving us stuck with video game and virus laden computers lacking sufficient memory. Reasonably-priced wifi (wireless internet) is hard to come by. Five-star hotels charging exorbitant hourly fees (over $15/hour in some cases) were typically the only wifi options available to us.

Staying connected becomes especially maddening when connections drag as you move away from the capital cities and government-sponsored internet censorship controls take over. With a little patience, perseverance and quality information, however, it is possible to stay connected and get some things accomplished without breaking the bank or sacrificing your sanity.

For casual readers and those seeking the exotic, we understand that this post may not provide an exhilarating reading experience. For those seeking to stay connected in the Caucasus and Central Asia, we hope you find it useful. We wish something like this was available to us before we made our way through the region.

For each location, we’ve provided information on where to find internet cafes and restaurants offering reliable free wifi, and how to buy SIM cards for your mobile phone.

Georgia – Tbilisi
Internet Cafés in Tbilisi charge 2-4 Lari per hour ($1.30 – $2.30). Unfortunately, internet connections and electricity are not particularly reliable. Our internet café of choice on Rustaveli Street north of Rustaveli metro station allowed us to connect our laptops directly. Look for the internet sign on the left side of the street just after the covered walkway. The internet cafe is up a dimly lit set of stairs. From what we could tell, it stays open all night for late night gamers.

Wifi in Tbilisi: Café Sans Souci had good wireless, ample plugs, and a nice atmosphere at Shavteli 13. Unfortunately, the second time we traveled through Tbilisi, the cafe had a most unfortunate run-in with a wrecking ball and was being demolished before our eyes. We heard it was going to be rebuilt.

Nearby, Kala Cafe (8/10 Erekle II Street) is supposed to offer free wifi.

If you stay at Hotel Charm, Nino will let you use her computer or allow you to hook the LAN cable directly into your laptop.

Other information on Tbilisi internet cafes can be found here.

Mobile Phones in Georgia: We purchased a Magti SIM card from a street kiosk for 10 Georgian Lari/GEL ($7), including 5 GEL of credit. A few minutes later we were making phone calls and sending SMSs. SIM top-up cards were easy to find throughout the country. The quality of coverage was also impressive, running strong into the high Caucasus mountains of Svaneti.

Armenia – Yerevan
Internet Cafés in Yerevan: They are plentiful and charge 400-500 dram ($1.25-$160) per hour, making it easy to check email and do basic internet work. Unfortunately, directly connecting your laptop is anathema to the folks running them. The smoke-filled environments also shaved several days off our lives.

For free and friendly internet, try the wonderful Yerevan Tourism Center on Nalbandyan Street behind Republic Square. Not only is the internet free there, but it was the only place in the country that allowed us to connect our laptops directly. We felt a little silly doing work there as tourists milled about, but you gotta’ do what you gotta’ do.

Wifi in Yerevan: Hotels advertise wifi, but read the fine print; rates normally exceed $10/hour.

Mobile Phones in Armenia: An Armentel Go SIM card bought at a street-side kiosk for 1200 Dram ($4) will give you 800 in credit. SMS services need to be activated separately. Top-up cards are available just about everywhere, but the automated menu for recharging is only in Armenian. Ask an Armenian friend or a local on the street to help you to avoid extreme frustration.

Azerbaijan – Baku
Internet Cafés in Baku are not on every corner, but are easy enough to find. Rates ranged from 0.80 to 2 Manat ($1-$2.50) per hour. Connecting a laptop directly is not understood and therefore prohibited.

Wifi in Baku: Aroma Café at 18 U. Hajibeyov Street serves an authentic espresso (or machiatto, if you like) and has speedy, reliable wifi to boot. The coffee is not cheap, but the wait staff doesn’t rush you, enabling a pleasant, lingering online working experience.
Bonus: Watch the nouveau riche Russian blondes strut their stuff on their way to and from nearby boutiques.

Mobile Phones in Azerbaijan: We bought an Azercell SIM card for 5 Manat ($6), with 3 or 4 manat of credit included. Our Azerbaijani friend used his ID card to buy our Azercell SIM card. Otherwise, foreigners must purchase theirs from the Azercell head office in downtown Baku.

Turkmenistan – Ashgabat
Internet Cafés in Turkmenistan: A visit to Turkmenistan for internet access is not recommended. However, internet is available and we expect the presence of internet cafés to grow, particularly in Ashgabat. Outside of Ashgabat, be prepared for frustration. Internet is technically available at post offices around the country, but waiting forty minutes to open an email may just drive you insane.

Internet Cafés in Ashgabat: The internet café around the corner from Four Points Alkatin hotel (near the old circus) was relatively fast and even allowed us to access the BBC website. Rates are around $5-$6 per hour. Bring your passport along, as all internet users must be logged.

Uzbekistan – Nukus, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Tashkent
Unfortunately, internet controls seem to be growing instead of shrinking. If you happen to be armed with a list of proxy servers, it’s still possible to get around online.

Internet Cafés in Tashkent: To our surprise, Tashkent has a strong network of wifi cafes (see them listed at www.wi-fi.uz). Our favorite places included Café Bourgeois on Rustaveli Street (not far from Hotel Orzu). The service there includes good lattes, sweet smiles and no pressure. Similarly, the Korean restaurant at the corner of Rustaveli and Glinka Streets provides a good experience. During the day, they’ll even give you your own private Tatami-style room to enjoy your bibimbap while you surf.

Internet Cafés in Nukus: Give it a try if you like. After 20 minutes, you might be able to see your inbox. As for viewing your messages, forget it. It’s even worse than having no connection at all.

Internet Cafés in Samarkand and Bukhara: Better than Nukus, but not quite Tashkent speeds. The closer you get to Tashkent, the better the internet connectivity. Easy to find in the main tourist areas for around 2000 som ($1.50) per hour.

Mobile Phones and SIM cards in Uzbekistan: Given the Uzbek penchant for censoring the airwaves, we expected to provide passport details to buy a SIM card, if we would even be allowed to buy one at all. No worries. We just chose a provider (Beeline) and a telephone number, handed our money over (about $7, $5 of which was credit) and off we went. Beeline does not allow you to send SMS messages abroad and some people had trouble contacting us from European numbers. It’s not perfect, but it’s sufficient for calling local numbers.

Kazakhstan – Almaty
Internet Cafés and Wifi in Almaty: We were fortunate enough to stay with a friend who had ADSL in his apartment, but the Il Patio pizza and sushi chain restaurants all seem to offer free wifi.

Kyrgyzstan – Bishkek, Karakol, Kochkor
Internet Cafés in Bishkek: The yellow and black “Bee” internet cafes are pretty reliable and stay open late. We used the one around the corner near the post office. The cost is normally under $1 per hour.
Wifi in Bishkek: Several cafes and restaurants advertise wifi for around $6-$10 per hour.

Internet Cafés in Karakol: Beware of the internet cafes that charge by bandwidth (based on how much you surf and download). This is a very expensive method to discover what bandwidth hogs basic services like Flickr and Gmail can be.

Internet Cafés in Kochkor: If you have serious internet business, take a shared taxi to Balykchy and check out “HARD” internet café.

Mobile Phones and SIM Cards in Kyrgyzstan: We bought a Bitel SIM card for around $6. It served us well for in-country SMS messages and phone calls. You can recharge with a top-up card or go to one of the thousands of kiosks charging the number through a computer terminal. Some kiosks charge a small commission while others are free. Remarkably convenient.

Tajikistan – Dushanbe and Khorog
Internet Cafés in Dushanbe: There are several internet cafés on Rudaki Street, Dushanbe’s main drag. Speeds were OK, but aging computers tended to behave strangely. Cost is around $1 per hour.

Internet cafés in Khorog: The Khorog (the regional capital of the Pamirs) main post office features a decent internet café. Computers are a bit old, but they do the job. One machine even had a University of Virginia (Audrey’s alma mater) asset tag bar code on it. We tried to imagine the computer’s journey from a donation pile in Charlottesville, Virginia to an internet cafe in Khorog, Tajikistan. Another lesson in long journeys across small worlds.

Mobile Phones and SIM Cards in Tajikistan: We purchased a Beeline SIM card in Khorog for around $8 ($5 of credit included). The SIM card didn’t work at first, but a Beeline shop in Dushanbe managed to sort out the problem for us. After that, our Beeline SIM card worked fine for in-country calls and SMS messages.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | One comment

I thought Americans liked to travel in comfort. I don’t know why you take a marshrutka.

You should take the marshrutka. There you will meet the real people.

– Two competing local views on whether or not we should subject ourselves to long-distance rides on marshrutka minivans, the dominant form of public transport in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

So there we were. Dan was eating his knees again, sitting on a plastic stool inches off the floor of a packed minivan in the middle of Kyrgyzstan and absorbing looks from a perplexed and curious crowd. Audrey was trying to brush off the drunken advances of yet another admirer.

Moments before, the late afternoon autumn sun was speeding towards the horizon and we had been trying to flag down transport- any transport – for over an hour. When a marshrutka stopped, we were thankful to squeeze into the last two slivers of space remaining inside. We were headed home for the night after all.

Scenes like this played themselves out repeatedly over the course of our journey through the Caucasus and Central Asia. As a result, we cultivated a love-hate relationship with public transportation. On one hand, it’s the most inexpensive option going. On the other hand, it can be cramped to the point of discomfort. More importantly, however, public transport is the way most people get around. If one hopes to meet locals, a public bus or – even better – an intimate (i.e., cramped) minivan is the place to do it, as it literally offers an up-close and personal means of connecting with real people.

Marshrutka and its Meaning
We have often used the word marshrutka in our previous posts from the Caucasus and Central Asia. Loosely defined in English as a minivan taxi, its literal meaning in Russian is something akin to “planned path.” It’s a minivan that follows a route, picking up and dropping off passengers at fixed and ad hoc stops along the way.

As long as there is breathing room in the marshrutka, the driver will stop to let someone in, which often means collecting passengers at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. We were those lost passengers on several occasions and were repeatedly thankful for the existence of an informal and efficient system that allowed us to safely flag down a ride just about anywhere.

While we enjoy the flow and rhythm of marshrutkas, the journeys that they embark on can sometimes prove physically challenging: lack of space, uncomfortable temperatures, and long distances are the norm. The discomfort can often be compensated for by enlightening and humorous interactions with local people. Fascination with the exotic runs both ways and shyness often yields to curiosity, resulting in some unusual conversations. Locals always get a kick out of seeing some big westerners climb into their marshrutka with backpacks half their size.

But since this is a public experience, a shared experience, the story goes beyond “people are what they drive.” Marshrutkas know an etiquette, protocol and narrative all their own. They fit to the culture. In Georgia, for example, the hospitality for which the country is renowned naturally fills the marshrutka; strangers there almost always fed us snacks or gave us their better seats. In Kyrgyzstan, family-centric culture emerges as other female passengers assist boarding mothers with their children, scooping them up and having them sit on their laps until the mother settles in. In Armenia and Azerbaijan, politics and disputed regions often dominate the cramped airwaves.

Highlights and Lowlights
We’ve already written about some of our favorite marshrutka or shared taxi experiences; Zugdidi to Mestia in Georgia and Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan stand out as cultural highlights. On the other hand, we’ve also had some trying journeys, including one that we thought we wouldn’t survive (Mestia to Tbilisi in Georgia) and another that we thought would never end (Bishkek to Osh in Kyrgyzstan).

In our marshrutka experiences, it was not unusual for a woman or group of women to adopt us at the beginning of the journey and play guardian to the disoriented tourists. They’d ask us where we were headed and would ensure that the driver dropped us off at our desired destination. Particularly since we were often unfamiliar with where we were headed, it was nice to be taken care of. Our guardians would often ply us with fruit and other snacks and the questions they asked us would serve to connect us to other curious passengers. Several women gave us their phone numbers just in case we ran into trouble and needed help. We even had an entire marshrutka singing traditional songs for us. We were rarely ever bored.

One word of advice about traveling on a marshrutka: if you happen to end up next to a drunk man whose eyes are glazed over with three layers of cheap vodka in the middle of the afternoon and he decides to become overly friendly, look for the nearest grandmother and ask for help. She’ll give the man a good verbal lashing and he’ll normally sink back into his seat or skulk off the bus at the next opportunity. Not only can Audrey confirm that this method is tried and true, but we later learned that it’s also outlined in Kyrgyzstan Peace Corps Training for new arrivals. Based on our experience, finding a grandmother or older woman wherever and whenever you are in trouble is a good rule of thumb.

Overland Ideology and Reflection
There are myriad reasons for the presence of an “overland ideology” in long-term and adventure travel. Eschewing airplanes, overlanders not only seek to claim a victory over the challenges of the landscape by traveling continuously over it, but many of them seek to witness “the clicks” or changes – sometimes abrupt, often gradual – that cultures, people and land undergo as one travels on the ground.

There are endless levels at which to engage with a culture. The choice you make regarding your style of travel will obviously influence the type of experiences you’ll have and the types of people you’ll meet. We are not masochists, but the interactive benefits of marshrutkas make the hours of knee-eating or seat-sharing with a stinking sack of pickled vegetables nearby worthwhile. If you fly over or drive through a place by your own private transport, what you may gain in comfort, you may sacrifice in richness and granularity of cultural experience.

Unfortunately, “marshrutka advisor” is not a highly sought-after experience these days, but maybe we can position our newfound ability of securing the best seat and fitting in with a group of singing Kyrgyz families as some sort of cross-cultural expertise. It’s all how you spin it, right?

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While most people don’t travel to the Caucasus and Central Asia solely to explore the cuisine, we had our share of pleasant eating experiences there. We also occasionally felt the wrath of a post-Soviet culinary hangover. If you are interested to know what constitutes a good eating experience (heavenly bread, drinkable vodka, and elusive vegetables) or what continues to haunt our food dreams, read on.

Three questions you may be asking yourself:

Q: Do camels really have good eyesight?
A: Probably not, but the title seems like a catchy and appropriate one for the series.

Q: Are there camels in the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan)?
A: We suppose there may be a stray camel or two here and there throughout the Caucasus region, but camels are really a Central Asian fixture.

Q: So why include the Caucasus in a survey called the Golden Camel Awards?
A: As we identified highlights of our journey through Central Asia, our experiences in the Caucasus continually kept creeping into the discussion. We also tend to view our travels through the Caucasus and Central Asia together as one regional set of experiences (much like we do our experiences in Southeast Asia). Although the countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus differ from one another in many ways, they all share some common features because they are post-Soviet Asian states.

Without further ado, let’s eat!

Best Market: Osh, Kyrgyzstan
This was a difficult choice with competitors like Ashgabat’s colorful Tolkuchka Bazaar in the running. However, Osh’s sprawling market wins with an overwhelming diversity and abundance of just about everything, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, and ethnicities.
Honorable Mention: Telavi, Georgia.
The quirky main market in Georgia’s Khakheti region features the best in diversity that the Caucasus has to offer and will leave you mildly nostalgic for the days of yore. Good-looking produce and gregarious people (Georgians, Azeris, and Armenians among others), too.

Best Fruit: Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan wins for its immaculate grapes and fresh figs, whose taste could only be made better if they came with a harem in tow.
Honorable Mention: Turkmenistan, the melon capital of the universe. Turkmenistan features a national holiday to celebrate and honor the fruit so near and dear to the hearts of its countrymen.

Best Milk Product: matsoni (yogurt) from Svaneti, Georgia
The fresh, overnight yogurt sensation is fantastic throughout Georgia, but Svaneti is the place where it approaches the sublime. The best yogurt, by the way, comes from the same house that features the worst toilet. No kidding…and hopefully no connection.

On a serious note, it’s difficult to express how stiff the competition is in this category. Milk products throughout the Caucasus and Central Asia were so fresh that they literally redefined our taste program. Yogurt will never be the same again. Are you wondering why we are so excited by yogurt? It was often the only non-meat item on offer.

Most Questionable Food Hygiene: a Ramadan goat feast – in its entirety – at Kyrgyzstan’s Song Kul Lake. We cannot get that man’s grotty, leathery hands out of our minds…and he couldn’t keep them out of our food!

Best Plov: Flamingo Café in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Just across the street from Hotel Orzu. Approximately $1 gets you a tomato salad and a beautiful plate of freshly cooked wedding plov (the variety which includes not only carrots and meat, but also chick peas and a few raisins for good measure). The rice is not too oily and the meat is sparse and delightfully lean.

Best Vodka: Turkmenistan
It’s unlikely that we’ll ever claim to be vodka experts. Most local vodka tastes downright awful. That is, until we tried Turkmenistan’s wheat vodka. The Arslan brand (named so because it makes one feel like a lion after just one shot) is smooth, remarkably drinkable and best consumed while contemplating the viability of Turkmenistan’s 1,270 square mile man-made lake in the middle of the Karakum Desert.

Most Bizarre Menu Item: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Leave it to an oddly translated menu at a Chinese restaurant to serve up “frog paws” and “shark lips.”

Best Meat: Lali’s shashlik in Kakheti, Georgia.
She said it would be the best shashlik we’d ever had, and she was right. No sauce – just pork, salt, and pepper. Oh, and copious fresh vegetables, a five-liter gas can of brown wine, two drunk Kakhetians and a guitar.
Honorable Mention: Deniz Patisserie café, Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan
Iskender Kebab – think kebab (chunks of spiced meat, not the ground stuff) topped with yogurt and thin strips of bread.

Best Indian Food: Yerevan, Armenia
The Indian food at the restaurant on Tumanyan Street behind the Opera House is tasty and spicy; they offer a broad array of Indian food, not just the typical Punjabi gravy train favorites. Their food qualifies as the best Indian food we had tasted in five months.

Best Ice Cream: Tbilisi, Georgia.
Just beyond the covered area at Rustaveli metro station (in the opposite direction of McDonald’s) lay a hole in the wall that serves up creamy relief from the summer heat.
Honorable Mention: Nukus, Uzbekistan.
The ice cream man at the back of the market pleads no contest when it comes to “who’s the creamiest”, but his soft serve is pretty good and a steal at $0.10 a cone.

Most Mysterious Meat: all throughout Central Asia
There’s nothing like digging into a somsa and finding a bunch of onions and heaps of fat chunks and mystery meat fresh from the grinder. Aside from the dough in which it is encased, a Central Asian somsa can be absolutely inedible, unless you happen to be starving on the steppe.

Best Central Asian Meal: Malikjon Guest House in Bukhara, Uzbekistan
Whether you call it hunon or oromo (as the Uzbeks and Kyrgyz do, respectively), this ring-shaped stuffed pastry made from mats of dough rolled into a roulette is the essence of refined Central Asian cuisine and is delicious when served with a side of chaka (thick plain yogurt). Place it in the context of a delicious meal including eggplant salad, sweet seedless grapes, fresh soft figs and homemade kefir (mildly sour yogurt drink) and you have the spectacular $4/person spread which appeared at our table courtesy of the mother and daughter sweeties at the Malikjon Guest House in Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

Most Pleasant Western Eating Oasis: California Café in Osh, Kyrgyzstan
We didn’t say best meal or most elaborate. But, how about a pleasantly consistent cup of coffee, something resembling brunch food, or Mexican fare that comes pretty close? Don’t laugh – things like these take on added importance when it seems that all you can get is meat and bread. If you’ve traveled for an extended period of time in Central Asia, you know what we mean. Man cannot live on plov, shashlik, laghman and somsa alone. And that’s when California Café’s breakfast burritos, pizza, and pastas all come to the rescue.
Honorable Mention: The best of both worlds (eating and free wifi) at Café Bourgeois in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Lovely lattes and chicken sandwiches with fries, all while cruising the internet. The staff are incredibly friendly, too.

Best Pizza: Bistro Restaurant in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
We admit it; we do sometimes break down for a good pizza or decent glass of wine. Bistro Restaurant in Tashkent filled both requirements and served vegetables grilled in a wood fired oven. Located at Movarounnakhr 33, Tashkent.

Best Bread: Georgian tonis puri from Borjomi, Georgia
For the best of the best, try the bakery next to the Borjomi bus station. Perhaps the bread is so good because they use the local – and still revered – Borjomi water. An immaculate bread-eating experience on its own gets taken to a new level when Nutella is lathered on top.

Best Sweet: Baku, Azerbaijan
Having tasted some of Güllüoğlu baklava when it was delivered to us in Prague by a friend in Baku, we were determined visit the source. We know this is really a Turkish treat (the parent company’s home location is Istanbul, Turkey), however. At any rate, the product at their Baku outpost is lovely – not too sweet and chock-full of various ground nuts.

Best Cuisine All Around: Georgian
This is an easy call, one we make with apologies to our other friends in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The variety of dishes (especially those including vegetables) and symphony of flavors that comprise the Georgian table cannot be matched anywhere in the region. Oh, and did we mention how wonderful the bread was?

Still interested? Check out our Central Asian market video, Central Asian Markets photo set and our article on Central Asian Food.

Dig even deeper with individual country food and markets photo sets:
• Georgian Food and Markets
• Armenia: Food and Markets
• Azerbaijan: Food and Markets
• A Taste of Turkmenistan
• Uzbek Food and Markets
• Kyrgyzstan: Food and Markets

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 2 comments

Your trip across the Caspian may provide some of the scariest and most fulfilling moments of your entire journey.

– A veteran journalist we met in Tbilisi, Georgia who had seen it all in the former Soviet Union.

Although we are posting this from Pingyao, China, we dial back a few clicks to the beginning of our journey in Central Asia in an attempt to adequately address the images in our mind and the notes in our journals.

Oddly shaped like a damaged index finger or a distressed plume of smoke, the Caspian Sea pumps out oil and caviar in the midst of the surrounding desert and extreme landscape. For most of us, its name conjures images of a faraway, mysterious or mythical land. Our encounter with it was rather practical, however. In order to get from Baku, Azerbaijan to Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan, we needed to cross it.

Since there were no schedules, only the Caspian ferry gods knew when and if it might run. Due to a long run of rough weather that had recently plagued the region, the ferry hadn’t left for several days. Although these delays seemed to place our departure date in jeopardy, our frustration was offset by relief to hear that some semblance of safety standards were at work.

A Cast of Characters
The ticket woman holding court at the port didn’t know when or what time the boat would leave, but she sold us a ticket anyway and told us to return the next morning.

When we returned, we spent several hours watching train cars loaded with goods roll into the ferry’s cargo belly. After taking a lesson from the Azerbaijani border guard on Azerbaijani- Armenian relations, we walked the rickety metal gangplank and were securely inside.

We were met at the entrance to the ferry by a woman we came to call “comandante.” To imagine what she looked like, consider a genetic mash-up of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow and Michelin men. Add a wicked skin-piercing Russian accent and a dose of lingering Soviet sadness and you’d have the picture we were too afraid to take.

She quickly seized our passports and showed us to our cabin. In a predictably sad move to earn some extra money, she tried talking us into upgrading our cabin for a few extra dollars, repeating “Room number eight bad. Very bad.” over and over again. We feigned happiness with the windowless, stale inner cabin we had been assigned and declined her offer.

The Evening Show
As the sun began to descend, the sky slowly transformed into a color gradient, featuring rich shades of red, orange and violet. Our craft moved almost imperceptibly to us, leaving only the subtlest ripples in its wake as evidence. The waters of the Caspian were so placid, it was almost frightening. We were surrounded by the kind of silence that provides space – a thought space – into which it’s possible to unnecessarily insert images of sinking ships.

Silhouettes of oil rigs punctuated the horizon which formed our circular visual boundary. Although oil rigs don’t epitomize fantasy, just about anything takes on a chimerical appearance in this spectacular light. Dwarfed by nature, we continued scanning, rotating our view so as not to miss a single moment. A 360 degree turn rendered the sensation that we were floating on the surface of a giant water glass. These are the moments for which peripheral vision was made.

This was Mother Nature’s show. All we could do was watch in awe. Each time we thought the sunset was at its climax, she would outdo herself once again with darker shades on the horizon and more brilliant iridescence on the water’s surface, thereby treating us to possibly the longest sunset we had ever witnessed.

When the sky was finally filled with darkness, we descended, chilled by the evening air and amazed by what we had just witnessed.

Final thoughts
If you can handle the uncertainty of ferry travel and have some time flexibility, we highly recommend taking the slow boat across the Caspian (to Turkmenistan as we did, or to Aktau, Kazakhstan). The sunset alone is worth the trip and offers a dazzling display that you are unlikely to encounter anywhere else. Moreover, the ferry offers an ideal slow-paced transition into unusual Turkmenistan.

Photo Essay – From Turkmenbashi to Ashgabat

Practical Details – Boat from Baku to Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan Visa

Getting into Turkmenistan, the boat: To get to the Baku ferry building, ask for Parom, the Russian word for ferry. The overnight ferry leaves Baku on most days (i.e., there is no schedule) in the early afternoon. On the day of your desired departure, arrive around 8:30-9:00 AM to purchase a seat ticket for an arbitrary amount of money between $45-$60. Once you are on board, you can negotiate a cabin (preferably with a window) for another $5-$10. If there is no boat that day, keep trying until a boat eventually leaves. It’s best to bring some food with you on board since you never know if the “chef” will have extra food for passengers. Arrival in Turkmenbashi should be around 9 AM the next day. We’ve met people who were docked outside of Turkmenbashi for an additional 12-24 hours, however. So, you just never know.

Getting into Turkmenistan, the bureaucracy: Turkmenistan is one of the most difficult countries in the world for which to get a visa. The process is long and convoluted. If you want to stay in the country for more than five days (which is the typical maximum for a transit visa), then you’ll need to book an authorized tour. Your guide is technically supposed to be with you at all times, except in Ashgabat.

We used and can recommend Stantours for our visa support (Letter of Invitation – LOI) and tour. The LOI took about three weeks while the actual visa only took a few days to issue from the Turkmen Embassy. Once we had possession of the LOI, we applied for our Turkmen visa at the Turkmen Embassy in Yerevan, Armenia. We highly recommend this location. The process was painless and delivery quick.

In order to control the cost of your tour, let your tour operator know that you are interested in joining an existing tour or adding travelers to your group. This not only helps financially, but you will likely meet some interesting people.

Turkmenistan-interested travelers can be an interesting breed. The characters in our tour group definitely added a positive and humorous dimension to our Turkmen experience. We also gained some new friends.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 10 comments

Something bad had happened, people had died, but we never truly appreciated or understood the details.

Laundry lists of personal concerns and modern media’s facile compartmentalization of just about everything made it easy for us to become desensitized and stow it all away. These were simply areas of conflict someplace far away.

Although we didn’t venture into Abkhazia, South Ossetia, or Nagorno-Karabakh, we did meet some people displaced and affected by the disputes. For us, their personal tales conveyed a human face to areas that previously only amounted to just another set of flashpoints halfway around the globe.

Abkhazia

The only thing everyone seems to agree about Abkhazia is that it is a beautiful place – the Caucasus Mountains on its one side and the Black Sea on the other. After that, agreement yields to chaos; nothing is black and white about the war, who started it and how it might someday be resolved. The reality is that an estimated 200,000-300,000 refugees from Abkhazia are now spread throughout Georgia. We met just a few.

Holed Up at Hotel Telavi
Our first encounter with Abkhazia occurred in the opposite corner of Georgia, in the Eastern region of Kakheti. In search of great views of Telavi and the surrounding countryside, we found ourselves climbing the crumbling steps of the Hotel Telavi, a once-desired address now inhabited by Abkhazian refugees driven from their homes more than ten years ago.

Common rooms on the ground floor are gutted and scattered with trash and rusted Brezhnev-era remains. Extended families are squeezed into old, decaying Soviet hotel rooms. Children have turned the grand ballroom into a velodrome and cycle the long hours of uncertain days away while their parents hang out of the windows, drawing smoke from cheap cigarettes as they watch time drift by. Uncertainty seems certain here; no one knows when or if he’ll ever be able to return home.

So Close, Yet So Far
We met Lena after enjoying an impromptu feast at the Zugdidi market. She was forced to flee her home in Sukhumi (regional capital of Abkhazia) 15 years ago and subsequently settled in nearby Zugdidi. Tears welled up in Lena’s eyes as she drifted into the past and described her beautiful home and her former life. She eventually grew silent and her eyes dropped as she returned to the reality of the present. Her hope to one day return home was also waning. All we could do was nod empathetically.

Unexpected Caretaker
A friend in Tbilisi told us about how she used to spend summers as a child at her grandfather’s house in Sukhumi. After the war, borders were closed and her family could obviously no longer take advantage of the summer home.

When phone lines were reconnected a few years ago, our friend dialed the phone number of her old summer home out of curiosity. A man answered the phone and explained that he was a Chechen and now living in the house. He wanted to know whether there was a car that went with the house. He’d found some car parts in the garage and wanted to take full advantage of all the house had to offer.

To reassure our friend, he said, “Don’t worry. I’m taking good care of the house. If politics change, it will be in good condition for when you return. It’s a nice house.”

Nagorno-Karabakh

In Azerbaijan, it would be an understatement to say that feelings run strong regarding Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The continual pain and anger from this conflict finds expression in so many – often bizarre – ways, from the moment you enter the country until the moment you leave.

Offending Guidebooks – Rip Out the Maps!
One of the teams from the Mongol Rally that we met in Uzbekistan shared an apt tale of the Azerbaijani attitude towards this disputed territory. The drivers carried a Lonely Planet Caucasus guidebook with them. The Lonely Planet’s characterization of Nagorno-Karabakh as distinctly separate from Azerbaijan apparently did not fit with the Azerbaijani government’s view. As they entered Azerbaijan from the border with Georgia, the Azerbaijani guards confiscated the book, citing the offending map and characterization of Nagorno-Karabakh as an entity separate from Azerbaijan. After considerable discussion, the guards showed their generosity by allowing the Mongol Rally team to continue their journey into Azerbaijan.

We also had our guidebook and map examined by several Azerbaijanis in Baku, Shaki and Lahic. Each paid special attention to how Nagorno-Karabakh was depicted. Fortunately for us, our Trailblazer guidebook and its especially pro-Azerbaijani view (it was, after all, primarily a guidebook for Azerbaijan) and the Avis map (given to us by the Azerbaijani embassy in Tbilisi) both passed the test. We were kindly allowed to keep our materials and were not forced to travel blindly.

Offending Photos – Hide Them!
Just when we thought we were in the clear as we departed Azerbaijan, one of the border guards pulled us aside. The Armenian visas in our passports drew his ire. Our exit from Azerbaijan included 45 minutes of questioning regarding our activities in Armenia. We assured him that we hadn’t visited Nagorno-Karabakh. He insisted that we show our photos on our laptops to prove we were never there. Impeccable logic, eh? Given his tone, we worried that he would force us to delete all photos from Armenia as punishment for visiting the offending country. Luckily, we received a brief lecture instead about Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and were allowed to board the ferry to Turkmenistan.

Although our engagement with these disputed regions was relatively superficial, our encounters with refugees and others affected lend gravity to the conflict and humanity to those involved. This also demonstrates another reason why we choose to travel the way we do. When a place has a face, desensitization begins to wear off. Human connections make these places more difficult to dismiss as “some war, some place, and some people halfway around the world.”

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 6 comments

One thing is certain though. Azerbaijanis like their meat, with shashlik (barbecue) as the style of choice. One meal took us on the tour of the animal kingdom with seven different types of shashlik - ground meat, sturgeon (served with narsharab, a pomegranate sauce), beef, veal, lamb, pork, and even vegetables. As our friend joked, “See, we Azerbaijanis can make shashlik out of anything!” Although the meat was perfectly grilled, we were thankful for the plates of vegetables and fresh herbs to help balance our intake of flesh.

Luckily for our bodies, there’s more to the Azerbaijani table than shashlik. Here’s a sample:

Dovga: A warm soup made from plain yogurt, cucumbers, spring onions and occasional bits of ground meat. Although it’s meant to be a starter, we found refuge in it as a light dinner.

Manti: Think large, Turkish-style ravioli stuffed with ground lamb. Served with plain yogurt – and if you are fortunate, a light chili pepper sauce – they are delicious.

Dolma: Grape leaves or vegetables stuffed with ground lamb, rice and spices, eaten with plain yogurt and ground pepper. Our best dolmas experience: the small, grape leaf variety served by our home stay family in the hills of Lahic.

Caviar: Beluga caviar is still king. Although its quantities are dwindling in Azerbaijan, caviar is still a big industry. The government controls the caviar business, but somehow a little bit always escapes and finds its way onto the black market. The best place to find it is at Taza Bazaar in Baku. From the moment you enter the market, you’ll hear hushed whispers of “caviar, caviar” from the shadows as middlemen sidle up to you. Follow them to small makeshift tasting rooms whose coolers are filled to the brim with caviar tins. Sample 5-6 varieties at different prices. The 113 gram pots run from $25-$55, depending upon the type of fish and grade. Our favorite was Beluga caviar – smooth and the least fishy of the lot. No small wonder it’s the most expensive.

Ayran: Refreshing, thinned-out yogurt drink, often flavored with dill and other herbs. It’s pronunciation is similar to the favorite neighborhood theocracy, Iran. So much so that when a young boy in the market asked Audrey “Do you like ayran?”, she responded “I don’t know. I haven’t been there yet.”

Kutab: A thin pancake whose varieties come stuffed with meat or with spinach and greens. Delicious alone, but if you find yourself at Chudo Pechka, get creative and team the green-stuffed with the baklijan (eggplant and garlic in sour cream) for your very own Azerbaijani veggie wrap.

Sheki Halva: Not the traditional dry halva you are used to, this regional variety resembles a pie with crunchy layers drowned in a sweet syrup.

Bakhlava: Although Turkish in origin, bakhlava has made its way to Baku, with some of the best served up by the local outpost of the Turkish bakery Gulluoglu. The rolled cylindrical variety are full of pistachio nuts, inside and out. Not too sweet, incredibly fresh, and terribly addictive.

The following traditional Azerbaijani dishes evaded our taste buds, either because of short supply or the wrong season.

Dushbara: Azerbaijani-style miniature manti. Teaspoon-sized mutton, onion and coriander filled ravioli served in a stock. This dish is common in the spring, so we just missed it during our summer visit. Travelers headed further to Central Asia, don’t despair. You’ll get your fill of dushbara in Kyrgyzstan, where they are called chochvara and served in a spicy, tomato-based broth.

Piti: Potatoes, chick-peas, vegetable and fatty-mutton stewed with fresh tomatoes or saffron. We’re told that you are supposed to soak the juice up with the bread first and then mash the solids into a paste before eating. For some reason, every cafe we tried seemed to be out and offered us shashlik instead.

Word of caution: Some restaurants, especially in the regions, will present an extensive menu, leaving the customer excited by the possibilities of choice. Tame your excitement. More often than not, the only things actually available are shashlik or dovga. For some reason, waiters don’t find it necessary to explain “we only have 3 of the 600 things on the menu” up front. Only when they take your order, do they deliver the bad news, leaving you grasping for alternatives.

Photo Essay – Azerbaijani Food and Markets

Practical Details – Baku Restaurants

Chudo Pechka: Next to Sahil Metro station on Bul Bul street. An international chain that is Turkish in origin, Chudo Pecka churns out savory and sweet pastries, kutab, pizzas and doner kebabs all day. Pay at the cashier first and then take your receipt to one of the half dozen or so food counters to collect your grub. Extraordinarily inexpensive compared to every other food option in Baku…a blessing for budget travelers.

Anadolu: On Rasul Rza Street #5 at the corner with Azerbaijan Street. Probably the best street doner kebabs in the city. Inside, Turkish and European dishes are on offer for reasonable prices.

Anur Restaurant: E. Elizada Street #3, close to the old town on the same street as Mozart Cafe. Good manti.

Gulluoglu Bakery: Istiqlaliyyet Kuc #35. Heavenly and addictive bakhlava!

Restaurant “PLANET”: Mehseti Sreet #3, tel.: (+99412) 4234378. A ways outside the city center. It has a nice garden setting with delicious shashlik and live music.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 4 comments