Day 63 (28 July)

There's a night train that would have taken us smoothly and easily from Tbilisi to Baku. This being the case, why opt for the messy Telavi-Lagodekhi-Balakan route?

The answer: Sheki, a historic trading city that just seemed like it shouldn't be missed.

Two marshrutkas a day go from Balakan to Sheki (8.30 and 14.00). We walked out to the bus station, while the morning was still cool, and caught the first one.

The scenery en route is great. Forested mountains give way to woodland and green pasture. Herds of sheep and cows add to the bucolic impression. As you make your way across the valley, more arable farming becomes apparent.

The road surface, however, is diabolical, and the journey was bumpy enough to shake your teeth from your gums.

We were happy, therefore, that it took two and a half hours, rather than the predicted three.

And here we are in Sheki, which sits 600 metres or so above sea level, is ringed by mountains that are reputed to still shelter bears (yes!), and is full of beautiful brickwork (and we haven't even got to the famous stuff yet).

Well worth the detour.





Our guesthouse (surprise, surprise) is at the top of a hill... We took the signposted route, which involved scrambling up a horrendously steep footpath (carrying our full kit). We later discovered a longer but more genteel route via the road.

It's lovely up here. You get a great view of the town below. It's quiet. Every now and then, a posse of turkeys meanders up the hill and under the fence into the garden. They are shooshed off by the landlord. A little while later they drift back, and the whole process repeats itself. Turkeys are incorrigibility personified.



There are also all manner of points of interest in the immediate environment.







Day 64 (29 July)

The beginning of Week 10...

How fast it's all going now. Nine weeks ago, we were setting out from London. A week hence, we'll be climbing aboard a plane, and heading back to Malaysia...

But today, we're having breakfast in the sun, the valley stretched out beneath us. And here come the turkeys again...

We were a bit more targeted in our sightseeing today.

First up, Kish, a pretty village a few kilometres from Sheki, which can be reached via marshrutka for AZN 0.60 per person return. It houses an ancient Albanian church. We rapidly established that these Albanians have nothing to do with the Albanians who live across the water from Italy. But this Christian nation once ruled a sizeable part of what is now Azerbaijan.







Back in town we checked out the Karavansaray, a building set round a courtyard where the merchants of old would have paused for accommodation and a bit of trading. Like most of the old town, this complex dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries. In its heyday, Sheki (which was called Nukhus at that point) had five karavansarays, serving Silk Road traffic.

This one is now a hotel (we'd planned to stay there, but could find no way to book in advance -- in any case we're very happy at the Panorama Guesthouse).




In the area between the Karavansaray and the Khan's Palace (tomorrow's objective), the old town spreads itself out particularly picturesquely. Sheki has so far succeeded in avoiding old-town artificiality, it seems. Yes, there are concentrations of souvenir shops near the key sights. But elsewhere it's all gloriously normal.








The Winter Palace is a gorgeous little precursor to tomorrow's explorations. It's a jewel box of colour and reflection, and an excellent place to get acquainted with the charms of shabaka (stained glass set in a framework made without nails or glue).

PT is a bit of a magpie, with a massive predilection for the shiny. So the camera was running hot by the time she'd finished...












And finally, food...

For two days running, we've indulged in Sheki's trademark dish, which is piti. This comes in a kind of clay jug, and is often described on menus as a "two-course dish", because you eat it in two separate parts. First, tear some bread into small pieces, and pour the liquid from the jug on top (the waiter generally does this for you). Add a sprinkle of that lovely, tart stuff called sumac, and you're good to go on your first soup course. The broth is nicely flavoured by the mutton.


Then you smoosh up the solids in the pot (again the waiter will probably do it for you). The resultant mash of really tender mutton, chickpeas, and the bit of tail fat that gives it the flavour is really delicious. I loved both the taste and the texture. Excellent stuff, but highly calorific, unfortunately.


We also tried dushpara (spellings vary). These are tiny meat-filled dumplings floating in soup. Nice.

The other big hit was a really awesome beef kebab at Calabi Xan. Just tender grilled beef, with an amazing taste and texture, accompanied by sumac-sprinkled onions. Incredibly simple, incredibly nice.

I hadn't realized Azerbaijan had such a tradition of sweet-making. There are confectioners everywhere...

Concerns about blood-sugar levels preclude our trying too much of this wonderful stuff. But we did get to taste the most famous product -- "Sheki halva", which is actually more like baklava. It's made of layers of rice-flour dough, which are sandwiched with hazelnuts, cardamom, and coriander, steeped in rosewater-nuanced sugar syrup, and decorated with saffron in a grid pattern that reflects Sheki's famed shabaka. You have to eat it in small doses, but it's really a treat for the mouth. We also tried some "milk sherbet". This is a fudge-like product containing nuts. Again, decadent but delicious.

To date, food in Azerbaijan has been very affordable, pretty much on a par with Malaysia.

Hmmm... Appetizing and affordable. Not a good recipe for losing the kilos the journey has very probably added...