We finally crossed the Caspian Sea!
Before we left home in Penang, few of us were concerned on some of the challenges involved crossing the Caspian Sea from Aktau to Baku. There were limited information available on the internet and we were unable to have a clear picture on how we are going to do it.
Nonetheless, we continued to asked around our circle of friends especially those who were from Central Asia's region and we were ensured there will not be any issue crossing from Aktau to Baku.
Baku (Azerbaijani: Bakı, IPA: [bɑˈcɯ]) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region.
Professor A. V. Williams Jackson of Columbia University wrote in his work From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam (1911):
Baku is a city founded upon oil, for to its inexhaustible founts of naphtha it owes its very existence, its maintenance, its prosperity.... At present Baku produces one-fifth of the oil that is used in the world, and the immense output in crude petroleum from this single city far surpasses that in any other district where oil is found. Verily, the words of the Scriptures find illustration here: 'the rock poured me out rivers of oil.'
Oil is in the air one breathes, in one's nostrils, in one's eyes, in the water of the morning bath (though not in the drinking water, for that is brought in bottles from distant mineral springs), in one's starched linen – everywhere. This is the impression one carries away from Baku, and it is certainly true in the environs.
Baku ranked as one of the largest centres for the production of oil industry equipment before World War II. Fifty years before the battle, Baku produced half of the world's oil supply.
We met another group of European travelers
on their way to Australia
Lady performer at our dinner restaurant
The famous 'Flaming Towers' of Baku
Baku is more beautiful than we ever imagined
