Azerbaijan, without a shade of doubt, is the country that has surprised me the most. When I trekked in Mongolia, I was aware of the hardships. When I visit Caribbean islands, I know how beautiful the tropical beaches will be.

But Azerbaijan? I had no idea. Truth is, at least in my country, the USA, most people cannot locate Azerbaijan on the map. I myself did not know anything other than the name of their capital and their currency. And a bit about the recent Karabakh war.

Boy, was I in for a surprise.

The first shock was how advanced Baku is. I have seen almost 20 European capitals. Baku is absolutely one of the most modern of them all. The architecture of high rises, the facilities, and above all, the spick and span cleanliness were totally unexpected.

On top of that, it is very safe, day and night, fairly inexpensive, and the people are incredibly friendly and willing to help. English can be a bit of a challenge here and there once you go far out of the city, but still not that big a problem.

Incidentally, everybody learns Azerbaijani, Turkish, and Russian in school. And then English is the fourth language.

Speaking of languages, I found many words Azeris use that are common to Hindi and Bengali. Examples include “Hava” (wind), “Insan” (human), “Bulbul” (the same name bird), “Dunya” (world), and so on.

We explored the Caspian Sea side. The whole area was underwater many, many years ago. Today, it is a bit deserty. The city of Baku is nearly 85 feet below mean sea level (as is the Caspian Sea).

We did not explore the ski resorts and mountainous side of Shahdag on the borders of Russia.

The traffic can be a bit aggressive. Lane discipline is a bit on the relaxed side. But, otherwise it was fine

Oh! And the cats! There are cats virtually everywhere. Not that many dogs… but cats, yes!!

A country with barely 10 million people, it will absolutely surprise you if you visit it. Which I hope you will some day soon!

On the border of Armenia and Turkey.

Some of my soccer crazy Bengali friends will remember the famous 1978 IFA Trophy final between FC Ararat and Mohanbagan that resulted in a 2-2 draw.

From aboard our flight from Baku and Istanbul, we got a clear view of the Masazir Golu. A bit of cloud and a bit of dirt on the airplane window got in the way of a perfect view, but you can clearly see how pink the water of Masazir Gol is. The one on the left is the other slightly pink lake, Mirzaladi Gol. The one on the right is the Jeyranbatan reservoir (that supplies drinking water to Baku), and you can see the difference in color!

Hamid Aliyev was our driver and guide in Baku. He was a great company and very knowledgeable about world geography. He has been to many countries. His absolute crazy stories were the drives he did from Vladivostok to Baku – about 8000 kms in 6 days. Multiple times!

I learnt also about the education system, medical system, government and a lot of things about the country that you can pick up only from locals.

Hope to see him and his family too next time we are in this part of the world.