Taxi The speedometer is not working so I have no clue about how fast we are going. I do know that we are in a hurry and the driver is taking it serious. Inside the taxi the atmosphere is tense. The taxi driver obviously doesn’t speak english and he isn’t trying to communicate by any means at all. I am quite pissed and not in the mood to do any effort as well. With a non working radio we are in a strange but sort of comfortable silence. The taxi is a typical Mercedes C class from the late 80ies, in Holland they are popular for the free road tax and their reliability. In azerbaijdan and other countries it is still a daily used car and taxi. I like the car. It has a timeless design and it shows a sort of robustness. It is also quite comfortable. Even this example, though beaten and with a mileage likely to pass the 7 figures is not that bad. Unless the stressful situation I am in, I sort of enjoy the ride. This morning we had slept till 11 o’clock and than asked the lady of the hostel if she could inform about the time schedule of the ferry. She made a quick phone call and told us It would leave in one hour… We decided to rush and try to make it. An hour later we make it in time to the ferry. But this is Azerbaijan, not Holland, things go a bit different here. We are told that the lady who sells the tickets will be their in one hour… So about 1,5 hour later the lady arrives and we can buy the tickets. We arrange the stuff and are told that we can wait for the boat, which will leave at about 6 o’clock,by that time about 3 hours later. We decided to get some final snacks and supplies because we were told that the boat trip can last up to four days… Loaded up with noodles and coke we headed back to the ferry. Along the way we also meet up with a local Vespa driver who invited us to his shop. Though his offer sounded attractive we decided to wait at the harbor just to be more safe in case the ferry schedule changes or other uneventful things happen... We arrive in a suburb of Baku, no official head quarter here I guess. It is now half past 5. The cab driver demands me to get out of the car and help him park. In a few seconds the Mercedes is parked. The driver gets out and says; ‘Passport’. I give him my passport and follow him. We go in to a shop, a lady makes a copy of my passport. I have no small money… She decides she will give the copies to welcome a tourist in Azerbaijan. I thank her and follow the taxi driver who is already running to the next building. We run through metal detectors, they go off, we ignore them. We run on to some stairs and rush into an office. The official is about to leave but he is willing to stay for another five minutes. I am saved… Vespa has problem, red, straf. That are the words that I remember before I get thrown into the Mercedes. It appears that some official at the boarder entry from Georgia to Azerbaijan had made a mistake. Due to this mistake the Vespa was only allowed to stay in the country for three days. We had been in Azerbaijan for five days. This meant I had to pay a fine or otherwise I could not get on to the ferry, I could not leave the country and due to visum hassle this would have meant end of the trip for me…
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 06:47:55 +0000
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