Inside the Walled City

Walls of the Inner City (Icheri Sheher), Baku, Azerbaijan




A walk inside Icheri Sheher, Baku

I have nothing to write about. I am full time juggling 2.5 Projects. Family life has taken a hit, partly because of that. I’ve not got an approval for my intended December leave (not yet, anyway). On the contrary, they’ve heaped extra work and extra responsibilities on me, with no pay rise! What a life!

But blogging goes on. It’ll have to be picture posts for the time being. Guess I’ll post more pictures from our Baku trip in 2018. I’ve posted some before, but I’ve not posted the bulk of the photos from inside the old walled city of Baku, Icheriseher (i.e. Inner City). Here goes.


This was near where we stayed in Icheri-Sheher, the Old City Inn


An Azeri dinner at our hotel’s restaurant with Piti (that soup dish) and err… forgot what the other dishes are called. You can find Piti everywhere you go!


At the Gates of the Walled City


Parks and buildings surround the Walled City – exploring them was part of the fun




The Inner City is a mix of cobblestone roads, small cobblestone alleys, tiny cobblestone walkways and staircases


The bust of …umm didn’t bother to find out (let’s zoom in – it sez Aliaga Vahid), near the Museum of Miniature Books and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs


A cobblestone road beside the Shirvanshah’s Palace




Near the Maiden Tower


Hey honey, are you allowed to climb up? Maiden Tower, Icheriseher, Baku, Azerbaijan

That’s all for now folks!

City of Flames

Since we’re on low places, here’s the lowest capital city in the world, Baku, capital of Azerbaijan. It is 28m below sea level. Don’t believe me, Google it!


Flame Towers, Baku, Azerbaijan

I’m doing another quick picture post. On the work front, I have suddenly been thrown back into the ITS Project fray… for reasons still unclear. I’ve been out of the ITS Project from May. The last 5 months have been a nice, refreshing less hectic time. I hear the project’s running OK, so why, oh why, disturb yours truly here???!!! Guess that’s good-bye to my alternate Saturdays off, for the time being… WTF!

Baku’s nickname is actually the City of Winds as it is supposedly windy all year round. Heck, Baku’s name is derived from its old Persian name, Badkube which means “Pounding winds”. But we only experienced the wind in all its fury on the third day, on the day we flew out of Baku back to Dubai. The first two days, was just a little breezy. Why I call it the City of Flames is because it is a city of oil and gas, its city symbol are flames, its most iconic building is the Flame Towers, which has dancing flames projected on it at night, it has a naturally burning hillside called Yanardag that’s permanently burning due to gas deposits underneath the surface, it has Zoroastrian fire temples, and it has mud volcanoes all over the place (yeah, you read correctly, mud friggin volcanoes)… I rest my case. Here’re the pictures.


Jayden playing aeroplane, by the shores of the Caspian Sea (Bulvar), Baku


The Caspian Sea, Baku


Azerbaijan flag pole, Bulvar, Baku


Mini-Venice, Baku


Maiden Tower, Old City, Baku – Is it part of the city fortification? Actually, no one knows for sure. Scholars now think it’s a religious structure… There’s a museum at the tower that explains it all, but… as usual, I didn’t read them, ahem


View of Baku from atop the Maiden Tower


City walls of the Old City (Icheri Sheher) – Our hotel was inside the walled city, where most of the roads are still cobblestone roads, cool huh?


Nizami Museum of Azerbaijan Literature – Anu looks like a giant standing beside some miniature humans. She’s actually atop the stairs, while the others are below


Fountains Square (Fevvareler Meydani), Baku, Azerbaijan


The bustling footpaths around Fountains Square – They’re all coloured beige by the way. Wonder what it is with Baku and the colour beige?


Philharmonic Fountain, Filarmoniya Park, Baku


Another well-known landmark of Baku, the Heydar Alivey Centre, designed by the renowned Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid


I HEART BAKU – This was the day, Baku lived up to its name, the wind-pounded city


Heydar Aliyev International Airport (Yup every other thing is named after Heydar Aliyev) – Bye-bye Baku, see ya again hopefully...

Mosques from a Soviet Oil City

It’s Eid season again! Bliss… 5 days off this time! Happy holidays everyone! Eid Mubarak! Selamat Hari Raya!

Here’re some photos of mosques from a Soviet, …I mean Ex-Soviet oil city – Baku, capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Baku seems pretty rich, well-maintained infrastructure and facilities, nicely tended gardens, skyscrapers and iconic buildings all over the city, some completed, some under construction. But why not? It’s an oil city after all!


Heydar Mosque, Baku, Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is somewhat unique. Azerbaijan is 97% Muslim, but it is officially a secular country and only 21% of its population say religion is important in a survey in the mid-2000s (check it out on Wikipedia, mate). This makes Azerbaijan the least religious Muslim-majority country in the world. I was actually surprised to see flights to Tel Aviv (Israel) shown on the flight status board in Baku’s International Airport, and the airlines flying to Israel was none other than Azerbaijan’s own national airlines, AZAL!

Azerbaijan is also unique in that it is a Shia majority country with up to 75% of its Muslim population being Shia. This makes Azerbaijan the country with the second highest Shia population by percentage in the world, after Iran. In terms of language however, Azerbaijan is a lot more like Turkey, than Iran. Azerbaijani and Turkish are mostly mutually intelligible, and uses the same Latin script (more or less). Heck, it’s something like Malay to Indonesian.

Enough of the boring stuff, here’re the rest of the photos…




Heydar Mosque, Baku – completed 2014. Yup, it’s a new mosque, built after Azerbaijan gained independence. (The Soviets weren’t really fond of religious structures. They tore down many mosques and churches during Stalin's early rule. In that way, he's a bit like ISIS, paranoid).


The kids at Heydar Mosque


Yours truly – this pic is too good to resist not posting, thanks to having a wife with good photographic skills. Can’t say much about my photographic skills though. I took a whole load of pictures of her, same view, hoping that some would turn out good. She took only 3, and all 3 came up fine. All 15 of mine turned out crooked, or with the tops of the minarets cut off…

Here’re some mosques in the old walled city of Baku – Icheriseher.


Anu, outside the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, Icheri Seher, Baku – The mosque / minaret seen here is inside the Shirvanshah’s Palace compound. Part of the iconic Flame Towers of Baku, can be seen on the top right




In the compound of the Shirvanshahs’ Palace, Baku


Walking the cobblestoned roads of the Old City – the small minaret behind the tree is part of the Muhammad Mosque. Far behind that, are the Flame Towers (more of that later OK? In another post, ahem…)


Juma Masjid, Baku – Azerbaijanis really love the colour beige huh? Everything is beige. Won’t be surprised if someone nicknames Baku, the Beige City…


Another beige building, but not a mosque. This is the Government House, Baku. The road we’re on is part of Azerbaijan’s Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit. Azerbaijan’s Grand Prix is on a city circuit, like Monaco and Singapore…

OK, that’s all. Have a swell holiday. Enjoy yourselves. Drive safely. Be polite. Make everyone happy. To all those celebrating Eid, may you and your family have a blessed Eid full of happiness and laughter! See you after the break. We will be busy shifting houses.

The Adventures of Justin: Year 9

And here’re Justin’s Year 9 photos. And these are only umm… 4 months late, ahem.


Justin crosses a rope bridge, in a rope course outside the Sanctuary of Truth, Pattaya, Thailand – Dec 2017


Justin in the Arabian wilderness (he has picnic-crazy parents!) Somewhere along the new route to Hatta, in an area probably belonging to the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah (the internal boundaries of the UAE are mighty confusing…) – Feb 2018


Posing with a falcon at his school, Royal Dubai School – Feb 2018


Justin comes home! (From school camp in Kalba). The first time he spent a night outside home, without his family – Mar 2018


Yawn... When’s the wedding starting? It’s past midnight… Justin & Jayden at his aunt’s wedding in Rohini, Delhi, India – Mar 2018


Mommy gave me a go-kart! – Jun 2018
(Nearly lost it, he parked it beside a quiet road, but the road is used by construction vehicles, and a scumbag of a bus driver took it seeing it parked there. Spoke to some construction workers in the site, and managed to get it returned to us on the same day. Thank God!)


Justin builds the Burj Khalifa …the replica I mean (still, no easy task especially with Jayden around) – Jul 2018


Justin in Armenia, outside the Matenadaran (book repository), Yerevan – Jul 2018


In the city of Tbilisi, Georgia – Aug 2018


Justin with his Georgian friends, Ana (I hope I got the name correct) and her sister (her name escapes me), at the friendliest guest house we’ve ever stayed in, the Green House in Telavi, Georgia, run by the girls’ grandparents


At the walls of the old city of Baku, Azerbaijan – Aug 2018


Justin starts Year 4 at GRDS, with his class teacher, Mr Brice Dempster – Oct 2018


And this is his guitar teacher, Sayan


Justin finds a star! With a live starfish at Jumeirah Beach, Dubai – Oct 2018


Justin at the Hatta Dam (the smaller one, there’re 2 dams in Hatta, the big one is immensely popular, and crowded to the brim, so we headed to the smaller one) – Nov 2018


Brrr... "Papa, it's cold!" In breezy, wet weather …signs of winter starting in Dubai, a few days before his 9th birthday

On his 9th birthday, we visited the Miracle Garden in Dubai, …but I don’t have any interesting pictures of him there, so …that’s all folks! Till we meet again…