Aktau Baku ferry - lesson of patience and bribing

Aktau is not an attractive city. It has oil, gas and a lot of expats working for oil companies. And it has the Aktau-Baku ferry. But there's hardly anything to do there and the accommodation options are pretty poor too. There are many top end hotels, but unfortunately they were way out of our budget, so that we were left with the low cost options... I will spare you the details, let's just say it was nearly as bad as the road we just drove. We were praying we wouldn't have to stay in the city for too long.

We went directly to the harbor to check for the ferry. Only one person spoke some English and the information he gave us was not a happy one. The ferry has just left yesterday and no one knows when the next one would be ready to leave, but we should come back tomorrow. We already heard about tourists, who were asked to come back tomorrow for two weeks, so we were not in the best moods. We even considered making a small trip around Aktau and skipping the appointment, but we finally decided against it and went to the harbor as we were told to. For the first half an hour everybody simply ignored us. They were speaking to each other, pointing in our direction from time to time, but no one seemed to want to talk to us. And when they finally did, all we heard was “OK, tomorrow morning 6 o'clock you go”. We were shocked! We were not expecting that, so we had to go back to the hotel to grab the money and all the papers do deal with the customs. It wasn't an easy job, I can tell you that. The harbor workers were not much help either. We got some ferry declarations on which we had to collect 5 or 6 stamps and some signatures, but everyone seemed to know only his part of the job, so finding out where to get the next stamp was quite a challenge (especially that the documents were mostly in Russian). And some of the workers after finishing their part told us everything was OK now and we could go home, though we were still missing some signatures. All in all it was one big chaos and we really had to breathe deeply and try hard not to explode. But the thought of leaving Aktau and our hotel was helping us get through it all. And we finally knew the cost as well. The price was nearly 100 USD per person, and for the car 80 USD per meter of length. We had to pay around 50 USD of harbor fee as well. Fortunately it was still in our budget.

We woke up early the next day and came to the harbor at 6, just to find out we can not enter before 9 o'clock anyway. So we parked our cars and went simply back to sleep. At 9 we turned up at the gate again just to be told that we should have come earlier and that we have to park quickly and run back to the passport control immediately. We did it just to discovered that the passport office would not open for the next 20 minutes anyway, so that we started wondering why the hell they told us to come at 6 o'clock in the morning in the first place. We had even more time to wonder about it after we went through, as it took a few hours before we could actually drive onto the ferry. In the end we left the harbor at 8 o'clock in the evening, slowly swimming in the direction of Baku.


The ferry was nothing like the ones we've seen so far. It was made to transport railway wagons and heavy goods and definitely not tourists. Our cars were the only ones they took. There where only three other passengers on board, all coming from the region, traveling for business reasons. At the beginning they wanted us to sleep on the chairs in the waiting room, but since the tickets were not exactly cheap, we argued till we got a room. And it was quite a nice one, comfortable enough to spend a nice day in it. If it wasn't for all the unwanted guests... We heard Azerbaijan had some serious problems with corruption and we experienced it shortly after getting on board. A few of the workers offered to testify that our cars were shorter than they actually are, if we paid them 50 USD. Already at the beginning of our journey we decided not to pay any bribes if we can only avoid it, even if it means wasting some of our precious traveling time or our money. We have sticked to this rule so far and were not willing to break it now. And to be honest the deal wasn't good anyway. They wanted 50 USD to help us save 10 or 15, so we weren't even tempted. We told them we didn't approve of bribing and want to pay the correct price. That was more than they could understand. One after another they were knocking on our door telling us that we didn't get it and that we would actually save money, so it is not a bad thing to pay them. We tried to stay polite, repeating that we understood everything perfectly, but were not willing to do it anyway. Finally we lost our tempers and told them to get out and leave us alone, as they're not getting any money and it's final. They left smashing the doors, so that we were a bit scared they may try to make our day on the ferry as hard as possible, but it was not the case. And surprisingly, from that moment the rest of the crew and the other passengers started showing us a lot more sympathy.

The ride took around 20 hours and we spend most of it reading and talking. We also got quite a nice food, which was included in the price. I have never been on a ferry for such a long time, so I was excited like a kid before Christmas, enjoying every minute of it. But we were still happy when we finally reached Baku, especially that we were able to see it by sunset. The view was splendid. It still took some time before we could drive out, since the wagons had to leave first, but it went quicker than we thought. We were supposed to pay for the cars when we leave the boat and to our surprise the guy who sold the tickets was not relying on any papers he got from the crew, but came to check the length of our cars himself. And he actually insisted they are both 5 meters long, so that we had to measure them to prove him wrong. He was not in his best mood either, as it was already late and I guess he wanted to be done with us and go home. And here we stand insisting upon measuring the cars and getting a receipt before we pay him any money at all. He wasn't happy about it. He got even more angry when the border officials told him we have to deal with customs before we can go to his office. He started yelling and threatening that he would go home and leave us at the border and we wouldn't be able to leave until morning, but we told him we didn't care and could sleep in the car if necessary. That made him really furious, but David showed him we can yell too if we need to and suddenly the whole border personnel was there trying to calm us all down, telling the guy to leave us alone and wait for his turn. And so he did. We went to his office as soon as we could, got the bill for the money we paid and he even actually apologized for everything, telling us he simply lost his temper as it was late and he was working the hole day already and still had to go to another harbor. Finally we were free to go!

Baku felt like being back in Europe. They had street lights, roads without holes and although it was late there was actually some life on the streets. There was even quite a lot of it. And there was a McDonald’s too! We haven't seen one for months, so we couldn't miss such a chance! The city itself was quite impressive. We got the feeling they have way to much money there and are running out of ideas on how to spend it. Splendid buildings and decorations are one thing, but marble sidewalks and subways seem a bit too much. Especially compared to the standards of living in the country. We didn't have much time to explore it, but one thing is sure, the people are extra friendly. Though they try to be as European as they can, they know how to show real Asian friendliness and hospitality too. We didn't really understood the political situation though. It is supposed to be a democratic republic, but when I mentioned it to the locals they started laughing so badly they could hardly breathe and told me I should try living there if I really believed that. And I have to say I found it suspicious that they had photos and quotations of the president and his father all over the country, in every office, most shops and even on big billboards around the highways, which is not a typical thing for a democratic country. It looked pretty scary to me, but I guess you need to spend some more time there to be able to judge it. But I would leave it to others as we were anxious to get to our next stop, Iran, the expected highlight of our trip, where the political system was certainly even more complex then what we have seen so far. 

The road from hell

The decision was made. If Turkmenistan doesn't want to see us in October they would not see us at all. Well, to be totally honest we don't really know if they wanted to see us or not, as we never gave them the chance to officially express their feelings. After talking with a few tourists and confirming the information with visa agencies we decided not to apply for the Turkmenistan visa at all. We could have applied, but we would have to wait for at least 3 weeks and from what we were told the chances of getting the visa were close to none, so we decided not to waste our precious time. We want to go to Iran as soon as possible and we want to be home for Christmas, so there's no time to waste.

Getting a visa for Kazakhstan in Bishkek was not a problem, but we had to wait three days for it to be ready. The visa for Azerbaijan started badly, as the guy at the embassy told us he's not doing any transit visa for the ferry. He could give us a tourist one, but only if we had a letter of invitation and it would take 3 days, unless we want to pay 50% extra. It took a little time and a lot of negotiation, but at the end we paid the normal price and got the visa in one day, without any additional formalities.

The Aktau-Baku ferry was a bit more complicated. The only thing that's sure is that there is a ferry. And that would be about it. It goes when it's ready. Sometimes it means twice a week and sometimes once a month. So you never know how long you'd have to wait. Costs were not clear neither. But well, we have made up our minds and decided not to question this decision anymore. We'd go to Aktau and check it ourselves! We would make it work somehow!

It turned out that getting to Aktau was the hardest part of the plan. It seemed easy enough, until we crossed the border. People were warning us that the road is not the best one, but we thought that after driving for a month through Mongolia and crossing Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan before, we would be fine. But we didn't know that the road we were facing was worse than anything we have seen so far. It was actually worse than anything we could have ever imagined. I can't even tell you how bad it was, as it's something you would have to experience yourself (but you rather shouldn't if there is any way to avoid it!). It was a nightmare! And the worst thing about it was, that it went forever!

After an hour of driving we wanted to turn around and go back, but unfortunately it was not an option. We only had a single entry visa for Uzbekistan, so there was no coming back. Getting ahead was not easy either. We never had any problems buying fuel in Kazakhstan, so we were hoping to tank directly after the border. We lost our hope when we reached Beyneu, the first big city. “Sorry, no fuel” we heard. It wouldn't surprise us in Uzbekistan, but here in our beloved Kazakhstan we could hardly believe it! At least until we saw how the road looks like. After that we no longer wondered why no fuel trucks were getting to this part of the country. We wouldn't be willing to drive it again either.

Fortunately one of the stations still had some 95 octane fuel left. Of course only unofficially and the price was three times higher than usual, but we could take 20 liters and mix it up with 80 octane which would be enough to get us to the next gas station. By the way, we keep complaining about buying fuel on the black market and paying two or three times the price and some of you started worrying about our budget. No worries, the highest black market rates are around one Euro pro liter, so we are still way below what we are paying in Europe. Unless the prices went down significantly since we left, but somehow I don't believe that's the case.

So we had fuel. And we had the road before us. And trust me when I say it, it was the worst road experience of our entire journey. The car was shaking so badly, that we though it would fall into pieces. We though we would fall to pieces too. The vibrations were going through our bones, cells and brains, certainly leaving some irreversible damage. And the huge holes were making our stomach jump up to our ears every few minutes. But the worst part of it was the dust. There were tons of it, so that we had to drive with our windows closed, though it was quite a hot day. But even that didn’t really help and we soon had dust absolutely everywhere. It gets under the bed, between the teeth and in the ears too. What can I say, the road was a nightmare and it went for miles and miles, so that we though it would never ever end. But it did. It ended around Shetpe, where they had both fuel and asphalt and we managed to get to Aktau after all. You can't believe how happy we were.

Photo update

Kazachstan 20 September 2012

Kyrgyzstan 30 September 2012

Hospitality redefined

I remember reading about Almaty when we were sitting in our flat in Karlsruhe. The city was supposed to be very modern and western. Great, I thought, we will drive a few thousand kilometers through Central Asia to see a western city... Who needs cities like that anyway?!

Well it turned out I do! Desperately! For the last three months we have been served bad coffee in nearly every restaurant we have been to and ordering cappuccino would get us a glass of hot water and a bag of instant 3in1 coffee powder. After we left Russia the food quality was dropping rapidly too and we found it very hard to order anything, that would not be made of mutton meat. And here we are, in this unnecessarily western city, with Italian cafes and restaurants, serving lasagne, chicken meat and salads without mayonnaise! It felt like heaven!

Our moods got even better when we went to pick up our Uzbek visa. We printed all the papers we got from Stantours (the best visa agency ever!) and went to the consulate prepared for long hours of waiting. As usually, we met some great people in the queue, a French couple traveling through Asia with a dog in their Mercedes truck. I thought we will be able to enjoy a nice conversation for some time now, but they let us in after less then an hour. I was already surprised, but the biggest shock came when the consulate worker told us to wait a few minutes and prepare the money as he's going to print our visas on the spot! I thought I heard him wrong, but he returned 5 minutes later holding our visas in his hand. We were deeply impressed!

We were free to leave the city at once, since for the first time no visa-business was slowing us down, but we decided to stay and enjoy it a little bit more. It was a long while since we were in a city where we could actually do some real sightseeing, so we decided to see it all. Following a recommendation of our new French friends we decided to visit a concert too. It was a great performance of Kazakh music, played by an entire symphony orchestra on traditional instruments in regional clothing. We loved every minute of it!

However there was one thing dragging us out of Almaty, the Charyn canyon. I will be honest with you, before we actually choose the route for our journey we didn't really know much about most of the countries on it. I was trying to get the first impression using Google image search. And when I entered Kazakhstan that canyon was the first thing that popped up. In that moment I was sure I wanted to go there! And I wasn't disappointed! That place is simply splendid! We parked our car and spent a whole day walking between the rocks and relaxing by the river. The views were absolutely amazing! And once again we had the whole place to ourselves. Some people say it's nice, but it just ain't the Grand Canyon. Well I'm glad it isn't, as I doubt you could rent the Grand Canyon all to yourself for 3 Euro a day...

We were getting back to our cars as we saw some other tourist coming in an opposite direction. It was such an unusual view that we decided to stop for a chat. It was a local family with some friends, doing a small sightseeing trip. Before we even noticed we were invited to visit them in their house on our way back to Almaty. We felt a bit strange, as we hardly knew those people and didn't really want to cause them trouble, but we already promised to come, so there was no way back. We were planning to get back to Almaty on my birthday, to celebrate properly and decided to stop by our new acquaintances on the way.

Being Polish I was always more then sure I knew what hospitality is and how it should be practiced. But that was all before we came to this part of the world. The openness and kindness we are faced with here can not be compared with anything you may experience in Europe. When was the last time you stopped some unknown tourists on the street to give them fruits and sweets and welcome them in your city? Or when did you invite a total stranger to stay at your house for a week and join your family party? I can't remember doing anything like that in my life. And that's exactly how people treat us here. We wanted to make a small break by the road once when another car stopped next to us, three friends, one of them living in Germany now. We had a little chat, did some photos and were left with bread and fruits for the further journey. Just like that.

And now we were on our way to visit some total strangers, who invited us home only cause we had a little chat in the canyon. And I can tell you, Natascha and Sascha took our vision of hospitality to a very new level... What was planned as a quick visit, an hour or two maybe, ended up as a two days stay. And if it wasn't for our expiring visas we would have stayed much longer!

We were supposed to call them when we'd reach their city, so that they could come and show us the way. I was even a bit uncertain if they will remember us, as two days passed since our meeting, but the moment we called we knew, they not only remembered, but were really looking forward to our visit. They led us to their house with a lovely garden and shortly after we were sitting at the table filled with all kinds of delicious food. It felt like home. There was fish, meat, cheese, salads, fruits and sweets, one better than the other, so that you could get full just by looking at it. And new things kept appearing all the time. We told them about our journey, about my birthday and the plan to fix Gerrit's car in Almaty and before we noticed everything was planned. Sascha did a few phone calls to organize the spare parts Gerrit was looking for and promised to fix his car with him the next day, we were staying not only for a dinner, but for the whole night and would enjoy the traditional Russian banya, which will be prepared specially for us as soon as it get's dark and colder. The plan sounded perfect. I could not imagine a better way to spend my birthday this year. We ate a fantastic dinner with the whole family, drank some Kazakh cognac and relaxed in the banya until late in the night. It felt great!

We ate so much the day before that we didn't even think about breakfast. But Natascha did and surprised us with a full table again. I kept looking at the fridge wondering how on earth are they able to store all this food in there! Once again we were hardly able to move after the meal. We were already feeling bad for staying so long and eating so much, but they didn't want to hear a word of it and only repeated we are being silly and that our company was all they wanted in return. And we soon found out we will be staying one more night, as Gerrit's car needed some extra time. We left the next morning with full bellies, some extra food in the fridge and the feeling, that we have got more than we will ever be able to give back. We were grateful for the food and shelter, but mostly for giving us another good reason to believe in people and their selfless hospitality.