On our second day in Baku, we decided to visit Yanardag, the famous burning mountains.
Yanardag is around 30-35 kms from Baku. We checked and got an Uber in just 10AZN (approx $7 or ₹850).
The journey from Baku to Yanardag was quite interesting as well. The landscape changed drastically as soon as we reached the outskirts of Baku.. No skyscrapers, no huge structures.
We got to see a more realistic side of Azerbaiijan and how people live outside of their capital city.
We came across barren fields stretching for miles where gas is being mined.. We could even smell methane in the air.
By the time we reached Yanardag, we had a feeling that we might not get any Uber or taxi from here to go back to the city..
But Yanardag was so unique and enjoyable that we forgot all our worries for some time. The fun part of this story started when it was time to go back.
After trying for 15-20mins, we didn’t get a taxi. So we thought of hitchhiking to Baku.. But luckily we saw a couple of small buses waiting just outside of Yanardag complex. We asked if they would take us to Baku and they replied something in Azerbaiijani.. From the conversion we picked up one word “Metro”. That was good enough for us, and we hopped on the bus.
The bus was a little shabby and rickety, but we hoped at least we can get an Uber if we reach somewhere near Baku.
The bus went into small markets and picked up a lot of local people. Finally, after 45mins or so, we reached the nearest metro station.
All this time we were a little anxious thinking where to get down. An old gentleman who evidently could understand that we were some tourists, helped us in letting us know where to get down and where to catch the metro.
And the best part- this entire bus ride of 45 mins cost both of us 0.60 AZN (approx $0.4 or ₹25) !!
Next step was to catch the metro and we thought this would be simpler. Upon reaching the ticket vending machine, we realised it might not be so simple afterall!
The language option on the ticket kiosk was only Azerbaiijani and there was no other way to get a ticket.
But we didn’t give up and asked a policeman at the metro to help us out. We showed him the station that we wanted to go and he asked a fellow Azerbaiijani person to get us two tickets (we don’t know how much it cost us as they took few coins from us but it was under 1AZN for 2 tickets)..
The guy who got us the tickets also helped us in catching the correct metro line.. Once we got into the metro, things were smoother as the metro had announcement as well as station names written in English.
Adventure like this make a trip more special. Will you do it if you are in Baku next time?
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