Quba District, Azerbaijan
After enjoying the half-day group tour to Qobustan by TES Tour, my BFF and I embarked on a full-day group tour to Quba and Khinaliq by the same tour operator on our second last day in the country. On our way to Khinaliq, which is known to be the highest and most remote village in Azerbaijan, we passed by the city of Quba.
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AZE: Quba and Khinaliq Tour (Part 1) <YOU ARE HERE!>
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The tour costs US$63.00 (~S$84.65) per person. We were so glad to have Elsever, who picked us up from our hotel before 9.00am, as our friendly guide for the day.
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| The driver then picked up a middle-aged couple from Pakistan, making it a small, cosy group. |
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| Look at how blue the Caspian Sea is! |
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| Pikachu was certainly enjoying his road trip. |
On our way to Quba, we had a pit stop to go to a convenience store and, more importantly, the loo.
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| Such a cloudless blue sky~ |
I decided to get a bottle of reddish-pink coloured What the Fanta for AZN 1.00 (~S$0.80), which I thought had some kind of berry taste. Elsever helped me decipher the ingredients, which are written in Azerbaijani. Apparently, it contains cherry, carrot and sweet potato flavourings.
We saw a nice view of Beshbarmag Dag (lit. Five-Fingered Mountain) from outside the convenience store.
Here are two short video clips I took after the brief stop.
I've always enjoyed road trip, especially when I'm not the one driving so that I can really focus on the scenery.
We reached the city of Quba just before noon.
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| Having a population of 40,000, Quba lies on the northeastern slopes of Shahdag Mountain. |
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| Entering the recreational area of Qachrash Forest! |
At our second stop with huge trees abound, we sampled qutab, a local dish made from thinly rolled dough.
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Qutab is cooked briefly on a convex griddle called saj.
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I really enjoyed the herb-filled qutab with sumac, a dark red spice. It cost me a mere AZN 2.00 (~S$1.60) a plate.
We spent about 25 minutes there.
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| Horse riding, anyone? |
Let's continue our journey.
Since we had more than enough time, we had a brief stop at what seems like an open-air restaurant.
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| Good to have a bit of exercise before lunch! |
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| Our guide exclaimed, "Hey, someone wrote my name there!" |
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| "In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful." ~ Alice Walker |
I shall end Part 1 with a few photos taken at Qudyalchay Canyon.
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| The river that runs through the canyon is 108 km long. |
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| Do I look tanned enough? |
Do look forward to
Part 2 coming up soon!
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