If you ever think about taking a 3:30 AM flight, I have three words for you (take your pick):
• You are crazy.
• Don't do it.
I know what I'm talking about. That's what we did at the end of twenty-two days of arduous travel along the Silk Road. We were crazy enough to book a flight from Ashgabat to Baku that left at 3:30 AM, and since it's an international flight, we had to be at the airport by at least 1:30 AM. The flight is only 1 hr. 35 min. long, so there's really no time to sleep, and of course, it's our policy to hit the ground running.
It was grueling.
But before I get to that part about hitting the ground running, here are a few facts about Azerbaijan, a country I knew ZERO about before this trip:
• In 1918 it became the first democratic state in the Muslim-oriented world, but it was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
• It declared its independence in August 1991, about four months before the official dissolution of the USSR, and was admitted into the United Nations a few months later.
• The capital city, Baku (population 2.4 million), has the best harbor on the Caspian Sea
• Around 97% of the population is Muslim, with a Shia majority, but most Azerbaijanis are non-practicing. The government is secular and religious freedom is guaranteed by the constitution.
• It is a small country, with only 33,400 square miles and a population just under 10 million. Here is a good visual of the size from a site call MapFight, with Azerbaijan in red and South Carolina (32,020 square miles) in blue: However, South Carolina has only half the population that Azerbaijan has:
• Some of the oldest civilizations in the world have ruins in this country.
• You are crazy.
• Don't do it.
I know what I'm talking about. That's what we did at the end of twenty-two days of arduous travel along the Silk Road. We were crazy enough to book a flight from Ashgabat to Baku that left at 3:30 AM, and since it's an international flight, we had to be at the airport by at least 1:30 AM. The flight is only 1 hr. 35 min. long, so there's really no time to sleep, and of course, it's our policy to hit the ground running.
It was grueling.
But before I get to that part about hitting the ground running, here are a few facts about Azerbaijan, a country I knew ZERO about before this trip:
• In 1918 it became the first democratic state in the Muslim-oriented world, but it was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
• It declared its independence in August 1991, about four months before the official dissolution of the USSR, and was admitted into the United Nations a few months later.
• The capital city, Baku (population 2.4 million), has the best harbor on the Caspian Sea
• Around 97% of the population is Muslim, with a Shia majority, but most Azerbaijanis are non-practicing. The government is secular and religious freedom is guaranteed by the constitution.
• It is a small country, with only 33,400 square miles and a population just under 10 million. Here is a good visual of the size from a site call MapFight, with Azerbaijan in red and South Carolina (32,020 square miles) in blue: However, South Carolina has only half the population that Azerbaijan has:
• Some of the oldest civilizations in the world have ruins in this country.
