We're off to the snow

I'm writing this from a 50-seater coach headed to the Shahdag ski resort about four hours north of Baku. I feel like I'm on a school ski trip - three bus loads of Baku 2015 staff are headed up there this weekend!

It'll be the first time either of us have snowboarded outside of the safety of the snow dome in Glasgow! And I'm not sure how much I remember from our lessons...

The week didn't get off to the best of starts - we went the the Indian embassy on Tuesday to apply for our visa to go to Delhi. Only they wouldn't accept the application because it was too soon {even though it would be less than five weeks before we flew out}. After what seemed like forever going around in circles with them we left. Without a visa. So the Delhi hotel was cancelled shortly after. Don't think we'll be making the 7 Wonders this year...

But we ended on a high note by booking flights to Hong Kong instead - Dan's choice for his birthday. Well, at under £250 each, how could we not?!

Snowboarding photos to follow...

Our walk to work

I've been wanting to take some photos of our walk to work for a while now, and I finally got the chance to go out with the camera this morning. If you've seen the adverts on TV or photos on the internet, what you are seeing is the pretty Baku: the Flame towers, the beautiful plaster cast facades on the buildings, the lights all around the bay. But when you go just a few blocks away from the Boulevard that runs along the harbour, you'll see a different side; no pavements or street lights, curtains for front doors, washing hanging off the power lines. This is the real Baku.

 

When we first moved to our apartment complex I was almost scared of walking outside of the gates - to me, the streets looked like how I imagined a war zone would look.

 

Over the past few months though I've become oblivious to it. I don't notice the piles of rubble or the desks and chairs that old men sit on by the side of the road, or even when the butcher is hosing the blood off the path where he's just slaughtered the cow right in front of us.

 

So I thought I'd photograph it now so that in a few years to come we could look back on the photos and think about how lucky we are to have street lights and pavements and not have to walk past dead cows each day.

We're not going snowboarding for another couple of weeks, but the white stuff has found us here in Baku! Even our swimming pool was frozen over #firstworldproblems

Our final stop | Phuket

After about 17 hours of travel yesterday, we finally made it back to Baku. We did some great things in Phuket but I don't think we'll be going back there - it felt like we were in the middle of a giant package holiday on the Canary Islands...it's always a bad sign when you can buy a copy of The Sun.

But other than the hoards of tourists it was great. Very hot.

The highlight was definitely the Heritage Trails walk we did, with a close second being the bamboo river rafting {I have a great idea for a new Disney ride}, and seeing all the lanterns going up into the sky on New Year's Eve. Really wish I'd known what setting to have the camera on, because I could have taken some great photos instead of just the blurs I ended up with. Must learn to use the camera this year!

Anyway, here are some of our adventures...