After finishing the last lunch in Tbilisi, I head for Azerbaijan——the 3rd country on my Silk Road journey.

When crossing the border, it takes less than 3 minutes for exiting Georgia but more than 20 minutes for entering Azerbaijan. Not only do all the luggage go through the X-ray machine, but also the passport is interrogated by multiple officers. In the end I realize that the reason that takes such a long time for one officer to confirm it’s a real passport, is that I have grown some little beard which is not shown in my passport. Fake passport!

After crossing the border, there are many animals on both sides of the road. Horses, sheep, ducks, and sheepdogs. People are riding on the horses, and some driving the carriage. What an idyllic scene! Many people even stop their car and take photos with me.

Finally, before the darkness I arrive at the city of Ağstafa. What draws my attention is that I haven’t yet seen a mosque, nor heard the praying sound. I am not sure whether this has anything to do with the secularization of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan formally declared its independence in 1918, and became the first secularized democratic republic with Muslim majority. It is the first Muslim country with opera and theater and modern university.

Tomorrow, I will meet Raghdan from Syria——the second member of our project. Can’t wait to see him!

I finally meet my Syrian teammate——Raghdan.

As I am riding closer to the center of the state, there are more and more vehicles on the road. Many cars are LADA from the Soviet time. The roof rack is often piled with various luggage; many trucks are really old, and their black or blue smoke makes it almost impossible for the vehicles behind to see the road. The tissue I use for wiping the sweat on my face is black and yellow now.

Thirst, I bought half a watermelon from a little boy only about ten years old. He seemed like an old melon farmer, bargaining the price and cutting the melon very professionally. Melons soak in my throat, and the sweet juice cools my chilling heart. The half melon only costs 1.5 manats (about 0.75 euro).

It is about time to enter the Ganja. What's intriguing is that the street lights are not turned on in a row and there are only a few streets that are illuminated by the street lights inside this second biggest city of this country. Azerbaijan is well-known for its oil and gas export. The government should improve the people's livelihood through the income derived from selling resources. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen that so far.

After entering the city with a twilight, I finally meet Raghdan, after his 35-hour travel from Syria to Azerbaijan passing 2 other countries. Shout out to him and be ready for our next part of the journey.

Jerry

I woke up a bit late this morning, I needed to have some rest after 46 hours of no sleep.

I later went on a tour in the city center with 3 wonderful people (Togyan, Rafaat and Vagif). I have tried a local drink called Qapik (Quase), it tastes a bit like Kombucha but sweeter. Really recommended!

I then went on my bike to the Khan Baghi park (or the Khans' park), where lots of local people go in the evening with their family and friends.

Next to the Khan Baghi park, there's the City Hall, a huge building which combines some classical greek architectural styles, reflected in its pediment, and the tympanum of Azerbaijan's national icon, with some features from the Soviet times (the pillars and the windows).

The more places I saw, the more I understood the conflicting identities this city has. There is currently, a great focus on establishing new buildings in the city center, including the biggest mall in the area -where people can shop from international brands and famous TNCs and MNCs-, and a beautiful theatre which represents Azerbaijan's rich heritage, since it is the country of the first opera and theatre in the east.

People here are very nice and welcoming, they offer their help without any hesitance. While I understand the generous nature of the people in the middle-east, Ganja people take this to the next level, in which paying for you own food while you are with a group of Azerbaijanis can be considered as an offence. "You are our guest, no pay" they said.

Later in the evening, I went to the hostel where I met Jerry and had some spicy Adana kebabs together. (Which in somehow reminded me of India and its food)

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Many people stopped us in different shops, and asked us about our nationalities and the Silk Road project. People here are very curious to know about us and our next destination. Especially, that there are few tourists here and they are mostly old.

We later went to buy a new helmet and do a final check on the bikes, to be ready for our 140 km long ride tomorrow!

We are looking forward to see more of what this country offers :)

~Raghdan

We started our day early today, there were no restaurants or markets open by the time we left. Only a hall where the locals sold their fruits, jam and bread, and few candy shops where we bought our breakfast of delicious chocolate bescuits.

We met a lady inside the shop, who invited us over for her place, but our time was strict, so we apologised.

After one hour of cycling, we stopped in a gas station for a quick rest, the people were hospitable and offered us some tea. We watched the T.V with them, in which we got to know that there was a military parade in Baku celebrating the 100 years anniversary of Azerbaijani army since its establishment.

People were watching with their eyes wide-open, we could see how much pride they have about their country and military.

Then at around 12:00 PM, we wanted to have our lunch. We stopped by a sign saying "Resturan" so we entered the place, to be surprised later, by a wedding happening there, where around 300 guests gathered around tables, and with plenty of food. We were lucky, to enjoy the Azerbaijani welcoming spirit once again, and we were invited over to one of those tables.

Delicious food dishes kept coming to our table, and it was really hard to convince the hosts that we were just full.

We also danced with the people there, it was really interesting, our dancing skills still need be polished for such events in the future, I mean who knows if we encounter another wedding in this country.

In the afternoon, we stopped by the road in a fruits stall, where we had a half of watermelon. It was quite refreshing after hours of cycling under the blazing sun.

Azerbaijan wasn't called (The Land of Fire) for no reason. The country is famous for having half of the world mud volcanoes. Also, the blazing sun here can be a good reason for Azerbaijan to be given such name.

We reached the city of Ağcabədi, in the evening, after 7 hours of cycling from Ganja city.

We had our dinner of sausages here at the hotel, it may not be the best to have after a long day, but it was satisfying for our hungry stomaches.

~Raghdan

We left the hotel while the sun was still rising, the sky was beautiful. It was one of the few times where we could actually look at the sky with our eyes wide open, and not almost closed because of the sun.

We cycled through the city center of Ağcabədi. People were encouraging us by shouting either Hello, or Salam.

After exiting the city, we encountered endless miles on the both road sides of corn and sunflower fields.

We continued our cycling route till we reached an area that seemed like a compound of farms.

We tried to relax in front of someone's market in the shade, but they didn't allow us. It seemed that they have a high sense of privacy here. Also, after buying some water from one of the markets in the area and seeing that there were 5 cameras for a 3×3m square market, we understood that this area may also be not really safe, therefore, local people are unlikely to welcome strangers.

We reached the sign of Bilasiwar, but when we cycled further, the main road to the city was in a horrible condition, and we thought it was only for few kilometres, so we took a different route in order to avoid this part of the road.

Then, after 8 kilometres, we made a turn to go back to the main road; but, to realise later that the road is like this for the next 40 km.

We cycled as fast as we could, but it was very rocky, rough, and almost empty of vehicles or shops on the sides.

We stopped by a police station to get some water and a little bit of rest.

After 28 km, of the rocky road, the boiling temperature of 47c°, sand storms, and dehydration, we decided to stop a truck for a ride. It was almost a mission impossible, vehicles were passing by with full apathy. Only few cars stopped by, and that was to take some pictures with us. At the end, when we were nearly giving up on a vehicle stopping by. A truck driver agreed to take us on the next 12 km ride.

We were with our bikes in the back of the truck, lots of hay and cow dung everywhere, but we were so tired we didn't mind it at all. In fact, laying down on the mixture of hay and cow dung was a comfortable experience.

The food was a lamb stew with salad and bread- perfect end!

Today we decided to leave the hotel early, we stopped to get some bottled water from the only shop we found open that early.

The roads were better than yesterday, but still not good for cycling. Either way, we made it.

We encountered a young foreign couple from a distance, they waved at us. We got to know later that they were German, from their motorcycle' licence plate.

We had Donars as lunch from a stall, and we tried to relax by laying down on two chairs per each, but the guys there, didn't allow us to do so. Niether, our tired faces, mud-splashed jerseys, sun-burnt thighs nor google translate were enough for them to understand and empathise with us. We left excitedly to reach Iran!

On our way, there were many children selling blackberries and strawberries on the road sides. But what we actually saw, was children with no education, being forced to work in a country that it's GDP per capita is above the world average.

Despite many of the cities, towns or rural areas which we crossed through or passed by, not having a proper infastrcture i.e. roads. It is also important to note that, aside from the Pulblic University of Ganja, the number of schools we have encountered in Azerbaijan throughout our journey, is very little.

At around 4 o'clock, we stopped at a gas station to buy some refreshments. Jerry found himself the perfect ice cream to remind him of home. It had a panda logo on the cover. -Chengdu, his city is well known for pandas!

We entered the Azerbaijani border with no trouble. Nevertheless, the guy who was checking our passports to stamp it, took longer than usual to proceed. From his narrowed eyes and puzzled face, I believe he was finding some hard time trying to confirm my current mud-covered face with my photo on the passport.

Later, we reached the Iranian border where they welcomed us warmly, and one guy from the main office started asking us questions about our Silk Road Biking proiect with curiosity rather than in an investigation forum.

The same guy offered us food (bread and dates) when he knew were starving after our long day.

We finally made it to the hotel at 10:15 pm.

~Raghdan