To cross the Caspian from the port of Baku to the port of Aktau I had the option of either taking a ferry with an unpredictable schedule and a sea passage of up to two days in a cockroach cabin, or a half-hour flight on one of the planes in Azerbaijan’s aging air fleet. It had already taken a week for me to obtain the Kazakhstan visa (which actually specified “tourism by bicycle”), and I was impatient to move on, so I opted for the flight on an old Aeroflot jet packed with oil businessmen. The plane was full of Russian Cyrillic markings, 18th century wallpaper designs, threadbare carpet - and the safety instruction was alarming, with the flotation vest that the stewardess used as a prop having a museum-piece appearance. The most remarkable thing about the flight for me was the fact that there was no air conditioning – the jet quickly turned into an oven even though it was an evening flight. The British oilman behind me remarked, “now I know what it feels like in a Chinese laundry” – which I thought to be a witty remark to describe the sweltering conditions. The stewardess scolded me for taking this photograph, but did not make me delete it. Check it out - there is an actual curtain - that's old school if I ever saw it. (6-1-05)
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Sauna/Cabin of Russian Jet Pre-Takoff, Baku Airfield |
