Asian Trips - Azerbaijan, 3rd: With Excursions to Georgia (Trailblazer)
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List Price: $23.95
www.asiantrips.info Price: $17.00
Your Save: $ 6.95 ( 29% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Trailblazer Publications
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 914.7540486
EAN: 9781873756799
ISBN: 1873756798
Label: Trailblazer Publications
Manufacturer: Trailblazer Publications
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2004-10-01
Publisher: Trailblazer Publications
Studio: Trailblazer Publications
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Editorial Reviews:
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In 1999, the first edition of this book put Azerbaijan on the travel map. Packed with practical, cultural, and culinary information as well as scores of maps it helped visitors and residents alike to make the most of this beautiful, varied, and much under-estimated country. Caspian Business News praised the book as being in the "usual travel guide format but with an added feel for the country based on in-depth research".
This expanded, thoroughly-updated third edition includes ever wilder excursions into the mystical mountains and reveals quaint old Pensar mosques, little-known 6th century church ruins, more bubbling mud volcanoes, and bizarre natural flares in the land where even water catches fire (at Archivan and Bärdä). Visitors can uncover a field full of rusting Soviet-era tanks and armored vehicles near Puta, take idyllic Caucasian hikes from the timeless village of Xinaliq, and explore 4WD routes to remote Allar and secret Sim. There are even more off-beat curiosities pinpointed such as the Perigala "fairy castle", the "hand tree" in Göychay, a cowpie pyramid near Agdash, and a grand disemboweled Lenin statue at Yevlax.
Also featured in this fully revised third edition are:
>Practical information for all visitors and foreign residents, including visas, getting to Azerbaijan, hotel and restaurant reviews, language, and cultural tips.
>Comprehensive information for motorists: Landmarks at key turnings, fuel stations, 4WD routes, and city transit, plus bus and train services.
>190 maps and 180 diagrams--includes even more maps and diagrams than the previous edition with revised spellings to better reflect the current Azerbaijani transliteration system.
>Plus, excursions to neighboring Georgia
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Good but needs an update
Comment: This book was very helpful while I was in Azerbaijan but some things desperately need to be updated. I only spent a couple weekends in Baku but the streets are changing all the time. We were unable to find three of the Chinese food restaurants and the one we finally did eat at wasn't listed. The snippets on the towns in the outlying regions could definitely be added to as well. All in all it still is the best guide on the market.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best available
Comment: As other reviewers have noted, the hallmark of this book is that we frequently met Azeri travellers either armed with it or knowledgable about it. Some mentioned, and we agreed, an update is needed regards restaurants and hotels in Baku which come and go with disturbing frequency. But, really, the humour of the writing, and the lovely drawings, make this a special treat. We did encounter a writer updating the notorious Lonely Planet Guide, in Polish only though. Elliott gives the impression of having walked everywhere he describes. It is worth warning that, though English is on the increase in Baku, and regional centres especially with young people, Turkish in the south and Russian in the north are the more widespread second languages. And, taxi drivers, given the just mentioned language issues, are a very great challenge especially in Baku. Really they are the only negative I have about the place. Beyond Quba and heading into the high country is stupendous, even if you are not a hiker.Xinaliq is an amazing village, and there is now a shop, the road to it is bitumenized, and as I write a new consolidated school should be open for business. The teachers there can help with English. I also rate Zaqatala higher than the author. Coming across from Georgia's poverty-stricken villages, this immaculate town was astonishingly ordered and cared for. But in this regard, it was to prove exceptional in Azerbaijan. Lahic was lovely, as was Ilisu; Shaki less so, though we wished we'd booked ahead for a bed in the great caravanserai. Elliot's book seems at times like a promotional exercise for the tourist board, if such a thing exists in the country, and has a leaning towards a perceived audience, the considerable expat community in Baku for reasons to do with its oil industry. Here, hundreds of BMWs and Mercedes flourish with almost disgusting indifference to the real poverty on the footpaths, the suburbs and those regional towns and villages.
Customer Rating:
Summary: learn and laugh
Comment: Great book! Clearly written by someone who loves this country. My wife is a native of Baku learnt and laughed about her native country. Culturally savy and sensitive.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sertainly useful
Comment: This book can be of a great use for the travellers, expatriots moving to Azerbaijan or for those studying different regions/cultures. I enjoyed reading it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Must-have for Azerbaijan
Comment: If you're going to Azerbaijan you must have this book - in fact, several companies issue this book to their international staff here. It is extremely comprehensive and thorough and very accurate (though there have been some changes). As someone that has lived in Azerbaijan for the past year and a half, I continue to be impressed with this book and have relied on it many times. It is an essential guide to exploring Azerbaijan - a country that has a lot more to offer than most would expect. Buy this (and avoid the Lonely Planet one - it does a really bad job for Azerbaijan!).
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