Next morning he decides to spend a bit more time exploring the city itself, heading up to take my video clip in front of the grand castle-like parliament building. Next, after asking around a bit, he finds a bus that should take him in the general area of where the fire temple is. So after being stuck in a traffic for a bit, they're finally off, down a wide highway, heading for the very tip of the Baku Penninsula.
He'd looked this over on Google Maps, but he's not seeing any of the reference points to know where he is . Finally he decides to just get off and start walking, hopefully the temple isn't too far off.  
He finds himself walking down a Main Street of what normally would be a "town"--but Baku is a sprawling city covering most of the penninsula, so this is just one of its neighborhoods. He walks down the main street, past a little train station, as the town starts to peeter out... finally the road dead ends at a graveyard and he has no choice but to turn around and head back.  
It seems he must have gone a little too far east, so he figures he should be able to just find a shortcut west and find the neighborhood where the temple is. So he heads down the dirt sidestreets where big pipes run in front of the houses, then up and across for each sidestreet and driveway, giving the whole neighborhood an abandoned industrial feel. Actually, he finds out later these pipes carry heating oil, and it's common that they run above ground in these parts. Seems pretty dangerous--any little fender bender and you'll have a burst pipe!
Unlike the southern towns, which are poor, but they still have a homey feel to them ... this neighborhood has a real semi-abandoned slum feel to it. he wonders how dangerous it is to be wandering around here...
Finally he does find a shortcut to a highway he thinks should get him to where he wants to go... and the landscape gets even more bizarre... A completely barren moonscape littered with rusty oil wells as far as the eye can see... Some of them still running, but most just sitting ther idle. It feels like the perfect backdrop for a post-apocalyptic movie, showing what happens when industrialization gets out of hand and completely destroys the environment... a surreal scene...
Here he's reminded that Baku is actually where it all began. The very first mechanically drilled oil well was drilled here 150 years ago. Right here within the city limits of Baku at one time 1/5th of the world's oil was produced. Baku was the coveted prize of the Soviet Union, and the prize Hitler had his eyes set on in World War II... Even though most people in the world don't even know this city (or this country for that matter exists), this place played a huge role in world history .
And what makes Baku different from other oil producing areas, is that a huge city grew right in the middle of the oil fields--creating this industrial post-apocalyptic feel...
Finally he reachs the neighborhood where the Fire Temple of Ateshgah is--which is also related to oil. See, before oil was used to power our modern industrial world, it seems out of the ground here in Baku--and in this one spot it burned continuously, and was worshipped both by Zoroastrians and Hindus. Now, with so much oil being sucked out, the oil doesn't seep out or burn naturally--but there is still supposed to be an artificial fire in the temple.  
The intrigue of this temple is that it's a pre-Islamic, non-monotheistic place of worship that's still standing and maintained in a Muslim country--even regarded as a symbol of the city.  
It takes a little while to find the temple--the area around it is being worked on and the way to get there isn't very obvious. Finally he finds it and pay the small entrance fee--refusing to pay the extra fee to be able to take pictures ...
Not really all that impressive... the rooms in the side where the monks used to stay has some kind of corny looking mannequins that are supposed to be Hindu holy men. In the center is the covered altar with a little flame burning in the center...
...Anyways... more of a symbolic place, more than anything.
He's going to try to walk back to downtown, for a thorough hike across Baku from the fire temple to the heart of the modern city... would be significant. But as he trudges along the sun scorched road he starts to wonder if this is really such a good idea. Just not really feeling this place... the Baku penninsula (other than the heart of Baku itself) is actually probably the ugliest area in the whole country...
He finally reaches a series of neighborhoods that climbs up and down the steep hills. Up and over a ridge he does find a long, pleasant boulevard lined with decent eateries and a cheerful, middle class feel--something he hasn't seen much of here. But then just as he's starting to enjoy this hike, He finds himself in an ugly, run down industrial sprawl that seems somewhat abandoned and sets him ill at ease. He walks on and on, worried that he might be heading to a dead end... wondering if this was a dumb idea...
Then finally he reaches the high rises of the central Baku and can heave a sigh of relief. It's been a long, trying day.