On the ride to Seki, he' sees an unusual sight. A large area of lean-to shacks along the highway--an entire village of shanties out in the forest. Some of them people live in and others are stalls where they sell bread and vegetables to passerbys. This is strange--because even though most people in Azerbaijan are poor, they all live in sturdy houses.

His guess is that these are Roma (Gypsies) . It's the first time Ihe's seen them in this part of the world. Considering how tough life is for the average Azerbaijani, We can only imagine how tough their life must be.

Seki is supposed to be a tourist attraction and should have a number of hotels. He gets off along a shady boulevard which seems to lead to the center of town. It has a clean, classy feel to it. I'm sure I'll have no trouble finding a place to the stay the night here, he thinks.

He reaches the plaza in the center of town where there are a couple of very pricey hotels. Hostels.com said there's a reasonably priced caravanaseri turned hotel--it's a little ways away, but he figures he'd better look it up. After a long walk and numerous wrong turns, he finds it--and a rather rude receptionist tells him that it's full... So back to the center of town he goes.

he ducks into a cybercafe to see what else he can find. It tells him of a couple other hotels scattered around the city, and he begins his search . It's getting later and later--and it's threatening to rain. But the place where supposedly the hotel is supposed to be... there's nothing there!... he tries asking people... One gentleman offers to take him in his car to where a hotel is supposed to be--but this hotel is shut down...

The irony is that he'd been able to find hotels in all the scrappy little towns he'd stayed in with relatively little difficulty--and here in this supposedly touristy city, he can't find any that are within his price range. wanders the streets gloomily, weighing his options. "I really don't want to blow my budget--unless I feel I'm in real danger. If it weren't for the threatening rain, I'd just go camp out in the woods... And I didn't come well equipped for camping..."

He heads towards the mountains anyways. There's supposed to be one more hotel out this way--but his hopes are very low. "Maybe I'll just wander around all night... Which could be fun if I were in Madrid or Rome--but not in sucky Sheki . I should've just stayed in Oguz" he muses gloomily.

And then... there it is... he thought he'd passed it a long time ago--but there's his last chance hotel... and yes, it is open... and it is very reasonably priced--for the nicest, cleanest room he'd stayed in so far here in Azerbaijan!

He hadn't appreciated a dry, warm bed this much in a looong time.

Next Morning

Next morning it's pouring down rain. No problemo. He puts on his plastic sandals, pulls out my umbrella and heads out to explore the town, catching a van back to the city center. He gets some funny looks walking around in plastic sandals, "People must think I look foolish. Personally, I think it's foolish to walk around in expensive leather shoes crossing streets that have been turned into rivers!" he thinks smugly... But that's how things roll in Azerbaijan... you've always got to look classy .

He heads on up past the caravanaseri and to a castle walled castle beyond it. Inside are some beautiful buildings with a distinct style: decorative tiles interspersed with large areas of Ottoman style windows. This city definitely has its charm, but I'm still holding a grudge for the suffering it put me through last night.

Heading towards the bus station, He ducks into a cozy little eatery with an interior patio where he asks if they've got "menemen" his favorite Turkish omelette breakfast. There are limited tables, so three friendly older men ask if they can join him, ordering some soup and a bottle of vodka. Drinking and sharing alcohol is very much a part of the culture here--although he doesn't remember seeing anyone really drunk.

They try to "converse" the best they can, then the Traveler continues on his way.