Is Baku, Azerbaijan all a facade? - What They NEVER Show You

After over 5 000 kilometers on this overland journey to Kazakhstan, we finally made it to the Caspian Sea coast. This is Baku, a city we've all seen pictures of and videos of the massive infrastructure projects here. It's often labelled the New Dubai and this is the largest city in the Caucasus. But what is this oil-rich city really like when you scratch beyond the surface? What's life like here for locals? Let's go for a walk and see if we can find out. We've actually been here for a few days and we've spoken to quite a few people so we have an idea of what's life's really like for an average local and what's their feelings towards everything. However, people are quite shy in front of camera in Azerbaijan and also yeah a bit wary to say what they really think for obvious reasons. With a population of almost 3 million people, Baku is the largest city on both the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus region. Throughout its history, the city of winds, as it's often nicknamed, has always been a melting pot of cultures and religions. In the past, Baku has been home to communities of Azerbaijanis, Russians, Armenians, Jews and lesbians. Modern Baku is a secular city with over 90% being Muslim but also home to Christians and a small Jewish community. The city itself is actually located 28 meters below sea level and is the lowest-lying capital in the world. The first modern oil well on earth was actually drilled just outside Baku in 1846, causing an oil boom and Baku to become one of the richest cities in what was the Russian Empire. Actually, at the end of the 19th century, Baku alone was providing over half of the world's oil. The cities continue to thrive off the oil industry up until today and the investment and crazy amount of mega projects popping up all over the city are almost entirely financed by the sector. We are going to start the day by heading into the old city to get a glimpse of what central Baku used to look like before the oil boom. It probably comes to no surprise to anyone to hear that the old city in the very center of Baku is the most touristy part of the city too. But one interesting thing about this old city compared to others around Europe and the world is it's still pretty well lived in and you still see people going about their daily business, going in and out their homes, hanging their bed sheets. It's really, really beautiful. Lunch time! And one kutab with pumpkin and one kutab with herbs, please. This is so unusual. This cloth, I know it just looks very different. I've never seen cloth like that. Everything is usually mixed together but here we have it separate. It's almost like a curry, isn't it? That you have your kind of meat on the side and then you mix it with the rice. Yeah, to be honest this wasn't anything like we were expecting because plov normally, pilaf, is rice with everything mixed in. This is really interesting. So here we ordered two different types of plov. We could have ordered shakh plov which is a traditional Azeri plov but the portion is just too giant for the two of us so we opted for these two different plovs. And also we ordered two stuffed flatbreads which is called kutab. One is with just greens and another one's with pumpkin. Here we have sumac which is a spice widely used over here and a yogurt on the side as well. Let's tuck in into chicken plov. Apparently there are sour plums, walnuts, chicken and something else in there. The sauce is really smooth and it's rich but it's not overpowering. It's lightly sour, I guess because of the sour plum, salty. I need more. It's a really smooth and comforting dish and it's delicious. It's not what I expected at all. Okay, so this one is with lamb and apricots, walnuts, looks like onion and it smells absolutely incredible. So oily, wow. Some of the onions slightly burnt as well. Oh, that's lovely. So good, yeah. Oh, there are some raisins and chestnuts in there too. Yes, there are. That looks so sexy. I'm gonna try and get a piece of everything. How greedy. Oh, I bet it's so good with the sweetness of the fruit in there, right? So that is right up my street. The sweetness of the fruit combined with the meatiness, the spices in there. It's all slightly caramelized and then the rice soaking in all that sauce. That is incredible. Also the texture of the nuts in there as well, just giving it a slightly different texture. I don't know if we're supposed to put sumac on there by the way, but how that is, that is just absolutely incredible. Wow, that is my ideal dish. I love that. Dig in. What I love is that both of them are so different in textures and flavors as well. Like this is pretty smooth and you see it's all like mashed up together. It's almost like the sauce been blended in and here everything is in pieces. So you get bursts of different flavor separately. Awesome. So interesting. Should we dig into a I'll grab the one with herbs. Okay. Wow. Oh, you can really smell it. As soon as you rip it in half, you can really smell it. The edges are really crispy, but the center here where all the herbs are and some of the oil and stuff is still soft. It's amazing. It's packed full of herbs as well. That is so nice. Parsley, dill. Anything with dill is a winner for me, but oh my God, that is so good. So simple, but so good. So slight change of plans. Before we go to the water, we've come up to this viewpoint and hopefully over there somewhere, there should be a beautiful view over the whole of Baku. If we can find our way to get over there. The view up here is absolutely incredible. And we were just saying how interesting it is. The variation of architecture, especially when you see Baku from up above, you've got the old town, you've got Russian empire architecture, Soviet architecture, the modern mega projects, and it just all blends together so interestingly. It's a really, really interesting city, especially from above like this. Beautiful. And also over there is the Caspian Sea and somewhere way in the distance is Kazakhstan. One boat journey between us and Kazakhstan. We're actually going to go down by the sea now, so we'll catch you down there. And here we are. Apparently the whole length of this promenade is 13 kilometers. So it will take about five hours for an average person to walk it. And actually Baku is a very comfortable city for walking around. There are just vast pathways and just so spread out and really good. On that note, let's go for a walk along the promenade. Here in Azerbaijan, there is a big tea drinking culture. And if you know us well by now, you know we love tea. And also we actually been to this four years ago when we were in Azerbaijan for the first time and they used to have sneakers jam. I don't remember what was in there. I just remember we were shocked by it and we loved it. Unfortunately, they don't have it now, but there is a jam culture here too. And we grabbed a cherry jam. Looks lush. Not sneakers, but I'll take that. The city center is beautiful, modern and striking, but let's head out of town a little bit and show you a part of the city that you don't really hear about or see as a tourist. You don't actually need to walk that far out of the center to see this. The majority of the buildings look really nice and almost new on the outside. But once you walk inside the courtyard, you can see that they're the same old Soviet apartments blocks from before. See those overhanging parts? Locals actually extend their apartments themselves as their families grow. The need for extra space becomes bigger and with property prices in the city being mega expensive, many have resorted to ad hoc extensions to make do. Here in Azerbaijan, often older people live with their kids and grandkids, so obviously extra space is well needed. The booming Baku we saw in the first part of this video is the real city, but these areas are too. Income disparity is massive in Baku and with costs of living skyrocketing, many locals are finding it difficult to keep up with the changes. The average wage in Azerbaijan remains a mere $300 a month and with Baku first becoming one of the most expensive cities in the former Soviet Union, it is hardly surprising that behind the glitz and glam, many are struggling. The natural riches that Azerbaijan possesses are changing the country faster than ever. Hopefully that means that the quality of life will continue to get better for everyone in Azerbaijan.