Sheki

I rock up to Sheki without much of a plan of what to do. I start chatting with one of the attendants at the avtovokzal and mention that I'm looking for a place to stay. He makes a phone call and ten minutes later I'm greeted by a man who takes me to stay at his place (his name escapes me for now, if you have the Lonely Planet Caucuses edition please comment). He mentions that he's in the Lonely Planet under Sheki places to stay, I tell him I believe him (I've given up on looking for guidebooks while travelling).

I stay with him and his family for a night, and realise the problem faced by a lot of people in this region with working in the tourist industry. Their culture mandates that the guest is treated with the utmost respect and should be wined, dined and left well rested which raises a dilemma when it comes to accepting money for such services.

The family that takes me in, brother and sister on the right, neighbour's kid (who has a crush on the sister) on the left.

The town is fairly small so I manage to see all of it within a day.

Old church converted to Museum.

The store that sells the best Sheki Halva in all of Sheki, directions courtesy of wikitravel.

Courtyard of the Caravanserai hotel which still functions as a hotel, even if you aren't staying there, have a look.

Sheki Khansarai, it's worth it to do the free tour and hear the stories about the place. Also if you get a chance, have a look at the video about Sheki.

After seeing the sights of Sheki, I take a bus to the village of Kish where I look at the ancient Albanian church (complete with human remains in the open grave).

I remembered reading somewhere that there was an old fort within two hours walk of Kish and a small percentage of the locals seemed to know what I was talking about, so I set off following their directions.

The village of Kish.

I stop for nutrients along the walk.

The view from the walk. Not long after I took this photo, I came across two Azeri soldiers standing in the field. They took my passport details, radioed to their higher ups and said that unfortunately I was not allowed to cross into the dangerous region. To this day, I have no idea what they were guarding.

After I returned to Sheki and said my goodbyes, the family urged me to stay one more night so that I could join in the Bayram (Ramadan) festivities with them. In retrospect, I should have stayed.