Mention Azerbaijan to people and you'll probably get one of two reactions.
If you're lucky, they might recall it featuring in the Bond film The World is Not Enough, in which Pierce Brosnan can be spotted racing a BMW through the Azeri countryside on a mission to protect Sophie Marceau as a glamorous oil baron's daughter.
If you're less lucky, however, they'll know the Caucasus country's name only vaguely as a sort of rhetorical tool, a comic byword for a ‘very-very-far-away-sounding place'.
So it might surprise you to learn that the country's bustling capital, Baku, isn't actually that far away at all. Just a three-hour flight from Dubai, it's do-able in a long weekend and no time is lost in either direction as it's also in the same time zone.
Once one of the globe's wealthiest cities, oil-rich Azerbaijan's 70-year membership of the former USSR did much to wipe Baku and its home country from the world's mental map. But today, as the city prepares to host the Eurovision Song Contest after winning the hugely popular competition last year, combined with the country's increasing importance as an oil-and-gas supplier for strategic new pipelines across Europe, Baku is set to be propelled into its rightful place as the cultural city-break destination of the future.
I don't want to mislead you. As our plane touched down in Baku Heydar Aliyev airport - named after the country's cherished former President - my heart sank at the run-down-looking surroundings. It sank further still when the coach from the aeroplane dropped us in the middle of a particularly chaotic-looking building site, which turned out to be the entrance to the airport.
OK, so it's no sleek DXB. But it might be soon - these renovations are part of the city's ‘beautification' in the run up to May, when Europe's eyes will be on it for the song contest.
A place with many faces
The truth is, Baku has several personalities. Its shadier side has recently bobbed to the surface with calls from human rights organisations to boycott this year's Eurovision due to Azerbaijan's allegedly controversial record. There are still traces of its dour Soviet phase in the unsmiling airport officials and the bleak concrete blocks that pepper the taxi ride into the centre of town.
Once you get there though - (and you should allow around 40 minutes for the 20km distance; Baku's congested roads make Dubai look positively tranquil) - you're greeted by the city's Parisian-style tree-lined boulevards and their fanfare of baroque buildings, bursting out on all sides like bulging biceps. Tom Ford, Dolce & Gabbana, Tiffany - all the high-end brands are here. This is the bold, modern side of Baku: the result of the country's large petroleum industry, and the reason why it makes the top 50 of Mercer Human Resource Consulting's 2011 list of the most expensive cities in the world.
A fortune shaped by location
For those of you still unsure of precisely where Azerbaijan is, I'll enlighten you: a neighbour to Iran, Turkey, Georgia and Russia, the country's capital pokes out on a little peninsula into the Caspian sea.
This location has played a big part in Azerbaijan's fortunes: the country's abundance of natural resources led to what is regarded as the world's first oil boom in the 19th century, and helped to protect its heritage sites from Second-World-War destruction by the Nazis, who were so set on taking control of the capital and its valuable oil that it did not become a bombing target.
Which means that those hankering after a bit of history will be in their element in Baku's well-preserved, Unesco-listed walled Old City (Icheri Sheher). The Medieval town is perfect for an atmospheric walk - cobbled alleyways snake through a labyrinth of crowded sandstone houses and tiny courtyards, while gnarled grapevines frame the winding route up to the 15th-century Shirvanshah's Palace, the ancient seat of Azerbaijan's ruling dynasty.
While much of the original 12th-century city wall remains intact, the stand-out feature within Icheri Shehar is the mysterious Maiden's Tower, an eight-storey cylindrical structure - parts of which date back to the 6th century BC - that is believed to have channelled natural gas for a fire temple's eternal flame some time in the country's Zoroastrian past.
It is well worth the perilous climb of the spiral staircases to the top, where you'll be treated to the full extent of Baku's dramatic panorama: from the glass Flame Towers glittering with corporate modernity at one end, via the verdant park promenade and the dark shimmer of the Caspian sea, tapering off into a sparse jungle of oil-field-crane silhouettes in the distance.
Families, funfairs and food
The family forms the basic social structure in Azerbaijan and there are plenty of activities in the capital to keep little ones amused. Soak up the buzz of the central shopping district, Fountain Square, which, true to its name, hosts a network of impressive fountains, gloriously lit up at night, and many international-brand boutiques and restaurants.
A walk along the city's seafront Boulevard offers a musical fountain show, plus an assortment of outdoor art installations, bronze statues and even the world's now second-tallest flagpole (it was pipped to the post by Tajikistan last year), where the bright Azeri flag flaps 162-metres high.
The area along Baku Bay has been declared a national park and is thronged with families enjoying the shaded promenades, kiddie funfair rides and cheap food stalls, while groups of locals quietly play Nard - an Azeri version of backgammon - on bollards set into the pavement.
Sit yourself down at one of the many tea houses (Çay Evis), where any request for a menu is likely to be met with a quizzical glance and endless pots of light, citrusy AzeriCay, to be sipped from ornate crystal glasses either through dunked sugar lumps or mixed with pulped lemon. If you're lucky there'll be piles of homemade sweetmeats as well, and the bill shouldn't come to more than a few Azeri Manats, or around Dh10.
New Baku has even more to offer to the still-thirsty culture vulture, from the beautiful museum of Azeri literature - worth a visit for the impressive turquoise exterior, studded with gleaming white marble statues of scholarly greats - to the Azerbaijan State Museum of History, housed in the former mansion of an Azerbaijani oil magnate, and the Baku puppet theatre, which was built in 1910 and still draws huge crowds.
When night falls it's time to investigate the maze of eateries, which vary from the chic and expensive - such as the cosmopolitan Chinar club, a huge Asian-themed restaurant-nightclub run by Gordon Ramsay's former restaurant director - to the obscure but traditional and ultra-cheap, such as U Dali Georgian restaurant, where dinner is served in cosy candlelit basement booths.
With the tourism industry still in the budding stages, don't assume that anyone in a restaurant will speak English (although many do) - my Georgian experience was a delicious guessing game between plump pastry parcels stuffed with cheese, fat domes of spinach bejewelled with pomegranate and an array of steaming meat and vegetable dishes of uncertain identity.
Duck into the right courtyard and you'll find yourself in one of the evocative caravanserai that are dotted around the town - historic inns where caravans would rest their camels for the night on their Silk Road journeys - which serve up traditional Azeri food and often also provide entertainment, from belly-dancing and jazz evenings (Baku has a reputation as a creative centre for jazz), to the unique Azeri music form called Mugam - an unusual style of singing that has been recognised since 2003 by Unesco as one of the world's great forms of intangible cultural heritage.
Voted eighth in Lonely Planet's list of top ten party cities, there is plenty of scope for late-night revelry in the Azeri capital; every side road reveals a new bar, from the thrumming ex-pat pubs serving up live Western music and traditional Irish fare, to Soviet nostalgia bars and cellar clubs pounding out French and Turkish tunes. But blink and you might miss it. The guidebook I used, printed in 2008, directed me to various ‘hotspots' that have since disappeared, replaced with newer versions or swallowed up into shops. Riding high on a new wave of commodities-fuelled wealth, and set to host a high-profile event this year, Baku is changing every day.
One thing is for sure: as the world's attention is drawn to this hidden gem of a city, it's only going to get more popular. Now is the time to go there - before everyone else does.
Baku and beyond
Shikhov beach: a resort area in Shikhov, just southwest of Baku and adjacent to the Shikhov Cape. The beach has been a traditional retreat for Baku residents, though the water is polluted by industrial waste and the view contains many oil rigs.
Yanar Dag or Fire Mountain: a visually stunning natural gas fire that blazes continuously on a hillside on the Absheron Peninsula on the Caspian Sea near Baku.
Oil Rocks: A full town on the sea. Lying 100km away from Baku, and 55km from the nearest shore in the Caspian Sea, it was the first oil platform in Azerbaijan, and the first operating offshore oil platform in the world, incorporating numerous drilling platforms.
Flights and visas
Fly Dubai flies from Dubai to Baku from around Dh495 one way, www.flydubai.com. You will need to purchase a tourist visa in order to enter Azerbaijan unless you are a citizen of Russia or CIS countries (except Turkmenistan). It costs from around Dh375, contact the Azerbaijan consulate in the UAE for more details: email azconsul@eim.ae. A simplified visa procedure applies to individuals visiting Baku for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. Visit www.eurovision.tv/page/press/visa.
Eat
U Dali (Mirzə Ibrahimov [Qorki] küç 7; mains AZN6-10, around Dh30-Dh50; 10am-11pm) Cellar restaurant tucked away in a side street, U Dali serves tasty Georgian home-cooking in candlelit basement booths. Rustic and delicious.
Karvansara Restaurant (Böyük Qala küç 11; mains AZN8-20) Choose from two 14th-century caravanserais, one offering atmospherically gloomy private stone cells, the other an intriguing cellar dining room.
Chinar (Shovket, Alekperova Street No.1; mains AZN15-30) Chic Asian fusion food. Chinar dining room, www.chinar-dining.com, +99412 492 0888
Sleep
Sultan Inn (www.sultaninn.com; Böyük Qala küç 20; d AZN150-170) This luxurious 11-room boutique hotel hits a fine balance between opulent elegance, cosy comfort and trendy modernism. Its perfectly central Old City location is a great plus, with unparalleled views of the Maiden's Tower from the rooftop restaurant.
Atropat Hotel (www.atropathotel.com; 11-13-79 Magomayev scr (on the corner of the Mamadyarov Str.) Baku AZ1000; from AZN 130 per night for a double room. This makes for a reasonable Old Town base, with good-sized clean rooms and efficient staff that speak good English.
