One of the coolest things about traveling abroad is the opportunity to compare your destination to your country of origin. Inevitably, depending on where you go, some if not most things will be worse. The United States is, after all, indisputably the greatest country mankind has ever built. Despite its cultural decline over the past few decades, it still reigns head and shoulders above most any other place. I know I’m biased, but given that a majority of people across the world would absolutely come here if they could, it’s probably objectively true.
I love to travel, but when comparing it’s tough to compete with what I’m already used to. As an example, while on a Mediterranean cruise a couple of years ago I found the lack of public restrooms on our excursions, and the fact that many of them actually required you to PAY to use the facilities, astounding and disturbing. Call me crazy, but it just seems like any place worth its salt should take measures to AVOID people feeling tempted to, uh, relieve themselves in places they shouldn’t. Other things I miss when traveling abroad include sweet tea, ice, a good burger, and most of all not having people constantly trying to take advantage of the fact that I’m an obvious tourist.
On the other hand, especially if you’re a conservative, the massive cultural decline experienced here in the U.S. will often stand in stark negative contrast when you travel to places that haven’t experienced it. I’ve heard this said about Eastern Europe, although I have never visited there yet. I did, however, visit Azerbaijan a few weeks ago, and I was struck by several aspects of that country that seemed to have an edge on my own homeland, so much so that other than wanting to see my family it felt a bit sad to be returning home. So, what can Americans learn from a country that in many ways is far more based than we are? Turns out, quite a lot!
Let’s start with food, because I consider myself something of a foodie and I was really looking forward to trying everything the country had to offer. To put it mildly, it did not disappoint. The food in Azerbaijan was some of the best I've had anywhere, and I ate like a fat, disgusting boar hog the entire ten-day trip. Three meals a day most days, all with some sort of bread and most dinners with some sort of dessert. Not to mention all the times they like to serve just tea & sweets at meetings and such.
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I don't normally eat this way. Normally, I eat two meals and most days I have no dessert at all. But for trips, especially like this, I suspend my normal habits. I thought I'd gain at least 5-8 pounds or so, as I normally do even on a weeklong cruise. But I checked the scale when I returned and had only gained one pound. One single solitary pound, after eating probably close to twice what I normally eat at home.
I have seen many others who have traveled abroad have similar experiences. Likely, it’s because there are many additives in our food that just aren't allowed in other places, and all of it seems to be contributing to obesity and a host of other problems in a massive way. Hopefully, RFK Jr. & crew can begin to right this ship, but for now I’d much rather be eating in Azerbaijan or almost any other country than here.
In some ways, Azerbaijan is still a developing country, and that fact is evident as you travel to more rural areas filled with run down shops and box-style houses clearly built during the Soviet era. On the other hand, Baku, its capital, is one of the most magnificent cities I’ve ever visited in any country, including my own. There, old Soviet-style Brutalist architecture mixes with the medieval walls, alleys and shops of the Old City as well as newer, magnificently stunning buildings like the Flame Towers, the Heydar Aliyev Center, and the Crescent Development. There are also wildly cool items mixed in, like a carpet museum built to resemble an actual rolled carpet and a Venice-style boat attraction right in the middle of the city.
But the architecture and attractions are just one aspect of creating a great place. As Chicago, New York, and so many other American cities know all too well, you can have the coolest buildings, but if your streets are filled with litter, muggers, homeless vagrants, and used needles, it’s all for naught. Remarkably, Baku seemed to have none of those things, or very little. Parks abound, seemingly everywhere you turn, and in the evenings they are filled with elderly couples, young lovers, exercisers, and people walking their dogs. You know what they aren’t filled with? Litter, muggers, homeless vagrants, and used needles. It was so refreshing.
There was virtually zero litter, no matter where we looked. The people take pride in their city, and it shows. During our entire 10-day visit, we might have seen three people who could have arguably been homeless, two older female panhandlers walking around in a shopping area and a rough-looking guy sitting on a bench in one of the parks. Nobody was laying on the street or on park benches, and there were no tents to be found anywhere.
Amazingly, there was zero sense of danger or unease when walking the streets, even late at night and into the early morning hours. (This video I uploaded to my new TikTok account, which my daughter said I should start although I’m completely clueless about how to grow or utilize it, will give you an idea of what things were like in an Old City plaza - just normal families milling about.) Sure, no doubt all these things exist everywhere to some degree, but authorities there seem to have taken effective measures to make public safety & comfort a priority, and as a visitor it was super noticeable.
Baku proves that a clean, beautiful, low-crime urban area can actually be maintained, if the political will exists to do what needs to be done to make that happen. Sure, some of those measures might be unpalatable to some, but they are far preferable to the cesspools our cities are now.
The country also gets other things remarkably correct. For one, despite being wedged between countries like Iran, Turkey, Armenia, and Russia, Azerbaijan manages to tightly control its borders and strictly limit who becomes an actual citizen, with a stable income and proficiency in Azerbaijani, their national language, being key requirements. For another, religious extremism, particularly of the Islamic variety, isn’t tolerated, and Imams who preach jihad are routinely arrested and dealt with accordingly. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there was some sort of bidet installed in almost every bathroom I visited in Baku. Talk about civilized!
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not putting Azerbaijan on a pedestal or saying I’d want to live there instead of the U.S., at least not yet. Culturally, it would be difficult to live in a majority Muslim country, even one as tolerant to other religions as Azerbaijan is. And while I do feel that the current leadership genuinely cares about its people and wants what’s best for them, if that were to change at some point the robust Constitutional protections that exist here don’t exist there. But I would love to visit again someday, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to experience many key societal features Americans used to be able to take for granted.
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