EASTERN TURKEY ADVENTURES

I touched on life in the Kurdish village a bit in a prior post, but it deserves a bit more. Set 10km off the lake and at the foot of Mt. Nemrut, its obviously in the middle or nowhere. Why a village was established there, I have no idea. Irregardless, it now contains about 150 of each people, sheep, goats, turkey, chickens, cows, you name it, all having more or less free reign. Other than village houses and barns, the only building in the village is the mosque, one of which you can find in EVERY village and town in Turkey, no matter the size. The village people are farmers primarily. In the words of Mehmet "We work 2 months a year and spend 10 months a year sitting and eating." I guess that explains how people can be overweight on a diet of bread, cheese, and vegatables.

The oddest thing about the village is the complete disregard for improving their quality of life. Men stand around smoking and joking, that is their apparent profession. Kids messing around doing not much anything. Women keep up with the requirements of daily life. Meanwhile, the village is littered with garbage and stagnant animal excretions. Plumbing into the houses is by a hose sitting on the dirt roads and "front yards". Plumbing out is by a oh so minimal trench that reaches a ditch by the road and sits around. The toilet is an absolute disgrace - even compared to toilets in ancient remains in Turkey. I think 1 week of work could turn the village from a mess into a respectable place. But there's tea to be drank, smokes to be smoked, and for whatever reason, it isn't a priority in the least.

The most amusing, in some ways, and frightening, in other ways, happening in the village during our stay was the second night of the village wedding celebration. We went down before dinner to check out the festivities, and were promptly mobbed by about 10 village kids. Feeling a bit odd about stealing the show from the bride and groom, we didn't stay long. We made it back down later after dinner. As mentioned, the first nights celebration jarred us awake with the sound of gunshots. That should have served as a warning. Walking up, we could see about 100 villagers singing and dancing, with complete DJ get-up and singers on the mike, this time dancing together instead of the junior high segregation of the previous night. Our approach was suddenly interrupted as the village joker unloaded a clip from an AK-47, no more than 10m from us, straight up into the air. And I mean straight up. The clip contained a few tracers, and they few right up over us and the crowd. The man made no attempt to shoot away from the masses. I guess falling bullets are not dangerous in Turkey. Anyway, this debacle was repeated with about 3 more clips, once right from the center of the dancing circle, and again straight up. At least the man who emptied his pistol clip had the sense to fire towards the empty field. Needless to say, I didnt feel to comfortable picturing the newspaper headline "American tourist killed by falling bullets at Kurdish wedding in Turkey." But we got out alrite, as did the rest, as far as we know.

While at the village we made a hard core trek through Mt Nemrut, which was a decent mountain and is now an enourmous volcanic crater with a pair of lakes within. The trek would be about 15km from end to end, and we knew we were tough enough.....or at least the Fiat Doblo would be. Our trekking would be contained to hiking from the road to the lake, from the road to a peak 50m away, etc. There was just no sense in being a tough guy and beating feet when you have a car at your disposal. And there was no way to see the whole thing on foot unless you have camping gear and a few nights to spare. The lake was beautiful indeed, the crater impressive in its size, probably 7-8km in diameter. Everything was pristine, and other than a few Army jokers messing around to avoid having to do real work, something I know a little about, we had it to ourselves. From the more manageable peak we did actually walk to, we had a great view of the crater and lakes on one side and Lake Van and surrounding mountains on the other. Great day, thanks to the Fiat.

Said our farewells to Mehmet and family and set off for Dogubayazit (also known to us as doggie biscuit, doogie boogie, or anything else that sounds remotely like it) traveling to the north and east around Lake Van. The lake is just big enough that you aren't sure if its mountains or clouds on the opposite side. The landscape around the lake is desolate and mountainous, leaving a jagged and uneven shoreline. The highway jugged the shore the whole way, so it was an enjoyable ride. A few km after making the turn north away from the lake and towards DG, we came upon a waterfall. Not expecting much due to the little volume of water in the adjacent stream, and not seeing anything on our first pass through, we nearly jetted off. But figuring there was nothing better to do, we doubled back and found it. To our surprise, even in the driest season, it was still impressive. Check the photos. Continuing on we drove parallel to the same stream, flowing in a 10m deep and 20m wide canyon that cut through the otherwise plain terrain of rolling lifeless hills and interspersed plains. Nothing of which was green, and contained to trees. In fact, it had been since olympos that we'd seen any trees. And the only green was in the irrigated farmland. Continuing on, we cut through a town that is only 5km from the Iranian border. Unfortunately, we did not come across any signs with an arrow and IRAN on it. Would have made a good counterpart to the BATMAN sign. (Speaking of, how does a place with names like Diyarbakir, Hasankeyf, Sanliurfa, Dogubayazit, and Yusufeli, end up with a town named BATMAN??????)

Through the vast hills and valleys, passing small village after small village, we hit the top of one hill to see the peak of Mt. Ararat staring at us. Quite impressive, a mountian of 5147m, 3100m above the surrounding terrain, with a snow capped peak, in the midst of brown hills, brown grass, and dusty towns. We wound through the valley toward the mountain, passed through some interesting hills of exposed red rock, and eventually arrived in the wonderfully charming Army town of Doogie midafternoon. Other than the immediate presence of the Mt and nearby Ishi Palace, the town is about as plain as they come. Like most towns we had drived through, it is nearly impossible to spot a woman on the street. Men are everywhere to be seen, primarily engaged in idle conversation, tea drinking, playing backgammon, staring at foreigners driving through the town, or some combination thereof. Of 200 or so people passed, maybe you spot 5 woman, and usually they are bustling to get somewhere with kids in tow. I guess they must be back at the house doing the real work.

After sorting out a hotel, we drove up to the Ishi Palace. Seems some wealthly joker about in the 18th century built himself a dream palace. Situated on the hillside overlooking the vast valley and distant mountains, the palace served to real, legitimate purpose. Walking through we came across dungeons, a large courtyard, a fabulous dining room, a harem hall and four harem rooms off it, the king bedroom and bathroom, and a few more random rooms. What is remarkable is that it had central heating, and the best looking toilet yet in Eastern Turkey. Why they can't replicate those feats now I don't know. Afterwards we hit the cafe higher up on the hill for a beer while pondering these questions and enjoying the famous "postcard" view of the palace and valley below. Leaving there we set off for the petrol station and the ensuing shock of spending a vast fortune, 110,000,000TL (a bit more manageable, yet still expensive, when converted to dollars - $70), to fill up the Fiat. Then we hit the plains at the foot of Mt. Ararat to toss some frisbee during the sunset. Its quite possible that is the first frisbee ever to be tossed at the foot of Mt Ararat. Who knows.

Next morning we set off for Kars, 200km to the north. Along the way we passed the first "nice" looking village of the road trip. Set in a valley between large barren hills, its contained a marginal amount of green grass, had a repeating "S" shaped stream running through it, and looked as if the people actually cared out the state of their affairs. That we were so impressed by it revealed a bit about the state of the other villages. Continuing on, we passed alongside the Armenian border. Judging by what we could see, I don't want to visit Armenia. I took a photo looking across into Armenia, and a few hours later, while sorting thru the pics, it took me a good few seconds to realize why I took a picture of basically nothing.

We arrived into the modern village of Kars in the afternoon. As mentioned before, the "modern" moniker comes from the facts that women are allowed out and about, usually without headscarves, and that the city is situated in a grid system instead of general chaos. But for this credit goes to the Russians, who controlled and built the city while they occupied the area from 1870-1920 or so. Other than a castle on the hill overlooking the city and the vast nothingness beyond it, and a 1000 year old Armenian church, it was rather uneventful. Dissapointingly so, because, for the first time since Fethiye and Olympos, Lonely Planet actually had an Entertainment center for the city. So we went to the one place mentioned, which it claimed to be a cafe/club that played music and where women were welcome. Unfortunately, it was only us and a few local guys. Guess thursday night is not the big night.

The drive from Kars led north near the Georgian border, then cut west to our destination town of Yusufeli. The familiar landscape of large open valleys and desolate mountains/hills prevailed for the first 100km or so. Then, after cutting around behind a group of hills, we were welcomed by green trees growing on the hills and a stream below. A very welcome sight. 5 days of various shades of brown gets a bit old. Another 50km or so of interspersed trees as we climbed and climbed. Upon reaching the summit, we parked the Fiat to take some pics. Then we had the brilliant idea to see to toss some rocks onto the steep slope and see how far they would bounce and roll. That ended quickly upon seeing the shepard emerge from below with a shout of warning. A quick escape ensued. Driving down we saw he was attending to a rather large flock of sheep on the steep mountainside just out of our line of sight. Sorry, man. The drive from the bottom of the pass to the town was brilliant, winding through a jagged, rocky, mountainous landscape along the banks of a mighty but mild river. The majority of the canyon was probably no more than 40m wide, with the rocks going straight up on each side a good 50m or so. And thus it continued for the next 150km until reaching Yusufeli.

We stayed in Yusufeli for the last two nights in Turkey. The town is nice enough, resting on each side of the same river we followed on the drive. Our hotel was right on the side, giving us a nice view and putting us well within earshot of it. Our activities in Yusufeli consisted of: hitting a restaurant for some eats and nostalgic, end of the road beers, marveling at the presence of a female wait staff, the first in Turkey, driving 15km up the canyon into the mountains before the road became a bit to rough for the Fiat (which isnt saying much) and turning around, providing a lift for a local man back to the town on our way back, and hitting the same restaurant for a few more nostalgic beers and intense political debate the second night. A good low key way to wrap up the Turkish adventures.

Saturday drove down to Ezurum to catch a flight. In a journey of an 1 1/2 hour flight, a 18 hour train, a 14 hour train, and a 10 hour train, one would expect the flight to be the easiest and most enjoyable. One would be wrong. The tiny airport has no gates, only one door passengers go through to get to the tarmac and up the steps into the plane. Probably no more than 8 flights per day go from this airport. Yet in a stroke of brilliance Turkish Airlines and Onur Airlines both have 1640 flights to Istanbul. This completely overloads the remarkably thorough security capabilities and the ensuing waiting area. I made it to the waiting area at 1620. The Turkish Airlines flight boarded at 1710. Apparently they have a "no missed flight guarentee", because the attendents basically had to hand hold everyone to the plane, and jokers were still casually strolling through the security at 1720. Excellent. My flight boarded at 1730, and took off some 30 minutes later. In another stroke of brilliance, they board the plane from front and rear, but make no distinction between where your seat is and where you enter. So the aisleway becomes a two lane road, further confusing the whole affair. Anyway, I didnt arrive in Istanbul until 2000, instead of 1820, leaving me a bit more crunched than desired for my 2300 train, or so I thought it was.

Took a cab to the Sultanhamet hostal where I had left my Eastern Europe guidebook on faith and the word of the resident employee. In typical Istanbul fashion, it was nowhere to be found when I returened to claim it. Sorry, dude. Down to the train station, but only after feasting on Burger King, and found my train left at 2200. No bother. Hit the market, got some McDs for the rails, and was off. As I had a whole compartment to myself, the train journey was rather pleasant, except for the Sultan's Revenge, which was still haunting me.

Arrived in Bucarest at 1730 the next day, and got a ticket for the 2137 train to Budapest. Over the next 4 hours I split time between the McDonalds seating area and the toilet inside. Not the most enjoyable layover. The train ride again was easy enough, again with a compartment to myself.

Into Budapest at 1030 in the morning, sorted out a train to Prague leaving at 1940 and arriving at 533. Figured a day in Budapest and night on the train was better than a day on the train and a late night arrrival into Prague. Priorities for Budapest: get some food to stabilize the system, hit up a Thermal bath to get rid Turkishmen scent I had begun to acquire after 2 1/2 days of no shower, and update the blog. 3 for 3, so far at least, i guess i'll have to wait and see about hte success of the first objective.