ROAD TRIP

The Sultan's Revenge had caught up with both Chris and I by the time with left Urfa. Eating traditional Turkish style can do that to you. So, upon arrival in Diyarbakir, we were quite happy to discover a Burger King mere blocks from our hotel. So to BK we went, lunch and dinner on Saturday, then again lunch on Sunday. Three meals in a row. If that can't stop the sultan, nothing can.

Picked up our wheels after the BK in Diyar, and set out off to enjoy the freedom and comfort, no longer having to travel with 18 unhygenic others in a 12 passenger van. First stop was.....BATMAN. And the only stop was to take a pic of the entering Batman sign. No sign of Robin or the bat cave. On through and down into Hasankeyf. The old city is situated on top of a plateau and cut into the rocks above the Tigris River. The new city is below jsut above the banks of the river. Much like Cappadocia with dwellings and criss cross stairways cut into the rocks, and a whole stone town ontop the plateau, all dating to about 14th century. Interesting thing here is that some day soon, upon completion of more dams, the whole city will disappear underwater. Get there while you can.

Back to the road, portable tunes blaring, with a fresh supply of sunflower seeds. Gotta have 'em. Our Fiat block, similar i think to a honda element, is gutless but spacious, complete with AC. Winding through the roads, most of which are under construction as the Turks have decided to expand all the two lane roads to 4 lane highways, aparently all at the same time, enjoying the newly relaxing traveling environment. Around 6pm we roll into our destination, Tatvan, at the banks of Lake Van. We had an accomodation connection near Tatvan from our man Aziz in Urfa, so we set out to call Mehmet. While I was dialing, none other than Mehmet himself introduces himself to Chris. Sorted. His son jumped in with us and wet off for their place about 30k away. 20k down the highway, I'm told to turn left where it appears to be nothing but a 10 foot bank. Ahh, believe me, Ahkim says, and sure enough a steep slope led to the dirt road. Its dark now, and we went about 10k deep into the middle of nowhere to find the village where he lived. Only traffic on the way were three donkey carts pulling full of tobacco.

The village boasts a population of 150 or so. No exact data is available. Their house has a kitchen/social room, and we pull up a cushion on the floor rug for some tea. Nature called, so I enquired about the facilities. I have never seen such a dodgy "toilet" in my life. A 3ft by 3ft wood shack with a concrete floor, and a 5 inch diameter PVC pipe in the middle. And a bucket of water outside for flushing. Nice one. Anyway. A bit later we cruised on down to a wedding celebration. Day 2 of the celebration, the day before the wedding. First off I could see a "tent" with music cranking and loads of village men dancing. Figured the women weren't invited. A few more steps later and the women could be seen opposite the tent, about 30m seperating, doing the same on their side. No mingling between the sexes allowed. AFter a could songs, the women gave up the dancing and formed a semicircle to watch and giggle at the men doing their thing. Something like a junior high wedding party, gotta keep 'em seperated. Back to the house, found our "beds" on the partially enclosed balcony. Fortunately, they had more than enough blankets to keep warm as the temps at night dropped to about 5C. Just as I started drifting off to the sounds of the still live and kicking wedding party, a good 15 gunshots rung out. Beware falling bullets, they can kill.

Woke up in the morning to the sounds of a goose singing away in a horridly off any sort of pitch squawk. Opened my eyes to see the sun just poking over the horizon thru the crack where the drape walls didn't cover. Balanced things out a bit. Mananged to get a bit more rest over the next hours despite geese squawking, roosters crowing, cows mooing, cell phones ringing, and people coming and going.

After 19 days in Turkey, we'd finally found the middle of nowhere way off the beaten path.