patanderin

A few clips taken with the digital camera. 1. How to safely mount a camel. Erin getting up on the beast. 2. Call to prayer. If you have never heard it, it is somewhat haunting. It can ne heard 5 times a day from wherever you are. This was taken from our hotel balcony in Selcuk, Turkey 3. Erin makes a friend. Petting a lamb in Samandag, Turkey.... read more

The now familiar bus trip to Antalya from Iskederun was 14 hours long. Along the way, I contacted a hotel that was located within Antalya's old walled city, based on a recommendation from our Lonely Planet guide book. The owner of the Frankfurt Hotel spoke very good English and even agreed to let us check in upon our arrival in Antalya. The bus finally pulled into the Otogar at 8:30. As we got off to collect our luggage, the sun was shining brightly and stung our eyes, the way it does when you've been at work all night and are heading home on a sunny summer morning. There was a taxi stand nearby and one of the drivers helped us load our bags into his yellow cab. When I pointed at the hotel in the guide ... read more

After picking up our Mazda 3 at the Europcar rental office, we navigated out of Aleppo with the help of Michel, a distant relative of mine. He had kindly volunteered to help us find our way to the highway at which point he also agreed to have us dump him at the bus stop to find his way back. This gesture combined with the fact it was Friday morning (Fridays are like Sundays in Muslim countries) made our departure a breeze. As we drove south past Hama and Homs, we were struck by the amount of garbage that was along the highway, a very sad thing indeed in a country that was basically the cradle of civilization. At Homs, we turned straight east for Palmyra, by now it was pretty clear that we were in the ... read more

On Friday we left Selcuk and headed to the coastal resort town of Bodrum. On the way there the chain on my bike popped off again. I managed to get it back on the sprocket only to have it come off again 40 km later, it was quite obvious that the chain lacked the proper tension and needed adjusting. While pulled over at a fuel station contemplating our next move, Kemal approached us and asked if we needed help. As it turns out, Kemal owns "Shoe Zone" in Didim (about 15 minutes away) and has a buddy who has a motorcycle repair shop. We followed Kemal in his Audi and he led us right to the shop. There, a team of men worked on my bike and then fixed Erin's bike and even fixed a few ... read more

After leaving Ankara we had a spectacular day of riding through the mountains on our way to Istanbul. The air was cool and the scenery spectacular. We ran into a couple on a tandem bicycle who were from Argentina and were travelling around the world. They were also headed to Istanbul and had just come from Syria. We decided to go as far as Izmit, a city about 100 km from Istanbul. When we arrived, we were in no mood to search for the hotel, so when we passed a police station with the usual machine gun toting cop guarding the front entrance, we decided to stop and ask. The machine gun guy didn't speak any English but he did call over a man in a suit who did. As it the turns out, the man ... read more

We left Osmaniye after exchanging gifts with our hosts there. I had almost enough gear to put together a full Turkish police uniform. The ride to Cappadoccia was much less strenuous than the previous day's one. The secondary highway we rode on took us through plains from which we could see some stunning snow capped mountain ranges and through a succession of villages that still looked like they would have 80-100 years ago, except for the cars. In one of these villages, a farmer was leading 3 cows across the town centre and had to take evasive action with the herd to get out of our way. We also past countless herds of sheep in the fields being tended to by shepherds. The ride was relaxing, a welcomed change for Erin. We rode over a hill ... read more