Turkish and Syrian Border Then to Goreme

---

Turkish Syrian border crossing and Goreme.
The drive from Aleppo in Syria to Goreme in Turkey took the best part of 14 hours. Quite a few of those hours were taken up at the border crossing. Getting into Turkey was relatively easy but getting out of Syria was unnecessarily time consuming. I think in all there were 8 passport inspections to make sure that we had paid for and received our exit stamp. The exit permit cost 550SN Pounds. You are only allowed to visit Syria if you have an invitation and this can be arranged by a Travel agent, for a fee of course. While you are in Syria the nominated agent becomes responsible for you and must accompany you to the border when you depart. This was all arranged in advance by our Tour Company, Oasis Overland and they have local agents in each country we visited. It was as if some Syrian government official said “Lets create a really time consuming process that maximizes employment opportunities, then find some extra ways to make it even more complicated”. For those still paying attention the Duty Free shop prices entering Syria from the South are better than the prices leaving in the North.

My first impressions of Turkey are good. I already feel as though I would like to revisit someday and spend lots of time touring the country. Almost as soon as we crossed into Turkey we noticed a difference. The Landscape started to change from barren waste land to hilly and eventually mountainous terrain. There is almost no roadside rubbish and homes and buildings are colourful and finished and obviously reflect a lot of civic pride.

We arrived in Goreme at 7pm on Wednesday, and for dinner we were hosted at a laid back carpet shop called “Sultan Carpets”. We had a glass or two of wine and a great tasty meal, followed by a talk and demonstration about carpet making and the option to purchase of course. The carpets were beautiful but very expensive and even if I had wanted to purchase one I would have had to pay a lot of money to ship it home.

On Thursday our Truck crew gave us a tour of Goreme and some of the attractions around and that was a bonus with the weather great as well. In the afternoon Sean and I purchased our overnight bus ticket to Istanbul for Friday night as we will be sadly leaving the tour and some great people behind. This was an easy process and cost us 35 TYL (Turkish Lira) which at the moment a Lira was about 80 cents Australian.
From the photographs you can see how interesting Goreme is with the “Fairy Chimneys”. Many of these “Chimneys” used to be dwellings for Christians living in the area and there are a lot of Churches carved into the sandstone. A lot of them are still being used and some of the larger formations have hotels and “Pansions” attached to them. Our motel style accommodation was the Seven Rock campground which had a number of the bedrooms and bathrooms carved into the sandstone.

Turkish night.
When I made the tour booking it was thought that we would be taking the overnight bus on Thursday, I had accommodation booked in Istanbul for Saturday and Sunday night prior to our cruise departure so I was very pleased when Tracy told me we could stay on an extra day and at no extra charge. This gave us the opportunity to attend a “Turkish Night”. For 40 Lira we were provided transport to and from a performance venue that provided all you can drink and food along with some traditional Turkish entertainment, dancing and dervishes and for the boys a very nice belly dancer. It was a great evening and a fantastic way to officially end our “Middle East Overland” tour.

Friday we spent the day rearranging our packs, drinking coffee and catching up on our emails before our farewell and the obligatory “final” beer. We had a great crew and a great group of travel companions. “Stella” our truck will be left in the capable hands of Richard as Tracy and Nick depart for the UK for a break before joining Oasis in South America. Sean and I wish them well, who knows we might start saving our pennies and catch up with them again there.

---