Blogs from Eastern Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East

I have a travel agency connection in Turkey which could help me organise a stay in Istanbul, together with an organised tour of the east BUT this tour may not be operating if they don't get enough people interested so could be some time before it's confirmed.... read more

In Van we stayed at the Azure Hotel, it was more expensive that what we had paid so far at 140 Lira (about NZ $98) and was over our budget, but it was hard turning away as there was a lift to our 5th story room (first lift so far) and the location was right in the middle of the city. Feyzi the manager spotted us as tourists the moment we stepped inside and offered his services as a guide the following day if we were interested. Sharing the cost with the Beate and Steffi meant it was a very reasonable full day escorted tour in his own vehicle. We originally had intended only to stay in Van for one night but decided to make it two days so as to go on the tour and ... read more

The main reason we visited Kars is because it is the best starting off point to visit Ani, the ruined city on the border with Armenia. Ani, is a windswept grassy site that contains a lot of Armenian architecture. The train trip from Erzurum to Kars was pleasant enough, we decided to order something from the restaurant car, I thought I had ordered a pasta dish each, but that got lost somewhere in translation and we ended up with one plate of french fries and a coffee, oh well it filled a hole and we were off to sleep soon. The guard came through and gave us a pillow and blanket and we rattled our way towards Kars for the next 5 hours. Celil a local taxi driver come tour operator was there to meet us ... read more

Once the sun rose I found that Kars is actually quite a nice little city. Kars the city is much more well-to-do than I had imagined from knowing a bit about its history. Was Soviet Russian not too long ago, etc. I figured a downright dreary sort of place, but it was nothing like that. The apartment buildings, while rather uniform in structure (thank you Russia), were decked out in wild colors. I think this might have something to do with the Armenian influence, but a more astute student of history could perhaps fill me in. The standard of living seems to be quite high based on the products available in the home appliance stores (large LCD TVs, etc.). I figured Kars would be much more a sleepy city. I mean it is still a city ... read more

The gritty town of Doğubayazıt sits a mere 35 kilometers from the Iranian border in the far flung reaches of Eastern Turkey. From Doğu I began my travels in Turkey after an unplanned stopover in the pleasant city of Erzurum when my luggage was unavoidably detained while transiting through Istanbul from Russia. I had set up a 4 day trip to Mt Ararat with a tour operator via email but it was postponed so we did it in 3 days. Pretty tough. Yesterday I took a couple of buses to Kars and today did a tour of the Armenian ruins at Ani. Awesome sight but scorching hot. Tomorrow to Yusufeli where I hope to set up a trek in the Kaçkar Mountains. Important note about Eastern Turkey: Ramadan is taken much more seriously than in the ... read more

June 21 to June 24 We arrived in Van in the evening and checked into our hostel we had booked. Had a quick bite to eat and were off to bed...totally exhausted after the hotbox of a bus ride! The next day we went to see the Van Castle, set high up on a massive rock overlooking the lake. There were only a few people there so we basically had the whole area to ourselves. Being in Southeastern Anatolia we have been able to count the number of foreign tourists on our hands, it's been great! We hiked up the rock to see a mosque and some amazing views down below of the remains of Old Van City, which was destroyed during WWI. We then hiked down the rock and decided to go around it at ... read more