Touring Turkey - Part II

---

From Dogubayazit I headed southwest to Van. I quickly learned that in this area of Turkey lived mainly Kurdish people and mainy of them still see themselves as a distinct population and culture separate from Turkish rule. This was evident on the bus ride to Van where an older Kurdish man referred to this area of Turkey as "Kurdistan" and made disgusted gestures towards the Turkish military and their checkpoints. I guess I don't realize the depth of the conflict between the two peoples but as far as I am concerned as a tourist in this country, they are all one people and are Turkish.

While travelling via minibus I met a friendly Turkish man named Altan who had better English than my Turkish. He was also travelling the country but mainly for setting up contacts for his textile business. Altan ended up helping me out quite a bit gathering information from the local tourist offices, which he called the "village government", and they were very eager to help the Canadian tourist with chai (tea), smokes, souveniers, and brochures. Altan showed me a great little restaurant where I tried some of the local specialties like raw sheep intestines and organs minced with onions and tomatoes (quite good but apparently it has been outlawed in the rest of Europe according to Altan). In typical Turkish hospitality he wouldn't let me pay for anything after gorging ourselves with shish kebabs, vegies, bread, and ayzan (a yoghurt-milk drink).

From Van we travelled to Tatvan across the lake which I had to feel after hearing of its alkilinity. And yes, the water was slippery, as if a mild detergent had been mixed into the lake. The water was quite reflective as well, maybe also due to the high pH....sorry, it's the scientist in me.

From Tatvan, I travelled south to Batman on the "Batman Van"...that's right, the route was pasted on the windshield as "Batman Van". On the ride I met some young Kurdish university students who were very enthusiastic to tell me about their culture, language, and conflicts with the Turkish governement. One guy said that one of his brothers lived in the nearby mountains and fought for the Kurdish rebellion. These people were all very friendly and hospitable as well, buying me lunch at a bus-stop. The area was very jagged with steep mountains on both sides of a crappy, torn-up highway.

Upon arriving in Batman, I took another minibus further south to Hasankeyf, a quaint little village on the Tigris River. The surroundings were very peaceful and realxing with old rock dwellings and cave houses where people once lived. The locals were all really friendly and enjoyed convering in English with me to find out the regulars like "where are you from?". It's next to impossible to get a beer with your meal in some places and I had to enjoy my food in another establishment that served alcohol (the waiter gladly ran my food over to the lounge). The bartender, a younger guy, showed me a Kurdish wedding afterwards and I witnessed people dancing in a circle, holding hands and singing to folk tunes.

The following day I decided to tour south to Mardin where my friend Mustafa said was a great place to visit. Unfortunately, the weather sucked. It rained and got really foggy so that I couldn't enjoy the views over the Mesopotamian plains. Oh well, the city itself perched upon a small mountain was entertaining with its small, narrow streets and scrumptious pastries...with chai of course.

The next stop on the whirlwind tour was Deyarbakir, a larger city and apparently the Kurdish capital of Turkey. I used this stop at a nice hotel to rest up for my Mount Nemrut adventure, which I wanted to begin the next morning...and I did.

A minibus dropped me off near a small farming village about 28km from Mount Nemrut. From here I grabbed some energy snacks and water and began to walk; it was a great sunny day. Not even 1km out of the village a farmer driving by on his tractor gestured for me to jump in the trailer and I couldn't pass up a ride. We drove a few clicks to his village where he offered for me to come into his stone house and sit down for chai and food. I couldn't resist and I was treated to one of the best meals yet on my trip...there was fresh cheese, butter, eggs, lamb, Kurdish ekmek (very thin bread), and olives...all from right outside on the family farm. It was delicious and I wobbled out of there after gratefully thanking the farmer, Ali, and his wife.

Another couple km down the road a park ranger picked me up and drove me to about 7km from Mt. Nemrut. He said that it was getting late in the day and that I should probably wait until tomorrow to see the top of Nemrut as the sunset was around 5pm. Well, I didn't listen and decided to hike it, thinking it wouldn't be too difficult...only a few k's and nothing this BC boy couldn't handle. About 2.5km from the top, the road tourned to snow as it was not cleared yet. But I was determined to see the top of the National Park and the main attraction, the ancient statue heads that are one of Turkeys tourist trademarks. I finally made it to the top around 5pm (just before sunset) and I was a little disapointed to find most of the site covered in snow, as well as the statue heads. A couple quick pics of the great view and I had to move fast now as the sun was going down and it would be getting cold.

I decided to take the north exit towards Malatya and decend that way. Bad idea, the roads were even more snowed-in and now it was dark. I was beginning to think I was Tin Tin in the Himalayas...all I needed was a white terrier to call Snowy....maybe it was hypothermia kicking in. Once I got my bearings with my compass and flashlight and after I was done swearing at the snow getting into my shoes, I descended the northern side of Nemrut seeing some village lights in the distance. Finally, I hit some dry road around 7pm and began what I thought would be a quick hike into one of the village towns. Wrong, the quick hike turned into 15-20km of walking past small, 2 building villages (nobody to be seen), and one closed hotel (it's not tourist season here yet!). Around 10:30pm I decided enough was enough and I knocked on a village door where I saw somebody awake. The house turned out to be a farming family who didn't speak a work of English. I was able to mumble some Turkish words and sentences using my pocket translator. They told me that there were no hotels around but I could stay the night in their house and take a minibus to Malatya in the morning. Relief! I accepted immediately as my body was ready to shut down and I joined the family for some chai, corn bread, farm cheese, and pickled vegies. The father of the house was very eager to learn about my journey from Nemrut and we stayed up for a couple hours hammering out ideas with the translator.

In the morning the family agian insisted on a quick bite to eat and chai before leaving. I was greatly appreciate of their help and gave them some souveniers for their awesome hospitality. This area of Turkey was very appealing to me with the mountains, fresh rivers, and great people...it reminded me of home!

From the Nemrut adventure I travelled to Malatya. A friendly local directed me to the tourist office where there were many people working but no toursits (I had not seen any toursits since Istanbul at this point and that was nearly 10 days ago). They seemed very anxious to help me and even called in a translator to assist. The translator showed up and helped me with questions about travel and what to see around the area. One of the men working there was also the sports director for Malatya and also the manager for Malatya's football team in Turkey's 1st League. Through the translator, he offered free tickets for an upcoming game in Istanbul and it happened to fall a date when I would be back there. So, I've got my fingers crossed that Larisa and I will be watching our first professional soccer match in Istanbul on March 26th, the day after she flies in!

From Malatya, I bused to Kayseri for a couple hours before heading into Cappadocia. I'm currently in Goreme and will be visiting the area for a couple days before heading back to Istanbul....look out for more Turkish stories and pics.

---