Blogs from Eastern Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East - page 3

Mon 29th July 2013 Malatya to Elazig Got up early at the campsite near Nemrut. Washed and set off by about 7.30am. Drove through those scary roads that were very long and steep uphill and downhill. These roads were also very bendy as well and I was praying that my brakes would not fail me. 9.30 am outside of Malatya, I was suddenly hit by another vehicle sideways on the passenger side. The car spun 340 degrees and I just managed to steer it away from a lamp post and a brick wall. The police was called and arrived within 15 minutes. I was asked to show them my insurance document, driver licence and log book. Imagine all this has to be done when the Turkish police do not speak English and I don't Turkish. We ... read more

It may seem a tad unseemly to update agaın so soon after yesterdays' extravaganza of an entry but sınce I've fınally arrıved at the base or Ararat, ın the town delıghtfully monıca'd Dogubeyazıt. I havn' the vaguest ıdea how to pronounce ıt.It almost certaınly ısn't how ıt's spelt. It's at 1600m and has a populatıon accordıng to ıts notıceboard of 73000. So bıggısh and seemıngly mostly kıds wantıng 'money money money' And quıte shouty wıth ıt. However, much more ımportantly ıt sıts at the base of the magnıfıcent and dormant 5160m Mt. Ararat here known as Agrı Dagı. Classıc volcano form, snowcapped and wıth a 2ndry volcano sıttıng lıke a lımpet on ıts south eastern rıdge. Very pretty. Thınk Etna wıthout fumerole and add 2000m. The weather's a bıt of an ıssue. Tendıng to be cool ... read more

When we embarked on this trip, we wanted it to be a journey - the journey as a physical journey around the world and a spiritual journey to study and meditate to further our spiritual development. But sometimes, one also needs a break from one’s journey and so we came to Fethiye with two inter-related goals in mind: spend time on the beach and act like tourists. We successfully accomplished both goals. We plan on having a few posts on our digression into tourists – with the first being our take on the beaches we visited. My husband wanted his beach time and we certainly indulged. Like Antalya, the one big takeaway for me was that the majority of the beaches had rocks rather than soft sand. I have always been a soft-sand beach girl so ... 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