Please note: This is a very rough draft taken from my travel journal during one of my recent trips across
Best wishes and happy travelling!
Ajarn Charlie
Found my favourite peach drink again, this time under the “Cappy” label, farther west it had been “Matek”. Even cheaper here as it is only 750,000 lira.
The Dumas ride to the hotel was 4000,000 lira.
22:30 –
- The police here seem serious about their patrols and one is walking sentry in front of the station with an assault weapon.
- The PTT (Post Office) is next to the police station.
- Hundreds of men gathered in cafes to watch a soccer match.
- Erboda Bartique Hotel – 50,000,000 lira for a single room. Looks nice but that is expensive!
- Hotel Bakas - The rate for the hotel room started at 20,000,000 lira as I was told there was only a double room left. When I indicated this was an unacceptable rate, the clerk than admitted there was a “terrace” with a cot for only 7,000,000 lira. On roof there were a dozen cots with a blanket on each. Someone was already on a cot, totally hidden from view under a blanket.
- A very nice sister and brother helped me from the bus to the station where I could catch a Dumas to the hotel. She indicated she was a teacher as well.
- Far off into the distance you can see the burning of grass at night. Fires seem to be everywhere. Rather eerie.
As I lay here on my cot atop the roof of the Hotel Bakas, I wonder about the events swirling around me.
It is so hard to imagine the horror of what is to come when I can lay here and stare up and see a fortress of ancient time joining the star studded night skyline and the Milky Way. It has been years since I was able to see our Milky Way with such clarity and definition.
Saturday –
Awoke the 1st time at 04:45 to the wail of the minaret speakers calling the religious to prayer.
The bathroom and shower are the worse yet. The sink only allowed a trickle of water and the shower was totally unworkable.
I remain locked in as the front door exit is bolted and you must have a key to unbolt it and exit. I guess in case of fire I could jump out of a window if I had to….
07:20 – Mardin to
Met a Turkish high school student while trying to figure out which way to go. He and his family were leaving for a village to the NE of Mardin.
On the way out of Mardin by Dumas we pass the largest Gendarme base yet. At the entrance to the base a boy gets on with his family. He is carrying a rooster. Wonder if that counts against the bus passenger limit of 15?
07:50 – 80 kilometers
08:15 – 60 kilometers
Another checkpoint is reached at an intersection of two roads. At this checkpoint there is an armoured car and heavy machine guns and many automatic weapons.
08:45 – Reach
As I leave the bus the driver tried to cheat me out of 5,000,000 lira. I had given him the fare for the trip before we started and he indicated he didn’t have enough change at that point but would give me the change as he collected the fares. I thought this to be OK but had an uneasy feeling about it. Turned out to be true as he kept indicating he had no idea what I was talking about but after about 2 minutes of this discussion, he miraculously remembered that he owed me the money.
11:00 – Leaving Diyarbakir
Can’t really write here what I wrote in my journal about this city but suffice it to say, the city is anything but pleasant. You could compare it to a scene out of a star wars episode. This is a very tough town and trading is its reason for existence. Not a city for a western tourist really (not that I am one). Everyone seems to be watching everyone and I have definitely been “marked” several times. The two times I tried to ask assistance in finding the Turkish Airlines office only led to being led to a carpet seller for tea and the second time being led by a man who insisted on being paid for the service.
At the airline office there were of course no seats available until Monday to
(Fare to
As I board the bus and after settling down a bit, the steward wants me to turn my cellular phone off. This is a first for me on a bus. Guess it will somehow affect the flight and navigation equipment, as this is a request from the “Captain” according to a sign on the window. These bus drivers seem to have a very high opinion of themselves and seem to be “demi-gods” in their world and after watching them for so long at rest stops and in the loading and unloading process, it is obvious they all have egos that must make it difficult to get through the bus doors.
The bus continues to move southwest to
13:30 – Well, the bus just filled up and I am now setting on the last row against the window. Of course the seats don’t recline on the back row so this is the beginning of a 21 hour bus ride from hell. It is going to be a long trip to
14:30 – Sanliurta – The buses seem to be some type of cargo carrier as well. I haven’t quite figured our how it works or who is making the money from the goods being sold but there sure is a lot of time spent at the different stops discussing the many huge bags that eventually get loaded and how to load them. I am beginning to think we spend just about as much time at the station doing this process as we do actually on the highway between cities.
Starting the climb out of the valley that Sanliurta is in and we switch off the air conditioning and it quickly starts to get very hot.
It is 38 kilometres to Surus and 140 kilometres to Gazi Antep at this point according to a sign on the highway.
15:15 – Another overturned truck in the middle of the road (Gazi Antep is 100 kilometres away).
The skies here are amazingly clear, even to the point where I haven’t seem a single aircraft contrail in days.
I have also noticed that the hundreds and hundreds of fuel trucks that are on this road are empty headed east and heavy and slow headed west. Seems there is a lot of oil being shipped from somewhere and all indications seem to point to oil smuggling from
15:45 – Birecik – (Gazi Antep 58 kilometres) There is both a tunnel and than a bridge over a river as we pass through what is obviously a very old city. We stop five minutes later at a modern rest stop, just on the edge of the city. I remember this stop from the trip heading east and seems to be the stop used by all buses in both directions. I had two “hamburgers” at 1,250,000 each and a Pepsi. Seemed safe enough. I even found a western toilet in one of the stalls! Wow!
We once again have a full bus as we pull out and now I have a very curious young man setting next to me who seems to be intent on watching everything I do and write.
As we head west the road is littered with trucks. They are broken down, in parts, without tires, long, short, old, rusted and some even new. There are storage tanks spaced at short distances between various repair shops and/or gas stations. There is no single company logo on the sides of any trucks, just a wide and diverse group. Seems every fuel tanker in eastern Europe has been pulled into what is obviously one massive oil exodus; most probably out of
It appears from the infrastructure support and the terribly poor condition and rutting of the roads, that this has been a ongoing operation for many years. East they head fast and light, west they come back slow and heavy.
The E-90 construction ends about 12 kilometre east of Gazi Antep and at 10 kilometre east of the city you can get on the highway and head west which is a toll way.
17:15 – Gazi Antep – This is the bus trip from hell! Once again, an extremely modern bus terminal.
17:35 – Leaving bus station. Met a pair of twins on the bus who are attending the university in
As the bus leaves, for the first time people are standing on the bus. Well I got this to say, it isn´t boring!
Once again the stop seemed to take far longer than necessary as there was so much effort given to cramming things into the cargo hold under the bus. I just can’t imagine another box or bag down there and it is obvious we are very heavy.
17:45 –
Not far out of Gazi Antep we pas through the first of a series of tunnels, some quite long. I note that the second tunnel is called “Kizlac” and is 2,804 meters long, the third is “Ayran” and is 498 meters long, the fourth is 375 meters and the 5ifth is 387 meters long.
20:45 – Leaving
I tried to get off the bus at
As the hours pass, my mind wonders……
Why is it in the parts of the world where some of the highest temperatures exist, that people are forced for religious purposes to cover so much of their bodies and their head? It is the head where 80% of the body`s heat is dissipated from. In the
I know in most militaries that there is a requirement that soldiers must wear their hats (cover) when outdoors. Makes sense to have such a tradition/rule as this is a good way to keep the body warm and for northern armies such as the US, German, French and British, common sense became a tradition but why did such a “rule/religious law” become so important in climates with such incredible heat?
There is no such thing a myth. Myth is only the story that is left with a “spin” put on it so that common people with little to no education can understand. The more we understand myth and the science of the interpretations, we find has basis in fact everywhere.
Notes:
- Buses, even the long haul buses, do not have toilets. This really surprised me as they are obviously very modern and expensive. Each bus carries approximately 40 people.
- Make sure you have many small notes on you, especially 250,000 and 5000,000 for toilets and Dumas rides. You should usually get back some change for the 500,000 note on the local buses.
- You can go end to end across
- People on public and private transportation are generally very helpful and kind. I only recall one situation where someone tried to cheat me.
- People on the street who approach you will want something from you. Guaranteed!
- I usually try to give a few lira to the young child selling tissue paper, but take no pity on the woman dragging a young, infant around a bus station begging for money.
- If you eat snacks on a bus or train, it is considered polite to offer the item to those that are near you. I was often offered items from others.
- Watch carefully the fare be charged by taxis from bus stations. They are notorious for ripping people off.
- When people title their head backwards, that means “no thank you”.
- Every few hours, the bus steward will offer you either tea or coffee (Nescafe) or Pepsi. Seems Pepsi got
- Once you leave
- Do expect to see heavily armed police, gendarme and soldiers everywhere you go, especially east of
- Do expect to encounter many checkpoints by both the Gendarme and police with occasional armoured vehicles and heavy machine gun emplacements on public highways and cross roads east and north of
- Do expect buses to be stopped and boarded by Gendarme for ID checks after dusk.
21:00 Saturday evening on a bus north from
Setting here in the infamous “last row”. Sort of reminds me of “death row” for that is about how I feel after 10 hours in this seat.
On this particular bus, like most, you can’t tilt the seat back in the back row. To understand the time and imagine the feeling, imagine taking a trip to Bangkok from Frankfurt by plane, than turning around and flying back to Frankfurt….all with your seat in the up right position and people falling asleep on your shoulder that are setting next to you. Of course the 40,000,000 lira fare ($25 USD) is quite a bargain. Maybe I am just getting old….
18:20 – We exit the toll road. It as been rainy since daybreak and it is chilly as we make our first (and hopefully last) stop before
As always, the buses are washed down at these rest stops but they never seemed to be refuelled there. That of course takes another stop which in our case is obviously some very low cost, single pump operation. Probably the driver’s wife brother! Hahaha
Sunday Morning –
07:00 – Ozturkler Rest Stop – I have no idea how far we are from Istanbul but I´m going to guess about 180 kilometre. As always, our steward jumps onto the bus through the middle door after the bus is already moving. Too many cowboy movies….
I guess in a way I am glad I didn’t get off in
It has really been raining as we approach
07:20 – Back on “
Another truck gone onto a guardrail-very lucky as there is a steep cliff on the other side!
The man at the Turkish Airline office in Diyarbbakir reminded me of the game that was also played out in the hotel in Mardin. No rooms/no seats, except for the more expensive ones, “double-room” and “business-class”. A carpet merchant mentality; they have you in their “shop” , now they got you!
08:10 – 129 kilometers east of
08:40 – Once again we leave the
We almost left someone again, this time making it to the road before his wife said something. Why didn´t she say something before we left? Amazing to say the least…
08:50 86 kilometers to
As we pass down the coast, many ships become visible, many at anchor.
09:00 - The driver seems to finally have the pedal to the metal! Seems he wants this trip to end as bad as me. First patches of blue finally appear between the rain clouds. That a nice sign and wonderful welcome back to
Many ships lie at anchor on this early Sunday morning. Most appear to be small coastal oil tankers moving oil from the
09:10 – 51 kilometers to
I just noticed something rather odd which jolted my mind back to my many travels around the
09:25 – Sabiha Airport – As we pass the airport, I watch a very , very low Russian made aircraft taking off. Unbelievably low in fact! We are now 19 kilometers from
Another observation is that it appears the construction industry here as imploded like it did in
10:00 – Arrived at the bus station on the Asian side of
At the “Harem Giseler” ferry dock I pay another 850,000 lira for a token to cross to the European side. It appears tha the ferry runs every 30 minutes, even on Sunday and starts service at 07:00.
In
After leaving the docks, I head of the street past the European side train station and the mandatory McDonalds, following the tram line until I get to the “ibnikemal cad” street. This is where I have the greatest availability and value for rooms. There are many hotels on this street but what makes it so nice is that a very cheap hotel ($3 a night) is next to a 4 star hotel. I jotted down some of the names of hotels and restaurants on this street. The are:
- Romance
- Class Restaurant
- Hotel Landini
- Hatay Restaurant
- Hotel Siafir
- Otel Inci Palas
- Hotel Karacabay
- Hotel Orsep
- Metropol
- Ozler Restaurant
I found a room that is decent for 6,000,000 lira a night with a bath and a shower in the hallway. It seemed clean and safe. There however was no electric plug in the room to recharge my cell phone or computer. Had to run a cord out of the room and use the single plug in the hallway. I noticed others charged their cell phones the same way. Each room did have a sink in it.
I also notice down the street that there are men (young and old) walking arm in arm. I haven´t seen that since Alexandiar, Eqypt.
The Efes Pilsener Beer is pretty good. Got a shave here for 4,000,000 which was rather expensive. I only had to pay 1,500,000 for the same service in
I have also stumbled across some more Kurds working in the restaurants here. Interesting in many ways as they all seem to be highly educated and their English extremely good. One told me he had studied in
I don´t admit to know much about the “Kurdish Issues” but here, it is something that is extremely complex. The many checkpoints in eastern turkey reflect the ongoing turmoil. Many have died over the years and with the war in
Here are some ideas of what things cost:
- 6,000,000 Hotel room
- 4,000,000 shave
- 1,500,000 Internet for 30 minutes
- 5,000,000 eggs and a beer
- 850,000 boat across straits
- 650,000 tram
- 10,000,000 a few minute call back to
- 7,500,000 very nice men’s wallet
- 3,000,000 nice woman’s wallet
- 82,500,000 leather coat
- 4,000,000 map of
- 8,000,000 hammocks (very nice)
- 6,000,000 men’s shirts (long sleeve)
- 20-32,000,000 bed sheets
- 15,000,000 leather gloves (incredibly nice and extremely cheap by German standards)
- 15,000,000 very nice wooden walking cane
- 5,000,000 Burger King Whopper with cheese
- 500,000-1,500,000 Turkish Donner (Sandwich). If you move one block off the main streets, you usually can find prices to be significantly lower.
- 750,000 Fanta Lemon (one of my favorite drinks on a long hot day)
- 22,000,000 Blue Jeans (
- 10,000,000 Blue Jeans (
- 15,000,000 Rucksack in
- 15,000,000 Street DVDs in
- 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 Beer
- 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 Wine
- 4,000,000 Chicken/Potatoes/Coke
- 1,500,000 Nescafe Coffee
- 8,000,000 large canvas bag
- 7,000,000 10 Gillette double blade razors
- 5,000,000 8 piece stainless steel knife set
- 7,500,000 shower curtains
- 40,000,000 Woltra 9mmm Mod.92 pistol
- 35,000,000 Woltra 9mm Mod 85 pistol
- 2,000,000 4 pair of socks
- 12,000,000 cooking pot
- 6,500,000 skillet (for German export-very nice!)
- 3,500,000 oil lamps
Airfares from
Around the streets near the main Telecom office you can find a multitude of street vendors (always men) selling everything from Viagra, sex CDs, cell phones and software. Fascinating to watch this part of life here.
The non-tourist shops/markets roll-up at 18:00. This is about the same as in
I am surprised that t-shirts aren´t a big deal here and it is almost difficult to find one. That rather surprises me.
You will often get asked, “What are you looking for?”. My favourite answer is , “Nothing. Do you know where I can find it?” (Sorry. I know that is bad.)
It also fascinates me that everyone hustling a carpet or leather jacket has a brother, uncle, aunt, etc. wherever you are from. Just stand back and listen to the tout. Gets quite funny at times.
Always carry tissue with you as no toilets have paper. Sometimes you can buy it from the person where you pay the fee for using the facilities. Expect most toilets to be “oriental” where you have to squat. There is no bowl and flushing is accomplished via a container of water which you have to fill.
Many Internet Cafes are dark! Very dark and usually very smoky and run by older men. Although you will find numerous Internet cafes in
You change money at a change office in
Call to prayer in
