Turkey - part 3

Welcome to part 3 of my travels. When I left off last I was in Cappadocia and was about to head off on a three day tour to eastern Turkey. Well, now I'm still in Cappadocia, but have had some good adventures since.

The tour started off well. I was picked up from my hostel (where I slept in a cave room) and we hit the road almost immediately. Our destination was the town of Kahta at the foot of Mount Nemrut, some 600km to the east. Back home this would take about 6 hours, but on Turkish roads in took about 10, including several stops along the way.

The first was at a Caravansarai - an ancient trading post set up along the silk road. It was in a dusty town and the locals were clearly as curious to see us - a mixture of Asians and Caucasians - as we were to see the Caravansarai. It was a dusty little town and I wasn't all that impressed with the trading post, but I can say that accomodations for travellers have improved immensely in the past 500+ years, and I'm
ever-so greatful for that.

The rest of the drive to Kahta was spent driving through the impressive Taurus mountains. We stopped once at a scenic viewpoint, and another time to try
"world famous" Mado ice cream. It tasted like regular ice cream but had to be eaten with a knife and fork because it was so thick.

We arrived in Kahta at about 7pm, checked into the hotel, had dinner, and were told we'd be woken up 4:15am in order to catch the sunrise from the top of Mount Nemrut. Unfortunately I was awake even earlier with a massive stomach ache and dizziness. None the less, I was in the mini-bus at 4:30, ready to be driven up the mountain. It was cold and rainy and the road up the mountain was clouded in fog. At times you couldn't see more than 10 feet ahead. The road twisted its way up and up, almost all the way to the top. We jumped out into the cold rain, and ran right into a nearby tea shack, hoping things would improve. Clearly there would be no sunrise on this morning.

Mt. Nemrut is the site of King Aniochus I burial tomb. Its the highest mountain in south-eastern Turkey and about 2000 years ago, at the top he had giant statues erected to the Gods, with one of himself alongside, probably with the assumption he would be joining them upon his death. Over the years the heads of the statues fell off and they now lie on the ground next to them. The site is quite impressive. Unfortunately, the thunder storm raging around us slightly dampened the
experience (pun intended). We explored the top of the mountain and then retreated back to the tea shack to warm up. We later found out that a Japanese tourist
had been struck by lightning shortly after we left the top.

By the time we left to drive back down things had cleared up and we were treated to splendid views of the surrounding mountains and valleys. We stopped for breakfast then drove off to Sanliurfa, near the Syrian border. Sanliurfa's claim to fame is that its the birthplace of the prophet Abraham and where monotheism was born over 4,000 years ago. Its an important pilgrimage sight and people come from all over to pay their respects. The old part of the city was very nice and the bazaar was fascinating because it is actually used by the locals, as opposed to the one in Istanbul, which is pretty much tourists only.

The next day was spent driving back to Cappadocia, with a few uneventful stops along the way. We got back Saturday evening, I checked in to the hostel and pretty much went straight to bed. Sunday was spent lazing around and yesterday I took a tour to the more remote parts of Cappadocia. We visited an underground city where Christians would hide out to avoid attacking Arabs and Persians. It went seven levels underground and people were clearly all very short back then because I spent most of my time doing the duck walk. After the underground city we went for a very pleasant hike in the Ihlara Valley - a very deep Gorge with a river running through it.

I also met a few people on the tour and last night we went out for a very faux-Turkish evening. After a meal of Lamb kebab (about my 20th kebab of the trip), we went to a local bar and ordered glasses of raki (like Sambuca, but better), and a water pipe. I got a nice little buzz going and at about 11 I went back to my room to sleep. And that I did, not waking up until 9:30 this morning.

Tonight I'm heading off down to the coast where I'm hoping to catch a late-year beach holiday. I'll be staying in a treehouse hostel in Olympos.