SHAKEDOWN IN EGYPT
After the easiest double border crossing ever into and out of Israel, I arrived at the Egyptian border. [It will turn out that I spent less total time crossing the Israel border twice - and their entire country - than I spent in the Egyptian border control as they shook me down for more cash.]
In an interesting turn of events, an Israeli border officer did sit down with me and brief me on what to say to the questions that the Egyptian border guard guys would cross. I played a bit stupid (well, perhaps a bit more than normal) to see if he had any new information for me but he didn't. For those wondering what I was told - it's pretty much the same thing I tell you. Make it sound like your plans are cut and dried - your flight back to the ole USA is coming up, etc. Get in, take pics and leave is what they want to hear. I thanked him for his help and went on to Egypt. It was good to know I was lying to the border guards in the correct way.
For anyone thinking that you need 100 sheckles (Israeli money) to leave the country, no, it is 101. They make it like that probably to ensure you actually spent some money or some such there.
I had picked the wrong border to cross.
To get into the Sinai, you have to buy some sort of stamp for 100 EGP. On top of that, you need another stamp so that you are not just restricted to the Sinai for two weeks but can have full run of the country for a full month. The guards English is pretty rudimentary so this made getting a straight explanation time consuming and frustrating. This additional stamp can not be given by the guards. It must be given by a tour guide. The guards had said that it would be a 100 EGP pound charge. When we got one of these extortion experts on the phone, however, it turned out to be 250 EGP. Fifty dollars for your stamp? How about 'no'! [Little did I suspect that just saying "Sure, sounds good." would have been a lot less hassle.] I regard this as a rather obvious exploit to shake down tourists for yet more money. According to Egyptian officials, this is supposedly to help make sure you behave while you are in the country. Someone is taking responsibility for people entering the country. It's a sham though. They have no idea where anyone will be or what they are doing. When I hear people in Egypt whine about lack of tourism, this will be at the forefront of my mind. The weird thing is that this is not a recent thing. It's been going on for at least ten years because hey - none of the 'middle eastern' countries really like Israel.
Yes, I did try my various bribery techniques but they weren't having any of it. I got so frustrated I eventually put money into the passport and said "Can you please just make this problem go away?" But, it wasn't enough. They didn't take it. Very sad and frustrating.
Note that you get the two week 'Sinai only' visa whether you go via Israel or go via the ferry. I did check on this as it would have made me very angry had it been otherwise.
When you get into the Sinai, you will get to see a lot of military checkpoints with armored personnel carriers with machine guns mounted to them and lots of troops with machine guns. At one checkpoint, I even had a pistol waved about in my face. Note, the senior officer who had the pistol wasn't threatening anyone with it - it was merely in his hand while he was waving it around. Loads of fun. [I wish I could say I was exaggerating. My biggest fear was actually 'accidental discharge'. Gun safety isn't really taught here I suspect.] [For the people who were wondering 'where were the police - well, this was one of them. The rest had very old looking AK's.]
Eventually, I made it to 'Soft Beach', a beachfront resort.
SINAI BEACHFRONT RESORT - 'SOFT BEACH'
I went to 'Soft Beach', a resort hotel near the town of Newiba. Kamal (Egypt) and his wife Christine (Germany) owned it.
Actually, a lot of the bedo own the beach areas. They rent them out to operators like the soft beach people. Unfortunately, there is a huge split between those that have money and those who don't. The rest of the town of Newiba reminds me of stories I've heard about trashy Native American Indian reservations.
From what I've seen, the entire coast of the Sinai is a huge beach front resort place. Not what I was looking for at all. Just way too quiet for me there.
It is trying to be a much cheaper version of the tropical island vacation getaway. It does a decent job of it, but not great. As with everything, you get what you pay for. I've got to say that the water was as warm as a bath and very blue. True, they do have some 'trash issues' but I've heard that every sea coast in the world does now.
When I went to report that I had a horde of black ants on my bed, the person I reported it to didn't understand. He went to see what was up at my hut. He assured me they weren't dangerous and obligingly brushed them off of the bed. Not the kind of thing you get happening at many of the 'beach front resorts' I've heard about but I think those are more than $8 USD a night rooms as well. They play it pretty close to the vest with money. For example, only the first glass of tea is free with breakfast. The rest cost 5 EGP - which I can get a meal for elsewhere.
I talked to three very nice German people there (Beate, Juleanne and Dieter) who gave me some good advice on getting an Egypt wide visa as well as the owner Christine who gave me some other good travel advice. I made a lot of notes.
I had heard from someone (I can't remember who) that the best way to get the correct stamp for my passport so that I could access all of Egypt was to go back to Israel and go to the Egyptian console. Best yet, it was only five minutes walk away from the border!
This is what we in diplomatic circles call a 'lie'.
There is even a bus that I can catch that would take me there and back again.
The bus didn't happen either. Well, not in the way they thought it would.
So, I went out to the highway about 09:05. Just after hearing about the 09:00 bus. I figured it was a long shot but - wait - is that the bus? Ah! I waved my hand to get it to stop in the appropriate gesture for Egypt (patting the air). The guy pointed to his crotch and continued by. I was kind of hoping he didn't know the book of the rules of the road.
Some guy on a motorcycle approached and told me he'd call a friend to get me a ride. Note that by this he meant a taxi. I told him not to bother and got picked up by a passing bus. Believe it or not, the taxi came and actually got in front of the bus to make him stop. I let myself get hustled out of the bus which wasn't going all of the way and into the taxi. For $100 EGP he agreed to take me there and wait for me (indefinitely) and then take me back when I was done getting this stamp over the border. I knew he'd be happy to wait because I didn't pay him when I crossed the border. [Although Logan is indeed a dick, I did ask him if he wanted to be paid before I took off over the border. Because I am a dick (and wanted to be sure of the ride) I asked in such a way that implied 'no, of course you don't want to because if I do pay you it may spell the end to further business but were you wanting to get the money right now anyhow?' He said 'No, of course not' but I could tell he was thinking 'well, fuck'.
I'm pretty sure that the Egyptian guards are getting some sort of kickback from this. When one asked me why I wanted to go back to Egypt, I broke 'rule 1' and told him I was headed to the Egyptian consulate to get a stamp. Ah, one moment he said, he knew a travel agent - please let me get him on the phone. The first one wanted 250 EGP, the second wanted 100 EGP and me to take a taxi he would provide to Cairo. I thanked them both, hung up and returned the guard his personal phone he was so quick to get them on. No, I told him, I'm headed to Israel. He looked unhappy but didn't stop me.
So, I went back into Israel. Fortunately, I didn't put any of the various restrictions on myself I've heard of a lot of people doing. Won't fly, never go back into a country once they've left it, etc. I figured, hey fuck - what I'm doing is hard enough. I don't need to try to increase the difficulty.
I got a taxi and told him of my plan to stop by the Egyptian consulate. Could we make a stop along the way, I asked. Oh, by the way, what sort of soda do you drink? Super. We stopped by a grocery store and I bought him and myself a soda and we continued on. Thank you HTWFAIP (see #4, in the section 'Twelve Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking' - and if you haven't read this book yet even though it was mentioned in a previous blog of mine, you're fucking it up). That seven ILS soda saved me plenty of money later and made the journey much more companionable. Especially since it was a twenty or thirty minute drive rather than the five minute walk I'd been told earlier.
It turned out that unknown to me, I needed a picture. The cab driver, now my helper, knew where to get a picture and since he'd known the lady for twenty some years, he made sure I got a good rate.
After I got the picture and headed back, I spoke to the person who was having me fill out more paperwork. I managed to get him to glaze over the part where it required an Israeli address. What the fuck, thought I. Eventually, the paperwork was done and I triumphantly handed it over. Please wait in those chairs over there for one hour I was told. I was mystified at how a simple stamp could take an hour. That's what it takes, I was told. I gave the cab driver the last of my remaining sheckles (ILS). Though it wasn't enough, he didn't mind and took off. I'm telling you that
I'm going to estimate that I spent approximately $100 USD on this bullshit. Hence, if I manage to live on half my allowance for a bit under a week, it's a wash. With the hotel and such I managed to get in Luxor, it is possible. Given the amount of tourist shit I can see in Luxor, I'm going to rate it as 'unlikely'.
After getting my expensive and wonderful stamp - which cost me more than if I'd succumb to the evil tour guides - though I felt better doing it my way - I decided to hang out at the beach front resort place for an extra day. I was exhausted fighting Egyptian bureaucracy. Again, if you want to visit Egypt, fly into fucking Cairo - period.
I went to Newiba. I don't know if their was an 'Oldiba' but if there was, my guess is it rotted away. My first thought I had when I got to Newiba is "Not a nice place you have here."
After I'd bothered the locals into showing me where I could get food, I went and bought something called a 'computer dongle'. I'm not sure exactly what is up with it but you plug it into your USB port and it gives you internet. You are suppose to have a phone to be able to use this (as well as give up various information like your passport number and such but that can all be faked) but I just asked one of the guys who was working at the 'Soft Beach' place for his cell phone and had the code sent there to activate it. Time to download some counter Egyptian revolutionary things! Actually, no, I don't want to be responsible for that guy getting shot. So, I got emergency internet for Egypt. I had to for Soft Beach because despite what I was told when I was thinking about checking in ("You can borrow my wife's internet dongle any time you want!") it turned out to again be a 'lie'. ("You can sometimes borrow my wife's internet dongle for five or ten minutes.")
A quote from Christina on the Sinai: "The Sinai is more free than the rest of Egypt. You have space and the influence of tourists."
If you're wanting to just chill out and watch the ocean for a few days, you could do worse. If you want to be 'plugged in' at all, don't go there.
So, I prepared to go to Luxor via a fairly twisted route. That's when I ran into my first 'baksheesh beggar'.
I really thought he worked for the bus company. He seemed to know the bus guys and they him. He opened the door, I put my bag onto the bus and he closed the cargo door and to my surprise demanded backsheesh. I gave him one of the one EGP coins I keep for just such a purpose. He did the 'is that all I get' thing after getting it. I said "You opened the door, you closed the door. Get over it." He seemed satisfied with that answer.
After some waiting I got into the bus which smelled vaguely of mold and old piss. I had a sneaking suspicion that the ride would really suck and oh boy, was I right.
TRAVELER'S TIPS
If you wish to visit Egypt, always fly into Cairo. You automatically get full access to the country for a month. Never cross directly into the Sinai as it will get you a limited two week only visa. [For those of you who knew it, don't even say "I could have told you that" because I'd posted my travel plans and nobody said shit.]
Keep extra pictures of yourself in your passport. Take them out before handing them to someone or the odds are great that they will fall on the floor and the idiot you handed them to will just look at you while you try to gather them up. But if they're in your passport you'll have them for those completely unexpected situations that will arise. Also, note that you can get these pictures made for much less over seas than in the US where they are completely shameless about the price of 'passport photos' since a 'passport' is a rare thing. [One in five, according to the almighty internet, let us praise it.]
Use people's lack of English against them if it helps you get through borders more easily or to get what you want. If you think it is unethical, sneaky or underhanded - you're absolutely right. But be advised that many will use their 'lack' of English on you. I personally try not to use this too often as I'd rather make friends than have frustrated, pissed off border guards and such but when it comes time to cut a little red tape, this well help. Sometimes, they will try to get around it by putting you in touch with someone they believe speaks better English on the phone. This won't, naturally, help you. Unless the person is a native speaker (I haven't come across that yet) the connection is usually bad and they speak worse English than they think they do. Sometimes, I will even repeat back words which sound like the ones they are trying to communicate. Check might become 'chicken' for example. This sort of incomprehension is a good one in your arsenal against idiocy.
You can (and should) bargain for everything - I mean everything - in Egypt. If you don't like to bargain, you have three other options. You can be ripped off a lot and be seen as a chump by the locals, you can bring along someone mentally tougher on your trip or you can stay home. When I say 'everything', I recently was bargaining for a bottle of soda from a grocery store. I'm not kidding, a bottle of soda. The proprietor had inflated the price a bit (not much at all but it's still annoying) and so I bargained for it and a bottle of water. This got the grudging acceptance of the shop keeper who then became more friendly.
Carry a lot of one EGP coins for the 'baksheesh beggars'. That way, you can give them one after they do something nice for you - give you directions, open a door for you, whatever. Horde these coins. Find ways to get more - you'll need them.
TRAVELER'S LORE
There is a rumor that visa extensions may be easier to acquire in the 'Luxor Passport Office' in the south of the town center, virtually opposite of the Isis Hotel. Open SA to TH, 8-8. [I'll report on this when I find out.]
Despite the bad news I've read with Sudan, it is suppose to be a nice place to travel with friendly people. You can get a visa pretty easily from Aswan - it is much harder to get one from America or Europe. [It bears thinking about and possibly more research. It would provide a gateway into Ethiopia (or Somalia if I wanted to become a pirate or get my throat slit. I could go from Ethiopia into Kenya and go on some big game hunts. I figure if I'm going to eat, it should be a steady diet of endangered animals.] Now - and this is the important bit. While you're in Sudan, you have to go to the capital city and find a special office to get a stamp or something in order to leave Sudan.
Although this may be going away once the new government starts, it is possible to get a long term (1 year) visa for Egypt for 120 EGP. This is done only in Sharmm el Sheikh. In Cairo, they only give out 6 month visas.
TIDBITS
Apparently, the type of backgammon I play is called 'sheesh besh'. I don't know what the fuck that means.
There is a good bean food called 'fuul' (rather than 'fool' as I had spelled it before).
COSTS
Sinai beachfront resort huts - 40 EGP for the small room (stifling hot, no fan), 60 EGP for the larger room that came with a fan. [Because I know how to bargain, I got the small hut with a fucking fan.]
Laundry, 2 EGP/piece, ironed. Because I bargain with everything, 1.5 EGP without ironing.
Newiba to Sharm el Sheikh, not too expensive by bus, 60 EGP though the ferry I've heard is difficult to catch.
Going to get the special visa talked about above, 65 ILS for single entry, 110 ILS for multiple entry.
Bus from Newiba to Dahab (only at 16:30) 25 EGP.
Sampler platter of food in Newiba, 15 EGP. More meat (fuck eating most of it), an additional 8 EGP.
sharm el Sheikh to Cairo, 55-65 EGP. [Note, before you get too excited about how cheap travel on bus is, remember that it is complete hell.]
Taxi from Soft Beach to bus station, 20 EGP.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
.jpg){kind=link}
BIT OF BADO
TRAVELOGUE
In Amman, I managed to get my shorts and sneakers repaired by the same guy - on different dates. He tried to refuse money for the shorts but I pressed it on him.
For my trip to Akaba, Jordan I managed to get a seat in the top, front of a double decker bus. My philosophy is that 'until you ask, you don't know'. Believe me, this was not my assigned seat.
Although I had caught a bus bound for Akaba (from Amman), my plan was to get off near the turn off to Wadi Rum. It is confusing to me that a major tourist area like Wadi Rum doesn't have it's own bus going there - or a station there to take people onto it but I've learned that travel in this part of the world is tricky at best. My plan was just to hitchhike or something. But, if you've been reading this blog for long you will know that Logan's plans don't always (well, rarely) work out as he thought they would. It turns out that the bus would not stop. Hence, I had to drive past Wadi Rum and go an hour more to reach Akaba - which meant I'd have to backtrack the same distance. Joy. On the way to Akaba, they had a 'military checkpoint'. They checked other people's ID's and my passport. We had to run all of our bags through an xray machine. The laptop and kindle gave their x-ray machine some difficulty. Rather than making me open my bag, they just asked what was in it. I said "Two lap tops and dirty clothing!" It was close enough for them. "You are welcome." they said. Within 5-10 minutes total, we were off. Note, they didn't xray my satchel. After we had left the checkpoint, I discretely asked another passenger why they had it. Apparently, Akaba is 'strategic'. Brings back memories of Lawrence of Arabia.
When I got off what I thought was a very long bus ride in Akaba, I was literally surrounded by six taxi cab drivers trying to get me into their cab. Someone else had told me it was only 1 KM to the bus station. As I set off walking there, I was literally followed by all of the cab drivers. When people do this, it makes me very upset. I must have said "Please stop following me." ten times or more. Sometimes, the only thing to get rid of them is asking other people how you can get police aid. Note, this is not always a good move because you may just need these people later. Use it as a last resort only.
Tourism in Jordan without your own big "Adam truck", a pain in the ass. It is debatable whether it is really worth it.
The cab drivers also spoke to the bus guys. I suspect they were trying to tell the bus drivers not to take me anywhere as I was 'their fare'. Eventually, I discovered that one of the buses that had said it wasn't the right one to take was indeed one that went by - but not to - Wadi Rum. I said 'fuck it' and got on that bus.
I got dropped off literally at a deserted crossroads in the middle of the desert.
You know the phrase "I'd rather be lucky than good"? It applies to me. Literally, less than twenty seconds after I got dropped off, a car full of Germans pulled up. They asked where I was headed and after I responded, they kindly offered me a lift. I got my gear in the trunk and squeezed in. There was Daniel (he is thin and tall), Thomas (who we called "David Hasselhoff" - or maybe it was just me), Diena (lady who didn't talk much) and their leader and tour guide Jonas. In addition to a few other languages, Jonas also spoke fluent Arabic.
I couldn't have planned or asked for better companions.
So I went to Wadi Rum. Our hosts were the Al Zalabeh tribe of Bedouin (in Arabic, Bado).
We hung out at Wadi Rum. Although I wasn't able to play backgammon with the Bedouin It was neat. I made some videos that the slow and shitty internet in Egypt may or may not let me upload - I will try.
We slept in the desert for one night. I literally got to spend 9/11 this year in a Bedouin camp.
The next day, we toured around in the truck with our driver Moohmmd (his spelling). I did get to see a lot of different rocks and walk through a lot of sand. Each place we stopped at that had something special, our guide wanted to hang out for a long time. Fortunately, my traveling companions had some place they needed to be. After the first "I can't believe we're still here" times went by, they just started setting out to the truck earlier than Moohmmd was expecting to go. After he discovered they weren't holding with any shenanigans, the journey went a lot faster. The total trip time was say five hours. I didn't think that any of the stops at the 'look what I have for sale, please have some tea' Bedouin tents were really necessary - or at least not for more than a couple minutes. I think you could do the place in 3-4 hours if you knew where you were going.
I think the only thing that really could have been improved was the midday meal. We got taken to a fairly horrible grocery store and told to buy food for our meal. They really didn't have any good picnic food and certainly no picnic baskets. Personally, I'd have had that as one (bad) option or for an additional charge, you can have Bedouin cooking at one of the tents. I inquired about this and was told flatly "There are not enough women." I asked if Bedouin men cooked and was told they do. It was a confusing answer. At Jonas' urging I let the question drop. I suspect it is some sort of cultural thing that is getting in the way of them making a good profit and outsiders to get to experience more of the culture through food.
The Bedouin were extremely polite, courteous and good hosts. Unfortunately, the silence of the desert was nice but a bit too boring with no internet. Adam, please stop rolling your eyes. I did enjoy it but I couldn't have taken too much of it. The Bedouin did have some crazy (literally, I believe) English 'perma traveling' lady in her fifties or so. She had joined the Bedouin camp somehow (possibly without their permission) and was working there to get a free place to live, much like I did in Georgia. When I first met her, she literally had a bit of froth on one side of her mouth. It set the tone for all of my dealings with her. My host, Eghab said "Perhaps I will kill her in five days." I replied "Five days is too long." One of us was joking.
When I discovered that my new traveling companions were going back to Akaba - and that I'd had enough rocks and sand to last me I jumped at the chance to go with them.
They dropped me at the border to Israel then drove off to return their rented car. I took the long walk across the deserted border outpost by myself - little knowing the pain that awaited me.
JORDAN
Bottled water is available everywhere and is fairly cheap.
Jordans are very educated - many of them speak English.
According to a nice lady I met named Kathrin, women traveling alone in Jorden have no problems.
The Jordan dinar is at a fixed rate with the USD. $1.4 USD = 1 JOD. Because the rate is fixed, it tells me that it would be worth less than a rat meat taco outside of Jordan - get it changed earlier rather than later.
AMMAN JORDAN
Amman's old town is one of those that would take a day or two for getting the layout of as well as seeing everything they've got. They have a fortress on top of a hill as well as a Roman theater. I went to see the theater because that was not made on top of a fucking tall hill.
TRAVELERS TIPS
Always take a business card for whatever restaurant you are offered. You can always throw them out later. Not taking a business card may mean you are unable to easily find that restaurant again.
Lie to customs inspectors habitually, especially if you can use the disclaimer "I misunderstood your (horrible) English. The customs inspectors are wanting a neat, pat answer to their questions, not the truth. Always make it sound as though you have a set - somewhat tight - schedule and rare interested in sticking to it. This is what the majority of people have and it's what they're expecting. Give them what they expect.
Although it has been stated numerous times in different places, it bears repeating again - if yo are wanting to visit a lot of the middle east, do NOT get an Israel stamp on your passport. In fact, if you are crossing that border, Egypt will also offer to stamp other pieces of paper. Yes, you get to fill out at least part of another form but it is that or spend a bunch of money and time to get a new passport. Always remember to ask for this!
Long shirts and pants are not just for modesty. Unless you enjoy feeling hordes of very persistent flies walking around on your arms and legs, wear long sleeves and long pants. Really.
TRAVELER'S LORE
Jonas (the multi-lingual German guy) had done a lot of traveling in various ways recently. He assured me that traveling through Israel would be very preferable to taking the ship from Akaba to Newava I had originally envisioned. Fortunately, I listened to him. What happened later (see narrative) made this information very useful. By much shorter, I am meaning over half of a day with various inexplicable delays and such. The one to two hour times given on the schedule are what we call a 'lie'.
PHILOSOPHY
When did we move from a culture of people who spoke to each other into that of slaves for the television?
What the hell are people thinking with cell phones? When ever they have a loud ring tone that goes off seemingly forever? This is because they need to look at the phone prior to answering it - as if they are not going to answer it. We all know they're going to. They're stalling. They are hoping that somehow everyone else will break into spontaneous dance at their sucky song and make the person with the cell phone the new king or queen of the moment. That is what they hope will happen. Everyone else forced to listen to their music thinks they are an inconsiderate dick with shitty taste in music.
BEDOUIN CUSTOMS
When you are in a Bedouin camp enjoying their hospitality, if you put down your coffee it means that you want something from them and they will give it to you. This is usually used as a means for the right young man to ask for a daughter's hand in marriage. I'm not sure what else it could be used for but I'm betting they don't serve coffee lightly. Lots and lots of tea seems more common.
Family is the most important thing to the bado. A large family is considered to be a 'strong family'.
Before modern times, goats and camels were the wealth of the tribe.
The best thing about being a bado is respect and honesty.
I had asked our bado host Eghab 'What is the one thing I should tell others about the bado?' After some careful thought he replied "In fifty years, there will be no bado living in tents. The culture is disappearing." I believe this is a sad thing. Most of the bado encampments you can go to today are just for tourists. If the bado way of life interests you, see it while you can.
In the village of 1000 Bedouin near Wadi Rum, about 90 of them make their living through tourism.
OTHER TID BITS OF INFORMATION PICKED UP
Mohammed the Prophet is from Saudi Arabia.
GERMANY
According to Jonas, if you'd like to get a strong impression of Germany, visit Berlin. Lots of people have immigrated to and become part of the community.
COSTS
Taxi from Akaba to Wadi Rum direct, 40-50 JOD
The sandals I'd had the guys buy me in Georgia had really started to tear up my feet. I've decided to put them into semi retirement as 'shower sandals' because many of the showers I've gone to are just that fucking scary. I purchased new sandals in Amman - they started at 17 JOD, I bargained down to 12 JOD.
Lunch - hummus, irba (I forgot what that is), falafel and water, 3.5 JOD
Mailing two of my note books to Jana (yes, Jana you should expect a package from Jordan) - 14.3 JOD. Registered is 15.3 JOD but they couldn't explain to me what that was and I needed a return address in Jordan which I didn't have.
Tea on Jordanian bus (which they forgot to collect and I forgot to pay), .4 JOD.
Taxi from Akaba to Israel: 4 JD
Taxi from Israel border crossing at Jordan to the border crossing into Egypt, 50 sheckles (ILS).
Keefta (head wrap), 8 JOD
At Bedouin camp, three 1.5 liter bottles of water, 1 JOD. Good price indeed. Drink lots.
Israel: 50 ILS to drive across Israel between Jordan and Egypt in a cab. 101 ILS to leave the country. I've often wondered - if you can't come up with the money to leave the country, do they force you to become a citizen?
In Amman, I managed to get my shorts and sneakers repaired by the same guy - on different dates. He tried to refuse money for the shorts but I pressed it on him.
For my trip to Akaba, Jordan I managed to get a seat in the top, front of a double decker bus. My philosophy is that 'until you ask, you don't know'. Believe me, this was not my assigned seat.
Although I had caught a bus bound for Akaba (from Amman), my plan was to get off near the turn off to Wadi Rum. It is confusing to me that a major tourist area like Wadi Rum doesn't have it's own bus going there - or a station there to take people onto it but I've learned that travel in this part of the world is tricky at best. My plan was just to hitchhike or something. But, if you've been reading this blog for long you will know that Logan's plans don't always (well, rarely) work out as he thought they would. It turns out that the bus would not stop. Hence, I had to drive past Wadi Rum and go an hour more to reach Akaba - which meant I'd have to backtrack the same distance. Joy. On the way to Akaba, they had a 'military checkpoint'. They checked other people's ID's and my passport. We had to run all of our bags through an xray machine. The laptop and kindle gave their x-ray machine some difficulty. Rather than making me open my bag, they just asked what was in it. I said "Two lap tops and dirty clothing!" It was close enough for them. "You are welcome." they said. Within 5-10 minutes total, we were off. Note, they didn't xray my satchel. After we had left the checkpoint, I discretely asked another passenger why they had it. Apparently, Akaba is 'strategic'. Brings back memories of Lawrence of Arabia.
When I got off what I thought was a very long bus ride in Akaba, I was literally surrounded by six taxi cab drivers trying to get me into their cab. Someone else had told me it was only 1 KM to the bus station. As I set off walking there, I was literally followed by all of the cab drivers. When people do this, it makes me very upset. I must have said "Please stop following me." ten times or more. Sometimes, the only thing to get rid of them is asking other people how you can get police aid. Note, this is not always a good move because you may just need these people later. Use it as a last resort only.
Tourism in Jordan without your own big "Adam truck", a pain in the ass. It is debatable whether it is really worth it.
The cab drivers also spoke to the bus guys. I suspect they were trying to tell the bus drivers not to take me anywhere as I was 'their fare'. Eventually, I discovered that one of the buses that had said it wasn't the right one to take was indeed one that went by - but not to - Wadi Rum. I said 'fuck it' and got on that bus.
I got dropped off literally at a deserted crossroads in the middle of the desert.
You know the phrase "I'd rather be lucky than good"? It applies to me. Literally, less than twenty seconds after I got dropped off, a car full of Germans pulled up. They asked where I was headed and after I responded, they kindly offered me a lift. I got my gear in the trunk and squeezed in. There was Daniel (he is thin and tall), Thomas (who we called "David Hasselhoff" - or maybe it was just me), Diena (lady who didn't talk much) and their leader and tour guide Jonas. In addition to a few other languages, Jonas also spoke fluent Arabic.
I couldn't have planned or asked for better companions.
So I went to Wadi Rum. Our hosts were the Al Zalabeh tribe of Bedouin (in Arabic, Bado).
We hung out at Wadi Rum. Although I wasn't able to play backgammon with the Bedouin It was neat. I made some videos that the slow and shitty internet in Egypt may or may not let me upload - I will try.
We slept in the desert for one night. I literally got to spend 9/11 this year in a Bedouin camp.
The next day, we toured around in the truck with our driver Moohmmd (his spelling). I did get to see a lot of different rocks and walk through a lot of sand. Each place we stopped at that had something special, our guide wanted to hang out for a long time. Fortunately, my traveling companions had some place they needed to be. After the first "I can't believe we're still here" times went by, they just started setting out to the truck earlier than Moohmmd was expecting to go. After he discovered they weren't holding with any shenanigans, the journey went a lot faster. The total trip time was say five hours. I didn't think that any of the stops at the 'look what I have for sale, please have some tea' Bedouin tents were really necessary - or at least not for more than a couple minutes. I think you could do the place in 3-4 hours if you knew where you were going.
I think the only thing that really could have been improved was the midday meal. We got taken to a fairly horrible grocery store and told to buy food for our meal. They really didn't have any good picnic food and certainly no picnic baskets. Personally, I'd have had that as one (bad) option or for an additional charge, you can have Bedouin cooking at one of the tents. I inquired about this and was told flatly "There are not enough women." I asked if Bedouin men cooked and was told they do. It was a confusing answer. At Jonas' urging I let the question drop. I suspect it is some sort of cultural thing that is getting in the way of them making a good profit and outsiders to get to experience more of the culture through food.
The Bedouin were extremely polite, courteous and good hosts. Unfortunately, the silence of the desert was nice but a bit too boring with no internet. Adam, please stop rolling your eyes. I did enjoy it but I couldn't have taken too much of it. The Bedouin did have some crazy (literally, I believe) English 'perma traveling' lady in her fifties or so. She had joined the Bedouin camp somehow (possibly without their permission) and was working there to get a free place to live, much like I did in Georgia. When I first met her, she literally had a bit of froth on one side of her mouth. It set the tone for all of my dealings with her. My host, Eghab said "Perhaps I will kill her in five days." I replied "Five days is too long." One of us was joking.
When I discovered that my new traveling companions were going back to Akaba - and that I'd had enough rocks and sand to last me I jumped at the chance to go with them.
They dropped me at the border to Israel then drove off to return their rented car. I took the long walk across the deserted border outpost by myself - little knowing the pain that awaited me.
JORDAN
Bottled water is available everywhere and is fairly cheap.
Jordans are very educated - many of them speak English.
According to a nice lady I met named Kathrin, women traveling alone in Jorden have no problems.
The Jordan dinar is at a fixed rate with the USD. $1.4 USD = 1 JOD. Because the rate is fixed, it tells me that it would be worth less than a rat meat taco outside of Jordan - get it changed earlier rather than later.
AMMAN JORDAN
Amman's old town is one of those that would take a day or two for getting the layout of as well as seeing everything they've got. They have a fortress on top of a hill as well as a Roman theater. I went to see the theater because that was not made on top of a fucking tall hill.
TRAVELERS TIPS
Always take a business card for whatever restaurant you are offered. You can always throw them out later. Not taking a business card may mean you are unable to easily find that restaurant again.
Lie to customs inspectors habitually, especially if you can use the disclaimer "I misunderstood your (horrible) English. The customs inspectors are wanting a neat, pat answer to their questions, not the truth. Always make it sound as though you have a set - somewhat tight - schedule and rare interested in sticking to it. This is what the majority of people have and it's what they're expecting. Give them what they expect.
Although it has been stated numerous times in different places, it bears repeating again - if yo are wanting to visit a lot of the middle east, do NOT get an Israel stamp on your passport. In fact, if you are crossing that border, Egypt will also offer to stamp other pieces of paper. Yes, you get to fill out at least part of another form but it is that or spend a bunch of money and time to get a new passport. Always remember to ask for this!
Long shirts and pants are not just for modesty. Unless you enjoy feeling hordes of very persistent flies walking around on your arms and legs, wear long sleeves and long pants. Really.
TRAVELER'S LORE
Jonas (the multi-lingual German guy) had done a lot of traveling in various ways recently. He assured me that traveling through Israel would be very preferable to taking the ship from Akaba to Newava I had originally envisioned. Fortunately, I listened to him. What happened later (see narrative) made this information very useful. By much shorter, I am meaning over half of a day with various inexplicable delays and such. The one to two hour times given on the schedule are what we call a 'lie'.
PHILOSOPHY
When did we move from a culture of people who spoke to each other into that of slaves for the television?
What the hell are people thinking with cell phones? When ever they have a loud ring tone that goes off seemingly forever? This is because they need to look at the phone prior to answering it - as if they are not going to answer it. We all know they're going to. They're stalling. They are hoping that somehow everyone else will break into spontaneous dance at their sucky song and make the person with the cell phone the new king or queen of the moment. That is what they hope will happen. Everyone else forced to listen to their music thinks they are an inconsiderate dick with shitty taste in music.
BEDOUIN CUSTOMS
When you are in a Bedouin camp enjoying their hospitality, if you put down your coffee it means that you want something from them and they will give it to you. This is usually used as a means for the right young man to ask for a daughter's hand in marriage. I'm not sure what else it could be used for but I'm betting they don't serve coffee lightly. Lots and lots of tea seems more common.
Family is the most important thing to the bado. A large family is considered to be a 'strong family'.
Before modern times, goats and camels were the wealth of the tribe.
The best thing about being a bado is respect and honesty.
I had asked our bado host Eghab 'What is the one thing I should tell others about the bado?' After some careful thought he replied "In fifty years, there will be no bado living in tents. The culture is disappearing." I believe this is a sad thing. Most of the bado encampments you can go to today are just for tourists. If the bado way of life interests you, see it while you can.
In the village of 1000 Bedouin near Wadi Rum, about 90 of them make their living through tourism.
OTHER TID BITS OF INFORMATION PICKED UP
Mohammed the Prophet is from Saudi Arabia.
GERMANY
According to Jonas, if you'd like to get a strong impression of Germany, visit Berlin. Lots of people have immigrated to and become part of the community.
COSTS
Taxi from Akaba to Wadi Rum direct, 40-50 JOD
The sandals I'd had the guys buy me in Georgia had really started to tear up my feet. I've decided to put them into semi retirement as 'shower sandals' because many of the showers I've gone to are just that fucking scary. I purchased new sandals in Amman - they started at 17 JOD, I bargained down to 12 JOD.
Lunch - hummus, irba (I forgot what that is), falafel and water, 3.5 JOD
Mailing two of my note books to Jana (yes, Jana you should expect a package from Jordan) - 14.3 JOD. Registered is 15.3 JOD but they couldn't explain to me what that was and I needed a return address in Jordan which I didn't have.
Tea on Jordanian bus (which they forgot to collect and I forgot to pay), .4 JOD.
Taxi from Akaba to Israel: 4 JD
Taxi from Israel border crossing at Jordan to the border crossing into Egypt, 50 sheckles (ILS).
Keefta (head wrap), 8 JOD
At Bedouin camp, three 1.5 liter bottles of water, 1 JOD. Good price indeed. Drink lots.
Israel: 50 ILS to drive across Israel between Jordan and Egypt in a cab. 101 ILS to leave the country. I've often wondered - if you can't come up with the money to leave the country, do they force you to become a citizen?
Friday, September 9, 2011
LEAVE TURKEY, ARRIVE JORDAN
LEAVING ISTANBUL
For the fairly nominal fee of 10 TRY, a shuttle bus to the airport was arranged for me by the hotel staff. The shuttle buses go to ten or more different hotels/hostels and pick up people. You need to schedule them in advance. My plane leaves at 14:30 hrs, hence I scheduled myself to get on the 10:30 hrs bus. I figured that would give me a good four and a half hours. Some other stupid and whiny tourists had apparently not thought to schedule that far ahead. They were vigorously complaining about anything from the numerous tops to be made to critiquing the driving. There is no wonder that people get fed up with tourists. Eventually, the drivers assistant (the guy whose job it is to yell at the driver) told the tourist "This is a shuttle, not private!" I noticed that despite the passenger making noises about getting out and getting a taxi, they never did.
I don't think they made their plane. It took me over four hours to work my way through two different sets of security checks, border checkpoints, baggage and such. A lot of standing in lines. My actual waiting time for the plane, excluding a small meal, was about thirty seconds. I can't stress enough the need to give yourself a lot more time than you think you're going to need.
For those interested in such things, my main bag weighs in at 15.7 KG. I think that the weight is down from 20 KG when it got robbed last.
I like the way foreign airlines do their boarding and such a lot better than the way American ones do. There is none of that fake pomp and circumstance of American airports. "We'd like to invite all of our platinum members to board at this time." And they don't have people who need extra time to board before others. The door just opens and people get on in their own speed. It is faster and with less bullshit.
The aircraft was old enough that it had been built with ashtrays in the armrests. They played light, slow and (to me) annoying music. People who decided to really push the bounds of what they could get on with 'carry on' attempted to fill the overhead bins with shit. Out of apathy, I'd not bothered to check out the duty free shop. Although I've got nothing against taking a 'puddle jumper' in the future I would like to avoid any more use of large aircraft.
On airplanes in America, the 'snack' you get on a two and a half hour flight like this one is a choice of peanuts or pretzels on the nicer airlines. The worse ones just throw a bag of peanuts at you. On Jordan airlines, I had the best meal I'd ever had on a plane. With wine.
As a side note, when I was a kid, I never heard about anyone with an allergy to peanuts. Actually, no food allergies at all. I'm wondering if the species is weakening? With the advances in medical science, loads of people are alive today who wouldn't have been years ago. "And very proud we are of all of them." - The Big Lebowski.
ARRIVAL IN AMMAN
Anyway, we eventually landed in Jordan. Due to my research, I had 20 JOD ready for the visa when the guard asked. He smiled at that. I had read that a taxi from the airport into town is a fixed rate of 20 JOD to get into town. The taxi driver seemed very disappointed that I knew that. He even tried to rip me off for more once we got to town but smiling and being extremely firm got the rate to just 20 JOD. I did have to raise my voice to do it though.
I made my way to the hotel. For common areas, there are several different room and a roof but the bedroom is noisy, hot and stuffy with three beds. Not a great place but it is the top rated one in this city. I'm glad that didn't go with a lower one, I suppose. As an example, you are not suppose to throw toilet paper into the toilet. This wasn't really an issue for me because what hey, there was no toilet paper. A careful examination of a sign on the door showed that they wanted two cups of water poured into the toilet. That made sense because the toilet (unlike the previous day) simply would not flush. So, I poured in not two but many cups of water. A wet and angry big turd mocked me in it's resistance. I fled the bathroom leaving it to be someone else's problem. I hope it didn't escape and kill anyone.
Another example is that the noise on the street sounds like the New York Stock Exchange with the addition of annoying music and blaring car horns. Before this, the nosiest city I had been in was Batumi, Georgia. This place makes it look like a ghost town.
Though I've heard other parts of the city are pristine, the part I am in is lacking quite a lot of the garbage cans and street cleaners it should have. There is more street trash lying around but less graffiti than in Prague.
After getting settled in I ended up hanging out with a guy named Dominique and we went to a coffee shop. We ended up talking to a tour guide (who had no interest in taking us for a tour - he specializes in Israeli tourists) for 45 minutes. It was very nice. Afterward, we ended up chatting with Misbah, an Indian here for work on the roof until one or two in the morning.
Some very good news here however. The people here are not as grasping as those I'd come across in Turkey. Here, they seem happy to give me a business card in case I need them. One taxi driver cruising by said "Do you need a taxi?" When I responded in the negative, he replied "Welcome to Jordan sir!" and drove away.
I am getting to use my little Arabic again after years of disuse. There are a lot of foreigners who are here to learn Arabic I've noticed.
If I keep my wits about me and don't start thinking 1 JOD = 1 USD (1 USD = .7 JOD) the part of the city I am in looks very affordable to me. [Yes, it is odd to be in a country whose money is more valuable than the US.] I might stick around here for a couple days to stomp around, till I get bored. Everyone is wanting to get me on tours but the staff of the hotel/hostel isn't really pushing it hard.
I've heard that it should cost between 5-10 JOD to mail off my two books to Jana. I'm hoping that I can get those mailed off tomorrow (Saturday). Friday, it turns out, is the holy day. This means that some of the businesses - including the post office - are closed for the day.
I did manage to go visit the local Colosseum.
The tourism police - very friendly and helpful. I got the opportunity to sit around and chat with them. They also help guard the monuments.
TRAVELERS LORE
Egypt - have a lot of very small notes/change for baksheesh (expected bribe or tip) as it will be asked for literally anything and everything. You need to have money to give them. For the tip, you can give literally the smallest note/coin you have.
COSTS
Shesha, 2 JOD (remember how it was triple that price or more in Georgia? I knew it would be cheaper later).
Coffee, 1 JOD
Tea, 1 JOD
Water - 250 ML, .5 JOD
Entry to Roman Colosseum, 1 JOD
For the fairly nominal fee of 10 TRY, a shuttle bus to the airport was arranged for me by the hotel staff. The shuttle buses go to ten or more different hotels/hostels and pick up people. You need to schedule them in advance. My plane leaves at 14:30 hrs, hence I scheduled myself to get on the 10:30 hrs bus. I figured that would give me a good four and a half hours. Some other stupid and whiny tourists had apparently not thought to schedule that far ahead. They were vigorously complaining about anything from the numerous tops to be made to critiquing the driving. There is no wonder that people get fed up with tourists. Eventually, the drivers assistant (the guy whose job it is to yell at the driver) told the tourist "This is a shuttle, not private!" I noticed that despite the passenger making noises about getting out and getting a taxi, they never did.
I don't think they made their plane. It took me over four hours to work my way through two different sets of security checks, border checkpoints, baggage and such. A lot of standing in lines. My actual waiting time for the plane, excluding a small meal, was about thirty seconds. I can't stress enough the need to give yourself a lot more time than you think you're going to need.
For those interested in such things, my main bag weighs in at 15.7 KG. I think that the weight is down from 20 KG when it got robbed last.
I like the way foreign airlines do their boarding and such a lot better than the way American ones do. There is none of that fake pomp and circumstance of American airports. "We'd like to invite all of our platinum members to board at this time." And they don't have people who need extra time to board before others. The door just opens and people get on in their own speed. It is faster and with less bullshit.
The aircraft was old enough that it had been built with ashtrays in the armrests. They played light, slow and (to me) annoying music. People who decided to really push the bounds of what they could get on with 'carry on' attempted to fill the overhead bins with shit. Out of apathy, I'd not bothered to check out the duty free shop. Although I've got nothing against taking a 'puddle jumper' in the future I would like to avoid any more use of large aircraft.
On airplanes in America, the 'snack' you get on a two and a half hour flight like this one is a choice of peanuts or pretzels on the nicer airlines. The worse ones just throw a bag of peanuts at you. On Jordan airlines, I had the best meal I'd ever had on a plane. With wine.
As a side note, when I was a kid, I never heard about anyone with an allergy to peanuts. Actually, no food allergies at all. I'm wondering if the species is weakening? With the advances in medical science, loads of people are alive today who wouldn't have been years ago. "And very proud we are of all of them." - The Big Lebowski.
ARRIVAL IN AMMAN
Anyway, we eventually landed in Jordan. Due to my research, I had 20 JOD ready for the visa when the guard asked. He smiled at that. I had read that a taxi from the airport into town is a fixed rate of 20 JOD to get into town. The taxi driver seemed very disappointed that I knew that. He even tried to rip me off for more once we got to town but smiling and being extremely firm got the rate to just 20 JOD. I did have to raise my voice to do it though.
I made my way to the hotel. For common areas, there are several different room and a roof but the bedroom is noisy, hot and stuffy with three beds. Not a great place but it is the top rated one in this city. I'm glad that didn't go with a lower one, I suppose. As an example, you are not suppose to throw toilet paper into the toilet. This wasn't really an issue for me because what hey, there was no toilet paper. A careful examination of a sign on the door showed that they wanted two cups of water poured into the toilet. That made sense because the toilet (unlike the previous day) simply would not flush. So, I poured in not two but many cups of water. A wet and angry big turd mocked me in it's resistance. I fled the bathroom leaving it to be someone else's problem. I hope it didn't escape and kill anyone.
Another example is that the noise on the street sounds like the New York Stock Exchange with the addition of annoying music and blaring car horns. Before this, the nosiest city I had been in was Batumi, Georgia. This place makes it look like a ghost town.
Though I've heard other parts of the city are pristine, the part I am in is lacking quite a lot of the garbage cans and street cleaners it should have. There is more street trash lying around but less graffiti than in Prague.
After getting settled in I ended up hanging out with a guy named Dominique and we went to a coffee shop. We ended up talking to a tour guide (who had no interest in taking us for a tour - he specializes in Israeli tourists) for 45 minutes. It was very nice. Afterward, we ended up chatting with Misbah, an Indian here for work on the roof until one or two in the morning.
Some very good news here however. The people here are not as grasping as those I'd come across in Turkey. Here, they seem happy to give me a business card in case I need them. One taxi driver cruising by said "Do you need a taxi?" When I responded in the negative, he replied "Welcome to Jordan sir!" and drove away.
I am getting to use my little Arabic again after years of disuse. There are a lot of foreigners who are here to learn Arabic I've noticed.
If I keep my wits about me and don't start thinking 1 JOD = 1 USD (1 USD = .7 JOD) the part of the city I am in looks very affordable to me. [Yes, it is odd to be in a country whose money is more valuable than the US.] I might stick around here for a couple days to stomp around, till I get bored. Everyone is wanting to get me on tours but the staff of the hotel/hostel isn't really pushing it hard.
I've heard that it should cost between 5-10 JOD to mail off my two books to Jana. I'm hoping that I can get those mailed off tomorrow (Saturday). Friday, it turns out, is the holy day. This means that some of the businesses - including the post office - are closed for the day.
I did manage to go visit the local Colosseum.
The tourism police - very friendly and helpful. I got the opportunity to sit around and chat with them. They also help guard the monuments.TRAVELERS LORE
Egypt - have a lot of very small notes/change for baksheesh (expected bribe or tip) as it will be asked for literally anything and everything. You need to have money to give them. For the tip, you can give literally the smallest note/coin you have.
COSTS
Shesha, 2 JOD (remember how it was triple that price or more in Georgia? I knew it would be cheaper later).
Coffee, 1 JOD
Tea, 1 JOD
Water - 250 ML, .5 JOD
Entry to Roman Colosseum, 1 JOD
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
ISTANBUL, TURKEY
THOUGHTS ON GOREME
Both of the tourists I've spoken with were unhappy with their 'set' tours. The tour booking agencies set up their accommodation and transportation but the people who were disappointed still wanted something else. I think they had expected to be with a group of people instead of on their own. Make friends and all of that. I think there is good and bad points with having someone else make your itinerary. For people who are trying to get their two weeks of freedom, it may not be a bad thing. You pay someone else to do the thinking and planning if you can't be bothered. For long term travelers, I fail entirely to see the benefit.
HEADING TO ISTANBUL
Despite wanting to play Backgammon with Denge, I was feeling extremely underwhelmed by Turkey. I decided to burn hard to get to Istanbul. I'm not sure what I was wanting out of Turkey because I had to expectations of it other than getting to eat Turkish food.
I had the good fortune of meeting up with Annaka, a mad Scotts woman.
She hit the nail on the head when she summarized the situation. Turkey is bad after experiencing Georgian hospitality. In Georgia, you felt they were very glad to see you. In Turkey, you feel they are very glad to see your money. This fails to fill my heart with joy. It is my belief that it will be just as bad if not worse in Egypt due to their self fucking of their tourist economy. I've heard they are extremely desperate for tourists. Perhaps Turkey will get me ready to some extent for that shit.
The bus from Goreme to Istanbul is not an easy one. First, you have to take a service bus to a town called Nevshehir about an hour away. You then wait for an hour or two to get onto a double decker bound for Istanbul. They held up the bus for fifteen minutes for five people who choose to be late. I'd have left them but the bus companies here don't work that way for some reason.
I was thinking I might find less gross commercialization in Istanbul. I thought that a bigger city would dilute to some extent this. I was wrong. I had toyed with the idea of spending some time hanging out here. I decided fuck that. If you're not having a good time, get the fuck out.
Travelers have told me that you can see all of the major sites by walking - clustered nicely together. [This later turned out to be true. At "Logan speed" I did most if not all of the major sites - and certainly everything I wanted to see - within eight hours.]
We got crammed into our 'award winning' bus for Istanbul (how??) and I felt like I had as much room as a dick in a condom. I'm really glad that the guy sitting in front of me didn't decide to suddenly recline his chair. I'm certain both of my legs would have snapped. Although I've been told that all Turkish buses have bathrooms, if this one did it was well camouflaged. No worries about going to the bathroom, however. The bus stops every two or three hours for about twenty minutes.
I have an old friend named Derek. Once, when Derek and I were headed into my apartment, I stopped to say hi to a neighbor of mine who was sitting on the steps. Derek was a bit surprised at this behavior and explained that he had never talked to a neighbor he'd lived next door to for seven years. I told him that my neighbor had just moved in and we introduced ourselves. So, it won't come as a surprise to Derek that I was talking to one of my fellow passengers at a bus stop. What might surprise Derek is that the passenger approached a sleepy Logan to talk to him first. The man's name was 'Sally' (though I'm sure it has different spelling, that's how it is pronounced) and he was about my age. He explained that he was taking his daughter (young and pretty) off across the country to Istanbul for college. I sure hope college is a very different experience in Turkey than it is in the states!
When we were within twenty or thirty kilometers of Istanbul, we hit a large traffic jam. It turns out that people were busy rubbernecking at two buses which had gotten into what looked to be a tremendous crash. Yes, I was rubber necking (well, as much as I was able) but I wasn't driving or holding up the vehicle. We came across two other crashes after that which were more minor but it set the 'traffic situation stage'. We call that 'foreshadowing'. [Sadly, thus far, nothing else of interest has happen making it 'non-congruent foreshadowing.]
On the eight hour bus trip, I was literally forcibly subjected to Turkish TV. It is the most god awful stuff you can ever see. The camera work is absolutely rubbish, following the actors smallest movements, and they don't use a good 'finishing'. I'm not sure what I mean by 'finishing' - whatever the process used that makes the film not look like cheap rubbish. Naturally, everything is in Turkish or dubbed into Turkish. The soap operas I was subjected to till I started screaming and weeping were totally incomprehensible with dramatic cuts to the person being talked to for a 'reaction shot'. Apparently, nobody told the other actor they were suppose to react. It made me want to bite the heads off of whippets. They then forced me to watch music videos. I have categorized them into two different types. Naturally, I despise both. The first is sung only by males and it is the dramatic soulful expression as he sings about the girl he use to have. She left. Now, he is sad. The second type of music video is made only by woman and I have entitled "Fuck my pussy". My guess is that the Turkish music industry markets cross genders with their shitty production values and "1980's music videos at their worst were where these guys are at now" set up.
Thankfully, we were eventually let off of this bus to transfer onto another bus that would take us to 'sultanimate' (or some crap) which is the district I needed to get to. This bus was free as well. A note of caution on this bus. You put in your pack then the bus will take off just as soon as it is full. Hence, if you put your pack in, immediately get your ass onto the bus. Don't hesitate, smoke or talk to someone else. Otherwise, you may go through the 'I got separated from my gear for many hours' scenario. I didn't but I can easily see it happening to someone. The door was literally closed in the faces of some people who were thinking they'd get on. I'm sure they have buses running regularly.
When I finally got into Istanbul proper the first thing that happened is...people wanted to sell me shit. All the time, people want to sell me shit. Good shit, bad shit, stupid shit. I managed to get directions out of part of the "My friend!" crowd and went to the hostel.
When I got there, it was pretty much chaos. After resisting getting charged more for a room than advertised, I settled in. By this time, I was already thinking "Well, lets see some shit so I can get out of here." That didn't take long. When I went initially to Batumi I had thoughts like "What a quirky little town. Lets see if I can live cheaply and explore it for a week." Here, I am at an ancient town, surrounded by hordes of tourists.
I apologize to my Turkish friends, but thus far Turkey has been a completely over commercialized, expensive, disappointing when I see it bust. This is odd to me as many other travelers are seeming to enjoy it. The amount of commercialization makes it seem more of a tourist ride than a real country to me at times.
I found one of the doorways to Hell in Istanbul so I immediately took it. I treated myself to an overpriced Starbucks coffee and found it to be pretty good indeed.
Naturally, I've met a lot of great - and very interesting - people at the hostel. It's always kind of a 'United Nations' feeling there. And yes, everyone speaks fucking English.
GENERAL TURKEY NOTES
Turkey respects all religions, much like other countries I've been to such as Bosnia and Georgia.
CARPET VENDOR
Hakan; wealth of knowledge.
A rug as old as the USA.
After I got done seeing the Sophia thing, the guy who helped me to get into it (and skip the huge line) took me to his families carpet store. They've had this carpet store in their family for five generations. The store itself stocks about 3600 carpets.
The family business is more of a collective effort rather than 'many mouths to feed'. there are thirty five people in the extended family not including children. If the family needs something it pulls together as a group to get someone a marrage ceremony, new house, whatever. It kind of goes on the old IMC ("e-mag-ah") system. This was the people who help each other out in the village system.
A great quote I got was "Carpet buying and selling is a trust business." - Hakan.
Rugs wildly vary in price depending on everything. Pattern, region, etc. Just knowing the number of stitches in a centimeter is simply not enough.
Hakan told me that carpets are like 'mother's breasts'. "If you don't love carpets, you don't learn them." and "Carpets are our mirror to the past."
there are twenty two carpet making countries in the world. All of them call carpets 'halla' or 'hallie'. this is Arabic or Farsee meaning 'situation'. Carpets show the situation of the person who weaved it. Her life, religion, economic situation, everything. Carpets are a library to the person. Only in non-carpet weaving countries are they called 'carpets' or 'rugs'. 'Carpet' means covering.
For this family, they say that friendship is more important than business. Their principle of business is that friendship gets you recommendations.
The family store.
DRIVING
If you don't get off on traffic jams, don't drive in Istbanbul.
FRUSTRATON
So many people kept asking me 'Where are you from?' They didn't care - they were using it as a rather obvious lead in to 'I will attempt to sell you something!' I got frustrated with this and started telling people I was from R'lyeh, a small island in the South Pacific ruled by president elect for life, Cthulhu. I gave this up soon simply because it raised more questions, solved less and it made me feel a bit of an asshole.
CUSTOMS
At a Muslims house, if they have you stay the night, they will send a kid with you to your room to 'take care of you'. Basically, he just watches over you to make sure you are OK. He may even sleep in your room. It was a bit odd to the traveler who was telling me about it. He said that while he was their guest, he was never alone.
TRAVELERS LORE
According to Kara (nice lady I met at the hostel) Greece is much more expensive than Turkey. Screw that, I responded.
The tourist season in India is from October or November until April. Some cool places to go in India include Cashmere, Rajestian, Leh. (Note, these names may be misspelled. I'll do research when we get closer to India time.)
Pakistan may also be interesting - apparently the people there are really nice.
COSTS
Tea from Goreme cafe, .5 TRY
Cheapest food in Goreme, 12 TRY for a meal
Entry fee, bassilica 10 TRY
Laundry service, 8 TRY (more if your clothing weighs more than 2 KG)
A kebab and soda off of the tourist area, 8.5 TRY
Two small pieces of sweet pastry, 4 TRY. Passed on that crap.
Starbucks, 11 TRY. Surprisingly good. Don't know if it was $6 good, but I was celebrating my upcoming escape from Turkey.
VIDEOS
Tourists Everywhere
Dead Sultans
Blue Mosque A
Blue Mosque B
Yousef and Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia PART A, PART B, PART C, PART D
Drugs 4 U a
Drugs 4 U b
Georgia, who?
Call to Prayer
Both of the tourists I've spoken with were unhappy with their 'set' tours. The tour booking agencies set up their accommodation and transportation but the people who were disappointed still wanted something else. I think they had expected to be with a group of people instead of on their own. Make friends and all of that. I think there is good and bad points with having someone else make your itinerary. For people who are trying to get their two weeks of freedom, it may not be a bad thing. You pay someone else to do the thinking and planning if you can't be bothered. For long term travelers, I fail entirely to see the benefit.
HEADING TO ISTANBUL
Despite wanting to play Backgammon with Denge, I was feeling extremely underwhelmed by Turkey. I decided to burn hard to get to Istanbul. I'm not sure what I was wanting out of Turkey because I had to expectations of it other than getting to eat Turkish food.
I had the good fortune of meeting up with Annaka, a mad Scotts woman.
She hit the nail on the head when she summarized the situation. Turkey is bad after experiencing Georgian hospitality. In Georgia, you felt they were very glad to see you. In Turkey, you feel they are very glad to see your money. This fails to fill my heart with joy. It is my belief that it will be just as bad if not worse in Egypt due to their self fucking of their tourist economy. I've heard they are extremely desperate for tourists. Perhaps Turkey will get me ready to some extent for that shit.The bus from Goreme to Istanbul is not an easy one. First, you have to take a service bus to a town called Nevshehir about an hour away. You then wait for an hour or two to get onto a double decker bound for Istanbul. They held up the bus for fifteen minutes for five people who choose to be late. I'd have left them but the bus companies here don't work that way for some reason.
I was thinking I might find less gross commercialization in Istanbul. I thought that a bigger city would dilute to some extent this. I was wrong. I had toyed with the idea of spending some time hanging out here. I decided fuck that. If you're not having a good time, get the fuck out.
Travelers have told me that you can see all of the major sites by walking - clustered nicely together. [This later turned out to be true. At "Logan speed" I did most if not all of the major sites - and certainly everything I wanted to see - within eight hours.]
We got crammed into our 'award winning' bus for Istanbul (how??) and I felt like I had as much room as a dick in a condom. I'm really glad that the guy sitting in front of me didn't decide to suddenly recline his chair. I'm certain both of my legs would have snapped. Although I've been told that all Turkish buses have bathrooms, if this one did it was well camouflaged. No worries about going to the bathroom, however. The bus stops every two or three hours for about twenty minutes.
I have an old friend named Derek. Once, when Derek and I were headed into my apartment, I stopped to say hi to a neighbor of mine who was sitting on the steps. Derek was a bit surprised at this behavior and explained that he had never talked to a neighbor he'd lived next door to for seven years. I told him that my neighbor had just moved in and we introduced ourselves. So, it won't come as a surprise to Derek that I was talking to one of my fellow passengers at a bus stop. What might surprise Derek is that the passenger approached a sleepy Logan to talk to him first. The man's name was 'Sally' (though I'm sure it has different spelling, that's how it is pronounced) and he was about my age. He explained that he was taking his daughter (young and pretty) off across the country to Istanbul for college. I sure hope college is a very different experience in Turkey than it is in the states!
When we were within twenty or thirty kilometers of Istanbul, we hit a large traffic jam. It turns out that people were busy rubbernecking at two buses which had gotten into what looked to be a tremendous crash. Yes, I was rubber necking (well, as much as I was able) but I wasn't driving or holding up the vehicle. We came across two other crashes after that which were more minor but it set the 'traffic situation stage'. We call that 'foreshadowing'. [Sadly, thus far, nothing else of interest has happen making it 'non-congruent foreshadowing.]
On the eight hour bus trip, I was literally forcibly subjected to Turkish TV. It is the most god awful stuff you can ever see. The camera work is absolutely rubbish, following the actors smallest movements, and they don't use a good 'finishing'. I'm not sure what I mean by 'finishing' - whatever the process used that makes the film not look like cheap rubbish. Naturally, everything is in Turkish or dubbed into Turkish. The soap operas I was subjected to till I started screaming and weeping were totally incomprehensible with dramatic cuts to the person being talked to for a 'reaction shot'. Apparently, nobody told the other actor they were suppose to react. It made me want to bite the heads off of whippets. They then forced me to watch music videos. I have categorized them into two different types. Naturally, I despise both. The first is sung only by males and it is the dramatic soulful expression as he sings about the girl he use to have. She left. Now, he is sad. The second type of music video is made only by woman and I have entitled "Fuck my pussy". My guess is that the Turkish music industry markets cross genders with their shitty production values and "1980's music videos at their worst were where these guys are at now" set up.
Thankfully, we were eventually let off of this bus to transfer onto another bus that would take us to 'sultanimate' (or some crap) which is the district I needed to get to. This bus was free as well. A note of caution on this bus. You put in your pack then the bus will take off just as soon as it is full. Hence, if you put your pack in, immediately get your ass onto the bus. Don't hesitate, smoke or talk to someone else. Otherwise, you may go through the 'I got separated from my gear for many hours' scenario. I didn't but I can easily see it happening to someone. The door was literally closed in the faces of some people who were thinking they'd get on. I'm sure they have buses running regularly.
When I finally got into Istanbul proper the first thing that happened is...people wanted to sell me shit. All the time, people want to sell me shit. Good shit, bad shit, stupid shit. I managed to get directions out of part of the "My friend!" crowd and went to the hostel.
When I got there, it was pretty much chaos. After resisting getting charged more for a room than advertised, I settled in. By this time, I was already thinking "Well, lets see some shit so I can get out of here." That didn't take long. When I went initially to Batumi I had thoughts like "What a quirky little town. Lets see if I can live cheaply and explore it for a week." Here, I am at an ancient town, surrounded by hordes of tourists.
I apologize to my Turkish friends, but thus far Turkey has been a completely over commercialized, expensive, disappointing when I see it bust. This is odd to me as many other travelers are seeming to enjoy it. The amount of commercialization makes it seem more of a tourist ride than a real country to me at times.
I found one of the doorways to Hell in Istanbul so I immediately took it. I treated myself to an overpriced Starbucks coffee and found it to be pretty good indeed.
Naturally, I've met a lot of great - and very interesting - people at the hostel. It's always kind of a 'United Nations' feeling there. And yes, everyone speaks fucking English.
GENERAL TURKEY NOTES
Turkey respects all religions, much like other countries I've been to such as Bosnia and Georgia.
CARPET VENDOR
Hakan; wealth of knowledge.A rug as old as the USA.After I got done seeing the Sophia thing, the guy who helped me to get into it (and skip the huge line) took me to his families carpet store. They've had this carpet store in their family for five generations. The store itself stocks about 3600 carpets.
The family business is more of a collective effort rather than 'many mouths to feed'. there are thirty five people in the extended family not including children. If the family needs something it pulls together as a group to get someone a marrage ceremony, new house, whatever. It kind of goes on the old IMC ("e-mag-ah") system. This was the people who help each other out in the village system.
A great quote I got was "Carpet buying and selling is a trust business." - Hakan.
Rugs wildly vary in price depending on everything. Pattern, region, etc. Just knowing the number of stitches in a centimeter is simply not enough.
Hakan told me that carpets are like 'mother's breasts'. "If you don't love carpets, you don't learn them." and "Carpets are our mirror to the past."
there are twenty two carpet making countries in the world. All of them call carpets 'halla' or 'hallie'. this is Arabic or Farsee meaning 'situation'. Carpets show the situation of the person who weaved it. Her life, religion, economic situation, everything. Carpets are a library to the person. Only in non-carpet weaving countries are they called 'carpets' or 'rugs'. 'Carpet' means covering.
For this family, they say that friendship is more important than business. Their principle of business is that friendship gets you recommendations.
The family store.DRIVING
If you don't get off on traffic jams, don't drive in Istbanbul.
FRUSTRATON
So many people kept asking me 'Where are you from?' They didn't care - they were using it as a rather obvious lead in to 'I will attempt to sell you something!' I got frustrated with this and started telling people I was from R'lyeh, a small island in the South Pacific ruled by president elect for life, Cthulhu. I gave this up soon simply because it raised more questions, solved less and it made me feel a bit of an asshole.
CUSTOMS
At a Muslims house, if they have you stay the night, they will send a kid with you to your room to 'take care of you'. Basically, he just watches over you to make sure you are OK. He may even sleep in your room. It was a bit odd to the traveler who was telling me about it. He said that while he was their guest, he was never alone.
TRAVELERS LORE
According to Kara (nice lady I met at the hostel) Greece is much more expensive than Turkey. Screw that, I responded.
The tourist season in India is from October or November until April. Some cool places to go in India include Cashmere, Rajestian, Leh. (Note, these names may be misspelled. I'll do research when we get closer to India time.)
Pakistan may also be interesting - apparently the people there are really nice.
COSTS
Tea from Goreme cafe, .5 TRY
Cheapest food in Goreme, 12 TRY for a meal
Entry fee, bassilica 10 TRY
Laundry service, 8 TRY (more if your clothing weighs more than 2 KG)
A kebab and soda off of the tourist area, 8.5 TRY
Two small pieces of sweet pastry, 4 TRY. Passed on that crap.
Starbucks, 11 TRY. Surprisingly good. Don't know if it was $6 good, but I was celebrating my upcoming escape from Turkey.
VIDEOS
Tourists Everywhere
Dead Sultans
Blue Mosque A
Blue Mosque B
Yousef and Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia PART A, PART B, PART C, PART D
Drugs 4 U a
Drugs 4 U b
Georgia, who?
Call to Prayer
Sunday, September 4, 2011
WASTING AWAY IN MARGARITAVILLE
WASTING AWAY IN MARGARITAVILLE
I'm workig on burning through the last five hours of my time here in Goreme. So far, it's looking a bit like Casablanca to me. I've met two religious refugees (one from Iran the other from Iraq) and one guy who had been waiting on a court case for about a decade. Most of the rest are hustling for the next lira. I'm working on moving on. I'm not really sure if I'm wanting to do much aside from visiting folks then getting to Istanbul and the hell out of Turkey.
We'll see soon what happens.
DR WHO
Here is a bit of Dr. Who silliness for those who are into it.
GOOD READ
Thanks to the folks at Batumi Hostel for pointing this article out on Facebook. My only question is on rule 17, who in the fuck takes DVD's with them? Most of this stuff is covered under Wise Adam's rule of being 'preemptively considerate'. Since a lot of the people become children with regards to their need to always get phone calls, talk to people over their phone and skype loudly, etc - well, lets just say this article won't have an impact on them...
OTHER FACEBOOK GOODNESS
Lonely Planet asked "What do you wish someone had told you before you travelled for the first time?" Here are some of the answers I liked best along with who said them:
Giuliana Reis: "Getting lost will help you to find yourself."
Nate Reinig: "Pack light. You don't need this shit."
Kyle Mckean: "You don't have to come home."
Kerri Kirshner: "Don't do tours....explore on your own as much as possible."
I'm workig on burning through the last five hours of my time here in Goreme. So far, it's looking a bit like Casablanca to me. I've met two religious refugees (one from Iran the other from Iraq) and one guy who had been waiting on a court case for about a decade. Most of the rest are hustling for the next lira. I'm working on moving on. I'm not really sure if I'm wanting to do much aside from visiting folks then getting to Istanbul and the hell out of Turkey.
We'll see soon what happens.
DR WHO
Here is a bit of Dr. Who silliness for those who are into it.
GOOD READ
Thanks to the folks at Batumi Hostel for pointing this article out on Facebook. My only question is on rule 17, who in the fuck takes DVD's with them? Most of this stuff is covered under Wise Adam's rule of being 'preemptively considerate'. Since a lot of the people become children with regards to their need to always get phone calls, talk to people over their phone and skype loudly, etc - well, lets just say this article won't have an impact on them...
OTHER FACEBOOK GOODNESS
Lonely Planet asked "What do you wish someone had told you before you travelled for the first time?" Here are some of the answers I liked best along with who said them:
Giuliana Reis: "Getting lost will help you to find yourself."
Nate Reinig: "Pack light. You don't need this shit."
Kyle Mckean: "You don't have to come home."
Kerri Kirshner: "Don't do tours....explore on your own as much as possible."
Saturday, September 3, 2011
NARRATIVE
I took some local folks advice learned over a game of backgammon and went to a pizza place called D'sti. It was fairly remote - meaning a bit cheaper.
Whilst I was on my way there, the normal quiet of the town was broken by - hold up a second. That's something I really haven't noticed here. Considering the town is almost totally inhabited by tourists, it really is a quiet place. Batumi, Georgia (for example) was much noisier. My thought is that either there are local laws that keep people from being loud idiots or the fact that everyone here lives in stone caves may have something to do with it.
Anyway, the big commotion was a wedding. I made a bit of a video that captured a little of the ruckus.
At the pizza place, I decided to spend a bit and try the local (overpriced) brew. It is called "Efes", pronounced like the letters FS. It's OK - it reminds me of 'Little Kings Ale' I used to drink when I was thirteen or fourteen. The restaurant even brought me (for free!) some sort of salad. I don't know what the fuck they did to it. I swear to god, I couldn't choke down more than two fork fulls of it. Normally, I eat any free greens that arrive on my table because I figure the universe is trying to give me a 'get healthy, fat boy' hint but chewing aspirin tastes better than that salad. As it was set aside, I was grateful that nobody witnessed my expression when trying to eat it.
As I sat eating my fairly medocre pizza in the restaurant, I was looking around at the other guests. A lot of them are attractive women. It is true that ninety percent of the women who travel fall into the (stereotypical?) archetype of either traveling with a boy (or boyfriend) or one or more other women.
As for Cappadocia, I think it's safe to say "I've gotten my rocks off and it's time to GTFO."
I've noticed that since I've been moving around more, we've gone back to the 'wall of text' that I use to have. Hopefully, this will be enough written content to keep Adam from biting through his laptop in rage. Yes, even now I can hear his retort "Well, it might if you wrote something worth reading!" Touche.
WISH LIST
I was thinking about how many things would be useful to me in my travels around the world.
The ability of the Matrix to easily and quickly load new languages into my brain. Instead of spending several days trying to learn the Turkish phrase for 'thank you' heads this list.
A 'bag of holding' comes in second place. Reducing the weight of everything by a factor of 40 that I am carrying would make my relatively heavy pack less than half a kilo. I could even take a fairly elaborate camping set and such. Customs might be a bit tricky with Xray machines and such. I'd probably still have to heave a normal pack for the look of the thing with the BOH stuffed into it.
The third thing on the list would of course be an infinite supply of automatically renewable money. With that, a series of translators and pack bearers (and possibly body guards) could be hired.
SCOOTERS, LIES AND CONFUSION
I had thought that I might be wanting to rent a scooter. I decided to talk to my self appointed concierge about it. I figured that if he had the ability to dip into my wallet more, it might make my stay here a little smoother. Initially, I was told that the rental agency would bring a scooter to the hostel. I could even just leave it at the hostel when I was done and they'd pick it up. The price was reasonable (like 35 TRY for the day, basically) so I figured 'why not'.
But then the question of the 'scooter license' came up.
I'm not an expert in such things, having never ridden a scooter before. To the best of my knowledge you don't need a special license for such in the USA.
In Turkey, you need one.
This is baffling because I've seen an assload of tourists that are zooming around on these things. How many of them have 'scooter licenses'?
I figured this would be an attempt to shake down more money from yours truly, but no - they really just didn't want to rent me one.
Weird.
The desk clerk/concierge/guy with his hand straying toward my pocket in an obvious way told me that should there be an accident, it would be potentially big problems for me and that I would do better to rent the more expensive ATV.
So I wandered around in the common area to think about it.
[Note: As I'm typing this, the power has gone off in the hostel - again. This hostel and perhaps part of this city have very shitty power hook ups. I am very happy I am not a 'hunt and peck' typist.]
Whilst I was in the common area, I was listening to two Korean girls who were talking about their balloon experiences. Inquiring as to how much it cost them I was told one hundred and fifty euros each. About sixty over what another guest had told me. Caveat emptor indeed! I also got to hear him upselling another guest on their balloon ride costs. Yikes. Perhaps it is worth it. To me, it is just blowing money that doesn't need to be blown. No, I didn't tell the girls they got ripped off. For all I know, they didn't. Besides, they were very happy with their purchase - who am I to harsh that buzz?
In an effort to be busy and temporarily limit my exposure to unbridled capitalism, I went for a walk in the town.
I came across a little place tucked away that had four large bubbling cauldrons out front.
At a glance, I knew these were dye pots. I wasn't sure what they were dying but I discovered that they were making rugs. Surprise.
Why not go in and check it out? I got a tour from the token man of the place. Everyone else were women working on rugs. I took several pictures and made a bit of a video o how it works. It is painfully labor intensive. Sadly, it reminded me of the coffee sets I saw in Sarajevo. There were tons of stores stocked to the gills with these (how many coffee sets does one family need?) with nobody buying more. You could hear the ceaseless banging of little hammers making more. I've never understood why. I suspect is much the same with rugs. Unless they are special order rugs, I'm guessing that there may be in existence enough rugs for everyone who wants to actually slap down some cold, hard cash to have one. For at least a decade. Sure, then it becomes a question of how many decades ahead do you prepare for but come on. It's not really a matter of 'but people need jobs' - if nobody is buying anything, it makes no sense.
But it was interesting to see how carpets are made.
COMPENSATION?
For some reason, I've noticed that most all of the travelers who have cameras usually have giant lenses on them. Are they compensating for something? If this is the case, since my camera lense is so small does it mean I have a huge cock? If so, where is it?
POLICE! EGAD!
I went to the ATV renters suggested by the guy at the hostel (trying to keep him fucking happy - still got some time left here) and negotiated the price with them down to 50 TRY instead of the normal 60. This was fortunate as they only had a couple scooters left. I got to see a huge group of Arabic tourists take off from there. It was like a race. Talking to their guide, there are like sixty of them in the tour group. That would drive me fucking nuts.
Anyway, I got assigned a kid who works there to be my new guide. He immediately became named "Paco 2". [As a side note, I was talking to Christina who is from Mexico about my naming of these small brown children as Paco. She started laughing and agreed that in the movies, the kid is always named Paco.]
One of the first places Paco 2 took me was to a town. He tried to encourage me to get off my bike and walk around the town. I obliged with a quick five meter walk then remounted and made it clear it was time to go. We resumed our trip. If I had wanted to see the town more than just driving through it on the ATV, I'd just hitchhike my ass over to it and do so. I was using my two hour time limit and wanted to be riding the ATV for it.
While we were out driving on some back trail, we got stopped by the police. Neither the kid nor I had a clue of what was going on. The police didn't feel the need to explain. Since none of them spoke any English and since I don't like the idea of saving money in a 'Turkish prison', I just sat there and smoked while they noted down Paco 2's license plates and spoke to him in Turkish. They had no interest in me. Weird.
So we drove on. I did find that standing up or squatting when going over really bad terrain saves your ass from a terrible pounding and allows you to shift your center of gravity more easily. Eventually Paco 2 managed to convey to me that he thought I was pretty good at driving the ATV. Mind you, I wasn't trying for any tricks - I'm going totally for safety. While these things are really easy to ride, it is always the beginners thinking they are hot shit that get into accidents. Add to that my poor physical fitness, inability to look from side to side. No fancy stuff from me.
The two ATV rides were pretty much my big high points for the Cappadocia visit.
THE DINNER
The consierge made us dinner tonight. Against my better judgement, I decided to try out the 23 TRY meal. Totally not worth 23 TRY. I get just as full (same tastes or better) for about half that. When I asked for seconds, he grabbed a piece of bread and began shredding it into my bowl. I asked him what he was doing and he said it was a Turkish custom for when someone wants seconds. I figure it is so they will eat less of the more expensive food. It's funny as none of the Turkish people who showed up to eat did the bread thing. I wonder if I helped buy them their meal?
Later, I went to pay him. I said "Do you have change?" because I just had a twenty and a five and would need two lira back. He responded 'Would you like a glass of wine?' I figured that is damned decent of him as it would eat up the change and have the cool side effect of giving me a glass of wine they normally charge 5 TRY for only 2 TRY. Cool. I gave him the money. He opened a fresh bottle of wine and poured me a glass. He asked "Can you pay now?" I said I had just given him the money. He had meant for the wine. I told him I believed the glass of wine was fine instead of change and watched him closely. If he had asked for the other three lira, I'd have responded that he needed to give me my two lira change and go find a funnel if he wanted to get the wine back into the bottle. I think he may have read on my face I've had enough of his shenanigans though and told me to enjoy my glass of wine. A Pyrrhic victory at best, I feel. I am looking forward to boarding that bus.
LOOKING FORWARD
Now, I just have to cool my heels till about seven PM tomorrow before I can make my way down to the bus station to finally get the fuck out of this town. From what Adam and other travelers have told me about Antalya it's not going to be much better. I'm not sure if it would be better to try to just move on to Pamukkale to see some ruins and shit. At least there they have hostels for sure in my price range. It will be a long nine more hours just after an overnight bus so I'm concerned about that. But my interest in these ruins wanes with the amount of money it costs and how tourist the cities are. And by touristic, I'm talking about the level to which I feel someone's hand in my wallet. Don't know - I might feel so shagged out from the initial bus ride that I just want to find a guest house to sleep. We'll see where I'm at. Right now, I've had my feel of Touristic shit. If Antalya is a turn off, I may just hit fast forward and go to visit Denge in Izmir. I don't think I'm really seeing the parts of Turkey that I'm excited about yet. After visiting him, Istanbul which I am excited about seeing.
Based on the cost of things I've encountered so far and the enjoyment I've gotten from them, it's starting to look like Turkey will be a 'pass through fairly quickly place' unlike Georgia which was a 'settle in' place. Yeah, India and Asia are on my list.
MOVIE REVIEW
Paul. 7/10. Don't forget to watch the end credits for a bit more of the film. Although this movie dragged in spots, there was a lot of very funny stuff in it where I genuinely laughed out loud. None of that LOL crap either - the kind of laugh that makes other people in the place think I've lost it. This is an especially good movie if you are a 'nerd'. It does make me wonder about so many 'nerds will inherit the earth' movies that have come out lately. Is the majority of the population thinking it is hopelessly inept and/or 'nerdy'? Has the 'nerd' image undergone a 'Post-Gates Upgrade'? Regardless of all that, I found the movie funny.
COSTS
Efes beer: In restaurant, 6 TRY, in store, 3 TRY.
Cappadocia scooter rental, they start at 60 TRY, real price is 50 TRY. You've got to be awesome to get them lower than that.
SUMMARY OF APPROXIMATE COSTS FOR CAPPADOCIA
Dorm bed with a guy who snores really amazingly loud, $12.50
Meals, $10 x2 (breakfast is really cheap but I don't have much for it - fuck the food in the hostel)
Miscellaneous drinks and such, say $6.
Call it $40 per day. Not horrible - but doing any sort of 'tourist shit' will probably double your costs or more. So, it's OK but I don't recommend staying long. For me, it's only taken two days to be completely satisified with the amount of pointy rocks I've seen. I strongly recommend just renting ATV's and zipping around rather than burning your energy walking around to tourist stuff. You can get plenty of walking in on stuff that can't handle ATV's like the underground cities, Canyon of Pigeons, etc.
VIDEOS
Noise
Tourist Crap
Rugs
Second Bike Intro
Narrow Paths
Star Cave Hostel
I took some local folks advice learned over a game of backgammon and went to a pizza place called D'sti. It was fairly remote - meaning a bit cheaper.
Whilst I was on my way there, the normal quiet of the town was broken by - hold up a second. That's something I really haven't noticed here. Considering the town is almost totally inhabited by tourists, it really is a quiet place. Batumi, Georgia (for example) was much noisier. My thought is that either there are local laws that keep people from being loud idiots or the fact that everyone here lives in stone caves may have something to do with it.
Anyway, the big commotion was a wedding. I made a bit of a video that captured a little of the ruckus.
At the pizza place, I decided to spend a bit and try the local (overpriced) brew. It is called "Efes", pronounced like the letters FS. It's OK - it reminds me of 'Little Kings Ale' I used to drink when I was thirteen or fourteen. The restaurant even brought me (for free!) some sort of salad. I don't know what the fuck they did to it. I swear to god, I couldn't choke down more than two fork fulls of it. Normally, I eat any free greens that arrive on my table because I figure the universe is trying to give me a 'get healthy, fat boy' hint but chewing aspirin tastes better than that salad. As it was set aside, I was grateful that nobody witnessed my expression when trying to eat it.
As I sat eating my fairly medocre pizza in the restaurant, I was looking around at the other guests. A lot of them are attractive women. It is true that ninety percent of the women who travel fall into the (stereotypical?) archetype of either traveling with a boy (or boyfriend) or one or more other women.
As for Cappadocia, I think it's safe to say "I've gotten my rocks off and it's time to GTFO."
I've noticed that since I've been moving around more, we've gone back to the 'wall of text' that I use to have. Hopefully, this will be enough written content to keep Adam from biting through his laptop in rage. Yes, even now I can hear his retort "Well, it might if you wrote something worth reading!" Touche.
WISH LIST
I was thinking about how many things would be useful to me in my travels around the world.
The ability of the Matrix to easily and quickly load new languages into my brain. Instead of spending several days trying to learn the Turkish phrase for 'thank you' heads this list.
A 'bag of holding' comes in second place. Reducing the weight of everything by a factor of 40 that I am carrying would make my relatively heavy pack less than half a kilo. I could even take a fairly elaborate camping set and such. Customs might be a bit tricky with Xray machines and such. I'd probably still have to heave a normal pack for the look of the thing with the BOH stuffed into it.
The third thing on the list would of course be an infinite supply of automatically renewable money. With that, a series of translators and pack bearers (and possibly body guards) could be hired.
SCOOTERS, LIES AND CONFUSION
I had thought that I might be wanting to rent a scooter. I decided to talk to my self appointed concierge about it. I figured that if he had the ability to dip into my wallet more, it might make my stay here a little smoother. Initially, I was told that the rental agency would bring a scooter to the hostel. I could even just leave it at the hostel when I was done and they'd pick it up. The price was reasonable (like 35 TRY for the day, basically) so I figured 'why not'.
But then the question of the 'scooter license' came up.
I'm not an expert in such things, having never ridden a scooter before. To the best of my knowledge you don't need a special license for such in the USA.
In Turkey, you need one.
This is baffling because I've seen an assload of tourists that are zooming around on these things. How many of them have 'scooter licenses'?
I figured this would be an attempt to shake down more money from yours truly, but no - they really just didn't want to rent me one.
Weird.
The desk clerk/concierge/guy with his hand straying toward my pocket in an obvious way told me that should there be an accident, it would be potentially big problems for me and that I would do better to rent the more expensive ATV.
So I wandered around in the common area to think about it.
[Note: As I'm typing this, the power has gone off in the hostel - again. This hostel and perhaps part of this city have very shitty power hook ups. I am very happy I am not a 'hunt and peck' typist.]
Whilst I was in the common area, I was listening to two Korean girls who were talking about their balloon experiences. Inquiring as to how much it cost them I was told one hundred and fifty euros each. About sixty over what another guest had told me. Caveat emptor indeed! I also got to hear him upselling another guest on their balloon ride costs. Yikes. Perhaps it is worth it. To me, it is just blowing money that doesn't need to be blown. No, I didn't tell the girls they got ripped off. For all I know, they didn't. Besides, they were very happy with their purchase - who am I to harsh that buzz?
In an effort to be busy and temporarily limit my exposure to unbridled capitalism, I went for a walk in the town.
I came across a little place tucked away that had four large bubbling cauldrons out front.
At a glance, I knew these were dye pots. I wasn't sure what they were dying but I discovered that they were making rugs. Surprise.
Why not go in and check it out? I got a tour from the token man of the place. Everyone else were women working on rugs. I took several pictures and made a bit of a video o how it works. It is painfully labor intensive. Sadly, it reminded me of the coffee sets I saw in Sarajevo. There were tons of stores stocked to the gills with these (how many coffee sets does one family need?) with nobody buying more. You could hear the ceaseless banging of little hammers making more. I've never understood why. I suspect is much the same with rugs. Unless they are special order rugs, I'm guessing that there may be in existence enough rugs for everyone who wants to actually slap down some cold, hard cash to have one. For at least a decade. Sure, then it becomes a question of how many decades ahead do you prepare for but come on. It's not really a matter of 'but people need jobs' - if nobody is buying anything, it makes no sense.
But it was interesting to see how carpets are made.
COMPENSATION?
For some reason, I've noticed that most all of the travelers who have cameras usually have giant lenses on them. Are they compensating for something? If this is the case, since my camera lense is so small does it mean I have a huge cock? If so, where is it?
POLICE! EGAD!
I went to the ATV renters suggested by the guy at the hostel (trying to keep him fucking happy - still got some time left here) and negotiated the price with them down to 50 TRY instead of the normal 60. This was fortunate as they only had a couple scooters left. I got to see a huge group of Arabic tourists take off from there. It was like a race. Talking to their guide, there are like sixty of them in the tour group. That would drive me fucking nuts.
Anyway, I got assigned a kid who works there to be my new guide. He immediately became named "Paco 2". [As a side note, I was talking to Christina who is from Mexico about my naming of these small brown children as Paco. She started laughing and agreed that in the movies, the kid is always named Paco.]
One of the first places Paco 2 took me was to a town. He tried to encourage me to get off my bike and walk around the town. I obliged with a quick five meter walk then remounted and made it clear it was time to go. We resumed our trip. If I had wanted to see the town more than just driving through it on the ATV, I'd just hitchhike my ass over to it and do so. I was using my two hour time limit and wanted to be riding the ATV for it.
While we were out driving on some back trail, we got stopped by the police. Neither the kid nor I had a clue of what was going on. The police didn't feel the need to explain. Since none of them spoke any English and since I don't like the idea of saving money in a 'Turkish prison', I just sat there and smoked while they noted down Paco 2's license plates and spoke to him in Turkish. They had no interest in me. Weird.
So we drove on. I did find that standing up or squatting when going over really bad terrain saves your ass from a terrible pounding and allows you to shift your center of gravity more easily. Eventually Paco 2 managed to convey to me that he thought I was pretty good at driving the ATV. Mind you, I wasn't trying for any tricks - I'm going totally for safety. While these things are really easy to ride, it is always the beginners thinking they are hot shit that get into accidents. Add to that my poor physical fitness, inability to look from side to side. No fancy stuff from me.
The two ATV rides were pretty much my big high points for the Cappadocia visit.
THE DINNER
The consierge made us dinner tonight. Against my better judgement, I decided to try out the 23 TRY meal. Totally not worth 23 TRY. I get just as full (same tastes or better) for about half that. When I asked for seconds, he grabbed a piece of bread and began shredding it into my bowl. I asked him what he was doing and he said it was a Turkish custom for when someone wants seconds. I figure it is so they will eat less of the more expensive food. It's funny as none of the Turkish people who showed up to eat did the bread thing. I wonder if I helped buy them their meal?
Later, I went to pay him. I said "Do you have change?" because I just had a twenty and a five and would need two lira back. He responded 'Would you like a glass of wine?' I figured that is damned decent of him as it would eat up the change and have the cool side effect of giving me a glass of wine they normally charge 5 TRY for only 2 TRY. Cool. I gave him the money. He opened a fresh bottle of wine and poured me a glass. He asked "Can you pay now?" I said I had just given him the money. He had meant for the wine. I told him I believed the glass of wine was fine instead of change and watched him closely. If he had asked for the other three lira, I'd have responded that he needed to give me my two lira change and go find a funnel if he wanted to get the wine back into the bottle. I think he may have read on my face I've had enough of his shenanigans though and told me to enjoy my glass of wine. A Pyrrhic victory at best, I feel. I am looking forward to boarding that bus.
LOOKING FORWARD
Now, I just have to cool my heels till about seven PM tomorrow before I can make my way down to the bus station to finally get the fuck out of this town. From what Adam and other travelers have told me about Antalya it's not going to be much better. I'm not sure if it would be better to try to just move on to Pamukkale to see some ruins and shit. At least there they have hostels for sure in my price range. It will be a long nine more hours just after an overnight bus so I'm concerned about that. But my interest in these ruins wanes with the amount of money it costs and how tourist the cities are. And by touristic, I'm talking about the level to which I feel someone's hand in my wallet. Don't know - I might feel so shagged out from the initial bus ride that I just want to find a guest house to sleep. We'll see where I'm at. Right now, I've had my feel of Touristic shit. If Antalya is a turn off, I may just hit fast forward and go to visit Denge in Izmir. I don't think I'm really seeing the parts of Turkey that I'm excited about yet. After visiting him, Istanbul which I am excited about seeing.
Based on the cost of things I've encountered so far and the enjoyment I've gotten from them, it's starting to look like Turkey will be a 'pass through fairly quickly place' unlike Georgia which was a 'settle in' place. Yeah, India and Asia are on my list.
MOVIE REVIEW
Paul. 7/10. Don't forget to watch the end credits for a bit more of the film. Although this movie dragged in spots, there was a lot of very funny stuff in it where I genuinely laughed out loud. None of that LOL crap either - the kind of laugh that makes other people in the place think I've lost it. This is an especially good movie if you are a 'nerd'. It does make me wonder about so many 'nerds will inherit the earth' movies that have come out lately. Is the majority of the population thinking it is hopelessly inept and/or 'nerdy'? Has the 'nerd' image undergone a 'Post-Gates Upgrade'? Regardless of all that, I found the movie funny.
COSTS
Efes beer: In restaurant, 6 TRY, in store, 3 TRY.
Cappadocia scooter rental, they start at 60 TRY, real price is 50 TRY. You've got to be awesome to get them lower than that.
SUMMARY OF APPROXIMATE COSTS FOR CAPPADOCIA
Dorm bed with a guy who snores really amazingly loud, $12.50
Meals, $10 x2 (breakfast is really cheap but I don't have much for it - fuck the food in the hostel)
Miscellaneous drinks and such, say $6.
Call it $40 per day. Not horrible - but doing any sort of 'tourist shit' will probably double your costs or more. So, it's OK but I don't recommend staying long. For me, it's only taken two days to be completely satisified with the amount of pointy rocks I've seen. I strongly recommend just renting ATV's and zipping around rather than burning your energy walking around to tourist stuff. You can get plenty of walking in on stuff that can't handle ATV's like the underground cities, Canyon of Pigeons, etc.
VIDEOS
Noise
Tourist Crap
Rugs
Second Bike Intro
Narrow Paths
Star Cave Hostel
CAPPADOCIA HUNTER
TURKISH BUS RIDE
The big Turkish buses are pretty state of art. They have some climate control for everyone. There are also TV's to keep everyone from visiting with each other and forming friendships. Note that everything is dubbed (often badly) into Turkish.
While I was on the bus, I was hoping that the connections and such would be better once I reached western Turkey. In fact, they became a bit worse as I am now in competion with lots and lots of tourists.
When you're at a bus stop, it is important to pay close attention to the staff of the bus. There isn't a lot of notice when they are ready to take off. Don't let the bus leave without you.
At the bus stop, they had a choice between a grab food fast from a kabob dealer for 5 TRY or you could spend 15 TRY for one main and a side of rice from a desultory caffiteria. I noticed nobody ate at the caffiteria. I wonder if the other restaurant owners want to burn down that guys shop.
The buses are a pretty smooth ride, though being in the bus seat for so many hours made my back feel like it was on fire. If someone had a film of me in the seat and played it in fast forward, it might look like the torture scene from the Princess Bride. It might have been Niechie who said 'That which does not kill us makes us stronger'. If it were true, I'd be remarkably tough. I'm not. I suspect Niechie was talking about somthing else - or more likely - talking out of his ass.
Eventually, I arrived in a different town. I got reassured by three different people I was indeed in Kayseri. I alwayys check with several people as the language barrier and a healthy dose of stupidity can often get in the way of me knowing things. Whenever I am trying to get information - be it directions, where I am, anything I always interview several people who are not within sight of each other until I get a consensus of at least three.
As I was writing this, I was listening to the five AM call to prayer. I am so happy I am aegnostic. At least there is a chance of sleep.
I had to wait two hours for my connecting bus to Goreme.
Cut to...
What has taken you seconds to read for me has been a troubled and oft interrupted sleep. Visions of the past and perhaps the future are under laid with the strange fluting music of the spheres. Alderaan's not far away.
I get a bit strange when sleep deprived.
I kept a close eye out for Goreme as it was not the last stop on the route but I need not have bothered. The giant stone penis shaped rocks were a big tip off.
ARRIVAL IN GOREME
The first thing I thought when I arrived in Goreme was 'holy fuck, I've wandered into a rocky version of Disney Land'. Talk about masses of tourists, this place is as rotten with them as many of the larger cities in western Europe. The noise of rolling luggage across cobblestones torments my soul.
I wandered over to the tourist information office (conveniently located) and inquired after 'Star Cave'. They called and told me that I'd be picked up. I thought that was nice but was a bit surprised when I ended up 'riding bitch' on a scooter.
The guy who is working the desk is named Ramazon. His happiness with me ebbs and wanes depending on if he believes money is forthcoming. The room is 20 TRY (rather than the 15 TRY on 'wiki-travel', hence I updated it and added other...notes...) and includes a breakfast the which could be excelled only by stale cereal and old milk. Or some mysterious piece of bread that I can buy at a store along with a box of fake juice.
The laundry service is decent though it is the most I've ever paid to have my clothing washed at 15 TRY. It needed it. Badly.
In addition there is a sign up asking people to not bring in alcoholic beverages as they sell them here. In their defense, I did purchase a rather nice bottle of wine I really enjoyed.
As far as the ambiance here it is as Adam said - pretty nifty and extravagant. Not bad for a 20 TRY bed. It isn't very clean however and without the Aussie who owns the place, the other half of the hostel equation is missing as well.
Food is a bit expensive here in 'tourist land' and the hostel has no kitchen I may use. That's OK. I'd rather burn to a different country where buying prepared food is cheap rather than eat anything I've cooked.
As I'd seen several scooters around, I asked Ramazan how much it cost to rent them. He responded that it is 'not my job'. This immediately put the sleep deprived, filthy Logan to a 'well disposed' mood toward him. Then, he wanted to tell me about all of the different tours and such he could get me on. I know he gets a referral cut from this. Attempting to put his hand into Logan's pocket made Logan positively friendly toward him.
When I was working in the hostel and people showed up, one of my first questions for them was "What do you need right now?" Some of them were interested in going to do stuff - others in nothing more than stretching their legs with a nice walk and some in a shower and sleep. I tried not to assume I knew what they wanted.
I walked around a bit after dropping my pack (and chaining it to the bed) and discovered a fancy coffee shop you could buy espressos and such for 4 TRY. I explored still further and found a place where I could buy Turkish coffee for 1.25 TRY.
Looking around, this place reminds me a lot of the stories I've heard about Venice where the tourists wildly outnumber the locals. If tourism stopped and everyone knew it would never again be back, this town would shrink from 5000 residents to 500.
On the second day, I zoomed around on an ATV. I'm not sure if it was pretending to be the late, great Crocodile Hunter Cappadocia or getting to ride the ATV I enjoyed more. That was the best time I had here. If you are going to do it, bring some goggles (they have none) as the dust is really bad - worse if you are in a group. They even hose you down with pressurized air afterward to get rid of some of the dust from your clothing. If you have no goggles, bring eye drops. You'll thank me later.
Also available are horses, camels, scooters and balloons. You will not want for lack of options - if you want to spend the cash.
Speaking of balloons, I think the reason I may end up dumping the cash to do another ATV ride over the same course instead of a balloon ride is that an ATV is an active thing - a balloon ride is a passive thing.
OTHER RANTINGS
While I was looking at my iteniery I was contemplating the next place. If it is $20 or more to hit each place I am interested in visiting, I'll have to get more choosy on what I'm really interested in seeing.
The Turkish flag is everywhere. People seem very proud of their country.
The Turkish alphabet is the first one in awhile that uses characters I'm use to. It is possible to make out what some of the stuff is saying.
Africa is the first country I wish I had an 'African style' fly whisk in. I can understand why many of the natives wear long sleeved shirts and long trousers.
LOOKING FORWARD
After about two days here, I've seen enough pointy rocks. Neat. No, I haven't gone into the 'watch the fat man try to squat in houses in the underground city isn't it funny how inflexible he is' places. I've seen them on TV and thought 'meh'. I am not really interested in cave churches either. Even the guy at the hostel asked "Why did you come to Cappadocia?" Fortunately, I didn't respond with "To be interrogated by assholes." I said "To relax." This irritated him because my relaxing does not put money in his pocket. After one night of sleep and two days in total, I am pretty much ready to move on. Since I can't due to the holiday and the chalked full buses until the fifth I may end up doing the ATV's again, even though the route would be exactly the same.
Other travelers have told me that Anatalya is just as touristic but not as nice as Goreme. This makes me so happy. I think I will try to pay by the night there. Yes, I hear Adam's voice in my head "Hey you stupid bastard, you're going to tourist places - what did you expect?" My answer: Perhaps a bit more subtlety with the hand out? Yes, I know - I'm in Turkey. I will either deal with it or move with alacrity.
TRAVELERS' TIPS
Don't be shy about showing your ticket to several employees at a bus station to make sure you get on the right bus.
The companies that sell tickets are many and varied. Some sell tickets for other places. Some are completely sold out of everything and will tell you that the bus is full. Others will somehow have a seat available. Check around. In America, this type of system would be referred to by the phrase "cluster fuck" but it seems to work here. Sort of. Even the official 'information booth' (marked 'information' in English though the inhabitants of it speak none) is pretty useless. Just walk around and talk to everyone. You'll eventually find the information you need.
Just after Ramadan, there is a festival (Ramazan Bayramı in Turkey) that lasts two to four days, depending on who you talk to. I'd suggest booking well ahead or just stay where you are and don't move till it is over if you are in any Muslim country. Transportation lines and hotels are overflowing. [Side note: As I am writing this, I am listening to a couple of Japanese girls whose whole travel plans have gotten totally fucked due to this holiday. Aren't you glad you read this blog?]
The single most important phrase to learn in any country is 'thank you'.
If you are with an incompetent guide and become lost, stop moving and wait for him to come find you.
TRAVELERS LORE
According to a cool guy I met from Vietnam named Van, Vietnam is twice as cheap as Turkey. Nice.
TURKISH CUSTOMS
They like to spread water upon the ground to 'make it cooler' and keep the dust down.
COSTS
Can of soda, 2 TRY at bus stop restaurant, 3 TRY in Cappadocia
Soe sort of chicken sandwich at bus stop, 5 TRY
Bottle of Cappadocian wine, 20 TRY
ATV - you must get a guide but it is included with the price. Totally worth it IMO, 60 TRY
Most other dorm living (including a place called the 'Flintstones' which bears no resemblance to the cartoon and that is a pity) has dorm beds for 25 TRY. I didn't ask if they included a shitty breakfast with that.
A half hour massage, 50 Euros. When the guy said Euros I tried not to burst out laughing. By his expression, I don't think I was controlling my facial muscles well enough. But I did try. So, for half an hour of massage, you can go on a two or three hour balloon ride that includes breakfast and possibly lunch. I'll leave you to think which is the better.
WANDERING AROUND GOREME
I was wandering around Goreme and accidentally wandered onto the death march known as 'Pigeon Valley'. It was a fairly arduous climb. Well, for me anyway. And I was totally unprepared for what it turned into - I wasn't carrying water, was wearing flip flops and carrying a sweater. Eventually, it became the 'in for a penny in for a pound' sort of thing that my stubborn streak likes to go up against. I'm glad in this case I did because I met a Vietnamese guy named Van who I got to chat with for quite some time. I also met a nice Dutch family (husband and wife with a baby in a backpack thing) and an old man who sold tea very close to the terminus of the trip. I addressed him as 'the smartest man alive'. Unfortunately, he did not have a backgammon board or I would have spent even more time there. It was a pretty good amount of walking that I didn't want to repeat again in any circumstances.
VIDEO
Stone Penis
Paco
Cappadocia Hunter
Holmes Needed
Meet the Horse
Tosspot Helmets
Location, location and...
Fresh TV
The Walls
The big Turkish buses are pretty state of art. They have some climate control for everyone. There are also TV's to keep everyone from visiting with each other and forming friendships. Note that everything is dubbed (often badly) into Turkish.
While I was on the bus, I was hoping that the connections and such would be better once I reached western Turkey. In fact, they became a bit worse as I am now in competion with lots and lots of tourists.
When you're at a bus stop, it is important to pay close attention to the staff of the bus. There isn't a lot of notice when they are ready to take off. Don't let the bus leave without you.
At the bus stop, they had a choice between a grab food fast from a kabob dealer for 5 TRY or you could spend 15 TRY for one main and a side of rice from a desultory caffiteria. I noticed nobody ate at the caffiteria. I wonder if the other restaurant owners want to burn down that guys shop.
The buses are a pretty smooth ride, though being in the bus seat for so many hours made my back feel like it was on fire. If someone had a film of me in the seat and played it in fast forward, it might look like the torture scene from the Princess Bride. It might have been Niechie who said 'That which does not kill us makes us stronger'. If it were true, I'd be remarkably tough. I'm not. I suspect Niechie was talking about somthing else - or more likely - talking out of his ass.
Eventually, I arrived in a different town. I got reassured by three different people I was indeed in Kayseri. I alwayys check with several people as the language barrier and a healthy dose of stupidity can often get in the way of me knowing things. Whenever I am trying to get information - be it directions, where I am, anything I always interview several people who are not within sight of each other until I get a consensus of at least three.
As I was writing this, I was listening to the five AM call to prayer. I am so happy I am aegnostic. At least there is a chance of sleep.
I had to wait two hours for my connecting bus to Goreme.
Cut to...
What has taken you seconds to read for me has been a troubled and oft interrupted sleep. Visions of the past and perhaps the future are under laid with the strange fluting music of the spheres. Alderaan's not far away.
I get a bit strange when sleep deprived.
I kept a close eye out for Goreme as it was not the last stop on the route but I need not have bothered. The giant stone penis shaped rocks were a big tip off.
ARRIVAL IN GOREME
The first thing I thought when I arrived in Goreme was 'holy fuck, I've wandered into a rocky version of Disney Land'. Talk about masses of tourists, this place is as rotten with them as many of the larger cities in western Europe. The noise of rolling luggage across cobblestones torments my soul.
I wandered over to the tourist information office (conveniently located) and inquired after 'Star Cave'. They called and told me that I'd be picked up. I thought that was nice but was a bit surprised when I ended up 'riding bitch' on a scooter.
The guy who is working the desk is named Ramazon. His happiness with me ebbs and wanes depending on if he believes money is forthcoming. The room is 20 TRY (rather than the 15 TRY on 'wiki-travel', hence I updated it and added other...notes...) and includes a breakfast the which could be excelled only by stale cereal and old milk. Or some mysterious piece of bread that I can buy at a store along with a box of fake juice.
The laundry service is decent though it is the most I've ever paid to have my clothing washed at 15 TRY. It needed it. Badly.
In addition there is a sign up asking people to not bring in alcoholic beverages as they sell them here. In their defense, I did purchase a rather nice bottle of wine I really enjoyed.
As far as the ambiance here it is as Adam said - pretty nifty and extravagant. Not bad for a 20 TRY bed. It isn't very clean however and without the Aussie who owns the place, the other half of the hostel equation is missing as well.
Food is a bit expensive here in 'tourist land' and the hostel has no kitchen I may use. That's OK. I'd rather burn to a different country where buying prepared food is cheap rather than eat anything I've cooked.
As I'd seen several scooters around, I asked Ramazan how much it cost to rent them. He responded that it is 'not my job'. This immediately put the sleep deprived, filthy Logan to a 'well disposed' mood toward him. Then, he wanted to tell me about all of the different tours and such he could get me on. I know he gets a referral cut from this. Attempting to put his hand into Logan's pocket made Logan positively friendly toward him.
When I was working in the hostel and people showed up, one of my first questions for them was "What do you need right now?" Some of them were interested in going to do stuff - others in nothing more than stretching their legs with a nice walk and some in a shower and sleep. I tried not to assume I knew what they wanted.
I walked around a bit after dropping my pack (and chaining it to the bed) and discovered a fancy coffee shop you could buy espressos and such for 4 TRY. I explored still further and found a place where I could buy Turkish coffee for 1.25 TRY.
Looking around, this place reminds me a lot of the stories I've heard about Venice where the tourists wildly outnumber the locals. If tourism stopped and everyone knew it would never again be back, this town would shrink from 5000 residents to 500.
On the second day, I zoomed around on an ATV. I'm not sure if it was pretending to be the late, great Crocodile Hunter Cappadocia or getting to ride the ATV I enjoyed more. That was the best time I had here. If you are going to do it, bring some goggles (they have none) as the dust is really bad - worse if you are in a group. They even hose you down with pressurized air afterward to get rid of some of the dust from your clothing. If you have no goggles, bring eye drops. You'll thank me later.
Also available are horses, camels, scooters and balloons. You will not want for lack of options - if you want to spend the cash.
Speaking of balloons, I think the reason I may end up dumping the cash to do another ATV ride over the same course instead of a balloon ride is that an ATV is an active thing - a balloon ride is a passive thing.
OTHER RANTINGS
While I was looking at my iteniery I was contemplating the next place. If it is $20 or more to hit each place I am interested in visiting, I'll have to get more choosy on what I'm really interested in seeing.
The Turkish flag is everywhere. People seem very proud of their country.
The Turkish alphabet is the first one in awhile that uses characters I'm use to. It is possible to make out what some of the stuff is saying.
Africa is the first country I wish I had an 'African style' fly whisk in. I can understand why many of the natives wear long sleeved shirts and long trousers.
LOOKING FORWARD
After about two days here, I've seen enough pointy rocks. Neat. No, I haven't gone into the 'watch the fat man try to squat in houses in the underground city isn't it funny how inflexible he is' places. I've seen them on TV and thought 'meh'. I am not really interested in cave churches either. Even the guy at the hostel asked "Why did you come to Cappadocia?" Fortunately, I didn't respond with "To be interrogated by assholes." I said "To relax." This irritated him because my relaxing does not put money in his pocket. After one night of sleep and two days in total, I am pretty much ready to move on. Since I can't due to the holiday and the chalked full buses until the fifth I may end up doing the ATV's again, even though the route would be exactly the same.
Other travelers have told me that Anatalya is just as touristic but not as nice as Goreme. This makes me so happy. I think I will try to pay by the night there. Yes, I hear Adam's voice in my head "Hey you stupid bastard, you're going to tourist places - what did you expect?" My answer: Perhaps a bit more subtlety with the hand out? Yes, I know - I'm in Turkey. I will either deal with it or move with alacrity.
TRAVELERS' TIPS
Don't be shy about showing your ticket to several employees at a bus station to make sure you get on the right bus.
The companies that sell tickets are many and varied. Some sell tickets for other places. Some are completely sold out of everything and will tell you that the bus is full. Others will somehow have a seat available. Check around. In America, this type of system would be referred to by the phrase "cluster fuck" but it seems to work here. Sort of. Even the official 'information booth' (marked 'information' in English though the inhabitants of it speak none) is pretty useless. Just walk around and talk to everyone. You'll eventually find the information you need.
Just after Ramadan, there is a festival (Ramazan Bayramı in Turkey) that lasts two to four days, depending on who you talk to. I'd suggest booking well ahead or just stay where you are and don't move till it is over if you are in any Muslim country. Transportation lines and hotels are overflowing. [Side note: As I am writing this, I am listening to a couple of Japanese girls whose whole travel plans have gotten totally fucked due to this holiday. Aren't you glad you read this blog?]
The single most important phrase to learn in any country is 'thank you'.
If you are with an incompetent guide and become lost, stop moving and wait for him to come find you.
TRAVELERS LORE
According to a cool guy I met from Vietnam named Van, Vietnam is twice as cheap as Turkey. Nice.
TURKISH CUSTOMS
They like to spread water upon the ground to 'make it cooler' and keep the dust down.
COSTS
Can of soda, 2 TRY at bus stop restaurant, 3 TRY in Cappadocia
Soe sort of chicken sandwich at bus stop, 5 TRY
Bottle of Cappadocian wine, 20 TRY
ATV - you must get a guide but it is included with the price. Totally worth it IMO, 60 TRY
Most other dorm living (including a place called the 'Flintstones' which bears no resemblance to the cartoon and that is a pity) has dorm beds for 25 TRY. I didn't ask if they included a shitty breakfast with that.
A half hour massage, 50 Euros. When the guy said Euros I tried not to burst out laughing. By his expression, I don't think I was controlling my facial muscles well enough. But I did try. So, for half an hour of massage, you can go on a two or three hour balloon ride that includes breakfast and possibly lunch. I'll leave you to think which is the better.
WANDERING AROUND GOREME
I was wandering around Goreme and accidentally wandered onto the death march known as 'Pigeon Valley'. It was a fairly arduous climb. Well, for me anyway. And I was totally unprepared for what it turned into - I wasn't carrying water, was wearing flip flops and carrying a sweater. Eventually, it became the 'in for a penny in for a pound' sort of thing that my stubborn streak likes to go up against. I'm glad in this case I did because I met a Vietnamese guy named Van who I got to chat with for quite some time. I also met a nice Dutch family (husband and wife with a baby in a backpack thing) and an old man who sold tea very close to the terminus of the trip. I addressed him as 'the smartest man alive'. Unfortunately, he did not have a backgammon board or I would have spent even more time there. It was a pretty good amount of walking that I didn't want to repeat again in any circumstances.
VIDEO
Stone Penis
Paco
Cappadocia Hunter
Holmes Needed
Meet the Horse
Tosspot Helmets
Location, location and...
Fresh TV
The Walls
Friday, September 2, 2011
TURKEY - THE ARRIVAL
CORRECTION
TRY is not the correct symbol for Turkish Lira. For some reason, it is TRY. Hence, I am TRYing to use TRY instead. If I accidentally use the wrong symbol, please TRY to deal with it.
TURKEY, THE ARRIVAL
Coming into eastern Turkey, I was struck by how brown everything is. The people are brown, the earth is brown, the hay that seems to be the only crop is brown as well. Well, at least the Turks don't have to pay for expensive tanning 'treatments'. Lucky. [Disclaimer: The land turned green once I left eastern Turkey. This does not mean the people did as well. Though that would have been interesting.]
Two thoughts struck me as we entered in to Turkey. First, it was like we were climbing up the inside of a big, brown bowl. The second was that whoever said something about the roads being better as soon as they entered Turkey from Georgia was full of shit. The buses were better, true, but the roads were still crap.
Eastern Turkey has a lot of wild and remote places as we wound our way through.
At one point, the bus made an unannounced stop. About half of the passengers leapt out. I didn't know what the hell was going on but the people didn't look alarmed or anything so I just sat and waited it out. After about two minutes everyone who had gotten out quickly resumed their seats and we were off again. It turns out there was a 'holy spring' there and they had anointed themselves at it. I couldn't help wondering if it was hose fed, like the one in Georgia.
On the bus, I met a Swiss girl named Mary Ann. To the question of if she had her Swiss Army Knife on her the answer was 'Of course!'. Reference my earlier blog entry on it.
Turns out that she had a place she wanted to try staying at named the Gungoren Hotel. I didn't really have any firm plans so we agreed to share a room. Prices there were 40 TRY for a single The double room started at 80 TRY but if you objected they quickly dropped to 70 TL. Through hard bargaining we managed to get them to 55 TRY. Everything in Turkey is negotiable.
It was a so so place. Not bad, not especially good. Mary Ann liked the breakfast. I thought it was some cold, nasty shit I didn't want to eat. I got breakfast at a grocery store. The laundry at this 'hotel' (I'll be nice and give it one or two stars) is an amazing 2 TRY for a single shirt. WTF. I had written that it might be Cappadocia before I got clean clothing. I had no idea I would be on the money with that. The English spoken by the staff was abysmally bad and got worse if they didn't want to understand you. Personally, I wouldn't recommend the hotel to anyone.
My initial plan had been to see Ani, then sleep in Kars then see Kars the next day then sleep again taking off the day after. After wandering around Kars a little bit (and remembering my earlier research) I decided their was nothing I wanted to see in Kars so I decided to cut my visit there short. This left Mary Ann in a bit of a lurch with the room but she is stubborn and decided to stay anyway.
To save money, she was initially talking about hitchhiking out to Ani and back but she decided to just spend the 35 TRY and go out with the group. She didn't believe three hours to see the ruins of Ani were enough. I figured the guide had taken out enough tourists over the last seven years he'd been doing it to know how long they usually took. The guide mollified her by saying they'd delay the bus back an extra half hour if need be.
TO THE LOST CITY OF ANI
The drive through Kars confirmed my earlier opinion of it and my complete disinterest in seeing any more of the city. The tour guide himself was very cool and let me bring my backpack. He said they'd drop me off at the bus station so I could get on to where I was wanting to go after Ani.
The highway to Ani was pretty deserted. I think getting there via hitchhiking would be pretty rough. Tourist buses were the only ones who were going there and the one we were in did not stop for hitchhikers. It is probably possible to hitchhike back with a tour company but if you paid to get out there, you've paid for a round trip already - might as well use it.
I did the walk through Ani, leaving the group far behind. It was pretty cool. I'm glad I chose to wear my disintegrating shoes rather than my flip flops for it. There was some light climbing involved and plenty of feet hazards.
Ani really didn't strike me emotionally at all - it was ruins. No really nifty carvings on anything. There was a couple of interesting ruins (see Ani photographs) and a very nice panorama shot of a river in a canyon. That was about it really worth mentioning. I am glad I went but wouldn't visit it again.
I made it through Ani in about an hour - the others, say two and a half hours. My goal wasn't to sprint through Ani but unless something has 'intrinsic interest', I simply don't care. In other words, if there is a pile of rubble that was until one hundred years ago the most significant building in this part of the world, I don't care. I'd rather see something interesting now. If I have to read about it to be impressed by it, I don't really care that much. I call this 'intrinsic coolness'. Ani had some but there was a lot of stuff that wasn't as well. Be advised that the amount of time you spend in travel from Kars to Ani will equal or exceed the amount of time you spend in Kars itself. It's worth seeing if you are close but I wouldn't make a detour to catch it. Again, I'm happy I went - perhaps because it was my first 'lost city'.
It was interesting. On the way to Ani, the other tourists in the bus were much more excited and talkative than on the way back. They looked bored and frustrated. I am thinking Ani may not have touched them in a special way.
Also, unless your kids can climb small rocky hills, I don't advise bringing them. I saw some people dragging in a stroller and I wondered how the fuck they would manage with that.
Through making videos and pictures, I managed to drain my camera. The border guards served me tea and cake while we hung out in the guard shack recharging it. We hung out in the 'no smoking' shack and exchanged cigarettes and smoked.
It seems that from an early age, people living near tourist areas work at making money off of the tourists. Kids ran out bottles of cold water for 1 TRY. I had brought my own. But it was interesting to see the capitalist system working so hard. In fact, on my travels through Turkey I have been mentally classifying people into one of two groups - those who are looking to make some money off of me and those who aren't. Both groups can contain nice people but knowing at the end of the day someone wondering how much money they can make off of you does color your dealings with them.
After everyone had been sitting in the bus and waiting for awhile, Mary Ann (the Swiss lady) showed up and said she was right - three hours and some was not enough for her to significantly plumb the depths of Ani. I gave her the traditional goodbye I had learned in Hungary of "See ya!" and we got underway back to Kars. She was an interesting person but our traveling styles were too different. I was happy to get out on my own quickly. Well, at least I saved a few Lira off of the first night's lodgings.
On the way back from Ani, we saw three hay carts parked on the highway. No people, no horses - just a hay cart. I thought 'My, what an extraordinarily dangerous and stupid place to leave a huge, over packed hay cart!'
The slick person who had hooked us up with the ride out to Ani is named "Celil Ersozoglu". I'm naming him as a good contact within Kars because he was personally standing there at the bus station when we pulled up. He made sure I had enough water, walked with me to get a cheep kabob and got me onto the bus. It was like clockwork. I'd recommend him as a personal guide if you can afford it. I don't imagine someone that good comes cheap.
Because I wanted to do all of my 'due diligence', I tried to check to see if it was possible to go straight to Cappadocia (Goreme). No, I was told it wasn't. So I purchased a 15 TRY ticket for Erzuru. From there it would be other transfers and such to get me to Kahta. After Ani, my desire to go to Nemrut Dagai had been much quenched but I figured if I couldn't get a ticket to Cappadocia and could to Kahta, what the hell, I'd go with the flow.
The road to Erzuru wound around and followed a river. Everything (except the people) got much greener.
At the Erzuru bus station I was introduced to the concept of 'free' translators. These eager young men (all men) would leap to helping you with your ticket. I believe that it does increase the price of the ticket but since I was tired and confused, I was OK with having my ticket price raised 5-10 TRY for some guy to sort through all of the crap at this chaotic bus station. I interviewed my 'tauter' Ferhat. He has worked at this job since he was 14-15 years old. A good day of hustling can get him about 25 TRY. He is currently going to university to study tourism. There are a lot of these guys with very rough English.
I consulted with the bus people on what would be needed to get to the Nemrut Dagi and it turned out to be five or six difficult waiting for new dolmuş every time. For hours. I asked myself "Just how bad do I want to see these giant heads?" The answer - not that goddamn much. I envy Adam and his ease of the truck.
So, I decided to make a break for Cappadocia. He detailed an easy route that took me to Kayseri. I asked how much it was to go to there and was told sixty lira.
I told Ferhat I needed to get some more money from an ATM. For some reason, they had no ATM's at the Erzuru bus station. I went to the one directed but the screen was in direct sunlight for god knows how many years, hence that didn't work either. The next one was a one kilometer round trip. Or further. But I got the money. By the time I got back, the bus I was going to leave on had split so I had to go to Ankora instead.
He quoted a price of sixty again till I yelled that is what he had quoted to go to the further away place of Kayseri. In the next breath dropped the price to fifty. Everything is negotiable. Every price has been inflated as a built in stupidity check. Try not to fail it.
So, I had him take me to where the bus was to show up. At the appointed time, it utterly failed to materialize. One of the other 'tauters' did instead. They seem to work as a team. He had two unhappy looking tourists with him. He informed me it was time to go on a taxi ride. I said 'Will it cost me anything'. I was told it wouldn't. So, we drove with an old taxi driver out into the middle of nowhere. And waited.
Rather than being killed for my meager loot, a bus showed up and we all got on.
Next time - the bus to Goreme!
GENERAL OPINIONS OF TURKEY
If you don't enjoy or at least tolerate bargaining/haggling, you won't like Turkey.
I've been classifying people I've met into two flavors. The people that are wanting money from me and those that aren't expecting it. Both can be nice but knowing someone is wanting to make a buck (lira) off of you does tend to color the relationship.
TRAVELER'S LORE
(From Mary Ann) She recommends buying a silk sleeping bag. It is a sleeping bag shaped piece of silk you can sleep inside of on those scary occasions when you don't want to touch the bed or the sheets. It packs down to the size and weight of a shirt. Seems like a good investment to me - I'll keep an eye open. Unless I forget about it. Again.
COSTS
Round trip to Ani (getting dropped off there, no tour) 35 TRY.
Entrance to Ani, 5 TRY.
Locals advise avoiding the water in Turkey.
Be advised that when you buy transportation (and possibly even a tour) the chances of you getting the suave, erudite person with you who sold you the tour are slim. You will probably get one of their flunkies who may or may not know anything and may or may not speak English. Verify this strongly in advance if you are basing the tour strictly on spending time with the person selling it.
Gas prices in Turkey, 4.40 TRY per liter. Stop yer bitching, America. After conversion, it's $9.55 per gallon here. And the taxis are still so much less.
Cheap kabob, 2.5 TRY. Super-sized kabob, 4 TRY.
Bottle of 'very nice' red Turkish wine, brewed in Cappadocia region, 20 TRY. (Note, this is the same price as Georgian wine. I like both but I am not a 'wine snob'. I did decide to try one purely for 'scientific research'.)
"Turkish night" - some restaurant offers this cultural experience of observing dancing as well as eating and drinking (alcohol) as much as you can hold - 75 TRY. Considered a 'good deal' in alcohol alone. It's a 'go get plastered' night. Eight to eleven or midnight depending on the guests. This sounds like an interesting thing I will probably try out.
.75 TRY to use a disgusting bathroom.
TURKISH CUSTOMS
Using scented alcohol to clean the hands and face is a common occurrence.
Some buses have a buzzer that goes off when a certain speed is passed. Most don't. Hope for one that doesn't have such a buzzer. You're going to have many close calls and near death experiences anyway. You might as well get there a little faster.
The driver of the bus enjoys certain privilages that the passengers and other people working on the bus do not. They may smoke when they wish, play music and so on. Other passengers may not. This is odd to me, but if it keeps him awake, great.
The price of everything - including bus tickets is negotiable.
PHILOSOPHY
I don't mind paying for stuff if I'm enjoying it - but if I'm thinking 'meh', I am happy to 'fast forward' to the next good bit.
VIDEOS
Ani first view
Ani smoking view
Goreme intro
TRY is not the correct symbol for Turkish Lira. For some reason, it is TRY. Hence, I am TRYing to use TRY instead. If I accidentally use the wrong symbol, please TRY to deal with it.
TURKEY, THE ARRIVAL
Coming into eastern Turkey, I was struck by how brown everything is. The people are brown, the earth is brown, the hay that seems to be the only crop is brown as well. Well, at least the Turks don't have to pay for expensive tanning 'treatments'. Lucky. [Disclaimer: The land turned green once I left eastern Turkey. This does not mean the people did as well. Though that would have been interesting.]
Two thoughts struck me as we entered in to Turkey. First, it was like we were climbing up the inside of a big, brown bowl. The second was that whoever said something about the roads being better as soon as they entered Turkey from Georgia was full of shit. The buses were better, true, but the roads were still crap.
Eastern Turkey has a lot of wild and remote places as we wound our way through.
At one point, the bus made an unannounced stop. About half of the passengers leapt out. I didn't know what the hell was going on but the people didn't look alarmed or anything so I just sat and waited it out. After about two minutes everyone who had gotten out quickly resumed their seats and we were off again. It turns out there was a 'holy spring' there and they had anointed themselves at it. I couldn't help wondering if it was hose fed, like the one in Georgia.
On the bus, I met a Swiss girl named Mary Ann. To the question of if she had her Swiss Army Knife on her the answer was 'Of course!'. Reference my earlier blog entry on it.
Turns out that she had a place she wanted to try staying at named the Gungoren Hotel. I didn't really have any firm plans so we agreed to share a room. Prices there were 40 TRY for a single The double room started at 80 TRY but if you objected they quickly dropped to 70 TL. Through hard bargaining we managed to get them to 55 TRY. Everything in Turkey is negotiable.
It was a so so place. Not bad, not especially good. Mary Ann liked the breakfast. I thought it was some cold, nasty shit I didn't want to eat. I got breakfast at a grocery store. The laundry at this 'hotel' (I'll be nice and give it one or two stars) is an amazing 2 TRY for a single shirt. WTF. I had written that it might be Cappadocia before I got clean clothing. I had no idea I would be on the money with that. The English spoken by the staff was abysmally bad and got worse if they didn't want to understand you. Personally, I wouldn't recommend the hotel to anyone.
My initial plan had been to see Ani, then sleep in Kars then see Kars the next day then sleep again taking off the day after. After wandering around Kars a little bit (and remembering my earlier research) I decided their was nothing I wanted to see in Kars so I decided to cut my visit there short. This left Mary Ann in a bit of a lurch with the room but she is stubborn and decided to stay anyway.
To save money, she was initially talking about hitchhiking out to Ani and back but she decided to just spend the 35 TRY and go out with the group. She didn't believe three hours to see the ruins of Ani were enough. I figured the guide had taken out enough tourists over the last seven years he'd been doing it to know how long they usually took. The guide mollified her by saying they'd delay the bus back an extra half hour if need be.
TO THE LOST CITY OF ANI
The drive through Kars confirmed my earlier opinion of it and my complete disinterest in seeing any more of the city. The tour guide himself was very cool and let me bring my backpack. He said they'd drop me off at the bus station so I could get on to where I was wanting to go after Ani.
The highway to Ani was pretty deserted. I think getting there via hitchhiking would be pretty rough. Tourist buses were the only ones who were going there and the one we were in did not stop for hitchhikers. It is probably possible to hitchhike back with a tour company but if you paid to get out there, you've paid for a round trip already - might as well use it.
I did the walk through Ani, leaving the group far behind. It was pretty cool. I'm glad I chose to wear my disintegrating shoes rather than my flip flops for it. There was some light climbing involved and plenty of feet hazards.
Ani really didn't strike me emotionally at all - it was ruins. No really nifty carvings on anything. There was a couple of interesting ruins (see Ani photographs) and a very nice panorama shot of a river in a canyon. That was about it really worth mentioning. I am glad I went but wouldn't visit it again.
I made it through Ani in about an hour - the others, say two and a half hours. My goal wasn't to sprint through Ani but unless something has 'intrinsic interest', I simply don't care. In other words, if there is a pile of rubble that was until one hundred years ago the most significant building in this part of the world, I don't care. I'd rather see something interesting now. If I have to read about it to be impressed by it, I don't really care that much. I call this 'intrinsic coolness'. Ani had some but there was a lot of stuff that wasn't as well. Be advised that the amount of time you spend in travel from Kars to Ani will equal or exceed the amount of time you spend in Kars itself. It's worth seeing if you are close but I wouldn't make a detour to catch it. Again, I'm happy I went - perhaps because it was my first 'lost city'.
It was interesting. On the way to Ani, the other tourists in the bus were much more excited and talkative than on the way back. They looked bored and frustrated. I am thinking Ani may not have touched them in a special way.
Also, unless your kids can climb small rocky hills, I don't advise bringing them. I saw some people dragging in a stroller and I wondered how the fuck they would manage with that.
Through making videos and pictures, I managed to drain my camera. The border guards served me tea and cake while we hung out in the guard shack recharging it. We hung out in the 'no smoking' shack and exchanged cigarettes and smoked.
It seems that from an early age, people living near tourist areas work at making money off of the tourists. Kids ran out bottles of cold water for 1 TRY. I had brought my own. But it was interesting to see the capitalist system working so hard. In fact, on my travels through Turkey I have been mentally classifying people into one of two groups - those who are looking to make some money off of me and those who aren't. Both groups can contain nice people but knowing at the end of the day someone wondering how much money they can make off of you does color your dealings with them.
After everyone had been sitting in the bus and waiting for awhile, Mary Ann (the Swiss lady) showed up and said she was right - three hours and some was not enough for her to significantly plumb the depths of Ani. I gave her the traditional goodbye I had learned in Hungary of "See ya!" and we got underway back to Kars. She was an interesting person but our traveling styles were too different. I was happy to get out on my own quickly. Well, at least I saved a few Lira off of the first night's lodgings.
On the way back from Ani, we saw three hay carts parked on the highway. No people, no horses - just a hay cart. I thought 'My, what an extraordinarily dangerous and stupid place to leave a huge, over packed hay cart!'
The slick person who had hooked us up with the ride out to Ani is named "Celil Ersozoglu". I'm naming him as a good contact within Kars because he was personally standing there at the bus station when we pulled up. He made sure I had enough water, walked with me to get a cheep kabob and got me onto the bus. It was like clockwork. I'd recommend him as a personal guide if you can afford it. I don't imagine someone that good comes cheap.
Because I wanted to do all of my 'due diligence', I tried to check to see if it was possible to go straight to Cappadocia (Goreme). No, I was told it wasn't. So I purchased a 15 TRY ticket for Erzuru. From there it would be other transfers and such to get me to Kahta. After Ani, my desire to go to Nemrut Dagai had been much quenched but I figured if I couldn't get a ticket to Cappadocia and could to Kahta, what the hell, I'd go with the flow.
The road to Erzuru wound around and followed a river. Everything (except the people) got much greener.
At the Erzuru bus station I was introduced to the concept of 'free' translators. These eager young men (all men) would leap to helping you with your ticket. I believe that it does increase the price of the ticket but since I was tired and confused, I was OK with having my ticket price raised 5-10 TRY for some guy to sort through all of the crap at this chaotic bus station. I interviewed my 'tauter' Ferhat. He has worked at this job since he was 14-15 years old. A good day of hustling can get him about 25 TRY. He is currently going to university to study tourism. There are a lot of these guys with very rough English.
I consulted with the bus people on what would be needed to get to the Nemrut Dagi and it turned out to be five or six difficult waiting for new dolmuş every time. For hours. I asked myself "Just how bad do I want to see these giant heads?" The answer - not that goddamn much. I envy Adam and his ease of the truck.
So, I decided to make a break for Cappadocia. He detailed an easy route that took me to Kayseri. I asked how much it was to go to there and was told sixty lira.
I told Ferhat I needed to get some more money from an ATM. For some reason, they had no ATM's at the Erzuru bus station. I went to the one directed but the screen was in direct sunlight for god knows how many years, hence that didn't work either. The next one was a one kilometer round trip. Or further. But I got the money. By the time I got back, the bus I was going to leave on had split so I had to go to Ankora instead.
He quoted a price of sixty again till I yelled that is what he had quoted to go to the further away place of Kayseri. In the next breath dropped the price to fifty. Everything is negotiable. Every price has been inflated as a built in stupidity check. Try not to fail it.
So, I had him take me to where the bus was to show up. At the appointed time, it utterly failed to materialize. One of the other 'tauters' did instead. They seem to work as a team. He had two unhappy looking tourists with him. He informed me it was time to go on a taxi ride. I said 'Will it cost me anything'. I was told it wouldn't. So, we drove with an old taxi driver out into the middle of nowhere. And waited.
Rather than being killed for my meager loot, a bus showed up and we all got on.
Next time - the bus to Goreme!
GENERAL OPINIONS OF TURKEY
If you don't enjoy or at least tolerate bargaining/haggling, you won't like Turkey.
I've been classifying people I've met into two flavors. The people that are wanting money from me and those that aren't expecting it. Both can be nice but knowing someone is wanting to make a buck (lira) off of you does tend to color the relationship.
TRAVELER'S LORE
(From Mary Ann) She recommends buying a silk sleeping bag. It is a sleeping bag shaped piece of silk you can sleep inside of on those scary occasions when you don't want to touch the bed or the sheets. It packs down to the size and weight of a shirt. Seems like a good investment to me - I'll keep an eye open. Unless I forget about it. Again.
COSTS
Round trip to Ani (getting dropped off there, no tour) 35 TRY.
Entrance to Ani, 5 TRY.
Locals advise avoiding the water in Turkey.
Be advised that when you buy transportation (and possibly even a tour) the chances of you getting the suave, erudite person with you who sold you the tour are slim. You will probably get one of their flunkies who may or may not know anything and may or may not speak English. Verify this strongly in advance if you are basing the tour strictly on spending time with the person selling it.
Gas prices in Turkey, 4.40 TRY per liter. Stop yer bitching, America. After conversion, it's $9.55 per gallon here. And the taxis are still so much less.
Cheap kabob, 2.5 TRY. Super-sized kabob, 4 TRY.
Bottle of 'very nice' red Turkish wine, brewed in Cappadocia region, 20 TRY. (Note, this is the same price as Georgian wine. I like both but I am not a 'wine snob'. I did decide to try one purely for 'scientific research'.)
"Turkish night" - some restaurant offers this cultural experience of observing dancing as well as eating and drinking (alcohol) as much as you can hold - 75 TRY. Considered a 'good deal' in alcohol alone. It's a 'go get plastered' night. Eight to eleven or midnight depending on the guests. This sounds like an interesting thing I will probably try out.
.75 TRY to use a disgusting bathroom.
TURKISH CUSTOMS
Using scented alcohol to clean the hands and face is a common occurrence.
Some buses have a buzzer that goes off when a certain speed is passed. Most don't. Hope for one that doesn't have such a buzzer. You're going to have many close calls and near death experiences anyway. You might as well get there a little faster.
The driver of the bus enjoys certain privilages that the passengers and other people working on the bus do not. They may smoke when they wish, play music and so on. Other passengers may not. This is odd to me, but if it keeps him awake, great.
The price of everything - including bus tickets is negotiable.
PHILOSOPHY
I don't mind paying for stuff if I'm enjoying it - but if I'm thinking 'meh', I am happy to 'fast forward' to the next good bit.
VIDEOS
Ani first view
Ani smoking view
Goreme intro
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)