So it begins

More Hiking

Published Date : November 2, 2004

It was a very early start this morning with everybody eager to get going and get into the warmth of the bus.  Our first stop for the day was a caravanserai.  The road we were following was one of the two old Silk Roads, and a caravanserai is where the camel trains would stop and shelter for the night.  It was very picturesque and I could imagine it bustling with trade back in its heyday.  Apparently we’ll be seeing a lot more of them as we head into Syria.

Next on the agenda for the day was the Ihlara Valley after a spot of lunch.  Ihlara is another one of those hidden valleys that just appears out of nowhere.  This one was used by the Christians to hide from the Muslims in the early days of Christianity and there are 12 churches carved into the cliffs.  It was a two-hour 8km hike from top to bottom.  I wasn’t all that interested in the churches, but the walk was fantastic!  We just followed the stream all the way down the valley, passing the occasional local with their mule or flock of sheep. 

I’ve had my Tevas for a while, but between yesterday and today, this is the first time I’ve really put them through their paces.  They are simply nowhere near as solid a trekking sandal as my old MEC ones, but unfortunately they were the best I could find in London.  Speaking of not being solid, I managed to pull/strain something in my left foot along the way today.  I actually heard/felt something pop at one point.  It was excruciating at the time, but it doesn’t hurt at the moment, so I’m not sure what’s up.  I’ll have to keep an eye on it for the next little while.

The usual suspects were over an hour late back to the bus so we missed out on going to Kaymakli, an underground city.  We have time to do it tomorrow, but nobody was happy.  Apparently Mel is going to have a chat with them about their inability to be on time for anything.  Hopefully it helps.  Several of us are pushing her to start leaving them behind – thatwill teach them pretty quickly.

Our destination for the night is Goreme, where we’re staying at Rock Valley Pension.  We were looking forward to nice hot showers and warm rooms after our bush camp, but it just isn’t in the cards.  There’s very, very limited hot water and the advertised central heating just doesn’t exist.  Our room is absolutely freezing and we’ve given up on trying to have showers.  I’m sharing with Molly, Lisa B, Adele, Sarah and Andi.

An early night for everyone tonight.

A very full day

Published Date : November 3, 2004

It was yet another early start today for a tour of Cappadocia and the Zelve Open-Air Museum.  Zelve is another cave town carved out of the rock and it was inhabited up until the 1950s.  It was a beautiful morning to be out exploring and a lot of fun climbing around what’s left of the town. Unfortunately, we’ve seen too many ancient cities/temples/churches carved into cliff faces in the last couple of weeks and they’re all starting to blend together.  It also doesn’t help that we only have a couple of hours at the most at any of these sites, so we barely get a chance to scratch the surface.

After leaving Zelve, we stopped for a pottery demonstration.  The owners of the small family-run business showed us a bit of how they make their creations then set us loose in the shop.  I ended buying a couple of small traditional masks, while some others went totally nuts and bought entire dinnerware sets.

After a quick lunch, we moved on to Kaymakli to see the underground city we missed yesterday.  Kaymakli was a fantastic site and I would have loved to explore it in depth with fresh eyes.  Still suffering from burn-out though, most of us didn’t stay inside for long.  We had more fun playing with some of the local kids who came to investigate us.

Continuing our full day, most of the group went on to a Turkish bath after lunch.  There were quite a few of us who decided not to do it for one reason or another so we had a couple of hours of free time to explore.  Most of us ended up making the most of a local internet café and caught up on our emails for 1 million lira per hour.

Returning to Goreme, we had a couple of hours of downtime before gearing up for our Turkish night.  We were taken to a local restaurant by mini-bus where we enjoyed a great meal, free wine, beer, raki (an anise flavoured Turkish alcohol) and vodka all night long.  While we ate we were entertained with some fabulous performances by traditional Turkish dancers and a belly dancer.  We also had the opportunity to see Whirling Dervishes in action.  Back at the hostel we all partied late into the night.  Some were a bit more dysfunctional than others by the end of it!  It was a great way to end our time in Turkey.

Free Day

Published Date : November 4, 2004

Today was a free day.  After sleeping in, I took the opportunity to run some errands and catch up on some emails and phone calls.  I also did a bit of shopping, buying a couple of lightweight, long-sleeved tops to wear now that we’re moving on to some more conservative countries in the region.

Tomorrow it’s on to Syria!

Unpleasant Welcome

Published Date : November 5, 2004

Today was a very long day of driving today followed by a long wait at the border where our agent passed us through customs on a cheap group visa – only US$15 each.  There was a noticeable change as soon as we crossed the border, both in the physical landscape and the general atmosphere.  After Turkey’s relaxed attitude, the strict adherence to Ramadan in Syria was a bit of a shock, even though we were expecting it.

We arrived in Aleppo in the dark, but not as late as it seemed.  Thanks to daylight savings it’s dark at about 4:30pm.  Aleppo is the oldest and second largest city in the country, population of about 3 million.  It’s popular enough that there’s a tourist infrastructure in place, but far enough off the main tourist track that foreigners are still a novelty.

Our dinner tonight was falafel sandwiches at a little shop around the corner from our hotel.  I wasn’t expecting much, so I was pleasantly surprised, it was quite tasty.  After dinner, Mel took us on a quick walking tour of the area. Being after dark in the midst of Ramadan there were practically no women to be seen and the atmosphere was far from friendly for the women in our group.  None of us minded being a freak show – people were constantly stopping to blatantly stare at all of us, guys and girls – but the groping was just too much.  I had my bum grabbed a couple of times and experienced a few exaggerated leg brushes, but I never could tell who the culprits were in the crowd.  Andi was on the receiving end of a full crotch grab and she immediately dropped the guy with a right cross!!  That sorted the crowds out pretty quickly – the immediate crowd anyway.  It all started again as soon as we rounded the next corner.

After the quick tour around the block, a couple of us went to the Baron Hotel for drinks (yes there is alcohol to be found even in Muslim countries).  It cost 100SP (about $2) for a 3% Syrian beer.  It was really quite flavourful, with the dark smoky look of a home brew.  Aside from cheap drinks, the Baron Hotel was the terminal station of the Orient Express and been host to people like Agatha Christie and Lawrence of Arabia.