Mardin, Turkey


2:04 PM Carisa: tell me a story !
2:12 PM me: Yosuke, Josh, Rajay, wai and I got off the bus. We were in Mardin. The way that the lonely planet described it was that it “emerges like a phoenix from the roasted Mesopotamian plains”. It stood on top of this mountain looking over this valley. As soon as we stepped off we had this taxi cab driver shoving us into his cab although it only fit 4 people, and there were 5 of us with back packs as huge as we were. They stuffed the trunk and tied it down with a piece of string they found in the garbage can. We packed in reluctantly, and the driver speed off on the old coble stone road. I watched Wai's backpack shift and shift until it was almost hanging out of the trunk. Luckily the string held. The hostel it took us to is just another story...

Haran, Turkey

So at this point in the game we were three separate traveling groups; Wai & I, Josh & Rajay, and Yosuke. We each planned our own rough itinerary but we decided to just continue traveling together. It’s hard to leave new found friends. We convinced each other that we’d do a long tour of the Harran ruins in Eastern Turkey. Again, it was just the handful of us which was perfect.

Writing this blog I almost forget how painfully hot it was, it was demoralizing but we trekked on. The first place was the remains of a grand mosque called Ulu Camii. Next door to this were some locals that lived in beehive type housings made of mud and sticks. The kids would ask to wear my sunglasses and then immediately say “gift?” with a huge smile, sadly I wasn’t that kind. We also strolled through the Harran Castle (Harran Ic Kalesi) which looked like it was about to crumble underneath my feat. There were plenty of other places we visited but I’ll just talk about three more locations.

Standing inside the Bazda Caves

So that was the short tour and I’m glad we continued for the long one because I just couldn’t enjoy those ruins and sites compared to the rest. The tour guide brought us out to the middle of this desert no-man’s-land. We walked into this caved that was used for excavating large stones for building structures, the Pyramids? It escapes my mind. The cave was enormous, we saw people drive their cars and bikes in there to take naps because it was nice and cool.

Talking to the local kids.

We stopped at this place called Han-el Ba’rur Caravanserai where these kids ran up to meet us. These kids were as cheerful and bright as their clothes. The guide would sing children songs with them as we just sat across from them in the walk way. Most kids, besides these ones, would always pester you saying “money money” holding out their hand and wouldn’t leave you alone. You feel a little bad, but there are just so many kids begging.

Catching the light.

This picture of Wai was taken in this small underground room at the bottom of a mound in Suayb. There are numerous mounds filled with small rooms and tiny dark passage ways. I had to pull out my cell phone just to illuminate my path. Half the time, you’re hunched over in a dark room trying to listen for someone’s voice and somewhat wander over there. It reminded me of a dungeon from one of these fantasy video games i used to play.

Sanliurfa, Turkey

I really should write up reviews for the hostels that I really appreciated. I suppose I should also write ones up for ones that sucked ass. (ie: the one where my shorts were stolen.) But I digress; this place in Sanliurfa was great. The host was friendly and reminded me of one of my parent’s friends. It turns out he would be our tour guide the following day. We would sit outside on the patio with all our cameras on the table. The host would bring us chai and sugar, later he gave us ice cream and pastries. Yosuke would smoke his cigarette contemplating our next sight. Wai and the two Australian guys (Josh and Rajay) would argue about what the moon looks like. I’d sit there eating off the ice cream while no one was looking.

Two Canons, and Three Nikons.

I wonder at what point in life I’ll stop staying in hostels.

Mt. Nemrut, Turkey

What another guided tour? Blasphemy.

Standing on top of the mountain where the Arsameia Ruins are.

After another over night bus ride we arrive at the town of Kahta to be shuffled off to a hostel. People are quick to offer their services or hostels. We started to travel with this guy named Yosuke and decided to follow his guide book recommendation. We setup a tour with this hostel for the latter half of the day to catch the sunset on Mt. Nemrut.

Staring into the distance on the East face of Mt Nemrut.

I think I actually preferred this type of tour because it primarily was just a driver announcing a destination, a brief description if inquired, and no real time limit and we’d leave when the handful of us decided we were done with the spot. It was a nice small group which we made good friends with and continued to travel with for about a week.

The heads on Mt. Nemrut watching the sunset on the West face.

After a small trek up to the top of Mt. Nemrut we realized that it may have been a better choice to catch the morning tour to catch the sunrise. There are statues on both the East and West side but it has better reconstruction on the East face.

Cappadocia, Turkey

Cappadocia is this huge region in the middle of Turkey and Goreme is only this tiny portion of it. So we’ve lost one day recovering, one day exploring Goreme’s valley’s and open air museums. Some of the people we met at the hostel actually suggested joining them on a tour. After a bit of debate we hesitantly agreed to do a tour only because I wanted to visit this Ihlara Valley which you can only get to if you have a car or if you do this tour. Public transportation to this Valley seemed almost nonexistent.

Giant rolling door to the underground city.

We drive out a few hours from Goreme to these rolling hills and fields of nothingness. Off in the distance you can see an inactive volcano. We arrive in this flat town in Derinkuyu and in the middle of it is this endless underground city. This place is massive. It goes down eleven floors, it could accommodate up to fifty thousand people, and even a wine press room. This rolling door was used to keep out enemies.

Wai lounging at the bottom Ihlara Valley

I thought this place was bad ass. Too bad we were stuck with a tour group because it seems like there’s so much to explore and hike around in this valley. Supposedly it would take a day to walk the entire length of the Valley, or maybe the brochure said you could spend a day hiking here. The reason this place appealed to me was because it’s in the middle of nowhere, flat fields and small rolling hills and then this anomaly of a canyon with its steep walls. In the middle of our hike was a small rugged snack/café place with benches in the middle of the creek, an easy place to take off your shoes and take a nap.

Staring up at the remains of the Selhime Monastery.

At the end of the valley was an opening and at one of the corners was this maze of a Monastery. Supposedly there was ways to climb all the way to the top inside the carved out passageways, but apparently it was too dark, steep, and dangerous. We at least took our flashlights to check out the entrance of this passage way.

Goreme, Turkey

Pottery tree

On our way to the Goreme's Open Air museum there was this pottery store that placed a crap load of pots all over this dead tree. I'm guessing this was one of the original ideas of hanging their goods on a dead tree, as later i saw fake dead trees holding jewlery and the evil eyes at touristy spots. Just a guess.

Multiple rooms in the Open Air Museum

The museum was filled with endless amounts of tiny churches. Some of them looked like you could only fit maybe ten people inside at most. This picture of Wai was just a normal room but it seemed the roof caved in from the upstairs. I was told that the Open Air Museum at the neighboring town is way better.

Bouldering in Love Valley.

Maybe a V1? I'd go farther if the rock wasn't made of sand. So Wai and I spent half a day Venturing out into Love Valley. The trail wasn't properly marked and we found ourselves back at Goreme. We knew the valley ran parallel to our road so we ventured out and looked for a way down. We ended up finding this animal path that we hiked/slid/tumbled down for a few hundred feet. We saw what we came for, huge falic formations of stone. Hence the name of the valley. If you want to see the giant penis rocks, you can check out my photo set later when i sort my pictures.

Goreme, Turkey

So this will be the second entry dedicated to a hostel. We took an overnight bus to Goreme to see all of Capadocia. Arriving at 5:30am we started to look for this recommended place but found it was full. Lazy eyed and freezing we wandered up the hill to this place called Fairy Chimney Hotel. It was a bit pricey but we were so tired we said sure why not, it's nice and we can switch to another hostel later.

Waiting for dinner to be served.

Having slept for half a day they asked us if we wanted dinner which was a three course meal. I thought, Let's see what this place has to offer. The food was great. We would eat out on the patio under the grape leaves and fig trees. They brought out this huge pot of boiling soup, salad with Pomegranate sauce, Sactava (Turkish stew?) served on rice, and some dessert with ice cream. I asked for seconds which wasn't a problem at all. A plus.

Fairy Chimney Hotel.

So the big thing about goreme and Cappadocia is the houses created by burrowing and tunneling out the stone and dirt. Almost all the hostels are called cave hotels or fairy chimney type hotels. We didn't even realize this second patio where we could watch the sunset until the second day. Oh yeah, we decided to splurge and spend three nights here but ate elsewhere because the food was pricey.

Watching the sunrise with hot air balloons with Panda.

They had this giant guard dog named Panda who was incredibly friendly and adorable. I woke up early one morning to catch the sun rise and watch the hot air balloons float in and out of the canyons. I saw panda sleeping on the patio, so I climbed up to the roof. As I was shooting away Panda waltzed up behind me and snuggled next to me.

Even though I'm back in the states, i'm not done with my blog just yet.

Antalya, Turkey

View from one of the coves in Antalya

The past two days i expected the world to just rock back and forth and then a quick jump into the ocean. But we were wandering around the town looking for Mezes. We were still in a mode of relaxation, seeing the sights of Antalya was second to that and food. We had planned to meet up with the two Spaniards for a drink at night and needed a bite to eat. We ended up ordering Lentil Soup for everyone and a huge mess of fries, a new found comfort food.

At a bar in the old part of Antalya

Strolling the old streets we found what I thought was a jazz bar but ended up being a live band playing Turkish rock and covers of American 80's. I don't know if Turkish people are heavy drinkers in general, but my G&T was three parts gin, one part tonic, no ice, no lime. Not a complaint really. Ate some peanuts, drank some G&Ts, and boogied some moves. Good fun for the last night out together.

Olympos, turkey

Eternal flames from a natural gas deposit.

Maisie, Anna, and myself decided to do the flame tour. After dinner we took a bus out for forty five minutes up the mountain, walked up another forty five minutes in extremely humid weather, and finally sweating like pigs we took pictures of blazing flames. As horrible as an idea as that was, I thought it was still fun. I didn't get enough time to get a really good picture and of course i forgot my tripod at the camp site. The atmosphere was actually pretty chill when the tourists started to disperse, people would bring their guitars and make a night out of it with wine.

Megan, Wai, me, and Kevan hanging out at the beach

There's Piranhas in the water! So for some reason there was something nipping at my feet and i couldn't figure out what it was. I was there by my lonesome self and four girls. (Once again, a tough life i lead. Thanks for taking the picture Lisa, turned out great). And this one guy we met on the trek up to the flames decided to jump into our conversation and talk about how he was in the Amazon and how Piranhas attacked him. At that moment something nipped me, and again, and again, so I decided to walk away as he started to tell the story. Sadly I was the only one he knew, so from what I could tell the conversation turned awkward and he was gone when i got back.

Fresh water running out into the Ocean.

Along the fresh water stream are a handful of ruins, in fact to get to the beach you have to pay entrance to see the ruins and then you make your way there. I couldn't be bothered with ruins as the cool water was calling to me.

Blue Cruise

We were eating mezes in Selcuk and the next thing I know is that all the girls were asking me to see if I thought going to the blue cruise was a good idea. Hmmmm, going on a relaxing yacht for four days with three girls orrrrrrr taking a cramped bus from place to place checking out more ruins... tough decision. When we arrived at the office we found out we were traveling with eleven other people. In the end we agreed we wouldn't have had it any other way.

First night stop at Ship Wreck yard.

As soon as we set sail it was a consistent cool breeze. When we set anchor we all jumped in for a swim and then ate a pretty decent vegetarian lunch. We'd set sail and lounge on the deck mats. See some sights. Rinse and repeat for four days. What a tough life.

High five with a mermaid

We thought there would be better snorkel gear on board but there was maybe only two pairs of functioning fins and masks. Some of us bought some goggles at one of the stops and i broke out my underwater camera. It's sad that there wasn't much marine life down there so nothing exciting. However the water was extremely blue and clear.

The blue cruise gulet

A gulet is a traditional wooden yacht. It has a enough cabins for everyone and the crew, the bathrooms are typical smelly boat bathrooms, great lounge space with sleeping pads, and a huge table in the back to eat and play cards on. I don't think anyone would actually sleep downstairs in the cabins since we'd all sleep on the deck under the stars.

View from one of the small towns we stopped at.

We stopped by a smallish town where the only form of transportation is by boat. There's a castle on top and a necropolis near by, and a sunken city across the way. The first thing I did, (which has been a common recurrence) was to go to shop and grab myself a pistachio ice cream bar, not just any bar mind you, it's gotta be a Magnum.

Jon and Manu swimming out of the pirates cave.

The two Spaniards swimming out of the cave as the captain yells at us to swim back. It seems our last day was cut short. I completely missed the part where we don't actually reach our final destination and we take a dolmus there. It was advertised as a Fethiye to Olympos voyage, but it stops about three quarters of the way. I feel duped.

Everyone on the blue cruise including one of the ship hands and this very quiet grandma

At this point we've all gotten to know each other fairly well. People were from (starting closest to home) California, Hawaii, Scottland, France, Spain, and New Zealand. We've all asked about each other's home lands, where we have traveled, where we're going next, but i'm sure we talked about everything and anything. This was definitely one of the highlights of my trip and probably due mostly to the people I met.