Last Post from Gallipoli – sort of. Turkey FAQs

Well Dear Reader I can hear you asking “Is Turkey dangerous, Should I go ? Should I drive ?”

My summary of Turkey

1. You should come to Turkey. It is like we imagined Greece to be 30 years ago – only better. Like Italy without the yelling Italians, the crowds and the thieves.

2. Is it dangerous ? I think not. The people are probably the most friendly and helpful I have met anywhere. They love to sit and chat to you and offer you tea – and they don't always want to sell you a carpet in return !

3. Should you drive ? Definitely if you have time and there are two or more of you. There is so much more to see than the ruins that are the base of most tour groups. Many places are difficult to get to by bus. And you should take your time and just explore the “minor” places in Lonely planet – or that are not in it. Ideally 5-6 weeks (or more). Be like Keating and 'do 'em slowly'.

4. What about touts, beggars, annoying sellers, thieves ? Minor or non-existent compared to other places. With the exception of some carpet-sellers in Istanbul. they are not a problem. You sometimes have to bargain hard eg in Cappadocia where many goods are offered at three times the price but the Turks are good humoured and generally do not seem to care if you look elsewhere or don't buy.

5. Is Internet access easy ? Usually yes, but not if you use ids and passwords with a g, i, or s (similarly two or three other letters) in them. There are at least 2 of each on a Turkish keyboard ! Bring your own ASUS or ipod Touch or the new i-phone (announced today ) and use wireless.If you use a non-English Turkish site you will be lost. Internet cafes charge only 1 1ira (85 cents) an hour.

6. What is the scenery like ? Great. And varied. High snow capped mountains, deep gorges, the Mediterranean coast (or the coast of 3 other seas) sculptured rocks, tiny villages, Islands. It has the lot – even an occasional sandy beach

7. What are the scams ? Apart from over priced carpets and bar scams (single man, lots of girls, huge drink bill, and maybe false police) – not too many it seems. Key things to watch are – tops of salt and pepper shakers are always the wrong way round. Hot and cold taps are also the wrong way round 30% of the time.

8. Finding your way by car – not too bad if you avoid the big cities. Take a big picture view i.e. look for the sign to Cappadocia – not the street-name sign of the street you are in (which you will almost never find !).

A Focan good time

Foca (pronounced Fotcha)

local handing out free doughnuts to celebrate a new baby

steep theatre at Bergama

one of many orange juice stands in Turkey

fishermen at Assos

breakfast at Assos

the same typical Turkish breakfast (eggs usually hard boiled)

Kitty in the "original" Trojan horse

Lone Pine cemetery Gallipoli

Turk's eye view of Anzac Cove Gallipoli

Saturday: Well dear reader (if we have one left) we awoke in the tiny but upmarket fishing village of Foca. We have a Focan good breakfast, a Focan good walk around the town a Focan good ..... never mind then leave for Yenifoca (“New Foca”) = by the way the c is pronounced “sshh”.

And then to Bergama (Permagon as in “Pergamon Press”) to see yet another Acropolis high on a hill. Stunning views especially from the unenclosed steep, amphitheatre cut into the mountain, high above the town. Bergama is also home to Galen and his treatment centre , the Asclepias. This is the home of psychiatry - the doctor would get you to sleep in the Temple of the God of Medicine and – if you were lucky – you would dream of your own cure. Hey Mark you could develop a great practice with this. Being an old medical institute they charge like wounded medicos and we have just about had our fill of ruins, so we did not do the tour of facilities.

We skipped though the potentially interesting isle of Cunda Island then on to yet another tiny but popular seaside village of Assos near the Greek Island of Lesbos for yet another seafront meal. Lousy Kitty made me drive the last 100 km – I bet considerate Mark never made Ruth drive in Turkey. (Kitty's note – and we had many cases of windscreen wipers on instead of indicators, lots of high revs due to wrong gears, a missed turnoff, etc – funny about that!!)

Sunday: Last full day in Turkey – The First Myths and the Last Post

After the castle at BehramKale - high above Assos -Troy is first on the list. At least various people claim that the 9 towns all piled up on each other represent Troy. I guess the wooden horse (see photo) proves it. It looks like a stone age archaeological site gone wrong. Still it stirs the imagination. I can see the body marks where Brad Pitt (Achilles) dragged the dead body of Eric Bana (Hector) 3 times around the city walls. Good one – Brad ! Shows respect.

Gallipoli was more real. I stood on the very spot where Mel Gibson and the rest of the WA Light Horse were cut to pieces thanks to the stupidity of the British Generals. (I really must stop going to the movies). The British tried to storm the flat areas to the N and S of Anzac Cove and left the steep ascent (see photo) to the Aussies and NZ's. The Anzacs almost made it then the British took over. The Turks, under Ataturk, strengthened and a deadly stalemate occurred until the surviving Allies withdrew 9 months later. The stupidity of war – and of men who swear blind obedience to their bosses – no matter what.

Anyway Gallipoli is our 'Last Post' for Turkey – except for an FAQ post. Tomorrow we are off to Angleterre. An old blog ends and a new blog will begin. Thank you to the last surviving reader whoever you are.

PS – Kitty has done a great job driving (despite a FEW foibles) – 3800 Km. And she has proved that flashing the windscreen washers actually works ! I apologise.

Enough is enough

With reference to Graeme's latest post below I have decided that enough is enough! I am doing all the driving while Graeme admires the scenery, reads the guide book, studies the map, eyes the pretty girls, snoozes or sleeps. So most of the time I have to do my own navigating. Silly me - I thought a navigator's job was to direct the driver!! Yesterday we had to decide near Izmir which freeway exit to take. G announced that we would probably exit half way from where we now were and Izmir centre - at least another 10 km. So I stayed in the middle of 3 lanes. Within 20 sseconds he suddenly tells me to exit - impossible to cross lanes at that speed at such short notice. Apparently this is one of many silly things I did yesterday. You the reader can decide for yourselves and please feel free to comment. Today I am on strike and G can drive to Cannakule while I snooze and look at scenery!

Above photos are from yesterday's mud bath - if that is not obvious!

We'll put her on the list; they'll all be on the list

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. So lets make a list of all the silly things Kitty did yesterday (Leunig). No says Kitty - taking her foot from her mouth and putting it down FIRMLY. So ABSOLUTELY NO tales (now) of police and one-way streets, of getting lost in a petrol station, or indicating turns with windscreen washers.

Speaking of petrol stations they are expensive but what service ! With every fill or top up you get a free car wash ! We stopped at a station yesterday to see if they had a phone to call a pension (paysion) ahead. Certainly said the manager - I will call for you. Under K's instructions he rang several places, tried to negotiate discounts, checked to see if we could get the balcony rooms etc etc etc and booked one for us. He then invited us to have a cup of tea with him (free) ! The only thing he did wrong was to hand K the phone to get instructions on how to get there - oops we are back to the unmentionable list.


Yesterday (Friday) we drove to Cesme on a peninsula near Izmir, visited the fortress on the hill (it was not in ruins !!!! Hoorah !) and had a 'mudbath' and hot pool experience. Driving back through Izmir threatened to be a nightmare but the 50 km three-lane freeway to and around Izmir was fantastic (except for ----- never mind - bloody secret list) and cheap ($1.50). Kills anything in Melbourne. We only had a few km of chaos where the freeway was still under construction. We are now at a lovely seaside town Foca (Focha) and had a beautiful fish meal at a lovely romantic seaside restaurant. It was so exclusive they even wrapped the lemon halves in gauze to stop pips falling on the plate. Unfortunately K spend several minutes swearing and trying to remove the gauze. Oops that probably should be on the non-existent list too.

DON'T MENTION THE WAR !
Well I got through the blog. I almost slipped up and mentioned one of the silly things - but I think I got away with it .
Basil

Our PC is no longer beautiful

Our ASUS Eee PC 900 is no longer beautiful - it is rubbish. Do not buy one Ken ! This is not because Kitty keeps deleting the 'My Documents' folder - sometimes permanently ! - but because ASUS has now announced the 901 ! - will double the battery life, double the hard drive and better shock resistance. Anyone want to buy a used 900 ?

Alternatively there is the beautiful Ipod Touch - 5 of them could fit into a single cigarette packet - and they really have a WOW factor when you see them. The entire front face is a screen - but it has wireless, internet access, ipod facilities, picture display, the lot (with a couple of minor drawbacks). Must get one of those too ! An i-phone without the phone. Good job, Jobs.

The ultimate in Ef'ing ruins

Sarcophagus at Afrodisias

Stadium at Afrodisias

Storks nesting next to our hotel rooftop restaurant in Selcuk

Ephesus - view down Curettes Street

Ephesus - Temple of Hadrian

Ephesus - we'll all go together when we go

Library at Epheses

Cooking gozleme (Turkish pancakes)

View of Sirince (8 km from Selcuk)

Remains of the Artemision (temple of Artemis - one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world)

Ef, Ef, Ef, Ef. Ef. Efes eveywhere. Even the beer is Efes Beer. Why Efes ? Efes is the name for Ephesus - Turkey's jewel in the crown. Ephesus is where the Temple of Artemis was - arguably the best of the ancient 7 wonders. It is the town where John lived and died - supposedly with the "Virgin Mary'. For any heathens out there John wrote the 4th book of the New Testament - and the Book of Revelations - I don't think I can explain the Virgin Mary to you. She wrote nothing.).

Ephesus has the vast ruins of the ancient city including the facade of the glorious Library of Celsus (see photo) still remaining and a 24,000 capacity amphitheatre. In this amphitheatre Paul (Note to heathens - he wrote most of the rest of the New Testament) gave a famous lecture to the Ephesians condemning paganism and worship of Artemis. The Ephesians responded by chanting for three hours "Artemis is great"! After a councillor calmed them down they drove Paul out of town !! Boy I love that story.

The Temple of Artemis was burnt down by Herostradus to obtain eternal fame. For years anyone who mentioned his name was put to death ! The photo above shows the one remaining column. But to me the person in front represents the full 7 wonders ("I wonder how she thinks ? I wonder why she does not listen? I wonder why she tells me what to do ...... etc - full list on request).

Meanwhile I am having a cool drink on the Stork's Nest rooftop restaurant of the Hotel Bella - watching a stork feed its babies in its huge nest some twenty feet away but at the same level. Behind is the remains of the mammoth basilica to St John (who is buried beneath).

Ephesus is just near Selcuk (pronounced Sell-chook) on the west coast of Turkey - lapped by the Aegean sea.

Selcuk is rather greedy it claims St John and Mary are buried here and it has the Tomb of St Luke also. Historians would say there is no evidence that Mary lived here but every year a million gullible souls pay $10 plus to visit the house that was found after a 19th century vision by a menopausal nun. Il Papa 'authenticated' it in 1967 !!! I think every major town should be declared a site of a burial of one of the Apostles. In fact I hereby authenticate Ardrie Park East Malvern as the burial place of Moses who died shortly after he split Bass Strait with a wattle and led the Taswegians to the promised land (Eden - where the apples are). I have the wattle to prove it. As various gullible Ardrie Park tennis ladies still believe in John Howard and Peter Costello, they should have no trouble swallowing my story.

Finally the Gozleme restaurant near the miracle of the "seven sleepers" (don't even ask) was great. Three old grannies making gozleme (savoury pancakes) on the spot and cooking them over an open fire (see photo). Not to be missed.

Yesterday we were inland seeing another large ruined ancient city - Afrodisias. Its most interesting feature was a large well preserved stadium (hippodrome) for presumably chariot racing and other events. Shades of Ben Hur.

Kitty is driving me to ruins

Quick Update. It is now Wednesday - we leave Turkey next Monday.
On Monday we drove first to the deserted rock village of Kayokoy - its greek inhabitants were sent back to Greece in 1023 in exchange for Turks living in Greece. Then on to Fethiye (see Farkawi map).

Fethiye is a smallish town recently devasted by earthquake. We stayed at a the ancient town of Odudeniz ("dead sea" due to very calm waters). St Mark and other saints were supposed to have stayed here. It is now an upmarket resort for English tourists, everything is priced in English pounds - just to confuse us - and everything is expensive. I considered the paragliding from a 2200 m mountain down to the sea but the views were a bit hazy as was the detail of how high you started (13000 m ? 17000 m, 1900m , 22000 m ?).

A haircut at Fethiye was an experience. For 9 dollars he cut my hair with at least 1000 snips, trimmed my eyebrows and nose air, cleaned my ears, massaged my head and washed my hair. Service can be good in Turkey.

Spent 5 minutes in the seaside town of Kas then drove to Saklikent gorge. This is an 18 km gorge, up to 200 m. deep and about 4 to 10 m wide. It is twisty and turning and you have to walk through a cold river and climb small waterfalls to see much of it. Unlike the wuss Lowens (who viewed the entrance from a comfortable riverside restaurant) - we plunged in up the gorge. See photos below.

Pamukkale and Hieropolis are meant to be highlights of Turkey. Hieropolis is the ruins of a vast city. At its base are the travertines, vast calcium carbonate deposits that create white slopes and terraces. Many parts are now dry and dirty due to poor management and tourist traffic. The few good bits (see photos) are quite beautiful. Stayed overnight at the Venus - recommended by the Lowens due to the cute attractive australian girl who co-owns it.

Today off to the West Aegean - and Selcuk.

Fethiye to Pammukale Photos

Kekova village near Kas (we stayed here)

View of Kas (pronounced Kush to rhyme with mush)

Saklikent gorge - walking and scrambling through water and rocks

Saklikent gorge

Para gliding at Oludeniz near Fethiye (we chickened out of doing a tandem flight)

The calcium terraces (travertines) at Pamukkale

Pammukale terraces again

Incident at the not-quite OK corral

See text below - suspected fake policeman

Well I have given up trying to change Kitty's driving and am now working on the somewhat easier task of getting our aged dog Misty to perform back-flips using only mental telepathy.

Consequently the inevitable happened. We are waved over by plain-clothes police in an unmarked car. Kitty is terrified that she has been speeding (it is impossible to know what the speed limits are) and I am very concerned as I have heard bad tales of tourists being pulled over by the police.

But the police say no problem they are checking tourists because someone has been passing counterfeit money at petrol stations (we had just stopped at a petrol station). They want to check all of our money. Hmm suspicions arise but how far do you go in questioning the police in this country (there have been reported death threats against tourists who complained of police action !!!!). We show him our money. He checks it and sniffs it for drugs whilst I watch him like a hawk.

Then things start getting out of hand. Kitty is getting annoyed. the police are getting annoyed at this. The police say it is not safe to carry money on our persons and demand we put it in the glovebox. He keeps reaching into the car to 'help'. At one stage I have to snatch my money belt from his hand - cutting him slightly. Kitty is starting to get hysterical. I am trying to watch the police like a hawk and watch what Kitty does like a hawk. The police wants to see our passport, our credit cards and then Kitty's watch and ring. Panic bells ring louder and we spend the next 15 minutes trying to stop the policeman reaching into the car or handling more than one note at a time. Images of Midnight Express come to mind. Suddenly Turkey is a very dangerous place.

Eventually the police decide to shake hands and let us go. I have managed to get a secret photo of the policeman and their car (with the numberplate not visible as their boot was conveniently up). We leave hoping that they have taken nothing. Down the road Kitty discovers her watch and maybe $150 are missing. She does not remember even handing the watch over - and I did not see her do it.

We later discover her watch on the floor of the car. Did we lose $150. We don't know - if we did it was very cleverly palmed as I was watching carefully. Later at Pamukkale police tell us that the police are always in uniform. I now suspect that the car was a European registered car.

Next time we are pulled over I will have the camera out taking photos before we even stop. It all makes one very aware that in a foreign country you are in danger when anyone claims to be an authority figure and you do not know the system.

Fortunately if we were scammed we got off fairly lightly.

Four Mouths

Ruins at Termessos, 34 km from Antalya

Beach at Kemer south of Antalya

Our hotel (with lethal hammock!) near Olympos

Lots of these turtles around, including on the road

From Olympos

Ruins at Myra

Our private boat cruise

on the boat in Kalekoy harbour

Kalekoy - we went to castle top

We are now at the tiny fishing village of Ucagiz (Three Mouths) just near the 'sunken city' near Kalekoy. It is an old but attractive village with various pansions and open-air restaurants on the bay. The villagers have some concern that, with the arrival of Kitty, they may have to change the name to 'dortagiz' (no prizes for guessing the translation).

Kitty certainly was known and heard by all the previous night at our beautiful resort at Olympus. She went for a swim in the large pool. A few minutes later an agonising death-call “GRAAAAAAEEEEEMMMMMEEEE” rang out across the village. I raced to the pool fearing a shark had got her. The manager also raced out. No Kitty – she had disappeared. I look around – over in the corner was a dazed and bruised Kitty lying miserably on the concrete – underneath the large wooden frame of a hammock. I had earlier looked at the hammock and decided that this was a spot where “angels fear to tread”. Kitty was of the other view.

So we had a lazy day. From the resort we went to Myra to see the statue of St Nicolas (Noel Baba). The statue was the pure Coca Cola version of Noel Baba – fat, jolly, bearded and red-suited. Myra is an ancient, important city on the Med. And Nick was its first Bishop. Myra has the traditional ruins including an amphitheatre and many sarcophagi.

At this site an enterprising villager sold us a 2-person boat trip to the sunken city. The three hour trip, on a boat resembling the African Queen, went around various islands and villages. It was relaxing and pleasant. We sat on a mattress at the front of the boat protected by an awning. Swimming was a little nippy at first but then fine. The sunken city itself was a dead loss. You would see more of a sunken city in 2 minutes snorkelling under Port Melbourne pier.

Now on to Kas and Fethiye (see earlier Farkawi map).

Far Myths and near misses

Kitty's driving has improved out of sight – once she gets into top gear. She still gets blasted by the car behind at traffic lights EVERY time they change to green because she is still in neutral and she cannot find the horn – mind you squirting the windscreen washers seems to work just as well. But once into top gear she is like an Istanbul cab driver at midnight ask Mark about this). Speed limit signs simply confuse her so she has found that she can avoid these by driving at the one top speed. I will show you the photos to prove this when the police send them through.

Navigating is more fun than a came of Dungeons and Dragons. Our road map is of the whole of Turkey – not much detail, no city detail at all. Local maps do not exist except for the Lonely Planet maps developed by the guy that never went to Turkey. I do not even bother looking for street name signs – they do not seem to exist. So navigating is rather like playing 3 games of simultaneous chess with ALL the pieces identical except for an Arabic word on the top – and if you lose you have to replay the lot. I assume that Ruth Lowen navigated her way through Turkey using the Star Wars method for apostles (- part of Star Wars was actually filmed in the Ihlara Valley in Cappadocia) - “Shut your eyes, Mark, and let the force guide you”.

But we have survived the 600 or so km. drive (so far) along the Mediterranean coast . It is full of history, phenomenal views, and seaside resorts. Many of the ancient ruins are exactly that “ancient ruins” overgrown by trees and shrubs. The castle walls and amphitheatres are the best preserved – the huge castle on the hill over Sifilke, Kizkilisi castle – 300 m out to sea and Mamure Castle at Anamur lapping the Med. Sea. The amount of stonework by the ancient Turks is mindblowing – as is the reason for it. Everyone must have lived in constant fear. History is everywhere – early Christianity started here. You can see the cave where St.Thecia lived out her life (she was Paul of Tarsus 's first convert). You can see the entrance leading to the River Styx, the eternal fires of the Chimaera (a beast killed by Bellerophon whilst riding Pegasus), or the cave where Zeus imprisoned the monster Typhon. The chasm of Heaven and Hell (symbolising the sanctity of marriage). Santa Claus lived and was buried nearby at Myra – until those thieving Italians nicked poor Nick's bones and took them to Bari. Choose your myth and you can see it all in Turkey.

But one can tire of the history and the ruins ( I am sure some readers have already tired from reading this blog). Chilling out on the Turkish Riviera is certainly worth doing. The seaside resorts are huge but many of the buildings are identical – designed for group tours from Europe. The beaches are not great but the Mediterranean, the mountains behind, and the rest of the scenery is great. We are currently chilling out in the Otel Odile resort in Olympus (not the Greek version) – ultra modern and in a secluded area near the sea. A gem of an oasis tucked between 7000 Ft (+) mountains and the Med. Lolling by a beautiful pool on a warm, clear day. Things could be worse.