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Travels in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan & Northern India

Newsletter 2:  4 May 2002

Turkey-Iran

Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 17:01:16 +0100 (BST)

Location : Shiraz (Central Iran)

Total ridden kilometers today : 7,900 km

(B->I : 1,480 / Greece : 900 / Turkey : 3,480)

Flashing lights

From more or less the middle of Turkey on it starts : vehicles coming from the opposite direction flash their headlights at us. In Iran its meaning is straightforward : "Your headlights are on !!!" (as if we wouldn't know).

In Turkey it can mean anything :

- "Don't you dare taking over while I'm considering it"

or

- "Helllooooooooooooooooooo foreigners !"

or

- "One of you has a yellow and the other a white bulb"

or

- "Just testing if my lights still work"

or

- "Ups, my finger slipped"

or

- (indeed) "It's a bright and sunny day. Why are you wasting bulb and

battery life ?!" (or something along these lines)

The route in Turkey

(the details are for those with maps)

From Canakkale on the Western coast, we ride to Bergama and Geyre (near

Denizli). At this point the bad rainy weather sent us down to the coats. Up in the mountains it looked very much like we would be facing 2 weeks of winter, and even on the coast we were chased by daily portions of rain.

So on to Manavgat on the South coast (via the Greek-Roman site of

Sagalassos near Burdur), then Tasuku (South coast, near Selifke), Sanli Urfa (100 kms north from the Syrian border), Karadut for Nemrut Dagi (200 kms straight north), Diyarbakir, Cizre, Tatvan, Yuksekova, and finally Esendere or Serro in Iran, the southernmost border with Iran, close Iraq.

The cultural absolute highlights on our journey through Turkey this time

were Aphrodisias (Geyre, Denizli), Sanli Urfa, and Nemrut Dagi ("the heads", not its namesake, the mountain near Tatvan).

Despite the scale and the beauty of the discoveries at Aphrodisias, this

Greek-Roman site attracts few visitors. To our unprofessional eyes, the site even equals Ephesus, THE highlight in Turkey. Its oval amphitheatre is 100% original and simply grand (and we DID already see quite a few

amphitheatres !). Having such an impressive site all to ourselves adds to its magic.

Sanli Urfa is a bustling city some 100 kms north from the Syrian border. An important pilgrimage place for muslims, it houses a vibrant mix of Kurds, Arabs and Turks. Sipping a few teas at

Golbasi, the main site with mosques, a shrine and 3 enormous rectangular

ponds FULL with sacred (fat!) carps --ever seen a bucket full of eel ??-- makes for a splendid "people watching afternoon". Syrians with their white headscarfs and black ropes around it, very fancy Turkish

women some with short hair, and at the other end of the scale some women

completely covered in black including gloves and veils over their faces, Kurds with their VERY baggy trousers, etc.

The mobile obviously is THE thing to have, be it for traditional or for

modern Turks.

Sanli Urfa's bazar is busy, great, chaotic, strongly smelling, thus a real bazar. And I finally manage to find a 8 mm Allen key which I forgot at home.

Nemrut Dagi, the mountain top temple site from the 2nd and 1st century BC (Commagene Dynasty for the historians amongst you), is spectacular in many ways. First their is the solid ride from the nearby village Karadut to the top : from 1,000 to 2,000 meters in 9 kms on a large, sharply edged cobbled road in a very bad state. The road leading to Karadut already shows some of Turkey's incredible mountain sceneries, but

higher up it's plainly breathtaking. At this time of the year the sides of the road are still covered in snow, as is the historic site itself.

The site is crowded, but the man size stone heads don't loose any of their appeal. Though crowded, especially at dawn and dusk, it's a MUST-SEE. Then, before riding down, it starts to snow......... We make it, but sleep extremely well that night.

Apart from the cultural sights, once east of Manavgat and certainly in the entire east of Turkey, the ever changing scenery is amazing. Less and less populated (we spot several Kurdish ghost-villages...), mountainous, barren.

And..... Turkey is MASSIVE !!!

Hot is cold is hot is cold cold

In 1999 we wrote about "the electricity issue" in Turkish hotel rooms (or Iranian for that matter). Actually a similar thing is the matter with the plumbing. In the cooler areas there's usually hot water. I say "usually" because in some places the hot water is limited to a certain period of the day, which can be the morning or the evening or both.

Then starts "the guessing where it could be". Red is not necessarily the

left side of the tab, nor does red mean hot. If colours are used at all. And generally spoken, it takes at least a few minutes if not 10 before the hot water reaches your aching body.

Ahhhh, how a hot shower can send one straight to heaven...!

Low sides

Four items bothered us or still do.

- My (Trui's) "solid" tourista as a bonus to Diyarbakir's grim grubbiness - over and done with.

- My right knee being ok for 500 meters and from then on giving a

bone-to-bone scratching feeling. Like worn-out brake pads. Trouble is : I don't have spare parts.

- The military in Turkey sending us on our way for a 700 km detour. Around south of lake Van instead of straight east along the Syrian/Iraqi border. In retrospect, the stretch Tatvan to Yuksekova is of such natural beauty we can hardly complain.

- And finaly we have to admit the Iranian (and Turkish) traffic is indeed horrendous. The cities don't scare us too much since the pace is low, but an average 2-way, rather mountainous road, with average truck and car traffic means highest alert. Moving from cluster to cluster, the Iranians (car or truck no difference) overtake each other in the most breathtaking experiment – and occasionally squeeze us to the side in the process.

Sigh..... and my major nightmare was Indian traffic, still a few 1,000 kms away...???

Iran, 3 years later

Much shorter manteau's : just below the knee seems to be good enough now. Feeling oldfashioned, we hastily buy something new. Now we own a motorbike and a city outfit. Showing at least the first half of your hair is the fashion, as is make-up and light stockings.

Couples are holding hands (shyly). Men wear T-shirts. The beards have gone. Music tapes are for sale bearing "I love you" titles. Generally speaking the Iranians look happier.

The route in Iran

Having crossed at Serro, we quickly reach Orumiye. Then Sanandaj, capital of Iranian Kurdestan and on to Andimeshk. Khoramabad was our goal for that day, but the 2 hotels were so blatantly overcharging we ultimately decided to ride another 300 kms... we reached Andimeshk right at dusk, completely exhausted. This town will forever be remembered for its f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c breakfast :

fresh flat bread, a thick creamlike butter and the best homemade orange-with-roses marmelade – the simplest, the best ! On top of that, the young man at the hotel was a darling (and a zoroastrian, not a muslim for a change).

Next step was hot Ahvaz. On the way we sidestepped to one of the world best preserved ziggurats :

Choqa Zanbil. A modern-like square temple of the 13th century BC in the barren middle of nowhere. Again we have the place to ourselves, but then no Iranina would be crazy enough to walk around at noon in a scorching 50 degrees.

Last stretch took us to Shiraz. Size of Brussels but certainly more easy-going.

In 1999 we considered the Iranian landscape to be of a quite unrivalled

boredom. This time our journey almost continously leads through stunning and ever-changing sceneries.

In which country...

- do people knock on the door to slip in a lemonade or a bar of soap ?

- men and women stop, smile and say "welcome to our country" at least 5

times a day ?

- a rich looking man insist on paying for our fuel (14 liters for 1 euro

but still) ?

- can you ask directions at a police man and promptly be summoned to show your passports ?

- can you order "pipi" and be served a coke ?

- can you sit down on a bench and receive a rose each ?

- does Iris receive 2 casual marriage proposals in the 6 days that we're

here ? (I had forgotten how popular she was here)

We enter Iran on April 28th, and immediately feel at ease. Even the custom officials offer us tea, cakes and their most welcoming smiles.

As you can guess, girls as well as bikes are doing just fine.

With a nightly Shiraz in front of me and Iris waiting impatiently at the

hotel (she will cook tonight as we're both dying for an ordinary spaghetti), I'll sign off.

Iris and Trui