Category: Turkey

The Dogu express

HenryLeave a comment

The journeys continue to be one of the more challenging aspects of this trip.

From Cappadocia I made my way to Eastern Turkey using another sleeper train called the Turistik Dogu Expresi. As a solo traveller you couldn’t book a single bed in a two bed cabin so I had to book the whole thing to myself. It was a little expensive but definitely worth it.

I arrived at Kayseri train station two hours before departure because of my transport options form Cappadocia. The departure time was 23:22. I was hopeful that there might be some restaurants nearby to grab a meal before I headed off. I arrived by taxi to be greeted by what looked like an abandoned train station.

I walked around the area but only found a few little shops and some vendors specialising in Turkish sausage and so I headed back to the station where there was a little cafe. It was completely empty at that time but I managed to purchase a wholesome meal to keep me going. Two mystery meat subs.

I also made a lifelong friend

Then, it was really a waiting game. I later found a manned ticket office in a portakabin and showed my e-ticket as I wanted to be sure I was in the right place. He just gestured towards the platform. Time passed very slowly and the platform gradually filled with people. I didn’t see any other travellers like myself, just locals.

the departure time came and went and the platform was now pretty full. Ten minutes later, to my a relief a train came rumbling in.

As the carriages came rolling by one after another my heart started to sink. I knew the train I was getting was supposed to be a sleeper only. All the carriages on this train were just seating. I was trying to figure out what was going on. Perhaps I’d made a mistake? I walked down the platform, through all the people and to my relief I saw two other travellers looking as confused as me. They were two young Dutch ladies and so I went over to see what was going on. They were getting the same train. We tried to ask the staff on the platform what was going on but they couldn’t speak any English. Eventually after some slightly frantic toing and froing and with the help of a local bystander who spoke some English we established that this wasn’t our train (it just coincidentally arrived at the same time) and that ours was either 1 hour late or was arriving at 1am. It was hard to tell but the guy definitely indicated a 1. To add to the confusion, due to the late arrival there was also another sleeper train arriving at a similar time now! We were warned to make sure we got the correct one.

After quite a long wait, and some further confusion we eventually managed to board the correct train at about 12.45am.

As with the train into Istanbul, it was really comfy and it was a bonus to have a cabin all to myself. I had a pretty good sleep and awoke to some spectacular views as we trundled through Anatolia. I could just lie in bed, looking out the window like a movie screen.

The train was a new tourist train that had started in May. I’d heard it was supposed to make some stops on the way where you could see some sights. The Journey was schedules to take 18 hours.

The first ‘excursion stop’ happened at around 9am I think. I heard a guard walk down the carriage shouting something in Turkish but it wasn’t until we’d been stopped for a while that I ventured out to see what was going on. Nobody really knew. Word got around that we’d be stopped for 2 hours. The station was pretty much in the middle of nowhere next to a fenced off lake. There were some taxi drivers waiting in the car park although it wasn’t clear where you could go. A few people got into the taxis, some to the nearest town for food and I believe some went to a viewing point. They were asking very high prices though. I decided instead to venture up a hill to see what was around. Nothing. There were some fantastic views however.

After two and a half hours we eventually left. Feeling peckish, I went to the restaurant car although I was a little disappointed to find a meagre selection of cold snacks on offer despite there being a fully equipped kitchen. Another delicious meal:

Later in the afternoon we made another stop. Same procedure. Complete confusion, no information about where we were, what was happening or what there was to do and we’d stopped with nothing anywhere nearby. After 15 minutes or so I was on the platform having scouted out a small tuck shop. A guard gestured to me to ask if I was staying here which had confused me a little. Moments later I saw the train slowly leave the platform. Not a great moment. All my belongings were on board. I suddenly thought that maybe the guy was asking if this was my stop!? For a split second I contemplated giving chase but quickly accepted my fate instead. For a short while I believed I’d been left behind. There were thankfully some Australian guys nearby who thought the same. At least I wasn’t on my own. We decided there was little we could do and then came to the conclusion that it can’t have left permanently without so many of us. To our relief, after 20 minutes or so the train returned into the station on a different platform. We spent another two and half hours here. Annoyingly we found out that a group of people had taken a minibus to a waterfall somewhere nearby but no one had said anything about it.

It didn’t exactly seem like the ‘tourist’ train. Us tourists were generally confused and had no idea what we could actually do at these stops. No one spoke English. The guards on the other hand had a jolly old time sitting in the restaurant car eating the hot meals that weren’t available for us and then enjoying huge banquets of food at the stops which had been delivered to them whilst we were left scrabbling around for a few packets of crisps and biscuits in the tiny shop!

Despite all of this, it was a very comfortable and enjoyable train ride and it was by far the most scenic train ride I’d ever taken. And we only arrived two and half hours late!

Night Hike

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Invigorated by being in the outdoors at last and feeling like I was in need of a little more adventure I decided to embark on a night hike into one of the valleys whilst in Cappadocia. I fancied trying a bit of night photography and thought this would be a good spot to try. From the town there was barely a star to be seen due to the light pollution and I was curious as to whether the night sky was better when viewed from further out.

I set off as the sun was setting and got some lovely views of the shifting colours on the horizon as it disappeared behind the mountains. I’d decided to head to one of the cave churches I’d come across on a previous walk and I was contemplating exploring the cave by torch light.

Night time arrived and stars started to appear. It got pretty dark. I was not using my head torch as I wanted my eyes to adjust to the light. Taking photos turned out to be tricky. In part because I didn’t know exactly what I was doing but also because it was so dark and my little travel tripod sits only an inch or two off the ground which meant lots of scrabbling around. There was a lot of trial and error.

In the absence of adequate vision you suddenly become acutely aware of the all the sounds around you. I was crouching down trying to set up my camera when I heard a noise close by. I quickly looked up and there was a man on a horse, in the dark about six feet away. He wasn’t using a torch and was just a shadowy figure looming over me. My heart skipped a few beats. It was an odd moment because no words were exchanged he just quietly went on his way and the horse walked off into the blackness of the night. After that I was a little more aware of being on my own in the dark and felt a little scared if I’m honest. I persevered though and ventured a little further to continue with taking some photos.

It’s hard to find the words to describe the scene. The sky was clear and the rocks formed eerie silhouettes against the starry night sky. It was like being in a panoramic 3D photograph that you might find in The National Geographical. I managed to capture a few photos that give you some idea.

The cave church

I stood by the cave church for a while soaking up the views but I did not have the courage to venture into the cave alone. A step too far. I decided to head back. This wasn’t entirely straightforward as in the dark I could not see the paths I’d come along and ended up going the wrong way. I wasn’t exactly lost as I could always see the lights of the town to head towards but it did take a bit time to find my way back with the use of my head torch. A nice little adventure.

The next day, wishing that I’d ventured into the caves I decided to go back for a second go. This time I recruited a few guys from the hostel to come with me, Matthieu from France, Lai from Taiwan and Jonas from Germany. We retraced my steps from the night before. This time we’d gone a little earlier for the sunset. We decided to hike up to a high point whilst there was still a little light left in the sky. Matthieu wasn’t so keen for more hiking so we decided to split the group. It was going to be two and two but ended up being the three of us and then Matthieu staying behind by the cave church. He seemed cool about waiting and we agreed to meet back there. Perhaps not the best plan in hindsight.

The trek was a little longer than anticipated but we eventually got to the top in the darkness to be rewarded with some cracking views. I felt bad about Matthieu waiting so we didn’t linger and headed back down. I estimate we’d been gone around 20 minutes. We got back to the church but there was no sign of Matthieu. At the time no one could remember his name so we just called out ‘hello?!’ For a while and shone the head torch all around. He was nowhere to be seen. We figured he was probably OK and decided to explore inside the cave.

Johan ventured in first. I looked in and could see the light from his phone glowing from the entrance and then heard a voice singing. There was deep guttural chanting emanating from the entrance. There was a split second where I thought I was in a Blare Witch situation but followed in to find Jonas cantillating using the room as an echo chamber. It sounded really cool. Inside the cave was essentially a church with some basic artwork and crosses carved into the walls. We explored the cave a little further and found we could get up to another level. It’s hard to imagine how they built these structures into the rock.

We eventually returned, getting lost again on the way back. Thankfully, upon reaching the hostel we found Matthieu sitting out on the roof terrace. He’d thought it was getting too dark and decided to head back when we didn’t return. He had his own little adventure, getting lost and hearing dogs barking all around him and said he’d been quite scared. Luckily he was fine though.

A most uncooperative tortoise

Henry2 Comments

On my second day in Cappadocia I was out hiking and in spite of my experience I chose to walk in the baking heat of the afternoon with not very much water. I was never very far from civilisation so wasn’t too worried but I had embarked on a much longer walk than expected.

There aren’t really any maps for the area. I was given a trekking ‘map’ but it was essentially useless with no detail or scale. I had been using a route overlaid on google maps on my phone but this had suddenly disappeared half way through my walk and with no data I wasn’t able to load it up again. I knew the general direction I needed to go however. Due to the nature of the terrain it was quite easy to see where you needed to go with plenty of landmarks.

I’d done the first part of the hike up to a castle build into the rock atop a hill and had decided to walk back through what’s known as the Love Valley. The walk was incredible and the scenery was like nothing I’d seen before. I realised however that upon entering the valley which had steep rocky cliffs either side I was committed to walking the whole thing until I reached the end as there was no way out. This was a bit of an undertaking given how far I’d already walked. The day was drawing to a close however and mercifully there were now some pockets of shade.

Despite the heat and the lack of water I was really enjoying myself. There was not another soul in sight which felt quite eerie but also made it more of an adventure. After a while I saw some movement ahead on top of a mound. It was a tortoise! This has to have been the most exciting moment of my trip so far. I love seeing wildlife and this was totally unexpected. I didn’t even know that there were tortoises in Turkey. I’ll avoid assigning a gender pronoun for fear of causing offence as I couldn’t exactly ascertain the sex from afar and I wouldn’t want to assume it. Anyhow, there it was just tottering along.

I’d wanted to try some wildlife photography but I just didn’t have the necessary camera equipment for it. But here was my chance. Finally something slow enough to capture. I had the time to reconfigure and setup my camera for the shot. I got in close but almost immediately it retreated into its shell.

I wasn’t very impressed if I’m honest. I tried reasoning with it. I spoke to the tortoise and told it how it wasn’t very often that one comes across a tortoise in the wild and asked if would it mind ever so much coming out for a photo, but it did not oblige. I thought that speaking in a softer tone might help. I told it a bit more about myself so that it might feel more comfortable. After regaling the tortoise with my life’s story it remained steadfastly retired within itself. I followed up with some attempts at serenading it with my dulcet tones, singing some lullabies. I think in reality however, my monotone, tuneless vocal efforts caused it to become even more stubbornly introverted. It turned into a waiting game, and after retreating a distance it’s head finally emerged and then it eventually carried on its purposeful plod. I think we’d come to an understanding. To get a shot It did mean squatting rather precariously on the edge of a steep slope but I felt it was worth it. I’d have stayed much longer but I had a long way to go still and was quite far from the town where I was staying still

My first attempt at hitchhiking

I eventually reached the end of the valley and saw the famous ‘fairy chimneys’ which gives the valley its name. I got to a road and worked out I probably had about an hour’s walk to get back. Tired and with no water left decided I’d hitchhike back into town.

I’d created a bit of a mental barrier to hitchhiking. I’d met lots of people doing it through Eastern Europe, all with positives experiences and wanted to give it a go but had it in the back of my mind that it was somehow dangerous. Now it was more a necessity. My first go went pretty well. I stuck my thumb out on the main road and the very first car pulled over for me. A nice guy, who I think was called Emre gave me a lift back into town. It was only a few miles but I’m glad I gave it a go. We had quite a funny conversation speaking in football teams as neither of us really spoke each other’s language. Something I might try again..

Turkish Oliver Reed

Henry1 Comment

I’ve stayed almost exclusively in dormitories in Hostels so far. I’m quite used to it now and for the most part it’s been fine. Every hostel is different. Sometimes they’re a little shabby but the staff are great or the atmosphere is really good or vice versa. I’d not had a particularly bad experience until Istanbul.

I arrived slightly unprepared (as usual). I’d managed to get currency this time and even knew the exchange rate but had forgotten to download a map of the area. I took a free transfer from the train station which was out of town and was dropped somewhere near another station more centrally, I think. Not knowing where I was or having a map was a bit of a predicament. Thankfully, a nice Kiwi couple I’d met on the train actually used their map to find my hostel and walked me there!

The hostel wasn’t very obvious to find as you had to walk into a confectionary shop to go up some stairs, several flights of a spiral stair case. I’d already sweated a considerable amount walking up the hill to get there and wasn’t overly enthusiastic about scaling further heights with my rucksack on. I climbed up about three storeys and saw some dorms but no reception. Sigh. I went all the way down again to the shop only to be told the reception was there but on the very top so up five flights of stairs I went to the roof.

The staff were polite but not exactly welcoming. One guy didn’t really speak English. I was shown to my bed, I wasn’t given a key or anything like that and my under-bed locker’s hinge was broken. It was a ten bed dorm with one fairly grubby toilet/shower. This would have been OK if the rest of my experience had been better. In it’s favour it did have a little roof terrace with some lovely views out over Istanbul.

The common area next to this however acted like a heat trap as it had a tin roof and it was unbearably hot so it wasn’t really an option to hang out there in the day time. When you arrive in a new city you often rely on the Hostel to give you some advice about what to do/see, where’s good to eat etc. The only English speaker at this place was basically a kid and wasn’t very forthcoming.

I’d managed to turn up, after the overnight train with no clean t-shirts and so I asked them to wash my clothes which they said they could do for the following morning. I was so hot and sticky I actually decided to go off and buy a couple of new t-shirts in the meanwhile.

That evening, despite the ‘AC’ it was damned hot in the dorm. They had not provided any top sheets and so it was just a case of stripping to your boxers and making do. I was lying as such in my bed playing on my phone when a guy turned up at about 23:45. I noticed that he needed to pray as he took out a prayer mat. He asked the Hostel worker the direction of Mecca, which rather unfortunately appeared to be me. He laid out his mat facing me, only a couple of feet away and proceeded to pray towards Mecca/a sweaty me in nothing but boxer shorts. Not the holiest of sights. It was a little awkward, although more so for him I imagine.

I’d booked two nights here so decided the next morning to stick it out. To be fair, they put on quite a nice little breakfast spread up in the common room which was nice before the heat of the afternoon kicked in. I arrived there and asked about my laundry only to see it still sat there and they’d just forgotten. Given my lack of clean clothes I was fairly livid, but being British I just found myself saying don’t worry about it. After breakfast, I then had to wait for ages whilst everyone used the bathroom before me and without going into details by the time I got in there it wasn’t the most inviting environment to venture into.

The morning was then spent trying to find a laundrette. This was easier than I had imagined and after trekking down some side streets I found a room full of old washing machines, the kind you’d find in your home. I was greeted by large topless man with an enormous distended midriff proudly on display. He looked like a Turkish Oliver Reed in the later years, top lip adorned with an impressively bushy moustache. I was told to come back at 4pm.

I’ve provided a picture in case your imagination isn’t up to it.

I laterreturned to the Hostel only to find the Hostel owner asleep in my bed! That was the final straw for me and decided to write off the cost for another night’s stay and book somewhere else. I still had to collect my washing so left to see some more of Istanbul in the afternoon. I returned again to the dorm to find it looking like a bomb site, screws all over the floor and power tools lyng around. I went up to reception to try and settle my tab and check out but ended up having to wait for the guy to return and found myself stuck in the heat trap perspiring heavily. There were some others who were still waiting to check in. After nearly an hour I was able to pay up and get out. The decision was cemented when I went down to the dorm to collect my bag and found that someone else had been assigned my bed anyhow!

I did not look back.