No more red dirt

Hanoi and Halong Bay

chris_and_dusk — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:53:00 GMT

My time in Sapa was at an end, I was a bit sad to be leaving but was looking forward to some slightly warmer weather. My last day was spent doing a cooking class at a mountain retreat overlooking Lao Chai. Amy, Marie (also volunteers at Sapa O’Chau) and I got to make spring rolls, a salad and beef wrapped in betel leaves. With the rain getting heavier I boarded a mini bus to take me down the windy roads back to Lao Cai to catch the night train. Amy was catching the same train, but we were on different mini buses so we decided to meet at the train station. I got there and waited...and waited, I was at the point of giving up when Amy finally arrived. Turns out her mini bus had forgotten to pick her up. After a bit of mucking around we managed to convince some Vietnamese guys to change compartments so we could be in the same one. I’d heard some horror stories from other tourists about noisy or disrespectful people on the train (we were in 4 bunk compartments) so was glad that the two Vietnamese guys in our compartment just went straight to sleep.

I’d actually spent a day in Hanoi before going to Sapa. I didn’t have that much time to look around then, but did join a street food tour run by Hanoi Cooking Centre. The tour was great, we got to try lots of different foods and the other people doing the tour were really friendly. It was a good introduction to Hanoi. I don’t think I would have been so keen to try the street food by myself, but after doing the tour I was confident about ordering food from street stalls. Plus it is a great way to save money, the street food is a lot cheaper than going to restaurants and tastes just as good or better.

On my second trip to Hanoi I focussed more on seeing the big sights and the museums. I went to the temple of literature (bit disappointed- seen better temples in Laos), Ho Chi Mihn’s mansoleum (was closed, but did have a wander round the presidential palace complex), Hoan Kiem Lake, and a couple of museums (ethnology and womens museum). I found the ethnology museum really interesting, especially after spending time in Sapa. The Viets make up about 85% of the population with the remainder made up of about 50 or so ethnic minorities. The ethnic minorities all have different traditions and wear different traditional costumes. It was interesting reading about all the different groups as well as checking out some of the traditional houses in the grounds outside the museum. I timed it right to catch the water puppet performance (only on weekends).

A few things about Hanoi and Vietnam

The traffic is mad, apparently there are 3 million motobikes in Hanoi (for 8 million people). When crossing the road its best not to look...just hope that it goes around you.
A red light doesn’t mean stop.
Exercise in the city includes: randomly swinging your arms around (favoured by the older generation) and badminton (played on the street and footpath, without or with nets...until they snare a motorcyclist in the net).
There are almost no dogs, only a few very prized pets. This may have something to do with the fact that they eat dog meat.
On every corner there seems to be an informal motorcycle taxi. I did a lot of walking in Hanoi and the number of times I heard “motorbike...madam motorbike...madam” (and waving their hands) must have got into the hundreds.
Posting packages from Vietnam is a lot easier than from South America. There is quite a bit of paperwork to fill out but they package it up for you...no need to find random boxes on the side of the road as had to on our travels.

My last few days of the trip were spent in Halong Bay. I heard that it was worth paying a bit extra for a good tour company as there are some pretty cheap and nasty operations that run tours in the bay. Being by myself, many companies make you pay an extra single supplement (up to 50% of the price). To avoid the single supplement I booked the trip at the last minute. When I got on the boat I was quite surprised to end up with a really good cabin at the bow of the boat. An Australian couple who also booked last minute also ended up with a cabin like mine and we were all a bit miffed why we appeared to have better cabins than others. Turns out there was one big drawback, at night while we were moored in the bay the anchor chain constantly banged against the front of the boat...right by our cabins. Because to the noise I got a terrible night sleep, but otherwise the trip was really good. We got to go kayaking and swimming (although the weather was not that warm). They also ran a few activities on the boat including having a go at squid fishing and a vegetable carving demonstration (the amount of time and patience that goes into the vegetable flowers used as decorations!). The highlight for me was visiting one the floating fishing villages in the bay. If the weather had been better I would have liked to do a longer trip (3 day) trip there. It is 4 hour drive each way from Hanoi to Halong Bay, a lot of driving for only an overnight trip.

Photos: Halong Bay

chris_and_dusk — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:34:00 GMT

Photos: Hanoi

chris_and_dusk — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:19:00 GMT

Volunteering in Sapa

chris_and_dusk — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 15:40:00 GMT

We originally set up this blog to record stories from our big world trip. That trip seems like such a long time ago now, but since I’m travelling again I thought I would resurrect the blog.

I found myself with a bit of spare time after finishing my thesis. Not sure what to do, Chris suggested that I make the most of it and do something different...volunteer overseas. Vietnam had been on my list of places I wanted visit so I decided to plan a trip there. Since I was travelling by myself (Chris was unable to take time off work) I thought a volunteer placement would be a good way to meet people. After going round in circles on the internet I finally settled on volunteering at a learning centre in Sapa, Northern Vietnam. The learning centre (Sapa O’Chau) works with ethnic minority kids from surrounding villages, teaching English and also training them to be guides (as trekking is the main thing to do here).

To save costs I organised the trip myself instead of going through a volunteer agency. The volunteer agencies charge a lot of money and I couldn’t see how much of the fee actually went towards the charities they work with (if at all). So I contacted Sapa O’Chau directly and made my own way to Sapa. I arrived in Sapa tired and cold after an overnight train ride, I made my way to the cafe where no one seemed to know anything about me arriving....not a good start. Not knowing what to do I hung around for a bit until two other volunteers (Erin and Bree from Australia) turned up. They helped me find somewhere to stay and get settled. On the way we met Peter, one of the coordinators at Sapa O’Chau.

After a shower and some breakfast I was feeling a bit better. Peter had organised a trip for the volunteers down to Lao Chai a small village near Sapa. We had a great lunch at Mai’s homestay, great food and the obligatory shot(s) of rice wine. While we were having lunch Peter got a call about some event the next day, an opportunity to climb Mt Fansipan (the highest mountain in Vietnam) without paying any fees. Not want to miss out on anything and with a promising weather forecast we said yes. So the next day we all got up early, boarded a mini bus....sat on the mini bus while it drove around in circles for a while waiting for more people, then headed off to Mt Fansipan. Well it turned out that the “event” was actually a race up and down Mt Fansipan, held every year or two. Well we were in no shape to run up Mt Fansipan, walking up was going to be hard enough. We were soon left behind by all the runners, but we did manage to get over half way up before being made to turn around (you had to be less than an hour behind the leaders and we were going too slow). While it was disappointing not to get to the top, it was a nice day and we did get great views (unlike many people who climb it).

The next day was meant to be my first day of classes. Unfortunately we all came down with a bout of food poisoning (some dodgy chicken), which left me out of action for a couple of days. As we had quite a few volunteers that week (Erin and Bree, Marie from Belgium and Amy from the Netherlands), I ended up working with a student Dua (pronounced Zho) one on one to help her catch up to the rest of the class. Mornings were spent covering the basics (alphabet, numbers) with reading and pronunciation practice in the afternoon. Dua was really keen to learn and she did show some improvement while I was working with her. She was pretty upset and cried when I told I was leaving, I felt a bit bad. While Sapa O’Chau is quite disorganised, the kids at the school are great, they are so keen to learn and I really enjoyed my time with them and the other volunteers.

Sapa is situated quite high in the mountains and has very changeable weather. Usually it was pretty cold and foggy. The cloud layer changes height rapidly, one moment it would be reasonably clear....the next minute the visibility would be down to 30 metres. When the sun did come out we got beautiful views of Sapa and the surrounding mountains. We tried to make the most of the nice days by doing short walks around Sapa, down to Cat Cat village and up Red dragon hill.

Staying in one place for a couple of weeks means that you get to know a few people by sight and start to notice some of the little routines in the town. Every night on our walk back to the guesthouse after dinner we noticed several middle age ladies marching around the town square...their exercise for the day. There was also a group of ladies (and the odd guy) practicing salsa dancing almost every night on the porch of the community centre. Even the old ladies selling handicrafts on the street started to recognise us and I didn’t seem to get hassled quite as much. Telling them you were a teacher was a good way to get rid of them....they would often apologise for hassling us, but this would only work sometimes.

One of the highlights of the trip was going on a trek to Ta phin, a Red Dao village. We decided to move the trip forward by a day to make the most of the weather, and were very glad we did. Our first day of walking was very sunny and hot, the second day was in thick fog. Given the changeable weather around Sapa we were very happy to get one good day. We (Bree, Erin, myself and our guides Mai and La) set off from Sapa and headed towards Ta phin passing through several small villages and rice paddies. Sapa is higher than the surrounding villages so the walk was easy, mostly a gentle downhill. On the way we got followed at times by Red Dao ladies trying to sell us stuff, they were very friendly but we weren’t very good prospects as I only bought one small bag and the girls bought nothing. There were two main reasons why we chose to do the trek to Ta phin: there are lot less tourists than other routes (most tourists head towards Lao Chai and Ta van) and we also really wanted to try the Red Dao herbal baths at the homestay. The herbal baths involve boiling up water with herbs and leaves. This water is then poured into barrels which you sit in to have the bath. The barrels are not particularly big, so even with my short legs it was a fairly tight fit. Still it was great way to end the day. We also had a great dinner (cooked over open fires) and of course the obligatory shots of rice wine. The next day was a fairly quick walk out to our pick up point, because of the fog we could see anything and there didn’t seem to be much point to sticking around.

Photos: More Sapa

chris_and_dusk — Sun, 2 Dec 2012 12:49:00 GMT

Photos: Trekking in Sapa

chris_and_dusk — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 20:22:00 GMT

South Eastern Anatolia

chris_and_dusk — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 08:51:00 GMT

By this stage of the trip we were counting down the bus trips left. It was our second overnight bus trip in a week and we really weren’t looking forward to it. The Turkish buses weren’t quite up to the standard of South American buses ie no lazy boy chairs, no wine and no bingo! I found it impossible to get comfortable and sleep while Dusk just doesn’t like bus trips. So by the time we arrived in Kahta we were pretty shattered and easy fodder for the touts and before we had even got our bags we had given in and were climbing into a van with a vague promise of a hotel room and tour to Mt Nemrut. We were taken to a smelly office and served the necessary cay (tea) and after some time we found out the hotel was full so we decided to leave, at which point our tout quickly took us to his other cousins hotel. It turned out to be not too bad and we managed to get a few hours sleep ahead of our afternoon tour to Nemrut.

We were joined on our Nemrut tour by a Dutch guy we met on the overnight bus trip and three Turkish students who were constantly late getting back to the mini bus after stops. Our guide (who was also the tout from the bus stop) had bloodshot eyes and looked even more tired than us. It turned out he was also a fire man and had been up all night fighting grass fires. The tour itself was pretty relaxed with a few minor stops along the way before we wound our way up the mountain side to the summit of Nemrut for sunset. From a distance the peak of the mountain looks unusually angular and when you arrive you see that it is in fact a large pyramid of loose rock. Surrounding the pyramid are statues (some probably 10 m high) in various states of ruin. Along with the view of the surrounding hills and a good sunset it’s a very cool place to visit.

Next stop was Urfa. After a fairly uncomfortable, hot, smelly and at times dangerous mini bus trip we were dumped out on a busy roundabout with only a vague idea of where we were and an even vaguer idea of how to get to our hostel. Street names and numbers are mostly non existent. We headed off toward the centre of town and eventually found our hostel with the help of a barber and some school kids. The 40 degree heat meant we basically relaxed in our rooms air conditioning for the rest of the afternoon and ate baklava. We headed out in the evening to see the main gardens with its mosques and decorative pools which were all quite nice. At the carp pool some guy began talking to us in English (which was getting a bit rare) and we ended up having a cup of cay with him and he told us about some things to do and see. We were a bit weary as we thought he would at the very least try to sell us something but seemed genuinely just to want to make sure we had a good time in his city. The bazaar was the highlight of Urfa. It is very much a working bazaar with metal smiths, tailors and other tradesmen still working and making things in the alleyways. We spent a morning wandering in and out of it but only bought scarves and some soap.

We were now well into South Eastern Anatolia. This area has had a few troubles in the past with the PKK (Kurdish party) fighting the Turkish government. In the past few weeks we had been reading the travel advisories and watching the news for any sign of trouble in the area. At one point walking down the street in Istanbul we saw a news flash on a TV in a restaurant showing an explosion in Urfa but couldn’t understand what it was saying. The waiter explained it as “like a bomb - but not a bomb”, it turned out a petrol station had caught fire. We decided it all seemed pretty quiet on the fighting front and there wasn’t too much to worry about but on arriving in SEA we heard that the Kurdish fighters had killed a group of Turkish soldiers which made us a bit nervous but in the end we didn’t feel unsafe at any point and all seemed pretty normal.

Our guidebook and the internet recommended a trip to Harran (one of the oldest continually occupied spots in the world) to see the unusual style of houses there, so we hired a driver/guide to head south to Harran for the afternoon. Being near the Syrian border it had a bit of a middle east feel to it with camels walking the streets and men in long white robes but otherwise it is a pretty run down dump of a town and the houses were mildly interesting at best. The guide had brought his young grandson along for the trip who was really naughty, but the guide just let him get away with it. On the return drive the boy was jumping all around the car and up and down on the front seat next to the open window but the guide didn’t like telling him off because it made him upset. Seemed a bit of a paradox that he liked his grandson so much he didn’t want to hurt his feelings to the point where he ignored the kids basic safety.

Our last bus trip! This time only a few hours to Diyarbakir. The reason for heading to Diyarbakir was to see the town walls made of basalt blocks and because there were reasonably cheap flights back to Istanbul from there. Unfortunately Dusk started to feel unwell and spent most of her time at the hotel. I headed out to wander around town. Being one of very few foreigners around I seemed to make a lot of friends and drank a bit too much pistachio coffee and cay and by the end of the day was also feeling a bit unwell. Diyarbakir would probably be a much more touristy place if it was a bit further west and didn’t have a reputation as a hot spot for fighting between the PPK and Turkish army. The walls (second biggest fortified walls after the Great Wall) are quite impressive if a bit run down and the town has several neat buildings made of alternating layered black and white rock. It also has a couple of impressive caravanasarei (buildings with a large internal courtyard surrounded by stalls and restaurants looking down from balconies above) that were used in the times of the silk route as trading posts. The flight back to Istanbul was fairly uninteresting apart from the woman wearing full burkas with cowboy hats!?

Our last night in Turkey, Dusk still wasn’t feeling too well and not interested in dinner. I headed out to find something to eat but really didn’t feel like going to a restaurant alone. I decided to have a random dinner from what I could find from the street vendors, sit down in the park by the Aya Sofia and Blue Mosque and watch the tourists and locals as they bustled about. Dinner turned out to be not that good. A hungry looking skinny stray cat turned its nose up at the remains of my doner kebab, the corn on the cob was super salty and tough, the sticky Turkish ice cream got a bit sickly but the cay (which I had developed a taste for in Turkey) was good and even though the food was bad it was quite nice just chilling out in the evening surrounded by amazing buildings while everyone bustled about. A pretty neat end to our time in Turkey – for one of us at least.

Photos: Southeastern Anatolia

chris_and_dusk — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:39:00 GMT

Heading off the beaten track

Cappadocia

chris_and_dusk — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:43:00 GMT

We didn’t get much sleep on the night bus to Cappadocia. The bus stopped every hour or so, turned the light on and basically woke everyone up. I think I got a bit more sleep than Chris, his long legs make it difficult to get comfortable on buses. Just before dawn the bus stopped again, this time for prayers. After all this we eventually made it to Goreme, our base for the next few days. Luckily we were able to check into our hostel early and have a bit of a rest. Cappadocia is located in Central Turkey. It is famous for its fairy chimneys, weirdly shaped conical rock towers formed through the erosion of soft volcanic tuff. Traditionally people have lived in caves in the chimneys, these days the cave houses cater to the tourist market with lots of boutique hostels and hotels in them. So as it is the thing to do in Cappadocia we settled on a cave room...which smelt a bit like a damp student flat in Dunedin, but it was nice and cool. In general Cappadoccia was a bit cooler than on the coast, a welcome respite for us.

On our first morning we decided to check out Goreme open air museum, a short walk down the road from our hostel. However as we made our way their Chris realised that he forgot to put sunscreen on and didn’t have a hat. So for that reason and the number of tour buses turning up at that time we decided to skip it for now and return later in the day (which turned out to be a wise move). Instead we spent most of the day sorting out our plans for the remainder of the trip. This included organising our balloon ride and day trip for the following day (involved going to many places and figuring out the best deal) and sorting out our plans for eastern turkey (deciding that all the tour operators were super dodgy and we would be best to go it alone).

The next morning we got up bright and early to go ballooning. Hot air ballooning is another one of the things to do in Cappadocia, and while not cheap was definitely worth it. It turned out to be one of the highlights of our time in Turkey. Our pilot seemed to like mixing it up, dropping down very low barely skimming the ground (and trying to pick apricots off trees) and then rising up really high. It was a great way to see the unique Cappadocian landscape (check out all the photos). Landing spots vary as the balloon is at the mercy of the wind. The wind had been picking up during our flight which made for a difficult landing. The pilot was in radio contact with the support crew and we could see them driving around below as the pilot tried to spot suitable paddocks. We made one attempt but had to pull up as the wind took us too close to the road and power lines. The second attempt (in another paddock) was successful. We were told to brace for a rough landing (basically do a wall sit on the sides of the basket) as people have had broken legs due to the impact. When we finally touched down it was a pretty solid bump....a lot rougher than I expected.

After a quick breakfast we joined a day tour. There are four main tours that depart from Goreme each covering different parts of the region. You decide what tour to go on and then it doesn’t matter what company you go with as they all do the same route at the same time. We think there is a definite marketing opportunity for a reverse tour....covering the same things but at a different time to everyone else. While waiting for our tour to depart Chris noticed a familiar figure in black jeans and with long hair strolling past. It was Steve who we had met in Croatia and again in Montenegro. Turns out he was on the same day trip as us, so we spent the day catching up and comparing travel stories. The tour took us to one of many the underground cities in the Cappadocia region. The underground cities were built by the local residents to hide from invading forces. Each city was carved out of the soft rock, with multiple floors and rooms. Ventilation was by way of several shafts that reached to the surface. They even kept their livestock inside. There are around 40 known underground cities in the Cappadocia region and maybe many more, but only a few are open to visitors. The one we visited is one of the biggest. So we had a wander round, Chris banged his head a few times on the low ceilings, and got caught up in mini traffic jams (as all the other tour groups were there at the same time).

Next we headed to Ihara valley, where we went for a short walk beside the river and checked out a small church carved into the hillside. Lunch by the river, then checked out Selime monastery, view of pigeon valley then off to our final stop of the day....the onyx factory. Thinking back we should have never bothered to get out of the bus...but we went in as we were curious and couldn’t think of anything better to do. We got shown how they carve the onyx (a mineral found in these parts that they carve into tacky souvenirs and jewellery). Then we got shown the jewellery section and got invited to tour the showroom and make some purchases. Well I’m not really a jewellery person and was pretty keen to just get out of there...but then we realised that they had locked us in. I did a half hearted walk around the show room only to be stalked by some pushy sales man. I stopped to talk to Steve for a moment and the salesman assuming that Steve was my boyfriend tried to talk him into buying jewellery for me. I made a quick escape but the salesman managed to track me down again before I found the back door out of the place. I was pretty relieved to get out there without being made to buy something....some people weren’t so lucky.

The next day we hired a scooter to do some exploring on our own. The hire company recommended we go to Zelve open air museum, it turned out to be well worth the trip. Hardly anyone else there, really interesting to explore... we thought it was a lot better than the more famous Goreme open air museum. It is basically an abandoned village with lots of small cave dwellings cut into the side of the valleys. We spent a couple of hours exploring, even finding a tunnel through the hillside from one valley to another. However without a torch we didn’t want to venture too far....the camera flash wasn’t quite good enough. That evening, with an overnight bus ride ahead of us we decided to find a hostel with a pool. This turned out to be Steve’s hostel (I think he was sick of us by then) where we had a relaxing swim and beer.

Photos: Cappadocia

chris_and_dusk — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:10:00 GMT

Fethiye and Olympos

chris_and_dusk — Tue, 1 Nov 2011 22:59:00 GMT

In Fethiye we decided to do the twelve island boat trip. Having discovered that it is always better to shop around in Turkey we headed off down to the wharf and checked out the boats. All the boats do pretty much the same itinerary so it all comes down to how nice the boat is and how much it costs. We settled on a mid size, mid cost, pretty nice looking boat that didn’t play annoying music. We spent the next day cruising round the bay stopping at a few islands and going for swims. Very relaxing. Some of the other larger “party” boats had waterslides running from the top deck down through the boat and exiting just above the water line on the side of the boat. So a few people from our boat, not wanting to miss out on the fun, snuck across to the other boats and tried it out. That night we headed up the hill to check out the lycian rock tombs in the cliffs overlooking the town. By the time we got there the person collecting the entry fee had already left for the day...so we got to go in for free and almost had the place to ourselves. We stumbled upon a good restaurant across the road from the tombs, away from the main tourist drag the food was a lot better than the meal we had the previous evening. I ordered a mojito and to my delight it came out complete with sparklers and cocktail umbrellas.

The next we headed off on a day trip to Butterfly Valley. Our original plan was to take a dolmus (minivan-bus) to the head of the valley and walk down a track into the valley. The tourist office lady in Fethiye had told us the track was steep and dangerous and we would meet certain death if we took it –sounded like a challenge. However the dolmus gods weren’t in our favour and we discovered that the dolmus that we planned to take wasn’t running. Plan B was to take a dolmus to Oludeniz and then catch the water taxi to the valley. Oludeniz and surrounding towns are the destination of choice for british package holiday tourists. We saw numerous English pubs advertising full English breakfasts etc. I think we were both glad to be staying in Fethiye and avoiding it all. Butterfly valley is really scenic, with a beautiful beach and a small waterfall. It only has rustic treehut/campground accommodation and the whole place is very laid back....except for 2 hours of the day when the tour boats come in. There are plenty of butterflies there at certain times of the year...but not when we were there. We walked up to the end of the valley and checked out the waterfall. We were looking for the track out of the valley (the one we’d planned to walk down), there did seem to be a bit of a track at the waterfall but it looked pretty dodgy. (maybe the lady was right) Ignoring the death and danger signs Chris had a go climbing waterfall and checking it out...and getting very wet in the process. After deciding that this wasn’t “the track” we headed back down to the beach, on the way we noticed a track heading up the side of the valley. Chris decided to check it out, walking all the way out and then back down into the valley....in the heat of the day (the track was fine, steep but not dangerous). Meanwhile, I took the easy option and found a shady spot and had a wee sleep.

The days sightseeing wasn’t over yet, we caught the water taxi back, two more dolmuses and got to Kayakoy. Kayakoy is an abandoned town. After the first world war the Greek and Turkish governments did a population swap with Greek orthodox inhabitants of Turkey sent to Greece and the Muslim population of Greece sent to Turkey. More people went to Greece than to Turkey resulting in several ghosts towns left today. Yet again we had turned up too late to pay the entrance fee, but we got to explore the town as the sun went down. Deciding that restaurants at the main entrance to the ghost town were a bit of a tourist trap...overpriced and not great food, we had a look around for something else to eat. We ended up finding a restaurant run by a Moroccan couple serving both Moroccan and Turkish food. We really like Moroccan food and it was great to have change from Turkish, so we both went for Moroccan tangines which were very tasty. The owner also brought out a plate of Turkish meze (salads and dips) for us to nibble on...free of charge. Dinner was entertaining with the owners’ kitten and puppy play fighting all around our table and under our chairs.

From Fethiye we headed to Olympos. Olympos was described in our guidebook as being a sleeply little town, with tree-house style backpackers and not much else. It seems that a lot has changed in the past few years as it is pretty busy and touristy. We discovered that we’d arrived in the peak of the Turkish holiday period, the beach was packed, so many cars everywhere along the road...and it was insanely hot. We’d made a booking online thinking we’d chosen a basic cabin with air conditioning...when we got there we discovered that it was a very basic treehouse with no windows, just a basic wooden shack with holes in the walls. We quickly upgraded, not caring about the cost, to an air conditioned ensuite room. There was no way we were going to be able to sleep in that heat and I didn’t want to be eaten alive by mosquitoes. The backpackers was really nice, lots of little cabins and treehouses tucked away in their massive garden. Breakfast and dinner was included in the price and the food was fantastic. They used a lot of their homegrown fruit and veges in the meals.

As it was so hot we decided to check out the beach. We knew we had to pay an entrance fee as there are historic ruins on the way but were annoyed to discover that we couldn’t buy a day or multi day pass as each ticket is for one entry only...and not that cheap. The beach was packed with holiday makers and not that great to swim at with lots of boulders and sharp rocks (upon which I cut my foot). The ruins are nice but as we were not very organised we forgot to take the camera.

By this point we were pretty sick of the crowds and the heat, but as we’d already booked our Cappadoccia accommodation we decided it would be a bit difficult to change it all. Instead we spent the next day “canyoning”. It wasn’t really canyoning as we know it..more like a wander down a river, something that we’d do back home in NZ and never think about doing a guided trip for. But the water was nice and cool so that was good. They got us to leave our spare clothes at the bottom of the valley so all the guys just walked up in their shorts. Chris forgot to put sunscreen on so spent the afternoon worrying that he’d get sunburnt. He ended up slapping on some river mud whenever he got a chance as a temporary sunscreen. That night we checked out the Chimaera, natural flames (burning methane gas escaping from the rocks) occurring on a hillside near Olympos. The flames have been burning for at a least a couple of thousand years. They used to be a lot more impressive than they are now, ancient mariners used them to navigate. To be honest we were a little bit disappointed, the flames were ok, but there were far too many people around.

Our final day was spent lazing around in the shade (it was even hotter) then caught the night bus to Cappadoccia.

Photos: Fethiye and Olympos

chris_and_dusk — Tue, 1 Nov 2011 18:07:00 GMT

Gallipoli to Pamukkale

chris_and_dusk — Tue, 1 Nov 2011 16:34:00 GMT

It was a fairly early departure from Istanbul as all the later ferries were all booked up. Loading was slightly hectic as all the passengers and cars crossed the same ramp at the same time to board. We weren’t sure what to do with our luggage but followed the locals lead and just dumped it all by the entrance. We were on the fast ferry across the Marmara Sea to Bandirma from where we caught a bus to Cannakale and then another ferry back across the Dardanelles to Eceabat on the Gallipoli peninsula. We stayed at the Crowded house hostel where the owner had patchy English but a thick Aussie accent. We also meet Stacy and Mike here and we ended up following each other for the next few days.

A tour of the ANZAC battle fields was obviously on our agenda but as that wasn’t on till the afternoon I managed to convince Dusk to go on a snorkelling tour at ANZAC cove. The snorkelling was ok and we could see the remains of a ship sunk during the battle but the best part of this tour was being able to experience the area with no one else around. Later when we returned on the battle fields tour other tour groups on day trips from Istanbul had arrived and there were people everywhere. The Gallipoli peninsula is a really beautiful place and we realised how lucky we had been to have ANZAC cove and Ari Burnu to ourselves for a few hours.

We had to cross back over the Dardenals to catch our bus to Ephesus. The ferry across normally takes about 15 minutes but this morning it decided to just dawdle along and drift for a while and we were cracking a few nervous jokes with our new travel friends Mike and Stacey about what we would do if we missed the bus. The problem was another ferry blocking the berth but it eventually moved and we ran off the ferry to be immediately grabbed by the mini bus driver and whisked off to catch the main bus.

The bus ride to Selçuk was fairly long and uneventful but we did go through some seriously crazy motorway off-ramps that did a 270 degree loop, went under the motorway then joined another road heading back over the motorway to take what originally was just a simple right hand turn (Turkey drive on the right).

We decided to stay at Atillas getaway in Ephesus which was actually a bit out of town but had a sweet pool and bar so a pretty cool place to hangout. The only problem was the American students who talked half the night which wouldn’t of been too bad except for their loud accents and stupid opinions. We spent the next morning checking out town which has an old roman aquaduct running through it but is now just an excellent nesting site for stalks that like to clap their beaks a lot. There was a market on in town and Dusk ended up buying pots, we then had to scrounge the streets for a cardboard box to pack them in to send home. We left going to the Ephesus ruins till late in the afternoon to try and avoid the crowds and heat. The ruins themselves were very impressive though we struggled to make any sense of them as the guide book we had been loaned seemed to have been written using google translate and was virtually nonsensical.

We had arranged bus tickets to Pamukkale through a bus agent and associate of Atilla. We kind of worked out that we had probably paid a bit too much when a bus pulled up that only had tourists on it but considering we got door to door service and looked after, paying a few extra lira was probably worth it. Pamukkale is all about the terraces. Thermal water flows down the hillside depositing minerals as huge white terraces. You walk up from town and have to go bare foot across the terraces which feel quite weird to walk on as they are covered in tiny ridges. At the top around the springs are pools which people pay to swim in even though they contain radon and measurable quantities of radioactive particles (they advertise it on the sign out the front). We opted out but mainly because they looked grungy and were full of Russian tourists.

Another day, another bus ride. This time we were heading south to Fetiye on the coast. Firstly we had to get a crowded minibus to the bus terminal in Denizli. As it was rush hour we’d picked up our fill within a couple of blocks and then it was a cramped ride into town, just enough time for a fresh orange juice and then onto a slightly bigger but just as cramped bus. There was a big Aussie guy on the bus who wanted to move to a slightly roomier seat but Turkish buses have strict unwritten rules about who can sit where (lone woman sit next to lone woman etc) and the bus conductor soon had him back in his original seat. Our map showed two roads for the trip neither very direct as there was a big mountain range in the way, however we took some other road which went straight over the mountains. Very scenic, even some opium plantations (legal ones), but the windy road was not that good for Dusk.

Photos: Pamukkale

chris_and_dusk — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 22:20:00 GMT

Photos: Ephesus

chris_and_dusk — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:12:00 GMT

Photos: Gallipoli

chris_and_dusk — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 18:16:00 GMT

Istanbul

chris_and_dusk — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 17:50:00 GMT

We were a bit tired when our train arrived into Istanbul. While we did get quite a bit of sleep on the train, getting woken up a couple of times to get our passport stamped meant for a pretty disjointed sleep. Still it was a lot better than taking a bus. We made it up to our hostel without too much trouble, had some breakfast and a shower then headed out to check out the sights.

We were staying in Sultanahmet, while very touristy is a great location as most of the big sights are within walking distance. There is so much to see in Istanbul, we soon realised that our 3 days in the city wasn’t really long enough to see everything. First stop was Hagia Sophia, built as an orthodox basilica in 360 (although the current building dates back to the 500’s), converted to a mosque in 1453 it then became a museum in 1931. All in all it is a very impressive building, with a massive dome, numerous mosaics and other decorations. From Hagia Sophia we walked across the square to another very impressive building the Blue Mosque. The mosque is still used regularly for prayers, however they allow tourists to wander through part of the mosque in between prayer time. While impressed with both buildings we decided that the Blue Mosque had the better exterior and Hagia Sophia the best interior. Our final stop of the day was the Basillica Cistern, the largest of several ancient cisterns below Istanbul. The cistern was built back in the 6^th century. It’s a great place to escape the heat (although not the crowds) on a hot day in Istanbul.

Sultanahmet has numerous roof top bars and restaurants…after a bit of trial and error we managed to find the bar with the best view of the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, have a look at the evening photos we took.

The next day our main aim was to get to Tokapi Palace before the crowds…which we sort of managed. Tokapi Palace was the main residence of the Ottoman Sultans for around 400 years. It is another of the must see sights in Istanbul and definitely worth the effort. The highlight for us was the harem…the main living quarters of the sultans and his family. The rooms are decorated with traditional tiles and other ornate decorations. Also located in the palace is the imperial treasury….a collection of very fancy jewellery and other objects (such as a jewel encrusted tea set). As we left we almost had to fight our way through the crowds coming in, definitely glad we got there early. The afternoon was spent having a wander through the grand bazaar before our cooking class that evening.

Chris has proven to be the better travel planner, basically I have no patience to read through guidebooks until I actually get to our destination. This is not ideal as on a tight time frame you need to work out how long to spend at each destination and maybe also organise some activities in advance. So Chris has done most of the organising on this trip and I help out occasionally by booking a hostel. However this time I actually organised something....a Turkish cooking class in Istanbul. The class was run by a local lady in her very nice apartment in the suburb of Taksim. It was good to get out of touristy Sultanahmet and see how the locals live. The cooking class was good, although a bit strange at times. The food was great and I’m looking forward to making it at home but the other people taking the course were all a bit weird. There was the middle aged American lady who spoke fluent Turkish having spent some time here while at uni, (the cooking teacher was convinced that the American lady was a spy) the American lady’s teenage nephew, and a Canadian travel writer. After the cooking was done more guests turned up for dinner, the extra guests were all friends of the other people in the course, so we had the American lady’s husband (a university academic) and their family friend an Austrian lady who lived in London (she reminded us of Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians) and the travel writers gay partner (a yoga instructor). All in all it was a very strange dinner party.

Our final day in Istanbul was spent checking out the Spice Market (buying yet another scarf and lots of very yummy Turkish delight) and a ferry trip on the Bosphorous. To our surprise we even spotted a couple of dolphins in the water.

Photos: Istanbul: part 2

chris_and_dusk — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:31:00 GMT

Photos: Istanbul: part 1

chris_and_dusk — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:06:00 GMT

Macedonia & Bulgaria

chris_and_dusk — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:16:00 GMT

After all the chaos in Albania, Macedonia was a nice quiet reprieve. Chris and I were both getting over colds so we needed a few relaxing days. Macedonia is almost as cheap as Albania but without the hassle...you can drink the water out of the tap, there are proper bus stations...everything is just a little bit more orderly. Our first stop in Macedonia was Lake Ohrid, described as the “jewel in Macedonia’s crown”, the lake and Ohrid township are very scenic. On arrival with our Albanian taxi driver (from the border) we promptly got lost in the old town trying to find our hostel. Luckily for us some waiters from a nearby restaurant rang up the hostel owner and got him to meet us ...I doubt we would have found the hostel otherwise as the old town is a bit of a maze.

The next day we set off on a bit of a walking tour of the old town as described in our guidebook. It has been a bit of a love/hate affair with our lonely planet guidebooks on this trip. At times they have been completely wrong, bad recommendations, locations marked wrong on the map, completely out of date (especially in Albania) but this time they pulled through and suggested a good route to follow of all the main sights. We started at the top of the castle at the top of the hill, not much is remaining but they do seem to be excavating and restoring parts of it (between smoko breaks). The views of the lake are good though. From there we headed down the hill checking out ruins of churches, reconstructed churches, mosaics, and just plain old churches....all very photogenic with the blue lake and blue sky as backdrop.

The next day we thought about hiring a car and exploring the area surrounding the lake, but with us both lacking energy and feeling a bit sick with our colds neither of us could be bothered with the hassle. Instead we decided to go on one of the boat tours heading up the lake. We had checked the departure time the night before, but when we got down to the dock we discovered that the boat had already left. As it was too late in the day to do plan b (hire a car) we ended up doing not much. A lot of relaxing, reading our books and eating extremely cheap tasty baklava.

From Ohrid we headed to Sofia in Bulgaria, but due to the bus schedules we had a few hours to kill in Macedonia’s capital Skopje. At the moment Skopje looks like one big building site, with several new buildings being constructed, earthworks along the river banks, road works etc. If they do a good job it could be very nice city in a few years....but at the moment it’s just one big mess. We spent a few hours walking around in the heat, having lunch and trying to use up the last of our Macedonian dinars as it is basically impossible to exchange the currency overseas.

Bulgaria wasn’t on our original plan, after Albania we had planned to go to Greece then island hop our way across to Turkey. However, we had to cut our trip short by a couple of weeks and due to the lack of time as well as all the strikes and riots happening in Greece we decided to skip Greece and go to Bulgaria instead. Our main reason for going to Bulgaria was to catch the overnight train to Istanbul, but since we were there we decided to spend a couple of days checking out Sofia (the capital) and surrounding areas. On our first morning we joined another “free” walking tour around Sofia. Sofia is unusual for a major city as it is not located near any significant waterways. Instead Sofia has hundreds of groundwater springs ensuring a great water supply for the city. We wandered around the city checking out churches, government buildings and ugly communist era buildings and sculptures.

The next day we joined a tour heading to Rila Monastery, a couple of hours south of Sofia. Our tour turned out to be just a couple of taxis with drivers but it was still a good day. Our trip took us up into the Rila Mountains where the taxi drivers showed us a cave and small church in the forest. Next we checked out the Monastery itself, it is one of the of the biggest tourist attractions in Bulgaria and deservedly so. The exterior of the church is decorated with numerous paintings depicting scenes from the bible, inside the church there are also plenty of frescos. We had a good look around, had lunch then headed back to Sofia. That evening we caught the sleeper train to Istanbul. It was my first time on a sleeper train. We had a small room with two bunk beds and slept pretty well apart from having to get up twice during the night to get our passport stamped.