PatLynneEscapes

Final Days

patlynne — Tue, 2 Oct 2007 15:27:00 GMT

Article 19

Jakarta

Up early and back to bed after the basics…nothing but nothing opens in Jakarta before 10am! So where do we have to go, nowhere. We did upload all the camera memories and decide as to what we wanted to save.

Arrival in Jakarta was smooth, bought our temporary Visas ‘On-entry’ and legally entered the country. Pick-up promised had not been verified so we ended up hiring a basic taxi! Big fee into town but so be it, we paid as we were delivered to the front doors of our hotel! The Ibis Arcadia.

Our time in Jakarta is broken up into basic things to do…Catch up with friends; organise a farewell dinner with these friends; get some loose stones mounted by my favourite jeweller; get some tailor made clothes for me…simpler than trying to find MY size anywhere and in Jakarta, a LOT cheaper.

It is now Tuesday 02 Oct. We have just checked our investments and they are doing better than we anticipated. We have lodged the stones (Black-Jade pieces) with our jeweller and the new necklace will be ready next Monday…just before we leave to come home. I have visited my Tailor and ordered the required new clothes and some shirts and I have a fitting tomorrow with collection of the finished articles on Friday. We have done all the shops over (within walking distance of the hotel) and contacted most of our friends and, the dinner is organised for this coming Sat. night. There is not much left for us to do here.

We had one stroke of luck…Patricia’s camera batteries (special, re-chargeable, and not available in Malaysia or Turkey for that matter) went kaput…could not be charged. We did not know if it was the batteries (two separate batteries) the camera or the charger. A friendly electrician in Sabang shopping street managed to test the charger and declared it OK. We visited the Ambassador Computer/Photo shopping mall in Jakarta south and after asking in a dozen shops, found two shops in succession both of which had one of the required batteries…now Patricia is restored for photograph taking when we are on the last leg of the trip! Oh Well.

Finally caught up with a very old friend from Jakarta, John...I have known him a long time and I will try not to paint him too blackly…but he is now working for the Captain and was off on another assignment and it just so happened he delayed his departure for one day. This gave us the chance to meet and say goodbye…I doubt that I will be in Indonesia, well Jakarta, in the foreseeable future. Best of wishes John and to the Captain too if I don’t see him before we depart next Monday.

So this will most likely be the last Journal Entry until I revert to my Brisbane Updates probably next weekend! (13th October)

Cheers and best wishes to everyone and thanks for reading the Journal.

Best Regards, Lynne and Patricia, 02 Oct. 2007, Jakarta: Indonesia

Final Things to Do

patlynne — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 15:22:00 GMT

Article 18

Friday 28^th Sept KL to Jakarta

We caught up with my Friend Darryl and his lovely wife this afternoon and had drinks at the Irish Pub, caught up on past and present history and doings. They are in KL on a brief holiday, returning to Jakarta tomorrow (Sat 29 Sept.) the same as us. We are travelling Malaysian and they, Garuda.

Dinks done, time for Macan and off to a local Chinese road-side café…one of those with ten chefs all working over steaming/red-hot woks turning out twenty meals a minute for the slavering crowd! We ordered, as usual, about two more dishes than we needed on a shared dishes basis and al hogged in. Delicious Sweet and Sour Pork, Crispy-Chicken and cashews, Sliced beef and pineapple and some sort of green vegetable mix plus steamed rice and, yet more beer, Carlsburg this time. Very, very good and also, surprisingly, very cheap too for the amount of food.

Then, to close out the night, back with Darryl to yet another Irish Pub very near their hotel. We stayed at the Federal which has its own Irish Pub (Delany’s) and Darryl stayed at the Park Royal and around the corner was their Irish pub. A few more rounds of Kilkenny , we all called it a night because of our flying next day and went back to our respective hotels and bed!

Saturday morning we were collected on time by our Transfer Driver and taken to the KLIA. Speedily processes, we proceeded to ‘immagracci’ and on to what we thought would be Duty- Free shopping. WRONG! The Duty Free shopping at Kuala Lumpur International Airport is after check-in but before Immigration!

Now cleared by Immigration we are stuck in no-man’s land! Cannot go back to Duty Free, Cannot go to the Gate because it doesn’t open until 60 minutes before flight time…and nearly two hours to kill! Pat read a book and I had a few beers at the only operational establishment in this airport area…a bar and grill at exorbitant prices. Fortunately for me a toilet…I suddenly developed an attack of gut-trouble and urgent need to unload…this led to having to take another anti-gut-problems pill and, for that, I needed another beer…nuff said!

Even though our plane was late arriving, they speeded everythin up and we were all boarded, and away on time with me winning the usual lottery…the seat next to the young mother with the screaming baby! It quietened down once we ere airborne and only started screaming again during our decent into Jakarta.

Finally back in Jakarta, in our hotel and even with money, thanks to the airport ATM we raced off to SO-GO supermarket and purchased some basics like salted butter, French bread (Well that’s what it said, but it AINT!) double smoked ham, coffee and jam…breakfasts for the coming week. Our hotel is Indonesian, ie, not an International 5***** Chain like Hilton etc which are all facade and higher prices with very little service if one is not a multi-millionaire Yank! Breakfasts in an Indonesian hotel leaves a lot to be desired…rice porridge, cold boiled eggs or hot, half-raw ‘boiled’ eggs, salad items and sweet-bread toast. Then there is cake and chocolate sprinkles on bread-and-unsalted-butter!! Not for us!

Necessities, including beer, obtained I left Patricia to unpack and went to buy a local SIM Card for my Handphone so that, simply, I could contact our various Indonesian Friends. SIM Card purchased, I called into the old Romance Bar and the Captain (Captain Morgan, British Expat, owner) was in his usual captain’s chair. One of his staff volunteered to input all the necessary info into my phone so that I could get connected, eg, Passport number, name, D-O-B and so on. Problem is, if you don’t understand Bahasa, you don’t understand the questions and cannot get connected until they have this information.

Meanwhile, the Captain informs me that Ashley, a ten-year friend in Jakarta, had a motor-bike accident just last week, seemed to be recovering well and just two days ago suffered a terminal heart attack! Next good friend John, is away on an assignment for the Captain and won’t be back until the day after we leave, and not to be outdone as things come in threes, our other, long-term friend, Dickey and his wife have left for Surabaya having been transferred by his University! These are friends of both Patricia and myself. There are many others who are friends of mine, met after Patricia had left Indonesia.

Not much joy there! There are some others whom I may catch up with in the coming week. So, off, over the road to the Ya-Udah restaurant owned by our Swiss friend, Pedro. He walked in as I was ordering my usual (in Ya-Udah) meal of Hungarian Goulash and cheese sticks…Pedro makes the best Hungarian Goulash anywhere in the world including Hungary where, for me, the Goulash was an insipid and watery soup??? Hungarian Goulash IS a soup but one that you can stand a spoon up in, ie, THICK! It should be made with loads of meat, vegetables and paprika and all sorts of unknown goodies (like pickled onions) for additional but subtle flavour.

Pedro and I talked for about an hour about mutual friends, past and present plans and his businesses. Again, or rather, still, Pedro is planning a move to Thailand to get away from the bureaucratic and corrupt Indonesian Business imposts, which, Pedro says, are now becoming impossible to comply with, not only because of stupid regulations but the high and ever higher Government applied costs for simply being able to conduct a business here.

There are few, if any of these type of regulations and controls in Thailand, or much of Malaysia for that matter. For example, In Indonesia, no Expat may own, operate a business and/or own property unless he has an Indonesian Partner or partners. In KL and Thailand, any person may purchase a business or property in his own name and he will have his licence or property deed in his name, in his hands, within three weeks of signing the purchase contract! The Governments of both these countries are offering tax concessions and start-up funds to anyone who wants to establish a business there! The exact opposite of Indonesia. Pedro is again thinking…next year!

Once my phone was working with the local SIM Card, I SMSed all my Jakarta Indonesian and Expat friends and told them we were here for a week and, what my new hand-phone (Mobile-phone) number is. Within seconds, my old Driver ‘Bambang’ was calling me asking when and when can we meet…others quickly followed. We plan to have a small re-union dinner at Ya-Udah for all our friends, during this week but we will also try and see Bambang’s and others families as well. Just a case of organising things. Cheers Lynne and Patricia

Speaking of which, today/tomorrow I will try and organise some tailor made clothes for myself plus get some loose stones mounted…today is Sunday, and it is also Ramadhan so we are not sure what shops and establishments will be open. Hence I sitting here writing this at 0630 because if all the shops we want are shut today, I will go to Starbucks WI/FI and up-load this epistle to the appalled!...and check our emails as well.

Enough for now and there are no more pics to put in the Journal…we have hundreds of Jakarta/Indonesian photos and really, we don’t need to take any more! Cheers Lynne and Pat

Gallery: Gallery 21

patlynne — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:41:00 GMT

Kuala Lumpur

KL to Jakarta

patlynne — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:38:00 GMT

Article 17

Kuala Lumpur (Where muddy rivers meet)

Managed to get some photos uploaded onto the journal pages and the last Article (No. 16). Then went up to the room and finished packing. All packed and waiting in the foyer and, guess what, Our pick-up man was almost half an hour early…He explained that the traffic was very bad! So it was, bumper-to-bumper for the first half hour before we finally started to get going.

This all meant we were at the airport three hours before our flight but! The do not open the check-in desks until two hours before your flight. Mucking around, filling in time, we had a coffee and walked the airport from one end of the concourse to the other. Once the gates were opened we jumped on a short queue, only one man and his two daughters being served/checked-in. He was making a lot of noise, waving boarding passes around, finally throwing them back at the check-in Hostie. We don’t know what the argument was about except it centred upon where his two daughters sat…Rag-Heads and their funny religious views! We were processed by the business class hostie and were on our way through Immigration and they were still arguing!

We thoroughly ‘did-over’ the Istanbul Duty Free…we had a whole AUD$20 worth of Turkish currency to unload…I bought some beer (well beers at a bar) and Patricia spent the remainder on yet more cosmetics.

I am not sure about the rest of the airport passenger gates at Istanbul Airport but Gate 119 is the first Passenger Gate I have ever seen, anywhere in the World, which has a BAR at one end! The plane was on the tarmac, all the passengers were assembled ahead of time (well there seemed to be enough for a full load) and they opened the shutters on a fully operational bar! I was NOT allowed to go and investigate because they had already started loading ‘women-and-small-children’…Many passengers in the Gate went up to use the Bar facilities!

Away on time and the first catastrophe…a huge man sitting I n front of me decided to put his seat ALL the way back and go to sleep! I couldn’t move or do anything with his head and seat in my lap. Meanwhile, two seats in front of mine, a Chinese man and wife, apparently didn’t like the feng-sui or whatever about his seat, and they both bolted for two unoccupied seats in the centre rows? He wildly waved and indicated to me that I should move up to his vacant seats. Bouncing the man in front’s head and seat as hard as I could and dropping my overnight bag onto his head from the overhead locker, I ignored his complaints, told him his seat MUST BE UPRIGHT until after take-off and moved to the two seats-all-to-myself-heaven, two rows forward. Pat was still opposite my original seat (across the aisle) and having her own battler with an early/seat-right-back-no dinner-traveller and, a kid playing football against the back of her seat, for good measure. She can handle her own problems! I decided and promptly put on earphones so I couldn’t hear her complaints and “…why don’t you do something, you bastard?…”

Uneventful trip, I drank four big glasses of red, had four or five beers, took two more pain killers than recommended and spent the night standing up, suffering leg and thigh cramps and watched three movies and three or four features during the night. Ten Hours and forty minutes of agony, I have vowed NEVER to fly cattle-class again for any flight over two hours in duration!!! This morning, I am dead, I am sure I stink and I feel like I have been run over by a train.

Our hotel is a full hour and then some away from the airport. However, the hotel is terrific and, right in the centre of the city. We decided to do the usual city tour, what a farce! Firstly, after paying and being assured that the tour would be conducted on a proper Tour Bus with Air-Con and would consist of flying visits to about eight places of interest. Mainly so people could make up their own minds about which places they really wanted to spend time in, take photos of and explore…at their leisure, ie, in their own time on a second visit!

Then we were loaded into a very scruffy old saloon car, to go to the Coach Pick-up-point…apprehensive already, we get to the pick-up point and there is our ‘coach’…a dilapidated, old, beat-up Combi-wagon. We objected and were told that the only other option was the car we had just got out of…we decided to chance it and, NO Air-Con just a fan blowing and only on one half of the vents! Others, three thirtyish-years women, also climbed aboard and echoed our complaints about the state of the vehicle and no aircon.

Off to the first place of interest…the telecom Tower...almost as high as the twin towers. Thirty-five minutes for photographs, says our driver…but 20 Ringitts each to go up to the platform in the tower…we declined only to be told that we were trouble makers and everyone ‘…went-up-the-tower…!’ We complained about everything again to the driver pointing out that what we were doing was not what was in the brochure, not what the agent had said and…here it was an hour later, and the three women had still not returned to the car, against what he himself had said was going to happen!!!

Finally, the women turned up, Pat had a go at them for being late and got some stiff replies including “…we’ll be later next time…!” I bit in and very quietly pointed out that they had been told 35 minutes, they were over 40 minutes late and therefore we, collectively, would now miss out on parts of the program because they had used up the time! We then battled the traffic across KL to the Kings Palace. Here, the Driver pointed out very forcibly too, that due to people being late, we had missed the changing of the guard at the palace by 15 minutes and, the intent of the tour was to see as many places as possible during the short time available. This arrangement was for the participants to then decide which places they would return to at their leisure…!!! The three women were very, very quiet and courteous to us, for the remainder of the tour.

Back at the hotel, we ventured to the hotel’s Irish Bar…had various drinks (Kilkenny Brown Ale for me) and some very good Irish grub! Pat left early to go shopping whilst I finished my beer and then went to an internet café and cleared all outstanding Email.

Surprise, surprise, an Email from my old friend and Business associate in Indonesia, Darryl. He is here in KL on business and I left my accommodation and contact details by reply email. We expect to catch up with him sometime tomorrow - possibly for lunch or dinner…he also is going to Jakarta on Saturday (tomorrow). I doubt that he would be flying Malaysian…living in Jakarta he would enjoy business concessions for flying with an Indonesian airline…he travels all over the middle East and South East Asia doing business…Towers, antenna and cable supplier to the communications industry, both Governmental and Private Broadcasters.

I was gently chastised by the receptionist for not ‘dropping’ my key when I went to the Internet Café’ this afternoon…I asked why and was informed “…if there was a fire, we would not know if you were in the building or not! Please drop your key at Reception each time you leave the hotel…” Suitably, verbally spanked…she is gorgeous! Petite and Eurasian. She could do anything she liked with me, now chastised, I went back to the room to watch the news before bed! This should do for uploading as Article 17 tomorrow…I may have to brave the depths of a Starbucks Café to get free WI/FI so I can upload stuff!

Gallery: Gallery 20

patlynne — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:30:00 GMT

Istanbul Boat Trip

Ankara to Istanbul

patlynne — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:13:00 GMT

Article 16

Istanbul Turkey

We arose late dawdled over Breakfast and then watched Fiddler-on the-Roof to fill in timer. Check-out time is 1200 but our plane does not depart until 1500. Finally, movie over (dubbed in Turkish but all the songs were in English) we set sail to find a Petrol Station so we could return the hire car with a full tank!

First station not open but a man there pointed us in the direction of the airport and indicated petrol available “…down there…” And, so it was about two klicks past all the airport access lanes (from our side of the road) now we are going backwards towards the hotel and cannot access any airport entrance connections! Finally, we made an illegal U-turn and reversed our direction back to the airport. But where do we park this damn hire car??? Finally a Security man realised our problem and waved us into a multi-story PAY-car-park. He followed us in, told us we cannot park here, or there, and finally took us down a ramp into a different building and different floor level. Naturally, I immediately wrote down the floor number, Bay number and Block number, etc. No-way, all we wanted to do was park the damn car!

The very nice Security Guy then escorted us through the Parking station, into lifts (which we rode, both up and down) and finally we arrived at Domestic Departures Security…We thanked him very much, went through Security screening and there he magically was, leading us on for another hundred metres of airport dungeon.

Indicating our Hire Car Company office, he shook hands and departed. Terrific, the Office was shut! We knocked on doors of other hire-car company Offices and finally a good Samaritan said he would accept the car on behalf of our hire-company. Pat was minding the luggage, so the helper and I set off to find the car! I had no idea that the multi-story car park consists of about four double blocks, each about five levels high and half a ‘K’ long, interconnected by walkways, lifts and driving-ramps, both up and down a level.

To cut to the chase…we could NOT find the car…there are three entry points with identical boom-gates and adjoining parking spaces, ramps and lifts to eight car-parking blocks each , as we found out, five parking levels high!. No car, no matter which way we went, looked and played with the remote control-door-opener…no answer from the car at all.

Finally, my helper saw a friend and there we were, driving around in his car through each car-park block, up and down ramps until, after twenty minutes, I saw an answering ‘blink’ from some taillights. Car found. OK no damage to the car, papers signed off, my helper drove our ex-hire car down to the Domestic Departure entrance and parked it there…almost exactly I n the same spot where security had threatened us with a fate worse than death if we didn’t MOVE-IT-RIGHT-NOW!

Checked in and sat in the airport ‘Pub Bar’ until it was time to board. Very smooth flight to Istanbul and, we arrived ten minutes early. Collected our luggage, were met by the Agent’s man and after an hour in abysmal, bumper to bumper traffic, after twenty minutes trying to find the driver of the 60 seater bus blocking our carpark exit, were deposited at our hotel. This hotel is very neat, very clean, and as usual, there are no coat-hangers, the bathroom shower is a sort-of built-in box with sliding glass dors about 500mm off the floor. That is, one has to climb into this box, shut the doors and then turn on the shower! But not to worry, there is a working fridge, a little supermarket not more that three doors away selling beer and the street is lined with restaurants and bars!

We opted for Chinese after a week or more of cubed chicken or soggy lamb! Not bad and quite edible. By this time it was dark so back to unpack and catch-up with the Journal. We have opted for an all-day tour of Istanbul highlights tomorrow followed tomorrow evening with a Istanbul-by-night tour, which includes dinner. Tuesday we will do a half-day boat trip on the Bosphorus, which will leave us the rest of that afternoon and the following morning (until pick-up time) at 1300, to wander about the Souk and search for those illusive bargains. More journal tomorrow or Tuesday, after our tours.

Just a short note after beakfast. Pat is sick with a stomach upset…some dry retching but no’runs!’ We were surprised at the large number of Muslims staying at the hotel. We don’t know why they are there but there were about twenty or more sitting down and hogging into the breakfast and here it is the middle of Ramadhan…Muslims are supposed to fast from sunrise to sunset during Ramadhan! All the women were wearing the ‘hijab’ or head scarf , which, we thought, only practising Muslim women wear! Boy, can they put the food away, small loaf of bread, two hard boiled eggs, plates of cold meat, plates of fruit and four or five cups of coffee! Each!

Tuesday: All the Mosques in Istanbul

Well, not quite, but we went on a walking tour of the Blue Mosque, past Santa Sofiya which is closed on Mondays, and then to the Sultan’s Palace. Huge rambling buildings with museums throughout. We walked for miles over cobblestone roads and paths…but to enter the Blue Mosque, we had to remove our shoes completely and put on plastic socks to protect the carpeted floors! The mosque is huge by Mosque standards, impressively dark so there are strings of light-bulbs and chandeliers hanging from ceiling vantage points…kind of spoils the intent of the place and the ambience.

The Sultans Palace is virtually a museum of museums…displays of weapons; kitchen-delf; silverware; Gifts to the Sultan(s); decorations, orders and regalia all gem studded and mostly of either gold filigree or solid items. Interestingly enough is that many of the gems are uncut (gem cutting became a secret skill about 1250 ad ) and/or followed the earlier simple flat polishing of one face on a stone.

There is an 86 carat Diamond surrounded by 150 single (one) carat diamonds which decorate the single diamond’s mounting gold-work. This huge diamond and all its little helpers was made into a Turban Decoration, just to blind the hoi polloi I suppose…it certainly blinded the world’s rulers and potentates!

We didn’t go into the Harem at the Palace…this requires a separate expensive ticket and takes about two hours to tour in its own 400 rooms right! Our guide did brief us about why and how the Ottoman Empire lasted six hundred years.

Put simply, the Ottoman rulers would select both male and female children from conquered countries, remove them to Istanbul and then put them through intensive education training according to their individual abilities until their maturity. However, the children were accompanied by religious and cultural teachers from their own town or city. Thus, the Sultan trained the ‘Youngest and Brightest’ from all his lands to be his ambassadors and to rule their own conquered country or as the Sultan’s governor, whatever in towns and cities. This preserved the local culture and actually curried favour from vassal country’s ruling classes who then vied with each other to have their child accepted into the Sultan’s programs.

OH yair, all youse blokes drooling over the thought of an Harem just for yourselves! Well the Harem under the Sultans was a place of protection for female children (and their maids/servants) and also for the daughters of the Sultan’s Palace managers, ministers and military entourage, who all lived within the palace walls. The Sultan himself, was allowed, under the Koran rules, to have up to four wives and no doubt most of the hundreds of Sultans who ruled the Ottoman empire, possibly did. So the Hollywood version of thousands of nubile, willing, young and beautiful women just waiting to offer themselves to their Lord and Master, is mostly Hollywood garbage! I dare say though, when one views the absolute power that the Sultans enjoyed that the odd finger-beckoning to a buxom beauty would have taken place. The girls sent to the Palace had to be both beautiful and smart…any offspring (irrespective of the father) who inherited these traits was assured of a place in the Sultan’s entourage…so I daresay again that the Sultans’ Entourage over the centuries contained many who were born “bar-Standard”.

From history, when not busily conquering new countries and peoples, the Sultans and the Ottoman rule was generally beneficial across the empire and standards for law and order, education and all the fields of science and the arts, were very high and equally highly regarded.

Enough of cobblestones, sore legs, ankles and aching hips…lastnight we went to a Turkish Dinner and show mitten de girlie with the umbilicus which she gyrates in all sorts of circles. The food was good, the music, songs and comedy just what we both needed and was a night well enjoyed, two half bottles of good ‘red’ and some beers also washed away all the pain. Yes pain, Pat had a bad case of the tom-tits and yodelling I n/on the throne for most of the previous night…we were a bit scared during our walking tour, that she would get too far from a WC…Her falling off the gutter didn’t help either. Then, after the night was done, she had another yodelling (with lumps this time) session, which she continued, on and off for most of the night but hopefully everything is now out of her system…physically it is anyway!

Away on the city Boat trip. First, a visit to the spice market where we tasted and bought some genuine, Turkish Delight and, guess what, it tasted exactly the same as I remember my Great Grandmother made! We bought about $2.00 worth and ended up with over half a kilo of this delectable stuff!

Once again (as on the Russian tours) we had to have explained to us everything about every mosque (in Russia; Church) that came in sight. There are hundreds of them, same story, who, when, why and for whom about the builders of every Mosque, Fortress, Bridge, Palace and any other building of interest on both sides of the Bosphorus! But the huge cranes, barges and dredges strung out in a line from both shores towards each other…no that’s nothing…someone is building a ten-lane tunnel under the Bosphorus to take 90% of the traffic now clogging the three huge bridges linking West/Europe, to the East/Asia! Not worth discussing, same with the God-awful, blue-glass office tower smack in the ‘old-sector’…someone needs to be shot for allowing such pollution…the Mosques and their minaret’s ARE beautiful but the blue-glass, twenty story ‘tooth’ right on the skyline, is not!

Back at the hotel, disaster…My washing did not get done (“we don’t do that any more…stiff! his face said and he had no answer for…why are the bags and laundry lists still in the rooms, why did reception agree to take my washing ?...etc. No point in asking the staff…they just look blank, shrug and walk off! Then my computer came up with a new opening screen demanding a password, etc - got around that only to have the Hotel WI/FI fail and I couldn’t access my email either…a little electrician man had turned off the power point breaker to do some minor repairs. I collected my un-washed, dirty washing, packed up the only half-working computer and returned to the hotel room to sulk…Pat is asleep recovering from last night and there is NO air-con…I am melting inside my shirt! Time to go to the bar and cool down!

Cheers, Lynne. Next episode/article probably from KL, Malaysia, that is, if my dirty clothes don’t walk off with me still in them!

Gallery: Gallery 18

patlynne — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:27:00 GMT

Gallery: Gallery 17

patlynne — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 05:09:00 GMT

Airport Hotel Ankara

patlynne — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 05:04:00 GMT

Article 15

Ankara & Buyuk AnadolU Hotel

Patricia was up early to finish her packing…I managed to sneak another thirty minutes before the need to pee drove me from the bed! A light breakfast of instant soup and toothpaste from cleaning teeth straight after and I was set to sail. Pat still packing. Off to reception to pay the bill. Not nearly as much as I thought and had budgeted for. Then the fun started.

I perused all the bar chits (mostly mine) and the charges for electricity and water and all was OK. Presented my Citibank Visa card and after six goes, the duty manager admitted that there was nothing wrong with my card but the circuit to the bank or the bank end machines/interface were not connecting. So…we try my NAB Visa card on the same machine and on another (I don’t understand it but they had about seven Credit card readers all with flashing lights, presumably active, sitting on the desk! NO GO! My NAB Visa card would’nt connect either.

Now flustered, the Duty Manager asked me if I knew (understood?) what time check-out was on a Saturday for us Time-Share people? I said anytime before and up to 1300, which threw him a bit. Then he stated that we would have to wait until 1300 if necessary or until the bank circuits worked.

By this time I was getting a little worked up…What if all those false billing attempts had in fact, gone through to my credit card account, like about three grands worth of false claims!…So then I told him an outright lie, “…We have a 1200 plane to catch and, if you delay us because your equipment does not work, then we will charge you for al our costs!...”

Panic written all over his face, he began frantically dialling someone on the internal phone. A Minute later a little reception lass with whom I had established a relationship about lighting fires (last night when it took four of them six tries to light the log fire Iin the Lounge and finally I asked if I could help…had it blazing in ten seconds flat! Their idea is to ‘artistically’ stack up logs and then light a bit of paper at the bottom of the pyramid so formed! With the help of a few bits of packing case, some torn-up cardboard cartons, small logs then larger...Whoomph! a contained forest fire was ignited!)

Oh yes, back to paying bills, the little Reception Lady, smiling to light up the sky, pushed the Duty Manager aside, and input a password or something into a totally different credit card input terminal. Bingo, instant action and we were out of there and on our way.

Non-eventful drive back to the outskirts of Ankara, where (our overnight hotel on the way in) is situated. We were flying blind, hoping that this hotel would have a room. For the first time in Turkey, we did not get lost, we both recognised the turnoff we had to take and we actually drove straight to the hotel…This has to be a first! Yes, the man did have a room and gave us a 50% discount because we were walk-in patrons and ‘repeat patrons’ having been there before. Better still, yes they had WI/FI but only in your room Sir…here is the password for free access! We spent most of the afternoon catching up on world news and the few emails received since yesterday.

This is a fascinating hotel, built out in the middle of nowhere, 260 odd rooms, huge convention halls (largest can seat 1800 people!) with smaller ones at 1200, 1000, 500 and right down to a VIP gest lounge for 5 – 20 pax! The atrium is stunning, built to a Sumerian Architectural design, and extends upwards from a sub-main floor level with a running stream, up to the roof…(have a look at the photos in Gallery 17!)

What stuns us is that this place has been purpose built to be a 5***** International Hotel but something has happened…the place was built, internally furnished, but the peripheral walkways and patios were never completed. Look out of our 4^th floor balcony and those roof areas below us have broken tiles and rusting pieces of iron-work and general rubbish scattered all about. The back gardens, pool and water slides are badly in need of maintenance and water! The front gardens are superb but everywhere there is an air of neglect! Strange.

Food, the bane of my life when it is bad, is just as pallid and repetitive here as it has been all over Turkey. The hotel expects to seat about 500 in the dining room tonight; made up of three Tourist Promotion Groups, mostly Asian and, a group of European Medical Students plus some sporting organisation or another. The caterers simply started with about six basic salad platters, then by repetition and mixing two salads on the one platter, made it look like a spread of thirty or forty different salads. The main course was, as usual, lamb stew, chicken stew, steamed rice and a vegetable concoction mainly of mushrooms and eggplant. Soup of the day was Tomato (from lunch) with (the lunch pasta) blended with some rice and added to it!!! Walk-in price…$20/head buffet charge!

At least ,in the dining room I can buy a beer, otherwise I have to order it through room service at about AUD$7-10 a can...it varies each time I order some? The main bar as reported earlier, is closed for Ramadhan. Not good. I hope our hotel in Istanbul is more understanding of foreign infidels with a thirst!

We have a free breakfast tomorrow (in the room rate) then sometime before midday we will check out and drive the five klicks to the airport, return the car, complain about the non-working air-conditioning and then sit about the airport (domestic this time so no duty free, curses) until we are called to board around 1430.

So, unless anything happens overnight we will add our next story to the Journal either in Istanbul or KL. Cheers, Pat and Lynne.

Talking Turkey

patlynne — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 19:45:00 GMT

Article Fourteen

Turkey 20 Sept. 2007

Once again, as we near the end of the week, we decided to have yet another rest day. We planned to clear our Journal and Internet promises and look at paying any bills and checking our banking. I managed to contact one of our investment advisors and discovered that they had made some mistake implementing my instructions…this was for investing my half of the proceeds from the sale of our Nudgee Beach property, which was only finalised on the 24^th of July. The bottom line is that I have missed about five weeks of market gains. Now they have admitted it was their error and are calculating how much I have lost or missed out on, because they didn’t invest as I instructed. They have promised to make good the shortfall. The Company? Colonial First State. I can just imagine various banks doing this or other investment companies! Just no-way! I am most impressed and more impressed by the fact that they admitted their fault when I didn’t even know and most likely, never would have known when I consider the volatile share-market trading of the last few months ! We have been completely out of touch with the share market since 10th August.

I have been observing the people here from a Tourist and/or writer’s perspective that is, studying them from their shoes up. Most of the older age group fall into the range of pictures of Turkish peasants/population taken in the 1930s. That is, the older men wear what seems to be very old topcoats, baggy black or brown trousers, a waistcoat plus swornout shoes or boots and, all have very large straggly moustaches. The older women wear black or dark coloured floor-length dresses with a large shawl covering their shoulders and the top half of their body. Those that are Muslim, wear the headscarf, mostly white or very pale colours. The point here is that once a woman has reached about forty, her more elderly relatives start dying off and, thanks to the Turkish/Muslim custom of 12 months morning (Black Skirt/White Shawl indicating mourning) this has then become the national dress for middle-aged women. One morning period elapses but another has already started! Extended families are a Turkish norm.

There is a lot of cross culture in the Turkish features with the more swarthy evidence of Arabic and Greek intermarriage over the centuries. This leads to some of the most beautiful women I have ever seen whilst they are under 25 but after this, their fattening heritage breaks out. The young men fall into about three different categories, very tall, pale skinned, dark hair; that is, very Caucasian. Then there is the very Arabian, hook-nosed, swarthy and short men who appear to be the working or tradesman of Turkey…these men may even be imported simply to work as tradesmen…I don’t know. Finally, there is the poor male who is a bad mix of the first two types?

Both men and women vary greatly in height from well over six feet to those barely notching the four-foot mark. The all appear to be loud, forceful people, much like the Greeks and, like the Greeks, they shout at each other without appearing to listen to their conversation partner. The Turks, generally, totally disregard cars driving around shops and street markets and will stop in the middle of the road, halting both lanes of traffic, whilst loudly haggling over the price of an onion or whatever!

Nevertheless, put them behind the wheel and they all become power-mad maniacs with total disregard for all other traffic and people…pedestrian crossings are used as marked Turkish parking zones! Travelling the highways, the Turks drive on the side closest to the mountain irrespective of which side they should be on. Blind corners and oncoming Turkish drivers result in much squealing of brakes; revving of motors; blowing of horns; and arm and finger gestures given violently. This, from both vehicles, eventually forces these idiots to move over to their correct lane.…However, you are left with the distinct impression that YOU are in the wrong and it is so strong a feeling, that you almost stop to investigate if there is something dead, hanging on the front of your car! On the more positive side, we have seen only a few accidents or results of accidents throughout Turkey

Turkish Drivers seem to believe in the same driving rules as Indonesians…get you car’s nose in front and you have right-of-way. There don’t appear to be any other driving rules enforced except to drive on the right! Everywhere we have driven in Turkey we have remarked on the huge numbers of Police vehicles patrolling the highways. Policing taken to the nth degree much more than what would appear necessary.

Looking at a Turkish TV channel’s weather map, we have been very lucky. Absolutely perfect

days, ambient temperatures of 10 to 26 degrees Celsius and cloudless deep blue skies entice us onto the road. Being so high here (3000 metres) the sky looks a lot darker than at lower altitudes. However, the rain is coming according to their Weather Man, with a bit of luck, we will be driving south towards Ankara, and the rain may follow us down from the mountains.

Went for a walk this morning and the quietness is astounding…almost quiet enough to hear your own heartbeat but not quite. The other night, going over to dinner, I again thought to myself how quiet it was and then, away, way in the distance I could swear I heard a wolf howling! I asked the manager about wolves and yes, there are many in the forests, with bears, deer, wildcats and all sorts of other nasties! Yet we haven’t seen a single spider or spider’s web and the flies are rather annoying when walking in the open air. Once they have found you, they send out urgent messages to their mates and suddenly you have many, many ‘friends’ all trying to share your eyes, nostrils, ears, and, if you are foolish enough to open your mouth, what you had for breakfast.

Many of the mountain roads have been ‘cobbled’. This I can understand because cobblestones can survive the heat and cold cycles of the hot summers and freezing, snow-bound winters in Turkey. Driving on them is another thing. They set up a whine and rumble sound that exactly mimics the sound of driving with a flat tyre. In addition, they are slippery and, due to the onslaught of summers and winters past, they have developed ridges and hollows not unlike a low swell on the sea. This causes the car to sort of, slide down into a low point then skid side-ways as the cobbles form a ridge. Most disconcerting. The cobbles do have another advantage; they make every driver slow down a huge amount.

Turkish maniac drivers abound and on the mountain switchback roads, there is always one who screams up behind you from the last bend, twenty metres back, blows his horn and scoots around you down the highway at breakneck speed. Unbelievable to watch them skid from one corner into another…they must all think they are the world’s best rally drivers. If they did misjudge a corner, one would never know, the drop-off is thousands of feet almost vertically down…any car leaving the road at these points would roll, head over heels, for a good three or more minutes and would, once stopped, be invisible from the road!!!

Back at the Resort, the chalet rooms are sometimes, heated. We have yet to find out what the controls are for when the heaters are on or off, for that matter. They are steam heaters, one or two in every room including the bathroom and entry foyer. The are absolutely magic for drying wet or newly washed clothes. They were on at 1400 the other day when the outside temperature was over 22, which made us open some windows in the apartment, because it was stifling! Then at another time, it was very cold, inside and out with a stiff breeze and no heaters? I asked the management what controls the heaters? His ambiguous answer has us totally confused. “…We can arrange to have the heaters on every day in your apartment but this will substantially increase your electricity charges…” so we said not to worry. Electric Steam Heaters? Something doesn’t jell here! We seem to strike out…when we have a lot of wet washing, no heaters…when we don’t wash clothes, the heaters somehow know and come on! If we find them on, or realise they have just come on and race away and do some washing…the heaters go off an hour later! I’ll bet that they will come on the moment we leave the apartment, to check-out on Saturday morning.

Just back from dinner and we have noticed with the cuisine at the Resort and the endless advertising on twenty Turkish TV channels that the diet is very limited. We have seen sides of beef going into butcher shops, cattle, sheep and goats in the fields. To us outsiders, it appears that the bulk meat is reduced to ground meat, which is then made into sausages, rissoles or similar or the bulk meat is cut down and ‘cubed’ for stews. Either way, the bulk of their meat dishes consist of a stew made with cubed meat (beef, lamb/goat or chicken) or sliced up sausages and/or meatballs of various types all in a wish-washy sauce with plenty of vegetables. The difference between what dishes are named, appears to be the type of meat and the various spices that are added.

The only difference is kebabs made from big pieces of chicken, lamb or beef interposed with chunky-cut vegetables. We have not seen a roast, a pie, a chop or a steak since we entered Turkey. Their top priority seems to be the multiple variety of very good salads and their glorious Bread! What a pity we have been unable to find any salted butter anywhere…what passes as butter is a white, soapy grease called ‘somethingmarjsomething’…so we presume it is margarine.

Tonight must be some sort of official day. The fire in the main lounge is alight and roaring. This fireplace can take pine logs, two-foot in diameter and four-foot long and still leave room to roast a lamb on a spit above. It would have to be lamb or goat…pigs are not seen and/or pork and pork products are just not available throughout Islamic Turkey. Pity, I could go a good serving of roast suckling-pig right now! Look out Malaysia…Sweet and Sour Pork, Roast Suckling-Pig, and…dammit, a simple HAM sanger will do!

Found a Resort-waiter tonight, who speaks fairly good English. This gave me the opportunity to ask what is the history behind all the paintings, photographs and statues (all over Northern Turkey) depicting young women hauling ammunition and guns over mountainous terrain in the middle of winter. The young woman is a national heroine and was leader of the Peasant-Womens’ resistance in 1921. This resistance group helped bring about the end of the Turkish War of Independence against a combined force of Greeks and Italians, which, at the end of the First World War, thought that a badly mauled Turkey would be a pushover for their joint expansionist plans. The Greek/Italian forces were thoroughly thrashed!!! Turkey has been independent since the Ottoman Empire and still is!

I have been wondering if I should go back and number the pages in each journal story? But then again, I have them combined into a straight, single document and I will number the pages there should it ever go into print!

Enough for now, there is nothing on 27channels of Turkish TV…well nothing I can understand! And so to bed, Cheers, Lynne

Top Of The Ilgas Mountain

patlynne — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:15:00 GMT

Article Thirteen

Top of the Mountain/Ilgas Resort Grounds

Wednesday 19^th Sept.

Today was declared a ‘day-of-rest’ by the Dragon Lady Driver…The basic fuel cost, mountainous roads and the fact that we have already visited every town within a 150 km radius, all came into consideration and we both opted not to do anything! I have, over the years and many holidays abroad, tried to ‘drive;’ the various cars we have hired in various countries...but to no avail…She, who must be obeyed, insists upon driving because (by now) ‘…she has the most experience in driving on the right!” Big deal, the real reason is that she insists that her eyesight is 20/20 but! She maybe refuses to admit that she cannot read a standard tourist map to navigate the roads!

So today is a day for both of us to again, catch up our energy levels and with our washing, ironing, Internet and Travel Journals. We didn’t surface until 0800 and after breakfast got stuck into our house work. Later in the morning we tried to access the internet WI/FI and all was OK but very slow then the power went off and so did the WI/FI base. Enough, we decided to investigate the Resort grounds and to travel up the road, from our Resort to the top of the mountain.

There is much work going on around the Resort…Chalets being refurbished, Look-outs being built, Basket-ball and Tennis courts under construction plus Resort staff are busily polish ing the stone parquet floors and refurbishing the ancient, 8 inch wide pine flooring boards throughout the main lounge and restaurant buildings. We discovered that the Resort has a Sauna, Turkish-Bath and, numerous conference rooms beside the swimming pool and Gymnasium. The sweet scented pine forest, which defines the Resort boundaries means a very refreshing walk for us.

Then away up the mountain…We took the car because the journey is about five km…too much for these old bones…especially up a four-in ten slope!

Much to our pleased surprise, there are four huge Chalet Hotels (Ski-Lodges) up there all gathered around the foot of the only available Ski-Lift, which, being late summer, was not in operation. Strangely enough, it also became obvious that there was no custom at any of the Ski-Lodges…Everything, patios, car-parks, roads, reception, Bars, and Restaurants were all closed! We now appreciate that our Resort/Ski-Lodge is the only, 365 days/per year, operational enterprise in the area.

We were even more surprised that, even though we were at the top-of-the-mountain as far as the road went, that there were virtually no scenic views to be had. The mountain top Ski-Resort buildings are built on yet another spur which is flat and on the inside of the mountain face-curve…No views what-so-ever except down the road we came up…the ski-lift went to the ‘real’ mountain top but no, “tidak operational!”

OK, not really a waste of time but nothing to do up there, we couldn’t even buy a drink, even after posturing US$ currency. So, we drove the entire two kilometres back to our resort.

Once there, we embarked on a jaunt around the Resort Boundary. We discovered a Basket-ball court virtually newly completed, a View-point look-out, which was being constructed from pines cut down around the Resort, a Gymnasium with all the machines stacked into a corner, adjacent to an internal, heated, very chlorinated, swimming pool…quite large at that! We declined to swim, not having swim-suits and it struck us as not short of amazing that wherever we went, a little staff man would appear to offer his services…or prevent us from loading our car up with Gym-equipment??

Back in the Resort Lounge, the internet was still playing silly buggers…not the Hotel WI/FI but to wherever it was connected. Not hungry, I had an hour’s zoos whilst Patricia downloaded her photos to our computer. Later on, I tried again and was successful in achieving up-loading of our latest ‘Articles’ and Photo Galleries to the required internet addresses!. Full of bravado, I phoned Patricia, (back in our apartment resting) and as soon as she tried to do anything, the Internet connection became unglued or at least intermittent…even though we had a constant WI/FI 40 G/bit connection…what is the connection speed, and by what technology, is the WI/FI connection to the outside world!?

Had a few hours updating my Journal Articles and drinking a local canned beer. Put more simply, we are waiting until it is time to go to our evening buffet meal. The meals I are on a buffet formula, and roughly…there is a Soup-of-the-Day, mentioned earlier which every evening need the addition of some if not all of the twenty or so spices available in powder or flaked form.

As mentioned, various types of brown and white bread, very crusty and delicious are stacked up in abundance at the start of the buffet spread. The Turkish patrons (could they be Greeks or something else?) invariably take huge slabs and pile their plate high with many slices, or torn off sections of the bread on offer. However, there is NO butter on offer. They take much too much for one or two people. What a waste, I thought, until I noticed the waiters very quietly and almost secretively, collecting the uneaten plates of bread and returning them to the bread-rack/cutting board area!!! Waste not, want not, I suppose.

Then there are the Salads, Green-chilli with Tomato/Onion/Lettuce/green beans; Potato; hard-boiled egg with mayonnaise; mushrooms in white sauce. Differently there are dried apricots, dried-figs, dates, olives of every kind. Plates of cheeses, all types; plates of cold meat (NO ham or pork products) Sweet corn, Pickled cucumber and fresh cucumber, Cold fish in cream sauce, potato salad with mushrooms, and, on it goes.

The restaurant offered main course is displayed in up to five bain-marie…For example, sausages with vegetables; chicken of beef or lamb kebabs; beef or lamb stews with vegetables. All of these accompanied by a choice of steamed-rice; pasta (of many sorts) or a kind of Kish made from pastry with grilled cheese on top and various fillings, which vary from night to night.

Sweets are many selections of the Turkish small cakes/biscuits all soaked in honey, or blancmange set in moulds and decorated with chocolate or other flavourings. Sometimes there are profiteroles pumped full of cream and drowned in BLACK chocolate! To night? Again? I hope and pray!

Not tonight; as the week gets older, so the variety and choices also dwindle. Chicken with vegetables, Lamb with mushrooms in white sauce and, a vegetarian dish of what looked like baby-male-pumpkin flowers mixed up with other vegetables and, again, white sauce. The problem is the white sauce! It is simply cornflour thickening milky water. NO flavour and less taste! Oh well, the soup is usually brilliant and when Turkish bread is dunked into it…Devine!

Tomorrow is another day: I suggested a shopping visit to Ilgas but the Dragon turned it down due to the additional driving required. Wow, she has actually declared she needs the rest before the wild dash to Ankara and Istanbul next Saturday and Sunday…Enough for now, Cheers Lynne…Bye the way, Pat has included the ‘Adventures “Li Bearian-Teddy” into our Journal Pages. Which reminds me, please people, if you visit the Journal, please add your comments in the menu provided at the bottom of the Journal section-pages. So that I see who has read what and who has not!

Saturday we drive back to Ankara and overnight in the same hotel, near the airport. Sunday, we fly to Istanbul and we have three nights to explore before we depart on the 26^th Sept. for Jakarta.

Thanks, and Cheers, Lynne

Here I was just about to upload this story when it occurred to me that as of Saturday 22 Sept, we lose this wonderful, free WI/FI Internet access. Unless our hotel in Istanbul offers WI/FI it will possibly be Kuala Lumpur before we can again upload and check our emails. If nothing is available in KL, then it will have to be Jakarta and a trip to the Sari San Pacific or Shangri La hotel(s) because I know that they have fre Wi/FI.

The point of this additional diatribe is simply to warn everyone that we may dissapear off the Internet scene for many days at a time! So be it.

Cheers Lynne

Gallery: Gallery 16

patlynne — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:24:00 GMT

Black Sea and Resort Mountain

Gallery: Teddy Li-Bear-ian

patlynne — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:22:00 GMT

Adventures

Li-Bear-ian's story

patlynne — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:18:00 GMT

Teddy Li-Bear-ian has been across Russia by train and ship, visited Hungary and is now in Turkey - here are a few pics of his progress.

Black Sea Coast

patlynne — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:14:00 GMT

Article Twelve

Black Sea Coast

Left a little bit later this morning because we had some sausages, bought yesterday, to cook for breakfast. That done and cleaned up I tried to change some US$ at reception…no money until the Manager returns at 1600…OK but we only have about a quarter of a tank of juice and only TNL75.00…Undaunted, we headed off and arrived at Kastamanu in good time then tried to find the road to Inebolu our coastal target. After the third time going back the way we entered Kastamanu yesterday (from Arac) we finally were about to give in and there was the turn-off! 20km west of where the map showed the road going straight through Kastamanu.

After much swearing and asking God what the devil was going on, we found ourselves entering Kastamanu AGAIN this time from a totally different direction. We persevered and found that this road only side-swiped the northern side of Kastamanu where we had entered from the Southern autobahn and then had been directed west away from the city to the by-pass road. Most confusing.

It is astonishing how much road building is going on. We haven’t travelled along a single road without having to weave our way through massive road-works, It would appear that Turkey has gone Autobahn mad!

Finally on our correct road we remarked that thank God there were no more switch backs. We spoke too soon, Kastamanu is built on a very high (2000 metres) Plateau and all of a sudden we were switch backing down hill on hair-pin bends for about thirty km. Then, we had to climb up again over the coastal range to get to the Black Sea. On this road, the drop-offs are much higher than any other we have been on. We stopped at one point but the camera does not do justice to the actual steepness or severity of the drops…all it shows is a very rugged valley, with hill tops towering above us and a drop to the valley floor of about 4000 feet below our road position.

All along this section of the road way we were followed and overtaken time and time again by a huge overhead bucket conveyor cable-way. It was stationary with broken buckets hanging at odd angles from the cables at various spots. We were wondering what it could possibly be for when we came around the corner at the top of a hill and there in front of us was one of the largest iron-ore mines I have ever seen. The mine has already cut away half a mountain and the processing plant (which feeds the bucket-conveyor cable-way) occupies about three miles of the adjacent mountain top. Huge and very ugly and multi coloured with all the tailings heaps rusting in the weather. The name of the town is Kure…Madam Cure’ herself would also be disgusted at the environmental pollution.

Finally down to the little port town of Inebolu and by this time we really needed fuel. Fortunately, there was a service station, which also offered a WC and a parking place all in the one spot! However, the cost per litre was equivalent to AUD$2.98…it cost us AUD$70.00 to load on just over 25 litres of fuel! We definitely will not be extending our touring much further at this cost!

We suddenly realised that with all our lost time we had taken over three hours to reach the coast. So, with a quick Pee (in the shadow of an overhanging bush) and a paddle we wished the black Sea goodbye and collected a few sample rocks to bring home. The Black Sea is Quite Blue as a matter of interest and the water pristine clean and, it didn’t stain my feet any colour at all…rather disappointing really, I expected something special this being Turkey with Djinns and Dervishes and all that ancient magic!

Away with a rush to get back to the Resort before the afternoon traffic of overloaded trucks and tourist busses clogged the mountain(s) switchbacks. Back with no trouble to Kastamanu only to find that somehow, God knows how, we were entering that city by yet another series of unfamiliar roads. Much screaming of abuse, ‘your-going-the-wrong-way’; ‘where are the bloody signs’; ‘we are on the other side of the hills which divide the city’ and much tooting and honking of horns from irate drivers as we finally force our way onto a road which says “Ankara” with an arrow showing direction. Again much argument but finally settled by agreement that the road to Ankara also meant the road to Ilgas which joins it and therefore the resort! A full hour and much expensive fuel wasted. The road signage is abysmal. Firstly the road signs indicate the most distant town or city down that road, then the closest (not on the map, series of villages) and finally, ten klicks down the road IF you are on the RIGHT road your target town just may get a mention!

Finally, back at the resort at1630, and the Manager still has not returned so I cannot change any money. Not to worry, we spent the remainder of the afternoon on the internet sorting out the journal entries, uploading more photographs. Tomorrow, we plan to drive up to the top of ‘our’ mountain (our Resort was constructed on a spur about halfway up the mountain) and further towards the top are some very big hotels and other Ski Resorts. The view from up there must be fantastic…’up there’ is the highest point in the Northern Turkey Mountains. With the help of binoculars, we should be able see right down to Ankara and all points 360 degrees around. The weather today was absolutely perfect, cloudless sky, low 20s C and NO wind at all. Wonderful!…Visibility goes on forever. Here’s hoping for the same tomorrow. Cheers Lynne.

Gallery: Gallery 15

patlynne — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 01:54:00 GMT

Ilgas Turkey

Ilgas & Surrounds

patlynne — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 23:54:00 GMT

Article Eleven

Ilgas Mountain Resort 16/17 Sept.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant last night, a buffet spread, many, many salads, dishes of fish in various sources, soup of the day and five or six hot dishes plus the choice of pasta, rice or fried rice to go with everything else…Plus mountains of this fabulous Turkish Bread. I personally, have not got past the straight loaf which is very similar to a cottage loaf…mostly crust, golden brown and creamy-white soft interior…there are four or five other varieties on offer. To night for a variation.

I was somewhat surprised to find that their soup and also the various beef/lamb/whatever stews with copious amounts of vegetables included, were in fact, a bit tasteless to me. I added salt and some table pepper and this improved matters…but was there something missing? On a second round for more soup I find a tray about four foot long and two foot wide covered with small dishes of unknown spices…people were queuing up to add various spices to their soup, stews, fish and even fruit dishes! The trick will be to find out what they all are. I recognised Cumin, powdered garlic and crushed/powdered chilli…the other twenty??? I will experiment tonight and report back!

Today is Sunday and even in Islamic countries, Sunday is a day of no work. So we surmised that there was not much point racing off to go shopping/sightseeing/supermarketing in adjacent towns if they are possibly closed. More to the point, with the cruel light of the morning, one Dragon Lady has been laid low with the galloping you-name-its. Today was declared a day of rest.

Further to my earlier addition to Article Ten, the said Dragon after numerous pills recovered somewhat to do some Ironing…the iron, correction steam-iron provided, looked like someone had played football with it. Electrical hazard screamed from it just trying to see if it could possibly work at all…no it was busted, completely with no connection for the water to bypass the electricals and no control knob. Off goes the Dragon to reception only to be accused of trying to palm off her OWN Iron at the Resort so as to get a new one!!! I don’t know what was actually said but ten minutes later, housekeeping man appeared with a brand-new steam iron and many apologies!!!

As you are all now aware...the WI/FI actually works. I have found out that my Bank accounts reconcile with my field reckoning. My investments have recovered a huge amount from where they were when we left, with the market then heading South at a great rate and, to make my day, we (my friend, neighbour and Lotto Partner Archie) have won, to date since I left, about AUD$100 in lotto with at least five weeks to go on our many tickets!

I have discovered how to fix the dog’s breakfast of sorting of my travel stories…I will attempt to fix this tomorrow having now extracted the date/time information and how to make this the sorting criteria…After we get back from our investigations of neighbouring towns in a loop of roads to/from here. Then there is the problem of adding in the Photo Galleries in their respective places. First things first, get the stories in sequence (and keep them that way) then sort out how to attach the photo galleries where they belong. None of these problems will stop any of you going to the web-site and reading the stories and/or looking at the pictures.

Note for Natasha. Please dear Lady, can you print off the stories and the photographs and pass them around to the Truck-Bar Members and Friends…Thanks Tash, I owe you.

Monday 17^th Sept

Up bright and early, well, 0800 IS bright and early for a resort such as this and after a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs for me and bread, jam and coffee for the Dragon Lady we found our maps, collected some water, or cameras and set off to go back via Ilgas then down the road towards Istanbul. Somewhere along the first section we planned to take a side road which would take us up to Kastamanu – a loop of some 140 kms.

We are most surprised at how the whole landscape of Turkey looks like outback NSW or parts of the Northern Territory, like around Tennant Creek. Having travelled down the autobahn (to Istanbul) for a bout 75km we fond our aimed for chosen side road and turned into it.. Another surprise, this is almost a brand new road, in fact there are many sections still being worked upon. This road winds through numerous villages and gardens and then starts to climb!

The map says the road is straight but we found it to be switch-back upon switch-back cutting in and out over the mountains…many times steeper than the road to the Resort and very narrow with unfenced road edges above ‘drops; that simply disappear into the valleys far below. Much careful driving and cursing at any and all on-coming traffic. For safety, we simply pulled as far off the road as we could and let the traffic work its way past us! At one point I realised that if I opened the door and stepped out I would step down a hundred foot drop to the first ledge then thousands of feet drops below this ledge! Bit scary really! This was also, why we had chosen this side road, simply to avoid any roads marked with a blue, wavy line along its total or parts of its length…the wavy line indicates mountainous switch-back driving. So much for believing what the map said.

There are only a handful of people staying in the resort…about eleven private cars yet yesterday afternoon, two huge tourist busses arrive and people crowd into the complex where they disappeared for about an hour and I then noticed them coming from the restaurant and fillng every available chair in the lounge. I was already occupying one table with my laptop on the table and plugged into a floor-mounted power-point. What are they all doing here, what are they waiting for? Then I spotted the ‘weasels’ starched shirts, smart suits and flashy ties as they circulated two at a time to one group of waiting people after another…Time Share Sharks! They bait the people with the promise of a trip up the mountains with a free lunch! All they have to do is watch a short movie, listen to a brief Spiel about whatever Time-share Property is being flogged and then meet the agents who are there simply to (take-their- money) no, no, stupid, to sign them up so that the cannot escape paying for a time-share property, in full or on terms! Just like the Gold Coast, Cancun, Bali, Phuket, Chaing Mai, etc, etc.

This afternoon I hope to edit my ‘stories’ into a proper sequence, add this story and then research how I can get the photo galleries to open WITH their respective story and in correct sequence. I must down-load my camera first…ready to create another Photo Gallery!

Tomorrow, possibly the Black Sea coast and a paddle in the sea…I wonder if paddling in it will make my feet Black too?

Gallery: Gallery 15

patlynne — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:25:00 GMT

Turkey

Hungary to Turkey + Ilgas

patlynne — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:34:00 GMT

Article Ten

Hevis to Ankara

Of like startled gazelles at sparrows in the dark we left Hevis, after returning the keys at 0600, and argued all the way to somewhere when finally by mutual opinion we simply had to turn back and find the right roads! Eventually, by more good luck than map reading in the dark, we stumbled upon the M7 Autobahn which we raced up at 160 klicks…why the haste? We had to be at the airport (theoretically) by 0900 for our international flight at 1155.

All went well after the first fiasco until we missed the turn from the M7 to the M0…simply because the ‘airport’ aeroplane emblem on the M0 signboard first appeared fifty metres down the M0, that is we were fifty metres past the turnoff when the airport sign was spotted. Some three miles later we took a side road hoping that it would lead to a loop-back to the Mo. Wrong! We ended up in the middle of suburbia, rural style telling God and everyone else whose fault it was to miss such an obvious sign or to get us hopelessly lost!

Stopped at a local shop and bought a map, which we didn’t really need and received directions as to how to find the airport…Quite simple really, go down this road, through Diosdic Village and then onto the Mo Autobahn, continue on the M0 until you reach Dzesregy and then turn onto the M5 and follow the signs to the airport. What we weren’t told is that overall it was about 50km and each section was totally blocked with hundreds of trucks trying to get past the various road work gangs, which reduced our lanes to one! Much swearing and accusations of ‘so-called’ navigators who got us lost and we suddenly cleared the road-works and there were the signs for the airport! We duly arrived at the correct terminal a little after nine am and then had to wait for our flight!

Spent the time spending our remaining ‘forint’ the Hungarian currency, which cannot be exchange anywhere else, and Pat bough up big on cosmetics at the duty free. We cued up for some considerable time to get our baggage checked and ourselves checked-in only to discover that somehow, we had been upgraded to Business Class. On arrival at Vienna we again had to undergo security inspections even though we were transit passengers and this time the big fat oaf kept asking what was causing the machine to go off…He simply didn’t understand about hip implants, metal, titanium or anything else he could not physically see…the Supervisor finally came to my rescue…Titanium Implants I announced and with an imperial wave, he passed me through and took the big fat oaf off to one side!

Thought that our troubles were over for the day. Arrived at Ankara/Turkey and we had to go buy a visa…no problems. We found the car rental place and collected the car, a Hyundai, and away we go…”straight down the one-way road, there is a turn near the service station, make a U-turn and come back the other way, turn left at the service station and straight on to the hotel…”

We beetled out of the airport, down the one-way road and instead of a U-turn, the road turns into a tunnel with twin lanes above down the right-hand side. We went down the tunnel and then five miles before we could turn around and go back through the airport and up the one-way road again. Managed this time to take one of the non-tunnel lanes and sis a U-turn only to find us on the main road back to the airport again. At this point we noticed the service road, way over there…So, back to the airport, up the one-way road, took the other above tunnel lane and this time managed to get onto the service road. Back to the service station and turn right and after about five klicks we thing we may be wrong. Back to the service station, no, you are on the correct road…keep going. This we did and about 10km later there is this huger hotel in the middle of wheat fields...a massive edifice made of marble with atriums and internal streams and waterfalls…unbelievable.

Finally, we have arrived and we could get a drink! Wrong…Ramadhan started last night and the bars are closed for the duration!!!! Room service is the only way…we are now very apprehensive about the resort…maybe its restaurants and bars are also closed for Ramadhan! Tomorrow we will find out!

Just to top things off, we have also discovered that we have an extra day in Turkey! The resort has us booked from 15 to 22 Sept and our airline bookings, car-hire etc, all revolve around the 23^rd of September…Wrong…the resort is seven night ie, eight days overall…we are out on our collective ears on the morning of the 22^nd! NOW we know where this hotel is, especially in respect of the Airport…we will book a night here and then join our itinerary as from 23^rd September as we planned! What else can go wrong! Heaven forbid even thinking about such things.

Oh Yes, one more thing, I forgot to mention, there is no Internet access in this hotel and very little, if at all in Turkey!

Left the Ankara hotel about eight thirty after an hour of rather unpleasant discussion with the hotel manager…The Hotel’s computer system was down so he has no way of knowing who has paid for what. I pointed out that I have given him a pre-paid voucher, which stated just that and that the pre-payment included “…room, hot buffet breakfast and evening dinner…” I had some beer sent up from room service and that was all I was prepared to pay for. Five times he presented the bill, either including one of the meals with the room service charges and/or the room charge. Finally, I saw an English/Turkish dictionary in his safe and borrowed it to show him what ‘pre-paid’ in English translated to in Turkish…Immediate understanding and we paid the bill and departed.

Bit of difficulty identifying which road we needed to take but once sorted we were away at 160 klicks on yet another autobahn. All went well until we reached the town of Ilgas which our information about the resort said “…once the town of Ilgas is reached, pass by the city and travel on up the Ilgas Mountain and on the left hand side you will see a sign identifying the resort…”

What it didn’t say was or should have been, “drive straight past Ilgas on the road to Kastamonu and pass by three villages. The entrance to the resort is the SAME entrance as that to the Ilgas Forest Reserve…” This was 25 km past the town of Ilgas and almost on top of a 4000metre mountain. We made four passes up and down the mountain switch-back precipitous road, harassed by huge trucks going in both directions and hogging the middle of the road…at some points the drop-off was about two thousand feet almost vertically down from the road cutting…there are no barriers or spare room. There was only one sign indicating that the Ilgas Mountain Resort was 2km further up the mountain! We couldn’t find it!

Becoming rather desperate and in need of a toilet, we decided to enter the Forest Reserve and se if we could find someone to help us. Then we saw it…THE sign…identifying the resort as in the Forrest Park in one inch high letters under the Government Park Title.

Here we are, this really must have been a swing place in winter about twenty years ago…most of the place is clean and well looked after but need refurbishing badly. However, our room (apartment) is very good, two bedrooms, lounge, kitchen, bathroom and even a dishwasher. On entering there were no plates, knives, forks cups pots whatever…these all appeared later once we had agreed to sign a ‘signatory’ for these articles. Then the real truth came out. This is a skiing resort and in summer most of the facilities are not, available…the local ‘supermarket’ sells papers, lollies, souvenirs and soft drink but NO FOOD. The nearest supermarket is Ilgus or Kastamonu either about 40 km away! Also there is beer/drinks available in the bar but because of Ramadhan, not available in the resort supermarket or any in Ilgus or Kastamonu.

I had a quiet word with the Turkish supermarket operator and convinced him that as an infidel, non-Muslim but a believer in Islam’s right to enforce Ramadhan but I would likely die if a source of beer was not forthcoming. And offered to pay in US$ and his face lit up and immediately I was in the possession of six cold, small bottles of .5% “EFES” Pilsen which is Turkey’s finest for the huge price of $15.00 The Resort Bar charges the equivalent of AUD$10 per small bottle!!!! I know where I will be spending some of my US$ this week.

We did complain to the Resort Manager about the lack of Signage and no plates, etc. He has just arrived at the resort, two days ago! A few hours later he tracked me down to make a very generous offer of seven days of meals (B,L,&D) or B&D or only Dinner for about AUD$5.00 per head per meal. We accepted the dinner only option. About an hour after this, idly looking at the TV (all Turkish channels) when the one I was viewing suddenly switched to CNN! He is looking after us. Then he came to tell me there is WI/FI in the Lounge area. I will have to try it out and see if I can get this damn computer to access the radio base! All in all things are looking up!

We made a fast dash into Kastamonu and found a small supermarket WITH a parking space outside and bought some wonderful Turkish bread, some eggs butter, fruit but nothing else not knowing what we would have to cook with…we now have a two plate hot-plate, microwave and various pots and frying pan etc…we will survive. Tomorrow possibly a trip to the Black Sea Coast?

Today, Sunday, Pat has a bad dose of sitting on the toilet half the night!

Tried to cvook some breakfast and the microwave went 'bang' and half the lights went off in the apartment. So get dressed go see the management and, ten minurtes later a little man with a huge pair of pliers walks in, takes the back off the microwave, does something, and plugs evrything back in...everything now works again! Amazing!

Wel as you can see, the WI/FI works here...now I will see if I can edit this damn joiurnal and get some commonsense into the sequence of entries. Tomorrow we head for some famous castles, towns and firstly we must buy fuel...the various serfv ice stations quote their display prices as NTL (New Turkish Lira) NTL2.34 per something. We are hoping that the signs mean Gallon but we have a sneaking suspicion that it is NTL 2.34/litre for unleaded...NTL01.00 = AUD$1.10 so that means about AUD$2.60/litre...we will; have to cut down on our travelling around!

Knights of Old

patlynne — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:30:00 GMT

Article Nine

Wednesday

We decided to take another car trip away from Hevis, this time away to the south. Hungary is a funny place, shat looks like hours of travelling, on the map but in fact, the countryside is so built up (along the highways) that all of a sudden, one arrives at his destination after only a brief time travelling. We called into Zalakros, another Spa town with many more, individual spas than Hevis and each claiming to have its own peculiar or special healing powers in the water. Around each Spa are ten or twenty hotels ranging from small 2* roadside establishments to giant 5* mausoleums dominating the landscape with their ten stories of ten apartments per floor…real eyesores!

We did encounter a rural problem in that we were getting very low on fuel…do you think we could find a service station? NO way…Hungary’s trunk (autobahn) roads have fuel and food/WC stops every forty km…country roads seem to only allow petrol sales in every third or fourth village and the exact location of the outlet is kept secret and hidden from the traveller! Finally, we staggered into Zalakros with only one mark clear (on the fuel gage) above ‘empty’. We have no idea if there is any reserve when we actually register ‘empty’ on the gauge?

Back home after another uneventful drive, simply looking at the countryside, houses and crops, etc, I trudged down to the internet café for yet another try. Guess what? Instant access to Hotmail but nothing new there. I tried to update my Journal website with all the pictures I have taken…now arranged into Photo Galleries about travel sections with many photos in each gallery.

Horror, I can find no way to up-load these photos…I ask the Journal to “attach a photograph” and tells me that it needs a Photo Gallery to access the photo of my choice…there is no way I can find which will show me how to ‘create’ a Photo-Gallery within my web(journal)page. So all these selected photos of our trip, now inside thirteen ‘photo-galleries’ will have to wait until I can find a way to ‘create’ a gallery within my web page!

Late today we caught a bus to the ancient fortress of Sumeg. We accidentally found this on our first excursion out of Hevis last Saturday and noted the huge castle on that visit. This visit was to witness a military, horse and warrior show about the 12^th century Hungarians (descended from the ‘Huns’) who were superb horsemen and actually turned back firstly, Genghis Khan, and much later in the 1400s, the Ottoman empire Turkish brigades. In the meantime they became the dreaded ‘Huns’ which sacked much of Germany, Italy and all the Balkan states to set up the Hungarian Empire which was huge in its time. Later, by judiciously marrying their princess/princes with suitable others of noble blood, in the Hapsburg and Russian empires, the Hapsburg/Hungarian Empire was established and this lasted until the shooting of some Duke Ferdinand which started firstly the first World War, and secondly began the `collapse of the Hapsburg-Hungarian Empire. The rest is history with Hungary fighting to finally through out the Russians and gain full national sovereignty in the late 20^th Century!

The arena was open air and about twenty ‘warriors’ showed their skills on horseback, with trowing knives, axes, spears and then bow and arrows, firstly from foot-soldiers then by mounted warriors. I am very glad that I am not of army age in some feudal army! Having to face such warriors either on foot or mounted would drive fear into the bravest heart. No wonder the Huns were invincible for over two hundred years!

Show over, we were shown into an amazing ‘dungeon’. This is a purpose-built, underground cavern consisting of four caverns in the form of a cross, one cavern being the kitchens and scullery area, the other three, seating for up to six hundred guests! Each cavern-arm is about ten metres wide with a curved wall and arched ceiling three metres high at its lowest point. Cavern length is about forty metres giving enough room for ten tables seating ten people at each side, that is, each cavern arm can seat 200 people! All-up, 600 plus entertainers and staff!

The whole cavern structure is made of arched brickwork with large, circular skylights built in aat regular intervals along the length of each cavern arm. Where the arms of the cavern meet is a stage for musicians or whatever is needed by the audience attending.

The provided ‘medieval-dinner’ first course was a vegetable soup served with thick, sliced fresh bread, The main course was roasted chicken, backed potatoes, baked sausages and coleslaw salad followed by some sort of berry-flavoured sponge cake. Bottles of white wine and jugs of red wine were readily available. The only catch, everyone had to eat with their fingers, although a spoon was provided for the soup course.

We were mixed in with a bunch of about 24 Irish ladies (most in their 60s) who play bridge together in Cork, Ireland. A most amusing group, which put on a sing-along show all the way home, about an hour of Irish folk songs, many of which neither Pat not I have ever heard before! And, they could really sing too! And now, after a jug of red and some beers, once again, tis time for bed!