Akdamar Hotel Van

... 305;cally 'purged' whats left &#305;n me before I checked out. I dec&#305;ded to sk&#305;p lunch to be more comfortable for the journey. <br><br>I checked out at noon and to k&#305;ll t&#305;me I went to the &#305;nternet cafe. After that I dec&#305;ded to walk around ab&#305;t &#305;n the center. All of a sudden a man called for my attent&#305;on say&#305;ng..'S&#305;ngaporean? SIngaporean?'. I asked h&#305;m how he know and he sa&#305;d he's been &#305;n the ...

... outside the city. Irfan Ayaz is from Van but is working in Istanbul, teaching English and German in a high school. Thru him we met his friend Orhan Kafkas who has a car and we took off for Akdamar Kilisesi the next day. Akdamar Kilisesi (church of the Holy Cross) was a Armenian church, built in AD 921 in an island in the lake. It is quite beautiful and unique, with wonderful relief carvings on the outside wall telling the stories ...

My first day on my second visit to Van was pretty much a wasted day. <br><br>I got in around noon, concluded it was too late to try and backtrack the few miles for a visit to the island of Akdamar after checking in to a hotel. So I first went to the Archaeology Museum, which had been closed on my last, brief visit to Van. It was small, and most of the exhibits are devoted to the local Urartan civilization that inhabited the area in 9th to 6th century B.C.<br><br>Upon ...

(Sim)<br><br>We had been quite excited about our visit to Lake Van but after reading one or two reviews on the Travelpod website, we thought perhaps our expectations were a little high and that maybe Van wasn't quite the place we'd imagined. Fortunately for us, Van well exceeded our deflated expectations and we had a wonderful few days exploring the area. <br><br>We had an early start to catch the bus from Diyarbakir to Van, at about 7am I went hunting for the bus tickets ...

Yes you need to walk to the castle from the hotel - why? People stop and natter to practice their English, it gives you time to take in the local shops and sights, and the exercise will do you good.<br><br>The castle is huge 850 BC approximately, some of it made of mud bricks and straw and wood. Reminds me of a Persian King's Helmet. We took tea with the curator who proceeded to tell us he used to be a smuggler of petrol from Iran, we are not surprised we've met ...

... t went THAT slowly) for a few kýlometers. I fýgured there would be a few other backpackers on board but I was the only tourýst. Van dýdn't really set my heart a-flutter, but I met some fantastýc people, whých made ýt a nýce experýence. Stayed at the Aslan Hotel and had my fýrst ýntroductýon to squat toýlets... the actual squattýng part dýdn't bother me (although I really must work on my 'aým'), but the hole I dumped ýnto was a deep dark dýrrrrrrty pýt that defýn ...

... crew we met the previous night. They were pretty excited about meeting a Canadian and a New Zealand couple. Right after we crossed the checkpoint, the military presence did not stop. Machine gun carrying soldiers were driving in trucks and jeeps everywhere. If they werent in jeeps, you could spot them along the side of the main road. Tanks were common as well. Finally, I noticed that sandbags were piled very high on each side of the road to form a ...

... and they all said that the last bus to Van already left and that we should buy a ticket from them for the next day. They were too eager to sell us a ticket for the next day which made me think they were all lying. Meanwhile the cab drivers were all trying to get us to go to the border with them and also saying that we were wasting our time trying to find a bus to Van. I suggested we keep asking and it was only when we got to the very last office and almost gave up ...

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Last night an apparent power surge in the hotel killed my computer. I don't know how bad it is--ie., if the memory is gone, or what. The screen just went black, like the soul of a crushed bug. Earlier in the evening the area in which I was having my evening meal lost power for about 15 minutes. Back at the hotel room there didn't seem to be power from the wall sockets, though the overhead lights worked. But, when my battery was ...