Alkoclar Boutique Hotel Torba

... watching Aidan's fun loving ways as he laughed and joked with most everyone he came in contact with, seeing Deb and Christina hook arms and laugh and share their womanly ways as they created some distance from the four boys... walking the cavernous halls of the history museum while viewing treasures from the ancients... and most of all, of course, and without hesitation, spending time with our dear friends Christina and Carsten... as they are some of our most cherished treasures...

My first night 'roughing it', well on this trip anyway, was spent in a farmer's field. I met the farmer, Cengiz, and he was happy for me to camp and we had a nice chat about our different lifestyles.

Stopped for a relaxing lunch of bread, tomatoes, cheese and olives by Yeniçaga Lake earlier in the day. The guy working in the cafe gave me free tea. Have I mentioned that the Turks are great, wonderful, fantastic people?

... survives as a living force in the Turk of today.


"The logical outcome has been the emergence of the Turkish Republic as a reliable ally of the West. The soldier in Atatürk saved his country, confounding, as no other man at that time could have done, the designs of the European powers against it, and thus changing the face of its history. The statesman in him then won their acceptance of his country on equal terms, and ultimately its incorporation ...

... in
dispute following the First World War]. Stressing his fervent desire
for Franco-Turkish friendship, he assured the Ambassador, that (. . . .) he
had promised the Grand National Assembly to take back the province, and
could not break this promise. Hatay was for him a personal issue."

If you're interested, you can follow up on that . . . . Tomorrow I head south, for Hatay.

Now, to bed. Earplug needed on this raucous Sunday night.

... no cutting boards in the place.

I emerged from the store and was looking around, trying to decide on which direction to go next, when again, as if materializing, the fellow and his boy were coincidentally passing. The guy gave me a “follow me” gesture. I followed them for about a hundred yards until the he pointed me to go down a side street.

I turned down the street, finding it to be a string of shops basically oriented to sheet metal ...

... to the south. That is intended to be just an interrim stop, as I want to the next day be sure of busing through the historical Clician Gates on the way further south. The Clician Gates is a deep gorge as one drops off the Anatolian Plateau to the coast below. It has been historically a major thoroughfare. Then, on the coast, is Tarsus, birthplace of St. Paul--though I've read scant remains of anything historical are there ...

... write “Best wishes to . . .”; then had me write my name, and to which he added his signature with flourish.

At the end of my Chief Joseph pictures I had included a picture I took of Salvador Dali at work, a sort of inspiration to me.

That might have prompted the catalog, as Ismet seemed to want me to see some his abstract work, which actually did have some faint resemblance to some of Dali’s surrealistic scenes.

Also in the gallery show was ...

... we find that by the time we get to camp and pitch our tents it is almost dark so hard to use the computer. Also lack of power at bush camps means we are limited in time. We are able to charge the computer and phones etc on the truck as we are travelling but not when the truck is stopped. The advantage of campsites is there is generally access to power so we have more flexibility. We are also finding that a lot of the others want access ...

We left Istanbul at 10:30pm via train arriving Ankara around 8:30am. Arlene and I shared a cabin. I got the upper bunk which seemed to sway with each turn the trian made and I also woke up at each stop whıch seemed like every hour. Obviously I did not get much sleep. We had breakfast on the train. Then our bus was waiting for us. Our driver's name is Mister Happy. I need to learn his Turkish name yet.

Day 13 - 4th May - Cappadocia - Istanbul - breakfast We visit Agzikarahan caravanserai and then continue to Istanbul via Ankara where we visit the mausoleum of Atatürk - the founding father of modern Turkey. We arrive in Istanbul late evening. Dinner and Overnight - Istanbul (other travel companies usully don't provide dinner tonight).