Tamara Otel Van

Actually thıs happened on the nıght of October 12. Before I went to bed I saw thıs pretty strange phenomena outsıde my room's wındow and I caught ıt on camera. The photos are posted here. There seem to be smoke or low level clouds movıng rapıdly from left to rıght. What should have been normal was that I should see ıt move contınuously, however there seemed to be an outlıne of a rectangular shape made by the ...

Even though the day before we had made a special trip to the pier to confirm with the staff there that the ferry would leave at 1 PM, when we arrived there we were told that things had changed, the ferry "may" leave in the evening, if at all. So we ended up doing the bus again. Luckily we got a ride from the pier to the city center and were able to chase down the bus to Van even though it had left the terminal already.<br><br>Van's ...

... way. I left with two or three repeated invitations to return in the evening for a beer.<br><br>My next objective was to see a Van cat. Van cats are a unique breed in the world. So that was the reason for me to seek a cat, which I normally would never do. But the Van cats are white, and have one eye which is blue and one eye which is green. I saw one last May in my quick first visit to Van. It just wasn't the postcard picture perfect one seen all around. This one was a ...

... plan from Diyarbakir was to head to Tatvan, at the western end of Lake Van, and then catch the ferry across the lake to Van. Unfortunately there was no published timetable for the boat, so we were left hoping that there wouldn't be too much of a wait when we got off the bus in Tatvan. As we arrived we jumped off the bus outside the first taxi rank we saw and made a beeline for the harbour. When we arrived at the port however the guard at the gate told us that the next ...

... ventured through the bazaars. Had dinner with an Armenian man and his wife - very nice people. <br><br>Two days in Van with Nick - so time to chill and catch up with sleep after our climb.<br><br>Try the Simit Sarayi (I had filo pastry filled with potatoes and herbs - hot). The museum is great and cheap. Many artefact's to wonder over and interesting jewelry.

... ngs. They're kept for dýsplay and research at the local unýversýty, but the vast majorýty of the cats looked sad, sýckly and unhappy. I was also scrached by one and freaked out about gettýng rabýes before the manager told me I shouldnt have a problem. After thýs we headed back to the hotel and after a quýck rest I went for dýnner wýth Hyun and her mother to a great kabob place where there's a grýll on the table to cook lamb, chýcken, and an excellent spýcy beef.

The next day I was granted the privilege of sitting in the cab with Adam as we continued our travels through the Turkish mountains. I giggled the day away, gossiping about the group and listening to Bob Dylan as we traversed our way around dam after dam, mountain after mountain, building site after building site. The mountains have been twisted and ...

... border which we reached the previous night at 6 pm. This checkpoint wasn\t so bad. We were there for less than an hour. The only thing worth mentioning was that one of the Turkish men on our bus had a few boxes of tea confiscated from him. He was livid. He screamed and yelled for an hour after we left the checkpoint. He was specifically mad at one guy and at one point I thought they wer going to throw some fists at each other. It would have added ...

... Fran. We went through without any issues. The next step was to wait for the bus. We were actually concerned after about an hour's wait. Did they leave without us? There was no sign of the bus or the 6 Turkish guys with us. We were kicking ourselves for keeping our bags on the bus. It really was a stupid decision. Miles and Fran walked a bit towards the Iranian border again and said they couldn't see the bus. I then decided to walk all the way to the metal gate at the ...

... and basis. During one day's worth of driving we were stopped, and on occasion searched, no less than ten times. The Kurds that we've met, and even some of the Turks living in Kurish areas, are in favor of a Kurdish state, though Montana refuses to talk about this political issue. One young man we met and hung out with in Van talked about 'the psychological war' carried out by the Turks, and how he had to use the ...