Otel Buyuk Kervansaray Diyarbakir

... otherwise arid plain to grow Corn, Watermelon, Cotton and many other crops that give the region a new economic boost.<br><br>Otherwise there is not muchto say about the travel, endless fields that are being prepared for the next crop w&#305;th small villages that house the farmers. The main road &#305;s as usual very well prepared and 2-4 lanes, the smaller roads are more difficult and full of pot holes.<br><br>Diyarbakir ...

... the 1st War World when the British and the French were dividing up this part of former Ottoman Empire, they somehow forgot to give them a country, but cut up their homeland and placed it under Turkish, Iraqi, Syrian and Iranian control. Since then they have been fighting an on-again, off-again war of independence in Turkey without much success, and after years of upheaval and guerilla warfare, the Turkish government has recently relaxed its control and ...

... across water for once. The lake was filled with turquoise blue water and was ringed by barren hills with only a few straggly pine trees dotted here and there &#8211; a great place to spend time waiting for our journey to continue.<br><br>While we waited for the ferry to load Sim and I watched a gaggle of old ladies soak and then dry rice on the slipway. Between each ferry crossing they would spread their rice out on the gently sloping concrete and allow it to dry in ...

... Dance of Anatolyia for Sylvia (our tour companion from Australia).<br><br>Fascinating city with vibrant colours from head scarves and ladies clothes. Great bazaars and a really lovely Han where we milled away a few hours people watching and drinking very cold fizzy water and cokes.<br><br>funny life sometimes...... there we are driving along when a motorbike with a Welsh flag on the side draws up, Nick asks "you from Wales" "Swansea" "Me from LLanrhidian" - small world isn't it?<br>

... me. He said I looked kind and went on to give me a nice tour of the Mosque. Here I am thinking: sh&#305;t th&#305;s dude &#305;s gonna expect someth&#305;ng &#305;n return for th&#305;s 10 min tour but afterward he ins&#305;sted that I meet some of h&#305;s friends for Çay (tea). About 5 glasses of çay later I had been &#305;ntroduced to h&#305;s fr&#305;end Mehmet and a few others as well as Sylva&#305;n - an enormously &#305;nterest&#305;ng ...

... chess tournament. One official merely offered me a friendly, "welcome," and I watched one on-going game in which an elderly gentleman (one of the kindly officials) crush a boy of about 11. It was just a friendly, mentor-like game before the show got going.<br><br> On down the way, in my intended interior curcuit of the wall, were some fellows performing maintenance on the crumbling wall. A couple of guys were using sledge hammers to more or less square up blocks of basalt ...

... another derelict fellow who sort of hovered over me as I tried to return to consulting my LP guide book for a hotel.<br> <br> Peeking around another corner I indeed did spy the tall basalt wall that rings the old, center of Diyarbakir. Once there I sat again to gain a more precise orientation. A few yards away sat a fellow observing my activities. It put me in mind of a thought I had some years ago. The ...

... of two million, just before riots broke on the street; I could tell there was tension in the air. During the riots and protests, one man yelled at the police: "the blood of the PKK is my blood so kill me too." People threw stones, police threw tear gas and beat them. These scenes came via Euro Satellite into everyone's homes; you could look on the rooftops to see that every Kurdish family had invested in a satellite dish to watch several Kurdish channels ...

... hun sagde, var det utrolig svaert at undervisae de unge, da det jo skulle foregaa paa tyrkisk og ikke paa deres kurdiske modersmaal. Det paradoksale var, at det paa ingen maade faldt hende ind, at dette kunne vaere anderledes - at kurderne kunne have et kurdisk skolesystem... Med en mangelfuld skoleuddannelse lettes paa ingen maade kurderrnes mulighed for social mobilitet i det tyrkiske samfund ...

... part of Turkey. One project being the fundýng of a school ýn Dýrbakir for children who cannot afford other scolling. I was able to meet the teachers, all of whom are volunteers. The city itself ýs falling apart ýn many places, but the old town is surrounded by 5 km of ruining walls. A beautiful feature of the city ýs what is calaimed to be Anatolias oldest mosque, but Ý have simce been ýnformed this ýs incorrect and that the oldest ýs ýn a town very near the border of Ýraq.