Better on top of Alanya than in Side

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Trip Start Jan 06, 2006 Previous
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  Alanya, Turkey
Tuesday, February 7, 2006

[continued from last entry] ... the power was still out the next morning. When I left it was pouring harder than almost any rain that I had ever seen. I still had traveling to do though. And it seems the only people with more stubborn dedication than myself were the vendors outside their unlit stores. They stood below canopies and even despite my obvious dedication to leave Side as I trudged through the downpour (if I was wearing my raingear, my backpack was getting soaked), they still beckoned me. I walked through streets that were 2" deep in water. No one else was on the street. Well some of them ignored me, being too occupied trying to keep that water from pooling inside their buildings.

I caught a dolmush and bid adieu to Side. A few hours later I arrived in Alanya. Wow. If I thought that Side was a tourist trap, Alanya is just the same, except eight times bigger. At least the rain had stopped. There were ruins too, but these ones required effort to reach, or a 20 lira taxi ride. I opted for effort and climbed the rocks that made Alanya famous in ancient days. A peninsula juts out about a mile from the beach, making the first natural harbour in many scores of kilometers. Ancient peoples built a castle on top of these rocks. Over time the inhabitants improved the castle until after 1200 something AD when the city surrendered to the Turks. After that there was no more war in the region and the castle fell into disuse.

But it made for something to see. The rocks go up perhaps seven or eight hundred meters and the castle wins a trophy for the best-placed fortification. It is remote and yet commanding. It overlooks the coast for a long ways on both sides. It also looks back on Alanya. So if I had desired, I could have ignored the blue sea and stared at the colourful buildings that will be home to a hundred thousand holiday makers in a few months. There is one goregous and thought provoking view from the castle walls; it was where they pushed off condemned criminals.

Apart from seeing the castle, there was not much to do in Alanya. I found a small museum and a 95% humid cave, touted as a natural cure for asthma. But at five o'clock I had seen it all and I headed to the otogar to wait for the night bus to Adana. There I found the only decently priced food in town - the otogar cafe! Well at least it was local (I don't mean any cynicism here, actually). There was an internet cafe next door and I thought I had found a perfect place to spend the next six hours.

I got to the cafe and checked up on world affairs. Then I started to revise my first attempt to describe Antalya. I do have a bit of a process to these entries: Usually I write in my own paper journal, figure out what to write about, and after an hour or two in an internet cafe, come up with some text. In all it's sort of like writing an exam, because I want to do it quickly and without much editing - the more time I spend, the more I pay. So all those English exams are good for something kids. When you go traveling, learning speed composition will help you save lots of money. Just don't play video games for hours and hours afterwards!

I sat down to write and poof - distant lightning strike - well the rain had been drizzling for an hour or so, and then all the power went out. It came back on in a moment, but the internet in Alanya had been paralyzed. The tech guy at the cafe made some calls and everyone left because nothing more could be done on-line. Therefore, sorry to you who got the first entry on Antalya.

In any case, waiting around called for a book, and I pulled out one of my many choices (my bag got soaked and unfortunately my library was wet) and read about Carmen bin Ladin's life in Saudi Arabia. By the time I had finished, I got a bottle of water for the road and met a Turkish Elvis Presley (that's how he introduced himself).

This fellow's origins are the same as everyone in the tourist industry, it seems. He comes from a difficult to pronounce place in Turkey's far east. There are lots of those such places. He wanted me to help him with his present perfect tense (I "have been" ... I believe) that he couldn't quite understand when to use in his language classes. He and I talked for about half an hour while I waited for my bus; about street urchins sent out by their parents at night to beg money; about how he doesn't want Turkey to join the EU because Europeans are so rude; and of course about English grammar. He gave me a hi-five every time I corrected one of his errors.

Elvis asked me if there was an easy way to learn English (How often have I asked my French profs this very question??) and I told him to listen to music. He said that he thought the rules were wrong in music. We discovered that by "rules" he meant grammar. I said that no, the grammar in lyrics is okay, except in rap. You mean like 50 cent, he said. Yes, I replied. Unfortunately rap is the kind of music he likes... but you realise that after my discription of this exchange, he is doing pretty well.

Eventually my bus came. Adana is 8.5 hours from Alanya. Usually good for a night bus. But instead of a good night's sleep, I was treated to the intimate discussions of a Turkish-Norwegian couple who were trying to figure out the logistics of maintaining their love. I wonder if it will work; particularly because neither of them know the other's native tongue. Well at least they make the same English grammar errors.

I dozed off as they fathomed visa stipulations and job possibilities. Golly I hope love is more interesting that that.

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