I had a very strong déjà vu the other day. When I mentioned it, Nicole looked at me and said that it meant I was on the right path. It was such a wise and beautiful statement and resonated strongly within me. More than once, one of us has commented that the flow of our travels seem to have a predestination, that we wonder if we are planning the trip, or if we are being subtly guided along it. There just seems to be too many coincidences and happy accidents to discount.
Like our trip to Çıralı. It is a small village on the Turquoise Coast, a stones throw from the ruins of Olympos. We stayed at the Hotel Canada, owned by Carrie, a Canadian, and her husband Saban. Carrie is from Calgary and went to the same high school as Dwayne. Yet another coincidence. The hotel is situated in a valley against beautiful rocky hills, and when you are lazing by the pool you can see wild goats on the narrow trails. After Ovacik, Çıralı is a breath of fresh air. It is low key, quiet, and slightly hippyish. The town itself is small, just a dirt road with some restaurants and pensions. The beach is long and stunning. At one end is the start of the Olympos ruins. The Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) travels there every summer to lay their eggs. In the evening you can hike up a hill just past town to see the Chimaera, which are fires coming from the ground due to a still unknown combination of gases.
One day Dwayne and Luc went on a scuba diving excursion and got bitten by the diving bug. The boat was a wooden sailboat and the instructors were all handsome Turks with edgy dreadlocks. Hmmm….why did Nic and I not go? It was on this trip that the boys met Amelia, who is from the UK. Amelia and her husband Marcus helped seal the deal on the next phase of our travels. I am still not sure how it happened, just an off hand remark from one of the kids about Thailand, and a response from them that Southeast Asia is their favorite place in the world and that we really really should go. Turns out they are both travel consultants, who have extensive experience and knowledge in that region. So as we were enchanted by their 3 little girls, Millie, Poppy, and Leila, as they played in the pool, Amelia and Marcus spent 2 days writing out an itinerary for us. Given that they had promised a friend to read his screenplay, and had only got 3 pages in, it was extremely generous for them to do this for us. Again, just too much of a coincidence.
Now SE Asia had been on the table quietly for awhile, Europe is expensive and we want the Project to continue for as many months as possible. The kids have always had a fascination and a desire to go there and this new development, and confession on our part, has sent them over the moon. Luc even tears up about it, he is so excited (Probably best we do not tell him I mentioned that).
But this is still about Turkey, and Cirali, and our amazing hosts and fantastic dinners and sea kayaking and more old rocks, but this time wild with vegetation and very Indiana Jones. And now it is time to hit the road again, this time inland to Göreme, in Cappadocia. We take a 9 hour day bus from Antayla to Göreme, this time we get to experience one of the large ones. The attendant serves us tea and snacks endlessly, and the trip is smooth, the scenery interesting, and the time slips by.
Our bus stops midway in the city of Konya. As we pull in to the station nearly all passengers disembark except us. We stay on as the driver explains he is going to move the bus to another spot for 30 minutes, then we will continue on. As he drives across the parking lot of the large Otogar (bus terminal), an incident occurred between our bus and a midibus. We do not know what traffic faux pas transpired, but words ensue between the drivers. Apparently, our driver is gravely insulted, the age old slur regarding mothers, and he, wielding a bludgeon (that he just happened to have?), and the attendant give chase.
A huge brawl starts, with grown men, in dress shirts and slacks, from all corners of the Otogar getting involved. The other driver gets into his bus and narrowly misses running over our guys. then he turns around and comes careening back toward our bus, which contains 4 wide-eyed Canadians, who think he is going to ram the bus. He parks at the main terminal and immediately gets drop kicked by our attendant, who had chased the bus. More sticks appear, some are metal (OMG!), and 30-40 men appear to be trying to stop it while simultaneously joining in. At one point as the mob appears to be getting on our bus, as the door is open the entire time, Dwayne and I are both thinking he may just have to drive the bus to the terminal as I try to figure out how to close the f$#%ing door! Somehow the driver pops out of the mob to park the bus, and then he pops back into the melee. Eventually either the police or security manages to haul all the guilty men away and we sit there gobsmacked and driverless. A replacement is found we are sent on our way again, never to see our 2 guys again. We all feel slightly off balance, like the ground had shifted sharply for a moment, before levelling again.
Once we arrive in the surreal town of Goreme, the violence we had witnessed is quickly set aside. Goreme is a Tim Burton meets Bedrock landscape of fairy chimneys, pink icecream cliffs, and phallic rock columns, all formed a millennia ago by a volcano eruption and Mother Nature. The town is quaint and has a nice main street with a canal down the middle. It is more traditional and almost all the women have their heads covers, some even have veils. The Ramaddan drummer is back and this one even sings to ensure we are all wide awake. Our favorite dish is Testi Kebap, where meat and veggies are sealed in a terracotta pot and cooked for hours, then broken at your table.
We toured the Goreme Open Air museum, which consists mainly of churches in the caves from an ancient monastery. Yes, more churches, but I the gimmick of being in a cave was too much too resist for my gang. And today we finished our trip off with a 2 hr horseback trip through the Rose and Red Canyons. The horses are wild horses that the local horse whisperer caught himself in the mountains. He often gets ones that need some medical aid and then releases them back in the wild. They are small and sure-footed and very smart. I am happy to be back in the saddle again. It is the best way to see the canyons, and I learned some new techniques going up and down steep paths. Tomorrow, we leave for Istanbul!
Here are pictures!!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=121284&id=648575142&l=54aee6d53aXX
September 16th, 2009 - 4:06 pm
Wow, what an amazing adventure and incredible pictures and memories you have!
In Cambodia they ride on the top!
But Greece, Italy and Turkey is looking very amazing in a whole different way, thanks you are not helping with my travel withdrawals…
Glad you survived the bus trip! SE Asia has interesting bus trips but not like that! More like sharing space with supplies and food and holes in the floor you have to watch out for!
See SE Asia, you will not regret it!