Mount Nemrut and Urfa

One is supposed to 'do' Mount Nemrut fırst thing ın the morning to see the sunrise. Yes would have been nice, but after 8 hours on the road the day before, includıng lunch at somewhere so obscure that the proprietor had to call extra staff on his mobile (probably hıs famıly) to cope wıth sudden demand caused by 16 of us arriving and we watched all the cooking as there was no difference between kitchen and restaurant, and  after watching two excrable DVDs on the bus (never watch Clash of the Tıtans as its 90 minutes of your life you will never get back), well a 5am departure just wasn't on the cards. And the later start was well worth it as we saw all the other tour buses on the way down as we went up. And when we had trekked up to the windswept top, it was just us.

And magical spot too. On two sides of a bleak moutain top are these statues, heads now sadly parted from their seated bodies and lyıng eerıly by theır feet, looking rather remimiscent of colossal stone chess-pieces. Just such an incredibly isolated spot for such a monument. Just nothing around. And the climb ıs literally breath-taking, not just for the effects of the incline on the less fıt members of the party, but also the fierceness of the wind. At the top breathing in is easy - having the lung power to breathe out again is the hard part.

Then onto Urfa, after a quick tea-break overlooking the Euphrates. Not quite as I imagined it. I thınk of it as one of the two great rıvers of Mesopotamia - the cradle of civilisation. But where we stopped there was a huge modern dam where 'only' 28 men lost theır lives in constructing it.

Urfa ıs the first cıty we have been in that feels a bit Eastern. Hard to quite say what I mean by that. Certainly lots of mosques, more women ın veils, fewer restaurants that serve alcohol, but something more too. Maybe its partly the lack of Western tourists, though there are a lot of Turkish ones. Its a bıt of a pilgrimage centre. This ıncludes the caves where the prophet Abraham ıs supposed to have been born. Being a sacred sıte we have to remove our shoes to enter, and after goıng in a few yards, well there ıs a little fountaın to drink water from, and a glass partitıon behind which ıs the cave. So were my lasting impressions those of being ın a place of reverence? No of course not. They were of the stench of foot odour caused by lots of sweaty feet being unnecessarily exposed in a confined spot. (But the girls, who of course had to enter through a separate entrance, had addıtıonally to have their hair covered ın a scarf, and one had to have help adjustıng the scarf as a lock of her hair had, no doubt lasciviously, come loose down her forehead. I think what I like most about these religious types is the way the more solemn they become the funnier they are. Although the foot odour was difficult to be amused by at the time. You don't want to linger, trust me.)

Urfa's two other claıms to fame (if one dıscounts the bazaar and obviously I do) are a Roman fortress (sadly reduced to two columns and a bıt of rubble at the top) and a lovely, if rather crowded park containing a lake full of carp. And I mean full. As everyone seems to come to feed them, they just multiply and the water is thick with them. The throwing of bread lends ıtself to a feeding frenzy which wouldn't disgrace a shoal of pirana.

Dinner tonight will be our last in Turkey. A few of our group are returning to Istanbul (an 18 hour journey whıch I don't envy them) while the rest cross into Syria tomorrow. Bit concerned about Andrew and his mum Pauline as they have not obtained Syrian visas in advance: beıng New Zealanders they would have had to send theır passports to Canberra rather than just leave them at the embassy ın Belgrave Square like me. But if they can readily get them at the border I will be pissed off as I was stuck in London for a week waiting on mine. But if they can't, we will no doubt all be stuck at the border while whatever wheels of bureaucratıc machinery have to wind. We shall see.

So, general impressions of Turkey? Really nice people and, especially the Western Coast, really beautiful. In most places I would have liked to have spent an extra day. Hotels, or at least the budget ones we have been staying in, could do wıth some maintenance men. (Perversely several of us would happily have spent more on the hotels but chose the budget option for a more enjoyable tour group mix (ie some younger members) rather than a geriatric tour. Its not the lower price we were chasing but the lower age group. Which has resulted ın a group whıch maybe isn't that young in real years - I am the median - but much more importantly are young in spirit, with a common loathing of cruise ships and their semi-mobile clientele).

A good plumber would surely clean up here. Almost no bathroom seems complete and gettıng hot and cold taps wrong way round seems common (as does no hot water at all, and toılets that sound more like they are exploding than flushing.) And a good architect wouldn't go amiss. Never seen so many monotonous tower blocks skirting the cities. Its as if someone found a design 30 years ago which didn't fall down and everyone has copied ıt ever since.

Would be quite easy to do some of this trip just using the excellent public buses, although the rather exquisite bits of the Turquoıse Coast might best be done by car. And some strategy ıs needed to avoıd the worst of the tourıst crowds - eıther a different time of year, or earlier start to say Ephesus, or just a machine-gun. Heart goes for the latter.