Will we be back for Christmas?
Spring 2008
“Well where shall we go?” “How about going off to the town where our bekçi came from”, “Where?” “You know, Doğubayazit”, “Where?” “Ağri province”, “Where?” “The Iraq, Iran border”. “Isn’t that where the PKK are”. “Yes”, “so we might not be back for Christmas then”……… and that’s how it started.
After much debate for a whole 2 minutes, the seed idea of a trip to the far east of Turkey was formed. All we had to do now was to decide when, where, how and for how long. We both new that there would be plenty of time to sort all of that out. The problem was that after the initial conversation the PKK took three Germans hostage and the war with on the Iraq border warmed up.
“No problem we shall stay away from all that and stick to the tourist routes”, “the Germans were tourists” “I know but they were unlucky”, “famous last words”.
Throughout the next few months various ideas for the method of transport were discussed, firstly there was flying to Gaziantep and hiring a car from there, then there is the coach option, and then the best idea, hiring a car from Didim and going off from home.
“How far will it be?” “About 6000 kilometers all together” “with both of us driving that’s not too bad over, lets say, three weeks” “OK, that’s a go, lets book the car,” “When for” “ November, when all the Tourists are gone” “OK”.
So the trip to Doğubayazit to see the İşhak Paşa’s palace was planned and ready to go.
Our intention is to send regular but maybe irregular reports of our trip to Rob for you all to read as we travel across to east Turkey by car and visit many of those places where everyone says you cannot go………
So far, PKK permitting, our plan is to visit the following, the İşhak Paşa’s palace at Doğubayazit, and Mount Ararat, Batman, Lake Van, and all points in-between. We did want to see the Head Statues on Mount Nemrut, but it is closed in the winter (we still may go and see if they have locked the mountain up or not).
We may get to the Iran border and try our luck with a crossing there we have heard that a few US dollars does wonders at the border gate, but more of that at a later date.
If you want us to send you a post card from Doğubayazit or anywhere else on our journey for that matter, send Rob an email.
Are Steve & Pete brave? Have they lost the plot? Would you risk a trip like this?
Have your say in the book above
This section of our website is following Akbuk residents Steve & Pete on their trip to east Turkey. All text and photo's are written & supplied by Steve. More pages will be added as their trip progresses, that's assuming they survive!!!
Akbuk Turkey .com
The Independent website about Akbuk in Turkey
