Travelogues

Calender :

Aug 7 - Kayseri, night bus

Aug 8 - above Van lake (çolpan village) : leaving the night bus coming from Agri well ahead of the city of Van, I had no idea where to spend the night ; stopped the bus in front of a village far in the distance on the shores of the lake but arriving there (thanks to the help of a Dutch traveller who was driving a funny old red car), I did not like too much the sort of camping organised by the village. So we drove inland and across the road, went up the mountains via a 1st village and finally reached a place where they accepted both of us to sleep, Jan in the men's area (but a very old woman was sleeping with them), me in the women's bedroom and I could not escape the offer of the large bed shared with 2 other young women, some older women and children sleeping on various mats on the floor - very friendly dinner before that with plenty of laughs and jokes, a very large family who had never hosted tourists before and really charming, ... but no privacy of course - we stayed there only the afternoon till the next morning, Jan continuing to Van and me going to the opposite direction ; I still have some photos to post about that place, but who knows when I'll finally decide to post them?...
- seen from the far, 3 herds grazing early morning, above lake Van

Aug 9 - staying in a village near Dogubayazit (which lies at the feet of the huge Ararat mountain where Noah's ark is supposed to have landed, according to the Bible) : the place was very convenient because it was out of the town of D.Beyazit but still not badly connected with it ; a good base to explore the region without being bothered by the noisy city, and a fantastic view on the huge Ararat mountain just in front of us (but still far away).
- my host was armed till the teeth against the wolves, having dinner in front of all sorts of guns was rather thrilling and the pink walls added to the surreality of the scene...
- the grandmother could not move much but was nonetheless active, closer to the children than the mother who was working so hard
- here is the mother, baking the bread (she does it twice or thrice in the week as there are no shops and no bakeries in the village).
- a typical evening in this small village, so close to the huge vulcano with dramatic clouds.

Aug 10 - visit of "yaylas" (high summer pasture for animals to graze) above Dogubayazit and the small, high altitude village of Gülizar : the first place was very basic as people live there not more than 2 months of the year in the summer ; the second village was bigger and more confortable - at least, for some of the richest villagers but not for Yusuf and his numerous children...
in the "yayla" :
- grandma is working with us, for instance milking the sheep with her grandchildren,
- a serene old man and his wife ;
in the village :
- a young horseman dares giving orders to his elder brother
- Yusuf maybe poor, but his richness are his kids and he knows it
- on our way back, we were caught in a violent hailstorm, in the middle of the summer
- while the hailstorm was leaving, the herds and the shepherds reappeared in the far...
- "... And there was light" : sceneries around Ararat mountain are absolutely stunning and the light reminds me of the central Asian or the Tibetan plateau : same grandeur and also high altitude with weather changing unpredictably...

Aug 11 - some time in Dogubayazit... : D.Bayazit is a largish town, totally flat but with good views on the huge Ararat mountain ; situated on the border, many Iranians transit there for a pilgrimage in Syria and others do their shopping in a bazar that sells lots of electric appliances and other things more expensive in Iran . Plenty of poor boys in the streets ; I started to take photos of shoeshine boys (and still have some more), continuing the same theme the next days in different locations...
- one of the smallest shops in that town
- my 1st photo of a poor shoeshine boy...
- another one, not a great photo...
... plus a small village above the town, not far from Isak Pasa Saray
- 5 brothers & sisters standing still
- a turkey and her chicks in a Turkish kitchen and other photos related to the same subject.

Aug 12 - via Igdir, till Gülheyran village (before Kars) : following the border with Iran and then Armenia, I had to change of minibus in Igdir (1st photo), then stopped the next vehicle when I saw a village that seemed interesting near the road ; children saw me disembark from the van, encouraged me to ask to the nearest house if I could find a place where to sleep ; I was welcomed by Rabiye who became my friend, who understood immediately what would be best for me and who introduced me to Ciçek, Zelal's grandmother who was baking bread at that moment. Photos are here in chronological order.
- on the road, in Igdir : a young man who desperately wants to practice English
- Madam Flower (çiçek hanim) is baking bread in the oven
- a sweet and popular great grandma
- that day, a trio of women led me to a spring
Photos taken early next day with the same family :
- Zelal is just out of bed and still dreaming, her cat calls for attention
- Grandma is preparing breakfast
- "Always Clean Your Hands Before Breakfasts"
- a late, lazy breakfast
- grandma is rocking me to sleep
- a view from the village at sunset : somewhere in the east...

Aug 13 - go and return to Kars : Staying in a village is of course fascinating, but it gets tiring in the end (Please, read the note regarding the trio of women above) ; I was happy to breathe a bit the air of the city even if Kars is not my favorite place (not very comfortable for a lone woman but daytime, still acceptable). Spent some time in internet cafés as I had been there the preceding year as well.
(Did not take so many photos of that town as I had spent more time there just the year before... Some of them in my theme about east Turkey...)
- a flower given with the dirty hands of another shoeshine boy

Aug 14 - village Taslidere (about 40km from Ardahan) Between Kars and Ardahan, the road is rather straight and along it are various yaylas (high pastures) that I spotted and where I thought to come back the next day. I also spotted the colourful village of Taslidere not far from Ardahan, passed it as I wanted to see again the road where I had been the preceding year ; did not see any other interesting village, so I returned to that village with a minibus which was from that village ; inside, every man (no woman present at that time) told me that the best accomodation would be with the imam ; I had no other choice than ask the hospitality to the house next to the brand new mosque, but other houses in that village seemed much more interesting : here is one of them, where women still cook their meals in the large cowshed half buried inside the earth as the winters are so tough :
- 2 women and a baby in 1 of the 2 kitchens, the one in the cowshed
- the other kitchen, where all the utensils are displayed
- a large family with 6 children but only 1 boy
- a typical view of the countryside not far from there

Aug 15 - go and return to Ardahan and before, to a very large yayla along the road that I had seen one day earlier That yayla (summer pasture) was even more amazing than the one seen on Aug. 10 ; mainly cows and geeze, many of them roaming freely... And kids everywhere, enjoying their summer holiday while their parents were working hard.
Ardahan is a small, laid down town where again, I enjoyed being for a while in an internet café ; then like on Aug. 10, there was again a terrible hail storm whith hails not melting for hours, due to the altitude and the lack of sunshine end of afternoon.
In the large "yayla" along the road :
- "high traffic" : goats and some cows
- laundry scene with 3 groups (NB : this photo is certainly not my best :o(((
- "Say Geese!", a fun photo with strange colours
- excitement over a surprising visit (and a calf inside a stone house)
- children playing in their stone house, in Ardahan town :
- a too brief encounter with a charming woman
- shoeshine boys : precious tools and tele-tubby Tshirt
- in the old "otogar"
- a corner of the old "otogar"

Aug 16 - an awful journey to Erzurum in a dolmus without windows, transported like cattle with people sick in the van and no air to breathe - journey of about 4 to 5 hours, not that horrible but very uncommon in Turkey ; hammam in Erzurum before boarding a night bus to Tokat
(=> Did not take many photos that day, although my passage in the hammam for women, like that in Dogubayazit, was very inspiring to take photo - but that would be very difficult and sensitive of course, I am not Ingres :o))) !

Aug 17 - Day spent in Tokat before another night bus straight to Göreme
(I've not posted yet any photo from Tokat taken that day ; it was at lower altitude and extremely hot, a lovely town and very hospitable people ; not so interesting photos IMO and not much to do with east Turkey of course).

(NB : last update : Sept. 21, 2008).