Reminiscence from Anatolia- Part Fifteen: Art of Traveling.
His name was Steve… he and his friends, some 5-6 of them had been cycling in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Central Asia for last 2-3 years… like migratory birds… when summers start to descend, they start cycling from South to North towards Eastern Europe… and when winters start to engulf them… they cycle from North to South.
These were the winters and they were cycling from North to South… they were heading towards Syria, where they proposed to stay on… for the winters, or probably go even south to Jordan… and then from March move back to North…
They are, what I call, true vagabonds… unlike me, who sees vagabonding as once in a year activity…
Vagabonds have a very frugal lifestyle… as frugal as it can be… Steve, for instance, had one of the most minimal backpack… 3 Cargo Pants, 4 Tees, some common medicine, and some wee bits to eat… he said- I cannot afford to carry more, as I myself would have to slog around with it…
I coaxed him further… and then he related to many incidents about his travels… on how he was stuck between Armenian and Azerbaijani borders for almost a week, how he was stuck at Syrian border for 4 days because Syrian authorities suspected that he had visited Israel… all of them, he maintained, were amazing experiences… which seemed exasperating, when they occurred… and now when they are gone, he is left with bewilderment that he did survive that litmus test… and has stories to tell to the posterity. He echoed almost my sentiments…
When I look back… I am almost bewildered as to how I have survived some difficult moments while traveling… being rendered homeless at Jaitapur in Konkan, interrogation by Syrian immigration authorities at Aleppo, or by Egyptian security officials at El Arish, problems while crossing West Bank to enter Israel… and many others… and each of them would give me a story to be told to my posterity… it would give me a sense of confidence while traveling…
Steve also gave me a number of inputs about packing the backpack… he maintained that at every place in this world… there are two ways of living- the expensive way and the cheap way… ordinary locals, know how to live the cheap way… and if we try imitating them, we get a real local flavor in our travels (I, also, subscribe to his view)… we transcend from being tourists to travelers.
This, for him, holds the key of traveling for long stretches at relatively cheap costs- he guesstimated that his daily expenditure in Turkey is less than 10 Euros… and it plummets to about 5 Euros in Levant and Central Asia… and overshoots it by a bit in Eastern Europe…
A travelers incurs three types of costs- travel cost (which, in case, of Steve was zero… when I was in Jamnagar, two of my friends invited me to join them on a cycling expedition from Jamnagar-Dwarka- Diu and back… it was a ten days expedition… however I backed out because I doubted if my body can endure it)… lodging cost (which, in case of Steve is very low... because they stay in shoestring places…. Carry a small camp and camp wherever they can)… and sustenance cost (which Steve tries to minimize, by adopting local way of living… by cooking for himself… by doing more of free sight-seeing than paid sight-seeing)…
So, according to Steve, he keeps on buying local breads and jams, wherever it’s cheap… like I could have bought, pickled olives and citrus near Selcuk… it actually would have made my experience even better… then he told me that if I eventually plan to reach Kars… I must not forget to purchase Honey from Kars… it is the best honey for money.
While, we were talking … one from his group approached us… and they talked with each other in French for a while… later I gathered that two of the group wanted to go to Iran… and are having a lot of problems in getting a Visa… and have been told that it was easier to get visa from Iranian Consulate in Trabzon… and they were leaving for Trabzon next morning… I was zapped to see their resolve… Trabzon, I was told, would be at least 10 days trip… Steve hugged them Good-Bye… and they promised to meet each other at Gaziantep in South Turkey, after two months…. Steve and his remaining group were leaving for Sanliurfa next morning… and further into Syria.
It was 1 am… I took leave from Steve… worked on internet for a while and went to sleep… the day next was a long day… I had to wake up in the early morning to go for a walk… then join the Cappadocia tour…. And then come back, pack and move to my next spot… Kahta, on the way to the Nemrut Dagi. I checked the Zaman site once again… the streets of South East Turkey were still on boil… the Kurdish riots were still on… but they didn’t look menacing.
Cappadocia was form by the lava of Mount Hassan, which exploded last – almost millions of years ago… these igneous rocks, were very porous… and therefore, when the early Christians were being prosecuted by the Byzantine Kings… they sought refuge in Cappadocian region… dry, harsh, desert-like… they learnt to survive in these harsh climates… making houses by carving houses inside these rocks… and then they did something even more astounding, they made underground cities… going down a dozen levels… they discovered underground rivers, which provided them water… in times of danger (mostly summer times) they used to seek shelter in these underground cities… trying to survive…
Their struggle is almost of an epic level… their constructions are straight from a fairytale… one is mesmerized to see their vitality, their fight to survive…
It is very strange that Christianity has come to be recognized as the religion of the West… whereas the early Christians struggled and lived in the Middle East… in Turkey and Levant… in Egypt.
I came to Cappadocia from Konya… a place that reminds of Sufi benevolence… and now I was standing at a place… which has a bloody history, where religious persecution forced humans to live like rats… inside underground caves.
These were the winters and they were cycling from North to South… they were heading towards Syria, where they proposed to stay on… for the winters, or probably go even south to Jordan… and then from March move back to North…
They are, what I call, true vagabonds… unlike me, who sees vagabonding as once in a year activity…
Vagabonds have a very frugal lifestyle… as frugal as it can be… Steve, for instance, had one of the most minimal backpack… 3 Cargo Pants, 4 Tees, some common medicine, and some wee bits to eat… he said- I cannot afford to carry more, as I myself would have to slog around with it…
I coaxed him further… and then he related to many incidents about his travels… on how he was stuck between Armenian and Azerbaijani borders for almost a week, how he was stuck at Syrian border for 4 days because Syrian authorities suspected that he had visited Israel… all of them, he maintained, were amazing experiences… which seemed exasperating, when they occurred… and now when they are gone, he is left with bewilderment that he did survive that litmus test… and has stories to tell to the posterity. He echoed almost my sentiments…
When I look back… I am almost bewildered as to how I have survived some difficult moments while traveling… being rendered homeless at Jaitapur in Konkan, interrogation by Syrian immigration authorities at Aleppo, or by Egyptian security officials at El Arish, problems while crossing West Bank to enter Israel… and many others… and each of them would give me a story to be told to my posterity… it would give me a sense of confidence while traveling…
Steve also gave me a number of inputs about packing the backpack… he maintained that at every place in this world… there are two ways of living- the expensive way and the cheap way… ordinary locals, know how to live the cheap way… and if we try imitating them, we get a real local flavor in our travels (I, also, subscribe to his view)… we transcend from being tourists to travelers.
This, for him, holds the key of traveling for long stretches at relatively cheap costs- he guesstimated that his daily expenditure in Turkey is less than 10 Euros… and it plummets to about 5 Euros in Levant and Central Asia… and overshoots it by a bit in Eastern Europe…
A travelers incurs three types of costs- travel cost (which, in case, of Steve was zero… when I was in Jamnagar, two of my friends invited me to join them on a cycling expedition from Jamnagar-Dwarka- Diu and back… it was a ten days expedition… however I backed out because I doubted if my body can endure it)… lodging cost (which, in case of Steve is very low... because they stay in shoestring places…. Carry a small camp and camp wherever they can)… and sustenance cost (which Steve tries to minimize, by adopting local way of living… by cooking for himself… by doing more of free sight-seeing than paid sight-seeing)…
So, according to Steve, he keeps on buying local breads and jams, wherever it’s cheap… like I could have bought, pickled olives and citrus near Selcuk… it actually would have made my experience even better… then he told me that if I eventually plan to reach Kars… I must not forget to purchase Honey from Kars… it is the best honey for money.
While, we were talking … one from his group approached us… and they talked with each other in French for a while… later I gathered that two of the group wanted to go to Iran… and are having a lot of problems in getting a Visa… and have been told that it was easier to get visa from Iranian Consulate in Trabzon… and they were leaving for Trabzon next morning… I was zapped to see their resolve… Trabzon, I was told, would be at least 10 days trip… Steve hugged them Good-Bye… and they promised to meet each other at Gaziantep in South Turkey, after two months…. Steve and his remaining group were leaving for Sanliurfa next morning… and further into Syria.
It was 1 am… I took leave from Steve… worked on internet for a while and went to sleep… the day next was a long day… I had to wake up in the early morning to go for a walk… then join the Cappadocia tour…. And then come back, pack and move to my next spot… Kahta, on the way to the Nemrut Dagi. I checked the Zaman site once again… the streets of South East Turkey were still on boil… the Kurdish riots were still on… but they didn’t look menacing.
Cappadocia was form by the lava of Mount Hassan, which exploded last – almost millions of years ago… these igneous rocks, were very porous… and therefore, when the early Christians were being prosecuted by the Byzantine Kings… they sought refuge in Cappadocian region… dry, harsh, desert-like… they learnt to survive in these harsh climates… making houses by carving houses inside these rocks… and then they did something even more astounding, they made underground cities… going down a dozen levels… they discovered underground rivers, which provided them water… in times of danger (mostly summer times) they used to seek shelter in these underground cities… trying to survive…
Their struggle is almost of an epic level… their constructions are straight from a fairytale… one is mesmerized to see their vitality, their fight to survive…
It is very strange that Christianity has come to be recognized as the religion of the West… whereas the early Christians struggled and lived in the Middle East… in Turkey and Levant… in Egypt.
I came to Cappadocia from Konya… a place that reminds of Sufi benevolence… and now I was standing at a place… which has a bloody history, where religious persecution forced humans to live like rats… inside underground caves.
2 comments:
Can you please mail me one photo of the underground cities..if you have one..
yeah I do have... are you on the facebook... you can access my entire Turkey photo folder on it... send me a friend request!
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