After spending about 6 hours out in sub-zero temperatures, 5 cups of tea, a ride in a police car & a stop at a military checkpoint (or rather IN a military checkpoint), and plenty of luck, we have finally arrived in the city of Kars at 1800m elevation. Insha'Allah as they say.

There are two words that I will commit to memory after the series of events that happened today Bayram - which means festival in Turkish and Tuzluca a village in the Iğdır Province.

The Blow by Blow Account
After crossing the border to Turkiye from Iran last evening, we hitched on a ride (for YTL5 though) to the town of Iğdır. This guy who was on the same ride with us suggested we go to his hotel, which we did, and found out we had a pretty shite room, which was freezing cold (it was some minus 4 degrees outside, and felt quite the same in our room even with a TINY radiator on).

We awoke and set off just before 8am to find a desolate town. Asking whether there was a minibus to Kars (our destination), we soon found out there wasn't any today, and everyone was muttering the word Bayram (pronounced Buy-rahm). We soon found out what Bayram was because we saw lots of cows and sheep being transported on lorries and also lots of people were walking around with knives and some were cutting up the animal in their front yard - Eid ul-Adha or Hari Raya Haji as we know it - which is a sacrifice festival in case you don't know.

Of course, because Keng Rui and I are now "experienced" hitch-hikers, we thought we'd hitch-hike to Kars, since that was pretty much our only option (unless we were to pay some 150 YTL for a taxi of course). After standing on the main road for about an hour or so, we managed to hitch a ride to Tuzluca, a town on the way to Kars in this army officer's car. (our Turkish is fairly good now we thinks... ;p)

At Tuzluca, we were dropped at this junction which leads off to Kars in one direction. And it is at this junction that we were destined to spend the next 4 hours or so in the freezing cold (about -2 degrees). During this four hours, we were kept company by a bunch of boys (aged probably 10-19 years old). We were even brought two cups of tea by this auntie (bless her) and given sweets by the kids. We were also taken in the village centre where we were told would have more chance of a ride (otostop - Turkish for hitch-hike), but to no avail (avada yok - no cars). Basically, we had everything except a ride, because it was Bayram and noone was out...

Finally, around 2pm, these two guys came to us (after half the village had come and talked to us... seriously... they kept coming to meet us) and told the kids with us that maybe we should go to the Police for help since there was no point standing out there forever. So we walked with the kids to the police station.

At the police station, we were shown to this cafeteria where we were offered tea (it was our FIFTH cup of tea of the day btw...) and we got to use the much needed toilet (bursting bladders not very good in the cold). We waited for about 10-15 minutes before this officer came to us and told us to follow him. We got into the police van, and were told we would be taken to the next junction leading to Kars. And so here's our ride in a police van... Travelling in style indeed... ;p

We soon found out that this junction was also a military checkpoint. (In Turkey, the military are still fighting the PKK - Kurdish militants especially near the border areas, hence there are military checkpoints at strategic locations on the highways.) We were ushered into their guardroom where we sat chatting to this guy serving his "NS", while we were wondering if we will ever get to Kars. About 15 mins later, we found out that the guards outside inspecting the cars were actually helping us look out for an empty car that we could ride to Kars and there was one finally. (We didn't even have to do the hitching ourselves! how convenient... :) ).

So off we were in this little Opel to Kars, around 2.50pm, after spending 4 hours waiting at Tuzluca and then at the police station and the military checkpoint. When we got to Kars and checked in to our Hotel (Hotel Temel - A MILLION TIMES better than the one we had to put up with last night - nice and warm complete with our own ensuite facilities + TV), we could have counted ourselves as the luckiest people in Turkey today. What an incredible day it has been.

Right now, I'm safely tucked away in a corner of an internet cafe, while it's -6 degrees outside, after having a nice doner kebab and rice. This feeling is bliss and all I could ask for really... :)

[edit]Kenny is suffering from anime-watching withdrawal symptoms!!!!!!!!!!![/edit]

Labels: Travel, Turkiye