Turky -
My selfevacuation from Europe during pandemic times
route: Istanbul - Izmir (5 mio) - Bodrum - Fetye - Bodrum - Istanbul -By the way it has to be reclaimed that overall it was not satisfacting to stay in that land in central Europe without a proper working normal phone over 5 months during what I had two tries of reactivation with that thing.
That was very unfair and unappropriate during the midyear 2020 and specially as
half the world gets stuck with socalled smartphones, which is tiny flatscreens with a processor for that what gets called apps since years. And it is neither apple trees, it has nothing to do with fruits but some profits, nore is it some stuff from the Appalachain mountains. Apps are more or less tiny small coloured spots, buttons to be moved on socalled smartphones, somuch on that for now.
So I had to leave that land during the peak of the second wave of that covid desaster times and a relatively calm summer, which efected many lands on the planet. And what is astonishing in specific is that mostly the richest and wealthiest (socalled) lands got hard hit by the pandemic. Not too much China in specific which had much less losses and fatalities in comparison with other powerfull nations.
It was even not possible for me to get a ticket booked over 1 month before takeoff. My tip is so for the specialists on the journey to download the closest main airports flight schedukle which is usually one single pdf file. If the do not provide you with a ticket andf booking, then take actio and take the last posible option, which ment under that specific circumstances to just leave at last possible day for takeoff, which was the 25th at MUC airport. I got there by train and took a plane the sameday evening to Istanbul. It was a oneway ticket and price was reasonable.
Arriving to Istanbul short after midnight I took a shuttle bus to the wellknown toursit area there. The small nightwalk was OK and good for getting to the ground after hours in beton, huge buildings or planes. At that time they had a lockdown and most local people staied at home. For tourists the situation was not that strict.
more on Istanbul
Before entering the main squares at Sultan Ahmed or the Blue Mosque you needed to pass the security checkposts what ment a short look into the bags of the vistors. The atmosphere in general was good, some russian tourists and the local volks with kids, also many cats and some big saegulls there for morning bath at some fountains.
The most hotels nice and clean, some stilish with small shampoo or shower gel containers in the bathrooms, most of them also with a rooftop restaurant. Then you start having a nice morning talk with kids and mums from Oman or Russia, also a couple from Kyrgisthan was there allready for a while on holiday trip.
It is fasinating when you have a nice view over the Isthmus, big ships, fisherboats, sea and clouds, a glimpse of the asian side and big saegulls getting close to the rooftop restaurants windows. I got some infos on main touri destinations and headed south by bus the next days.
The big city onway was Izmir which has alone 4 mio people, set in the hills with busy streets and much traffic. Some local guys and me got puzzeld when you could not pay in turkish currency in the public city busses, we did not understand that, even as some bystanding young women tried to help me then. But the pay system was too annoying without driver accepting nothing but the citybus cards. The guys and me did not go by that busses then.
From Izmir I tried to reach Ephesos which is quite a challenge over one day in local medibusss back and forth. The close town there is Selcuk and about 1,5 hours from Izmir by bus.
Selcuk is an ancient settling area since the bronze age. Later came the romans and it got part of the east roman empire, and by that its capitel named Asia once.
The holy Marie and St John got sent there and the Basilika in ruins is named after St John there at the hill near today Selcuk town. It is more or less two hills of which the first has the many marble columns, ruins and basilika from where you can reach the next hill which has the byzathine castle which walls got rebuilt from 2009 to 2011. It is quite an interesting area.
As clouds were showing dark and heavy rains close to come, I decided not to move further to Ephesos which is some 3 km further up in the hills from Selcuk but took the bus back to Izmir instead.
Some 3 nights later I headed for Bodrum which was really the place then for some timeoff. Nice sea, nice castle on the cliffs near the marina (also that totally secured with cams), mostly clean calm streets nicley set all in walking distance. Only a small dog on one of the big motorboats tables with some strange volks around left a bid of strange impression.
The second time returning to Bodrum coming back from Fethye, which is a specially set city, a women looking as important from a hotelcafee mentioned that I would need to buy a blanket for the hotel which I was checking for the coming night, what immediatly got her the right signal from me then. It was the first time that soembody told me to buy a blanket for the hotel bed. Most of the other stories were fine in Bodrum, many seem to go there for some affair or kind of romance also.
It has to be said that allready onplane from MUC the Netbook got another black spot on the flatscreen (part of handluggage), and not two days later the mashine was finished in Istanbul by some remote sramblers or hackers. Login password was correct but that site could not be passed even so to get on LINUX workstation. So that part of daily incentives and stimuli package was gone for weeks.
Bodrum is inviting for some swims and nice walks, a russian couple got seen alone during another 4 day lockdown on empty beach in the city. Further many odd streetcams but hardly really any dangerouse volks fitting for that much of surveillance. Nice set big marina with ships, and in back in the close hills the old romantime amphietheatro wich got a visit, also as ticket office was shut.
Moods over the sea allday were great.
From Bodrum I left for Fethye which was a great decision. It is a nicely set big town between the close pinetree covered hills and the sea. You can rent cycles there and do some strong trips in the close hills not far from some beach ressorts, which were all closed luckily because of covid. The cycle tour that morning through the docks and shipyards, the uphill was a clear highlight, but also some nice talks here and then during breakfasts which never got to the nights. That were minor lackings as hotels were of good stile and stuff was always friendly and polite.
Turks are mostly friendly and warm hearted people, some want to do more of business as usual but that guys or girls you can meet everywhere. Many of them speak proper english as is the case with breakfast chats in hotels.
As a rough rider you get sometimes just puzzled when you had some nice breakfast chats and some half hour later it looks that the plan ... or mentioned destination, or even the neighbours hotelroom door does not get opened then later. That seems to be the difference then, after 20 years travelling and between men and women. Some of the guys you meet onway get friends here and there with you, you meet the next days and talk with them that was also the case with women once, but in these smartmob times it looks that a breakfast chat was pretty much the peak of emotional excitement and short planning. It hardly moved anywhere later then, not to supper (dinner) neither a hotelroom door can get opened then later out of so much busyness or NGO activities, even a foreign journalista in Turky, just imagine.
And that makes all that smart mobs really look unsmart, if not undiplomatic afer that years of a million smartphone apps in use (for otherones profits) in these days. They speak english, you speak english, but it is for sure the app they are using over years for hotelroom bookings or another NGO action which keeps the door shut then and some odd messages get not replied. Then I knew it was again the wrong app during breakfast, that is the strange thing in these times after so many ideas for today, or Kairo, an oasis or the dead sea ..... really ?
Overall Turky is a touristfriendly country and has many places to be visited some of them yet unearthed as it is a region of centurylong trespassing and a migration route since ages.
Traffic is a bid complicated and I got dissapointed when a stretch of 185 km took 4 hrs time in a taxi, the driver was experienced to the situation in his land, but when you calculate 4 hrs for a roughly 190km distance then it gets too slow, and that is the problem for me, when the Traveltime: Visittime Relativity gets irrational, unlogic so to say.
So next time it could be a tour in a Range Rover from Central Europe, the guys and girls who know me know that I would be the guide for that and the question of Escort which I got to heared here and then on some busstation can be missed easily.
First of all, do I look as I would like and need escort, then could the escort ketchup half a day on way ? In some busses or on a nice cycle uphill somewhere behind Fethye. Escort in today times is more about cars (if some cardoors do not drop on way to a courtplace.at or some carlights do not drop from the back of a car at midnight short after arrival to Istanbul downtown hardly touching it with a packbag. Escort is something with cars in these days and software .... )
You could see that before swearin ceremony somewhere between a white house and the hill with the capitol some days after it got stormed successfully and its offices got occupied for media performance. Escorts have very different looks but better drop that with me. That produces just more of fuzz if not headache and anger. It would need for sure the tag "himalaya approved" or tested "till minus 5 degree" or something like "RishiGanga approved" before it gets to "Hit on the ground". Istanbul Nature observations onway
Egypt III a
route: Aswan - Luxor - Aswan - Cairo (coming from Istanbul)The small shampoo and showergel bottlis of Turky are still around but in another land, its name is Egypt. Another land of old and long history deep burnt into the traces of man left on the planet.
After the day before the covid test got done negative and so successfully (Istanbul) for good immigration procedure in Egypt I landed somewhen late evening in Aswan. The well known big city close to 2 dams and the big mighty blueriver Nile sprinkled with lovely rocky islands in its midth.
Many rare and more wellknown comon birds got close to rooftop the next days and mornings there on an island in the river. (case szenario for another spezialized page)
By the aspect ratio to digital equipment it has to be told that there was no working digicam with me as its battery got emptied till now, neither a working telephone for the simple call or message to otherlands or a working netbook so far as the one in bag got finished allready in Istanbul after arrival.
Most equipement like that got reactivated in Luxor and looking back it was the good place to get that done over some two days. Aswan offers stunning locations and the river has many secret spots in harmony, partly from boat or at beach corners here and there, the magic sanddunes can be easily reached and hikes on them leave stunning traces and reminders of stunning times and more to get buried in the hot sand.
Do not forget some water bottli for that kind of halfday trips, you can find nubian tents here and there or another ticket office in nowhere to enter a big empty castle of nubian or late pharaonic times. The russian informant could not provide me with detailed
information on that castle which looked to be waiting to get reactivated, its sice was fitting well.
The Aga Khans tomb and familyhouse laied silence at the hillridge in the while, blown by a smooth steady wind from desert.
At the hight of Aswan you can take boatrides to either side of quite a lot of small to bigger islands. Some of them with partly nice bays inviting for a swim or rocks to get climbed and jumped from into the mighty Nile river. Maybe get accompanied with the amazing Pied kingfishers or Kormorants. Herons and Glossy ibis are more aware and keeping more distance to boats and people.
It got found out that the most easy way to travel either north or south from Aswan is by train, some taxis tried to find a busstand for AC busses which did notget reached at that times. Trains are well also as with soem of the 1st class coaches the outer windows galsses are missing, others have no small leantables to put some drinks onway. In general trains are accurate and reach destinations in time. Some platform numbers or coach numbers are missing in latin leters, what can be of an headache sometimes.
It got further discovered that AC busses do not reach from Luxor to Kairo but go to Hurgarda which is at the red sea, from there some move to Kairo then alter. From Kairo you can reach anywhere like western desert, Luxor, Hurgarda or Ismailla and Suez. Trains move along the Nile river but less busses.
Minicabs are another story and often packed, if it fits to cost/ time relation you can take taxis on short distances or agree to a price for a visit tour like for 3 or 4 hours as was the option near Valley of kings or Karnak at hight of Luxor. Near Luxor you can also arrange ballon trips which could get more out of the foreigners vallets.
Boat trips are another story, either by size of the ship and what is included and what not or the size of the sail what could mean
that under heavy gusty winds or waves the Felukka trip would turn into an adventure depending on the experience of the tour guide.
Prices should be agreed in advance and villages are not everywhere to be in reach on longer day to week trips.
Yesterday the first big cruise ship got seen from a rooftop reste on the move north from Aswan after about two weeks along the river at two major cities in the southern kingdom.
During sunsets over january Glossy ibis can by watched daily on the roam and in flight formation from Luxor riverside, for the relevanth flight instructors, capatins or Ornithologists quite interesting. Others see more shops, construction sites, affairs, boats or the android geneation itself on a small flatscreens. (In case of addiction to that it can be called bachelors of intellectual properties)
From Aswan you can reach Luxor by train in 3,5 hours. Luxor city has a westbank but nobody spoke of eastbank what gets me puzzled since years. There is the west balkan in Europe they speak of in the medias, there is Westbank in Israel and there could be more of west banks anywhere out there, even after to big to fail happened years ago allready, nakba is of another case scenario.
I got even satisfied at eastbank at Luxor as I could manage to get a mobile activated and a netbook working, even since the failor at Istanbul after arival there.
Overall marcets look different either for fruits, veg, boats or taxis. On TV it got broadcasted that women have a share of about one quarter in the egypt government and maybe that could be the reason that Mr Trumps most liked Military ruler was Mr Al Sisi. To elaborate on that topics would get out of hand here as african nations look different everywhere and in reality you have to take a carefull look what s happening, whom you met, where and when, under which circumstances, as many people also men are totally covered. Usually men are more engaged in daily city business by what you get to hear from the traffic side.
But you know, since ages islands (B) are there for relaxation, also boats and some get funny names as once Snta Isabella, otok Korcula, Lagoa muertes or the Elephantine island. If that connects anyhow to reality is of another case to be investigated. Others got to Bermudas, the Gilis, Ko Tao, Ko Samui, Tobago or Bahamas, and do not foregt men allready do artificial islands for whatever raesons. The ones made of sand are somhow stunning.
As experienced traveller it can be saied that the ones with rocks and jump options are very calming and beautifull. (under progress)
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