The Istanbul to Ankara high speed train is up and running at
last. For the past two years, you had to
get a bus from Istanbul to Eskisehir (see earlier blog for more info on this
wonderful small city.) and then catch the train on to Ankara. One way, Ankara to Istanbul, business class,
is TL113. More space than flying
business class and easier boarding experience.
The YHT (Yuksek Hizli Tren) stops 35 km from Istanbul. It’s
still called “Istanbul” but not if your hotel is around Taksim Square. It’s an outer suburb by a long way.
You get to Ankara to nearly the middle of the city, opposite
Genclik Park. A new station is under
construction. The way the Turks build,
it could be ready next week! They
blocked off the underground passage to the other side of the tracks (pity, it
was where our hotel was) and the next day they already had lines of concrete
trucks and a concrete pump truck pouring the foundations for the new station.
Genclik Park
From Ankara station, you catch the Dogu Express. Dogu simply means East because that’s where
it goes. It’s not an express, it stops
all the way along the line, even at crossings where an informal drop point has
grown up over the years and cars gather to retrieve passengers or put them on.
The trip takes 27 hours and a sleeper cabin is highly
recommended. It leaves Ankara at 18:00
each night and arrives in Kars around 21:00 the next night. It leaves Kars around 07:45 in the a.m. and
arrives back in Ankara around 10:am the next day. Although it is only about 900km direct from
Ankara to Kars, the journey is about 1400 because you follow a) the rivers and
b) go between towns as the train is a service train, not a sightseer’s train
like the Canadian ones.
The Sleeper bunks
The one way fare to Kars is only TL 79.25, or about $40
Australian dollars. The sleeper cabins
have a fridge, a wash basin, power point and a cupboard. Beds are premade so when you pull your bunk
down, it’s ready to get into. Toilets
are clean - forward toilet in each of the sleepers is Western, aft is
Turkish-style.
The best all-round view is in the dining car, usually two up
from where they put the foreigners. Beer
is same price as in bars around Istanbul and Ankara, about $4.50 for a 500ml
bottle of Efes (good stuff, see my Beer Tour of the World in our blog). Food is basic Turkish and the range does
diminish over time. Certainly on the way
back your options reduce. Still, it’s
good quality and enough on the plate to keep you happy. The old chef doesn’t speak any English at all
but you can draw what you want and out it comes.
You will find the dining car is where the Turks will want to
talk to you. These Turks tend to be less
exposed to westerners as many come from the far east where there is little
interaction as the few tourists who do visit sit in big buses and stay in their groups. Many of them will be curious as to why you
are bothering to go out there.
The landscape of the Taurus Mountains is quite spectacular,
and the train follows rivers most of the way.
A large SD card in your camera is advisable. Circular Polarising filter necessary to snap
out of the windows.
Following a river gorge - the headwaters of the Euphrates River are here!
In Kars, we stayed in the Hotel Temel. Very basic, no aircon in the rooms but
designed to stay cool. Showers hot but
no curtains so the water goes everywhere (we figured it was their problem, not
ours – if they didn’t want water all over the floor, they would have put
curtains up, eh?) Beds were good, linen
sharp and inviting. The hotel staff are
unfailingly polite, and the owner (big boss the others call him) presents every
day in his suit and tie. Breakfast was simple
Turkish cold meat and fruits and cheeses.
We were waiting for a taxi to the train station when we left and the
boss arrived for work and took us instead.
We wandered around Kars a bit to see the old sites - the
castle is quite spectacular and you can drive up there despite what Lonely
Planet says. There are a few other
sights to see also and the new museum, quite a ways out on the edge of town, is
worth a look. It’s about 2.5kms from the
main drag. We walked it.
Restaurants are all over – alcohol service is rare. A specialty of Kars is Goose, but because it
costs TL60, it is not always ready and waiting.
If you really want it, perhaps pick your favourite restaurant (the first
two in Lonely Planet are OK) and ask the day before. Goose flocks are all over so we were careful
walking past the stone farm fences in case there were some we didn’t see – they
are cranky sods. There are also very
large woolly Anatolian Sheep Dogs. Good
luck trying to steal a sheep when these guys are watching them. They’re usually quite placid but that’s only
when they don’t own the territory you meet on.
If they own it, they get all proprietorial and put on quite a
threatening display, followed by a very nasty bite if you are a bit slow on the
uptake.
Not the type to pick a fight with for sure
A lot of Turkish cheese is quite mild but in Kars they sell
Kasa Eski (eski means old in Turkish) in any one of maybe 20 or 30 specialty
shops with cheeses, village butter (don’t tell your cardiologist about this stuff)
honey, nuts, dried fruits etc. Kars is
famous for its honey and you can actually do “The Honey Walk” if hiking is your
bent. The shops are a feature of Kars,
as are the specialty shops way down west in Datca where they sell almonds and
olive oil, or in Elmali where they are famous for apples (and where they make
darn good cider also)
The abandoned city of
Ani.
The city of Ani was fought over for thousands of years. It was eventually abandoned in the
1700s. It lies about 40km east of
Kars. There is no real tourist industry
in Kars so you will need to negotiate with a taxi driver for a trip out
there. There is one guy who has a deal
with the hotels – when you are checking in, they ring him and he will talk to
you about a trip to Kars. He speaks good
English. HOWEVER, despite him saying he
himself will be there in the a.m., this is not necessarily the case. See my review of Kars on Trip Adviser
(surprised they published it). If you do
get a taxi from the train, see what he will do.
You MUST specify a 3-hour wait, not two.
The site is very spread out. They
will try to wriggle down to two, two and a half but insist on 3. Should cost you around 120TL maximum for the
two of you, or $60 Australian. Less if they try and cram more people in.
The Church of the Illustrator - you literally cannot see this until you are on it.
There are numerous buildings on the site, quite spread
out. The Church of the Illustrator is
out over by the river and down a slope – you cannot see it until you are almost
on it and it is quite large. The fence
around the bottom is the Turkish border with Armenia.
It is the point beyond which you cannot pass, although the actual border
is a little further out – the Turks have military bases in this “no man’s land”
Guard tower on the border - war was not that long ago.
One of the most striking points of interest is the ruins of
a bridge that crossed the river once upon a time. On the far side, you can see a track leading
to what would have been the on-ramp.
This is where all the caravans on the Old Silk Road crossed over for
hundreds of years, on up into the city of Ani for shelter, rest and food. It is worth taking a moment to sit and
consider the trade that walked this way. For those who have watched numerous documentaries on the Old Silk Road, the Taklimakan Desert, Tamerlane and the Trans-Siberian Railway, this single spot affords a powerful reflection on trade between very distant cultures.
It is down by where the Nunnery was, or the Church of the Virgins.
The Church of the Virgins
There are three more churches within driving distance. Just going to one of them added another $20
Australian to the bill and despite them all saying they know where they are, our
guy was on the blower phoning a friend for directions.
For the biblical minded, you are not very far from Mt Ararat
when you are in Kars. You can climb Mt
Ararat but is costs a very large dollar and takes about 3 days. Permits, guides etc. (you are not permitted
to climb without a guide) will set you back around Australian $1,500., big
money in the scheme of things.
The Cathedral of Ani
The family that occupies the land on which the ancient monastery
buildings stand (see Lonely Planet) has daughters with reddish hair and
freckles. (Where the church is, not the monastery building. If you go out there, even the girls warn you
about next door’s dogs!) Yes, the Celts
invaded here around 300BC from areas around Germany and set up camp. (They were referred to as the Galatians so
dig out your St Paul). It is not
uncommon to see Celtic features in the East of Turkey, as Galatia was centred
on Ankara and points east – lots of red and ginger hair, ginger beards,
freckles and fair skin. The church on
their land dates from 870AD. They use it
to store hay. They have a hay cutter
with a sort of blower on one end. They
feed hay in the blunt end and it gets blown out in small bits into the
church. They’ve blocked up the windows
so it just fills up and doesn’t blow back out.
Better use for it than just letting it sit there for 1,200 years doing
nothing.
Block up all the windows and pour chaff in.
Red hair and freckles on the Armenian border with Turkey
We booked our return when we booked our out-ticket to make
sure we could get back – it is usually full days in advance and we had to wait
a week for a spot.
The land is rich and fertile, with large herds of cattle,
complete with cowboys and cowgirls, sheep, goats, geese, and many horses. Kids use their horses to get around on. It is a major wheat growing area, and they
also grow a vast range of vegetables to boot.
Plenty of water, rich brown dirt but unfortunately heavy snow in winter
so they lay up large supplies of hay.
Bee farmer's collection of hives - magnificent honey in this whole area.
I'm worn out reading about all of this! You're stretching my memory of high school and college history here.
ReplyDeleteDennis (and Bettye), St. Augustine
Dennis - I am glad you are paying attention! When we get back to the States in a couple of years, there WILL be questions. :)
ReplyDeleteTerry
Your website is really cool and this is a great inspiring article.
ReplyDeletePommeaux de Douche