I sat down to write about the last two days and all of the things that have happened etc...but everytime i try to stick to the facts i continually swerve into something more abstract....so i figure i might as well get it all out.....at least to provide some setting......plus there's a travelling story buried in there.......if you have the time you can bear with me.....
You know that feeling, after reading a great book, when seemingly unrelated events begin to fit into a bigger picture? And you're left with a fleeting image of understanding that lingers on the surface for a while....maybe to be relegated to the subconcious somehow, but most likely to be replaced by another once the intitial novelty has worn off....
For a long time when i read a book this is what would happen.....but now each piece of the puzzle seems to be falling into place....
Most of my reading this summer has revolved around technology in some form or another....investigations into the technological systems that are so pervasive in our society.....banking systems, communication systems etc...... sometimes dealing with the philosophy of science, reason, logic that has spawned it and other times with its esthetic side...its quality....good or bad?......and other times just gathering information......
For a long time I was impressed with technology, with its vast capabilities and its seemingly benevolent promise of progress.....more food....more information....the elusive "free lunch" from 1st year economics classes.....However ive started to see through this naive facade, to a dependance and an ever-increasing level of complexity.....financial systems that are beyond our control and understanding, power grids that fail, water supplies that poison us, ecological systems kicked into completely new equilibriums.....most often the result of seemingly innocuous errors, at the time barely noticed.....
But this understanding i'm talking about goes beyond books, reading only provides the framework to mold experience.....
Upon leaving Van two days ago, i reminded myself that i had to get to a bank machine as my cash situation was dwindling.....normal stuff when you're travelling as cash is your lifeblood out here....however amidst the chaos of finding the right mini-bus out of town and navigating the streets of Dogubayizit to find the right mini-bus to our campsite (i'd met an aussie, steve, along the way) the cash situation slipped my mind.....after all i figured i had at least enough to last until the next oppurtunity.... we spent a quite memorable night camping up in the hills under Isak Pasa palace, enjoyed my first beers in about a week, and returned to Dogubayizit the next morning.... (good pictures mom)
Before leaving on the trip Wallace and I had done the math and figured the best way to avoid bank charges, exchange commisions and interest fees etc... was to put all of the money in our accounts on our credit cards and then just make cash advances on the card anytime we needed cash (this way you avoid the hideously large interac exchange fee......).....quite a complex arrangement if you think about it but it had worked for the duration of the trip...only when i went to the bank in Dogubayizit yesterday i was greeted with the oh-so-friendly "I'm sorry, your financial institusion is unable to grant your request at this time".....thinking it might just be the bank i tried another, same response....luckily there was $40 in one of my accounts, so i took that out, and after another 40 million lira from steve (in exchange for a bottle of crown royal to be mailed to australia at a later date) i caught the bus to the Black Sea city of Trabzon hoping that it was just an intermittant ATM system failure that would right itself by the time i arrived....
Got to Trabzon after 10 hours on the bus at about midnight local time.....i was a little worried that, like the east, nothing would be open at this time of night......but was greeted by an active city with attractive women on the street, beer signs galore, and seedy looking hotels.....after overcoming the momentary shock that comes from such a drastic change to the kurdish cities, i picked the hotel that the travel guide recommended (id also heard that it doubles as a brothel for russian "Natashas" but so far have not seen any) and went to sleep.....
Woke up this morning with some faith that the bank situation would have worked itself out and took a stroll through the bazaar....different compared to the eastern bazaars....the shops had fashionable clothes instead of the fruit, vegetables and staples i was used to....but still interesting.....found a cheap pair of jeans and bargained a good price....pulled out the mastercard to pay......uh oh....
So I spent the whole day going from banks, to internet cafes, to phones trying to figure out what the problem was.....even finding a number for mastercard that worked (the one provided by mastercard canada for problems inside turkey didnt work....or it may have been that the phone didnt allow international calls....or maybe i wasnt dialing the correct contry code.....or maybe...or maybe......) took hours.....i racked my brain to figure out the problem, not an easy task when faced with the prospect of surviving in a large turkish city with no access to money whatsoever....
It turns out that the problem originated two months ago....before i left..... i'd requested a new mastercard because the magnetic strip on the one i had was fading, and even though i told mastercard that it may not arrive by the time i had to leave, i was told it would be no problem.....of course.......Turns out that once they send a replacement card the old one has a two month grace period before its cancelled, so i've been travelling for the past two months with a huge ticking clock on my bank account screaming "TAKE YOUR MONEY OUT BEFORE ITS TOO LATE" only i was blinded (deafened?) by a false sense of technological security.....
Anyway, things have sorted themselves out and my internet banking site proclaims that i know have mounds of cash at my disposal again....
Do you think it's a conicidence that i just finished "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" today?
ryan
