Blechhhhh!

Well.....its been quite the experience since i last wrote from the bus station in Cappadocia....

The all-night bus to Malatya (south-central turkey) took about 8 hours with us arriving at 6:00 am....unfortunately i find it quite difficult to sleep on buses (keep this in mind)....and we managed to book a tour to Mt Nemrut for noon which included a night's stay at a pension near the summit for 30 bucks US ....not a bad deal (or so i thought)

After catching a beautiful sunset from 3000 m we returned back to the pension for dinner....as i had not slept much the night before i called it an early night....we had to get up at 4:30 to catch the sunrise and i intended to get a good sleep and then trek down the other side of the mountain (with pack) to continue south instead of returning to Malatya, and praised myself for how responsible i was being getting to bed early....

Well....it turns out the goat i had for dinner fought back with a vengeance....my intention of catching up on sleep turned into 6 hours of chills, feverish delerium and intensive barfing sessions....I was convinced that the owners of the pension had poisoned me in order to steal my ipod......I kept hearing John and Alex (the two brits i'd just left) arguing over how i was going to get down from the mountain (one maintained that i should stop being a pussy and continue south to Sanliurfa, while the other insisted i brave the 4-hour return busride over horrible, bumpy, mountainous roads back to Malatya....neither very appealing)....

When the wakeup call came at 4:30 i managed to drag myself out bed to see the sunrise (id paid for the damn thing after all....dad would be proud), skipped breakfast and then loaded into the bus for the return ride....

It sucked.....horribly

Spent the day in Malatya nursing myself with yogurt and tea at the tourist information booth and booked a bus ticket to tatvan (southeastern turkey) for 9:00 pm as the prospect of staying in Malatya was not appealing...

After another 8 hour busride with intermittant sleep i arrived in tatvan this morning at 6:00 am to find all hotels booked except the 3star which charges 75 CDn a room....after bargaining them down to 35 through pure sympathy i finally found myself a bed and slept until 4:00...woke up to find BBC world on the TV (bonus) and no hot water (unbonus)...

Oh....and the goat has again left me with a wonderful case of the sultans revenge.....days without solid poo = 3

Motherfucking goat bastard!

and i somehow have lost my toiletry kit in all of this....

Anyway, im roughly back to normal now....and intend to take a tour of the second Mt Nemrut tomorrow....(yes...there are two....i have no idea why the turks would give two mountains 1000 km apart the same name) lets hope history does not repeat itself....

Im heading back to bed to watch tv...

ryan

PS: Please send fake sympathy c/o The Hotel Tatvan Kardelen, Room 201 (the one without hot water)....