You're where??? how far???

In the words of Wallace.....God definitely turned down the suck....the last three days have more than made up for my prevıous trials...

After waking up three days ago in my 3-star hotel room to runnıng hot water and an all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast, I met a turkish man named Mehmet who runs tours up to the summit of Mt. Nemut, an inactive volcano near Tatvan, and runs a campsite inside the caldera (turned out to be a single large tent/concession stand ın the bowl of the volcano...still cool).....he was a definite character (imagine boisterous with missing teeth and many wives) and Nemrut didnt fail to impress either. The caldera of the volcano contains five crater lakes, numerous hot springs and some spectacular views... on the first day i climbed to the top (3500m) with my new Belgian companıon Wim to snap some photos and on the way down had quite the encounter....

Just near the bottom of the trail we were spotted by four kurds (everybody in this area is kurdish) sitting around a campfire having a picnic. In typical kurdish fashion they invited us to share their feast of roast chicken, goat (yes, i ate it), tomatoes, bread etc...the kurds have to be the kindest, most hospıtable people ive ever met.....its quite amazing.......anyway, after a couple pieces of chicken down they started babbling to us in turkish and drawing pictures....neither Wim nor I speak more than a few words of turish so ıt took quite a while to figure out what the hell was going on, but here goes....

Apparently these guys are kurdish graverobbers who go around searching for Old Byzantine tombs using some sort of camera/magnetic devıce, and are at the volcano to look for 9 tonnes of gold/silver/something valuable buried 6m below ground...and here's the kicker....they wanted us to do the same thing in Canada/Belgium and split the profits with them 50/50..... (well....this part we're less sure on)......i politely finished my goat, snapped a photo, and left....

Spent the night camping ın the caldera....very cool....so quiet and peaceful...the next day kurds from the surrounding area would come by in their cars to have tea (everybody here drinks tea....i think it's what the men of this country do for work)  so there were many "Where are you from?" conversations (everybody in turkey can say "Where are you from?" in english)...though a couple times Wım's sparse arabic allowed us to dıscuss other things (mostly God...i told everybody i was buddist...didnt think discussing existence would be very popular...)......in the afternoon a group of musicians travelling from İstanbul stopped by for some watermelon (everybody also eats vast quantities of watermelon here.....and of course offers it to you.....ive eaten so much watermelon the past couple of days i might.......well......probably eat some more...that shıt's good...)......afterwards they pulled out a guitar, a saz (bulbous, long-necked guitar that makes that distinct meddle-east sound), and a bunch of drums.......and the jam session began.....after watching for a bit they let me play the guitar and we jammed out a couple of kurdish tunes.....once you get the hang of them they're really cool....easy chord changes....we then moved on to some Led Zep (Bron-Yr-Aur stomp), and some Metallica (Nothing Else Matters.....with new and improved kurdish vocals...), neither of which these guys have heard so they were impressed......finished of with some No Lady Blues and a kick-ass saz blues solo by my good frıend Mustafa.......cool shit.......Wim took pictures.....

That afternoon we decided to stay the night in Mehmet's village at the base of Mt Nemrut...too far to walk so we had to wait for the local tractor taxi out of the volcano........of course by the time it arrived it was packed to the gills full of kurdish but we managed to squeeze on (joined by two dutch)....you can imagine that the ride was a zoo......including two tractor break downs along the way....Arrived at the village in time for the sunset and was greeted by the third world in all its glory....smoke and cow-shıt fill the nostrils while hordes of kurdish kids run around you screaming "hello.......where are you from" and completely dısregarding your answer.....dinner was awesome and Mehmet's family very kind.....

Woke up today to the sound of roosters, cows, etc.... all ensuring i sleep-in as little as possıble, and made my way east after saying goodbyes.....Stopped for lunch at Akdamar island ın Lake Van where a thousand year-old armenian church still stands....magnificent....and have now arrived in the main city of Van for the night....and a turkish bath....

So much more has happened i wish i could get it all down ........ the kurds really are great.....everywhere i go in the southeast i meet the kindest, friendliest people...heading north tomorrow to the town of Dogubayizıt near the iranian border......for that matter im about 120km from the Iraqi border right now.....watch for me on the news....

ryan