Turkey - Days 8, 9, & home

Sat, Aug 7th
I woke early and after a similar breakfast to most other places (although the tomatoes here were even better than normal), I went on a hike down into the Butterfly Valley. Although not a long hike, it did involve going down steep slopes, in some cases needing to use ropes to lower myself down safely. I arrived to the beach at the mouth of the valley and luckily beat the tour boat crowd which would be coming in a couple of hours. It was peaceful and the water was blue and awesome. Looking into it, you could see for forever. A swim and then some reading in the sun. Repeat cycle. Soon, however, I was antsy to explore. So I got up and started hiking to the back of the valley, where a waterfall could be found. Luckily, I saw almost no one on the way there and only two guys once I arrived. It was beautiful and peaceful. But then, as I started to leave, the crowds came. Well over a hundred tourists, fresh off of newly arrived tour boats came streaming down the path. I was just able to escape the area before too many clogged up the path and blocked my escape. Arriving back to the beach, my peaceful world had changed. Boat after huge boat had pulled up to the shore, with music blaring and countless people sitting around on the beach and swimming in the water. I had been warned about this, so I was overly surprised, but it still was a bit shocking. I soon left the beach again and began the short, but steep and really hot and humid climb back up to George House.

Just as I was about the begin the climb, I ran into Dan again, who had just arrived from town. Now having seen him from Cairo to Istanbul to here, he added to the list of travelers that I have just randomly come across repeatedly on my trips. In some ways it is always a bit crazy when you think about it on one hand (if I had gotten up to leave a minute later he would have been hiking to the waterfall and I would have missed him), but on the other hand, so many places have a set of places to stay and also see, that travelers often visit. It's inevitable that you'll run into many of the same people numerous times.

After a nice swim and food back at George's, along with the previous night's crew, and Dan and I grabbed a dolmus bound for Fethiye. Once in town I introduced him to my kebab shop and with no time to spare, I just caught my shuttle to the bus station. This was it. My final long overnight bus ride, now back to Istanbul. Sadly, this bus was also warm and crappy to start with. I had trouble sleeping, but eventually the air got a bit better and my exhaustion took over.


Sun, Aug 8th
It took a while to get from this random bus terminal to the hostel in Sultanahmet. A shuttle and the tram, followed by a walk. And once I arrived, not much had changed. New faces for the travelers, but the same guys working the desk and the same oppressive heat and humidity. I took a shower and pretty much sweat as I tried to dry off. Once of those seemingly useless efforts. So, I soon got myself sorted and got out on the town.

Being my final day, I wanted to explore a few of the cool things that I had missed from the previous weekend. A Turkish bath sounded intriguing, but having tons of opportunities for cheap and good massages in HK and in China, I figured that I could give that a pass. I started by going to the famous Topkapi Palace, long standing home of the ruling sultan. To be honest, I was underwhelmed. It was extremely crowded, not too interesting, and really expensive. For 335 Turkish Lira, or about 20-25 USD, I was hoping for more. The one part that was interesting was the harem. A section of many rooms which were used to house the sultans eunochs and concubines. Additionally, women who had bore him a child live there in splendor, while his brothers and nephews lived there in a relative prison, shielded from the outside world so that they would be unable to ever make plans to overthrow him. Sounds rough, but I guess it was a step up from former practices in which sultans simply killed all possible challengers to their rule.

Leaving here, I needed a break from the boredom and I needed some food. Wandering the streets, I eventually made it to the spice market. Along the way, I had a tuvak doner (chicken doner wrap), then another, some Turkish delight, and a big cucumber like veggie. Yeah, I was starving. And now I was ready for my final touristy thing, the Basilica Cisterns. Underneath the heart of Sultanahmet, this was really cool. A series of hundreds of columns support an ancient cistern, in which water from far away was brought to the city through a system of aqueducts. Today, it is darkly lit, giving an eerie, very cool view of the place.

So that was that for the touristy things. With only hours left, I went back to the hostel's rooftop and met a few people. Alan stopped by, we decided to grab some dinner, and began to head out with Jos and Bas (Dutch). On the way out we ran into Heather (US) and Natalie (NZ) and another crew heading to dinner, so we decided to join forces.

Without an idea of where to go, I took them to Doy Doy, the place I had come across on the first night that I spent in town. While that time I ate alone, this time I was in a group of 10. The food was good and next up was a local bar. Beers and one last apple shisha. And for some reason, it was decided that we should start playing some drinking games. Some fun, some silliness, and a great way to end my trip. As it worked out, back at the hostel, I just made it out in time for the airport shuttle.


Mon, Aug 9th
After not sleeping at all, I took a 3:20 am shuttle to airport. Istanbul to Paris, followed by a running transfer, since I had booked flights with two different airlines, then onto Kuala Lumpur. The flight was actually fantastic, as I watched a few movies and the air was freezing! I loved it. And now I have just landed in Hong Kong and am on the bus back home. It's now just past 2 pm on Tuesday. It's been a long bit of traveling.

My trip is done. And after an amazing summer of graduation and travels, I'll have to hit the ground running, as I need to be back to school on Thursday. I'm looking forward to sleeping in my ow bed and seeing friends, but I really am also looking forward to getting back to school.