We left Trabzon on the 7th and arrived here in Dogubayazit on the 20th of Aug after going through the towns of Macka, Torul, Tekke, Bayburt, Erzurum, Koprukoy, Agri and Taslicay. Dogubayazit is a border town just 30km from Iran and home to a 300 year old castle sitting smugly on the steep rocky slopes of the mountains overlooking it. We are staying in a room at a hostel picturesquely perched under the castle for 3million Lira (less than S$4) each and here in this far flung isolated corner of Turkey an incredible impossible thing occured: we met A FELLOW SINGAPOREAN, Dalbir Singh, who is riding a motorbike solo from Singapore to Ireland. We were utterly astonished and incredibly happy to meet a fellow traveller from home, and Dalbir brewed up a round of good 'ol kopi and we talked about (what else) Singaporean food. It was a most salivating chat and it almost felt like we were sitting around a kopitiam back home; we only needed the traffic passing by 2 feet away from our table and an auntie shouting in Hokkien and the illusion would be complete.

Flashback to the 8th of August where after leaving Trabzon we took a day off to see the Sumela Monastery, a majestic 16th Century work of architectural daring that hangs precariously over a 260m steep rock face looking down into fierce rivers. That night we found a cave to camp in next to the river, and we had our very first campfire since JC days: it brought back a lot of good memories. The next day was National Day back home, and we had initially wanted a day off, but we felt we should cycle after so many days of slacking in Trabzon. Dan's stomach made the decision for us as he lay in his tent for the whole day with diarrhoea, but Jo's soup and spaghetti helped as the next day he was way ahead of us (or maybe he was looking for a toilet) on the gruelling 25km uphill climb for a 1300m increase in altitude through clouds which gave us less than 100m of visibility towards the Zigana Tunnel. At 1700m from end to end and located at an elevation of 1820m above sea level, the Zigana is the longest tunnel in Turkey. Cycling in the mostly totally unlit tunnel (you can't see your hand if you put it in front of your face) really put our nerves to the test as we relied on oncoming vehicles for illumination.

The change in the landscape at the other side of the tunnel made us feel that we had been transported to a whole new world. Lush tree covered mounatinsides gave way to brown, arid ones and clouds gave way to a blinding blue sky. The whole experience made Jo feel like he was in the American wild west, with rolling steppes and we even saw a tumbleweed. We were soon on the high Anatolian plateau and the view became a marvellous carpet rolling steppes as far as the eye could see and the shadows of the clouds on the hills gave us a humbling sense of being ridiculously small, and the road that streched out to the horizon didn't do our ego much good either.

In Tekke we were invited by the extremely hospitable locals to stay at their house. They brought us on a tour through their plantations of apples, plums, avocadoes, grapes, peaches, pears and berries and Alex ate fruits picked directly from the trees for the very first time. His Chesire cat smile betrayed his opinion (at that point in time) that plucking fruits was more fun than cycling. Breakfast began with cherries picked from the window in our bedroom and the locals unveiled before us a spread fit for kings; locally made jam, butter, cheese, honey (with comb still inside), bread, olives, liquorice and I can't remember what else gave us very little space to actually EAT. Definitely the best breakfast we've ever had.

Erzurum was an interesting town that had an X-rated cinema 2 doors away from a mosque. Come to think of it, if you built ANYTHING there it'd be 2 doors away from a mosque. Dan had the incredible ability to be buddy-buddy with the locals that Jo envied, and he would disappear for hours on end as we walked around the town. We had the impression that we would get a 14-day visa-free entry into Iran but when we arrived in Erzurum Jo was told to apply for one. The visa would take 2 weeks to process so we decided not to wait there and cycled on to Dogubayazit. Jo however applied for the visa, We will then go back to Erzurum (by bus - it's at least a 3 day ride to Dogubayazit) to pick it up in a few days time.

On the 17th near Koprukoy we camped by a river in the shadow of an ancient bridge, which was made sometime between the 13th and the 18th centuries (the sign was in Turkish). The family that was there for a Sunday outing caught some fish for us and we gave fishing with their net a go. Alex tried his hand at gutting fish for the first time and skewerless, we used our spare bicycle spokes and tent pegs to grill them over a fire. So we saved our regular spaghetti and soup (that's spaghetti IN the soup. Dan the incredible cook makes it work beautifully) for breakfast.

The 2 weeks or so since Trabzon have seen us pushing ourselves to the limit over more than five mountain passes between 2000m to 2425m. And together with the landscape the climate became more harsh as the midday heat made cycling a mental and physical test and the dry air made breathing difficult and even painful. The incredulous headwinds that gusted over 20knots even made cycling at over 13km/h over flat roads difficult, and sometimes we had to lean into the wind to keep from falling over.

Over the course of our trip we met only a few other cyclists, and most of them were more cyclists that travellers, unlike us. But in Agri we met a pair of Germans who wanted to slow down a bit so we cycled with Hans and Peter (such GERMAN names) for a day to Dogubayazit. Since we had to hang around for Jo's visa and Dan's Turkish visa expires on the 25th, we had to part ways (hopefully we'll meet again somewhere in Iran) and with a lot of restrained sadness we saw him off to cycle into Iran with the 2 German guys.

Dalbir finally beat a competitive chess player from the States after 15 games. To keep his (now) unbeaten record, he has decided to end his chess playing days (for now). He had packed up his tent but decided to stay another day, so last night he stayed in our room. It was cool hanging out with a fellow Singaporean and talking about the food in Arab street, NS days,and sharing the burden of explaining how things are in our little island city state to the locals and other travellers.

Dalbir just rode off a couple of hours ago - it was really sad to see him leave, but we're warmed by the fact that we will see him again, and look forward to the stories we will exchange in times to come. We have mutual respect and admiration for what the other is doing, and we wished him good journey. If we could chance upon each other in the corner of Turkey, we'll definitely see him back home.

We are really looking forward to Iran, a country we know very little about. From the stories we have heard from fellow travellers, it must be awesomely beautiful; but we hope we have not set our hopes too high. But if the last few months of this eventful trip is anything to go by, we've probably set them too low. We will see - we rarely think of tommorrow, for today has enough worries of its own.

[back to top]