What a Backpacker Likes On The Road.....

I like free WiFi at MacDonald

I like free toilets

I like hostel with drinkable water

I like GPS on my iPhone

I like swiss army knife

I like free and fluffy towel

I like free lockers at the hostels

I like train/bus station with luggage storage

I like city public transportation to and from bus/train station and airport running 24/7

I like hostels who doesn’t charge any booking fee

I like friendly people who help us figuring out the ticketing system on buses

I like tourist information at the border crossing

I like withdrawing money with no transaction fees

I like hot shower

I like free tea and coffee

I like toilet separate from sink and shower in hostels

I like multiple plugs in the room at a hostel

Day 141: Sheer Beauty at Lake Song Kul - Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan

(Him: Charlie)

Perched on top of the Tian Shan range at 3000m high, Lake Song-Kul is undoubtedly the most beautiful place we have been on this trip so far!

The place is so pretty that it’s sacred, or in Jo’s words, heaven-like. Forget about history here, time seems to have been stopped by the serenity. The lake and the mountains have been here for millions of years, and people have been herding their livestocks for millennia, and now, I’m submerged in the best scenery that the planet earth has to offer!!

Day 137: Four months on the road and counting - Almaty Airport, Kazakhstan

(Him: Charlie)

This entry has been on my list to do since we hit the two-month mark. So here’s my chance, as I slowly kill off the 12-hour transit time before we move on to our destination of Bishkek.

So four months on the road and counting… We feel good to say the least. We have fully accustomed to moving everyday, every other day, or a maximum of a few days - packing and unpacking has been part of our daily life. For these few months, we are full-time backpackers, and that involves experiencing our time on the road and learning from everything we see.

Planning

Being backpackers, we have come to realize that the number one requirement is being flexible. Since we make decisions on the go, we have to be flexible to live with all the unexpected, whether it’s good or bad. By now, we are convinced that we cannot make long term planning (only with a general route), because all plans are bound to change. We could be restricted by transportation conditions, or we could also simply change our mind about the itinerary – either way, the only thing that doesn’t change is change itself. A good example of this would be the itinerary in the Balkans. At the beginning, we drew a temporary route for the Balkan countries on our guide book, but at the end, not even a bit of the route was followed. We changed our mind so frequently because we are constantly taking advice from fellow backpackers, and depending on how we feel about places, we may extend, cut short, or even cancel our stay of a destination.

Food

Food is one of the best parts about traveling. During our time on the road, we tried new specialties in every country, but we also cook as much as we can to save on cost.

 Lucky for me, Joanna is an excellent cook, who always magically produces fantastic meals using local ingredients. Sometimes our food smelled so good in the hostel that I felt guilty for having such good meals.

Picture showing Joanna replenishing her spice supply in Wroclaw, Pland.

We love markets for its bustling character and we visit markets whenever there is one. I sometimes consider the markets as museums that reflect the current life of a place.

Market in Pula, Crotia

A lot of times, we picked hostels with kitchen facilities, but when it’s not available, besides eating out, we also came up with creative ways to overcome the problems.

 

Dinner prepared using only a microwave (Dansk, Polan) vs. dinner prepared using proper gears (Tirana, Albania)

Accommodations

Since we have a budget of around $60/p/d, we stay in hostels most of the time. Depending on the countries, a dorm bed would cost us about $10-$15/person. Besides the economical reason, there are other advantages for staying at a hostel. For example, hostels are usually very resourceful and are happy to provide up-to-date information that helps our planning. Also, at hostels, we can meet a lot of like-minded backpackers, who we can hang out with and chat. We even became good friends with some of them.

Sometimes, especially when we travelled to less touristy places, hostels may not be an option. In that case, we would have to stay with pensions, or even hotels. Although more expensive, an occasional upgrade can feel wonderful and pampered, especially after many nights in crowded dorms or tiring overnight buses.

Luxury (a pension in Stary Smokovec, High Tetras, Slavakia) vs. Budget (Poprad, Slavakia)

Transportation

Transportation could add up to a big chunk of our budget, so we cheap out as much as we can by walking in cities. Sometimes we really feel like a full-time traveler, especially after walking for 8-9 long hours. Normally, we would pick hostels that are close to city centres, so that we can simply explore the cities on foot.

For inter-city travel, we usually take buses or trains, depending on the country. In a few occasions, we had to fly, but it would be the last resort. For example, we had to fly from Istanbul to Amman because we couldn’t go through Syria, and we had to fly from Tbilisi to Bishkek because we didn’t want to deal with the visa issues associated with some of the central Asia countries, and we didn’t have time to visit anyway.

Overall experience

This Europe-Asia trip is my second major backpacking trip, so naturally we sometimes compare the two trips. In the first couple of months, Jo and I both agreed that our previous trip, to South America, was more fun because there were more drastic sceneries and traveling was less expensive. However, after traveling through the two distinct regions, Eastern Europe and Middle East, I came to realize that this trip actually offers an almost completely different experience – an immense cultural and historical experience. Even just from these two regions alone, I’ve learned a tremendous amount of history. Just to name of a few, I went through the recent history of the Eastern Bloc countries, and I finally gained the understanding of conflicts in Bosnia, in Kosovo, and also the ongoing problems in the Middle East. Next up, I am going to uncover the mysterious Central Asia with my own eyes. Honestly, I am a little nervous, but also very excited!

 Batumi, Georgia

Day 131: Sunrise on Mt. Nemrud – Karakut, Turkey

(Him: Charlie)

For a second time in a week, we woke up in pitch dark to see sunrise. This time around, instead of from a hot air balloon (in Cappadocia), we are atop a majestic mountain, with gigantic sculpture of various gods, and a possible tomb of King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene.

The King was a full-of-himself maniac, who constructed huge sculptures on top of the lofty mountain. Over the years, the heads of the figures had fallen off to their feet, but the mystical yet majestic feel continue to impress every tourist! When the sun started beaming at sunrise, spreading a golden coating on the sculptures, it was truly a magical moment!

Day 130: 28 Hours From Central Turkey To Sea-Side Georgia

(Her: Joanna)

Like most of our trip, we ended up leaving Turkey 2 days earlier than planned.  After Mount Nemrut, we didn’t know how but we know that we need to go to the Black Sea coast to get to Georgia.  An adventure started!  We have no idea where we will end up tonight.  Cool! 

The adventure didn’t start out well.  We were on the road side waiting for a mini-bus to a small town where we were told we can catch a bus to a transportation hub that hopefully we will be able to find something overnight on the way to the Black Sea coast.  We forgot that it was Sunday and transportation is usually less frequent. 

There’s always something good you can find from the worst situation.  If we hadn’t have to wait for almost 2 hours on the road side for the bus, we wouldn’t meet a friendly guy from Istanbul who gave us home grown figs and something that’s like fruit-on-the-go; then 2 kids from town who helped us find out the bus schedule and bought us ice cold water from their neighbor. 

Finally, we cramped into the bus we needed to catch.  The definition of a full bus is quite different in Turkey.  When all the seats that comes with the car is full, you can always squeeze in a few more people on plastic chairs to take up the tiny isle space.

Someone on the bus knew how to speak English and confirmed for us that the mini-bus will drop us where we can take another bus to the town we planned to go.  We caught the bus no problem and arrived Diyarbakir.  The only problem is that we arrived the mini-bus station instead of the bus station that we passed by but we didn’t know we need to get off.  When we looked lost, a kid popped by to offer help and led us to a mini-bus that he said can take us to the bus station. 

After a good hour of zig sagging through the town where the bus driver seems to want to pile as much people to his van as possible, he told us to get off to walk across the street to the bus station.  Everyone were so confused and later found out that we have to climb through a construction site to get to the bus station. 

Finally we go to the bus station at Diyarbakir and found an overnight bus that can get us to Trabzon on the Black Sea coast.

We got to Trabzon at 8 AM in the morning and found a 9:30 AM bus that can get us to Batumi in Georgia.  Little did we know that this 206 KM distance took over 5 hours.  Firstly, the bus stopped at every single town between Trabzon and Hopa, where the Turkey-Georgian border is.   Then, everyone had to get off and line up at the Turkish border to exit.  The only issue was that there was only 1 officer at the border.  Everyone was pushing and jamming into the queue.  It was chaotic and unexpected given Turkey is a country heading into EU. 

What a contrast to the Georgian side!  We were greeted with a brand new building and friendly staff with proper queue system.  There is even a tourist office within the building at the border.  I think this is the first country that got it right to have a tourist office right at the border.  I’m feeling good about our upcoming visit at Georgia.  

Day 129: The Next Canadian Pride – Diyabakir, Turkey

(Him: Charlie)

Canadians are a proud bunch! The national pride is most vividly shown on July 1 across the nation, when red/white paint takes up kid’s face and maple leaf flags dot every street. Canadians are also proud of Canadian inventions too. From snowshoes to basketball, to telephone, most Canadians can name them as if they invented them.

In the last decades or so, the Canadian pride would have to be the once mighty telecom conglomerate Nortel and, the most recently, RIM. The latter pushed the Canadian pride to a lofty height by almost bringing the Coyotes back to Ontario!!

Fast forward to present day, Nortel has vanished and lackluster RIM is far from the superstar it used to be. What goes with them, perhaps, is a dent in the pride on Canadian inventions? If that’s the case, I’ve found a very competent candidate for some celebration – the Just-for-Laugh TV program!

This Montreal based TV program, which plays jokes/pranks on people, is hilarious and does not require any language skills to understand. I suggest it should a Canadian pride because the program is being played everywhere in the world. I have personally seen it on airplanes, buses, European countries, and most recently, today in Turkey!

Most people may guess it’s a program from the US or Europe, but just like people couldn’t guess the origin of basketball, Canadians can come up with amazing things!

Perhaps the next time Canada hosts an international event, the Just-for-Laugh green monster can jump out to greet our visitors, just like “Mr. Bean” did at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Day 127: Life of a Kurdish

(Her: Joanna)

I randomly came across a trip advisor review about a Kurdish village home stay when we were loading up maps of the next city we are heading to.  Both Charlie and I were thinking “Cool!”.  That’s exactly what we want to see.  We decided to squeeze in a night at the home stay and email the organizer.  Likely, she replied almost instantly.  Not knowing how to get to this town and the schedule of the buses, smartly, Charlie asked the owner of the place we stayed (via Google Translate).  Sweet! 

Unexpectedly, we were picked up by a really nice Fiat mini-van by a guy dressed in traditional Kurdish pant, sharwaal (like what Charlie was wearing in the pic) but speaks really good English.  I was a bit confused.  After a 15 minute drive from the town Hilvan, we arrived the village of Yucavali. 

We were greeted by the host, who is a 19 year-old local boy and speaks really good English, his mom, and dad.  We were invited to sit in their garden filled with fruit trees (and chickens and turkeys running around) and had tea, of course.  It wasn’t anything fancy but really raw and neat.  There were 2 other guests from California joined us.  Though the host was so young, he was very composed and organized.  He gave us a briefing of the village, their tradition, and the history of the community project, which the Home Stay is part of it. 

Kurdish people used to be nomadic until 7-8 generations prior.  You can still see some tradition from their currently living style.  Even though they live in a house, they sleep outside the house in the summer time or on the roof.  The house is sparsely furnished with essential equipments.  Surprisingly, the living/dining/napping room has AC.  Thank God to that as it was crazily hot in the middle of the day which the AC made the heat a lot more bearable. 

The main living area is lined with carpet and cushions.  During meal time, the area will be lined with a table cloth where we ate.  There’s no shower or bath.  It is plain old school pouring hot water into a bucket, mix with cold water, and splash yourself clean.  It is my first time washing myself like this.  We have access to steamy, hot water to shower anytime in the day.  Often we forgot that it is a lot of effort and a lot of energy is being used to bring us such luxury and comfort.   

It seems like that most work end up on the shoulder of the women in the household.  I woke up at 6 am to check out what the mom does in the morning.  The host’s mom was already awake by the time I got out of bed and finished sweeping and cleaning the front porch, and gathered a bunch of branches.  She quickly fed the chicken and milk the cow with well trained skill and speed before she set up to make bread on the mud ground in front of the house.  You can see the strength of the host mom just by how she kneads the dough.     Not an easy job being a housewife in rural area.  The host mom showed me how to roll the dough into bread.  Though I thought my first Kurdish bread was a success,  I am not even close to her amazing skillfulness in multi-tasking between roll the bread dough, keeping up a steady fire to bake the bread while baking the bread on the metal plate that requires constantly flipping and turning to avoid it from being burnt.  My piece of bread never made it to the breakfast table but a nice meal for the chicken.

From the eye of a city person like me, the life of these villagers is tough and they seem to be very poor.  However, they get to spend a lot of time around family and friends versus spending the bulk of your time at work; caring for and helping each other versus socializing with people that don’t truly matter;  spend time in nature, breath air and equally respecting nature versus spending time indoor with little exercise and develop all sorts of chronic disease; enjoying food they made organically versus constantly worried about the source or safety of food we purchase from supermarket where the bulk of our food are genetically engineered or mass produce in farms that ran like manufacturing.  Everything has its pros and cons.  Are city people really wealthier than villagers like them?  Like the host’s father said with a satisfying laughter, “I’m just a small farmer.”

When we ask the host whether he will inherit the farm and continue to live in the village, he gave us a shrew and said he wanted to work in the tourism industry while other family members can help his father out.  Though these villages are mostly secluded, as they get exposed more and more to the outside world and man-made needs, more will give up their lives in the villages.  Less and less of them will appreciate what they have.

Day 121: A Fantastic Cultural Experience - Konya, Turkey

(Him: Charlie)

“Whirling Dervish”, when I first heard about it, I thought it’s a couple other English words that I didn’t know. But it turned out, I uncovered a whole new world that I have not heard of before. 

This “dance”, as part of a religious ceremony, is the legacy of the famous Muslim philosopher/poet, Rumi. As the dervish spin with the music, they would reach a trance state, and they get closer to god. By traveling to Konya, the place where Rumi lived and died, we had the opportunity to witness this intriguing ritual (aka Sema). The dance, or the concept, may sound funny to outsiders, but their devotion and dedication to god is definitely venerable.