Joe’s Trip to Turkey 2001 (Part 3 of 5)

Joe’s Trip to Turkey 2001 (Part 3 of 5)
Turkey

A long day as the bus went from Urfa to Van. Think Texas. A very hot day too. A/C and naps. As we got further east, the occasional local Jardarma gave way to frequent roadchecks manned by the Army. No messing around, these Army guys in full combat gear were sporting light blue berets, the beret of Turkish commando. When we were stopped at these roadchecks, a polite commando dude would check our papers and passports while young men in nearby sandbagged bunkers watched us. These men had belt-fed machine guns. I got to see plenty of cool tanks and armored personnel carriers, but I didn’t dare take a photo, sorry. We were always whisked through, they were not worried about us.

The roadchecks were because we were in Eastern Turkey, very close to the Armenian or Iranian border, and also because the government is still worried about the Kurds. At one site, we were close enough to see the watchtowers of the Armenian Army. They were watching us too, I presume.

At Van, we checked into the B�y�k Asur Oteli, a two star hotel that stank of asbestos and the 1950’s. It was good enough, clean and had an elevator. It was late, and I was tired. The next morning, the tour bunch went off to see a church and go swimming. I avoid churches unless I am after fried chicken. Instead, I went for a walk. Van is known for a couple of things, not the least of which is Lake Van, the largest lake in Turkey. Largest with a capital “L”. It’s a big-ass lake, high in alkaline. Van is also known for the kilims. I went off for a little retail entertainment as well as to find an internet cafe. The internet cafes were still closed, so I wandered aimlessly.

It was Sunday, early, and most shops were closed. I paused to look in whatever shop windows caught my eye. A window with watches had me mesmerized. Nearby shopkeepers were sitting around, shooting the shit and I was noticed. A Kurdish shopkeeper pointed out that the watch store was closed, but would I like to sit around with them? We drank �ay (tea) and practiced our English. One shopkeeper was learning English in his spare time, the other had many questions for me. We chatted for at least an hour, they were polite and interested, but eventually I had run out of things to say.

To be polite, I feigned interest in checking out the English student’s shop. He sold leather jackets, but to whom, I was not sure, most of the leather jackets sold around these parts could be best described as butt ugly. So into the leather emporium I went, knowing full well that no jacket in the entire country would fit me. On a table, I spotted a student’s notebook. I picked it up, opened it and realized that this guy’s mention of taking English lessons was no idle boast. He had been studying hard and this was his drill book. His instructor was from Iran, so knew English as a second language. This was apparent from the lesson plan. What to do? Why, a free English lesson of course!

The Kurdish guy and I spent about a half hour going though the drills, correcting his mistakes, adding adverbs and giving one-on-one instruction. Neither of us had anything better to do, and he was genuinely appreciative. Particularly helpful were sentences that applied directly to his business. A potential customer needed to be able to drop $100 on a leather jacket, these customers would often be from English-speaking countries. I explained that “I sell cheaper jackets” was not useful, and explained why “less expensive” was better. I told him that he did not sell “cheap” jackets, that only the man across the street did. He only sold “good, better and best” jackets. I taught him to focus his spotlamps upon the jackets to highlight them, instead of the floor. I made him laugh during the lesson and corrected his teacher’s mistakes in pen so that he could use my lesson afterwards. He was an eager student and I was glad to have someone around that, for once, didn’t think of me as a fountain of outdated information.

Drove out of the town of Van, but not before buying a nice, smallish Van kilim from a purveyor of fine kilims. Van kilims are distinctive, a little brighter and, dare I say it, somewhat more interesting that the run of the mill Turkish wool kilims available from kindly merchants elsewhere. Mine has pictures of eagles on it. It was 50,000,000 Turkish Lira, about $42.00. It is a lot swankier than those available from Ikea.

Read about all of Joe’s adventures in Turkey!
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

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