Photos From Today's Picnic In the Mountains

Today, the company held a picnic at Aslankoy (near Gozne) in the mountains north of Mersin. We were hoping for a picnic in the snow but the only snow we saw consisted of small patches on the side of the road.



Serkan and Bulent (Nesibe's husband) tend the onions, sausages and lamb chops. The lamb chops in Turkey are flattened with a mallet, as opposed to those in Australia which generally are not.



Natraj applying to work for Coca-Cola



Serkan and the sheep

I'm featuring a few photos of Serkan as he will leave work in a few weeks to do his military service. Serkan has worked for IES for many years (6 or 7 I believe) and has been a great friend and colleague.



Natraj, Buket, Serkan (holding lamb) and myself



The other picnic attendants walking along the road with Serkan doing his best John Travolta impersonation



All signs point to Joe.

What I've Been Reading

I recently finished reading The Riders by Australian author Tim Winton.

'The Riders' was a gripping novel and I finished the bulk of its 377 pages in 3 consecutive evenings.

This book is set largely in Europe although the main characters, a man, his wife and their daughter, are Australian. It is thoroughly researched and the author showed intimate knowledge of Greece, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands amongst other locations.

The characters were also very well developed.

'The Riders' could have been an amazing novel instead of an excellent one if only I could make more sense of it.

I agree with the first Spotlight Review (scroll down the page) at Amazon.com almost to a word.

Overall, I highly recommend people read 'The Riders' although it could have been better.

A New Flatmate and Bad-Lik Rock Bar

Natraj and I now have a new flatmate: Levent. Levent originally comes from Mardin and is a train driver.

Levent brought with him a smaller but newer TV and accompanying satellite dish and receiver. We now have access to hundreds of TV channels, mainly in Arabic, Italian, French, Turkish and other languages but also including BBC World!

The last and only previous Mersin flat I lived in with an English-language television channel was at Denizhan 2, Mezitli in 2001-2002.

Levent moved to Mersin from Adana a few weeks ago and first met Natraj at the Bad-Lik Rock Bar in the Antik Han complex in Mersin's centre.

Cousins Cigdema and Alev run Bad-Lik and the bar has a fun and liberal atmosphere. Every Friday and Saturday night a live cover band plays Turkish and foreign rock, although the band hasn't played recently as the bar is changing their kit. Live music should return in two weeks' time.

Every visit to Bad-Lik has been memorable. From the cover band playing Wicked Game, one of Mr. Bockleberg's (my high school Tech Studies teacher) favourite songs to meeting the Philippino sailors to Peter singing and acting out Jailbreak's lyrics last night.

I think I have found 'my place' in Mersin.

Go Boonie!

I look forward to shaking Boonie's hand when I visit Australia.


At an Adelaide Oval test cricket match between Australia and England (in 1999?) there was a spectator on the hill under the scoreboard who looked similar to David Boon (retired cricket player).

The crowd, particularly the Poms, kept buying him beers and having their photo taken with him. Every time he was bought a drink he stood up, sculled the beer and threw the cup over his shoulder to the roar of the crowd.

When he went to the toilet and when he exited the ground he was given a standing ovation by thousands of other spectators. It was as if the real Boonie was there!

That day was one of my funniest ever times.


I was also lucky enough to have observed Boon's last ever day of test cricket versus Sri Lanka at Adelaide Oval on 29 January, 1996. On the day, the crowd on the hill under the scoreboard kept yelling 'give Boonie a bowl'. Unfortunately, he wasn't given a bowl.

Coincidentally, Sunday is the 10th anniversary of his test match retirement.

Boonie is truly a legend!

More Flag Burning: An Australia Day Post

What's in a piece of cloth? Plenty, it seems...

Today, 26 January, is Australia Day, Australia's national holiday. This day commemorates the 1788 arrival of the first settlers to begin the colony of New South Wales.

Many people, myself included, believe Federation Day (1 January) should be made Australia's national holiday. On 1 January, 1901, Australia's colonies united to form the country of Australia.

1 January (as opposed to 26 January):
a) includes all of Australia, not just New South Wales;
b) has had more influence on day to day modern Australia (via the constitution); and,
c) is less painful to Aboriginals, Australia's first inhabitants

Relevance, influence and inclusiveness should be enough to change the national holiday.


Following the huge event that was 2005's attempted Turkish flag burning in Mersin, Australia Day 2006 has brought two Australian flag burning stories:

Police seize burnt flag artwork

Police say they acted after members of the public complained about an exhibition called Proudly Un-Australian by artist Azlan McLennan.

His partially burnt flag was hanging outside of a Footscray gallery, in public view.

Link

RSL denounces 'un-Australian' flag burning

The Queensland President of the RSL says he will be writing to politicians to urge them to make it a criminal offence to deface the Australian flag.

Police say a group of Indigenous people burned the flag at an 'invasion day' ceremony in inner Brisbane today.

Bill Mason says the act is un-Australian and the law needs to change.

"Well I'll certainly be writing to our own State Parliament and the opposition parties to get a bipartisan or partisan agreement and if we can't get it done federally, get it into Queensland anyway to make it an offence to deface, destroy national symbols," he said.

"I think it's absolutely disgusting and unfortunately it's not punishable by law as an offence on its own, it may fall into some other category but it's unfortunate."

Link


The RSL plays a valuable role in Australian society and the opinions of its representatives should be considered carefully and valued.

I've considered Bill Mason's opinion on flag burning and I flat-out disagree with it.

This whinging over and censorship of the burning of Australian flags makes me want to go to Mersin's main square and burn an Australian flag just for the hell of it.

If there was no hysteria about burning flags, I would never consider burning one myself.



2006_01_27 Update:

Azlan McLennan's artwork before it was seized:



And, I even agree with the Prime Miniature on the flag-burning!

Road Melting and Whale 'Vomit'

Two interesting news stories from Western Eyre Peninsula, South Australia, the area I come from.


Heatwave triggers blackouts, blazes

THE bitumen started to melt in Ceduna as South Australia sweltered through a third consecutive day above 40C.

The Far West Coast town was the hottest in South Australia with a peak of 46.5C at 4.30pm yesterday that had even the locals gasping.

"It sure feels like the hottest place in the state," said Andrew Brooks, who works at Ceduna's visitor centre

"We get a lot of hot weather here but today the bitumen is starting to melt because it's really extreme. It's taken a few people by surprise and even the locals are doing it tough."

Whale spew find may net $1m for family

A family on South Australia's west coast has discovered a rare specimen of whale vomit on the beach that is tipped to be worth over $1 million.

See related: Whale 'vomit' sparks cash bonanza

Wireless Is Coming To Turkey!

I would not be surprised if wireless internet access is a reasonably common in Istanbul but as I have not been there for a while I haven't seen it.

The first time I recall wireless internet access anywhere in Turkey was at the Otantik restaurant in Antalya earlier this month.

I now read that the Kamil Koc bus company will add free wireless internet access to their buses (registration required):

A deal between Avea-partner Astech and Kamil Koç has led to new wireless Internet service on Kamil Koç buses, which will enable passengers to surf the Net free of charge on personal laptops while traveling. The Speednet IP9200 connection will offer nonstop connection on buses, despite rules that cell phones not be used on board. It was not specified whether the deal will remain exclusive to Kamil Koç.

Kamil Koc is one of the major Turkish bus companies. Unfortunately they do not serve Mersin.

I will buy a laptop computer soon and wireless is one of the features the computer will have to have. Go wireless!

News: Bird Flu and Mehmet Ali Agca’s Release and Re-imprisonment

The two main news stories of the past month in Turkey concern the spread of the bird flu through Turkey and the release of the convicted murderer Mehmet Ali Agca.

Bird Flu

Bird flu has infected 21 people in several areas of Turkey and claimed the lives of four children from the far eastern town of Dogubeyazit, bordering Iran.

Even though well-cooked chicken eggs and meat are still safe to eat, the Turkish people have reacted with alarm and panic.

One day at Umut’s large supermarket, they sold less than a kilogram of chicken meat in total! Yasemin’s hotel took chicken of their buffet and my local tantuni place in Mersin now does not cook chicken tantuni.

The chicken producers and retailers are suffering and Prime Minister Erdogan has urged locals to eat chicken. I’m doing my bit as this week I bought a roast chicken and happily ate it with Natraj.

The bird flu threat now seems to be fading so that is good news.


Mehmet Ali Agca

Mehmet Ali Agca is a nasty piece of work with powerful connections. He murdered a prominent Turkish journalist and after escaping jail attempted to murder the late Pope John Paul II in 1981.

His release from a Turkish prison is highly controversial as he only served five and a half years for the murder of the journalist. Upon release he was due to conduct his military service but today was found mentally unfit to serve. He has now been re-arrested and should remain in prison until 2010.

Read the Wikipedia article and Google News for more information on Agca.

The Road From Antalya To Mersin

Going to Antalya I took a HAS night bus (27 YTL) and on return I was in a Guney Akdeniz day bus (25 YTL).

The day ride for the 500 km between Antalya and Mersin is much preferable to the night trip. Not only is the coastal scenery beautiful, but the windy, up and down highway makes an uncomfortable sleep almost impossible, let alone a comfortable sleep!



Sunset east of Anamur

The 300 km section between Alanya and Silifke is almost constantly hilly. The hills are covered with pine forests and the hillside properties have almond and carob trees amongst other crops. The carob is used to make ‘pekmez’, a kind of molasses.



Bananaman at the bus stop, Gazipasa (between Alanya and Anamur)

This region is the only part of Turkey mild enough to grow bananas on a large scale. Anamur in particular is famous for bananas. The bananas grow very close to the coast in either hothouses or out in the open.



Strawberry hothouse in foreground, mountains in background

Besides bananas, the hectares of hothouses also produce strawberries, tomatoes and other traditional summer crops during the winter off-season.

One week almost to the hour after leaving I was back in Mersin. I loved this trip and look forward to visiting Antalya again.

Lara Beach

(continuing my Kurban Bayrami Antalya trip diary)


Hotels on Lara Beach, Antalya, as viewed across a freshwater stream splitting the beach

Lara Beach is a large sandy east of Antalya flanked by many 5 star luxury resort hotels. There are hotels designed to mimic the Titanic, the Kremlin, Concorde and Topkapi Palace as well as conventional looking resorts. It kind of resembles a Turkish casino-free beachside version of Las Vegas.


The afternoon moon above the front of the Titanic Hotel

Yasemin’s hotel, the Kervansaray is a new hotel that only opened in 2005. It has 585 rooms and convention facilities for two (or four?) thousand people.


The Kervansaray Hotel, Lara Beach, Antalya

The Kervansaray has flat screen TVs located in the floor, in (not on) the walls and just about everywhere else. Including flat screen TVs in the hotel’s design was a clever idea.

On the dolmus to Lara (catch the one going to 'TRT' and get off at the last stop) the first time I met Ayhan and his Taiwanese wife holidaying from Istanbul and they helpfully showed me the best way to the Kervansaray - the walk along the beach.


The moon as viewed from the Kervansaray

As my visit coincided with a large Turkish public holiday, all the hotels were filled to capacity with local tourists. Yasemin wanted to show me a room with a view over the Mediterranean and ith all available hotel rooms full there was only one solution-show me one of the owner’s rooms. The hotel’s two best rooms are reserved solely for the owner’s use!


View from the owner's room, Kervansaray Hotel, Lara Beach, Antalya

Although untidy, the owner’s penthouse room was very impressive. Again, flat screen TVs abounded (I counted at least 3 and I didn't look everywhere).

Unfortunately I was too late for the sunset. Down below on the pitch I could see Trabzonspor, Turkey’s fourth largest soccer club train. Two other clubs, Vestel Manisaspor and Canakkale Dardanelspor were also training at the hotel.


Trabzonspor training on the Kervansaray Hotel's pitch

Antalya’s traditionally limited summer tourist and the instability of foreign tourist numbers due to external threats (such as Gulf Wars I & II) led the hotels to find other income sources. These include golf holidays, health resorts and soccer camps.

Antalya is now the place for soccer in Turkey during the Superlig winter break. Whilst I was there Istanbul clubs Galatasaray and Besiktas played against German sides Borussia Dortmund and Werder Bremen in the 5th Efes Pilsen Cup.


Hotel reflection

Yasemin kindly invited me to return the following day to eat at Kervansaray’s buffet lunch. Following lunch I walked along the beach in the glorious winter sunshine and took photos of the reflections in the stream emptying into the sea. I love reflections :-)


Looking west along Lara Beach with mountains in the background

Sivasli, Usak Province

Warning: the following post contains blood and gore

On Monday night last week, Kurban Bayrami Arife (Sacrifice Holiday Eve), Umut drove Beysun and I up north, through 5 provinces (Antalya, Burdur, Denizli, Afyon and Usak) in 3 hours to Sivasli, Beysun’s home village in Usak province.

Beysun’s sister, Camile and her husband and daughter were visiting from Izmir and it was a fine family occasion.

Beysun’s wonderful Mother makes almost everything, including tomato powder, pepper paste and dried fruit. In Sivasli I ate roasted sugar beet for the first ever time.



With Umut, Beysun, Beysun's sister family and Mother

Sivasli, with the single lane highway running through and its country atmosphere where everybody knows or is related to everybody else reminded me of one the Eyre Peninsula towns located on Eyre highway between Ceduna and Port Augusta, the location of many childhood travels. The zero to five degree temperatures, frozen puddles and snow-capped mountains did not reflect Eyre Peninsula, though.



Sivasli's sunset

Tuesday morning it was time for the sacrificial slaughter, commemorating the time when Ibrahim (Abraham) was going to sacrifice his young son when he saw a ram nearby and instead sacrificed that. This Muslim tradition is more popular in rural and conservative areas of Turkey than in the large western cities.



Sacrificing the ram

Beysun’s extended family sacrificed both a ram and a cow. First, the ram was killed, hung, skun and gutted. Beysun’s 81 year old Grandmother played a main role in the sacrifice. She is wonderfully agile for an aged lady.



Grandma with her ram

Later, a butcher came to slaughter the cow. After the cow was killed and beheaded, its body twitched instinctively for minutes.



The butcher gutting the cow

The cow cost around 1000 YTL to purchase. Historically in Turkey some people have misused Kurban Bayrami to show off their wealth. The larger the size and numbers of animals killed the richer and more important the owner.



Cleaning the driveway

The butcher took the cow skin and a charity worker came to collect the ram skin. The skins are sold to leather manufacturers and charities earn a large amount of money this way.

Within 2 or 3 hours of slaughter, select portions of the cow and ram were being grilled over the fire in the shed and eaten wrapped in ‘yufka’ a very thin and flaky bread.



Mother and daughter grilling lunch

During Bayram Turkish television stations played video footage of escaped bulls damaging property and knocking people over whilst their would-be slaughterers tried to contain them.

This was my first close look at the slaughter part of this holiday. I believe the practise of uncontrolled backyard slaughters is illegal in Turkey, although it will take a long time to completely stop. The cold of winter certainly made the slaughter more tolerable. In summer it must stink and be far less hygienic.

Umut and I took two buses to get to Antalya, changing in Burdur. Afyon Province was cold enough for ice to form on the sink of a petrol station’s toilet.

Aspendos

Aspendos is approximately 50 km east of Antalya. The feature most synonymous with Aspendos is its theatre, capable of fitting 15,000 people.


The theatre

Aspendos has the best preserved ancient theatre I’ve seen in Turkey and it is still used for performances in summer.


Aspendos performer

Both Aspendos’s theatre and the main area at Perge cost 10 YTL for foreigners and 3 YTL for Turks.


The moon poking above the theatre

A few kilometres east of Aspendos lives the remains of a large aqueduct system.


Aqueduct in background, cotton in foreground

Perge

On Monday I drove with Beysun in her Mother’s Renault to Perge and Aspendos, two historical sights east of Antalya.


Beysun in front of Perge ruins

Perge is ruined city set in a large area flanked by bamboo forests and I could have spent hours more there.


A Perge relief

In the undergrowth were both green and brown orchids. I used to love orchids as a child and am still fascinated by them.


Green Orchid

Perge has a ruined athletics stadium, the first I recall seeing in Turkey. The technology (sides were held up by arches) was still very impressive even with the stadium badly ruined.


Beysun running around the stadium

Coming out of Perge we stopped at the large weekly open-air bazaar, a great tradition still found all over Turkey.

Antalya

Antalya is located in a fabulous setting. The sharply rising snow-capped mountains surround the city and provide a great backdrop for the ancient harbour and Konyaalti and Lara beaches.


The pebbled Konyaalti Beach

Although similar-sized Mediterranean port cities, Antalya is much richer and more famous than Mersin. There are far more luxury hotels, international-chained fast food restaurants, pizza outlets and upmarket shops, and prices are generally higher. Mersin does have more kebab shops and infinite number more tantuni restaurants, though!


Yachts in the ancient harbour

Antalya’s main foreign tourists are large numbers of Germans and Russians as opposed to Mersin’s small numbers of Arab visitors. From what I understood, the Russian influence is a topic of many Antalya conversations.

Most chemists (‘eczane’) have the English (pharmacy) and German (Apotheke) equivalents displayed. Many also are written in Russian and one was even in American (drug store). Mersin just gets ‘eczane’.

Weird as it may seem, but in some ways I feel more anonymous in Mersin than in Antalya. Along with the tourists in Antalya comes the expectation to meet foreigners and the associated tourist claptrap, something foreign to Mersin (excuse the pun).

The sunny weather added greatly to my trip enjoyment. I walked a lot and relaxed far more than I have for a long time.


Antalya Bay

The fruit crepe and cappuccino at the café in the sun and the tiramisu and coffee drink at Kahve Rengi were two amongst many memorable moments.


Fountain with mountains in the background

Umut and Beysun live to the east of Antalya’s centre, near his workplace and in the same area as both Yasemin and Umut’s Grandmother.

I met Umut’s Grandmother a few times in Istanbul and then she was a wonderful bright and bubbly woman. Unfortunately, in 2005 Alzheimer’s took over and she is not completely with it, but still very bubbly.


Umut, Grandma, myself

One evening, Umut and I armed with chocolates and flowers respectively, went to see his Grandma and her Bulgarian Turk carer. Grandma still remembered me and we were both very glad to see each other. I don’t know if we will meet again.

I also met up with another Mersinite friend and university classmate of Umut’s, Mutlu, in town visiting his sister. Another evening was spent at Tunca’s, a high school friend of Umut’s, Beysun’s and Yasemin’s.


Mutlu, Umut, Beysun, myself and Yasemin

PS:...

... I promise I will reply to those who have emailed me. I was planning to do it this weekend but I extended my stay in Antalya. Will try and write them all this week. Sorry!

Antalya In A Week

I’m back in Mersin, refreshed after a wonderful week in Antalya. I was planning to return earlier to Mersin but extended my stay. I wish I could have stayed much longer.

The hospitality shown by Umut, Beysun and Yasemin, the historical sights, the weather, the setting, the sophistication, the relaxation, the trip to Sivasli; it was all fantastic.

Umut, my former Mersin flatmate, is an Assistant Manager at Laura Shopping Centre’s Migros, part of Turkey’s largest supermarket chain, owned by Turkey’s largest company, Koc Holding.

Beysun,Umut’s wife, works as an educator at a tourism school owned by MNG, another large Turkish company.

Yasemin, Umut’s and Beysun’s friend from their High School days in Alanya is a Sales Executive at Kervansaray Hotels, owned by International Holiday Courts. She works at their head office, located in the Lara, Antalya hotel.

I will write lots more and post many photos when I have time in the next few days.

Hi From Antalya

I'm at an Internet cafe in Lara about to go into town to visit the Antalya Museum. On Monday Beysun and I drove to the ancient sights of Perge and Aspendos before accompanying Umut north to Sivasli, Beysun's home village in Usak Province. Yesterday, on the first day of Kurban Bayrami (Sacrifice Holiday), Beysun's extended family slaughtered both a ram and a cow. The live cow turned into barbecued lunch in a matter of hours.

I will write more and post photos when I return to Mersin on the weekend.

Welcome To 2006

A new year has arrived. I expect this year to be very important. We'll see how it unravels...

After a few changes of plan, NYE was spent at Mete's summer house down the coast near Tomuk. To drink, I brought some home-made punch that was barely drinkable. I should not have added the Syrian Arak :-)

From 1 January, officially the new Tukish lira is the only currency to be accepted as payment, although I have seen some old lira still floating around.

2006 has also brought about the tragic death of three siblings in far Eastern Turkey due to bird-flu. Dogubeyazit, where the infections are believed to have occurred is a long way away from Mersin, so I'm still happily eating my chicken kebabs.

Mersin's weather so far this year has been mild and pleasant, unlike pre-Christmas. In fact, on 2 January, Wunderground forecast Mersin's temperature to only range between 13 and 16 C for the whole 7-day period. Quite amazing!



From Tuesday to Friday next week is Kurban Bayrami. The dates fall very conveniently and work will closed for the whole week meaning we have an 8 day holiday. Yay! Tomorrow night I'm off to Antalya to see Umut and Beysun, my old flatmate from 2001-2002 and his wife. This will be my first trip to Antalya, one of Turkey's most picturesque areas, and I'm excited!

Antalya is not the only trip coming up. In early February I will visit Australia, stopping off in Istanbul and Dubai/Oman on the way. I've never holidayed in Australia before so it will be a new experience. Yesterday I purchased both the Turkish and Australian domestic flights. Due to the route, I will have 3 separate flight tickets. My sequence is:

1) Adana-Istanbul (Atlasjet)
2) Istanbul-Dubai-Melbourne (Emirates)
3) Melbourne-Adelaide (Virgin Blue)

On the way back the flight order is reversed.

After paying for my Virgin Blue tickets I remembered I had a Qantas Frequent Flier balance from years ago. I could have obtained the Melbourne-Adelaide return flights free! Although this scenario sounds bad, it isn't actually a big deal. The Virgin Blue flights only cost AUD 158 and if I used my Qantas frequent flier points I still would have had to pay AUD 93 in taxes and duties!!! I'm only paying AUD 65 difference and I still have my points.