Day 4 Castles and Cats

Day 4 May 31, 2007

Igdir-Dogubayzit-Van

Another easy rise and shine at 5:00! We packed everything up and headed out the door, inadvertently waking the desk clerk. Igdir was already bustling about at this early hour so we had plenty of help getting to the right mini-bus. Once we had our seats secured, although we refused the first offering, the mini-bus driver bought us some tea- a very hospitable gesture even though Mike and I have drunk enough tea to last us a lifetime!
The drive to Dogubayzit was very beautiful, with even more impressive views of snow capped Mt. Ararat. We arrived in town an hour and a half later. We contemplated our next move. The major sight in Dogubayazit is the Ishak Pasha Sarayi- a large ruin of an ancient palace about 6 KM outside of town in the foothills. Since it didn’t open until 8:30 we thought we’d get a little morning exercise and walk.
Meandering through town trying to find the road, we were both impressed with the very large military presence in the community. Schools and apartment buildings on many of the streets had armed military guards. We strolled past a base with a large fleet of tanks and other military vehicles. Also in sharp contrast to the other cities, was that here the vast majority of the women wore head scarves. I felt quite out of place with my hair exposed so I put on my hat. A short distance out of town we saw the palace in the distance and were a bit dismayed at how far we would have to walk with all of our stuff. We decided to stop and ponder the possibilities over a little ‘breakfast’ consisting of day-old bread with honey and Coke.
We chose to keep walking but hail the next mini-bus that was going in that direction. Not long after we were back on the road, we flagged down a small bus. When we opened the doors we were greeted by an energetic group of teenagers on a class trip to the palace. We had found the party van! They were absolutely thrilled to give us a ride and they drilled us with questions. At the palace we said our thanks and good-byes but some of the kids joined us on our tour and even gave us small gifts. They were so cute. What was so interesting to both Mike and I was how different they were from teens in Azerbaijan. Most of the group had boyfriends and girlfriends and there was no embarrassment or secrecy. They held hands and acted like young couples would in the United States. We were a bit amazed.
The palace was beautiful. The location reminded me of an Eastern version of Neuschwanstein-of course with COMPLETELY different architectural styles. On a clearer day I’m sure the views of Mt. Ararat would have been beautiful but our luck with the weather wasn’t so good and it started to rain right as we arrived. We wandered through the different rooms followed by our little fan club, taking many pictures along the way.
After purchasing a few postcards we decided to take a walk up to a small restaurant on a bluff overlooking the palace for some prime photo ops. The kids walked with us up the hill but refused to join us for some cokes in the restaurant. We said our final good-byes and they joined up with the rest of their group which was climbing the cliffs behind a mosque and fortress. We thought briefly about joining them for the climb but we had full backpacks and were not up for the exertion.
Our next challenge was finding a way back into town. We decided to walk back to the small parking lot next to the palace and try to catch a ride with the next group going back to Dogubayazit. We sat on the curb looking pathetic, made friends with a puppy and about a half an hour later or so a small group in a mini–bus was pulling out of the parking lot. We flagged them down and they agreed to take us back to town. It was a group of surveyors who were heading to Erzurum. They tried to convince us to go with them all the way –since we were planning on heading there eventually. However we wanted to stick with our itinerary so we just had them drop us off downtown near other mini-buses.
We found the mini-bus that was going to Van our end destination for the day. We had about an hour before it left at 12 so we wandered around the town, found some homemade ice cream and then got back to the bus stop ready for departure.
On the bus we met a young guy from France who had been traveling for 6 months. He had just come from Iran and said it was the friendliest, mot hospitable country he had been too. He had been biking from Singapore and was making his way through Asia and the Middle East.
We reached Van in a couple of hours- driving with in sight of the Iranian border for much or the way, and stopping at a couple of military checkpoints. What was interesting is that only the men in the van were patted down and had their luggage searched. Women apparently are not a threat or considered capable of acts of violence.
We found our hotel with no problem and after we had settled in and were heading out to do some sight-seeing we met a guy who worked as a kind of tour guide. He was taking a Belgian couple to see the famous Van cats and later on to Van castle for sunset views. He offered to take us too- the price being what we wanted to pay for his services. A few minutes before Mike had mentioned wanting to see some of the cats on the street. I had read that they were so rare and valuable that I didn’t think we would see them just walking around town. And according to this tour guide the cats had all been collected and taken to the University for research because they were getting sick and dying for no apparent reason. These cats are unique in that they have a genetic mutation and they are all white and with one blue eye and one yellow eye. Now some were being born with two blue eyes and it seems like these ‘mutants’ are the ones getting sick. So now scientists are trying to figure out what is killing the cats. So they are all in the ‘Keddi Evi’ or Cat House on the Van University campus. At 4.00 we all drove out there to see these interesting creatures. There were hundreds of beautiful white cats living in a big house- they had two gardens with play areas and inside quarters as well. We spent a good hour playing with them through the bars and trying to get good pictures. They were really cute but sad at the same time. Their eyes were pretty amazing, too.
After the kitty photo shoot our guide drove us to the base of Van castle and gave us some directions on how to get up to the top. He dropped us off at some shrine of sorts and there was a ‘back’ way to the castle so we wouldn’t have to pay the entrance fee. I think the tour guide thought he was doing us a favor but I just felt like an ugly tourist walking through this holy place and disturbing the women who were there. A couple of small boys led the 4 of us up the hill and we finally reached the castle but our small guides continued to ‘help’ us on our tour. Finally Mike gave one of them a lira and they left us to explore on our own.
Van castle is a huge ruin overlooking the former old Van city which was part of Armenia at one point. All that is left of the city is a couple of towers and lots of holes where the houses had been. The whole thing was destroyed during World War II. At the top of the fortress there were great views of Lake Van which is a huge body of water- one of the largest at such a high altitude. The lake is so alkaline that you can wash clothes in it without detergent and its kind of slimy. We were too early for the sunset but we had a little snack and then headed back to town. But we arranged with the Belgian couple to meet early to go together to Akhdamar Island the next day to help reduce the costs. We had read that the ferry prices were dependent upon the number of passengers so we figured we were better off to go together.
When we reached the road we started looking for some means of transportation back into Van. We caught a ride with a group of boys on some kind of joy ride and were very thankful when they finally dropped us off close to town where we got a bus downtown. By this time we were pretty hungry so we walked around trying to find a place to eat. Van was a pretty big city so we thought our options would be pretty good. It was Mike’s turn to pick a restaurant because he was the more particular of the two of us. We stumbled upon a Koefte restaurant- these are a kind of Turkish meat balls- and they also had hamburgers and French fries. The prices seemed pretty good so we decided to give it a go. Unfortunately a hamburger was defined a bit differently in this restaurant, but the fries were good. Also eating there was a group of Southern Azerbaijanis. Southern Azerbaijan is in the northern part of Iran- there are about 30 million ethnic Azeris living there. We talked briefly about the history and declined the invitation to join them for their meal, too. We had finished and were pretty exhausted so we walked back to the hotel and fell into bed.