Trek The Unknown

Image via WikipediaAt Every evening in Kusadasi we went out of our hotel to down town. Down town is full of bars, restaurants and coffee shops. Also, there are many tour Agencies which open until late, so It’s possible to order a trip for the next day.

One of the sites that looked beautiful on the photos was Pamuckale. My girl friend also heard that it’s suppose to be a great place to visit. So, instead of paying to a tour company we started to search on how to get there by buses.

Our 2nd day in Kusadasi was very exciting. We heard about a local village called SIRINCE (pronounced: shiringe) which is very picturesque.

In order to get the “full” local experience and adventure we used the local transportation. a dolmush is running from Kusadasi to Selcuk (pronounced: selchuk) and it’s written on the front part of the dolmush vehicles. It’s a pretty short ride of around 25 minutes and costs 4 Turkish lira, which is about 2 Euro per person. You get off in selcuk at the last stop (you’ll see many dolmushes around) and then take another Dolmush going to SIRINCE, This ride is also not too long and costs 2.5 Turkish lira.

The Village itself is one of kusadasi tourist attraction and therefore it’s main strrets a re also very touristy like with stores and coffee shops. We decided to wonder around the village and get to it’s upper part where no tourists are preset.

A local woman who spoke no English grabbed us in one off the allies and took us in her house. It was a single room house and very modest. She gave us some Apricots and then suggested some of the crafts she makes for sale. We didn’t really want to buy anything, but she was very nice and we felt somewhat uncomfortable, not to mention that what we bought was really low priced. so, we decided it’s worthwhile buying.

later on we walked around some more and reached a church. This church has a good view point over the whole village.

Our next stop was Ephesus. We saw the entrance to the site right before selcuk. It’s situated on the road between Kusadasi and Selcuk. Ephesus ( Or efes, as the locals says) is really close to selcuk, just a few minutes ride with a local Dolmush.

Ephsus is a Greek archiological site. It’s well preserved and beautiful. Entrance fee for the site is 10 Turkish lira per person. vocal earphones guide is availble for rent also.

The site is huge and has a few attractions that worth seeing. there is a big Amphitheater, A magnificant wall of an ancient library. One of the most beautiful ones is the rich houses terrace. It’s partly rebuild with the help of the Austrain Government and has additional entrance fee (10 Lira). It’s worth that cost!

Since it’s a big site it’s recommneded for a 2-3 hour visit. The place doesn’t have much shade so it’s good to prepare for that. Take a lot of water, sunscreen and hats.

In order to leave you need to walk to the main road. It’s 10-15 minutes walk. From there you take a Dolmush back to Kusadasi. We decided to try and hitch hike. well…It worked! a car stopped with 2 nice girls and their mother. They were on vacation too and were locals from Ankara. They didn’t only take us to the main road but all the way to Kusadasi. They had a vacation house there. We exchanged phone numbers in order to meet later on.

on the whole we think it’s defently possible going to Sirince and Ephsus on the same day. They are pretty close and both are beautiful place. We even had time at the end of the day jump into to swimming pool.

hey,
After not traveling for more than 6 monthes I decided to have a short vacation in Turkey in a place called Kusadasi (pronounced: Kushadasi).

Kusadasi is a a touristy town full of hotels and resorts. It’s located in western turkey on the Aegaen sea shore, 45 minutes driving south of Izmir. The town is set on a beautiful bay and it’s well known site is the pigeon island. Kusadasi is also very close to the Greek Island, Samos and it’s a nice excrusion to do for a day, although we preferred staying on Turkish land.

We arrived there last Sunday at noon. We spent our 1st afternoon there walking around the place and got to know it. Since my girlfriend and I are not really big fans of staying at the beach or the hotels swimming pool all day long, we decided we want to visit some more exciting places.
So we had great plans for the next 3-4 coming days.

Various touring agencies sell tours to places around Kusadasi, But we decided we want to do the things by ourselves, which is much more cheaper and fun. The whole area has great public transportation using Dolmushes. Dolmush is a kind of an 10-12 seat car which goes around like a bus line. they stop everywhere you like on the road and pick you up wherever you are, although some of the line have set stops as well.

We decided to leave early as we were worried there will be no accommodations available in high camp. High camp is the highest and closest camping place to Throng La pass. If you want the hardest day of the trek the be as easy as possible, try spend the night before crossing the pass at High camp.

High Camp has a accommodations for 110 persons, whoever reaches too late gets to sleep in the dining room. nobody get to be thrown out, don’t worry

Eventually instead of leaving at 7AM we left at 8:30AM. We knew we have something like 2.5-3 hour of walking till Throng Phedi (That’s the place to stay for the night before High Camp). Throng Phedi means, under the mountain or hill, which is of course under Throng La pass area, the highest place around.

We reached Throng Phedi at 9:50AM. This was a good start for the day…Walking there includes some uphill walking but a lot of it is also straight surface.

Throng Phedi was discovered to be a VERY nice place. We stopped there to get used to the height of 4450 meters.

At 10:30 we decided to go on. We understood that the hardest climb of the trek is just beyond us. The Climb is one hour long it’s slow hard to breath walk. Some people that want to acclimatize thmeselves get to Throng Phedi climb to high camp and then walk back down to Throng Phedi. Then next day they climb this again. we acclematized ourselves enough in Mananag and along the way, we stayed extra nights at some places and climbed a little every day.

Entering into high camp we found there are 2 camp sites. The 1st buildings you’ll see on your left are the old buildings. don’t waste your energy that you don’t have anyway to walk around there. Keep walking up a little more to the buildings on the left. This is the new camp.

At High Camp we took 2 rooms. it really didn’t seem the acoomodation there were too crowded.
After resting and settling out breath we decided to go for a walk around. there is a mountain right beside the camp which is 100-150 meters higher than the camp itself. There is a great view for there and it’s highly recommended.

At the Time of year we were there (end of October) the whole mountain side was covered with snow. It’s was great sliding on it using the plastic coats we had! Try not to slide accidentally to unknown places where only a helicopter can help getting you out of.

Since high camp is a almost the highest place around, if the sun is out there aren’t any mountains disturbing it’s way into the greenhouse like dinins room. It’s VERY plesent and warm (as long as the sun is shining), with big glass windows watching the whole area around.

pricing:
room for a night: 320 NR
Spaghetti: 190 NR
potato curry (recommended): 130 NR
Veg fried rice (recommended): 190 NR

Since high camp is an isolated place there is no meat in the menu, only veggie stuff.
also, There is light at the rooms (on some other guest houses on previous days there wasn’t) and an early dinner is served at 4:30 PM.

We went to sleep very early at around 6:00 PM , because our plans were to wake up at 4AM in order to cross Throng La Pass.

We Left Manang, it was Thursday morning. I had mixed feelings…after the unsuccessful previous day, I was a little disappointed from it, but on the other hand was anticipating to reach Throng La.

We Left at 8:55 in the morning and reached Yak Karka at 12:15 PM. walking from Manang to Yak Karka is easy. A little bit of an uphill trail but really not too bad. Towards Yak Karka there is an half an hour to an hour of almost straight walk, with no uphills or downhills. These are the times when we had our chance of really enjoy to views, without worrying about our next physical challenge.

We decided we will spend the night at Yak Karka. It was the beginning of November which is high season. We were afraid there won’t be any rooms left for all of us ( we were a group of 4 people). Eventually we found a guest house. It wasn’t even too hard.

Since we arrived early, it was only noon time I sat in the dinning room and learned some Chinese. I started talking to a 60 years old man from Canada. His name was wain. He said that it’s the toughest physical challenge he ever had. At some point he showed me his camera and said it’s not working, he thought he needs a new charger…I needed a few minutes to figure out that a remarkable button named “RESET” would solve the problem. He was very greatful!

I think this is the greatest magic in traveling. I love these encounters with people from all around the world. learning about their culture, home, work. It’s fascinating!

here’s some common pricing at Yak Karka:
2 Boiled eggs – 80 NR
Chapati (2 pieces) – 80 NR
Vegetable soup – 95 NR
double room – 150 NR

The next day we headed to Letdar. Letdar is just a few guest houses on the mountains. It’s not really a village. villagers from Manang built these Guest houses ( there are 4 of them, I think) for travelers. Letdar is very close to Yak Karka, 35 minutes walk…We took it easy and spent Friday and sauterday resting there.

Letdar is more expensive than Yak Karka since as you go higher all services are more expensive. just think that the food you are eating made the same way you did on the back of one of the many porters working in the area.

costs at Letdar:
2 Boiled eggs – 100 NR
chapati (2 pieces) – 100 NR
Veg spring roll – 180 NR
Spagetti with tomato souce – 190 NR
double room – 200 NR