Our Mt Ararat Dilema

One of the sites that we really wanted to visit in Turkey was Mt Ararat (Turkey's highest peak), where Noah's Arc came aground.

Mt Ararat is in the Kurdish area of Turkey and with the Kurdish rebels setting the August 13Th bomb at the US Embassy in Istanbul and the kidnapping of 3 German tourists in Ararat, our plans had to change.

The US Government site issued a warning about traveling to the area and we inquired among several people in the west as we traveled and everyone raised an eyebrow and suggested we stayed away.

In Selcuk we ran into a Canadian guy who said to be coming from the Lake Van area and was enamored with the place and the people, this piqued our interest again.

We continued to talk to locals about it and one by one questioned our ideas or immediately started talking about the kidnappings.

We were at the bus station ready to leave Trabzon and we were still unsure about our next destination. We were an hour west of the Republic of Georgia, so we figured it was safer to head south.

Dogubayazit, where Ararat is, was pretty much on the way to Lake Van but a local doctor we met at the station was the one that convinced us to purchase tickets straight to Van (a 12 hour bus ride) and avoid problems.

We tried to see Ararat from the road but was not possible and we both felt we were missing out on something very special.

At that time we didn't know that things were going to change and that we wouldn't leave the country without seeing it.

Gaby