Van

Very few people (mainly other tourists) encouraged us to go see the Southeast of Turkey. Locals talked about the dangers there from the Kurds and the military check points. In spite of that, we met some of the nicest people in Turkey in the Southeast, saw great things and we also wished we could have stayed longer.

Although Van has a population of 400,000 people, we found it to be pretty laid back and easy to go around. It is located at 5600 feet over sea level and its lake is one of the highest elevation lakes in the world.

Young people from all over the country go there to attend the University and it is fun to see everyone promenade up and down "Cumhuriyet Caddesi" (main street) in the evenings, catching up with friends and window shopping.

We stayed at Otel Aslan, a couple of blocks away from the markets where locals shop and saw quite a few interesting things.

Van was a great place to relax, stay for quite a few days, meet people and talk about their country and also use it as a base to see the surrounding area, which is quite nice. I loved the opportunity to shop for familiar items at a small "Carrefour" grocery store! and re stock on needed products and Steve thoroughly enjoyed joining some of the guys for soccer games and tea.

It was hard for us to see the disappointment on the locals faces when we told them about the western Turks apprehension of us heading east and we started to realize that we were very interested in exploring more of the area, we also felt very welcomed and safe there.

Gaby