(11) Van, Turkey: Did he say Castle of Fun?

Well, what a few days it has turned out to be in Van (pronounced almost like ‘Juan’). After hanging around the Diyarbakir bus station for 7 hours and taking the night bus (and, surprise, not sleeping) to Van, I arrived in the city centre at about 7:30am. Thankfully, the hotel I wanted to stay at was happy to check me in that early.

This hotel I have been looking forward to. Lonely Planet lists it as a mid-range option, stating that even if you are on a budget to consider spending a bit more for this hotel. While it’s not a Westin, it has immaculate sheets, lovely hot clean showers, wifi, sit down toilets (yes!), and deep-sleep-worthy beds. All for about $35 a night.

At first the guy said the price was 60 TL (~$45) at which I paused. I was too tired to bargain, but I didn’t respond at all – I just stared at the number he had written down. What seemed like minutes later, he asked with a smirk, “May I help you?” and wrote down 50TL. I thanked him, both for the reduced price, and for awaking me from my daze.

I checked in, did some sink laundry, napped, and then walked around the city to get the lay of the land. Not a large city, but surprisingly metropolitan for southeast Turkey, and still in the Kurdish region. Van sits on the southeast corner of the large Lake Van, though not on the shore. I don’t think locals have discovered the potential value of placing amenities near the lovely turquoise water.

There were two main things I wanted to see around Van. One was to rent a car and drive a loop around Lake Van, stopping at the caldera of Nemrut Dagi, an old volcano. The other was to head up to a small village called Bahcesaray, which has only two access roads that wind tightly around mountain passes, one of which is blocked by snow over half the year, the other new in the past 5 years. The snow road opened up in the past few weeks.

The first night in Van I met Peter, also staying at this hotel, a fellow traveler from Burnaby of all places, and he was interested in my lake loop trip. Unfortunately, a car wasn’t available on the first full day in Van, so instead we hopped on mini bus and ferry to Akdamar Island, which features a 10th century church with well-preserved carvings of biblical characters on the outside, and a lovely hike to the island top with great view over the lake and surrounding snowcapped mountain ranges. We had a great time – not just the sights and company, but also the temperature. We had both come out of 30-35°+ weather, so 22° with a breeze was heavenly.

On the way back, instead of retracing our steps, we managed (just in time) to take up a local teacher on an offer made earlier on the island to join his group of teachers and university faculty on a private boat all the way back to Van. We enjoyed sunflower seeds, cola, dancing, music, fresh air, conversation and sun. I wanted to capture the moment and share it with the many many Canadians (and Americans, and… and… and…) who have such warped views of Muslim people. Islam does not equal repression and extremism (though surely this exists in each and every religion and culture). Spending a fun afternoon on a boat with your colleagues and family – surely we can all identify with such an experience?

We caught a ride back to our hotel with a friend of the teacher.  The man kept telling us that if we wanted to go to the Castle of Fun, he would come with us, or he would take us. “Is he saying ‘Castle of Fun’?” I asked Peter. This sounded like an interesting evening. Peter eventually figured out he was referring to Castle of Van, our original plan for the evening that we decided to hold off until Saturday.

We capped off the evening with dinner, and the realization that I now have a tan line across my forehead resulting from a combination of sun hat and sun reflecting off the water for 2.5 hours on a boat.