West, To The Middle East

November 2024

Last Georgian Days

The old-city district of Batumi is way more interesting and fun than the extensive Florida-style highrise apartment district a few clicks down the coast.

Batumi, plonked right on the Black Sea, in the westernmost part of Georgia, was once a thriving port, and a whole century ago it grew to become an old-school colonial-style holiday destination, with grand old apartment and government buildings, as well as a huge array of other amazing Russian and Soviet buildings, fountains, statues and sculptures.

The golden fleece....with the ram still attached.

King Neptune gets around too

Sad but true.

Many of the grand old buildings are now luxurious casinos, which are tapping in to a huge market of mainly Turkish men who come across the border to unwittingly give their money to the casino owners in Georgia. Gambling is illegal in Turkey.

Gambling can be a serious addiction, like alcoholism or drug dependency. There was a Malaysian girl in one of the dorms who comes here regularly to gamble. She's been losing a lot of money.

I met a lovely Colombian woman, Mafe, and we had meals together a few times, and chatted a lot. She loves travel, and always has, and now that her two kids are older she has the time and space to do a lot of it.

Sounds rather familiar to me.

Mafe has a sadness about her though, because she's been estranged from her daughter for many years. Nearly two decades ago Mafe and her English husband divorced, and her daughter was forced by her father to live with him, and he refused Mafe access to her own daughter, whom she'd been virtually bringing up alone, along with her son, because the father was always out.

Once the daughter lived with the dad he basically openly blamed Mafe for everything that had happened in their relationship, and told their daughter many horrible untruths about her mum, like, for example, that Mafe didn't want to have her daughter living with her anymore etc etc.

There's no doubt that the daughter's traumatised, so much so in fact that she's still very triggered by any contact whatsoever with Mafe.

It's a painfully sad story, and Mafe says that all she can do is to patiently wait for her daughter to mature, and have a change of heart.

It often starts like this. With a kiss and a butt grab.

And it can end pretty broken.

But not always, of course.

A nighttime Nino and Ali connection, before they move apart again.

Planning Ahead

In Batumi I tried to make contact with a whole bunch of Warm Showers hosts in Turkey, people who offer accommodation or help to cyclists around the globe, many of whom are cycle tourers themselves.

I was looking for a place to leave my bike, somewhere in western Turkey, as I need to hot foot it by bus to Germany soon, for a work commitment that begins in a couple of weeks.

Well, thankfully, I eventually heard from Yetiş, a man who lives near a town called Bolu, about 300kms east of Istanbul, who said I could stay in his farm shed, and store my bike and cycle things in his house for awhile.

So kind.

So I booked a bus ticket from Batumi to Bolu, with my bike, and I'm leaving tomorrow.

Those Autumn Leaves

Today was a beautiful day, and I took full advantage of it by riding about 10km out of town, hugging the coast and then up into the hills, to the Batumi Botanical Gardens.

The Gardens were once the largest botanical gardens in the whole of the Soviet Union, which is incredible, given the size of that empire when it existed. Just Russia itself is nearly twice as large as the next largest country in the world, Canada. Then when you add most of Eastern Europe, the Baltic and Balkan states, and the whole of Central Asia, you're talkin' some serious land grabs.

Today the gardens are spread over a huge area in the hills behind the Black Sea coast, and the trees are old and all the gardens well established and absolutely stunningly beautiful. Our wonderful Ukrainian hostel host, Juliana, said I should come back in April, in springtime, when it explodes with flowers.

Well, I'd love to, but I'm not complaining either, because today, in the last weeks of autumn, it looked like a million roubles.

Amazing Georgian mansion. And not one of the cotton-pickin' ones.

I sat here and ate my pastry lunch, bean and potato khachapuris.

It was a Sunday. Weddings were happening.

And up I strolled, into the autumn wonderland.

There's a zipline up there.

It's horrible to think that there's a brutal war going on over this horizon, in Ukraine.

Looking back to Batumi

Yep, gum trees

New Zealand cabbage trees

Everything was closing up by the time I got out of there, and rode back along the sunset coast, feeling so incredibly charged and nurtured by Pachamama, Mama Nature.

It was so beautiful, this, my last evening in Central Asia for who-knows how long.

This is the very pot hole that Brad hit and injured his wrist on. He told me to spit and pisse!! on it.

I won't tell you what I said back.

The Grand Mosque at the back.

A beauty salon.

Another feast with Mafe, including those delicious eggplant rolls with walnut paste, and cream of mushroom soup.

OMG!! Christmas is coming. This will be my third Christmas in a row outside Australia so far this trip.

Wow. That's actually ages.

It feels like only yesterday, and forever, both at the same time.

Extended family

Mafe and I went out to a vegan café tonight, of all places, and the food was amazing and cheap, and, just by chance, it happened to be the café's anniversary, so they had amazing live music - a super cool Russian woman pumping out originals with a keyboard, with a drummer playing a hand drum, and then a violinist with an effects and loop pedal who played crazy stuff over backing tracks. Amazing!

We danced.

But tonight is my last night in Georgia on this trip. I mean, probably.

I've been here for a few weeks, I've been in and out of the capital Tbilisi three times, and to Batumi twice. I've travelled from the northeast of the country right across to the southwest, and feel like I've got a bit of a handle of the place.

I like it. The people are often outwardly a little gruff, but super friendly once you have a proper conversation. The food is absolutely the bomb. There's amazing art, including a huge collection of street art, especially in Tbilisi, and a host of ancient and beautiful architecture, much of it religious-based.

This is where I've travelled in the country this trip. I left for a couple of weeks in the middle, when I headed south to Armenia.

Turkey Beckons

I said goodbye to my musician friend Dave and his wife Uschi, and to Mafe, my friend from Colombia.

Yes, it was finally time to head to Turkey.

I rode the few clicks to the bus station, and my bus eventually turned up, a little late. But everyone was all very relaxed about it.

I was so happy! I could put my bike in the bus without dismantling it! I just rolled it into one of the luggage compartments with all my panniers and other crap.

It took forever to get out of Batumi, with all the stops, and I was disappointed as I didn't get a window seat, and it was gonna be a long trip.

Our red bus.

We were soon at the Turkish border.

There's one thing that I particularly dislike in this world, and that's having to cross a border with your bicycle and all your gear, whilst also being part of a group of bus passengers.

Crossing a border alone with my bike is a breeze, and is generally quick, because I just get directed along the road with the truckies, and am through in no time, most of the time is spent having conversations with border guards or truckies as I go through.

But on a bus, all the passengers are directed into the buildings with all their luggage, and that means I need to unload my bike and all my gear from the bus, re-strap everything back onto my bike, and then wheel the loaded bike through all the different passport controls and custom controls - along narrow hallways, through bollarded and blocked entrances, and up and down bloody fucking escalators that aren't designed for such things and that require me to lift my fully laden bike which weighs about 650kgs over shit all the bloody time, whilst dodging rushed, stressed and often impatient crowds of people.

Luckily there were some nice strong men to help me (sometimes).

I was also a little upset because a Georgian passport stamper barked at me because I didn't know where to go (how could I, there were no signs!), and with a bike I couldn't physically go the way the other passengers were going because of barriers.

Plus I was already feeling rushed.

But then I think the official saw my facial reaction to her scolding and she softened up a bit, and then actually left her office and came over and moved some bollards to help me.

I wish she could just resign from her shitty job and come away with me on the back of my bike, she was beautiful.

Especially when she told me off.

And then, of course, in customs, I had to unload my bike and put all my luggage through all the scanners etc. Such a bloody rigmarole, but luckily at least my bike wasn't dismantled (like it was for the China/Kazakhstan border crossing), so at least I could wheel it and all my luggage around instead of trying to carry the whole bang lot.

Eventually I got through all the border and customs controls, to discover that my bus was nowhere to be found. I looked for ages, and then finally discovered it about 500m up the road. Thanks for telling me guys. Luckily I could ride there, and re-loaded all my stuff and my bike back into the bus.

And then I discovered that the guy in the window seat next to me had disembarked, so I slid over and claimed it. Yay!

And the spot where the bus was waiting was so beautiful!

See! It never stays bad, there's always an up side, eventually.

Waiting for everyone else to get back on the bus. Seeya Georgia.

Hi Turkey!

Yes, after over six amazing months, I've finally left Central Asia.

It's an incredible part of the world, a region so little touristed by Westerners, and a region that pretty much everyone you speak with has no idea about. They don't even know what countries make it up, or where it is on a map.

Well here it is on a map.

And this is where I went (eastern part).

I entered Kazakhstan from China at the end of May 2024, then travelled to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and then back to Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

And this is where I also went (western part).

As I couldn't enter Azerbaijan by land or sea I then flew with my bike from Tashkent (Uzbekistan) to Baku (Azerbaijan), on the Caspian Sea, and travelled from there all the way west, to the Black Sea.

When I got to Tbilisi I also went down to spend some time in Armenia too.

And now I've finally departed Central Asia and the Caucasus Region, and have arrived in what is regarded in the West as the Middle East.

That term Middle East was coined back in the the day, when Europe was the centre of the Universe.

No Christians 'round 'ere mate

I checked to make sure I'd been stamped properly. My passport's filling up, unfortunately. Luckily I've got 2.

I've been getting emails from the Tajikistan government lately, basically telling me to leave the country. The thing is, I'm not in the country, obviously. Then I remembered that when I left Tajikistan the border guard incorrectly stamped my exit stamp as 2023, and maybe he entered that in the computer as well somehow, which means that they still think I haven't left after my 2024 border entry.

I should really email them and tell them, but I keep forgetting, and right now, while I do actually remember, I don't have internet, because I'm sitting up in my bed in a little garden shed with no power, lights or heating.

I'm glad I've got my sleeping bag and puffer jacket though, because it's freezing cold out there, and there are killer dogs too.

Bummer I've only got 4% charge left.

So, after getting in to Turkey, we hit the road again, but there wasn't much of a view as it was darkening quickly.

Pisse!! stop. Yeah, I know. Red Bull.

And then, guess what happened? We broke down didn't we! Yay! We had to wait for ages for another bus to come, and then I had the incredibly joyful experience of having to unload and then reload my bike and all my gear yet again, in crowded luggage compartments with millions of cold and annoyed people trying to put their luggage in and take it out at the same time as me.

Life is so good!

This is the actual spot where we broke down.

But then, once we got going again, I could chill in my window seat, and I just sat and wrote for ages, while the bus driver did all the work.

Lucky me.

I slept for ages.

It was pretty clear as the sun came up.

A hay shed, without the shed.

But then we drove into cold fog.

I had a ticket to a town called Bolu, but the bus driver couldn't be bothered driving in to the town itself, as it was a big and slow diversion from the freeway, so he just dropped me about 15km up the road at a servo, at a freeway interchange.

Hmmm.

So I reloaded my bike again.

Yeah, I've done it once or twice in the last 24 hours - in fact, and this is the absolute truth - I've loaded or unloaded my bike 14, yes 14! bloody times since I packed it up at the hostel yesterday morning! (I just counted them all).

Then I rode off into the freezing fog.

So ....

I'm riding in Turkey!

I immediately got stopped by some traffic police, but all they did was just be super friendly and take loads of selfies with me, and wish me well on my travels.

They're the sorta cops I like.

I rode the 15 clicks back to Bolu and eventually found somewhere to have a hot coffee and a warm sesame bun.

Ok, ok! I admit it!

It was Starbucks.

Look, I couldn't help it alright. It was the only place around in that area, and I was desperate and needed the internet to find out where I was going.

And just to add insult to injury, I couldn't get wifi there anyway because you needed to have a local phone number to log in, which I don't have yet.

This cheese bun was delicious though.

Wow, a whole shop just for Vitamin Cs.

Eventually I found an ATM, as I needed cash (I'd changed my last Georgian lari at the border and had already spent the piddly Turkish amount on my brekky), then I found a SIM card place and sorted that side of things out, which took ages and was quite pricey compared to Central Asian countries, which are generally either quite cheap or ridiculously cheap.

For example in Kyrgyzstan it only costs 5 Euros for 30 days unlimited data, including the SIM card itself. That's the cheapest I've ever had, in my short life.

My new internet connection then played up for a couple of hours, annoyingly.

And I had to wait around while the internet package was activated, which was so annoying because it meant I had to sit in another café and drink more tea.

Happily the fog lifted.

Then I checked out the town a bit.

There were some really beautiful mosques in town. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice the centre of town was, compared to the outskirts.

Not sure why this Turkish UN peacekeeper was here particularly. Turkey has been involved in a number of UN peacekeeping missions, since way back in the Korean War days, including in Sudan, Lebanon and Cyprus.

A Divided Land

The Turkish army, of course, has been heavily involved in Cyprus in its own right, for decades now.

After being colonised by all the big Mediterranean powers throughout its history, the island state, the third largest island in the Mediterranean, found itself under UK rule from 1878.

But there was a dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots as to where to go from there. By the 1950s Greek national policy was for Cyprus to become part of Greece, which was supported by Greek Cypriots, but the Turkish minority set up their own administration in the north, with the Turkish army's help.

In the 1960s the nationalist movement there eventually led to independence for the island, with both communities represented in the national government. But the Greeks and Turks didn't get on, and constant violence eventually led to the Turks being ousted from government.

In a coup d'état in 1974 the Greek Cypriots then took over control over the whole island, precipitating a Turkish invasion of the north, which they control to the present day. Over 150,000 Greek Cypriots and 50,000 Turkish Cypriots were displaced during the conflict, and a Turkish Cypriot state was declared in 1983, much to the distaste of the international community and the UN.

No state except Turkey currently recognises the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Which is weird because some people must have been there heaps of times and you'd think they'd remember.

Anyway, back to Bolu.

Wanna buy an oven?

I rode out to the bus station and bought a ticket to Istanbul for tomorrow, and then finally got a map location from Yetiş, a wonderful local man who's gonna let me store my bike and stuff in his house tomorrow morning, and has let me sleep in his little garden cabin a bit out of town.

Nice and rustic.

Notice my new helmet. Rich donated his to me when he left Georgia. What a guy. Mine was dead, it'd had too many crashes (but only two with my head in it, I'm happy to say. I mean, zero would be a better figure, but hey, it's been nearly two years now....).

Yetiş is a Turkish nationalist, no doubt. The 3 guys in the picture on the left are one and the same man, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who was originally an army guy in the 1910s, and evolved to become a revolutionary nationalist. He was a huge reformer, and is now regarded as the founding father of the modern secular state of Turkey He also served as its first president in 1923, until his death in 1938.

I unloaded and stored all my gear inside, and then rode back to explore the town a little more.

He gets around, doesn't he.

Çay and a mobile phone charger (which you need to pay for, things must be getting tight).

Either that or it's just another way to get more money, which I've noticed Turkish businesses aren't shy to try and maximise, especially from foreigners.

These cabbages are seriously huge. There must be massively big babies in their patches.

The cabin here has no power, no lights and no heating, but hey, neither does my tent. It doesn't seem to leak, and there's no rats (I hope).

And I'm on 1% charge, which is pretty good timing, because it's the first time I've actually been up to date on my blog for as long as I can remember.

Up to date writing, that is.

Not publishing.

I'm way behind in that department, because it takes forever to upload photos on to the blog site, and it's a bit tedious sometimes, plus I haven't had regular reliable internet lately.

But I'm happy!

I'm in Turkey, I'm still alive, and I'm going to Istanbul tomorrow!

Insha'Allah.

Yeah, it's time to hang up me boots for awhile.

Bikeless

So now I'm on a mission to get to Germany, but I've still got a couple of weeks to get there.

I plan to have a couple of stops on the way, as there's a nice collection of countries between Turkey and Germany.

My long term plan is to eventually get back on my bike and ride back to Europe anyway, when I return here after the winter. So I'll have more time to explore then. But I still wanna have a little look around on the way this time too.

I'm happy that at least I have enough time to travel overland, and don't need to fly. I actually planned it that way.

And next up I'm headin' to the 'bul!❤️

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