Recently I returned from a tour of eastern Turkey, described by one tour company as a strenuous trip that was advisable for those travelers willing to accept discomforts. Arduous the trip may have been, but oh, the rewards! The variety of wild, unspoiled, ever-changing landscapes meant no head-nodding on the long bus rides.
Anatolia in autumn is a photographer’s delight. Though little rain falls, water is sufficient for growing vast tracts of wheat. Golden fields sprawled up and over rolling hills. Kurds stacked enormous mounds of hay on the flat roofs of their adobe-like dwellings. Corn, red peppers, chickpeas, and okra were dried in great festoons suspended from windows and doorways. Hazelnut and sunflowers by the ton dried on disused roadways.
Life in eastern Turkey has not changed appreciably in a millennium. Still people travel by scrawny horse or burro. Still they dress in colorful, traditional modes. Still women bash at clothing or rugs in fast-flowing streams. Herdsman continue to tend slow-moving flocks, and the nomads move with the seasons.
The eastern Turks, unsophisticated and hospitable, entertain strangers. Walking as our group of 19 did through a village not far from Amaysa, we were invited into a home for a glass of tea and a chat. Only our tour guide spoke Turkish. He interpreted, and all of us felt welcome.
That guide was Bora Ozkok, who is the president of Cultural Folk Tours (
800-…
). A dynamo of a man, Bora’s signature is a plastic tube cure flute, which he plays like a modern day Pan. He is not just a flutist, but an educator. With him we visited Seljuk and Ottoman sites as well as one dating into remote antiquity: Hittite and Urartu, with a sprinkling of early Christian enclaves. We saw towering Mount Ararat, unusual rock-hewn churches, and underground cities of Cappadocia, and a section of the Silk Road traversed by Marco Polo.
Unique was Bora’s willingness to allow his tour group to leave the bus and walk for 15 minutes or so along less-traveled roads where the rock formations demanded awe and attention, and he was willing to oblige the photographers among us with frequent stops.
For a trip where there is an opportunity to swim in the Mediterranean, to buy handmade carpets, to drink good wine and beer, to eat world-class cuisine, as well as to see thousands of years of human history, I say, “Don’t miss Turkey.”
-Carroll Lisle, Staunton, VA
Bora Özkök is a Berkeley educated architect and world-renowned teacher of Turkish culture, music, folk dance and folklore. He has authored several books, produced his own folk music albums, playing a variety of instruments, produced several videos on Turkey and is the only director of a major tour operating company who also leads several of his company's tours. He has appeared numerous times on Turkish national television and has given workshops and lectures on four continents and all over the United States.