Zambezi

Would ignorance of the Turkish language be a big obstacle for an American woman traveling independently and alone in eastern and southeastern Turkey?

otherchelebi

Hello ZZ,

Ignorance of the Turkish language has not been a problem to anyone visiting Turkey (American or otherwise) as far as i know. Of'course it does depend on what you wish to do.

If you wish to attend university classes in Turkish, that could be a problem. If you would like to go up to the high pastures and live with the nomads, you could probably get by while learning some of the language.

Joking aside, the problem will be when buying bus tickets in advance. If you just go to the bus terminal to hop on a bus or a dolmus, and they usually will have space, then it will be fine because, people will direct you to the correct bus if you just print the name of your destination even if you cannot pronounce it correctly.

In any case, you should work on your phonetic pronounciation, just in case and be able to read and tell the little squiggles under an "s" or a "c" and the dots on a "u" or an "o".

There are also some teenage highschool students trained by the municipality in cities like Mardin, who speakEnglish and can guide you. I do not know if they will leave town with you to go to Hasankeyf, Midyat or Urfa for example, but you could always ask. they are very well behaved and a pleasure to confuse by asking questions during mid-spiel -

Please do not go further East than Midyat in the Southeast , except to the monastery 20 k away, and anywhere South of Van.

Also, i would not drive through Tunceli,Siirt, Mus, Bingol, Batman, Agri and Van provinces.

If you can, fly into Urfa or Mardin, see these two cities, and then fly into Van to see it or Kars, to see Ani ruins and possibly drive to Igdir and Dogu Beyazit for Ishak pasa Palace and Mount Ararat.

PKK declared an end to armistice and above mentioned provinces as well as Sirnak, Hakkari and possibly even Diyarbakir may become dangerous.

Zambezi

Thank you, otherchelebi, for that practical advice. Should I infer, then, that some of the attractiveness of eastern Turkey will be missed by having to omit overland travel in significant parts of it? I bought a Lonely Planet guide and had in mind to fly from Istanbul to Gaziantep, take minibuses and such in steps via Van to Kars, and fly back to Istanbul from Kars (or vice versa---in May). It sounds as though that is not a good idea. (?) ZZ

otherchelebi

I will recommend either Gaziantep to Urfa to Mardin to Midyat to hasankeyf. Many of the inetesting sites are outside urfa, Mardin and Midyat and you would need a rental car or a guide with a car for them. If you rent a car, you can probably get one of the young local kids to accompany you to the monasteries and the antique sites. Gaziantep, Urfa and mardin have decent accommodation.

or

Kars to Dogu Beyazit to Van with the Dogu Beyazit and van portion with a tour or a local guide. You can do Kars alone, but even visiting Ani ruins may be a problem because there is no dolmus (minibus) to Ani. Kars has good accommodation, although the hotel we stayed at was expensive it was excellent (Kar's Hotel). Dogu Beyazit has almost nothing acceptable. I do not know what kind of lodging is available in Van.

In any case, i doubt that you would wish to do Utah and Arizona on the same trip anyway.

otherchelebi

By the way, my wife has a presentation on webshots and/or youtube on mardin and she has a blog partially on Kars, etc.

just google, esercelebiler

Zambezi

otherchelebi: Thank you for that further information. I am studying the maps and the guidebooks. ZZ