Goodbye Turkey (November 27th - December 2nd)(continued)
On Monday I started with more uphill climbing after again being told it would be an easy day's ride. Has anyone here actually looked at the roads? The first few hours were difficult but cycling on quiet roads, on a sunny day in the mountains was about as good as cycling gets. I had 2 cars stop on the side of the road to load me up on fruit and at one fruit stand, after I purchased a few mandarins, an elderly lady came out with a large bag of apples to give to me. I started laughing and mimicked how hard it would be to carry 10 pounds of apples so I pointed to the bag and showed 2 fingers, implying that I would take 2 apples. She thought I wanted 2 bags so came back out with another large bag and for good measure, also carried an equally large bag of potatoes. It was hard to turn down but I was not going to get up those mountains with all that food.
I made it down to the coastal highway that will take me into Syria and stopped at a roadside establishment for something to eat after being waved down by the owner. As I was eating I asked if I could set up my tent beside his restaurant for the night and was met with an enthusiastic yes. The advantage to camping near a restaurant is that I can sit there and talk with people after dark. A small group of young guys joined me for a few hours but conversation was limited when we didn't speak each other's language. The English in the villages is very poor.
As I was preparing to go inside a young Dutch man approached me and started asking about my trip. His story was far more interesting than mine when I found out that he was the coach of the Dutch national under-15 soccer team. I told him that my Dutch family will be counting on him to help develop these youngsters to avenge the World Cup final loss to Spain. He said he would do his best.
When I was in the Mosque a man approached me with the usual "Where are you from." Memories of Istanbul came rushing back so I didn't really respond but kept looking at the building. He asked if I would like to ride up in an elevator to the top of the 99 meter minaret for a view of Adana. I knew there would be a catch but since he didn't mention anything I said okay and up we went.
When we came down he pulled me to the side and said that I was to pay him 20 TL. I knew he was doing this on the side because he kept looking nervously over his shoulder so I said that is a ridiculous price (almost the price of a hotel room) and that he should say how much things cost before he offers to show views. Since he didn't mention it up front, I wasn't going to pay him anything. He looked sheepish and I told him that he shouldn't be trying to make money in a Mosque that is open to the public. I just walked away and got back on my bike.
On Tuesday, I stopped at another roadside restaurant for one of my 4-daily cups of tea and watched a young guy on a horse pulled cart drive on the road. He stopped by the restaurant and asked a few men if they would like to buy some of his mandarin oranges. He had an old weigh scale with different weights that balanced with the bags of oranges. I wanted my daily 4 oranges so gave him a 1 TL coin (about 75 cents) and told him to keep the change but he insisted on giving me the 0.50 TL and then tried to throw in a few more oranges. It's nice to see such hard working and honest people.
