Tag Archives: toll roads

Day 312 – Marks of Empires

The boring part...riding the motorway

The boring part…riding the motorway

There was not much left to do for us in Pamukkale other than pack up and move on. From here on, there were four more points of interest for us: Ephesus, Izmir, Pergamon and Troy. Ephesus was only some 250 km away and had three campgrounds for us to pick from nearby.

The ride was pleasant and smooth, with the exception of the motorway of all places. The automated system is kind of a nice idea, but it does not work at all in practice, at least for motorcycles. Out of the four times we passed toll gates so far, it has worked only a single time. We went to the post office twice to check and pay before we would get a fine, but they could find nothing in the system. So either we slip the cracks, or more likely we will get an unpleasant surprise at some point.

Great selection of all vegetarian börek

Great selection of all vegetarian börek

We had a really nice lunch in a town along the way. We just pulled into a random börek shop on the main road and scored. Outside any tourist region it was dead cheap, tasty and filling. Plus, the staff was real nice, too.

We reached Ephesus around 2 pm. According to our guide book, the crowds should soon loosen up. We were “adopted” right away by an enterprising fellow on the parking lot. He was nice enough that his sales pitches were never too annoying. Plus, he was genuinely helpful. The site is set up in such a way that the ‘right’ way to explore it is to start from the uphill entrance and then walk down the main road towards the southern entrance, where we currently were. There are shuttles going up. One that goes straight up for 15 lira and one that drops guest off for a “tour” at a local leather factory, but is free.

Maybe something to look at in the future

Maybe something to look at in the future

We opted for the free variant, of course, even though we were a bit anxious about what to expect. Well, it turned out that our “guide” just so happened to be one of the drivers. He dropped us off and we soon found out. It was not too b

ad – a straight beeline into a super high class showroom full of lambskin leather clothes in the $500 and up region. It dawned on us that we might even be interested in this stuff, would we not currently have been broke and on this trip. I might check this out once back in decent employment, I guess.

Close-up of the arch

Close-up of the arch

It was over after 10 minutes and we could start the tour. Ephesus turned out to be the most expensive place yet. It was made all the worse by the fact that just about now, we would have been better off buying the 185 lira all-of-Turkey museum pass – with at least 100 lira still to come in Istanbul. Still better than a piece of wire in the eye, I guess.

The place itself was fantastic, though. Heaps of solid info on boards throughout the ruins and loads of uncovered and reconstructed marble architecture. All quite impressive. The ruins stemmed from a huge time period from the 3rd century BC into the middle ages under Byzantium, but most remaining (and impressive) architecture is from Roman times between 133 BC till the Roman schism.

Great place to build a theater on the first place

Great place to build a theater on the first place

All in all, we spend about two hours exploring the place. Happy but exhausted, we got back to the bike. Our enterprising friend had one more up his sleeve: Authentic silver coins of varying ages. Of course, for a real good price. We passed on that golden opportunity to get in trouble with customs and were content with a look through. I mean, how often do you get the chance to hold 2000 year old silver coins?

We checked the camp grounds in Kusadasi. One was full, the other one was packed in what seemed to be party central of the town. We considered for a second and then decided to go back to Pamucak and check out the last place in the area. That one was a score. A super laid back area right at the beach, with almost no one around. It sure had seen busier days, but right now there were maybe 10 of the 100 spots taken. We could place ourselves right next to a power outlet to get all the goodies charged again.

perfect sunset over the water here we come

perfect sunset over the water here we come

After our sunset walk along the beach, there was one more vehicle on the ground and it sparked my interest. A closer look revealed a Queensland licence plate on a bright yellow overlander truck. The travellers in question turned out to be a real nice couple, Cheryl and Guy, with many a country flag already decorating the truck. I got invited in for a brief chat and ended up staying up way too long …

 

 

Day 305 – Where’s the groove gone?

Time to finally leave the Göreme Camping camp ground which had been really good to us. The next camp ground would be at the Mediterranean Sea, some 250km away. Not really a big day, kilometre wise, and looking at the map…the road would be many-laned and fast. Thus we left, just to get the cloud cover back that was our constant companion before Cappadocia.

Loads of Lanes, no traffic

Loads of Lanes, no traffic

The beginning of the ride was unspectacular. Soon, we hit what must be the motorway…with a toll gate. There was no one around and no barrier, no sign that said motorbikes are not allowed so we just went on it. So far so good. About 20km in, we needed fuel and just to be on the safe side, Flo wanted to do a 3 km detour off the motorway rather than wait for a station on it. So we left the motorway again at the first exit. Again, a toll gate, no one around, no barriers. This time, when we left, an alarm sounded. Whoot? We stopped immediately at the side of the road to ask how to deal with it but THERE WAS NO ONE AROUND. Not even the alarm going off could produce a human being that we could talk to.

This time, with toll card

This time, with toll card

Confused, we rode to the fuel station and Flo googled how Turkish motorways work. There is a toll (*check*) and you need to have a card for contactless payment (*uncheck*). Okay, where to get such a card? “Every PTT and Shell station will sell them”. Asking the guy at the fuel station, we rode to the next post office about 5 km away. Fair enough, you can do that to avoid setting off any alarms. The real reason to fix this is because the bridge over the Bosporus us also a toll road and we really, really want to ride it. It took the staff at the post office about 15 minutes…to realize they could not help us and to send us to the post office in the next town. Great. By now it was 11.45am and with our luck, the office would just close at 12, right?

Bor, the next town, was another 8km away. Now it started raining. Yay. -.- Or not. There, the yellow of a post office! Flo jumped inside and while I got off to take cover as well, he came back out again. Too small, we needed a bigger post office. We took one wrong turn getting to the “right” one and I was thoroughly annoyed. This is hilarious…if they want you to pay the toll, maybe it should be a bit easier to get that stupid card?

We even got into one more brief rain

We even got into one more brief rain

Now things worked out. Flo got his card, we had to put 50 Turkish lira on it as the smallest amount (!) and I now felt as if I could eat a horse. Figuratively. The first place, of course, was a kebab shop but they were kind enough to point us to a place further up the road where vegetarian food would be available. We gladly sat down and after the initial confusion about a vegetarian I was offered a cheese pide with fresh salad as a side. So good! Flo enjoyed his pide with minced meat and we were so happy about the food which was freshly made (even the dough!) that Flo had tea as dessert while I chose the sweet rice pudding. Also really good. 🙂

Feeling much better now that we didn’t have to deal with things on an empty stomach, we got back on the motorway. This time, the entrance toll gate even gave us a green light. Riding for 120km, time and miles flew past. Soon, we were only 60km away for tonight’s camp ground and had to get off. Again, the alarm went off. WHY? No idea. It should be contactless payment but it didn’t work. This time we stopped near by the three men standing around but really, they just said it needs to scan the barcode and that we should simply ride on. You have about a week to go to a post office to tell them that it didn’t work before you are fined…

Checking out our first Mediterranean camp spot

Checking out our first Mediterranean camp spot

Welcome back to Europe’s bureaucracy. However, we don’t want to burn any bridges as we are unsure when we will want to ride through Turkey next so leaving with an outstanding fine seems like a bad idea.

To top today’s great experience off, when we reached the Mediterranean coast, we were not impressed. Mersin and the next towns looked too much like the Caspian Sea in our eyes: Rows of hotels blocking the view. Arriving late at the camp ground next to a construction site of the road, we are left with a feeling of uncertainty as not even the coast excites us. Will we be able to enjoy Turkey or should we really just power through to get to Frankfurt?

Day 128 – Jakarta

Thanks guys - seems we were a bit too early for you ...

Thanks guys – seems we were a bit too early for you …

It is 150km from Bandung to Jakarta. Everyone, including Andy in Jogja, warned us about the traffic in Jakarta. Or maybe rather the traffic to Jakarta. So we had two options starting this morning: Make it onto the fast roads or crawl along to Bogor and then take a train into the city center.

The sticker shop (mangele.com) was still closed so we took a photo in front of the shop instead of showing the owner our bike. And off we went.

Getting onto the “fast roads” worked very well…to my surprise. We did about 50km before we were stopped by a maintenance crew. They were very worried about us but making us follow their car on the shoulder of the road was actually dangerous. They despaired a bit when they realized that the next exit would be twenty to fifty kilometres further down the road. So they waved us onto a resting area where they had a brief chat with a police guy who seemed totally unconcerned. After another 5km of following them, they gave up and waved us back onto the actual road.

big and small, at the mall

big and small, at the mall

Thus, we made the 150km in about 1 ½ hours which is record time and speed for Indonesia. 2km before our exit in the center of Jakarta, we got stopped again, this time by a police car. The policeman was very friendly and took many photos (including selfies) with us before escorting us off to our exit. From there it was only a short hop to the Kuningan City Mall where vfs global has its office. Jakarta turned out to be entirely different from what I expected. The inner city looks like any big western city as well with glass towers and massive high rises. The traffic is dense but not worse than in a crowded German city. The red traffic lights were probably the most annoying thing because we had to stop in the sun and were fried but everyone stuck to the road rules more or less.

Kuningan City Mall even had a security check before you could enter, probably because it was stuffed with fancy boutique shops such as Armani, Boss and the like. After finding a parking spot dedicated for motorcycles over 500cc (wtf? That’s very specific), we made our way in and across to get to the lifts. In the far end corner was a motorcycle shop with a Harley Davidson on display. Just saying.

The place to pick up our passports

The place to pick up our passports

Up on the third floor, we walked into the vfs office just to be promptly sent out again to store all of our stuff. I guess jackets and helmets and a tank bag are not essential for picking up your passport. After that, it was a breeze: Walk in, get a number, be the only person who wants to speak with the New Zealand representative, say “we want to pick up our passport”, get a knowing look from the lady and two envelops with our passports. A quick check to see it is A. the correct visa and B. all your data is correct and off we went.

With that success, we went to explore the mall and get something to eat. The upper level was a food court where all kinds of food were sold so I had a “home-y” food day. I ordered mashed potatoes and had an éclair filled with chocolate cream for dessert. Yum, yum yum.

Flo and I needed the time while eating to come up with a new plan. Our plan had finished with “pick up our passports” and now it was 1pm, we were in Jakarta and had nothing more to do. Quickly it became clear that we wanted to make use of our good fortune, stay in the city and see a bit of it. Found a very nice looking backpacker hostel online which we booked even if it was slightly out of our price range because in the good old hostel tradition, it had a social area with a pool table. We could do with a bit of socializing today.

Six degrees, the hostel, was all that we wanted. Checked in at 14.05pm and went out pretty much immediately afterwards. Well, not quite true, I had a quick cuddle with Nemo, the hostel cat. Probably the biggest and fluffiest cat I have met in Indonesia so far.

Giant Monas (a flame on to of a pillar). The flame is 35kg of leaf gold and the pillar is made from marble

Giant Monas (a flame on to of a pillar). The flame is 35kg of leaf gold and the pillar is made from marble