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Our next stop was Mardin. We had a late start and caught what we thought was a through bus to Mardin. However we were asked to get off the bus in a little town which we later realised was right by the Syrian border. There was another bus waiting for us - this was full of dark skinned people - Kurds. Into new territories!
Mardin is a very pretty town, perched on a hill overlooking the Mesopotamian plain. Unfortunately the local authority has decided to dig up all the roads at the same time to put in new water and sewer pipes. This meant our taxi could not get to our hotel so we had to lug our bags through road works for 500m. It also meant that walking down the main street was a pain as it was dusty and full of tractors.
We explored the town and ended up at the museum. This was in an old church intricately carved in honey stone though the exhibits were a little dull.
The girls had decided we were eating in a restaurant run by women - unusual in this part of the world. The setting was beautiful - on a terrace above the plain with the lights twinkling all the way to Syria. Unfortunately the food and service didn't match the setting - so much for female management!
The next day we continued to explore the town - it grew a little on us as we got away from the road works. There were many old buildings like the museum - all beautifully carved. We took a ride out to a Syrian Orthodox monastery. The ride proved interesting as the taxi driver thought he was Lewis Hamilton and went tearing off - only to turn round because he didn't have enough fuel to get there! The monastery proved very interesting - 4th century still with 20 monks but mainly used to teach local children Aramaic.
The following day we had decided to see Hasankeyf, a old village controlling an important Tigris crossing. It is about to get flooded by a new dam. This involved a complicated journey involving 2 minibuses. The highlights of the journey were a shepherd flagging down the bus to ask the time and 2 women getting on the bus with enormous buckets of grapes. They only went about 2km but paid the driver in grapes. The insisted in offering everybody grapes - I declined as I was suffering the effects of a dodgy kebab, but the old lady kept poking me insisting that I try her manky looking grapes.
Hasankeyf old town is mostly ruins and unfortunately the authorities had closed the main sight as it was 'unsafe'. The locals say this is because they want to discourage people coming here as there is a lot of controversy about the dam. We were able to see the old town and the old Roman bridge by climbing up to the castle which overlooked them. There were also lots of cave dwellings in the cliffs above the Tigris. After a look round, we had lunch perched over the Tigris but Ken, ever the explorer, was off to see a little tower about 1km away. We think the lunch was the better bet!
That night the tour group was in revolt. I had not been well so had missed dinner. They all decided to change the schedule and not go out in a minibus visiting another town - instead they were going to stay in our nice hotel, visit the bazaar and have a Turkish bath. No dedication!!
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