Never a Dull Moment

Havıng got our vısas and booked our flıghts we took the traın back to Ankara. Just after we had enjoyed a splendıd meal ın the buffet car, the train grinds to a halt in the middle of nowhere. The air conditioning goes off and for half an hour we sit baking in the mid day sun. Then the guard opens the doors and the passengers spill out on to the embankment. The women pick flowers while the men sit in the shade. An hour and a half later a replacement engine arrives and we continue our journey.

Thanks to the breakdown we don't get into Ankara until 7pm, but we get to enjoy an evening ferry ride across the Bosphorous. At Eminonu we get a taxi up to Sultanahmet where we are going to try and find a hotel. A few seconds after the taxi has dropped us off I realise I have left my wallet on the back seat! I run after it, but it's too late - it has disappeared down a warren of streets. I am beside myself and close to tears - without my credit cards our Central Asia plans are stuffed. Rowena stays calm and tells me it will be OK. How can it possibly be OK?

By chance we have been dropped off near a taxi office and I go and tell my tale of woe to one of the drivers. He says we should wait a bit and see if the driver comes back. If he doesn't we should go to the tourist Police. I figure the tourist Police will need a Hotel address, so leaving Rowena to wait I rush off and find us a room in a hotel. When I return there's no still no sign of the taxi. However the taxi drivers are making lots of calls on their mobiles. To cheer me up they tell me there are only 17,000 taxis in Istanbul run by umteen different offices. While we wait they invite us in to their cabin for black tea. Then, half way through tea, our taxi returns and I am reunited with my wallet and all the cash and credit cards it contained. Miracles do happen.

Where off to Bandirme tomorrow for a 2 week tour of the Galipoli area while we wait for our Tajik GBAO permit to come through.