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Diyarbakir, Turkey
Wednesday, Aug 31, 2005

Pickpockets

David Murray
2007-02-21 19:49:17

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The night bus to Van was not leaving till late, so we took an early bus to Diyarbakir to check out this town. We would have 8 hours in it. More than enough. Fuck Dactari's theory that you should spend a couple of days in a town !!!!! Funily enough, Irish Sarah had heard bad things about this place and had not gone, but we were going. No matter what

Once in, I bought some tickets for a night bus to Van. Now according to the LP, the old Roman Walls are the second longest walls after the Great Wall of China. As I was buying tickets, we missed the service bus into town, so we decided to walk the K and a half. How hard could that be. Fucking hard actually. Eventually we found them, after lunch !!! They were impressive, so we had a little walk around them until we found the main gate. We found the old caravanasray which was very impressive. Across from there was an old mosque, so we dived in to take a look. It was pretty cool. We left and was grabbed by the local carpet shop man. We told him we already had both Turkish and Kurdish carpets, so we chatted and drank tea instead. He was a lovely chap and he did have some beautiful things in his shop. On the way out, Lucy spotted something that she liked. It was a baby carrier. She wanted it. Does this mean she is getting broody !!! I hope not. We walked around some more and found more wall. We saw an opening to go up. Lucy went over to have a look and I grabbed a seat. Immediately I was surrounded by kids asking for money. Then a guy came over and shooed them away. He then started demanding that I take a tour with him on the walls. He was sitting very close, then another one came to sit on my other side. I stood up and the second man's fingers went for my pocket, but I stopped him, grabbed then and started to bend them back. Lucy was talking to a policeman at this stage and they both came running over to see what was going on. The policeman took over and proceeded to break the guys fingers !!!!! He told us to leave straight away. The other guy followed us and was cursing us as we walked down the road. He started to get closer and louder, but then another policeman in a car came up, and he went away. It was quite scary.

Feeling much relieved, I let Lucy make her purchase of a baby carrier, hoping that is all that she wants !!!!! But for now, we have another fucking overnight bus ride to contend with !!!