Blog - Plug Me In

26 December 2016 by Wiebe

Day 283 – 286 | Christmas in Dubai?

Day 283 | Thursday December 22

The last days I have made it in the media quite a lot! Yesterday I was featured in Time Out Dubai and StepFeed and today I was on the front new of Xpress News, a weekly tabloid. I thought tabloids only write about superstars so would that make me…? Ah never mind.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/pb.211949022347501.-2207520000.1482747047./577764605765939/?type=3&theater

Today I had a meeting with Ben from the Global EVRT, we did a special announcement on Facebook Live to tell about why I’m joining to Emirates EVRT and how my journey has been so far. You can replay it here.

After the meeting Jan Willem invited me to Boca, a bar in the DIFC, the financial district of Dubai were a lot of business is going on. From there I went to another bar, at the top of the Hilton in JRT. There is this Dutch in Dubai Facebook group and I posted a few times about my stay here and that got me a lot of reactions. At the Hilton they organized a monthly meet-up for all the Dutchies. Besides I met a lot of nice people I also had Bitterballen! Which made my night complete!

Day 285 | Saturday December 24

After more than a week it was time to leave my host. It was really great to be able to stay at the same place for a while. Normally I switch places every day which makes it a rush but now I had the opportunity to sort all kinds of things out and relax. So Jan Willem thanks a lot for the last days because you did a lot for me!

So my new hosts are again Dutch people. I gained many request to some posts on the “Dutchies in Dubai” Facebook group. I was welcomed by Adnane, Nabila, her father and 2 children. I was in touch with Adnane since a few days, I contacted him if I could come by yesterday for a night but he was not at home. He than invited me to come from Saturday and stay for christmas. I was a bit afraid to say yes as this is like the most religious day in the year which you normally would spend with friends & family. I had already been thinking about this days for weeks and I didn’t even think about asking someone to host me during these days. I actually was planning to sleep in the car for 2 nights somewhere in the desert (Serious, I had one christmas which was worse than that) but it was really no problem for them. The family has Moroccan roots and is Muslim so they don’t celebrate it, perfect match.

Adnane wanted to take me into the desert with his 4×4. Only after a 30-minute drive from the center you are surrounded by sand. After 30 minutus Adnane stopped next to the highway and turned on the desert-driving-mode. With high speed he drove over the dunes, for myself a first-timer and I can’t deny that I was almost shitting in my pants.

We wanted to take some pictures of the sky, which was stunning from here, you could see the whole milky way. For both of us the first time to experiment with this type of photography. Adnane’s camera was just to small to capture the stars, I have to practice more to take some nice ons. We ended up making light scribing pictures. See the stunning results below.

Day 286 | Sunday December 25

First day of christmas! Well in mosts parts of the world. In Dubai it’s around 30 degrees, shops are open and only in shopping malls you will find christmas trees.

My host Adnane took me for a sightseeing trip. In stead of going to the fancy touristic places we went to the old part of the city called Bur Dubai and the industrial area ‘Al Quasis’, where the workers of the city live. From this area it was a huge contrast with the Dubai Mall we visited later. The Dubai Mall is the largest mall in the world by total area and the most visited building in 2011 with 54 million visitors. It contains 1.200 shops. Of course here in Dubai it can’t be a regular mall so they build some ‘attractions’ inside of it. There is an olympic sized ice rink and a huge aquarium. The 10-million litre Dubai Aquarium tank is one of the world’s largest suspended aquariums. The size of the tank is 51 meters in length, 20 meters in width and 11 meters in height.

It houses thousands of animals, compromising over 140 species. Over 300 Sharks and Rays live in this tank, including the largest collection of Sand Tiger Sharks in the world. You can watch the animals from outside or through a tunnel 11 meters below the surface. If that’s not enough you can also dive inside it.

For dinner Jan Willem invited me so there was still a bit of a “christmas feeling.” Nice to share share this evening with some people who I (just) know!

PICTURES

Desert

My host Adnane

The old part of Dubai

Little Hummer

Dubai Mall

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24 December 2016 by Wiebe

Day 278 – 282 | Dubai

Day 278 | Saturday December 17

It was late last night and still weekend so we relaxed today and did some practical things. All my stuff from the car was in my host’s house now and I cleaned everything, throw some stuff away and reorganized it. I got a nice clean car now.

Day 279 | Sunday December 18

We went to see Rogue One – A Star Wars movie today. Not in a normal seat of course, because this is Dubai and here they make it next level. So we had a huge chair, with buttons! One to move it into horizontal position so you could almost lay down and one button to ring the waiter. You can order ordinary popcorn or chips but also a beefsteak, sate or anything what you normal could get at a restaurant. Unbelievable. We both thought the movie itself was not so good but the experience made up for it.

Day 281 | Tuesday December 20

Today started with a meeting at the Consul-General of the Netherlands in Dubai. I was invited by Jeroen & Lotte who were very interested in my story. They invited Peter and Dena from the municipality of Dubai. They are very active her sustainability wise. Many events are taking place and a lot of interesting institutions can be found in the city. Dubai is the only of the 7 emirates that don’t have oil and because of that they are changing to renewable sources.

Peter & Dena are going to link me to these events and projects and on the 5th of February I might join them in the car-free day which they are organizing.

Day 282 | Wednesday December 21

I went for a lunch with Ben and Druv from the EVRT. I decided that I definitely will join them and we talked about how we can support each other. We both have the same goals so it seems and feels like a match made in heaven.

After lunch I dropped by a fuel station, to check the tire-pressure because what else can I do at a fuel station 😉 A guy approached me and said “hey I am a Dutchie as well!” he already saw on Facebook that I was here and was surprised that he bumped into me. Spontaneously he invited me for dinner with a friend of him and I would meet them later today.

Around 6pm I wanted to go there but I had only 17% battery left. I could make it to their location but not back. I don’t have a keycard for public chargers yet so there was no possibility to charge. Oh well, I’m sure there is but it was not very certain. So we postponed it to another day.

About my last blogs

My last blogs haven’t been very rich of content or crazy stories. Am I not doing a lot? Actually I am working my ass off. I have a lot of work to catch up with, making videos from earlier interviews and writing about that. Also preparations for the coming weeks etc. Besides that I am doing some work, like real work for money. My personal bank account has reached to the minus level. Mainly because of health insurances I need to pay for. So now I am making video’s for clients to earn a little bit of money.

PICTURES

The Palm seen from the Netherlands Consul

At the consul with the people from Dubai Municipality & Consul-General

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18 December 201619 December 2016 by Wiebe

Day 276 & 277 | The normal life.

Day 276 | Thursday December 15

Today was another practical day. Jan Willem insisted that we would need to clean the car. It was dirty, covered with dust but I would have left it like that if it was not that JW kept pushing. So we literally took everything out of the car, this was the first time this trip. At a fuel station they cleaned the car from inside and outside.

Not only needed the car be clean but myself too. Jan Willem is celebrating his birthday tomorrow and arranged a VIP-table at a club. With my sneakers I wouldn’t be allowed so he got me some new ‘decent’ shoes. I’m Dubai proof now.

Day 277 | Friday December 16

Today was all about the birthday off my Dutch host Jan Willem. His official birthday is tomorrow but as one of his favorite DJ’s was playing tonight so he threw a party today. In UAE the weekend is on Friday and Saturday, were it’s Thursday and Friday in Iran. Saturday and Sunday in Europe so it’s getting a bit confusing.

Landmark of Dubai
In the morning I drove to the Burj Al-Arab. It’s that huge hotel on this island in the shape of a sail ship. Probably the most famous hotel in the world. I wanted to get a picture with me and the car to have proof that I’m in the city. When I stopped at the boulevard a lot of interested tourists from different countries approached me to hear my story. An Indian couple even supported me with an ice-cream!

Bidi Bondi
So we started celebrating around noon at Bidi Bondi, a pub below the apartment of Jan Willem. Bidi Bondi is an Ozzie bar, you can watch Rugby or other sports here and they serve Tooheys which is my favorite beer.

First I had a meeting with a journalist from BNN (a Dutch tv & radio channel) he heard about me and wanted to do a short interview for a radio program on Saturday night. You can listen to it here: it’s on hour 2 and from the 6:30 mark on december 18.

Party Time!

At night we went to the Provocateur, one of the many nightclubs in the city. Sven Vath was playing which is a German techno DJ and legend. I really missed a good party, I didn’t have much this trip and the last time I had a good night out was… I seriously can’t remember anymore so it was definitely party time for me! Of course I needed to dress properly which felt a bit weird when going to a techno party.

So the club was nice decorated and very fancy. We had our own private table which I never had before. Private bartenders were constantly making drinks for us and even at the toilets there were people who opened the tap for you when you wanted to wash hands. A bit too much service and luxury than I’m used to for me but definitely special to experience.

Jan Willem brought some Dutch friends and most of them already heard about me on Facebook or from other people. Good news travels fast 😉

The night was perfect. Sven played a good set and it was great to have a decent party after all those months. This trip is so diverse. Only a few weeks ago I was eating traditional food on the floors of clay-made houses in the Iranian desert and now I am living this luxurious life: eating steaks on rooftop bars and having VIP tables in fancy night clubs, very interesting!

PICTURES

In front of the Burj

The crew

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15 December 201615 December 2016 by Wiebe

BlindSquare

Blindsquare is an application for blind and visually impaired people. The app uses open data and a speech synthesizer so it can tell the user about places around them. It will tell the user the name of the street in which they are walking and names of the intersections the pass. Before this app blind people needed to count the intersections they are crossing to find the way to their destination.

The app is not a replacement for the white cane or guide dog but an addition which makes the environment of the user more visible. One user said “with Blindsquare streets got names”.

Other features of the app include information about historical places, the number of the bus that is arriving, locations of restaurants and shops and it can even tell the user when an electric car passes by as they can’t hear that coming. With the use of Apple IBeacons it is possible to find directions inside places, for example shopping malls.

BlindSquare – Painting a picture of the world through sound

See this video for an explanation of how it works for the user

The app was created by Ilkka Pirttimaa from Helsinki Finland, an application developer. To develop his app he uses information from his community. 70 blind people from 20 different countries provide him with feedback and Ilkka uses this information to improve his app. Not only does his community provide practical information but he also gets a lot of positive reactions from the them as they say Blindsquare changed their life’s completely. One remarkable story comes from a user who visited a swimming pool. Users of the app ‘Foursquare’ added all the locations and names of the slides. Blindsquare uses this information and now the user could find all the attractions inside the waterpark.

Watch the full interview with Ilkka Pirttimaa:

Interview | BlindSquare

Watch the short explainer video about Blindsquare:

BlindSquare | Pioneering accessible navigation – indoors and outdoors

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15 December 201619 December 2016 by Wiebe

Day 275 | First day in Dubai

Day 275 | Wednesday December 14

The first real day in Dubai. We had to sort out some practical stuff like getting a SIM card, a pass for the tollways and other small issues.

When we got to the car in the morning (which was parked in the apartment’s garage) we found out someone had pulled the plug. Jan Willem talked to the security and they told it was not allowed as the electricity is shared here. We had to drive to another place to talk about it from where we were sent to another place. We would do that later. The car was fully charged tough so no problems for today.

At the Marina Mall Jan Willem sponsored me with a SIM card so now I can be always online and make phone calls etc in the UAE. Because that’s what you can do with a SIM card. Be sure to follow me on Instagram because I’m posting a lot of photos and videos during the whole day and everyday at Insta Moments.

Introduction to Dubai
JW wanted to give me a ‘proper’ introduction to the city so we had lunch at the Dubai Marina. The Marina is a district in one of the centers of Dubai. Like almost every district in Dubai this area is completely man-made. They had to dig out the canals and harbor and it’s the biggest watersport and living project in the world.

We had lunch at Pier 7 with a beautiful look-out over the Marina. For me it’s a culture shock. The past 5 weeks I was eating traditional lunches on the floor of clay-made houses in rural areas of Iran and now I am in the middle of this luxury life. Greg, a friend and business partner of JW joined us and we had some interesting talks about the city.

Global EVRT
In the afternoon I had a meeting with the guys from Global EVRT (Electric Vehicle Road Trip). They heard about my project and invited me to join the EVRT which takes place from the 29th of January till the 1st of February. It’s a road trip through all the 7 emirates with only fully electric cars. During the 3 days many events and congresses are organized to promote sustainable mobility. Today we met each other to introduce ourselves and talk about our projects. The guys are all very passionate about electric cars and it’s potential. We have a lot of matching goals so it is very interesting for me to join this tour.

Stunning views at the Marina
After the meeting I headed back to Pier 7 were the guys were still eating and enjoying themselves. Later we moved to a bar on the roof of the building. While I already had a nice view on the 4th floor it got even more stunning here. It’s unbelievable how big and fancy everything is here. Around midnight we called it a night.

PICTURES

Lunch with JW & Greg

The view from restaurant.

The Marina

Something went wrong here but I like it.

The Marina

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15 December 201619 December 2016 by Wiebe

Day 274 | Entering the Emirates

Day 274 | Tuesday December 13

After a few weeks of silence on this blog I am back. Due to some restrictions in Iran I was not allowed to publish articles about my adventures in this country. I can say that I had the time of my life here. Iran’s nature is beautiful, there were many things to do but what made it really special was the people I’ve met here. Everywhere I came I was welcomed with open arms, people are very hospitable and kind and it was a very unique and unforgettable experience to be here.

On Monday evening I got on a ferry from Bandar Abbas, a city on the Persian Gulf. At 9 in the morning the ship arrived at Port Khalid in Sharjah, 50km from Dubai. I could almost not hold my eyes open as I didn’t close them much last night. Even tough I had 3 chairs for myself which I fully used, these Iranians like to snore a lot which kept me awake.

It was not until 11 that we were allowed to disembark. First the woman were ‘released’, than the containers and eventually the man. A weird process. With a bus we were taken the the passport control, for Dutch citizens they offer a free visa on arrival which is valid for 90 days. They seem to be nice for Europeans, all the Iranians needed to get their eyes checked, we didn’t need to do that. Probably they know about the good quality of carrots in Europe.

Custom-checks
After the passport-check a long and unclear process followed. First we needed to wait for the shipper. I am talking about ‘we’ as I met some other Europeans who were traveling by car as well. A German couple with a huge truck, an Austrian couple with a van and a French couple. I needed to pay the shipper 410 dirham, which is around 100 euro. Luckily I have some money now and could use the ATM again. Than there was a long process of document-checks, stamp here, stamp there, signature at another office and back again. I don’t know how many kilometers I walked today but I burned a lot of calories.

It was not until 4pm that I finally got to see the car. I worried a lot about her condition. The car already shipped separately from me and left already on Sunday. The car is very low and I already saw that the ramp to and off the ferry was very steep and the car could not have made this. The batteries are underneath the car and if these hit an object it can get seriously damaged. From the outside she looked great and on the display I couldn’t find any abnormalities about the inside so she seemed to have survived without a scratch. When I received the keys to the car I still couldn’t leave the port. The car needed to go through an X-Ray scanner. Just like when you break you leg but a few sizes bigger. After this I got another stamp and could pick up my exit-pass. When I left the gate it was 5pm. Just when I passed the gate I realized I had left luggage in the office of the shipper. I was not allowed back into the harbor with the car so I needed to walk 2km, walk back with the luggage, pass the custom-checks again and now I could really leave, another hour had passed. This day I lost about 800 dirham, which is around 200 euro. A big loss.

Entering Dubai
So I started driving towards Dubai. When I left 274 days ago I had no idea where this journey would bring me so that I arrived now in the Emirates is really something special. The highway to the center of the city was exactly what I expected: huge skyscrapers on both sides, posh cars passing me and flashy LED lights everywhere.

My host for today and the coming days in Jan Willem, a Dutchie. I got in touch with him through a friend from Haarlem who works as cabin crew for Emirates here and is flying at the moment. My host lives at the famous Palm Island, you know the island in the shape of a palmtree. For me this was always something unreachable as it’s bloody expensive and far away. Very special that I’m spending a few days here.

My new host
Around 7 I rang Jan Willem’s doorbell. He is a friendly guy and works for a Dutch investment company. He has a housemate, Andrew, a 54 year old. The apartments here are luxurious, seriously luxurious. Each building has a supermarket, gym, beach, spa, some stores and a restaurant. In this restaurant we had a great dinner and a cold beer. That last one especially made me happy since I didn’t had that for many weeks.

Here in The Emirates are no filters on social media and the internet connection is very fast here. From now one you will see daily updates on this website and my socials like you were used too.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.357717747770627.1073741829.211949022347501/573978062811260/?type=3&theater

The plan for Dubai
About the coming period. I need to find a way to ship the car to India which is very expensive and I don’t have the money for that at the moment. In the coming days I have some meetings with companies and I’m hoping they are interested in sponsoring this. If not I would need to start a crowdfunding campaign or find a job to earn the money. Also I had a request to join an event about electric cars which takes place at the end of January, I havent decided yet if I will join but it seems very interesting.
In eater way I am going to be in Dubai for a few weeks as there is also a lot going on sustainability wise. This part didn’t really work out in the past few countries so I will pay some more attention to that.

PICTURES

This is were I found the car at the port.

Luckily she didn't end up as this car.

The view from Jan Willem's Apartment

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5 November 20165 November 2016 by Wiebe

Day 232 – 235 | Winter has come

Day 232 | Tuesday November 1

When I looked out the window of my hotelroom in the morning I was very surprised. The whole city had turned white, since the morning it had been snowing heavily. I thought it was very ironically as I had been in a rush the last 2 months to make it before the first of November into Iran because I was afraid of snow and exactly today it started snowing.

I opened my laptop and received some very good news. The company of which I thought had scammed me delivered the authorization code for the Iran visa! Strange but great experience. This means I could now pick up the visa in Erzurum, thats about 300km back. While it’s freezing though the car’s range will drop with 20-30% and while driving through the mountains it will get even less.

I headed back to Cafe Pera were the car was charging. I wanted to pick it up and drive to Agri were I found a couchsurfing host. At the cafe they disconnected the cable during the night so it was not fully charged yet. Around 3pm the electricity in the entire city went out. I had 93% so I wanted to tame my chances, it was just a 100km drive.

It was hard to get out of the city with all that snow but once on the highway it was allright. Things changes when it got dark, it started snowing heavy. I couldn’t see much and it got so cold. I didn’t turn on the heater as that takes to much energy and I would get even less range, the windows got blurred and with a wiper I tried to keep visibility. The range dropped quickly and the next petrol station was 50km away. I have to say this drive was one of the scariest things in my life, not exaggerating. I had no winter tires and sometimes I slipped a bit. I was lucky to reach the petrol station and I could recharge there. At that moment it stopped snowing and after and one hour later I jumped back into the car and reached my host around 9pm. My host was Bora, a 22 year old PHD student. Nice guy with a nice clean house. A vlog about this day will come in the following days.

Day 233 | Wednesday November 2

Bora needed to drive from Agri to Erzurum today. I thought this was perfect as I didnt need to drive to the snow and ice. It could also safe me a day as I could hitchhike back to Agri, pick up te car and drive straight to Dogubeyazit.

We reached Erzurum in the afternoon and the Iranian consulate just closed, so needed to come back in the morning. I contacted a guy on Couchsurfing, he couldn’t host me myself but contacted Ali, a friend of his and he was happy to welcome me. Ali was a English student and lived in an student apartment with 2 other guys, Ferhat and Mehmet. All really nice guys who made some Turkish food and played some traditional music on the guitar.

Day 234 | Thursday November 3

In the morning Ferhat and Mehmet helped me getting around in the city. We went to the consul and I showed them my papers, payed the visa and walked out the consulate happy. I told the guys that I wanted to hitchhike back to Agri but they wouldn’t let me. They were afraid something would happen and especially with the cold it was not the best timing. So they booked me a busticket. Around 6pm I got back to Agri and wanted to take the car. There was still snow next to the road but the roads self were ice-free and safe to drive.

Unfortunately the car didn’t start, probably because of the low temperatures, it was -13 (!!!). This was the first time it happened and didn’t know what to do. At a nearby hotel I asked if I could use wifi to contact Wim, the car-specialist from Custom Cars. When I explained the problem to the owner of the hotel he immediately offered me a room. I told him I really wanted to reach Dogubeyazit but he insisted and gave me a small tour, the hotel had a hamman, swimming pool fitness room and more so it started to get tempting. I couldn’t reach Wim at that moment so decided to take the offer.

A few hours later I went back to the car and it started somehow. Wim told me it was wise to connect it to the grid so the batteries would warm up.

I went for a dive in the Grand Cenas Hotel and relaxed a bit in the Haman. Deniz, the owner of the hotel invited me for dinner, introduced me to his friends and gave me a short tour through town.

Day 235 | Friday November 4

After a delicious breakfast and morning swim it was hard to leave, and it got very hard as I found out the temperature was still -14, by day! Deniz advised me to leave around 2pm, which I did. It was interesting to see how fast it got warmer, every 10km about 1 u, degree more. Today I wanted to reach Maku, just 15km after the Iranian border were Ali found me a place to stay. Still it was exciting if I could reach that. I need one recharge to get to Dogubeyazit were I met the guys from the cafe again and after a short stop I reached the Iranian border. I expected a thorough search through the car but they only opened the rear door and it was oke. It took some time to handle the documents needed to get into the country and in total the border crossing took one hour.

So now I am in Iran. The country has a strict policy when it comes to blogging and as I respect that I won’t write anything about the country. I do will post regular pictures and stories on all my social media pages so be sure to follow!

PICTURES

Winter has come in Dogu

The guys in Eruzurum

Charging at the hotel

Deniz, the man

Taking a dive

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2 November 2016 by Wiebe

Day 231 | To Iran?

Day 231 | Monday October 31

After early breakfast I went into to city to make the final arrangements before entering Iran. I needed to exchange euro’s to Rial (the currency in Iran) but no banks or exchange offices could do this. There was no other option than hoping that they would accept euro’s at the border.

From Dogubeyazit it was only 25km to the border. There was at least an 8km line for trucks and it didn’t seem to be moving. Luckily passenger cars could pass the que. At the exit of Turkey they raised some eyebrows because I didn’t had the Iranian visa in my passport. I told them I heard it was possible to get it at the border but they all said it wasn’t. They would let me try. At the gate a Turkish man warned me again and he talked to a Iranian official on the other side. They confirmed that it was not possible to get a visa on arrival at this border. Damn!

It was a big let down but what can I do? I knew it was not sure and I took the risk. No other option than head back to Dogu and research the possibilities. I went back to Cafe Pera were Murat took me yesterday. They had a decent internet connection so I contacted Ali. He has been helping me a lot, planning the route and connecting me with people on the way. He asked me to send my documents and he would try to arrange a letter of invitation. He also told me that the weather won’t be a problem in the coming weeks and when I will go down from Teheran it will be hot so no problems at all from there.

I spend all day at the cafe and met some of the people who worked there. All very kind people. Mostly young people who had married when they were already 15 years of age and now all had big families, which was hard for me to understand. For them it was hard to understand that I was 29 and single.

They introduced me to a guy who is a poet and theater maker. He spoke fluent English so the guys used him as a translator but later we would have an interesting conversation. He stayed for a few months in Holland were he performed the Kurdish version of Hamlet which he translated. He told me a lot about the history of Kurdistan, the oppression they faced and how it will be in the future. Everyone lost a lot of friends and family in the last years. Even today there is a war going on in the southern part of Kurdistan. They have hope that within 5 years the Kurds will get their territory back and it will be separated from Turkey.

My host Murat from yesterday couldn’t host me today but the guys from the cafe had a friend at a hotel and I could stay there. Great how everyone is helping me here.

PICTURES

Dogubeyazit

Storage?

The view from 5th floor

Dogubeyazit with the mountain in the back

My host Murat

They see me rollin'

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1 November 20161 November 2016 by Wiebe

Day 229 – 230 | To Kurdistan

Day 229 | Saturday October 29

As I had arranged most things it was time to leave Erzurum. Some days I already found a place to stay with CouchSurfing in Dogubeyazit, which is the last town before the border with Iran. Now this is 270km from Erzurum. There have been days that I would make a distance like this with recharging on the way but on Google Maps I saw that I had to pass mountains and the temperatures were very low. With my experience on the way to Erzurum I learned it would be a tough challenge. On the way to Dogubeyazit were 3 cities. The first one Horasan, just 80km away, the second one Eleskirt 150km away, which was already a risk and the last one Agri 180km.

When I reached Horasan I used just 30% (which is less than average) and the conditions were ok. I could have the risk that I needed to climb a lot in the next stage but wanted to take my chances.

In my previous blog I wrote that the route to Erzurum was the most beautiful route I had taken so far, today I can say that again. The sights here are unbelievable. While I had to climd some mountains I was surprised that I arrived in Eleskirt with 30% left, while I did 160km. I regained energy when going down the hills. I could reach Agri but this city was smaller and thought I would have more chance of finding something here.

Now the challenge was to find a place to stay and some food, I didn’t eat anything since breakfast yesterday morning. Eleskirt is tiny, around 10.000 citizens and when I stopped the car immediately some guys welcomed me and offered me some Chai (traditional Turkish tea). They didn’t speak English but with some sign language they understood I was looking for a place to stay and charge. They showed me where I could find hotels but I couldn’t make them clear that I was hoping to find a local. I walked around the town and started peaking to people and every time I made the sleeping sign they pointed at the hotel. For the next time I need to find another approach. It was getting late and as I had some money from my mother left I decided to check what the hotel would cost me. It was 60 Lire and that was exactly the amount I had left. As I didn’t expect to make other expenses I thought it was a good way to spend it. Dinner was not included but I was not really hungry. I have been taken some Flinndal supplements lately, maybe that’s the reason.

Day 230 | Sunday October 30

From Eleskirt it was 30km to Agri, the last city before Iran and I wanted to go there to withdraw the other 300 euro. I went looking for an ATM which offered euro’s but couldn’t find any. In Erzurum it was possible at Tep Bank and on Google I already saw that they had one here but they told me it had been closed permanently. After an hour searching I decided I would withdraw the amount in Lire and exchange it to Rial in Dogubeyazit tomorrow as today (Sunday) the banks were closed.

Than I drove to Dogubeyazit. My CouchSurfing host Murat told me I had to come to Isha Pasha Place, I had no idea where or what this was and when I arrived in the city I asked a local. He was pointing at a hill and signed me he would drive with me to take me there, so nice the people here. We drove outside the city and climbed some mountains. After some minutes we stopped at a castle/ mosque/ church. The sights from there were unbelievable pretty again but I had the feeling I was in the wrong place as I expected a square in the city were he woud live.

I showed the guy who was with me the picture of Murat on whatsapp and he laughed, he told me to come with me and at the entrance Murat was there. Apparently he was a guide here and this place was called Ishak Pasha Palace, a typo.

The Ishak Pasha palace is an Ottoman-period palace whose construction was started in 1685 by Colak Abdi Pasha, the bey of Beyazit province, continued by his son İshak Pasha and completed by his grandson Mehmet Pasha. According to the inscription on its door, the Harem Section of the palace was completed by his grandson Ishak (Isaac) Pasha in 1784. The Ishak Pasha Palace is a rare example of the historical Turkish palaces and was depicted on the 100 Turkish Lire Note from 2005-2009.

When it got dark Murat’s job was finished and we had some dinner at the security center. First meal since breakfast yesterday morning. We drove to house, a room on the 5th floor and I was afraid we couldn’t charge the car. Luckily my extension cables reached my car and this was the longest distance every to cover!

Since Erzurum I am in the Kurdistan region. Kurd’s are people with their own culture and traditions and they would rather be independent from Turkey. Many people warned me as their could be trouble in this region but so far I noticed no problems at all, only friendliness, like always.

PICTURES

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31 October 2016 by Wiebe

Day 228 | Erzurum Pt. II

Day 228 | Friday October 28

When I woke up I was surprised that I was the only one in the room, while we were with 5 when we went to bed. I thought I was alone in the house but later I would find out that Merih went to her sisters rooms as the floor was to hard for her. Fatma & Okan went to work, I was sleeping so tight that I didn’t hear them leave.

During this journey I really learn about all the cultures in different countries as I stay with locals all the time. Some things like interests and hobbies are similar in all countries but breakfast is something typical everywhere. In Turkey they start the day with a lot of Ekmek (bread), commonly mixed with french fries, yoghurt and some vegetables. They say that the breakfast is the most important meal of the day and apparently the consider french fries and bread as healthy & nutritious.

My host Merih and friend Fatma would fly to their hometown near Antalya today so we went looking for a ticket for them. I started looking for another place to stay in Erzurum. I still needed to arrange some things for the entry to Iran.

Costs

The coming period I’m going to have some expensive costs. A visa for Iran which costs between 75 and 105 euro (on every blog I read different amounts), a temporary cas insurance as my own insurance only covers the countries on the green card and Turkey is the last one for the countries to follow, price is unknown. Than I would need to take a ferry from Bandar Abbas to the Emirates, which costs around 400 USD and get a visa for this country which could be free or costs around 30 USD, I will find out at the border I guess. From the UAE I wold need to ship the car to India and this is the most expensive post: 2350 USD.

I can pay for the Iranian visa with the money I received from donations. I want to thank everyone who made a donation and I am surprised that even people who I don’t know sponsored me. At the moment I received €350,- Which is a lot of money. So far I spend €19 on the visa for Turkey, €57 to deliver the Carnet de Passage with DHL to Trabzon and 40 pound for the authorization code for the Iranian visa, which was a scam unfortunately. There is still a chance that I would get this money back as I payed with PayPal and they have a protection program.

New sponsor

Now because I knew about the costs of the shipping of the car and other costs I started looking for a sponsor already a few months ago. I am happy to announce that I found one: Detroit Electric. They are sponsoring me financials and get a logo on the car. With the money of the donations and new sponsor I would be able to reach UAE and have a bit left for the shipment to India, but not enough. That’s a headache for later though, I can stay up to 3 months in Dubai so I hope to find a nice oil sheik or fix another solution.

The deal with Detroit Electric became definitive today and that was a blessing. In Iran it’s not possible to withdraw money from ATM’s or to use a credit card. This is because of international sanctions. So today in Erzurum I withdrew €500 (which is my banks daily max) and would need to take another 300 tomorrow. This is more as I expect to expend but because of the regulations here it’s better to have some extra.

I am sharing this information as I want to be transparant about the money you (my followers) are donating me and about the costs I need to make occasionally.

Today
Back to today. I needed to find a new place to stay and my host Refik from last Thursday told me that I could come back anytime. I contacted him and he told me he would be back home around 20.30. When I got there he took me the house in the apartment, the one of the owner of the place. He (I forgot his name) used to live with his girlfriend in France but because he needed to join the Turkish army they were ripped apart and never saw each other again. His room is filled with paintings of their time together. Apparently they recently got in touch and in two months they are going to meet each other again, after 40 years! What a touching story.

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