Pashko and Theth

The way to Theth in the Dukagin mountains:

After 3 days of getting frustrated, sitting around in Shkoder waiting for the weather to clear so we could go to the Dukagin mountain village of Theth, an opportunity finally arose - the sky was blue, it was time to go. We couldn't go in the rain against Martine's sound advice, "ven it's ghaining you ghet sudden vaterfalls. Once a vaterfall came and turned our car overgh! I was gheally fghitened for my life!". She wasn't joking - showing us photographic evidence of the van windows covered in water, picture taken from the inside. We didn't want to take any chances.

So we set off with Pashko in his modified Mercedes van. On route he stopped off and bought us loads of veg to eat in Theth. What a safe guy! Unemployed with a wife and 3 kids he put us up in his house free of charge, gave us home cooked food, drove us to Theth, put us up there, toured us around and has agreed to drop us off at the Montenegro border. "He will feed his guests even if it means his children go hungry", Martine explained. Earlier today we gave him some money as a thank you. Guys like Pashko are rare indeed.

The drive to Theth is on a well surfaced road up to a point, then it's a rubble mountain pass with sheer drops for over an hour. It is the most spectacular drive I have been on, the most frightening and the roughest. Pashko has overtaken Indonesian 'G' as my new favourite driver in the world. Parts of the journey didn't resemble anything like a track, it was literally just rocks and cliff edge, the van getting thrown about all over the place.

When we first arrived we were swept away by the scenery, but we quickly forgot about that when we saw 2 or 3 mice scuttling around the living room! Besides that, we were warned of snakes in the countryside (we saw several on our walk today), and even more exotic, there are bears and wolves in these mountains. BEARS AND WOLVES... they're a different level of beast. Fortunately, bears stay away from people and wolves don't seem to make any daylight appearances. And Pashko's a real mountain man, rock solid guy, he's built his own house and has grown up in this village. We're not doing anything beyond what he recommends for us.

On our walk to a local waterfall it became clear, this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It is just a bit too picturesque, like it can't be real. Some of the houses are really isolated, inaccessible by car and a 15 min walk away from the next house. The main village is in a valley with 360 degree snow capped mountains around it. There is a church which opens in the summer and a campsite. Fresh mountain water flows freely, crystal clear and delicious to drink. The place does get a lot of tourists in summer as the weather picks up, both locals and from abroad, but we have snuck in just before tourist season. There are some nice photos, but as I sat on Pashko's front step watching the sun cascade through the mountain ridge illuminating the village, I knew this beauty could only dwell in my experience.

One day Pashko took us an epic hike through the mountains, armed with his AK47!! The risk of a wolf attack is real enough for him to take such a precaution. After over an hours hike up the mountain we reached an isolated abandoned house, "13 years ago a family lived here. They are now in Shkoder". The more we walked, the colder we expected it to become so we were pleasantly surprised when the rubble track became a woodland, opening out onto a meadow ~2000m high! "Very few tourists come here", Pashko informed us. Having a local guide gave us access to an Eden, a secret garden tucked away in the mountains.

Isolated house:

Mandeep with Pashko's AK:

Frolicking in the meadow:

More meadow:

"Slow slow", Pashko kept telling us. There's no rush here. No cinema, no entertainment. The main event one night was when Pashko lit a fire and what a great event that was. We all sat around it in silence, staring in wonderment at it's movement. My mind focussed on the flames, I contemplated the nature of fire. It reminded me of time - how it exists as a process, a movement, but not as a substance. We can't capture fire like we can't capture time but it is definitely there. Earlier while staring at a waterfall the same thoughts arose, as did the following poem:

Time flows like a waterfall
Relentless, it doesn't stop
We only perceive movement
Unable to see a singular drop

By the waterfall I search for stillness
I yearn for such a place
Where I can dwell in the eternal moment
And I am free from time's embrace

The road to Theth is currently being surfaced and we've spotted 3 guest houses in construction. The rubble track kept Theth isolated, a well surfaced road will bring it much closer to the city. We wonder how Theth will change as tourism increases. Martine has strong views on the impact of globalisation on the Dukagin mountain communities. As an anthropologist, she wants to see their culture preserved. "It is not just that the change is happening so fast, but also that it is detaching them from their cultural identity and leading to psychological issues." The last 300 years has seen the largest and fastest change to humanity as a whole than any other period in history. Martine believes, and I agree that we are not equipped psychologically to deal with such change.

Everything came together

We travelled from Athens to Shkoder in north Albania over 2 days via bus, as per Eleni's recommendation. We were surprised to see how genuinely friendly the Albanian people were when we arrived, stopping us in the street to ask us for help, giving us directions. In Morocco any help from locals is followed by a request for money, not in Albania!

Our first night was in a hostel where we met Truman, a Taiwanese guy who's making his way to Taiwan... OVER LAND! Go on, have a look at a map right now. Albania to Taiwan is well far. He asked us loads of questions about Asian culture which we tried our best to answer. I'm usually the one asking all the questions, but as Truman has few south Asian friends it gave us the opportunity to give him some cultural insight. He has such a great smile - I wish we had a picture of us together.

From the 2nd night onwards we arranged to stay with a child psychologist and music therapist called Martine as she lives in the mountains. Our first contact with her over the phone was surreal... amidst the poor line and the strong french accent I heard a voice say, "YOU VILL STAY VITH VEEGHAPEESHA WIFE OF PASHKO. HERE IS HER NUMBER. YOU VILL RING HER AFTER SREE. SHE WILL MEET YOU SREE AND HALF. SHE IS ZE WIFE OF PASHKO. PASHKO IS VITH ME IN MOUNTAIN BUILDING HOUSE. HE IS OK FOR YOU STAY WITH VEEGHA."

Martine:

Veera:

Pashko:

So until sree and half me and Mandeep were completely clueless about what was actually going on. We met up with Veera who was really lovely, offering us use of her shower and making us lavender tea, but that was about the limit of her English. She said Martine is coming in 2 and a half hours, so we sat and waited in Veera's living room, allowing our imaginations to predict what was going to happen - were we going to the mountain to build with Pashko, were we eventually going to Martine's house and just waiting for her at Veera's?

When Martine and Pashko turned up at about 8pm things started to become clearer... sort of. Martine is a child psychologist by profession who worked in Kosovo during and immediately after the war. She came over to Albania to work with children with psychological issues. Realising the importance of cultural factors in therapeutic treatments, she began studying anthropology, all her professional interests coming together in the discipline of ethnopsychology. Veera, Pashko and their 3 kids have become like family to Martine, they live and work together and are currently building a house in the Mountain community Pashko grew up in (the village of Theth).

Over the last 5 years Martine has completely assimilated with the Albanian people. She has learnt their language and studied their customs, particularly the mountain people. Her anthropological work is intimately tied to her personal desire to help the people - it is very clearly more than just a profession. Such an interesting character, I was excited at the prospect of learning from her except that I found her personality difficult to click with. She talks a lot and seems to have an insensitivity to what we say (ironic as she's s psychotherapist). It's all just a bit full on, yet at the same time she has really strived to show us round town, introduced us to people, helped us find information etc. And while reading her thesis I was struck by her sensitivity to the local people and her mission to preserve their culture amidst the onslaught of aggressive globalisation. She has obviously lived some remarkable experiences, but our incompatibility as communicators left me frustrated - so close to a wealth of knowledge yet left waiting at the door. I found her company increasingly tiresome until it all came together last night. As we have integrated into the family, we have become exposed to the family life - warts n all. During a dispute between Martine and Pashko i realised that Martine has sensitivity, that certain things hurt her feelings and she has love for her friends. Somehow, in that moment, all my frustration with her, with my inability to derive knowledge from her left and I was overcome with a contented acceptance. She is how she is, i am how i am and she has a good heart, this is what matters. We must learn to love each other! Everything came together and I felt I learnt an important lesson.

It is difficult to explain
It may sound mundane
But profound character change
May come through events, seemingly plain.

For every step is important
Every moment is gleaming
Where the fool finds insignificance
The wise find meaning.

Below: delicious Albanian sweet - Tri lech (not sure about spelling) tastes like bread and butter pudding

View from Rozafa fortress to Montenegro:

our route to albania:

Athens

Above: The route we took from Samos to Athens

We were warned before entering Greece about the significant levels of racism there. Our host Eleni confirmed those rumors. A keen follower of left wing politics since the 80s, she told us how the Greek Nazis received 7% of the votes in the last election - way too many. Asian immigrants have settled in Greece hoping for a better life and unfortunately they have been subject to much abuse and physical attacks over the last 2 years, "There are incidents where nationalists have entered an immigrant neighbourhood and threatened to destroy the local shop if the business doesn't shut down within a week, and they kept their word. There was another situation where nationalists wanted a particular park to be closed to non-Greeks." Such stories of apartheid like politics are worrying, but what was really frightening was when it came to light that the police complied with the nationalists by deliberately turning a blind eye to such violent incidents. Things came to a head last year when a Greek singer was somehow killed amongst the violence, tensions have since calmed.

Maybe it was all in our head, but we felt people looked at us like some sort of museum exhibit while we were on the ferry across the Greek islands. One man asked us in passing where we are from, when we said UK he just walked off. No conversation, no hello, nothing. When we entered Athens we were put off by a few things. 70% of the population smoke and there are a surprisingly large number of strip clubs and adult stores throughout the city.

So we weren't expecting to meet some of the kindest people we have encountered on our trip in Athens, but that is exactly what happened! Eleni and Kyriakos really went out of their way to make us feel welcome. Kyriakos embarrassed us with his kindness. He picked us up from the city centre, paid for drinks and snacks, showed us around the centre of Athens, arranged our onward transport and dropped us off at the bus station . We were no where near that safe at 23 years old, in fact we still aren't! I'm looking forward to attempting to return the favor when him and his girlfriend Constantina come to the UK in October.

From left: Constantina, Kyriakos

Eleni gave up her room for us to sleep in, let us borrow her car and guided us on hike around Imitos hill, on the outskirts of Athens. 

Her house was full of wayfarers while we were there. There was Rusgard, a Turkish man who is cycling from Istanbul to Amsterdam via Athens. We had Suranga, a Sri-Lankan who has been raised in Italy. Film maker, on the way from Italy to Sri Lanka via... wait for it... Afghanistan. And there was Clara from the Czech Republic, a yoga teacher travelling from Sri Lanka (coincidence). It was our pleasure to cook for everyone while we were there, even if it was a bit too gingery :-)

From left: Rosgard, Suranga, Eleni, Clara

It was really interesting to here first hand about post financial collapse Greece through Eleni.

With a population of 10 million, we were surprised to learn that half of that is based in Athens alone. Eleni explained, "In the 60s / 70s many Greek people moved out of the countryside into the city. Now the trend has reversed as rising unemployment is driving people back to agriculture." Unemployment is high at around 30% but in Greece the state provides financial help for one year only - even if you have children. After that people are left to fend for themselves which usually means seeking support from family and friends. This kind of works as the older generation have good (albeit reduced) pensions, they can support the 30+ year olds. When today's children grow up they won't have the same privilege as their parents are not working now. Eleni is losing hope, "every year we think it could get better but it is only getting worse." Desperation easily leads to corruption, we learnt that it is common practice in Greece for doctors to take underhand payments on top of medical insurance payouts to perform operations.

As the Greek economy doesn't really produce anything, I asked what schemes the government is proposing to alleviate the crisis. "The idea is to invest in tourism, to build large casinos and tourist accommodation. They are have also reduced the minimum wage by 20%. The government wants to attract foreign investors by providing cheap labour." Eleni doesn't like the ideas, "they are going to destroy everything that made Greece beautiful." Once we started talking about IMF payouts to boost the economy, we got onto the subject of world banks and the money printing monopoly. I don't know if I will write a blog on this topic as it is something I do not fully understand but as far as I see it it is the most extensive global injustice that remains un-noticed by everyday people.

Below: wild turtle on our hike

Panorama of Athens from Imitos hill

Leaving Turkey, around Samos

It was a short boat ride into Europe from Turkey. Strange how it's another continent, another country, different laws and customs yet so close geographically.

In Samos we took our hire car into the national park and were confronted with some sublime scenes. The vibe in Kokkari where we spent the night was so mellow, by the sea, really quiet and chilled, everything painted in pastel shades. 

Below: our car by the motorbike 

Maybe Cyprus made us more sensitive. As soon as we got out the car we felt instantly calm, taking in the energy of the village. Surely, we are not separate from the world around us. How can certain colours make us feel calm, landscapes make us feel awe and cities make us feel rushed if we are separate from our surroundings? Energies flow around around and throughout as we move across the land. We may detect the vibe of a place and affect it with our presence. We can also affect our own vibe by changing our conscious environment through meditation or zikr. One who has mastered this may have the power to change the vibe of entire cities, become energy transformers and spreading positivity wherever they go. For weak ones like us, it is better to keep our surroundings such that lend to harmony of being, and Samos definitely fits the bill.

Below: the view from Vourliotes village, Samos.

Vourliotes village square

Walk in the national park

A for effort. A for Ali

We've met a couple of really kind people on our travels. Selim is an entrepeneur based in Antalya who is currently designing Turkish built carbon fibre bicycles. He helped us get onto the tram in Antalya, even paying for our tickets! When we alighted he showed us to our hotel, purely out of kindness. We have become weary of 'kindness' people show tourists - where they expect money afterwards, but Selim was the real deal. Probably helps that he was a member of Couch surfing - the organisation we use to meet / stay with local people wherever we go. Couch surfers tend to be safe like that.

As I mentioned earlier our bus rocked into Kusadasi at 2.30am and Ali our host warmly received us, coming out to meet us at that time of morning! That is well safe. The following day we cooked dinner for him, and the day after he cooked for us. He gave us keys to his place so we could come and go as we pleased. It was lovely to be able to go to the local market, buy ingredients and cook up some food. Integrating with the locals, we gain insight into local culture rather than just wondering around sight seeing, or staying in an artificial environment completely alien to how locals live. Over food we spoke about the Turkish uprising, about religion and life.

We were well rested before we left Kusadasi and very greatful to Ali for his friendship and hospitality.

below, Ali

the view from Ali's living room

 sunset from Ali's window

 local fisherman

 dinner with Ali

Remember that time we stayed in Girne? Transport fails on the way to Kusadasi

The plan was to get from Cyprus to west Turkey so we could hop over some Greek islands to get into mainland Europe. With our no-flights rule, this meant catching a boat from the port town of Girne in Cyprus (pronounced Girrnay). 

We'd checked and found a fast boat that left on Sunday morning at 11am. Having said our goodbyes, we caught a couple of shared taxis in time for the ferry... except there was no ferry! The harbour was deserted, local security informed us that the next boat to Turkey was leaving the following night at midnight, the timetable we checked was for high season only which begins in May. Right, so looks like we're spending the night in Girne (such a great word - Girrrnay).

We were pretty hungry and tired at this point, wondering around Girne thinking what to do. To make things worse I got chased by a wild dog! We eventually checked into a hotel and got acquainted with the Pakistani manager who really couldn't figure us out. "So you're Pakistani, she's Indian, but she doesn't speak Urdu... and you're married..."

We took the next boat to Turkey, slept in a cabin through the whole thing. There was another snag with the boat. The original one we wanted would have taken 3.5 hours to get to Alanya. The one we had to take was an 8 hour slow overnight boat to Tasucu (tashuju), which is quite a bit more eastern which meant a longer journey to west Turkey. We were aiming for the port town of Kusadasi, on the west coast of Turkey. It's about 20 hours of coach ride from Tasucu so we took a break in Antalya which falls roughly half way between.

While we were in Antalya we through it'd be nice to see our cousins K-Money and Ms Sheen. 

Those cats were holidaying it up in Lara beach, holding things down. Afternoon came and it was time to catch our onward transport to Kusadasi, the Turkish port town which serves as a gateway to the Greek islands. Mandeep found a 5 and a half hour bus that would get us straight there, so we boarded. Just before we set off we asked the driver for our piece of mind, how long will we be on this bus?' He replied 7.5 hours - another transport fail. Lesson for future, always check details BEFORE you board. What's worse, it wasn't even going to Kusadasi, it was going to Izmir, a big city 1.5 hours away from Kusadasi! It was 2.30 am by the time we arrived in Kusadasi, absolutely exhausted! We'd racked up 21 hours of bus travel in 2 days!

Below: the route we took in Turkey

Guesthouse breakfast

Remember I mentioned the ladies Guesthouse breakfast was pretty spectacular in Cyprus? Mandeep sent me this picture to prove it. It'd take 4 or 5 people 3 hours to whip up this feast! Have a look at this..

And some miscellaneous pictures from Cyprus