September 12, 2009 Tatvan
A horrible horrible day. Even my hair ached complementing the ache in all of my muscles. More sweating, chills and retching. Couldn't bear the thought of eating until late afternoon when I ate a few spoons of soup and a bit of bread. Managed to keep it down so ate a little more later in the evening.
The worst part of the whole ordeal was the drive. The lack of shocks on the van and the road being under rough construction made for an extremely rough ride that upset my stomach further, made me dizzy and generally feel even worse. I don't understand why they would not work on one small portion of the road at a time but I guess that is the way things are done here. Ironically the drive was along the silk road. Felt more like courdoroy to me.
We stopped once on the way at Hasankeyf in the Batman region. It is located on the Tigris River and is an old historic city which was overrun and conquered numerous times in the past. Had I been in better shape I would have liked to explore more there but all that I saw was the area immediate to the riverside cafe where we had tea (mine loaded with sugar in hopes of keeping it down). This is one of the main crude oil production centers of Turkey, and the refinery at Batman was the first in the country.
We got to the hotel around 2:00 pm and as soon as my soup was delivered I went to bed and slept for a couple of hours. Ditto in the evening.
Off to Van in the morning and I can only hope that it is not more of the same.