Day 140 Aug 27 Mon - A Visit to Tourist spot in Trabzon , Sumela Monastery

Turkish currencies My 2nd haircut since Urumqi

Alpine forest

Sumela Monastry viewed from the way down
Bridge over a river
Many of this yellow flower seen on the way down

These 2 pretty ladies were busy video shooting while I quickly took a picture of them


Foot path on the way down

Wood ceiling
Rock ceiling
Ceiling painting

Sumela Monastry picture from the booklet

Rock footpath evenly laid
Nice spot to view but one silly mistake you are gone.....

Flying fox only for transporting building materials
Tourist

Entrance of Sumela Monastry at the foothill
Good to get away from the bike and relex up here
A rest stop on the way up on foot path
Looking up to the Monastry from the bottom
Top view of river flowing in the valley

Today's Temp: 22- 26 c
Today's spending: 70 ytl
Total Distance to date: 9040km
Total spending to date:110 ytl

2nd day in Trabzon,we took a mini bus to a famous tourist spot up into the Alpine mountain forest of Sumela Monastery,located 46km south of Trabzon To /flo bus fare cost 15 ytl and another 5 ytl for entrance fee. The Sumela Monastery was built on a very steep cliff limestone rock mountain above 1200m and it took us half an hour to walk up the beautiful rockstone path from the foothill to the top.There were some old painting on the rock ceilings / walls but mostly had been badly scratched and painted surface fallen off. On the way down, we took the longer car way as we thought we still have much time left and at the same time enjoy a different view, but were rainsoaked by thunderstorm ,luckily a car stopped and gave us a lift to the foothill. I am glad to have visited Sumela Monastery, I am sure anyone who loves mountain views with alpine forest and rivers , will think the same. WE were back to Trabzon by 4 pm and later I went for a haircut and blackening for 20 ytl

Day 139 Aug 26 Sun -- Trabzon,Turkey Falling in Love on our very First Day

Beer Time
Shoe polish at the street with colorful polishing paste in little bottles
Turkish tea with the same glass and plate everywhere
A bike shop helps me to fine tune my gears alignment and offered a glass of turkish tea for free
Looks good but taste wise still can't beat Malaysia

Hotel Usta just opposite of Evim where Heather got a signal for her laptop
kebab,roast chicken etc...etc...
Foods on display looks very much the same as Mamak stall in Malaysia but not that spicy

Cobblestones streets

Empty seat and Bar section closed, really hard to maintain for the shipping company
Trabzon port with a huge mountain at the background
Princess Victoria
We are now into our 5th country - Turkey
Otel Evim 30 ytl or 20 usd for a double bed aircon room, reasonable price

Today's Distance: 4 km
Today's Temp: 25 -- 30c
Today's spending: 40 ytl { 1 ytl = Rm 2.80 }
Total Distance to date: 9040 km
Total spending to date: 40 ytl

It was probably good not to ride on our bikes for a day or two and go on a different mode of transport - FERRY ! The ferry named Princess Victoria,a Turkish shipping company must be hard pressed to maintain the service,judging from the very few at the most 100 passengers on board as compared to it's capacity. Many seats were in fact empty,one or two deck were closed including the Bar section, which only served hot coffee and drinks.Luckily Heather bought a whole roasted chicken to fill our stomach. The ship left Sochi at 10pm and arrived in Trabzon at 9am . Turkey is one hour behind Russia time, so total time on ship is 12 hours over a sea distance of 300km. Entry into Turkey immigration was pretty smooth without having our panniers out for checking. As holder of a Malaysian Pasport,I was granted a 30 days free entry while Heather, an Australian needs to buy a 20 usd visa stamp. We changed to our cycling outfit in the toilet and rode up a steep slope about 1.5km into the town.We were surprised and happy to see a complete different scenario as compared to Sochi. So many shops,stalls,foods .hotels , mini buses,peoples everywhere. The town looks so orient,colorful and full of live, roads and lanes laid with cobble stones looks very much in Europe now, We know, we gonna enjoy ourself here in Turkey and looking forward to the ride ahead.

Day 138 Aug 25 Sat Goodbye Russia and Welcome Trabzon,Turkey

Sunrise on the Black Sea

Met a couple from Turkey

Real eagle for tourist to take picture for a fee
Sea side beach in Sochi

Not many people waiting for the ship
Goodbye Sochi,Russia

Today's spending: 591 rur
Total Distance to date: 9036 km
Total spending to date: 10282 rur

As the ferry only leave Trabzon at 1800hr,we spent our morning and afternoon in internet after checkout from Hotel at noon .I still left about 200 rur to do a last minute shopping while Heather bought a whole roasted chicken. We wheeled our bikes to a gate and saw a group of about 60-80 peoples already waiting,we asked whether this is the place to board the ship,a woman answered "yes ! what time the ship come we don't know" True enough,we waited outside the gate from 5 - 8.30pm. And when finally the gate opened,a few policemen were there to check the document,we were again stopped eventhough we have a paper registration from Hotel Moscow/They demamded 50 usd each but we again applied the same tactic,ignored them and sat aside. Waiting game starts, Heather again pullout her handset pretend to call,the situation became tense and had me worried cos' we can't play this game for long as the ship won't wait for us, a rather different from the 1st encounter . As the Q thins out to the last person, one of them called us andhe reduced the money from 50 to 20 usd with our pasport in his hand, we sensed a light of hope not paying anything " No,No Money" at the same time showing him my empty wallet. He finally gave up and returned our pasport showing us to proceed to the immigration counter. "Ha ... Ha...Ha. we won the battle against the police for the 2nd time!!!!!! It really makes you feel proud and great!After having our pasport stamped and panniers scanned ,without any problem , we wheeled our bikes into a storage room sandwiched with other luggages . Finally we were on our way , "Goodbye Russia and Spasiba. Hope to see you again but pls get rid of those annoying rules .........