Traffic in Turkey was much less noisier than I remembered it from previous trips. At times it seemed like I was the only one using the carhorn !
It's only in the cities when you tend to hesitate for more than a nano-second when the lights turn green that the horns behind you start to work... but apart from that... no one seems to use it anymore.  Batman to Tatvan - Trying to overtake a truck on a mountainroad...
Traffic is much less chaotic than I thought it would be. It's of course different now that we are IN the traffic flow as a driver, instead of as a passenger in a bus or taxi as on previous trips. Once you get the hang of it, the unwritten rules of Turkish traffic tend to be quite clear.
It appears that the 'worst' drivers are those from the big cities : whenever we saw some driver doing crazy stuff, 9 out of 10 it was a car with a 06 (Ankara) or 34 (Istanbul) licenseplate, they probably make up their own rules. Only in the mountains, with a heavy loaded truck in front of them, do Turkish drivers tend to lose their patience and they will try to overtake... no matter how narrow the road, no matter what !  Van to Dogubeyazit - Mount Ararat suddenly appeared in front of us... magnificent !
There are just not a lot of cars on the road... is it because the petrol prices are so high ? We payed about 0,80 euro/liter which is a lot more than we pay in Belgium !! Most vehicles we accountered were buses and trucks, almost no private cars. Even on our way back from Iran - in July - traffic wasn't at all busy. So it can be quite relaxing to drive in Turkey, BUT... too bad the roads aren't in very good condition ! Especially in the east and north-eastern part... actually, you have to be cautious everywhere. There are sometimes huge potholes in an otherwise good road, you really don't see it coming and there is no avoiding them... our wheels got dented quite a few times, luckily they could always be fixed. And I had some problems with the way exits and directions are marked here : the actual exit is BEFORE the traffic sign, so we did miss a few exits at first.
During the first part of our trip the scenery was really lovely : colourful flowers everywhere and still snow on the mountaintops. I will never forget the image of Mount Ararat suddenly appearing in front of us, completely covered in snow... wonderful !
*For the full story of Ayse and Jan's travels visit their website www.travelspot.be
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