Stuck

Backgammon...

The best view of Ankara is the one you get on the way home, the saying goes. True, Ankara is no Istanbul. It's an artificial capital, a carefully planned city that's all but swallowed up the ancient citadel that lies at its heart. When Atatürk declared it capital of the Turkish Republic in 1923, he envisioned this provincial backwater as a modern, secular metropole on par with its Western counterparts. In terms of population growth he certainly succeeded: from a mere 30,000 souls in 1923 to 4,5 million today. However, these staggering figures can't hide the fact that something is missing. There are no atmospheric neighbourhoods, no sights to speak of. Moreover, the lack of landmarks makes it difficult to orient yourself. Even after two weeks, central Ankara strikes me as a jumble of faceless streets.

For travelers, the redeeming feature of this city is its abundance of embassies. I came here hoping to sort out my visas for Iran and Pakistan. Surprisingly, it turned out the former shouldn't be too much of a headache. In fact, there's no need to go to the embassy, wait for your turn and deal with ill-tempered officials who don't want you to visit their country in the first place. Just fill in a form, send it to one of the online visa agencies that have sprung up in recent years and select the Iranian consulate where you wish to pick up your visa.

...and nargile: the perfect combination

That's the good news. For Pakistan, again much to my surprise, things are looking bleak. To put it mildly. A fellow traveler told me that since a year or so it's virtually unheard of to be granted a visa when applying in a country other than your home country. A quick visit to the Pakistani embassy confirmed this. It seems my only chance—and a very slim one at that—is to send my passport home and let someone apply on my behalf. Oh, but first I would need to book a flight to Islamabad, make a reservation at a five-star hotel and procure an official letter of invitation from a Pakistani friend, tour agency or business contact that must be approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That's all, sir.

Meanwhile, Ankara has played its little trick on me. Having decided that the Pakistani visa will have to wait, there is no reason for me to prolong my stay. But somehow I find it impossible to leave. 'That's the way it goes,' one of my hosts told me, himself a Singaporean national. 'No one in his right mind would want to spend more than a day here. Those who do end up in Ankara invariably get stuck.' So we while away the days playing backgammon, drinking buckets of çay and going on small errands that somehow take up lots of time. It's not so bad, actually. Guess that view of Ankara will have to wait a bit.