Captivating Cappadocia - Capturing the Heart of Cappadocia

Foreigner Selling a Car in Turkey (Part 2)

This is part 2 of a 3 part series on buying and selling a car in Turkey as a foreigner. Click to see Part 1: Buying a Car in Turkey and part 3.
So, you’re back for more, huh?

SELLING A CAR IN TURKEY AS A FOREIGNER

Selling a car in turkey

After the miraculous success of my new van purchase, now I needed to sell my old van: an Hyundai 2001 H100 passenger van – the total multi-purpose van. I was sorry to see this gem go as it beautifully served our family of 8 so well, with 4 seats to spare for airport runs, or hauling 1.5 tons of rock (I don’t recommend this as I blew the shocks on that load!). My Turkish friends joked with me about it, calling “Gandalf” (the moniker my oldest son assigned to the white Hyundai) an “antique”. If they were calling my 12 year old van this, I wondered what they would think of me if I had told them that I was using the same hairbrush since high school, some 26 years ago!

When selling a vehicle you need two things, well, maybe three: the value, a buyer and the price you are willing to settle for, as this is a haggling culture, a people endowed from birth with the ability to sniff out your bottom price and then deep six you for another 10-15% off your price! Well, I didn’t have any of these at the beginning of the process, so here are some things to help guide you.

VALUE, BUYER, BEST OFFER

May 20, 2013 — Leave a comment

In Life & Culture business, Turkey

Buying a Car in Turkey (Part 1)

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This is part 1 of a 3 part series on buying a car in Turkey as a foreigner. Click to see Part 2: Selling a Car in Turkey and Part 3.
This post is a bit different than the normal ones we usually feature at CaptivatingCappadocia.com. Instead of highlighting the incredible people and sites to visit, I want to share a comical event that may ring true with many other foreigners’ general experience who have lived in Turkey for any amount of time.
Buying a car in turkey

Let me just say this straight away: I love Turkey. If I didn’t, I would have left many years ago. Also, I need to say that instead of interpreting this post as a complaint, I encourage you to see this as an apology for why I love living in a land of the unpredictable. I laughed several times throughout the experience that I am setting before you. I merely want to see if I can turn the experience of a foreigner attempting to follow protocol into something that is “captivating”, peeling back the veneer of a two part process that we all have had to go through: the purchase and the selling of automobiles. My experience, however, was in another culture, carried out in another language, undergirded by another value system that at times still caught me by surprise even after 10 years of living in this great land.

PART 1: FOREIGNER BUYING A CAR IN TURKEY

May 16, 2013 — 2 Comments

In Life & Culture, Series car shopping, used car

Cappadocia Photo of the Week May 14: Hot-Air Balloons In Our Front Yard!

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Cappadocia hot air balloons

Wake up, stretch, yawn, rub eyes, is that Darth Vader outside? Look out the window, What the!?

Is this the normal view out your windows in the morning?
We have grown accustomed to the hot air balloons but we still watch, mouths agape, as they float by our house each morning.

If you are interested in a Cappadocia hot air balloon ride, start with our Hot-Air Balloon Ride Information Page.

To see all the Cappadocia Photos of the Week, click here.

Did you enjoy this photograph? If so, here’s what you can do. Please share it with your friends by clicking on one of the buttons below or to the side. Also, you may want to subscribe so you will receive every week’s photo and other Cappadocia posts directly in your inbox. Click here and follow the instructions. One of my goals is to help people who will visit Cappadocia. This is your way to help me meet this goal. Thank you, I am grateful.

May 14, 2013 — Leave a comment

In Hot-Air Balloons, Photo of the Week, Tourist life Cappadocia, hot-air balloon, Turkey

Altın Kepçe: The Golden Ladle of Avanos Serves Soup & a Story

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SOUP FOR BREAKFAST!?”

“It’s not right or wrong, it’s not good or bad…it’s just different”

I remember that phrase from my preparations for cross cultural living.

The differences would be numerous but my judgments on those differences could be less so.

Of course, one of the most basic differences one experiences cross-culturally is food.
HalukGiris
For example, when we first moved here, I went to a café for breakfast. Breakfast? Breakfast in my culture means Denny’s Grand Slam: two pancakes, two eggs, two bacon, two sausage (although of course there would be no bacon or sausage in this Muslim country). At the very least, it would be an omelet with hashbrowns and a fruit cup. You get the point. The word breakfast paints a picture.

And that picture certainly did not include soup! Continue Reading…

May 13, 2013 — Leave a comment

In Avanos, Food, Life & Culture, Restaurants, Reviews Cappadocia, food, soup, Turkey

Tales From the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey [VIDEO REVIEW]

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Tales from expat harem foreign women in modern anastasia m ashman paperback cover art Since I started reviewing books on this website, Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey edited by Jennifer Eaton Gökmen & Anastasia M. Ashman is the most recommended book my readers have encouraged me to read. Given that I am a good listener and quick responder I took over a year to get to it… Oops!

All kidding aside I put off reading this book because I thought it was a book for women, and I am a not a woman. However, after numerous readers told me I should read it, I finally got the hint and am now reviewing it for y’all.

Continue Reading…