Six Take-aways.
Book early (and through an agency if necessary). Tickets sell out quickly, and foreign cards usually don’t work on the Turkish Railways site. An agency can secure tickets — especially if you want to buy out a whole compartment. Booking at least a month in advance is recommended and don’t be surprised if you don’t hear anything until a few dates or even hours before. You may still end up on a seat as this traveller did – click here.
Regular vs. Tourist Doğu Express. The regular train is cheaper, faster, and runs year-round. The “Tourist Doğu Express” has excursions and upgraded cabins but only runs in winter (November–March).
Compartments and comfort. Each carriage has around twenty compartments, with toilets (one squat, one western) at each end. Bring your own loo paper just in case. Bedding is provided, and buying extra seats for privacy is an option.
Food and drink. The buffet car is a social hub and serves Turkish tea, coffee, and even cooked breakfasts — but many passengers bring their own food. Still, it’s worth visiting for the atmosphere.
Be prepared for surprises. Delays, noise at night, or even a bus replacement for the final stretch (as happened to me) are part of the adventure. Flexibility is essential.
Destination: Kars. The train may stop short, but Kars itself is worth the trip — a fascinating city near the Armenian border and a base for exploring the ancient Armenian city of Ani now in Turkey.
What is the Doğu Express?
The Doğu Express is a famous train journey across Turkey, from the capital Ankara to the far East of the country, terminating in Kars, quite close to the (closed) border with Armenia. The journey normally takes about 26 hours but there is also a ‘tourist’ version which has longer stops and excursions along the way and can take up to 32 hours. This only runs in the winter months (November to March) and although there was snow on the ground a few days before I left Ankara, it was early April. Also the cost of the regular journey is a fraction of the price of the tourist one. This is because the tourist excursions are included in the price and the compartments are upgraded and only cater for two people maximum. It’s also not subsidised whereas the regular one is.
Buying the ticket.
As I mentioned in my Ankara post – see here, buying a train ticket online in Turkey is not easy, in fact I found it impossible, so when I first had the idea to travel on the Doğu Express (translates as Eastern Express) from Ankara to Kars, I knew I would have to do this through an agency. Not only because of the credit card problem (only Turkish ones are accepted on the official Turkish railways site) but also because the tickets sell out fast – and I really wanted to buy four. Why four? So that I would have the compartment to myself. It felt unfair to any other passenger that they would have to put up with my snoring and frequent trips to the toilet. I detailed in the previous blog post (here) how difficult it was to find the platform, but on the day – all I had to do was to ask the taxi driver to drop me at the old station – although he did check with me about three times that I really wanted to go there. I think departures from those platforms are really rare.
Getting on board.
When I arrived at the station the train was already on the platform and people were milling around taking photos etc. I think even to native Turkish people the train is an event and a great adventure. Opposite platform one – where the train leaves from – is the railway carriage used by Ataturk when he travelled across the country and that was getting as much if not more attention than the Doğu Express train, he is so revered in this country. As was said to me – we look up to him as our founder which is more than any king.
Boarding was easy enough – I just had to show my online ticket, sent through by the ticket agency, Amber travel, and I was shown to the right carriage, from there it was easy enough to find the right numbered compartment. I did notice that I wasn’t the only solo traveller – there were at least two or three others. Also the compartment next to me was empty as we set off, but there was a reason for this, as I will explain later. There were about twenty compartments in the carriage and the toilets were located at each end – one was a Turkish style squat toilet and the other western style throne. Both were reasonably clean and stocked with towels and tissues, at least at the start of the journey. I had been warned to bring my own toilet paper, but like plenty of food – it was a warning that wasn’t needed. We left Ankara station on time at 6pm and slowly made our way out of the city, it was hard to believe that I would not be permanently leaving this train for another 24 hours.
Out into the countryside.
We had about four hours of daylight left before the ‘overnight’ part of the journey began. I had been given my sheets and pillow case by the train guard and had made my way down to the buffet car to see what was on offer … much more than I thought. I could get Turkish coffee – although of course tea was the main drink of choice and I was excited to see that I could get a cooked breakfast, Turkish style, although I had brought my own sandwiches and nuts and seeds (not a good move – see this post here) a cooked breakfast sounded much more appetising. It was also a chance to meet some fellow travellers – there was a young English speaking couple on the train – from the US it turned out, but although the young woman was quite friendly the chap she was with made it quite clear that he would rather practice his Turkish with the locals.
I slept fitfully. The train is a bit rattly and there are many stops along the way, some of which involved a lot of people getting on and off which generated some noise. At one of the stops a couple of women got on and took up the carriage next to me. I assumed they were Turkish and pointed out where their bedding was for the night and how to pull the bunk down. They said thank you in English but I thought no more about it. The journey is varied with flat plains and hills and mountains. One thing that did puzzle me was the lack of livestock. Whenever I have travelled through other European countries, I have been used to seeing sheep and goats being herded – but not on this journey. Just a few chickens in people’s back gardens.
The train follows the river Euphrates for some of the journey and that brought back memories of learning ancient history in school and how civilisation started in the Euphrates valley, but obviously downstream from here and into Syria and Iraq. On occasion I could hear the river rushing downstream when the train was quieter or had stopped en route.
Station stops.
By the time morning came around I was ready for my ‘cooked’ breakfast which consisted of a couple of spring rolls, an egg, some chicken sausages and bread washed down with a double Turkish coffee. Not many people were using the dining car … I guess most had brought there own food and it was mainly the few foreign tourists that made use of it. For me it gave me the chance to stretch my legs and a change of view.
Occasionally I took the chance to get off the train at some of the stops – I say chance as the stops were not long, just a few minutes and I did have this fear of saying goodbye to all my worldly possessions which were still on the train whilst I waited 24 hours for the next one. At one stop the guard and buffet car server got off and filled water containers at the local fountain so that there would be fresh water for the interminable cups of tea that were made.
It was around this point that I found out that the women next door were mother and daughter from the south of England. I had assumed they were Turkish partly because of their dress and partly because they had boarded the train at a small station in the middle of nowhere. It turns out that their flight into Ankara had been delayed and they knew they would not reach the train in Ankara in time but had time to get a taxi to Sivas as there is a more direct road. I didn’t ask about the cost. One woman was much younger than I would have imagined as she was still studying her GCSEs at school making her under 17. I thought going to London was a big adventure at that age!
The final insult - a rail replacement bus.
Around tea-time on the second day of the trip I saw the conductor have words with the American couple and I heard them ask about getting their bags out early, so decided to check what he had said to them. They told me that the train was terminating early at Erzurum about three hours from Kars and everything needed to be packed for the transfer. I was glad I had asked as nothing was said to me and I am not sure I would have known otherwise. At first I was disappointed that the train was not going into Kars station, but looking at the positives, it would mean we would arrive earlier (the bus would be quicker) and it would be dark anyway by then, so we were not missing much scenery.
Indeed the train finally stopped at around 8.30pm in Erzurum and we piled on a small bus to take us on the rest of the way. I got a seat to myself, across from the American couple. We chatted more on the bus than we ever had on the train. The British mother managed to get to lie on the back seat for some sleep and her daughter was eager to share their plans for the rest of their trip – which were much the same as mine, a bus onto Hopa, then a taxi into Georgia and the city of Batumi and ultimately onto Tbilisi where they would get a plane back to the UK. They were leaving Kars after only one night there whereas I was spending nearly a week there as well as a couple of nights in Hopa.
We sped into Kars centre about an hour earlier than expected, and I gratefully enlisted the help of a fellow passenger to summon a taxi to my Airbnb. After twenty-six hours of clatter and bus, I was suddenly deposited into the rainy edge of eastern Turkey, suitcase in hand and ready to see what Kars had in store. But that is another story — and one worth telling in the next post
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Comments
Hi Steev …
mmm an interesting adventure/journey …. and I like Sauntering Steev! Mick