Bellapais Abbey

Getting from Larnaca to Girne

Today we move to Northern Cyprus or the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus, depending on your point of view, for a five-night stay.

We had a choice of the 0845 or 0915 bus to Nicosia, in order to make it across the “border” to collect our rental car at 1100 on the northern side.  As we were ready quite early, we left our hotel at 0830 for the 0845 bus.

Just before we boarded the waiting bus, Kim needed to return to the hotel to relief himself.  The run back to the hotel and upstairs to the lobby loo and back within the space of just a few minutes left him a bit jarred for the rest of the day.  We’re not spring chickens anymore.

The ride to Nicosia took 1h10 and we killed about 30 mins at a café before ordering a car at 1030 to take us to the Markou Drakou or Ledra Palace checkpoint.  It would have been less than 15 mins walk in the sun plus additional distance to cross the buffer zone.  It was a costly ride of about EUR6 for about 4 mins.

The passport formality out, the walk across the buffer zone and the entry to the other side all went quickly with no queues.  Each of the authorities just swiped the passports without any stamping.

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As we stepped into Northern Cyprus around 1050, we saw the young man from Pacific Car Rentals waiting on a bench for us.  We did the paperwork on the bonnet of the car and he took payment from us in GBP.  The credit card terminals here are quite sophisticated and can handle multiple currencies, eg. GBP, EUR, USD, TRY and perhaps more.

We started driving around midday through the Turkish side of Nicosia.  It felt very undeveloped unlike the high-rise CBD of the other side.  The tallest buildings were probably around 6 storeys residential blocks.

The drive pointed us towards the mountains of the northern coast.  We then turned a little east-wards where the terrain was lower to get across to the northern coast.

Here, I was surprised by how built-up Girne (Kyrenia) was, with buildings as tall as those seen on the southern side of the “border”.

We turned away from the city centre towards the east and into what seemed like a never-ending rabbit’s warren of narrow roads to arrive at the Five Fingers Bungalows before midday.  I think Google Maps took us the fastest but least straight-forward way.

We headed out soon after for lunch at a nearby kebab shop.  Kim saw the cook manhandling the salad and then the chips with his bare hands.  After having a word with them, they changed the serving.  It turned out to be a huge delicious meal.  Luckily, we shared just one meal.

Back at our accommodation, we were pleased that our double-storey unit came with a super-clean gorgeous pool right outside.  We had a couple of dips in between rests.  I chose to keep cool in the air-con but Kim, who normally can’t handle the heat, chose to stay outside!

Bellapais Abbey

We headed out around 1630 to Bellapais Abbey dating back to the 13^th Century (with the site’s history dating back to the 7^th Century).  The drive through the narrow roads was a little nervy and made us wish we had a smaller car than the Hyundai Elantra.  What surprised me was the posh houses that were on these narrow roads; surely the occupants have bigger fancier cars than our rental.

The ruins of the stunning abbey sat high on the mountainside looking down at the city and the sea.  There were two main levels around a courtyard to explore.

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The road down was more straight-forward as we were headed into the city (rather than through the back roads from our accommodation).

We managed to find parking on Girne’s waterfront and take a short walk around there, then inland through the old city and old commercial area.  There as a mix of restaurants, shops selling touristy and everyday items.  Girne’s castle was closed by then, not that we had that much interest in yet another port castle.

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As we weren’t ready for dinner yet, we decided to drive back towards our area in search for something suitable.  The places on the closer to the city lacked parking but as we went further out, some restaurants were closed or sadly quiet (meaning low turnover of food which may in turn mean less freshness).

After a bit of a search, we found a car-themed pub further away that did pretend Chinese and Thai food, in addition to local and fast food.  The Thai Green Chicken Curry and Prawn Fried Noodles were a good change from what we had been eating since Istanbul.

Roaming in Cyprus

People that have EU SIM cards can “roam like home” in the Republic of Cyprus but will be subject to roaming charges in the North.

But for me, roaming on an Indonesian Telkomsel SIM card, the problem is different.  I get great roaming rates with Telkomsel through a huge list of countries but the speed in the Republic of Cyprus seems very slow, as if it has been throttled.  Telkomsel makes no mention of this.  It ranged from being nearly unusable at times to annoying at other times.

Once I got on to Northern Cyprus, my data rates were back to normal like what I had experienced in Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria.

My telco makes no mention of being able to roam in Northern Cyprus but the two telcos here (Vodafone and Turkcell) are effectively the Turkish ones, I’m guessing.

Incidentally, my Malaysian SIM card also offers good roaming packages around various countries except Republic of Cyprus.  So, perhaps the Cypriot telcos are a little stingy with giving good roaming arrangements.