One thing that I’ve noticed while in Turkey is that safety regulations in and around this part of the world aren’t like those in the US. One example of this is when some of us decided to go into the mountains to go white water rafting. In the United States, when a group of novices wishes to raft on the rapids, they are given some training, a life vest, and a helmet, as there are rocks in the river. Rocks can be, at times, both sharp and hard. If one hits you on the head, or, as is more often the case with rafting, if you hit one with your head, there is a chance that the incident could result in injury, discomforture, or even a loss of consciousness. This is never a good thing, but it is particularly unfortunate when you hit your head while rafting, since most of the rocks are located OUTSIDE of the raft, and if your head has ventured to one, it is likely that it and the rest of your body is also outside of your primary floatation device. Under these circumstances, staying conscious would be advisable. Anyway, this doesn’t seem to be the case in Turkey.
When one goes white water rafting in Turkey, one is handed a smelly life jacket and a paddle and is pointed in the direction of the river. It is all very thrilling, but probably wouldn’t pass insurance regulations back home. I’m cool with that, though. Helmets aren’t very trendy.
The actual rafting trip was wonderful. It was definitely one of my favorite things that we did in Turkey. The mountains were absolutely beautiful, and the water was a cool blue that perfectly conveyed in color what the water felt like in temperature–freezing. That didn’t stop most of us from jumping in a few times (also something that wasn’t necessarily very safe but was incredibly fun). I think that everyone but us was confused when we sang the Georgetown Fight Song in the rain as we powered down the river, but that just made it better, especially since those who we were confusing (and I like to think intimidating) were annoying Russians who insisted on spraying us with icy mountain river water and hitting on us from their less-than-impressive raft of old men.
This lack of safety precautions extends to all of the castles and ruins that we have visited in Turkey, Syria, and Cyprus. Basically, the attitude is, “If you’re stupid enough to fall off of the top of a fortress’s wall, you don’t deserve financial compensation.” It’s an interesting take, but one that I don’t completely disagree with.
