72 Hours in Turkey! (Mongol Rally Ep. 6)

Welcome to episode six of our biggest adventure ever. In the first 12 days of the rally, we've driven the bus over 2,000 miles through six countries in Europe, seven if you include the self-declared country of Transnistria. In the last episode, we drove into Turkey and crossed the Bosphorus Strait. Oh, what a good way to wake up. First time ever swimming in the Black Sea. Which means Big Bertha is officially in Asia. I'm so happy we're here. We're primarily the O.J. In this episode, we just stumbled across one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. I just don't know how there aren't massive tour buses of people here. We explore the famous Fairy Chimneys of Cappadocia. Rick finds himself starring in a local commercial. The bus continues slowly deteriorating. And the whole thing could actually fall off. And then Nate gently crashes into a truck while attempting to cross the border into Bertha's 10th country of Georgia. Welcome to Georgia! the team leaves me for five minutes just in case this is your first time tuning into the series every year around 100 teams set off to drive over 5 000 miles from europe to asia in tiny cars that were never designed to make it that far but we needed something a little bigger for our team of nine meet big bertha we bought this retired school bus off a government auction website in colorado we're just bus owners now road tripped it all the way across the u.s shipped it across the atlantic to Germany then finally drove it to the start line in Prague. Then the real adventure begins. This is actually what the Mongol Rally is about. So there's no official route for the Mongol Rally and it's not a race, just a massive challenge to make it to the finish line party in six weeks and have as much fun as possible along the way. But it's completely unsupported which means once you leave the start line you're on your own to navigate unpredictable border crossings. How do we get to Kazakhstan? Fix anything that breaks and whatever else that will definitely go wrong along the way. I think you're getting stopped by the cops. Oh gosh. The crazy people who decided to join us on this adventure are Nate's brother Dusty and his wife Sarah. The whole Knauth family who we've done some of our craziest adventures with including riding this ridiculous three-seater bike all the way across the U.S. a couple years ago. And our best friend Charlie from Australia who we've already traveled to 14 countries with so sit back relax and enjoy the Mongol Rally good morning day 12 of the Mongol Rally oh no slowly getting better putting this tent together all right today's plan is to make the two and a half hour drive to Cappadocia where we'll get to spend the day exploring hopefully eat a good meal and then find an epic place to camp to watch the balloons at sunrise tomorrow morning is that latch in the back undone it might be the uh the handicap door let me just get out and wiggle that might be a long drive this is absolutely incredible so Tuz Lake the lake that we camped on last night on the salt flat is the second largest lake in all of Turkey and we've just driven basically all the the way around the lake to the southern side and there's actually water in this section of the lake and there's this special algae that loves super salty water and as this protection mechanism it forms this pink color and so the whole lake is just like bright pink and we will intentionally not make the colors any better in the video than what we're seeing in real life like it is truly bright pink and somewhere out in this lake are flamingos but unfortunately we're not seeing any now well it's a commitment to get out here it's gonna be worth it i love this so much so much better than it looked from the road even like from afar we're like oh well it's pretty pink and now it doesn't look real i dipped my hands in the water and they're drying now and i've just got this layer of salt everywhere like it's dried on my ring everything just looks salty guys this is so cool i just think it's amazing that we do so much searching online for cool stuff and we're just all on the bus cruising along we're like look at the big pink lake let's go to it and that's kind of how we ended up here it's one of the coolest things we've done yet it is absolutely amazing hopefully the camera can pick up on the color i just don't know how there aren't massive tour buses of people here like we're only an hour and a half away from Cappadocia which is like the place you come in Turkey and there's nobody here in any direction yeah i can't see a single person Greg bought this squirt bottle at the store about a week into the trip and we all kind of of laughed at him for it because he wanted it to be like a shower bottle we could all spray each other off but now it's really coming in handy showering our legs off that stop would have been epic no matter what but the fact that we didn't know it existed and we just found it on our own made it feel 10 times cooler so glad we stopped and now i get the pleasure of driving everyone to Cappadoc Hold on. I'm sorry, oh no! As of today, I'm officially 17 weeks pregnant and according to my app, our baby is the size of a pomegranate. How crazy is that? And all my shirts are starting to get a little tight thanks to this little thing. Anyway, real quick, I'll just take a minute of your time. If you've thought about therapy but haven't given it a try, it may be worth another look. I've been partnering with our sponsor BetterHelp over five years and they've just made a big change for eligible members insurance options may now be available with co-pays as low as 15 when i first discovered better help back in 2021 i was so inspired to use our platform to help normalize conversations about therapy and just mental health in general and around that time unfortunately i was learning the hard way that so many people are struggling with things behind the scenes and you would just never know me included and it's just just so easy to assume that you're the only one going through stuff. But I truly believe after reflecting back at that time, five years later, therapy is more normalized today than it was then, which is so exciting and I want to keep this trend going. And for me personally, I'm just so thankful that I have better awareness of how I'm doing mentally and I have the tools to help prioritize that, which has not always been the case. BetterHelp makes starting therapy so much easier because it's 100% online. Over 6 million people to date have gotten help through BetterHelp. earning a 4.8 out of 5 rating on the app store to get started just take a short questionnaire and get paired with a licensed therapist and if you have insurance enter your insurance information to explore insurance options with insurance many BetterHelp members pay $15 or less and some pay $0 don't live in the U.S. or don't have insurance you can still get 10% off your first month click the link in the description or visit betterhelp.com forward slash KNN to explore your options all right we made it to Cappadocia I thought this This was going to be the highlight of Turkey, but the pink Salt Lake is going to be hard to beat. So our first stop in Cappadocia is Love Valley, and it's famous for these fairy chimneys. And they look a little funny. So I was doing some research online to see why they're shaped that way. And it turns out the rock that's sitting on top is this like hard rock that's resistant to erosion. And so that's why it sticks out a little bigger, like a mushroom on top. And then that rock sitting on top protects the softer rock that's underneath it. and that's why it forms a pillar and looks the way that it does. Just having flashbacks during that drone flight. That was the first drone I ever crashed almost nine years ago when we were here in Turkey. I feel like I need to dig a little grave for it. I'm very happy to be back here because the last time I was in Cappadocia, we got caught in a rainstorm and lost the trail. I'm gonna cry. I genuinely thought I was gonna die of hypothermia. couldn't find our way up we're walking in circles soaking wet eventually ran into a road and this guy picked us up so thankfully we made it out alive but that was my last memory here so this is lovely charlie brought us to the instagram hot spot yeah this is gorgeous i kind of wish i was an instagrammer it feels like a lost opportunity wow i totally look charlie nice That's fine. Yeah, good stuff, Charlie. I love this. Yay, you're a fish. Thank you, thank you. Wow, what a spot. More, together, together. Yes! You want a picture? Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, lemon, pistachio. Chocolate. Tomorrow come back. I thought you did that. Okay, thank you. Saved that Yeah. What time is it? 204 What time are we waking up? 5.15. I don't know what happened. We were eating dinner and then we went back to the bus to find a place to camp and then we got invited in for tea and then that Turned into shisha and then all of a sudden we were shooting commercial for the restaurant that we were at I don't know what's happening right now, but apparently we've ended up in a Turkish film. Kara was driving the bus, Rick was the star We drove for an hour trying to find our spot Yeah, but I do think we have the perfect view for sunrise and the hot air balloons Let's just say it better be good find out soon enough I drove up a one-way dirt road twice because there was no way to turn around and we missed this spot But it is pretty dope huge flat spot overlooking the whole city. Good morning We found this epic place to camp last night up on this Ridge overlooking the city because this morning the hot air balloons were supposed to take off from right down there and they would raise up and blow over us but uh I've just been standing here waiting so I finally got my phone out and apparently they've canceled the hot air balloons this morning due to high wind gusts which is a massive bummer so I guess I'll go back to sleep I'm actually so sad it was so beautiful when we were here in 2018 we actually went up in one but I was so looking forward to the rest of the group getting to experience this because me Kara and Charlie are the only ones that have Been here before Had the balloons gone up this morning. We would have had the best view Such a shame because I actually got up which is rare But sleeping in was nice. Day 14, crazy two weeks in Absolutely smashed it an absolutely massive drive day We really made some good progress, but my butt I'm getting a rash from sitting on that bus seat The scenery was stunning today. I've never seen cows on a cliff that steep before, that is crazy There was one moment where we thought the grill was about to fall off the front of the bus because this little Plastic piece that holds it on, and it broke. But the bus is mostly held together by duct tape at this point Looks as good as new, and then I'm afraid that the other one cracks off from that side Then the whole thing could actually fall off So we put some duct tape on it and that seemed to do the trick and then right before we got here We drove through the longest tunnel in all of Turkey. It was fourteen point five kilometers long and now It is 10:15 and we're about to eat some dinner. All right, Rick ordered the most traditional dish at the table I'm not sure if we're supposed to eat it with bread and I forget the name of it But apparently this is like the dish of this region That's really good. It's mostly just cheese, but it's really, really good. Good morning. 8:15 in the Mongol Rally. That might be the first night that I've slept for more than eight hours. It was much needed. We woke up this morning somewhere in the Pontic Mountains and it is green and beautiful and might be about to rain, so we're gonna get camp packed up. We just pulled into a parking lot and the guy working here made a stop just so he could take a photo. We've probably passed 20 people on that one street who were all holding up their phones as we drove by. It really never gets old. Just bringing smiles all the way across Europe and Asia. for the rest of us All right, quick, quick breakfast in Trabzon before we hit the road. We have stumbled upon a Turkish buffet, and it is full of vegetables. We've had a lot of bread, cheese, and especially pizza on this trip, which has been amazing. but I am so excited to have something healthy, even though I got fried zucchini, a chocolate brownie, and more fried cheese. But half my plate is vegetables. This random town is quickly becoming one of my favorite places in Turkey so far. That restaurant was lovely. The staff there was so friendly. They kept offering us tea and said that they weren't charging for it. Have more tea, have more tea. To the point where I felt bad saying no. And there's so much shopping here, all these walking streets. Such a vibe. All right, from here we have three hours to the Georgia border. We've been in Turkey for four days and on the Mongol Rally, that feels like a lifetime. There's as big as cars in the middle of the highway that have fallen down from the mountain. Can you imagine being hit by one? That would have just killed whoever was there when it was rolling off. I have no idea where I go. Looks like the only option. We have made it to the border with Georgia. Hopefully leaving is as easy as it was getting in. Hello. Only one person. One person in the car. Only driver. Okay. So I think everybody has to get out and walk through and then I have to drive the car through All right Okay, wow Good luck Just me alone You're welcome Love you Love you Yeah I feel like this has been a team effort up to this point Bye now Okay, just straight Only one person? Yes School bus Even the border guards love it Thank you very much You have a good mustache Thanks On my own with no idea what I'm doing Hopefully this won't be exciting i will turn it back on if it is kind of feels like we're about to go through airport security this is gonna take forever standing in a massive line it's okay thank you all right we're waiting in line to get into georgia and the bus is right here which i feel like it's a good sign i think it's left turkey and now waiting to get into georgia welcome to georgia And it looks like they just got through to oh my gosh perfect timing We had to walk about four miles in there Welcome back Thank you, don't congratulate me just yet. I have one story to tell everybody Quick story for everybody so I get through Turkey no problem There's this line of 18 wheelers and they've all formed on both sides I mean all the little cars are going between the 18 wheelers and we're not waiting behind all the trucks So I start squeezing through and I'm like, whoa, this is getting really tight But like I can see on both sides that I have room so I'm going through and then this guy is just yelling Yelling and I'm like I'm going and I'm going really slow and I'm like, what is this guy's problem? And so I'm just trying to get out of the way and I'm looking in the mirror I'm making sure I'm not hitting his truck and then all of a sudden I hear a crunch and I'm like no. Oh Oh god, so then he really starts yelling. I just clipped a semi truck's mirror, it folded it back. It's left a tiny scratch So I've clipped his mirror because if you look at these mirrors the way that they're facing you can't see up high enough to see The truck's mirror so I can see that I wasn't hitting his truck But like you can't bend down far enough to see in this like where his mirror was it knocked it back It cracked it a little bit like on the edge the plastic and so finally like i pull over i get out google translate i think like after five minutes of yelling he had gotten it all out of his system and was like all right we gotta figure out and then he's like i'm gonna call the police like that's what he's translating in the app like what do you need well that was a very expensive border crossing so i paid him four hundred dollars four hundred dollars shut up no it was like i pushed it back into place and it had like a crack the outside of it and he was like it's not my truck they're gonna charge me for it he looked the mirror up on google it cost him four hundred dollars i eventually just gave it to him the team leaves me for five minutes otherwise the guys in Georgia loved it like they all got in they were smiling like one guy was like very good bus thank you the American public oh amazing taking photos of the bus having so much fun with it that they didn't even want to check anything Oh my gosh that's great. Hello. Thank you. And the grand scheme of things $400 is not a ton of money We could have like just we've kind of got through this relatively unscathed Let's call it a fifty dollar entry fee to Georgia I'm gonna win it back at the casino tonight So finding parking in any city has been an issue And Georgia is no different So we've been driving around in circles as we do and the hotel where we thought we were gonna stay has zero parking and so Rick has run to another hotel and is literally standing in a spot trying to hold it and fighting off cars. He said he had to put his hands on a Mustang to keep it from running over him. So we're en route as fast as we can. Stay strong Rick. Thank you, thank you. Until he came there were BMWs flying in trying to take my knees out. Guys just like pulling the cars up next to me like move I'm like nope my friends are coming so ready to be done with that it took an hour to find parking and every street was so skinny and I was just waiting to take off another mirror I'm so glad you were driving it on me let's go you found the spot where are we this does not feel like the Mongol Rally this is the first elevator in Europe that we've all been able to fit in with with all of our luggage. It was meant to be. Are we in Asia? Yeah. We are. For the Mongol Rally, today we're driving five hours east to Tbilisi. Oh my gosh, it's 16th. Day 16 of the Mongol Rally. An exciting start to today. The streets of Batumi are tight. Georgia. That drive was spectacular. The views were insane. Like seriously, if you would have blindfolded me and dropped me in the middle of where we were, I would have told you we were in Uganda. It was so green and mountainous. And there were just cows and goats on the side of the road at intersections, under bridges. So that was pretty funny. And once again, big Bertha spreading joy everywhere she goes. We got so many honks and waves from people. But the best thing that happened is a guy stuck a Coke out the window of his car and handed it to Charlie while he was driving. Not the safest thing to do. I don't recommend that, but it was awesome. And now we are back in Tbilisi for the first time since 2018. Georgia is America. We have an Airbnb in the middle of the city. This is one of the main squares right here and it's going to fit all of us and it's going to be amazing. But I've received 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 videos from our host on how to check in. Let the scavenger hunt begin. The joys of Airbnb. So step one was to enter here, which we've done. Now we've got to look for this weird gate thing. Now we're going in this tiny elevator. We've got three coins, and you have to split all of these out. Do you have any coins? He's pushed the button. He's really about to win himself. But the benefit of staying here is that there's urine everywhere. I mean, we can just try. What kind of coin? So this has a slot for a coin. It doesn't work. Classic Georgia. Rick has coins. I want to do the coin. I might. Oh, no, I gave him all that lady was making fun of me with the prices Yeah, I don't think we're staying on the third floor I think that's just where the key is So you have to push and then do the slot so we had Beth pushing the door so we can unslot it, it's a true scavenger so now we have this and now we change buildings and we go to the eighth floor dusty's got urine running down his legs this is one of the better airbnb scavenger hunts this is what the elevator looks like on whatever floor we're on oh that's just one down that's just one down but look this doesn't look like this this is literally like an escape room grab the key then we find the floor and then hopefully we get a room we're exiting the building we're literally not even in this building this is just where the key was Who's like, now get in the car, start the car, it's 15 kilometres to the east. No! I agree. No, I agree with you. Alright, the key opens the gate. Yay! Yay! Where's that key? It's the red one. This one? Yeah. Which lock? Put it in the bottom and turn right. Which, which, is the bottom the silver one? That was it, wiggle it, wiggle the handle a little. Floor, floor. We're being vegan. Wiggle it, wiggle the handle a little. Floor, floor, floor. There could be a beacon. We basically got a free escape room. Slappy! Oh, it's so hot. Smells like smoke, but we made it. Scamma Joe! How do you eat it? Soup. Spidey, do what you said in the first video. What'd I say? Because it's hot. Eat yours later. I honestly think it's really hot. And so you make a little nibble, and then you suck the juice out. Yeah! Yum. I just watched a 10-year-old do this. And we decided Georgia is one of the most underrated countries in the world. Look at that, winching. Okay, we just arrived at a pin that this guy sent us and it's just the side of the road we get in this stranger's Tesla. The lady goes, it's okay, that's fine. I think the logistics have been a bigger challenge than I was expecting. I think we've all had a great run, we get bad news. We have a great meal, we get bad news. We go drive go-karts, more bad news. We go drive go-karts one more time to get back on the road. The good news is I'm famous in Turkey now. Thank you, wow. And I can probably get free tea anytime we need free tea. I am hungry today. I was hungry yesterday too, for the most part. Honestly, smells yesterday were really getting me. Like when you opened those chips, I had to roll my window down and then you were breathing on me with that sesame stick. Honestly, it makes me want to gag just thinking about it. Is this advice to Cassidy? Yes, it is. Hopefully, I'll tie it back up. I'm a chocolate guy. What is he doing? Thank you. Hi, you're welcome. It's no problem, no problem. This one. Thank you, bye-bye. Oh, I want this one. One cone, two cone, three cone. This one. Thank you. Thank you. Oh my god. Oh my god. He's extra. You're like, welcome to the tummy. And everyone's like, ahhh! Put that down, bro. Here we go.