2025-2026 Central Asia Adventure – Kayseri Turkey
Today’s Huntington’s Disease report is a reminder of how great the recent successful clinical trial result is compared to what has gone on in the past. Over 100 HD trials have failed since the 1990s, mostly disease-modifying ones targeting the mutant Huntingtin protein reduction or neuroprotection possibilities. Symptomatic treatments such as tetrabenazine for the jerky chorea body movements or antidepressants to help stabilize some mental effects help a bit but don’t alter the overall downward progression. The researchers and drug companies keep trying, but orphan diseases are hard targets to raise funding for research, and HD has proven to be a particularly difficult disease to treat. HD has a single, easily-identified genetic cause, but it kills brain neurons individually by the mutant protein that is supposed to be helpful. You just can’t halt production of that protein because the neurons will still die. It’s like Goldilocks, the protein has to be just right.
Hello from Kayseri, the sixth stop on the trip. Kayseri is a large city in central Turkey. Kayseri sits at the foot of Mount Erciyes, a dormant volcano that reaches an altitude of 3,917 meters or 12,851 feet. It was populated through time by Hittites, Assyrians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Sassanids, Danishmendids, Seljuks, Mongols, Eretnids, Ottomans and then modern Turks. It’s directly between Constantinople and the Holy Land, making it a prime location to travel through and conquer.
This is a new city to me, my second train-station-in-the-middle-of-nowhere stop as I head east through Turkey to the central Asian countries at the heart of my trip. As I warned, this stop is very normal, but things take a turn soon.
I packed up my room in Ankara and asked the front desk kid on the way out to please fix the Wifi. I got a non-committal shrug in return.
I rolled around the mosque and through the park to the train station. I couldn’t see the name of my train on the departures board, so I checked with the information desk. The lady pointed to the train sitting at track 1 and said it’s mine! I walked to car #7 at the end, found an identical cabin to the one I had from Sofia to Istanbul, but they were selling it as a 2-person cabin, no solo option. Fingers crossed nobody shows up! Same sink, towels, fridge, power, two seats and 2 fold-down bunkbeds. All I’m missing is Wifi and a massage lady, this is a fantastic way to slow-travel. This is why I love trains so much – I can check out of my hotel an hour before the train departs, walk to the station in the center of the city, buy food, get on and settle in with 25 minutes to spare. The train pulled out on the second, and there’s nobody in the other seat! I pulled out the bottom bunk, propped up some pillows, got out the laptop and started watching TV shows and movies, reading my book and listening to podcasts.
I got a huge whiff of strong smoke, went into the hallway and caught a guy smoking with his hand out the window, standing right in front of a No Smoking sign. I snapped the window closed across from my room so it wouldn’t get sucked back in by the wind. I hope he felt sufficiently chastised by this passive-aggressive move on my part.
We pulled into Kayseri at 8:10 pm, 1.5 hours late for the 7 hour trip. I swear the trains here are from Petticoat Junction. Comment below if you get the reference.
Walked 5 minutes to the hotel, very nice. This room has a stale smell rather than smoke, but I can live with it, and it has a great bathroom. Wifi sucks. Again. The best solution was to get Wifi working on the phone then set up a hotspot so the laptop can connect to it. Something about Windows doesn’t like this Wifi network. It’s now slow, but stable.
I searched on GetYourGuide and TripAdvisor to find day tours of the nearby picturesque Cappadocia area, but none will come to this regional capital city with the train station to pick me up, only 10 miles away, too bad.
I received my ballot by email for the upcoming California election to give the voters the choice to redraw district lines to counter Trump’s blatant gerrymandering in at least 2 other states. In order to file it, I have to print it out, sign it, scan it and fax it back to the county election office. Ugh. The hotel desk clerk was super helpful with this and I happily exercised my voting rights, while I still have some.
The weather in mid-September has been cooling down in the region, high of 20C, down to 12C tonight, very good weather for walking. Grok gave me a list of things to see in this small city, along with a loadable Google Maps walking path – super helpful. I can listen to podcasts on my earbuds and the Google Maps lady chips in with turn-by-turn guidance as needed. I went to the Clock Tower, Kayseri Castle, the Grand Mosque, Kayseri Grand Bazaar and the Hunat Hatun Complex, all quite clustered in the city center. I also stumbled upon the start/finish site of a marathon race in the main park.
Still trying to get to Cappadocia, I looked for the storefront travel agency that Grok suggested but no luck. I just can’t find a tour that will take me to the nearby scenic natural areas in Cappadocia.
Found a nice sit-down restaurant with indoor no-smoking. Ordered a chicken kebab plate, with a simple picture on the menu. Imagine my surprise when it came with spicy rice, stewed tomatoes, broiled potatoes and then 2 salads, mint yogurt sauce, spicy tomato sauce, a bowl of hot peppers, a stack of pita bread and a bowl of cooked onions. I asked for a second bowl of yogurt sauce, perfect for dipping my chicken. Yummy. Mediterranean food is right in my wheelhouse. I pushed the onions to the rejected side of the table.
After a refreshing nap, I asked Grok what to do here at night. It suggested JJ Bar at the Wyndham Grand Hotel with live music. I went inside, very few people at 8pm but all smoking. The menu is via a barcode but I can’t scan it without Wifi, I don’t want to burn my limited mobile data getting a damn menu on my phone when they can’t be bothered to print one on paper. Asked the kid at the bar for the Wifi, he said the Wifi is from the Wyndham hotel but he doesn’t know the password. Unbelievable. I pointed to a random beer on tap and sat down and read my book. Halfway through the beer another kid walks up and says his boss is coming and wants this table. Thinking I misheard, I asked him to say it again and he did. I pointed to the next table – can I sit there? The kid says his boss wants that table too. I stood up and said “Show me where I’m allowed to sit”. He walked me to an area of small round tables with stools. I finished my beer and walked out. Zero stars, do not recommend. Left a scathing review. Walked home, stopped and got 4 pieces of baklava to assuage my frustration with the world.
The next afternoon I plotted my next train ride to Kars and walked to the train station. The ticket agent said his English was bad but he was actually quite good, people need to give themselves more credit! I always thank them for trying to help me in their non-native tongue. I’ve only had to resort to Google Translate a couple of times. It helps to be born into a culture with one of the world’s predominant languages. I got my ticket for tonight but it’s in an upper berth in a cabin for 4 people, sounds like it will be close to full.
My Barcelona investment group manager Astghik pinged me, saying she was currently with her family in Dilijan Armenia and her father invited me to visit. I immediately accepted and added it to the trip path.
I read a story about Zuckerberg giving a demo of Facebook’s newest Ray-Ban smart glasses. The demo completely glitched because when he used the wakeup command, every smart glass in the audience woke up too, causing the server to overload! It’s like yelling “Hey Siri” in the Apple store. They’ll figure it out someday. I really look forward to the day in the not-too-distant future when a device will do real-time conversational translation for me. I’ll name mine “Babel Fish”.
I chilled out in my room until about 12:30 am, checked out and walked to the train station.
Next stop: The train to Kars.
