Roller Coaster Ride

Eye-turk is about 30 minutes drive from Oran city. In the summer, it is always pack with tourists from all over Algeria, coming to enjoy the summer breeze and the sun. During weekend, the roads to Eye-turk are often packed and it will take about 45 minutes to reach. There are 2 paths to Eye-turk, one the beach road and another one is the mountain road. The moment you see colorful flags hanging around, you know that you have reached Eye-turk. Eye-turk is a small town. The town is basically death during the day but as evening comes, it gets very merry and exciting. Since it is summer now, people tend to have fun until late at night. They normally will start dinner at about 9pm and that will last until 1 or 2 in the morning. And summer is a nice season to get married. So off and on we will hear musics coming from trucks where the newly weds and their friends will be sitting in an open-aired truck, blasting their music and going around the town to celebrate.

When we were invited to Have lunch at Nouhard's house, KC decided to drive to Oran himself. Normally it will be Jawal who is driving since he knows the road better and it is right side driving here. So when he drives, the journey is often faster and i do not feel any insecurity in me. The day when KC decided to drive, there was a sense of insecurity in me. He is not the most courteous driver when he is in KL. Now that the car is a manual car and the fact that he has to drive on the right side, it is rather scary. There was even a moment when he wanted to get in the car from the right side! How can i not be scared? To add horror to the journey, the mountain road is a rather dangerous one as well! The mountain road is a winding one and by the time i reached the city, i think my face was greened from motion sickness. The action of snapping picture has also added stress to me. Since the beach road will be packed, we have no choice but to choose the mountain road. Why? Well i think pictures paint a thousand words.

We will have to go to the other side of the mountain. This is just the start of the journey where the road looks pleasant but winding.

And as you go, the scenery changes. Bare mountains and more bare mountains ahead.

This is the part when it starts to get scary. It is now a single lane road and notice that on the way back there is no barriers at the side?

It feels like you are riding on a roller coaster! Any error means the car will fall over the mountain!

Or fall over into the sea! By the time i reached this place my heart was beating so fast and i was in fear! I kept telling KC to be slower..

The only plus point to the whole journey is the breathless view from the top of the mountain. This is how whole Eye-turk looks like.

The return journey was as bad. By the time i reached home, i have to rest myself. One thing i am glad is that i didnt puke. Sometimes i will think if touch wood anything would have happento us, how would our family knows? Arrgghh! Better not speak of the devil. And because of this scary experience, if i get to choose, i would not want to go to Oran at all. For those who wants to come visit us, you are most welcome but better prepare yourself with some anti-motion sickness med and also emotionally be prepared to be scared!