Talk:Pudding Shop

WP:FOOD Tagging

This article talk page was automatically added with {{WikiProject Food and drink}} banner as it falls under Category:Restaurants or one of its subcategories. If you find this addition an error, Kindly undo the changes and update the inappropriate categories if needed. You can find the related request for tagging here -- TinucherianBot (talk) 10:51, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

Circa 1984

Not sure how useful this is to the history of the place, but it did not die off as a living thorn tree just because the overland routes became impassable.

My Dutch girlfriend and I spent three weeks based out of a hotel around the corner waiting for friends (a Swiss man and his English girlfriend) there in 1984. It had stopped being a base for trekkers doing the Asia overland route because the war in Afghanistan had cut off the roads, one could only get as far as Tehran and flyover and that was nearly impossible to get a visa for. It was a cul-de-sac, lightly traveled, but still a critical meeting point.

The strangest moment there was seeing a Turkish boat captain whom had been met (and hired by a member of our group) on a Greek island come through the door and have dinner with us. He had been arrested without cause and thrown in the local jail by the Greeks, held several days without one word and then brought out just a few minutes after his visa expired. He was then told that he was being held for the immigration violation and thrown back in jail. A couple of weeks later he hung himself. They then released him. When we saw him he had two black eyes and a massive black and reddish strangulation wound around his neck, he was rattled.

Another night a Kurd got drunk with us and started singing the Kurdish anthem while extoling the virtues of the PKK. That did not end well, he was dragged out rather violently by men in plain clothes. Not a cool night.

A couple days later, my Swiss friend Rolf took up someone's offer to go across the street for a joint. That guy and a suddenly appeared "friend" flashed a badge and claimed to be Turkish police threatening a repeat of Midnight Express which had so famously started as a hash deal at the Pudding. They walked him from store to store until he had completely cashed and given over all of his travelers checks (in those days before ATM's). We did not even know about it until it was over and he was broke. He almost went home, but was able to get his brother to refinance him, which was not that hard back then when the Dollar (and the Swiss Franc) were absolute King trading at a nearly perfect 1 to 1 with the British Pound.

It was a shady place where one felt strangely at home - but it was critically important in that part of the world back then before "communication" as we know it now became possible. It was also one of the very few places where one could both burn time, feel unrushed and still keep up on the events, routes and people required to travel off the path in those days.

There were others in all sorts of places, like the infamous (Although Tiger was a sweetheart and a soft touch) Tiger's Den in Bangkok or the SAEC clubhouse in Quito, and all like this, nothing more than a real life Mos Eisley Cantina. An era almost gone now.

There was something to be said for having to find people in person in the middle of nowhere back then...99.189.208.121 (talk) 22:18, 6 January 2012 (UTC)