Travels

Travels

Ephesus

Oh, and it was also where we puffed hookah pipes and talked about how we liked to smoke hookah between heavy clouds of flavored smoke.

Travels

Troy: Not the Movie

The thing that struck me: all over Turkey, the pattern of archeological-robbery repeated itself, as it did and does in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and all the other places where Europeans and Western scholars have gone.

Travels

I got married (sort of)

I'll write about the honeymoon soon – we're holed up in this delightful town right next to the beach and nestled between mountains. 

Travels

Ortaköy

We had lattes at a cafe facing the Asian side of Istanbul.  Next door, beyond the tiny square with a fluttering fountain, was a mosque, its minarets poking the sky so that all the yellows and pinks oozed through.

Travels

Fener and Fatih

Here, the women are phantasms behind dirtied windows. They floated by on gray streets in black robes, heads to soles.

Travels

Taksim Square

At nights, the side streets overflowed with diners sampling cold mezzes and sweet fishes on tables that crowded through the doors, over the balconies and into the pedestrian way. 

Travels

Sultanhamet

It's also where I got robbed. By a fellow dressed up as a policeman (I neglected the prime rules of solo travelers – stick to crowded places, never let them see your wallet, and oh yeah, trust your gut).

Travels

Hooray for Turkish buses!

Ah – such a long way away from the Yunnan buses with secondhand smokers and pigs in the literal blankets.

Travels

Turk Hospitality

The store keepers provide service and goods with a smile – even when you don't have enough change.  Ask for directions and you'll get led to the exact place. 

Travels

'Coup' Photos

Besides getting an article published while in Vietnam – as a result of Blowingbubble's help – my Vietnam photos have now been published by Remote Lands, a Manhattan-based luxury travel company.

Travels

Turkey for the next month

I'll try to get the blog up to speed on what's been going on so far – the Istanbul neighborhoods, getting robbed (although I'm in great spirits), Yuppie Nomad's return on the trip after the sojourn back to the States, and our escapades across the mustard and indigo coasts...

Travels

Projects of Little Use

Turks flow into Persians who mesh into Indians who gradiate into Inonesians who blend into Vietnamese who seem disarmingly similar to Chinese.