Driving SItes

Bangladesh is a colourful place with lots to look at when the monsoon rains aren't rearing their ugly heads.  I won't say that Dhaka is a beautiful city but there sure is beauty to be found there, as well as the quirky, and downright dangerous.

The other day driving home from school we saw monkeys on the road, cows grazing in a small paddock next to apartment buildings under construction as well as just on the road in general.  We also saw street dogs and cats as well as the odd goat along the roadside.  The most amazing site had to be the commuter train with people sitting on the top, on the outside!!!  What?!  Unfortunately, it was dark and my camera phone was buried in my purse.  I tried not to make that same mistake today as I rode to and from school.  Here are a few shots:

A type of rickshaw.  Apparently several students will come to school this way.

I was trying to get those big bales behind the man, they were on the back of a bicycle!!!

Beautiful sari'd ladies in the street this morning. 

The buses, people ride on top of these too!

An amusement park close to the school.  Don't worry, Mom, I have no intention of testing out those rides.

First Impressions: Dhaka

Always rushing to get in line to go nowhere fast. This is my first impression of Dhaka, at least at the airport. Once outside, your senses are assaulted with beeping horns and people chattering and rain falling. There isn't much to see in a monsoon but I did see lots of lush green trees everywhere. 

The heat doesn't seem too oppressive but that might be the three years in Singapore talking. The people are friendly and very interesting in getting to know who you are and what you are doing, which is as welcome a change as are their open, smiling faces.

No photos yet as I'm still jetlagged and stuck indoors with all the rain!

Hello Again

It's been nearly 3 years since I last produced a blog entry. Ever since I left Turkey behind and started my Singapore life, I put my blogs to the side and stopped writing. It wasn't as though Singapore wasn't interesting but somehow in my mind I felt it was too "vanilla" to be interesting to others. I also struggled my first year here with a debilitating back injury that ended up costing me over $10,000 in treatments etc, so it was fair to say that my feelings about Singapore ranged around bitter at best. 

But now as I prepare to leave, I deeply regret how little I shared of this adventure in my life. So over the summer holidays I'll be doing a bit of a catch-up series of the trips I've taken, the experiences I've had, and the people who've impacted my life.

So stay tuned!

Beautiful Bali

This Christmas I was lucky enough to have a couple of friends to travel with and we decided that the relaxing island of Bali would be our stop.  We booked our budget liner tickets (Tiger Airways... decent but nothing stellar... in a word: budget, so not a problem), perused hotels and resorts online for the best deals for us.  I had been to Bali one time before but had no recollection of where I had stayed (I suffered the sun burn to end all sun burns and saw more of the inside of the hotel than anything or anywhere else... thank you Sophia for being a good nurse and friend that time). Needless to say, our knowledge was limited.  We asked around and people told us to avoid Kuta (where all the nutty tourists hang out) and to try for Seminyak.  We narrowed our search but weren't able to find a hotel that would suit 3 people for a reasonable price in Seminyak.  So instead, we chose a newly developed area called Pecatu.

This is actually in Nusa Dua

The location was a little out of the way for our liking but the beach was close, the price was right and we figured we could deal with the rest.  When we arrived, we were smitten with Bali and charmed by the chaos (coming from super organized Singapore can make you yearn for the chaos of past locations).  We arrived at our hotel, pleased and ready to enjoy our time.  The room wasn't fabulous but had a sea view and bedrooms for each of us, so we were pleased, popped the bubbly and commenced holiday mode.

Our hotel lobby

Bali is the island of gods.  There are thousands represented there, even though our driver of choice (Mr. Pande... use him if you can when there, he's lovely) told us that the religion of Bali was "Bali Hindu" with just one god overall.  Temples are on every street corner it seems and in-between whenever possible it seems.  It also seems that ceremonies abound and cause traffic delays all over the island on a regular basis.  I think we were caught in one or two jams just about every day that we were there.  But for some reason, you overlook it... maybe it's the island vibe or the calm way that all the drivers seem to take the delays.

We checked off many of the amazing things to do on the island when there:

Go to Kuta - experience the markets and the craziness of the tourist chaos.

Shopping in Kuta

Eat on Jimbaran Beach - makes sure you go to Ganesha Restaurant... they have the *wiggling my fingers* live fish... not the *imitating a sleeping fish* dead ones (although they had those too), as told to us by our driver that day (clearly his English was a little limited).

Me and the girls at the beach (Christmas Day)

selecting our fresh catch for dinner

Delicious grilled tuna!

See the cliff-side temples of Uluwatu.

Enjoy the magic of a Balinese sunset (thankfully, we got to do that just about every night).

Even stormy skies produce magic!!

Go to Ubud and see the temples and artist displays.

Shop, shop, shop for batik and silver (came home with the batik but not the silver).

Lay lazily on the beach (although my back only permitted me to stand... but to stand in golden sand is a fine thing).

This was just a 10 minute walk from the hotel

Get caught in the traffic jam of a temple ceremony.

preparing for a ceremony the following day

The traffic jam was huge for this one!!

Embrace island life.

Although the chaos of Bali is charming in the beginning, I was more than ready to return to the organization and predictability of Singapore at the end of a week (more on that in another post, another time).

Road Tripping... Turkish Style

Just before my time was up in Turkey I was lucky enough to have my parents and their friends come for a 3 week visit. Three weeks can seem like a long time to visit anyone but when you are riding around the countryside exploring and seeing things, it goes by really quick. We started with them having to wait around Ankara a little bit so that I could finish up with my work at BLIS and then a couple of day trips to places like Beypazari and Eskisehir. When I finally got done with the job spot, we loaded up the two cars that we rented (we chose to do two small cars for more comfort and to save on gas - which we did do, the failing was that it was 2 cars and it was easy to lose one another in the busy city streets). Our trip included the main stops of Kapadokya (Cappadocia), Mersin, Tasucu, Konya, Pamukkale, and Istanbul with short stops for pictures and/or lunches in places like Afyon, Isparta and the Salt Lake.

The Salt Lake... like a moon scape of glittery snow.

Our first big activity was to go ballooning at sunrise over Kapadokya. I was a little bit nervous in the beginning because all that keeps you from your fate is the wicker basket you are in.

About 3 seconds into the flight, you are so relaxed and nearly 400 metres into the air.  It's spectacular.

We were fairly close to the flames and it kept me WARM!!!

My dad and I shared a compartment of the balloon basket.

No matter how many times I go to Kapadokya, I simply can't get enough of the beauty and the history.

Next stop was the underground city at Derinkuyu.  I didn't go down there, but stayed up to photograph the beautiful Orthodox church.

This was the view from my room in our little hotel in Tasucu.  This was the very same hotel that my grandparents stayed in when they came to visit us in 1983.  Back then it was the height of luxury in the area, now it is little better than a pension but still worth the stay. 

Near to Tasucu is Kizkalesi.  We decided to spend a morning at this beach sunning ourselves and playing in the water.

The view couldn't get much better than this.  This castle has a fabled history of a king building the castle for his precious daughter, to help protect her from harm (I think the story goes that a fortune teller told him she would be bitten by a snake).  Her food was rowed out to her daily and a snake got into the boat, onto the island and bit her, thus killing her.  I'm not sure if that's the story or not, but it's the one my brain remembers being told as an eight year old.

This is the restaurant that we ate at once a week  when I was a kid... it's still there and still being run by the same family.  What a treat to visit a piece of the past!

My parents, sticking their feet in the Mediterranean for the first time this visit.

Me and the fabled castle in the background.

Who are those cute people?!

This is the old townsite where we used to live, it is now overgrown and unused.  A heartbreak to see for sure.

The beach I spent most afternoons at as a child... not too shabby, eh?

From Tasucu, we drove to Konya, one of my favourite cities in Turkey.

Mevlana's museum and masoleum.

After Konya, we sped off to Pamukkale, a place I hadn't been to yet.  I loved it!

Hieropolis is at the top of the pools of Pamukkale and it's said that Cleopatra herself came here.

In the first picture of Pamukkale, I was standing down there, near the island... now I'm at the top... what a view!

The pools are made of travertine (a type of marble I think) and are snowy white.

This is called Cleopatra's pool.  For a fee you too can swim in the healing waters like the famed Egyptian did.

Our final stop was the beautiful city of Istanbul.  We flew into here because the traffic is just too crazy for foreigners to drive.

A dervish, sharing his worship time at a local cafe.

My favourite sight in the city: the Basilica Cistern.

The Blue Mosque

An Egyptian obelisk in the area of the old Hippodrome.

My beautiful mom and I on our Bosphorus boat ride... this is where I hustled the hustler!  Don't be afraid to demand the price you want for the activities you do on vacation!!

Picture perfect... enjoying the sun, surf and breeze.

If you are ever in the area of Turkey and are looking for a good holiday location, look no further... I've loved my time in this beautiful country and I know I'll be back to see more of it.