Cairo in August

Egypt is one of those places I always wanted to go but always postponed because I could go there anytime since it is close to Turkey. Thus I also wanted to go there overland but when finally the opportunity arose it was the middle of August and I didn't feel as crazy as I used to be. 35 degrees of sunshiny days in Istanbul contributed to my decision to fly and postpone visiting Syria and Jordan to some unknown future.

Fast breaking during Ramadan, El Azhar, Cairo

Egypt Airlines, 220 euros return, what a rip off. Nevermind, it was a comfortable ride and as we arrived in Cairo I could feel a cool breeze. Hey wait, didn't the weather report show Cairo 5 degrees hotter than Istanbul? And didn't I feel all fainty from too much sweating there? And this is supposed to be just by the desert, right? Hmmm, dryness! As soon as you're in the shade you're cooled off by a little wind but the sun can pierce you when it's right on top.

Little streets of many surprises near the main market area.

I met a Spanish guy on the plane who's been living in Cairo for a couple of years which is one of the best things one can hope for when arriving in a new place. With his Arabic skills we managed to get a taxi with a reasonable price and the taxi was a Turkish Şahin. As we entered the city I started to have this feeling of going back in time to my childhood, with all flatness of roads without the underpasses and the overpasses, the chaos which is worked out by people and not by traffic lights or machines, the taxis which were mostly the Turkish Fiats which are out of production in Turkey.

Khan El Khalili, the main "touristic" market.

Then I had my first big surprise. Although I am from a nearby country and quite sensitive about cultural prejudices and misperceptions, for some strange reason I still expected Egypt to be a backwards country. After all we in Turkey feel insulted when Westerners confuse us with Arabs, and this comes from -as well as it leads to- Arabs being seen as the Saudis, uncivilized, rich and recently islamist. Although I had a few Arab friends who were not like this at all, I thought it would be reflected in the overall feeling of the society. After all I know the feeling in Turkey sometimes deserves all the prejudice. That’s why I believe everyone shall travel. Anyway Alberto took me to an old teashop which was still somewhat familiar with only a couple of major differences. On the outside some people were having their coffee and teas, playing backgammon and chess and some were smoking waterpipes. Among the people smoking were some women in conservative dress, with a headscarf and all. In my modern Turkish reality the least it would take for a woman to sit by herself in a tea shop which are all dominated by men and smoke is lots of courage, for there is a great chance that she will be approached by the men sitting at the next table. But apparently this was not the case in Cairo. As we entered the indoors I realized that half of the tables were occupied by university students and they were mostly having Stella, the local beer. In fact, I was hoping that there would be beer in Egypt but again I wouldn’t imagine it being so public and neither so tasty. So my first drink in Egypt was a Stella beer.

The old cloth market, somewhere near the main bazaar.

Then I walked a bit and found this Lotus Hotel on the 7th floor of a building. It was a 50 years old hotel which had this instant time travel effect on the newcomers with all the retro furniture, the paintings and posters on the walls and even the bell boys themselves. As I said I’m from Turkey the receptionist started speaking good Turkish. His family was Armenian from Turkey, one of those who survived the genocide and found their way south. Although I have had many Armenian friends who are citizens of Turkey, I haven’t met many who were forced out and I didn’t know what to expect. After all they were banished from their homeland, for whatever reason, and had to endure living in far away lands as complete strangers. But this guy in particular –as well as the few others I later met during my time in Egypt- seemed happy to be able to practice some Turkish. We got along well.

Al Azhar Mosque

I had a huge room, big balcony, cheap room service and a very exciting schedule. So I had a good sleep and had my breakfast and started to discover the city by walking. Cairo is one of those perfect cities to walk because it is almost completely flat and there are more pedestrians then cars. But the traffic is quite crazy and crossing a street can be seriously dangerous at the most unexpected times. Well, I walked and walked. First I let myself get lost, like I usually do, and ended up in some strange places with no tourists at all. But I discovered little teashops, had a couple of little chats and had some sugarcane juice (my favorite). Then I found the old market area and the street where they sell all the fabric and tents. I had been ordered a tennure skirt, which is a big colorful skirt used in a sort of whirling dance derived from the Mevlevi whirling of Turkey. But I didn’t come across any and I walked on until the market changed into a fresh food market, with vegetables, chicken, dried fruits, whatever you like. As the ground was getting stickier with all the rubbish and the air getting balmy with all the smells I had a break and discovered my first Egyptian food koshery. Of all the great Indian food my favorite is kitcheri which is rice and lentils cooked together in a mixture of spices. This koshery is even better than that, it is rice, pasta, lentils, chickpeas, fried dried onions, tomato sauce and spicy sauce mixed together. Exactly what I like.

Khosery, macaroni, rice, lentils, chickpeas, fried dried onions,
tomato and chili sauces, my favorite dish in Cairo.

Cairo is on the Nile basin which is almost like a wide canyon in the desert. This basin which was flooded once every year used to be the only fertile agricultural land along with the delta of course. So it is flat and the sides go up like walls which extend to the horizon. On the Southeastern edge of the basin is one of the hills where the citadel is located and in the citadel was something quite familiar, a replica of Sultanahmet Mosque in Istanbul. It was strange to see this one sticking out as unique because all the mosques in Turkey look pretty much the same. In fact, since the Turks took Istanbul and saw St.Sophia Church, all this 550+ years all the mosques built in Turkey look like byzantine churches. It kind of became a rule to make a dome which stands on an elevated rim on a square base mostly supported by half domes, that’s it. I envy the countries like Egypt, Indonesia and Malaysia where people are free to design different houses for God. Some 20 years ago they made this architectural competition to design the biggest mosque in Turkey. The jury was mostly other architects and they chose a very modern looking project with a main enclosure made of triangles. A year later the ministry or the municipality decided that it didn’t reflect the Turkish mosque (perhaps because it didn’t look like a Byzantine church) and commissioned it to be redesigned as another replica of St.Sophia. Meanwhile the architect of the first project sold it to the “Islamic Republic” of Pakistan and they made it bigger and built it in Islamabad where it stands today as one of the biggest mosques anywhere and the main landmark of Islamabad.

The replica of Istanbul's Sultanahmet Mosque in the Citadel.

The citadel has a great view of the whole city from the top. Although the desert dust and the pollution had created mist, the other side of the basin could be seen and some five kilometers to the west, rose the great pyramids of Giza. It was my first gaze on the real thing and it was very mystic. The whole modern city were in this pit of the basin and above all rose the grandeur of thousands of years. Cairo has its share of modern high rise buildings but all were down the hole and were dwarfed by the pyramids. And all the new development were really new, built in the last few decades. How much more stunning the pyramids must have stood in the rest of their 5.000 years of history. It had a mystic effect even seeing them as shadows behind the mist. I couldn’t wait to be next to them.

Then I walked to see the sunset by the Nile and had a view of the more modern Cairo. Somehow the city looks like it was built with enthusiasm some 30 years ago and was never maintained. Everything looked run down, all buildings seemed to need plaster and paint, most older cars had scars and the roofs had all sorts of refused stuff which could have been sitting there for decades. I thought it looks like this city had its heyday and now is rotting slowly but fortunately by the dry desert nothing rots, they just get buried under the dust and that was exactly what looked like the destiny of Cairo.

When I finally went back to the hotel I stopped by the internet cafe to learn a little more about the few things I had seen and on Google Earth checked out how far I had walked. It was no surprise that I felt my batteries were completely dry because I had walked 17 kilometers the first day I arrived in this new climate with a temperature of over 35 degrees. But that’s the way I like discovering new places. I had traveled with people who are more conscious of their personal energy efficiency and won’t go walking unless they know there are nice things to see on the way. For me this just kills the magic of spontaneity. Each new place has its surprises and walking around is what makes it different than a photo. If I would be taking taxis everywhere I go, I could as well sit home and watch Discovery Channel.

The next day was my day at the museum. Cairo has a very old Egyptian Museum built by the British Empire. I had passed by it and I had thought that after all it is a building, like any other museum and it wouldn’t be that hard to see it in a day. Obviously I had forgotten about my day at the British Museum in London, and that was 22 years ago and I was still knocked out. This one was also one of the most interesting museums I’d seen with a great big collection of all sorts of things from the early kingdom to the Greek times. One thing was that it was too crowded with tourist groups which was not that bad sometimes when I stopped by to listen to what their tour guides had to say about the artifacts. It was amazing that ancient Egyptians buried so much stuff, mummified people and animals and carved so much out of stone. Well, Turkey is also full of ancient Roman, Greek and pre-Roman stuff but they are usually what is found near the surface or is buried by nature rather than people, so they are mostly not as intact as the Egyptian stuff. Especially stuff like those from the burial chamber of Tuthankamon looks like they were made a couple of years ago, all the gold shining, the chariots and the beds in usable condition. I had heard that when the British built the railways in Egypt sometimes they used ancient mummies as fuel. It was hard to imagine there being so many mummies but now I could see how.

For the next morning I arranged for a taxi to take me to the pyramids in Giza and Sakhara and the old capital Memphis. Is Memphis in Egypt or Egypt in Memphis? I searched Google Earth for “Memphis, Egypt” and all I could find was a little place called Egypt in Memphis, USA! The taxi took less then an hour to go from the center to the western edge of the city where the pyramids are. And as we got closer the pyramids got bigger and bigger but I was surprised that we couldn’t see the Great Sphinx. When I finally entered the area of the historical park first thing I saw and my first surprise was the Sphinx, which was not great at all. Maybe if you take it down to the city streets it could look big but next to the pyramids and by the empty vastness of the desert it looked quite small. The reason they call it the “Great” Sphinx was because they were other sphinxes of all sizes but never this big. And it would be a great welcoming statue to the three great pyramids, had it not been walled and fenced inside it’s own little yard. Poor thing.

Then I walked to the biggest of them all, the pyramid of Khufu. It looks like a medium size hill with very clear straight edges. It’s a pity that people took the white lime plastering to make other buildings but even with the stone blocks it looked massive. I have to say though that these blocks didn’t look like they needed alien technology to be moved around. Their average size were 2x1x1 meters but I had read somewhere that some places there were 40 ton ones and of course those were carried there by aliens or something like that. I decided to start with one of the smaller pyramids next to the big one and walked down a narrow shaft to a burial chamber. It was hot, airless and empty. I saw a small empty room in it. Wow! And I ran out for a breath. When I saw the long lines of people waiting to go into the pyramid of Khufu I decided to appreciate it’s beauty from the exterior. One of the most interesting things by this one was the boat museum. The ancient kings were buried along with lots of things to accompany them in the other side and among them were boats. They dismantled the boats and made big pits just by the side of the pyramids and buried them. One of the big boats of Khufu was excavated from such a pit, reassembled and put into this special building only for itself, with special temperature and humidity controls. It was hard to believe that this boat was almost 5.000 years old; it looked like it could sail anytime. That’s the desert, there is no humidity to rot anything. If something can dry properly, like wood with enough resin, then it is protected forever. And this boat radiated the timelessness of life. I felt I could suddenly be transported to that time and could find the same things I experience today.

Khufu's boat, buried 4.500 years ago, rediscovered, restored and reassambled.
Looks almost like ready to sail.

It was not easy to pull myself out of the tourist crowds so I was taking the paths less walked and on one of them, just when I was taking photos of camel one old camel man, Moosa, asked me if I wanted to go “over there”. He was pointing out to a kind of sand dune on the other side of a depression away from the pyramids and crowds. I got on the back of his camel and he grumpily moved us away. It was indeed a good place to go for a clear view of all the pyramids (there are 9 just in Giza and tens of them further south). I have ridden camels before but this was my first time on a camel in the desert :) And the desert on the other side looked endless and completely empty.

Camelman watching Khufu's Great Pyramid

One hour south of Giza is Sakhara where the first pyramids were built. There is a new and very well designed museum telling about all the firsts in the area, the first stone columns, first stone ceilings, first porticos, etc. It was in a way surprising that even the first columns and first ceilings looked like they were upgraded versions of older ones but the museum claimed that they were all derived from wooden buildings. The Step Pyramid of xxx was not in a very good shape and the one of xxx was just a pile of rubble but seeing that there were no tourists around I went into that. The walls were covered in hieroglyphs and the burial chamber actually has a tomb. All these were nice but it was not so easy to understand why the ministry of tourism decided to put multicolor lights in this plain looking pyramid. Perhaps to help tourists not to be bored with all the stones!

Then I went into a couple of mastabas, burial buildings for the rich which were the most interesting. All the walls were covered with scenes of daily life, of hunting, of ceremonies, of all sorts of things. They were all carved and painted and amazingly they all survived thousands of years for me to see and touch them. I felt really small in time.

I knew of Memphis the old capital from a couple of Ramses books I had read and my expectations were high. Unfortunately the city had fully been eaten by a modern town and what remained of it were some statues and offering tables in a small museum. But it was nice to see the great Ramses as the last thing of the day. As I went back into the taxi I was almost fainty but the ride took over 1 hour. It was also sweet that this 6 hr taxi rent was only $22, though the tickets plus the camel ride was $46. I went to my room and fell asleep.

Ramses in Memphis.

Every Thursday and Saturday night there is a tennure dance and music show by the Al-Azhar mosque. It is in a beautiful old building called Wihara Al-Ghauri and the whole event is organized by the cultural ministry and is free. It made me feel like they wanted to show a bit of the Muslim Egyptian culture when most of the tourists attention is on the ancient civilisation. And the whole thing was very well prepared and performed with many musicians and dancers. Tennure is a whirling dance derived from Mevlevi whirling but is more colorful and in a way free-style. After the initial drumming and music the first whirling of one man lasted for 45 minutes without stopping or even slowing down. My special mission there was to learn where I could buy one of those three layered skirts with which they did all sorts of things such as lift them up their heads and turn them into a giant hourglass or take them up completely and play with them like a lasso. But I learned that they are always made on order and are pretty expensive.

The Tennnure dance and music event at the Wihara Al-Ghauri.

The show ended about 10 PM and I thought I’d just go home and crash but the streets were so lively I started walking around and discovered the main market, Khan El-Khalili. It is a very touristic area where everybody tries to rip you off but it is also a good place to have a complete showcase of Egyptian artifacts from jewelry to clothes, from waterpipes to copperware. I had a tea and walked till the end of the main street. It was already midnight and the main road was more crowded than any place I had so far seen here. I waited for a taxi which wouldn’t come because there were too many people waiting, so I ended my day at the pyramids with another long walk on the busy midnight streets of Cairo.

The next day I decided to leave for the Sinai and went to the bus station to get a ticket. I was expecting a chaotic place where lots of men will scream place names to me and try to put me on the first bus that’s leaving but hey this Turgoman station was not like that at all. It looked more like a shopping mall and there were screens and only a few ticket windows. The lines were not very long and the ticket person spoke English. It was so easy, so unexpected, I wanted to stay there for a while.

However when I returned from Sinai the bus dropped me somewhere more out of town, right under a huge billboard with Kevin Costner saying “Flying with Turkish Airlines makes you feel like a star”. How would he know, he’s already a star! I had only one night in Cairo and I had a few hours on the back streets of the main market buying costume accessories for my performing friends and some gifts. As I arrived there it was the fast breaking time and all the squares were
covered in tables and people preparing to eat which was perhaps the best time to walk around without being hassled by the shopkeepers. But bargaining was really hard. I could feel the price they told me was maybe twice or thrice the real price but it was embarrassing for me to offer so little in comparison and they knew it and they abused it. I did bargain and got some discounts but I don’t have a doubt that I was also properly ripped off like any other tourist there. And this time I walked upstream where I managed to find a taxi to the cafe I discovered the first day to have a beer. But they said during Ramadan it is illegal to sell alcohol. That is so utterly stupid; there is nothing that says consuming alcohol is a greater sin if done during Ramadan. If you see it as a sin, you should just not do it but if you do it then there is no difference about Ramadan. It reminded me of my dad hiding from my mom when he drank during Ramadan. Religions always develop such idiocy in one way or the other.

Cairo street food.

My overall impression of Cairo after 7 days there is very positive. It is a big, crowded, chaotic, polluted city, that is true but in comparison to other such cities it has its charms. I find the people very positive and helpful. It is generally peaceful and secure, even in the middle of the night. It’s a city that starts the day late and stays up all night and that’s 10 points from me also. Just like Istanbul I wouldn’t want to live in Cairo but I can recommend it for a short visit. It has its little surprises for everyone.

Long time no see, still in Turkey

Wow, it's been over 3 months in Turkey and I haven't blogged anything. I do think of things about Turkey that I want to blog but life is faster here, especially after having been away nearly 3 years. So what have I been doing in Turkey?

Fisherman boats on the Bosphorus on a Sunday, when everything suddenly moves slower.

As I arrived I spent 2-3 weeks with my parents. They are growing older and I am staying in Turkey less and less so I thought I shall be a good son. And I did it. I repaired all sorts of things, helped them change their TVs and PCs, went out for meals with them and even volunteered after so many years to get my old room painted. Wow, so many memories were painted on those walls and it felt good to finally let go of all those (see picture).

My room was too full already when I left Istanbul 12 years ago but my dad kept on putting stuff on
the walls which eventually turned it into a hard place to relax (dogs by the head of my bed???)

Then I went out to meet friends. And again another wow, everybody had grown up (not me:). Funny enough the first bunch I met were my primary school friends which I hadn't seen for like 20 years (thanks to facebook these kind of things are possible now). And they all had kids, jobs and some extra weight. Why do I feel like I shall not let myself grow up or grow old? Anyways, it feels better this way. I feel like a child and I am old enough to feel good to die today.

We made two Juggling Picnics on one of the islands in Istanbul and they were both so much fun, great music and
many juggling friends. We even swam the second time; it had been so many years since I swam in Istanbul last.

And we also went to celebrate the European Juggling Day on the same day with Aeronautics Day
and even at the same venue by Sapanca Lake near Istanbul. And I refuse to grow up!

Then I met more and more friends. Those who haven't married since 2006 had been busy making babies. Aha I see it! You grow up and you make kids, and nobody asks you what you are doing with your life, great, isn't it? It's the easy way out guys and I'm taking no shortcuts. I have no fixed targets for this life, I am living. Anyway, those who have not done these or at least those who haven't made children, grew their businesses. I was even offered jobs by some of my friends who now have their companies, very flattering -in the sense that I'm still free to say no to all of these. But I accepted the insurance bit so now I'm officially the editor of one of my best friend's company and I am indeed editing stuff.

I have to admit, one thing I missed most about Turkey was the food. So on the first opportunity
I made it to the nearest weekly market and got all different kinds of olives, ...

cheese, ...

and nuts and dried fruits.

Of course I also had a culture shock but much milder then I expected, because I expected it, and as I expected it it was about Turkey having a much more tense and rough feeling than SE Asia. I have been enjoying living in places where people smile, are relatively kind with each other (or at least don't fight continuously) and where men are not so charged with testosterone (except the sexpats of course). Apart from these regular annoyances, Turkey in general and Istanbul in particular has become much more fearful and closed. People feel darker and they are made to be afraid of everything. But perhaps that's a world trend these days and I feel it more here because I'm from here.

And another wow goes to the police state. Turkey has never been really democratic but now things are getting quite openly fascistic and people are all silent about it. It is a sad situation. You see police everywhere and they no more look like cops but more like soldiers. Whenever there are demonstrations of any kind (even the May Day) police has a showdown of beating people on the streets, not because they do anything wrong, but because their idea of democracy is vote every so many years and keep silent the rest of the time.

Hundreds of police protecting people. But then, why don't we feel safe?
And who's gonna protect people from the police?

And there is this Ergenekon case. It is very strange. It is a case to uncover the counter-terrorist involvements of the government and the army. The Turkish army has staged coup-detats too many times in the past to be seen as innocent and the evidence against them (for illegally killing thousands of people, provoking unrest to take power, supporting terrorists to have a reason to fight and so on) is massive. Yet the secular people of Turkey (unfortunately they have gone into minority these days) still hope that they will come and save the country from the islamists. And when I ask they say "we cannot fight the islamists because they are armed from head to toe and even their women take kungfu courses to fight, so we need the soldiers against them"! Very dangerous stuff. But with this Ergenekon case they started to arrest people without charges and keep them in prison for months without telling them why. And they are also arresting opposition. It has become a typical fascistic clean up operation which puts everybody in fear.

A strange thing happened. Within my first week of arrival and two days after I made a conference call with friends from around the world and had to listen to my mom going on about being very careful of what I say on the phone because they are all being wiretapped, I received a call from a police officer. He introduced himself and asked me my name, asked me for how long I use this phone. Meanwhile I could hear from the background the noise of the police radio and he was cutting me to answer those sometimes. Then he told me that my sim card had been copied by one guy with the name of this and this and he is a member of a terrorist organisation and if there are any charges brought against him I will have to share the charges as the owner of the phone! So what he offered was a procedure to stop me from using this number without letting him know. But he also told me if I told about this story to anyone it would mean that I am guilty and trying to fool the police. He asked me to keep the phone on, him being on the line, put it in my pocket and go to the car. Meanwhile I tried to give a sign to my dad to call my brother but he has hearing problem and it was a very funny situation; he called all the wrong people and I couldn't talk to him loud because the guy was in my pocket :) And so I went to the car and he asked me to go to the nearest shop and buy a ready to use mobile phone card and come back. Finally my brother was called and I learned from the guy working with him that this is a nowadays common scam and he received the same call. It's so amazing. Really well planned and well acted police impersonation and 20 minutes with me on the phone line. For what? For stealing some phone credits from me! I just cannot believe it. That's the thing: when police start t0 act like mafia, then mafia start to act like police. When I called the phone company to give his number to them they told me there are thousands of such cases and that they are trying to figure out how to deal with it. Welcome to Turkey!

Then I left Istanbul and went South to where some friends live in villages. It was great to see them and live with animals for some time but the stories of last year were just shocking. It seemed that last year all relationships were shattered in somewhat unexpected ways. At least some of the ways the dramas took place were just too far out. My jaw dropped and stayed that way for a couple of weeks. But most relationships survived after transformation and everybody had the feeling of having been washed with tears.

My friends' Saanen goats give much milk which turns into the best quality goat cheese.

Friends in the village practicing for the evening session. It's quite sad that it has become nearly impossible
to be a humble farmer and survive economically. All these people have gardens and animals
but they depend on the income from the music they make. And they make great music.

Then I went to the gathering, where I couldn't stay long. But some truly sad things happened there, really really sad. So I went at the end to sort the energy out and had some nice time as well. But I'm still trying to recover from the effects and trying to understand how to learn from this experience.

The first site of the gathering. Looks good but terribly wrong choice while
we had a perfect site 20 minutes down the hill where some of us later had to move to.

A little down from the gathering site we had a very nice little river with pools
and all sorts of magical spots. We found one and had a 6 day retreat there.

Then I went on a little tour of coastal Turkey where some other friends are settled. I went to Domuz Cukuru, or Pigs Bay, a remote beach that some friends rented and restored into a backpackers resort. Nice place, really remote, 30 minutes boat from the nearest road. And really beautiful as well. If they can financially survive this season I'm sure that place will be the next Butterfly Valley for the backpackers.

Turkey has stunning landscapes around the south coast.
This one is from near Fethiye, coming down to Kabak valley from Alınca.

Turkey has a Dead Sea as well. Here it is. It's not dead at all. Beware of the raining parachuters.

Pigsbay is a big deep valley with no roads, really peaceful.

And the sea on Pigsbay was sooo deep blue, sooo crystal clear, so amazing.

And I went to Kaz Dağları where some friends have been busy with ecological developments and also making babies. My closest friends there also had their share of whatever strange influence there was last year on their relationships but now seem pretty grounded which made me happy. They had two girls, both very beautiful and I really enjoy playing with the little 6 months old one. But it also made me see that it is a very wise decision for myself to not have kids. It's so much responsibility and compromise of freedom. And also it is an easy way out of realising oneself, having to answer life's questions.

Two of my best friends in Kaz Dağları, Tamahine and her second daughter Rüya.
When I look at them it does feel like it may be a blessing to have kids, but quite certainly not for me.

Now I'm back in Istanbul trying to sort out visas and tickets. I'm going to Ukraine... or maybe not... perhaps I'll go to Egypt, to Sinai... or shall I just say it's enough and go back to SE Asia... I keep remembering the saying

God is laughing whenever we talk of our plans.

I'm in Istanbul, a city to fall in love with at first sight and hate after a couple of months. So I make sure I leave soon. That's the plan.

South East Asia Accounts

As I write this I’m on the airplane which concludes my two and a half years in South East Asia. I know I have the “Asia bug” and I won’t be able stay away for too long; I already have plans to be back before the end of this year. After all, I feel I have only got a taste of it, or just seen the trailer. When I land back in Turkey I will have all these comparisons in my mind and I’ll perhaps blog those also but for now I’m still dealing with the separation from a loved one.


Asia has been very kind to me. I had no seriously bad incidents but quite a lot of good to great experiences. During the 875 days I spent there I visited 9 countries, crossed borders 22 times but visited embassies only 6 times. I like it when friends DON’T ask me about my favorite country, but of course I had my favorite locations. This time I had Penang in Malaysia as my base and because of that I spent 28% of my days, 247 days that is, in Malaysia. The other countries I spent time in are Thailand (196), Philippines (171), Indonesia (116), Taiwan (60), China (57), Cambodia (22), Laos (6) and Myanmar (15 minutes). Each of these places left its unique impressions on me and I left a bit of my heart in most of them.



Although I mostly rented rooms or bungalows, I also camped out for 111 days, stayed in friends’ houses for 34 days, stayed at monasteries or retreat centers for 33 days and slept in busses and trains for 25 nights. I drove 22 different motorbikes, 4 different bicycles and no four wheelers. I completed three courses and received certificates for them (CFQ qi gong (My), PADI open water diving (In), and Agama yoga first month (Th)). I did two meditation retreats (Th) and I’m happy to have been a part of three rainbow gathering seedcamps (Th, Ch, Tw).



I fell in love with Asian food and this led me to gain 16 kilos but I lost half of it already (I’m no longer skinny, mom). I went up 3 volcanoes, dived 14 times and visited 13 hot springs. I got bitten by a dog once (Th), got mysterious jungle fever twice (Th, Ph) and got my spare money stolen once (La). But I’m happy that these have been the only unfortunate events. Ah, and the 7 times I had a flat tire on the bike.

I guess I grew up a little when I was there and I can easily say that this change has been in a very positive direction and this surely has something to do with the places I’ve been and the people I’ve met. Now that I’m in Turkey I can see how special it was to be there, how soft and gentle, how diverse and nourishing the feeling of being there in Asia. I know I can’t be away for too long.

I’ll be back.

___________________

If you didn't know how obsessed I am with numbers, now you do :)

Taiwan Rocks

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to tell about this country in the most accurate way but I’m quite speechless. I don’t want to be unfair with it or other countries but I think Taiwan rocks.

Do you know where is Taiwan? It’s an island south of China. In the south it almost touches Northern Philippines, and to the East it looks like you can jump between the little islands all the way to Okinawa in Japan. A big part of the population is Chinese who came over from the mainland over hundreds of years but the indigenous people still thrive and are ethnically relatives to the people of Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. It has a unique interesting past of indigenous cultures and colonial invaders but I won’t go into that. If you are interested to know more about the history of Taiwan in relation to its Austronesian culture please visit this great website of my good friend Chris Anderson who is an anthropologist and has been doing research on this subject for some years.

Amis village chief and elders paying an official visit to our gathering in their traditional clothes. They still keep their traditional social structures such as the age groups. After a little talk and thanks giving they sang their songs, danced their dances and even thought us some. For them dancing and singing is a very high form of social bonding and they love it.

I arrived in Taiwan thinking that it would be much like China (well, isn’t it officially called Republic of China after all?) where I hadn’t felt such warm feelings. Then I thought “both my laptops were made in Taiwan and the world’s tallest building is in Taiwan. So it must be very developed, babylonized and expensive, more like Singapore or Hong Kong.” What a mistake to compare Taiwan to any of these, or any other country at all. It is really unique I think.

View of Taipei from the top of Taipei 101, world’s tallest building today. It was surprising that this was almost the only skyscraper there, Taipei not a city of high-rise buildings. It’s rather a widely developed flat city with rivers.

On arriving in Taipei, the first thing I realized was that it was quite a big and crowded metropolis but it seemed to work better than most others I had the chance to visit. It was very clean and orderly, and there were no traces of chaotic corners or aggressive or oppressive behaviour. There were instructions all over the place “Mind your rubber sandals in the escalator. Speak slowly on the mobile phone. Toilets 30 meters.”, etc. Just when I was thinking maybe this was too much, I saw in a toilet right above the urinal a sign saying “come closer” to activate the flush. But it was not like the signs in Singapore where they’d be more like “Flush after using. Penalty $5”. I didn’t see any fines printed except for the new West induced fascistic smoking ban stickers. And it seemed that although it’s a big crowded metropolis, Taipei worked really smoothly, without needing a visible police force or security guards everywhere. When I realized that there are no policemen around I started looking for them and for many days only saw them around the police stations and no where else. The Taipei Metro, which has been awarded the title ‘World’s most reliable public transport system’ for four consecutive years running, has contributed immensely to the clean streets where traffic is no longer disturbing. As nice big cities go, Taipei was pleasant for a short time.

Taipei metro with helpful instructions. Hush now baby, 100 meters left.

I can’t say that this sign was too much. In Taiwan I saw relatively people having a loud chat on the phone in public spaces. As it says “Good citizens create a happy atmosphere in Taipei Metro”

First SARS and then avian flu has been used to create much public fear in Taiwan. Still in some airports and railway stations have fever scanners (to see if any passengers have fever) and some people go around with a mouth cover. And the buses have these ‘no birds’ signs.

Mind your Crocs on the escalators. One can hardly walk a few meters without instructions and warnings in the metro and inside the metro cars there is hardly any advertisement, all that is posted are instructions.

Although it seems a very safe place there are these ‘night time safe zones’ in metro stations which are monitored by surveillance cameras, in case some guys are too drunk perhaps.

Then I discovered other aspects. Dealing with people first of all was very easy and pleasant. Many people speak English and even if they don’t they still do their best to help you when you need it but don’t bother you when you don’t. There is this general feeling of being taken care of and sometimes being accepted like a local, which I have felt only in Malaysia before but even there not to this degree. There is no double pricing for the foreigners and even the taxi drivers are decent people (doesn’t happen anywhere else it seems) who take the shortest road to your destination. The food is great with many options and vegetarian restaurants are widely available. The night food markets are great to explore ones own taste buds but coming from Chinese culture they also have a taste for “strange” things such as snakes, turtles and snails. I was surprised that food prices were almost the same as Thailand, as well as cheap clothing prices which were even cheaper.

Downtown Taipei has all the scenes we so very well know of scenes of Hong Kong or of Japan. When you have those Chinese characters with which you can tell a lot with just a few lines, then you write, it seems. It’s colorful and I was happy they didn’t mean anything to me.

Chinese new year is the biggest holiday in Taiwan and lasts 9 days. During the weeks before the holidays the markets swell and get very colorful. This stall sells all different golden decorations for the year of the Ox along with very necessary sweets. The downside is the interest in explosives, they just keep going day and night for a whole week.

The most intense food experience I went through while I was there was the Shaodofu or stinky tofu. It is one of a million way of cooking tofu which is first fermented and then fried. Shaodofu places can be found by their smell much easier than by the eye. The stink reaches far , sometimes a hundred meters away you can smell something strange, very strange, something between lightly dirty socks and wet carpet mixed with rotting meat. The smell hits the back of the nose and makes one wonder. But when you sit down and order one there comes this brown crusty tofu which is inside spongy, tastes a bit like meat and you eat it with a sauce of soy, vinegar and lots of garlic accompanied with sweet cabbage pickles. It is the most delicious form of tofu I’ve tasted so far and the experience of going through this smell and taste process is at least as transformative as learning to eat durian.

Candied fruits in the night market. These are like the shish-kabab of mixed fruits dipped in sugar. Yummy.

Another colorful aspect of the markets, dehydrated vegetables and fruits.

Later we went south along the East Coast, which is the less developed, more natural side of Taiwan. We crossed the Tropic of Cancer and very surprisingly the climate changed dramatically. It was supposed to be the dry season but during the two months I was there, we had maybe once or twice two days on a row with no drizzle. It was drizzling all the time, or anytime. Meanwhile the Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan proved to have the most unreliable weather forecasts. Everybody accepts that the weather in Taiwan is simply unpredictable.

Very fortunately for travelers, just the opposite is true for people of Taiwan. Nowhere else I have traveled I felt so easy to rely on people I didn’t know. And this covers all aspects of life. For example if you forget your map, you may get lost anywhere but in Taiwan it is more likely that this way you’ll get to meet people and always will get to where you want. I’ve been doing hitch-hiking all my life (not that it is my main means of transport but I use it) and it has never been so easy. Usually I didn’t even reach the place I thought to start hitch-hiking, a passing car would just give me a lift when I’m walking. And people are inviting. I don’t know how much of it was because of the area I spent most of my time (the East Coast) but we received many invitations and when we accepted them we saw they were from the heart. And a very important thing that contributes to a traveler’s perception of Taiwan is that it is a safe country, once again, the safest I’ve been so far. It’s been a while since left all my bags in the waiting room in a train station and went to toilet, got tickets and snacks for half an hour and didn’t have to worry. Observing the local or localized friends around me I realized how attached I am to locks and keys; people simply didn’t lock their cars or bikes or homes all the time. Of course they do it when they leave for long and of course there is some crime, such as breaking into houses where noone lives and stealing things but the petty crime seems not to exist and it has a very cooling effect on the soul, especially after having spend 2 years in other countries of South East Asia.

Jinzun beach is one of those long beautiful dark sand beaches of the East coast.

Some parts of the east coast are steep cliffs and big waves. Still the corals give this amazing colors to the sea.

Traveling inside Taiwan can be quite pleasant also. There seems to be a good reliable train network as well as bus companies. And it’s a small country, a short overnight train will take you between the northern and southern ends of the island. In the last years cycling is being promoted and there are bicycle lanes on all highways and in Taipei you can even bring your bicycle inside the subway trains in most stations. Along the East coast, which is far more natural than the West coast, I saw many groups of cyclers and campers although it was the cold season (down to 14 C) and was drizzling most of the time. And if you cannot find a place to camp, you can always camp in the garden of the local police station; they usually have a nice set up with camping grounds, shades, showers and toilets and other conveniences.

Dulan mountain is one of the most sacred mountains of southern Taiwan. And the foothills are full of, well, rice fields and betelnut trees of course.

The nature I have had the chance to experience during my short stay there was quite stunning and I was very surprised because I expected none of these. The East coast has many nice beaches which range from black sand to white sand to colorful stone. I heard that there are many surfers’ paradises along the coast and there are plenty of people carrying around surf boards even in the cold season. And some parts are rocky with cliffs going straight into the sea, leaving just a tiny space for a little beach and perhaps a couple of caves. Then there are the central mountains which are home to some of the indigenous communities and are mostly well preserved. At most places they look almost impenetrable. Although they are not massive mountain ranges, they are full of amazing valleys with clear rivers and waterfalls, lots of great forests, many hot springs and peace. As an amateur bird watcher I was very happy to see such diversity of birds even being close to the hills. I hear that in most parts there are some poisonous snakes and trekkers need to have boots, but I love the snakes and the way they serve to keep the land pure. I had the chance to visit the famous Taroko Gorge and I’ll never forget it. It’s a gorge, or a network of gorges and valleys, carved into a mountain made of marble. Yes, it’s all marble and when water slices through it you can see the whole marble face inside the mountain. It is breath taking. The roads leading up to the gorge are also very unique in the way that they are carved into this marble and look like many ant paths. I think this is a must see in Taiwan.

The entrance to Taroko gorge where nature’s majesty is humbly touched by human creation.

Clear waters, marble walls reaching up to the clouds and roads carved into these in a manner of ants in Taroko gorge.

The road in Taroko Gorge took decades to build and it's very easy to see why.

This mountain area, they say, has the greatest concentration of marbles in the world. It takes your breath away to see it like this.

Taiwan rocks. It is just along the same fault lines with Japan and Philippines which create all the earthquakes. And Taiwan has typhoons which are sometimes very strong. In the two months I was there I felt about 10 minor earthquakes some of which made strange grumbling noises which scared the s*** out of me but I didn’t have any typhoons thanks to the season (all the typhoons I experienced when I was in the Philippines between June and October, either started near Taiwan or more often were exported to Taiwan from the Philippines). But Taiwan seems to have the best infrastructure I’ve seen in a country with a rainy season and typhoons. And they are good at engineering marvels such as the world’s tallest skyscraper (over 500 meters) and world’s longest highway tunnel (over 20 kms). It surprises me that in places like Philippines and Thailand they have the rains every year and each year they seem to be caught unaware. This wouldn’t happen in Taiwan I think.

Right on. I want to put this stickers in all toilets, on all paper towel boxes. In fact they should print these on all tissues like the warnings on cigarettes "tissues kill". It hurts me to see people dry their hands with dead trees and even waste them. The point is, some of the warnings and instructions can be very useful.

The plan in Riuesiue hotsprings. Do you see anything strange? Chinese in general are pretty superstitious and the Chinese in Taiwan are no exception. Apparently the character for 4 resembles the one for 'death' so they always leave it out anyway but here they also had a fear of number 9. Funny enough the place was established 1919 and it was the 90th year when we were there (sometimes you just can't help it, can you?)

Of the other unique things about Taiwan I can count the betel nut chewing culture which has found it’s way into a modern society. I have chewed betelnuts in India but the ones in Taiwan are whole fresh nuts and they are more fibery so they don’t disintegrate inside the mouth and are quite pleasant to chew. I know they are addictive but they are also great after the meals or anytime one needs to get going. And you can get betelnuts everywhere, and they are conveniently always 50 NTs (Taiwanese money) for a bag of 10 to 20 green nuts wrapped up in half a vine leaf. They have these ‘betelnut beauties’ which are good looking and scantily clad girls in glass boots selling betelnuts by the highways. It’s funny how this marketing strategy using colorful fluorescent lights and a very sexy outfit to sell something you chew and spit out works for so many years but it is there and it is unique to Taiwan.

Most younger people seem to speak English but as it is with any other place, sometimes English is just spokening.

Taiwan is a small box of wonders, a country of pleasant surprises and it’s there waiting to be recognized. If you ever get the chance go visit Taiwan, you won’t regret it and it won’t be a hard experience. In fact you’ll most likely be so spoilt that traveling in other places will feel not so nice any more. Of all the westerners who choose to settle and live in Taiwan (and there are many of those) the most common reason for this I have heard has been “because everything is so easy here”. Of course people are people and there are some rotten apples everywhere, and we have our individual karmas also, but Taiwan is a great place in many senses. I pray I go back there soon, I love Taiwan.