Admiral Peri

Random reading led me to a map drawn by one Peri Reis of Gallipoli (‘Reis’ meaning Admiral) way back in the 16th century (about 1513AD).

He was not much of an explorer (given that his country was not either), but quite a cartographer and analyst- so he created this map by compiling and researching many sources from history. Its quite fascinating in itself, but has been a source of curiosity (and in many cases, flights of fancy) because it shows a (fairly accurate) depiction of Antarctica, which of course had not yet been ‘discovered’ in 1513- that happened only in 1818. What’s actually more intriguing is how it shows an ice-free depiction of a part of Antarctica that was last ice-free only in 4000BC. Whoa!

There has been a lot of wonderment, skepticism and hypothesising about this, which is all very interesting.
Just thought someone out there might be interested.

in: turkey / turkey history

Today....

Dogum gunun kutlu olsun!

I wish you more than you can ever ever wish for yourself...

nazar na lage

D has been wearing the nazar off late. We bought it from a lovely little shop at the basement of a mall on Orchard Rd that is run by a warm, charming Turkish guy selling only stuff from his homeland. We got a little blue eye that she has been wearing on her neck- it looks lovely.
We quietly thanked it when the tickets were confirmed (though we have yet to actually get them!).
Here's to the eveil eye (warding off...)

in: turkey traditions

decisions. aargh.

basic information:
1. The Canon A95, supposedly one of the best cameras in its range. Cash flows mean you wait till as close to the trip as you can to buy it (or, worst case, buy a cheaper one)
2. The Canon A610 releases in the USA. It replaces the A95, with few added features and a comparable (cheaper?) price.

Now
Now you call about this 610, which has been awaited in Singaopire for 2 weeks. Some responses :
- the Canon A95 has stopped oreadi.
- the Canon A95 is available, but they don’t give a free memory card with it anymore
- the Canon A610 will ship, no idea when
- the Canon A610 will ship only in about two weeks, maybe three.

We leave in 13 days.
Crap.

update courtesy Canon hotline:
The A610 is expected to come in-deal, freebies and all- by end October. Straight from the horse's infuriating mouth.
I repeat, crap.
And once more- aargh.

crossposted: singapore ahoy!

retire

To be honest, I had never come across this word till we started reading up on destinations for this trip…

Pension (päN-syôN')
n
1. A boarding house or small hotel in Europe: “A pension
had somewhat less to offer than a hotel; it was always smaller, and never
elegant; it sometimes offered breakfast, and sometimes not” (John Irving).
2. Accommodations or the payment for accommodations, especially at a
boarding house or small hotel in Europe.
3. Room and board

[French, from Old French, payment]>

in: travel-planning/travel

the LBS

It’s the turn of the luggage to have its place in the sun, so to speak. So following close on the heel sof the DBS, here's the LBS- Luggage Bag Strategy debate.
We huffed and puffed to ensure that a bag (full of our winter clothes) is sent from India in time for the trip. It should be here sometime this week, but now that its coming, we aren’t sure whether it’s the best bet for the trip. It a big duffel-sort bag. And I mean Big. All our stuff will easily fit into it. But is that good thing or a bad thing.
The good part is that no way do we want to take a suitcase- lugging it around will be a royal pain. The bad part is that just the one bag will be big and heavy-ish and cumbersome as hell. The good part is that we have this bag (or will soon). The bad part is that the option is only to buy another, smaller bag and combine it with a small bag at home. That mean another thing to spend on. Damn.

You see? A holiday ain’t no easy thing people!

in: travel planning/travel

the DBS

from Sunday, sep24th:
Bought the waist pouch today! And read the LP through the MRT and bus, trying to see the third place we will go to.
Much talk again on what our mode of carrying things will be/ should be everyday on the trip.
-One knapsack
-One knapsack and one waist pouch
-One smallish knapsack and one waist pouch
We finally understood the last one was the best option. We had seen some small bags and waist pouches in SunTec City last weekend- in Converse, MiniToons and CarreFour.- so we had started to get a fix on what combination will work.
Things we think of when trying to make a list of things we will be carrying with us daily:
-passports
-money
-LP
-water bottle
-bread/sandwiches
-notebooks/diaries
-camera
-passports
-money
-keys to bags
-towel
-passports
(yes exactly- how many places are we going to put the passports into, after all?)

We saw a FILA bag for $20 which we thought was very value-for-money but we did a “aunthie we’ll be back-ah”, while we tried to figure out our daily baggage strategy (DBS). Please note how many ‘figure-out’s have been used in this entry.
We saw a real nice waist pouch that was for 14 bucks, khaki coloured cloth with lining- so it looked nice and was large enough to even accommodate the LP! But, we said “Wait. Let us look around exhaustively”.

Eventually we decided the FILA bag was good but buying it made little sense as it would then carry everything and preclude a waist bag/pouch. SO. We went back to the small bag and waist pouch option- except we saw a small bag here that was as nice and as cheap as the one in CarreFour- so another 10 minutes were spent standing in front of the bag deciding whether it made sense to buy it cause we were there after all, and CarreFour would require going to; or whether the CarreFour bag was better because it has a water bottle holder on the outside which would save space on the inside. After talking about it, we were suddenly quiet for a few moments and realize that the latter fits in better with our DBS.
So we went back and bought the waist pouch from ‘Bluez’ (I have not typed the correct pronunciation of ‘pouch’ even once till now- it has been puch, poch and pochu but never pouch- ugh, there you go, the last one was puch again.)
Anyway since I am the one going to be carrying the waist pouch (and again!), I really like it!

in: travel-planning/travel

mornings

The other day I woke at about 6.10am to say bye to Arjun chacha. D had already woken. I struggled to wake, aware of the grey skies outside only touched by the first rays of the sun, if even that. I was aware it was very early, and was aware my body was protesting at this unearthly act- waking so early. But I was also aware of something else.

At another level, my mind was lying semi-omatose on the bed and thinking –is this how I will wake on the trip? For those days will not be meant for lolling and long sleep-ins. There will be alarms and early mornings and buses to be caught and places to be visited and even sunrises to be seen, maybe. I lay there more than half asleep, struggling to get my eyes open, my body agreeable, knowing I should wake before he leaves; yet also thinking- will I need kapi (is that even correct) to wake up completely? I am not so sure about a few things:
1. I will probably be up and about much more easily knowing what I am waking for
2. I might still want a coffee- that’s almost obvious.
3. In all probability, we will not have money for morning coffees

Any which way, I can’t wait.
ps- It is not correct- coffee is kahve.

cross posted on sing ahoy!

did you know?

Words in English from the Turkish language:
- yoghurt
- caftan
- pilaf
- divan
- caviar
- shish-kebab
- dervish
- meander
- baklava

in turkey / turkish

M

The excitement builds. There are occasional moments of doubt and energy-dip when the bigM creeps into the mind. In a bigger picture, these are moments of little relevance. Is the bigM not a transient entity… for the bigM is Money- and even if you spend all that you have (and then some), it will be bloody worth it. So in the grander scheme of things, it comes and goes, and we shall “figure it all out”, somehow. But it is natural for it to poke you, right?

Then there is the smaller picture for the bigM. Not in terms of life, but the trip itself. Is our budget too tight? Will we do justice to it all? We don’t have the 3 week leisure that a backpacker may, nor the 3-bank account luxury someone with the bigM might. But in the middle, will we miss out on something? Will we have to forego things we musn’t? Of course we will. But this is not just about Turkey.

Back to a bigger picture, its not all about this destination. It is about the desire. That we have had for so long. Heck, we might even come back with more lacklustre experiences than exciting ones- but that would again be besides the point. I want to go to a new place. I want to not know anything. I want to be unsure, ponder decisions. I want to know what I did was mine. Ours.
All ours.

cross posted on singapore ahoy!