Great GoNOMAD article on Cappadocia

We will be in Turkey in just over a month and I am getting incredibly excited!

Photo from Trover by Ana Patrascu
http://www.trover.com/d/a0YM?st=adpdnd1

It is my birthday two weeks before we arrive. For my birthday we plan on taking a hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia. Taking a hot air balloon ride has been on my bucket list for the past seven years. And ever since I got Pinterest I could think of no better place to experience that than surrounded by other balloons floating over the valleys in Cappadocia. I can't wait to capture images like the ones I've pinned!

I thought I would share this article I read this morning from GoNOMAD ezine on touring Cappadocia: GoNOMAD Travel || Blown Away in Cappadocia

Tips for Picking your Guide Book

Whenever we decide on our next destination (or often even before we have) my first reaction is to head to the bookstore and buy a nice fat travel guide. Resist the urge!

TIP #1: HIT UP YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY
Get your hands on every guide book available on your desired location. Don't waste your time reading them all cover to cover. Ain't nobody got time for that! Skim through a few different guide books to get a feel for the one you like best: writing style, maps, layout. Truth be told (don't rat us out to the library) if the trip is not going to be that long sometimes we just take the library copy along with us and renew it a few times. You can't highlight, write or fold the corners down that way though.

Some books are better for preplanning your trip while others are ideal for getting you around day to day. The book, you also choose, depends on how you plan on using it. Some books will be better for preplanning (booking hotels and activities before you go), while others cater to being carried along with you and doing things more spontaneously when you arrive.

I also like to take out a few books on the local culture. I am mainly interested in the art so I like to read up on significant works done in the region and track them down if they are still in local museums or galleries. (Many works of Asian art, for example, on display in North America or Europe.)

THINGS TO WATCH FOR WHEN YOU DO BUY:

TIP #2 - SIZE/WIEGHT
A key feature, to pay attention to, is its mass. If you are going to be on a long trip with limited luggage space you, don't want your guide book hogging all the room. Buy one for a specific region or city if you can. Many guide books also offer PDF version that you can put on your phone or tablet. I liked this when we travelled through eight different Asian countries last spring. We didn't need a different book for each country and city.

TIP #3 -  MULTIPLE COUNTRIES IN ONE
If you are crossing borders on the same continent look for a book that specializes in that. Many of them will have tips on the best ways to cross borders or suggest good stops in multiple places. We liked Lonely Planet's South East Asia on a Shoe String, which helped us navigate currency exchange and border crossing. Some of our travel companions lost over $500, when they ignored the advice we shared with them from the LP.

TIP #4 - TRAVEL YOUR WAY, ON YOUR BUDGET
Lonely Planet is aimed at a younger backpacker audience while Frodor's targets at a bigger budget and more luxury-style travel.

Our personal favourite travel guide is Lonely Planet. I would never go on a trip without one.  It recommends the type of travel we enjoy most. I like a mix of the sights and off the beaten track. We also usually travel out of backpacks and on a budget.
More recently I've discovered "Top 10" is an intimidating place to first start.

TIP #5 - CURRENT
Often when you go on a trip someone you know will be excited that they were there ten years earlier. How convenient that they have saved their old travel guide all these years. Why don't you take it and save yourself thirty dollars? Travel guides can be pricey. Do not travel with a book even one edition out of date—it is entirely useless. An up to date edition is especially important in rapidly developing countries. For example, we found even some of the information in our current edition books was already out of date in India.

TIP #6 - DON'T BRING IT HOME
Some people like to keep their guide books on their shelves like little awards or pins on a map, which is a kind of a cool way to remember your trips. Some people consider books sacred and would never cut them up but for us though travelling light always takes priority over sentimentally, on this one. We cut out the sections of the guidebook that we needed for our trip to India and left behind the sections on provinces and cities we were not planning to see. As we leave a region we, leave that section of the guidebook too. I'd rather bring home something I bought there than an outdated book.


In case you can't tell from my mountain of library books we are off on another adventure again! We leave in a month to return to South Africa and on the layover home we are spending just over two weeks in Turkey. 

Touring Tokyo

Tuesday June 18, 2013

I can hardly believe that our Asia trip has come to an end.

Map of Tokyo Metro System

We left April 28, and we are now in the Tokyo airport headed home via Chicago.  N is hoping to catch a Boston-Chicago hockey playoff game it the airport.  Although every time, I've watched Chicago doesn't seem to be doing very well.

 It has been an amazing trip, but we are ready to head home now.  Our bags are heavy, and our clothes are filthy. It's time to be back in our place.

Our time in Japan was lovely.  Tokyo is not a city that necessarily has "must see" spots, which suited us very well.  I love just wandering around and getting the flavour of a city.

We were not as organized as we could have been, and so we missed out on some stuff we might have liked to see but just wandering around the city proved extremely enjoyable.  N and I were both quite ill on and off during our time here, which slowed us down a little (we are wondering if it is a side effect of our malaria medication). The train system though a bit intimidating is great to use.  It takes you anywhere you need to go.

 National Art Centre Entrance

We went to The Tokyo National Art Centre, which is very interesting architecturally.  I was not blown away by the exhibits.  I can't complain though since most were free, and we only paid about $4 to go into one.

Some of my favourite Japanese prints are coming to one of the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museums next month.  An unfortunate miss.  We didn't find that out until we got there though.  It is still an interesting building to see.  It looks a bit odd amid all metallic skyscrapers.  It is in a high-end business area, but we found a nice bistro and a little sort of park area just behind it for lunch.

The other museum, I wanted to see was also closed on Monday. It has the largest collection of Asian art in the world. It is surrounded by a beautiful Ueno Park though so we enjoyed the trip. In Sundays, it apparently is a major hangout with a big goth scene.  Again our poor planning failed us, and we didn't get that information until we were there on Monday.  And the Museum is closed on Mondays.

Another museum, which has the largest collection of Asian art in the world was closed on Monday.  It is surrounded by a beautiful Ueno Park though so we enjoyed the trip anyways. In Sundays, it apparently is a major hangout with a big goth scene.  Again our poor planning failed us, and we didn't get that information until we were there on a Monday.  And the Museum is closed on Mondays.

The First Market was a highlight for me.  Early in the morning they are supposed to have enormous tuna but we went late in the afternoon and caught it for an hour just before it closed at 3pm.

The Metropolitan Government Building has a great view if the city for free!  That seemed like a good find.

While we were totally disorganized and missed out on a number of things that we may have enjoyed but it did not at all takeaway from our experience.  I think N was happy enough to have missed spending long hours in the museums, although he was genuinely disappointed for my sake.  The great thing about trying to get to so many if these destinations is that we saw lots of different parts of the city.

I had  my heart set on seeing Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, June is supposed to be the worst time to see it because the weather is rainy/humid creating a cloudy haze that prevents a good view.  Instead of taking a 2hr bus (one way) to see it and being disappointed by not getting to see it we decided to just not try and enjoy trekking around in the city instead.  I just keep telling myself we'll have to come back.  I'd like to come again to see me cherry blossoms and the art museums. 

We went to an area called Shibuya. It has the busiest crosswalk in the city.  The Starbucks on the corner boasted the best view of the street.  It was quite cool just to sit up there, and people watch.

Again and again on this trip I have been surprised by how much I have enjoyed the major cities: Beijing, Bangkok, Kuching, Kuala Lumpur.  I knew I'd love Tokyo.  I don't know if I had a low expectation for these places, but I feel like I'd to return and spend more time or even live in many of them. 

We've rounded off an amazing trip, and I just feel like we will have to return because there is slouch left that we need to see and so many places that we missed!  The world is just so wonderfully vast and diverse.  The media always tricks me into thinking the world is small and everywhere is the same but it's just not at all that way.  Ever place we go give me such a different perspective and outlook on others, myself and the world.

It's such an amazing experience, something I really consider a gift!

A Few Days in Tokyo

So we've been here just two and a half hours and its pretty much official — I love Tokyo!  I already think this is just the best place ever!

We come in at eleven at night and have the best service hands down that I have ever experienced at an airport information desk, in my life. The lady was  friendly, efficient and helpful.  It was the same story with the cab driver.

Everything in Tokyo is well labeled and conveniently sized.  The toilets have directions...although it scares me.

There are vending machines everywhere!  The pop bottles are normal, "hey, I a glass of pop" sizes, versus, "I was hoping to give myself diabetes in a single day" sizes we get at home.

The hotel room is teeny tiny but has all the things you need and more.  The flat screen tv is about the same size as the bed.  Origami cranes were waiting for us on top of clean pressed robes.  

There are a complementary razor and hair brush along with toothbrush and toothpaste in the shower.  Everyone needs a hair brush! It's very thoughtful seeming. There are also slippers with disposable inserts for germaphobes.

There is s flashlight on the wall in case of power outages and  a teeny little fridge.  The light switches are practically under the pillow.  And my favourite there is a recycling can in our room!    "Oh Tokyo, you had me at hello."

Seriously it's 1:30 in the morning and I am like over the moon happy.  And I am not the night person. 

Kula Lumpar - Petronas Towers

Mon June 11 & Tues June 12

Our last few days in Lombok were low key. We rented the scooter for another day of galavanting. And spent our last day just lying on the beach and eating.  It was lovely and relaxing.  

View from our window

Wednesday June 13 morning  we caught a flight to mainland Malaysia, into the city of Kula Lampur.  At this point we finally had to accept that the size and weight of one of our bags has now moved it into the checked baggage category.  This was very hard for N, as you pay quite a bit to check bags.  We did so well for so long!  Nearly two months with only two carrying bags!  

We're in nicer hotel, although it is teeny tiny and looks like the Easter Bunny decorated it.  We can see one of the Pretrona Twin Towers just through the trees from our window.  

We are now into the last week of our time in Asia!  Naturally my body would assume this is the time to fall ill,  again! Thank God for N!  He takes such amazing care of me: goes out to find the food I that willl settle my stomach, finds a clean sock (no face clothes)  to dampen to cool my head, turns the A/C off and on about a thousand times in the night and also gets no sleep because I am up every hour.  I am so, SO grateful for him!

I'm very eager to get out and explore the city.  One of its main attractions is supposed to be the food, not sure how that is going to sit today maybe we will put our emphasis elsewhere for our first day and go all out the second. 

A sample of the hilarious decore and poor sicky N in bed 

Thursday June 13 2013 

Sadly, instead of my health improving N joined me on team bed rest. Poor guy is in rough shape.  We spent very little time outside our room yesterday and a lot of time admiring bathroom tiling.  

Feeling a bit better in the after noon I decided to brave the streets on my own, while N rest and recouped.  I felt a bit intimidated in such a big city at first but I managed to find my way to a major mall, of which there are many.  I  found a hair salon that looked decent.  I am trying to grow out my short hair and it is always an awkward phase.  I was pleased with the result.  

Friday June 14

We are both a bit better today so decided to push ourselves to see some of the things on our short list.  In truth just wandering around the city feels like enough for me.  This is just such an interesting place.  

We were headed to Starbucks for breakfast but passed a little cafe called The Loaf. We were lure in by the amazing smell.  I don't know if its just been a long time since we had real breads but I'm pretty sure these were some of the best pastries I may have ever had.  My latte was also worth bragging about.  The chocolate pistachio croissant literally melted in my mouth, and all over my face.    (That may have had something to do with temp being well over 30).   I picked up this random little thing that I thought was a cranberry scone but turned out to be extremely moist and filled with a cream-cheesy kind of custard.  It took me about twenty minutes to finish because I just never wanted it to end.  It was so delicious!

Downtown KL feels a lot like Manhattan, NY.  It is all glamour!  There are designer shops on every corner.  The whole downtown area is just one mall bumping into another mall.  Some places we have travelled my camera is always horizontal.  All the shots are landscapes: beaches, fields, winding roads.  In cities like KL and NY it's always portrait mode.  The camera in in a constant vertical state to capture the colossal giants that adorn the streets.  It's not all posh, the city still has its own very authentic, unique flavour.  It's a really neat place to just amble around and window shop (since I'm not in the market for Louis Vuitton luggage).  They do have lots of my favourite stores from home too but I find it depressing to try on clothes when the other women shopping are too small for the xs!

The mix of people in KL is also fascinating to observe.  The local people are a cross section of mainly Malay, Indian and Chinese.  There are many visible Muslim's: women in bright patterned hijabs (head scarves) fastened with glitzy jewelled broaches and quite a few full burkas.  You see many badly dressed Caucasians (I assume mainly tourists) as well as those who appear to be doing business here in suits.   I think there is a significant expat community in KL as well.  Some people dressed extremely well in designer clothes or just fashionably trendy but not high end with cutting edge haircuts.  It's a really diverse metropolis.  I enjoy the vibe of the city.  It's the kind of place where it seems like no one really blends in so you don't feel like you stick out so badly.  

We headed to the Bird Park, which is the largest in the world.  I took two photos and the camera battery promptly died.  Charging it apparently got overlooked in our delirium yesterday.  We wandered around trying to find somewhere to sell us a cheap one with no luck (it's a stupid $80 specialty battery) so we headed back to the hotel to charge it.  

After some lunch the battery was finally charged so we headed back to the Bird Park.  

It may be because I watched Free Willy too many times as a kid...but I really hated this place.  The park aspect is lovely.  The exotic birds in cramped cages next to blaring low heavy bass music and the peacocks missing all their tail feathers was extremely distressing.  Places like this make me like people a little less.  And also hate children a lot.  In my opinion if parents don't prevent their children from tormenting innocent creatures then there should be nothing preventing strangers from smacking evil children!  Obviously I would never hit kid but man there were some parents in that park I seriously wanted to punch in the face. Clearly,I have a high tolerance for the abuse of nature...I am now committed to stop visiting these type of places.  It's more of a necessity thing, before I end up in a foreign prison somewhere.  

I do love taking photos of birds though so that was a redeeming factor.  And I love flamingos...and I especially love when those hilariously awkward birds fly.  

Mandarin Ducks...little cuties kept splashing around and wouldn't hold still long enough to get very good pics of them.  The pond was filled with coy fish as well, you can see them in the water.  

Hornbill

In the afternoon we got up close to Petronas Twin Towers.  They are quite impressive.  There is a shopping mall between them.  We got some frozen yogurt and dinner while we waited for dark.  The towers look even cooler all lit up at night.  

 

Yea for selfies on the iPad!

 

As always, photos don't do it justice

Tomorrow at 2pm we fly off to Tokyo for a few days.  This is the last lag of our journey before returning to Canada!

The Eye Glass Adventure

Saturday June 8 2013

A little back story: while on Gili Meno the arm, randomly,  fell off my glasses when I picked them up one morning.  I had packed some contacts but they are not ideal, between my very dry eyes and all the dust I don't last long in them.  (Although they did prove surprisingly great for snorkelling in!) I didn't want to try and have them fixed here and end up with a lot of hassel and my nice frames ruined for good.  We had seen glasses sold absurdly cheap in Bangkok, so I was hopeful that I could buy a replacement pair while on the go.  The trouble was finding a city on these small Indonesian islands big enough to have an Eye Centre.  I haven't seen any locals wearing glasses.  

We settled in the south of Lombok in a beach town called Kuta (yes, we also went to a Kuta beach in Bali - same name but different island).  Our hotel owner was very eager to help us get to Praya, where we could buy glasses.  He apparently had nothing better to do than drive two tourists half an hour on his scooter.  The $10 we payed him to take us is pretty good money, considering you can drive an hour on less than a litre of gas and a litre of gas costs $0.50.  We ended up having to take two scooters because after N got on behind him he declared it, "impossible" to take us both on one.  So his nephew, who works at the hotel was commissioned to drive a second scooter and off we went.  When we asked for helmets he assured us, "no problem." When we got up to 80 clicks I tell ya I was praying hard there would be no problem!  

The twenty year old nephew (who doesn't look a day old than 12) was very friendly and quite chatty.  When we stopped to fill up with gas he told me that he was from Praya.  I asked if he lived here in Kuta, now that he was working at the hotel.  He confirmed that he did but I wasn't sure if he had fully understood me so I clarified, "you don't drive here each day?" He threw his head back and laughed at the hilarious notion that anyone would drive half an hour to work every day.  And I laughed with him but not for the same reason. I laughed because this is such a different world where a half hour commute to work is obsurd.  

I'm not sure our hotel owner had ever been in an Eye Centre before.  He is a very friendly guy, missing about four teeth on the bottom.  He assured us that he would "help" us, meaning that he would prevent us from getting screwed over with me tourist price.  I'm not positive that he did help all that much but we we glad to have him because the girls at the Eye Centre spoke zero English.  

Double checking the prescription is right

There was very minimal slightly outdated selection.  It was kind of stuff that was popular when I got my first pair of glasses, ten years ago, maybe even later.  And I felt very rushed and silly for asking to try on more than one pair.  So I decided I was just going to go hipster and get the old man frames.  Our liaison said, they made me look beautiful because they matched my hair.  I have to admit all the way back I was singing in my head, "I wear your grandad's clothes, I look incredible".  Love that song!  

For $50 all in I was fairly happy with the resulted eye sight.  N is really pumped to try and claim this on our Health Insurance.  I'm optimistic that the place I got other pair will be able to repair them, when I get home.  So I am not wearing this kind of quirky look all the time. 

Love the wood arms on my new retro glasses

Sunday June 9 2013

Today we rented a scooter and toured around the coast of this island.  It is so breathtakingly beautiful!  We came across the illegal gold mining we had read about, which was kind of a rush (nice pun right*).  It's not nearly as sketchy as it sounds.  I'm not real sure what about it is illegal it was very out in the open.  And we checked a bunch of beaches that are normally supposed to be quiet but were busy with locals because it was Sunday.  We did find one lovely beach that was totally deserted!  It was really cool but there was something strangely eerie about being in the ocean and being so alone.  I can't really explain it, it was like something in a bad movie I was just waiting for jaws to emerge out of the ocean or the mafia to come from over the hill and kidnap us.  Tragic that my overworked imagination spoiled our romantic beach experience, although N felt it too.  It was just too quiet.  Still it was pretty sweet!  And we did stay there for a fairly long time but it just felt kinda weird to stay too long.  

Low season is just ending here so there are a smattering of shops that are open but they only have a dusty selection of left overs from last years stock.  Hotels are just starting to raise their room prices.  All the restaurants look closed but are in fact open, though most do not serve half of what is advertised on their signs.  We did find the most amazing pumpkin curry ever though!  I am going to have to find a recipe for it when we get home!

Beautiful Bali

Saturday June 1 2013   11:30pm

Admittedly the reason why I wanted to to go to Bali was because Elizabeth Gilbert wrote such lovely things about it in her book Eat, Pray, Love.  Apparently tourism here skyrocketed after the movie came out.  

We are having a wonderful time!  

We arrived in an area on the coast called Kuda on Wednesday May 29 and met J and E at the hotel.  The hotel was funny all decorated kind of cheesy with surf boards everywhere but the rooms were nice with the softest pillows ever!  

We checked out the beach the second day.  The guys rented surf boards for an hour and E and I shopped a little and then laid on the beach a bit.  The current was super strong and really close to the shore.  It may be good for surfing but it was a quite rough for swimming.  

N and I really underestimated the power of the sun.  In our excitement about the ocean some how we forgot to put on sunscreen (like idiots) and we both just fried.  I am still super burned three tubes of aloe vera layer.  

Kuda didn't really blow any of us away.  The food was relatively unimpressive (despite the fact that J and E really do their research to find the best eats - great travel companions!),  the shopping is mostly tacky knick-knacks and since we were burned so bad we didn't want to go back to the beach.  So the next day we had a great breakfast, took a quick dip in the pool and moved out.  We took a 2 hr cab ride inland to Ubud where J and E had been before and just loved it.  

I love Ubud!  I want to take all my friends and my family here!  It's so great! Not has AMAZING food and shopping!  And just tons of cool things to do!  You could just wander around for hours...and we have.  

J and E had read about this place called Chez Monique Jewelry that teaches you to make custom silver jewelry for a good price.  It was quite difficult to find it but after a long hunt we finally found it.  J wanted to make a ring that looked like his wedding band (which is beveled) to wear when doing labourer swimming in the ocean etc.  his end result looks impressively similar to the original.  I wasn't if I would bother making something but kind of wanted to try it out.  

Then I had the idea to make a magnet with the islands of Indonesia (N and I collect a magnet from every place visit).  Well I think I get this lovely over ambition from my mother and about half way through the task I realized I'd bit off a bit more than I could chew.  The crazy thing took me over three hours start to finish.  I was however extremely pleased with me final result and it was a super cool experience.  The owner is just the nicest, most helpful guy!  He was such a great teacher.  He showed you how to do it and then just let you figure it out, make mistakes and snap saw blades.  I absolutely loved it and would highly recommend it.  He kept joking that I should stay and he'd give me a job.  And I had so much fun I kept being temped to stay and take him up on it!  

  

J and E took us to a very good very neat little restaurant that they had tried out when they were first here.  The shop has only three tables.  It's just one guy who runs the place and you have to book a reservation the da before but the food is amazing.  

Today we rented scooter.  N had never driven one before so I was a bit nervous says the passenger but very impressed with how quickly figured it out. I tried it out to for bit.  It was super fun but I couldn't do it with N on the back because he was too big for me to balance the bike with my short legs.  We drove up to Bumbuaare Volcano.  

We ate lunch at a cute little place overlooking the rice terraces.  I somehow managed to order good Feduccini Alfredo!  

We had kind of an amusing/irritating run in with the corrupt Indonesian Police.  When we rented the scooters the guys said nothing about licence or anything.  He told us where the registration was "in case we were stopped by the police" but nothing more.  Now it seems super dumb to drive without a licence but everything in these places is so chill and low key we just didn't think of it, even though N does have an international drivers licence.  Anyways so we got stopped by the cops and oh we're in trouble because we have no licence so one cop take us aside and after quite a bit of annoying discussion tells us our only option is to pay a $25 fine, the receipt from which will act as an Indonesian drivers licence until we leave the country or for a "special price today" we could pay him now and just go and see the volcano.  Nice that a bribe in Bali is only $5 so it was tempting but as we thought we'd likely rent scooters again N and I opted for the fine/licence.  I will never get used to police corruption.  

The volcano was stunning!  It was about a 2 hr to get there and overall just a super fun trip!  It looked like it was going to pour and the drive was a bit tiring so we didn't want to hike all the way up and you have to pay a guide to go up at all so we just stuck with the view from below but it was very impressive.  (I don't think the photos really captured it.)

We came back and ordered this absolutely amazing wood oven pizza that we stumbled upon a few days ago.  Then we went for "the best ice cream in the world," as N puts it.  And finished off the evening with lattes in a little second floor lounge cafe with lay down pillows and funky art.  

J and E leave tomorrow to meet up with family Vietnam and we will likely stay another day or head over to the tiny neighbouring Gilli Islands.  We plan to be in Indonesia for two more weeks.