Turkey Part III

We went to a Leather shop in Pammukale before leaving the place, where there was a fashion show organized specially for our group. By now we were all kind of getting addicted to 'apple tea' which is served hot in very small cups and tastes very good. so when they offered coffee and other drinks many of us opted for apple tea. We ended up buying a jacket for Tejas and it was bought after a great bargain by hubby dear.
On 27th of of May we started very early in the morning after having breakfast, as we had a long journey ahead. We had some 600 plus kilometers to cover . Our destination was Cappadocia.

Through out the journey I could see vast fields of Poppy flowers. I was told that these were grown with the permission of government for medicinal purpose and every yield has to be accounted. The fields looked enchanting. When I mentioned to my guide that this place looks so serene and lovely that I would like to spend my retirement days here, he laughed and said that the winter will be so severe and the place full of snow that it is very very tough to live here even for youngsters. I remembered my Srinagar days in summer, (long long ago) when the locals were telling me about the severity of winter and how it is tough to cope up. How nature can change the entire place in different seasons can be understood only when we visit other places. We live in tropical places like Southern India and Malaysia where the sights are almost same through out the year and we fail to appreciate the blessings of having a nice outdoor weather through out the year.
We halted for lunch in a place called Caravan Serai. We halted in one of the biggest Caravan Serais. Caravan serais are places where in ancient days the merchants used to take a break in their long journey with their merchandise and also their camels.
This Serai was called the Sultan Caravan Serai and the building was very old and the whole place was kind of maintained as it was in olden times. The food their was excellent.

We proceeded further to a place called Konya on our way to Cappadocia. This is the place of the Sufi saint Rumi and saw the mausoleum of Rumi. This cult had what is called the Darvesh. They are the mystic sufi saints who sing and dance. They are called the swirling dervishes. This is the place where they were trained to become the dervishes and it was a rigorous training. They wear white cloth and a peculiar cap and whirl round non stop for a long time. This was also part of Muslim religion. This dance form is picturised in the movie 'joda akbar' where actor HrithikRoshan has also tried to do this round and round dance form.
This sect was abolished in Turkey by 'Ataturk' in 1922 and now this place is maintained as a tourist attraction.
We reached the lovely place Cappadocia. On our way we could see the extinct volcano 'Hasan'.

This place is full of volcanic ash which erupted millions (or is it thousands I am not sure) of years ago and the ash is very soft but when exposed to the atmosphere it hardens. It could be dug easily and formed into cave dwellings. So we could see these type of dwellings every where in this place.
We checked into the hotel and had dinner and we were taken to the Belly dance show.
This was also held in a dwelling which was cave like structure and the program started with a religious dance of the Sufi culture. It is amazing how they go round and round without getting dizzy. They are trained to do it by keeping one leg steady so that the ear balance is not lost. This is what we saw in the Rumi place as to how these darveshis are trained.
After the darvesh dance group dances by men and women started. The drinks were on the house, but as usual we all had apple tea.
One girl looking very much like our Hindi actor vidya balan danced with a big hat like thing around her waste and was swirling to the music so was the round thing with beautiful design which was shining and twinkling while she danced. It was a wonderful dance.
Later some group dances were performed and some acrobatic dances which were very similar to to our Rajasthani dances.
Again our Vidya Balan came on and started 'the ' belly dance. My God she did so well at one point of time it looked as though her lower part of the body is detached from her upper body as she was moving only the lower part of the body in such rhythmic movements with the flowing music. She later started giving movements (shaking) her shoulders, belly, etc according to the beat of the drum. It was as though her body was beating or producing the sound of the drum. It was an excellent performance. we returned to the hotel at midnight 12 all tired but rich with experience.

Turkey part II

After breakfast ,We visited the ruins of Troy. Yes the famous Troy of Homer's Iliad. While going through the itinerary when I came across this part, I had thought this is some other place which is similar to the one in the Greece. I have never been to Greece so thought it logical that Troy to be in today's Greece. I was surprised to find out that The actual Trojan war for the famous Helen of Troy took place at this place and this was part of Greece in ancient times.
( I was pleasantly surprised to note that Homer the author who wrote this famous epic is from a neighbouring place called Izmir.) We saw the ancient ruins which are still being excavated and is a world heritage site. A model of wooden (Trojan?) horse has been kept there for the purpose of photo sessions I suppose and we were all very thrilled to have visited such a historically important place.
We were next taken to top of a hill where ancient kingdom of Acropolis is situated. Acropolis is nothing but a city built on a hill top which is built for the purpose of safety specially from enemies. This is also a Greek structure and it is supposed to have been built around
1st century A.D.
We proceeded to a place called Kusadasi for night's stay and next morning visited the house of Virgin Mary which is also on a hill. It is said that Virgin Mary was brought here after the Crucifixion here by St. John . This is considered as a Holy place by the Catholics and Roman Catholic Church at Vatican has approved this as a holy place.
We proceeded to a place called Ephesus. This is an ancient city and the ruins of which have been very well preserved. There is a temple for Goddess Artemis considered as Goddess of family. (this goddess was unique to ancient Turkey but later accepted in the Greek pantheon of gods and goddesses) Saw the statue of Goddess Nike from which the symbol for the famous Nike shoes have been adopted. We saw the ancient library structure and then the magnificent
Amphi Theatre which could hold 25000 people at a time. This is one of the most beautiful ancient structures I have seen.
We then proceeded to a place called Pammukale where we can see the white cascade like natural phenomenon. It is calcium carbonate deposits on a hill where you can see the amazing white snow like deposits over which the spring water flows. It is a lovely natural phenomenon. We could walk on them with bear foot. Tejas enjoyed walking down the hill on his own with energetic Mrs. S and the young and energetic S. This walking is supposed to have medicinal value. Incidentally, this is the spot where the shooting of the song 'Konjaneram Konjaneram' in Rajanikanth's, Chandramukhi has been picturised.
We were told that preivously many hotels were built very near this natural phenomenon and the place started turning black due to pollution. So the Government moved all the hotels away from this place and now the natural spring water is made to flow in different directions every day so that the white colour is retained and the whole thing is preserved properly. It is heartening to note that some action has been taken to restore such a beautiful site.
We proceeded to the hotel. There was a pool which had the water from the hot water spring with medicinal value and also lot of mud which was also supposed to have medicinal value. After dinner Tejas enjoyed getting into this pool and smeared the mud on himself and for once I could not say anything.

My Turkey Trip

I have been wanting to visit Turkey. The reason being that some how the name 'Istanbul ' has a fascination for me. So when we all planned a trip to Turkey I was very excited. We had joined a tour program with 'Parlo' under which everything is taken care of including stay, food and sight seeing. We were 25 in our group and 13 of us were our friends.(5 families) . Me, hubby dear and 'T' were from our family. We started from KL on 22nd May 2009 evening and reached Singapore. Our flight was in the night and we reached Istanbul on the morning of 23rd. We had a transit halt in Dubai and the airport was excellent with such big and wonderful shops.
We freshened up in the airport itself and immediately the tour started. We had a good breakfast in a local restaurant and were taken to the old city where the centre of the Byzantine and Ottaman empire called Hippodrome is situated. This place is full of historic buidings and where ever you turn you can see historical spots. It is maintained very well.
We saw the famous Blue Mosque which gets it's name from the blue colour tiles inside the Mosque. It was quite different from the other mosques I had seen in Malaysia. We went to a crowded local market and returned to an excellent hotel for the night stay.
Next day after breakfast, we packed our bags and left for some more sight seeing in Istanbul. Our long journey of about more than 1000 kms within Turkey in the wonderful Bus started. Our guide was one Mr. Ali Ishan who was wonderful with a lovely sense of humour. He filled us up with lot of info. as well as jokes.
We went on a small boat ride on the Marmara sea and the Bosporus straits which divides Europe and Asia. Istanbul is the only city which is both in Asia and Europe. We could see from our boat both sides of the city the European and Asian.
Later we visited the Ayasofya which is a Museum. It is very interesting to note that this was one of the earliest churches built around 5th or 6th century AD. After the conquest of Istanbul by Ottoman Turks this was converted to a Mosque by building Minarets and a Dome. The Christian mosaics were plastered over inside the church building.
When turkey became a Republic in 1930s it was converted to a Museum and now it is no longer a worshiping place. They are trying to retrieve the mosaics inside.
We left Istanbul after a good lunch .(through out our journey we got quite a good food that too vegetarian food, we could get yogurt every where and also lot of sweets for dessert.)
We travelled to Canakale and crossed the Bosphoros Sea in a ferry (our bus went inside the ferry) to cross over to the Asian side of Turkey.
We halted for our night in a hotel next to Aegean Sea. I was thrilled to look at Aegean sea which felt very familiar as we have heard about the sea a lot of time in Greek history.

Singapore visit again

I had been to Singapore again this time for a period of 2 weeks. Tejas had his end of term holidays and so decided to spend the holidays with V and J.
This time we went by Aeroline bus which is considered as the best Bus service among many which operate between Singapore and K.L. The reservations were done online and we selected the front two seats. This is a Double Decker Bus and so I was very particular to have the front rows for the aerial view! Yes indeed ! It was indeed great to watch the traffic and also the natural scenery on both sides of road from an elevated seating. I really enjoyed the bus journey. (Incidentally I had taken a book to read and it also helped me in enjoying this journey) Good vegetarian food was served on board (yes!) which is very unusual on these side of the Globe. Even food finicky Tejas could have some good drink apart from his coke. He got hot Milo while I had hot coffee. In between there was a 20 minute break on the way. (the high way has good rest areas).
The immigration was done very fast as the Bus took the alternate route to Singapore via Tuas instead of the usual Woodlands entry. We were told the journey would take approximately 5 hours and our bus which started at 3 p.m. in K.L. reached the bus station in Singapore on the dot of 8 p.m. I was impressed.
Singapore fascinates me every time I go there. This time the amazement was about the open areas and parks which surround the housing colonies. There is a very good park and play area with proper football court and shuttle courts near to where V and J live. After J's return from office we could go and play foot ball and Frisbee even after the sunset as the parks are quite well lit. Tejas was thrilled playing his favourite game. Lots of people were walking, running exercising in the park. No wonder , the population there by and large has a very fit look.
I am told that there are lots of park around the residential areas and also good exercise facilities and swimming facilities for a very nominal charge.

This time we visited the Zoo as my last visit to zoo was about five years ago. (Night Safari we had done recently.) We had breakfast with Orangutans, that is for a good fee buffet breakfast is served and Orangutans are nearby with trainers having their food too. The break fast was quite sumptuous. There were few shows by animals which were very good.
We spent time playing board games at home apart from going to few Malls and one or two dinners in Indian restaurants. (There is no choice for the food when I am around, poor kids).
I am eagerly waiting for my next visit to Singapore.
I should not forget to mention that we returned to K.L. by aeroline bus and we reached on time with good food on board and a smooth ride.

Gardening

I always had a lot of interest in Gardening. As a little girl I did not know how to get those beautiful Bangalore Roses also called Ooty Roses bloom in our garden.
We had the typical sturdy plants like jasmine, nityamalli, the ordinary yellow rose, different colours of a flower called spatika or december as it used to bloom around december, the drumstick tree, the curry leaf tree and the banana trees which were used more for their leaves, and also the Henna plant known as marudhani in tamil. All these plants did not need much nurturning and I used to keep myself busy digging and trying to plant some plants brought from friends' houses. There never was a gardener. We never bought any manure and the basics of watering the plants and tending them was done by us. There used to be occasional exchange (barter!) of the drumsticks with 'champaka' flowers which used to bloom in plenty in a tree in a nearby house.
This interest was kindled while in Palghat in Railway quarters where we had a gardener and a big garden with a lawn, and lot of coconut, mango and jackfruit trees. Our gardener used to plant vegetables also and we used to get brinjal (eggplant), ladies finger(okra) , cucumber and avaraikkai. we also had quite a few rose plants but they were all of desi veriety and not the ooty rose as the climate was not conducive for that variety of roses. All the work was taken care of by the gardener and I used to water the plants when he was not available. I had no idea about manure to be used to grow the plants nicely.
Well now that I live in Kuala Lumpur the ooty rose is still eluding me but I have become wiser as a gardener. I have a very small patch of garden in the front balcony of our apartment here.
I have started reading the 'pasumai vikatan' which is a tamil magzine which talks about agriculture and gardening and it has helped me in my gardening.

Now I don't waste the vegetable waste that we generate at our house. The vegetable peels and the fruit peels really add up to quite a lot of quantity. As my area of garden is very small I deviced a way to make myself a compost pit. I took plastic buckets and started putting the vegetable peels in it. (cooked items should not be put in it (that is the remaining food items)). I put the garden soil on the waste so as not to attract the flies and mosquitoes and once this bucket is filled up my second bucket is used . I am surprised at the speed at which the bucket gets filled up. This can be used as compost after about a month. I also buy the goat manure available in market and put it to plants after powdering it. I am very particular not to put any chemicals and I am really happy to see the plants grow nicely with lot of and flowers.
In this place plants grow very fast but lot of insects affects the growth of plants. I am experimenting again with some home made insecticides.
I am really happy that I am recycling the garbage and putting it to good use.
Hope to grow the great ooty roses in the near future. Here also I do have few roses but all of the normal variety.