July 17: A Turkish Love Story The Turkish formal event is one the Turkish people take VERY seriously. The day began somewhat lesiruely, but we must say THAT ended abruptly as we were both ushered to our respective preparation sites. Mark accompanied the men of the family barber (one that has managed the hair follicles of several generations of Sukan's) and Angel accompanied Tara, the bride and the Mothers of the soon-to-be wed to Tony and Guy for updo's, makeups, mani/pedi combos, etc. For any ladies who've had this experience here in the States, let me tell you "you ain't seen [View Full Entry]

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July 16: The Power of Positive Thinking Flexibility must remain the golden rule of travel - in fact, if it's not already published, we are taking out the copyright. another rule that bears publishing is ot completely disregard the ferry schedules for crossing the Bosphorus that are posted on the internet. Once our daily ritual of getting Mengu out of bed had been accomplished, at an hour earlier than usual, we cabbed it down to the ferry drop nearest the Sukan's home. Upon arrival, we noted that it was ominously absent of several important elements: 1) A boat, 2) Ferry passeng [View Full Entry]

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July 13th: Local Tour of Turkey Meets Pedestrian Cruise Ship Forced poor Mengu to drive two hours from Cesme to Ephesus on the scenis route that runs along the coast. More picturesque views of a coast line that is as jagged as a broken window. Mengu tells us that the coastline is longer on this side because of the many inlets created by the making of the mountains here. HHI: Level 4 - heat is moderated by a fresh breeze from the Aegean Sea. Fantastic. Ran a moderated gauntlet of shopkeeper's into the ticket office for Ephesus, an ancient harbor city [View Full Entry]

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July 11: Turkish Breakfast with the Bride and Groom, Anthropologie Museum and the Spice Bazaar [View Full Entry]

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July 10: We set off to the Mosque of Sultanahmet, or what is known as the Blue Mosque to us foreigners. It's known for it's blue coloring, but we found the inside and outside both beautiful. It's noted to be "open and airy" and was created to compete with what is generally regarded as the crown jewel-Hagia Sophia (aya so-fee-uh). We found Hagia to definitely be the architectual and artitistic treasure it purports. The mosaics in goldleaf and murals to support both muslim and Christian rule are impossible to describe and the photos we took here are just a glimpse of [View Full Entry]

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July 9: Topkapi Palace, Basilica Cistern and Harem After a simple trip via taxi, subway, funicular, and tram and a short walk we arrived at the Blue Mosque, just in time to have it be closed for prayer. Son-of-a...Because Mengu was swearing the HHI was at least a 5 (really a 3.5, we decided to go to the Basilica Cistern which is underground and filled with water. The cistern is huge! Holding about 24.6 million gallons of water but was forgotten for about a 1000 years. It was recently renovated so that tourists can actually walk through it. More importantly it [View Full Entry]

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July 8th: You know you've left a third world country... ...when you go tto the restroom inside of immigration and you get excited by the paper towel dispenser (first, there is paper towel) and secondly, the dispenser is operated by motion sensor. Picked up at the airport by Tara and Mengu (thank god - we've reached civilization!). amazed by the cool weather! Everyone in turkey complaining how hot it is! Transported us back to Mengu's parents' house, where we are staying for the next several days. Dinner with a few of Mengu's close friends (only around 20 or so) at a [View Full Entry]

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Our Final Day in Egypt Arrived in Cairo 2.5 hours late at 7:20a.m. and headed back to our hotel to bid farewell to Team Intrepid. Fond farewells, contact exchange, a highly anticipated shower and we headed for a train to day-tip in Alexandria. Arrived at station 15 minutes after the final morning departure, rendering our day-trip impossible. Always the optimists, headed for lunch to map out Plan B. We've decided we dislike Cairo, but love the view from the rooftop bar of the Nile Hilton. Something about 20Million people honking thier horns in 100 degree Farenheit heat just doesn [View Full Entry]

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July 6th: You thought THAT was hot?!? The Valley of the Kings - tombs, sarcophagi, vividly painted hieroglyphs, critical lesson in Egyptian death rituals and temperatures so high inside the claustrophia-inducing, box-like underground tomb of Tuthmosis III, it made the outside temperatures for what is purported to be the 2nd hottest place in Egypt, feel quite refreshing - was an unforgettable experience. Until this point, we hadn't seen much olor in the monuments and temples, but here, the hieroglyphs look like they were painted in mineral-based paint only a few weeks ago, instead of [View Full Entry]

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July 5th: Sunrise on the Nile. Happy Birthday, Andrea! Good morning to the Sky god from a felucca on the Nile - pretty tough to beat this sunrise - has to be in our top five ever!! Man, do we all need a shower! Absolute zero wind required ninety minutes of towing to meet up with our landbased caravan that took us the final three hours to Luxor. Wow! HHI 6 at 10:00a.m. Does not bode well for later daytime temperature reading. Another HHI level may be in our future. Visited the UK-based animal hospital managed by ACE (Animal Care in [View Full Entry]

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