http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Kelebek/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Kelebek en-us Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:01:43 +0000 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:01:43 +0000 I have finally packed up my bags taken one last look aroundswitched off the lightand walked out of that monstrouslovable thing entangled nowforever in my heartand perceptions of the world. Leaving West Africa was the sound of velcro ripping apart the smell of grease and smog more beautiful the noise and grit of public and poor now a colorful and painless thorn in my side. The day I flew away http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/blog-283849.html I parted from Africa after four months of traveling and volunteering on a cloudless swampy March morning in true Ghanaian style. That is I waited in lines filled only with foreigners until we figured out that no one else was bothering with lines and order only to be told three hours before the flight that it was finished. Come back tomorrow the pinklipped Delta agents said. Stand by stat http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Accra/blog-283845.html Ain't got no home ain't got no shoes ain't got no money got no class.... Ain't got no mother ain't got no culture ain't got no friends ain't got no schoolin'.... And what about god Why am I alive anyway Nobody can take away.... Got my hair got my head got my brains got my smile Got my arms got my hands got my fingers got my legs Got my heart got my http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Western/blog-264789.html Embracing the Rhythm of Life Yoga and Drumming in the CaribbeanLife is a series of stories. As a story is in the business of stringing words together to create an idea or image life is a string of moments each one holding an instant of our past a teaspoon of our future some with sugar some with spice some with smelly things wersquod rather not encounter at all. Together these beads of http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/US-Virgin-Islands/Saint-John/blog-271712.html The coastline of Benin is largely a spread of urban junk and trash piles heavily concentrated around the unofficial capital and moped death trap of Cotonou an unruly mess that dwindles to reasonable levels of pollution the further distanced you are from city centers. Here in the sleepy borders of high flying city life small fishing villages give way to a few beach resorts and life rolls along http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/blog-248898.html Heading for the fairly large and bustling town of Kpalim deep in the forests of Togo's cocoa and coffee country I couldn't help but notice sign after sign for Ecotourism outings childish paintings of pinked white people cruising along palm tree lined paths to cascading waterfalls. As our ancient and dying Peugot chugged along the paved highway to Kpalim I wondered about that word ecotourism. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Togo/blog-248690.html The Road to TimbuktuThe last dregs of Dogon countryrsquos vast escarpment two black sandstone towers mark the turnoff to Timbuctu once the worldrsquos most remote outpost now quite the glamorous prostitute for many a rich but poor foolish tourist who puts herself through motor vehicle misery just to say ldquoIrsquove been to Timbuctu and back again.rdquo We were ostensibly going fo http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mali/North-West/Timbuktu/blog-235942.html I made the switch from veggie to vegan about two months before leaving for Africa. Go Figure. In a place with as limited of food choices as your local 711 I was going to skip out entirely on anything animal no meat eggs fish dairy. I the incredibly dutiful subscriber to sustainability good karma and digestive functionality would boldly go where no vegan dares to go to the land of little http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Burkina-Faso/Hauts-Bassins/Bobo-Dioulasso/blog-230495.html The Christianity in Ghana gets in your face a little like you might imagine voodoo intense loud and sometimes downright freaky. Everywhere I go locals ask me if I'm Christian. Even the stores signs ask will you shop at the God is Great Hair Salon or Betty's Twists and Braids Will it be Annointed Miracle Goat Soup or Nana's Fufu for lunch And to drink or not to drink that is the questi http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Accra/blog-229086.html First few days in Africa....I'm standing in the middle of a tro tro station Ghanian buses crossdressed like a beat up minivan and a VW van on lifts listening to the market calls blabbering around me. Puuuurh Waataaah or Yaammmms or simply Hssssss are all ringing around me shouting this or that for sale sometimes only the attention from a bruni i.e. little white me exchanged for a few http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Accra/blog-229078.html Just what every person dreams of doing on their vacation...staying on a farm Right. But for whatever crazy hobo was possessing my body that day I signed up for a week long stay at a small farm near Datca a teensy local hideaway about two hours from Marmaris. My partner and I looked long and hard at the farm descriptions listed through WWOOF's website the World Wide Organization of Organic Far http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Aegean/Marmaris/blog-222691.html Don't get me wrong....Lonely Planet has treated me pretty right over the years. It's useful applicable to all different lifestyles and much more tolerant than say Rick Steves' guides that refer to Paris' Marais District as a place where leather straps and dildos abound. Hmmm. HowEVER I have found that a serious reading between the lines is needed to figure out just what the hell LP means http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-220189.html By the time I left Turkey after 6 weeks of travel I was proud to boast on its behalf that I had seen only 3 homeless people or beggars during my entire journey and all three were in Istanbul. On the other hand I was a bit confused by the fact that I had also seen only one Indian and one African and they were both clearly tourists. During the first leg of my journey spent haunting around http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/blog-218255.html My first day in Istanbul I climbed the spiral multicolored stairs to the rooftop terrace of the Chill Out Hostel to join the morning in its halfbaked daze. In the impatient congestion of horns and traffic below the city lulled choked as if in the heat it had no appetite for itself. The milky sprawl of Istanbul splashed like thick paint against the blue of the Bosporus below buildings http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-217772.html Turkeyrsquos identity is easily mismanaged by stereotypes of a vast Middle Eastern desert populated by an unforgiving Muslim crowd and the mediarsquos parade of imminent disaster stories. Before I departed for a sixweek trek around this mysterious country a relative had asked ldquowhy Turkey Arenrsquot there a lot of Muslims thererdquo as if my life and decision to go might depend http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Mediterranean/blog-217692.html