HE SAID... We woke at 5.30am and organised ourselves for our travel from Selcuk to Pamukkale. We had a pretty basic breakfast at 8am and then headed to the train station. The train arrived at 9.25am, and it was fairly packed. There were no seats, so we stood for the first hour of the trip. The aisles filled quickly with locals travelling on market day. When we arrived at their destination, the train cleared and we grabbed a seat. We were wearing the evil eye charms our guide had given us. It was meant to ward off jealous stares and thoughts from other people, and the symbol prevails in every Turkish tourist shop. Many Turks wear an evil eye, and they even place them in new cars to prevent jealous glares from their neighbours. We travelled ... read more

HE SAID... We woke at 5.15am to catch up on our trip notes and pack our bags for the trip from Istanbul to Bursa. We headed to breakfast at 7.30am, checked out at 8.15am and jumped on a mini-bus to the ferry terminal. We cautiously navigated the ferry’s shifting gang plank (it had already upended an elderly Kurdish lady) and tried to find our allocated seats. Having no luck whatsoever, we just grabbed a few spare seats and hoped the ticket holders didn’t turn up. We were on our way to Bursa. We arrived on the southern side of the Sea of Marmara at 11am. We jumped onto a local bus and wound our way up the coastal hills to a metro station, caught a crowded train to the heart of Bursa and then walked through ... read more

HE SAID... We woke at 7am, organised our packs and headed up to the top floor of the hotel for breakfast. The view of the Bosphorus and Golden Horn from the breakfast area was incredible, as was the bread and feta cheese that we washed down with cay (Turkish tea). After breakfast we showered, checked out at 9am and headed back to the Constantine Boutique Hotel. It was too early to check in, so we dropped our bags and headed to the Intrepid Travel office. We met our guide at 9.15am and walked to the Aya Sofya. There was something strangely enticing about this place. While no longer used as a mosque or cathedral, it retained a spirituality that had not been diminished by the thousands of tourists pouring through its doors every day. A group ... read more

HE SAID... There’s not much I can say about the 14 hour British Airways flight from Singapore to London– the food was poor, the service was indifferent and the plane was falling apart. We always forgive poor service and dodgy surrounds when the food is good, but the flight couldn’t even offer us this. I boarded in a college with 90 other students when I went to Uni in the 80’s, and the food that emerged from the college kitchen was far better than the food on this flight. However, we slept well and woke reasonably refreshed about two hours before landing. We’ve come to London to spend a few days with Ren’s sister Romy and her two children Kirsten and Jared. It will be a great time, as we haven’t seen them for five years. ... read more

HE SAID... An unfamiliar silence had descended upon the schoolhouse the night before we embarked on our trip. We’d dropped Jasper and Oscar (the kelpie and corgi respectively) at the kennels in the early afternoon, and Nungi (the cat) had been put down three weeks earlier (finally succumbing to arthritis, cancer and blindness). As we relaxed in the schoolroom and checked our packs, there were no little souls sleeping around us on the floor and sheltering from the bitter cold outside. It’s not that they are loud. Apart from Jasper’s incessant barking at council workers who turn up to check the water tank over the back fence and Oscar’s unexplained barking at nothing in particular, they make very little noise during the days and nights at Yarlington. Yet without their presence, the silence was noticeable. We ... read more