Cotton

Pamuk (=cotton) the cat: His owner a lovely very talkative carpet seller who sat and talked to us for hours on rugged cushions infront of his carpet shop, bringing endless cups of apple/regular tea. He talked about his family and how they were nomadic until he was about 10. How his father fell in love with a girl from a different tribe and she ended up running away with him and the tribal problems this caused and how she was blamed for bad crops and for bringing bad luck. She was a carpet weaver and Marco said every nine months 'one rug, one baby.' Anyway, he had a rare cat (there are only about 200 left). Notice the eye colour (she famously closes her eyes for photos but I managed to snap her).

Pamukkale (=cotton castle)
Pamukkale is an amazing hillside covered in white calcium from calcium rich spring water, with pools of turqoise water terracing down the hill like snow. Sadly a lot of thenatural pools have dried up, not helped by a road being built up the side in the1980s when hotels were built at the top (they've been removed now, but it is quite amazing walking barefoot up the great white slopes streaming with spring water.The walls bubble out and cross-hatch patterns form from the flowing water.

Turkey

 This is a relatively small 'candle' rock.

 Pidgeon House.

 Hat formations where the underneath tufa rock is softer than the balancing rock on top.

 View from up in one of the candles on our walk throught the Rose/Red valley.

 Bunnies in the sunset. Benny is quite hairy these days.

We loved Turkey. Cappadocia was a highlight of our trip so far. We stayed in Goreme where people still live in caves carved out of the tall rock formations. We went for a big long walk in the desert heat one day, exploring caves in the rock formations and stumbling upon unmarked huge churches inside the rocks. Some of the 'candles' are pidgeon houses that have pidgeon holes and pidgeon roosting shelves (ie where the word pidgeon hole comes from). We felt like kids, climbing up through holes in the ceiling up into higher and higher levels, eating wild grapes and apples. The rocks formations are huge and the caves inside so beautifully and simply carved. Plus they are nice and cool so make convenient resting places. People in Turkey are very friendly and laid back and offer you cups of tea.

A Jumble of Pictures

Well, since I last updated we've been through a lot of countries and done a lot of things. So I kind of gave up on blogging because it took so much time to upload pictures and find the time for it. So I might just upload a few random pictures current or past whenever I get the chance.

Emma and I at the top of the Brasov Hill in Romania

English Forest

Polperro

Little fishing village we stayed in. The streets are so narrow that you have to park outside the village and walk in.

A drink with Huw, after we ate wild boar sausage at the Borough markets.

London

London does red very well; telephone boxes, post boxes, double decker buses, and further away fields of bright red poppies.

We Ate Bugs

Bugs deepfried and spiced - the big one was nice, the little ones were ok, the grubs were...grubbish. Surprisingly it actually took ages for us to find a bug-stall, which we eventually came across in Chiang Mai.Yum!

Tigers!

Ducks on Elephants!

Wats

"What's a Wat"
"What?"
"Wat"
"Which Wat"
"Wat you fink?"

"Wat-ever"

Thailand, Bangkok

Bangkok is a huge crazy city. The traffic is insane - people don't indicate or stick to lane markings and there are Tuk Tuks and motorcycles everywhere (plus people don't wear helmets or protective gear and there aren't even seatbelts in most of the taxis!) But, as Benny says it's like an 'orchestration,' all the traffic seems to breathe into it's place. It is hard to describe the chaos and heat and smell. Streets lined with stalls, a sign on a hospital with a young girl pointing to her heavily pregnant belly saying "oops," beaded flowers, ancient converted bike-carts, whole streets dedicated to the sale one particular thing, such as big buddas or woodwork, or car parts, bartering, people sewing on old sewing machines on the streets, Wats, Wats and more wats! Well this is a very jumbled description of Bangkok, but that's just what Bangkok is like!