photos MAVI YOLCULUK
Turkish R&R
Rest, Recover, Relax...vacation at last!
As I walked down the gangway to board my flight in early June I was actually on the verge of tears. I was so absolutely overwhelmed with the relief of true freedom, at the idea of enjoying my family and friends from afar and celebrating in the union of two very special people.
Over the course of the next week and a half I fulfilled all of my intentions to breath deep, be surrounded by love and happiness, and to enjoy life at its very simplest.
Istanbul welcomed me with open arms as usual. I gathered myself and started off with a day manicuring with my grandmother, lunching with my aunt and grandfather, and topped it off with a perfect reunion of friends and an evening filled with laughter and anticipation of the adventures to come.
The next morning we were off to Cesme.
Together with friends from Turkey, London, Israel and New York I spent three days exploring the quaint vacation town on Turkey's west coast. One of my favorite areas is Alicati, an energetic neighborhood filled with cafes, restaurants, and boutiques within graciously renovated and picturesque ancient stone homes, stables and structures. Very reminiscent of Santorini, Alicati has a slightly more organic and local feel, particularly as we were there early in the season and it was relatively free of tourists.
The wedding was held in the Cesme Castle, a broad and statuesque building perched on Cesme's waterfront. The ceremony and celebrations were beautiful and, as with any Turkish wedding, extremely festive. Americans mixing with belly dancers, and Turks doing the twist...the bride and groom managed to create a truly fantastic representation of their respective cultures all within a breathtaking setting.
The party moved on to Kum Beach, which had just opened its doors for business, and we danced the night away under the stars until, exhausted, we all collapsed into the bus and headed to the hotel to pack for our upcoming yacht adventure...
With a six hour bus ride to recover, the twenty-two seafaring adventurers arrived in Fethiye, another coastal vacation town further south. We were met by the crew of our amazingly well-appointed boats (AC, hot water, six bedrooms with private bathrooms, flatscreens and DVD players, full audio system...), unloaded our bags, took off our shoes and watches and turned off our cellphones, all of which we would entirely forget about for the ensuing week.
Known as the Mavi Yolculuk (Blue Voyage, namely because of the stunning and crystal clear blue waters of the Mediterranean) renting gullets and cruising the coast between small port towns and islands is a very typical Turkish vacation in the summer. Without a doubt one of the most relaxing and reflective trips I've ever taken, I am still reveling in the sense of freedom and tranquility that a weeklong boat voyage allows.
A typical day on the boat is spent swimming, sunning, eating, playing cards, exploring small towns and visiting ruins, snorkeling, kayaking, and eating again...with the most difficult decision every day being which bathing suit bottom to wear and whether or not it is time to cool off in the water.
One of my favorite days started at 5am. When the motors started running my roommate and I grabbed my blanket and hauled ourselves to the top deck to watch the sunrise as we pulled out of our evening spot. After dozing off in the sun, by 7am it was already so strong we had to go below deck before resurfacing to find ourselves in one of the most stunning destinations of the trip: Butterfly Valley.
The day was spent hiking the valley and discovering its waterfalls, snorkeling, exploring caves, and ended with a spectacular hike on the nearby St. Nicholas Island to watch the sunset.
After six days unwinding in a similar manner each day, we returned to Fethiye for a fresh seafood feast and ultimately made our way to the airport to return to Istanbul: full, rejuvenated, and already nostalgic.
Read more »
As I walked down the gangway to board my flight in early June I was actually on the verge of tears. I was so absolutely overwhelmed with the relief of true freedom, at the idea of enjoying my family and friends from afar and celebrating in the union of two very special people.
Over the course of the next week and a half I fulfilled all of my intentions to breath deep, be surrounded by love and happiness, and to enjoy life at its very simplest.
Istanbul welcomed me with open arms as usual. I gathered myself and started off with a day manicuring with my grandmother, lunching with my aunt and grandfather, and topped it off with a perfect reunion of friends and an evening filled with laughter and anticipation of the adventures to come.
The next morning we were off to Cesme.
Together with friends from Turkey, London, Israel and New York I spent three days exploring the quaint vacation town on Turkey's west coast. One of my favorite areas is Alicati, an energetic neighborhood filled with cafes, restaurants, and boutiques within graciously renovated and picturesque ancient stone homes, stables and structures. Very reminiscent of Santorini, Alicati has a slightly more organic and local feel, particularly as we were there early in the season and it was relatively free of tourists.
The wedding was held in the Cesme Castle, a broad and statuesque building perched on Cesme's waterfront. The ceremony and celebrations were beautiful and, as with any Turkish wedding, extremely festive. Americans mixing with belly dancers, and Turks doing the twist...the bride and groom managed to create a truly fantastic representation of their respective cultures all within a breathtaking setting.
The party moved on to Kum Beach, which had just opened its doors for business, and we danced the night away under the stars until, exhausted, we all collapsed into the bus and headed to the hotel to pack for our upcoming yacht adventure...
With a six hour bus ride to recover, the twenty-two seafaring adventurers arrived in Fethiye, another coastal vacation town further south. We were met by the crew of our amazingly well-appointed boats (AC, hot water, six bedrooms with private bathrooms, flatscreens and DVD players, full audio system...), unloaded our bags, took off our shoes and watches and turned off our cellphones, all of which we would entirely forget about for the ensuing week.
Known as the Mavi Yolculuk (Blue Voyage, namely because of the stunning and crystal clear blue waters of the Mediterranean) renting gullets and cruising the coast between small port towns and islands is a very typical Turkish vacation in the summer. Without a doubt one of the most relaxing and reflective trips I've ever taken, I am still reveling in the sense of freedom and tranquility that a weeklong boat voyage allows.
A typical day on the boat is spent swimming, sunning, eating, playing cards, exploring small towns and visiting ruins, snorkeling, kayaking, and eating again...with the most difficult decision every day being which bathing suit bottom to wear and whether or not it is time to cool off in the water.
One of my favorite days started at 5am. When the motors started running my roommate and I grabbed my blanket and hauled ourselves to the top deck to watch the sunrise as we pulled out of our evening spot. After dozing off in the sun, by 7am it was already so strong we had to go below deck before resurfacing to find ourselves in one of the most stunning destinations of the trip: Butterfly Valley.
The day was spent hiking the valley and discovering its waterfalls, snorkeling, exploring caves, and ended with a spectacular hike on the nearby St. Nicholas Island to watch the sunset.
After six days unwinding in a similar manner each day, we returned to Fethiye for a fresh seafood feast and ultimately made our way to the airport to return to Istanbul: full, rejuvenated, and already nostalgic.
Three AI's and a Day in Delhi
My latest professional adventures hurled me through a whirlwind of cities, cultures and experiences...all jam-packed into a week of tireless travel, meetings and explorations.
Dubai
Finally, I meet Dubai!
Again I find myself filled with expectations and piqued with interest. Dubai was a city filled with myth mystery and hype...and being able to wrap my head around this rapidly growing desert metropolis was both a pleasure and disappointment.
Cranes, cranes everywhere...the city is undoubtedly undergoing a massive boom. The amount of construction is beyond imagination and when combined with the vast, colorless landscape truly is surreal to take in. Full streets, neighborhoods and islands all from scratch. There is no denying the impressive scale of creation.
One highlight was a tour the Palm Jumeirah, the first of the acclaimed man made island communities, which is not yet open to the public. With little sense of arrival, all of a sudden we found ourselves surrounded by densely packed condos and townhouses, each with its own strip of beach...we traveled up the 'trunk' of the Palm until we reached Atlantis, an absolutely massive hotel complex with an impressive aquarium as the piece de resistance. The scale of this building is in keeping with the rest of development in Dubai...there is no sense of human scale or personal experiences, merely grandiose gestures that overwhelm and only sometimes impress.
In terms of business, everyone is in a rush to build. Bigger, better, faster, now. The amount of hotels already built is impressive and the thousands of planned developments is absolutely staggering. There is a huge sense of pride in what has been created and the precedents that are being set in Dubai but to me the greatest disappointment was the true lack of culture and history.
No matter how impressive growth is, development based purely on capitalistic endeavors will never resonate with me in the way that a city building itself in the name of preserving its unique qualities and characteristics can. Overall, I was quite taken with Dubai, but probably more as an intellectually challenging place to truly grasp than a place that I would want to visit, explore and enjoy in greater depth.
Mumbai
We arrived to an dark and hushed Mumbai airport...there was a power outage. Welcome back to India!
I took great pleasure in returning to Mumbai and experiencing it as something of a familiar city. After overcoming the massive barrage to the senses that I had in my first trip, I was able to discover new details and delight in new layers of the city that had been overpowered by the impact of my first visit.
Despite the absolute clamor that characterizes Mumbai, I was able to find slices of peaceful moments amidst the chaos...
Things I noticed, loved, soaked in and will always remember:
-the fantastic elegance of the way Indian women nod their heads 'yes'
-sunrise over the Gateway to India and watching the city rumble to life
-the ritual in every experience
-barefoot waiters dishing spoonful after spoonful of brightly colored pungent foods to the only foreign diners with a smile and a shy curiosity
-watching the dabbawalla's washing all of mumbai's laundry in open air
-weaving between rickshaws in heels laughing at the irony of my attire
-sipping cocktails on the official cricket greens and reveling in potency and nostalgia of the old world british influences
Delhi
With less than 24 hours to spend in Delhi, I managed to pack in a power meeting, a visit to three homes, a night on the town, and a rather intimidating thunderstorm.
After our morning meeting, I met up with a friend who invited me to join her for the afternoon. After boardrooms, hired cars, hotels and business meetings, I welcomed the chance to finally go to someone's home and enjoy a family experience.
We started at her aunt's in Gurgaon, a city just outside of Delhi that is rapidly rising from the dirt as a community centered around a strong core of technology and corporate campuses. I was immediately welcomed as one of the family and six of us curled up in the air conditioned bedroom where we joked, drank tea, and shared stories.
Afterwards we went to another home where the man of the house had prepared Indian street food, something of an indulgent guilty pleasure of his. I sampled every delicious dish and marveled at their complexities. My absolute favorite was what I coined 'Indian nachos' - Chat Papri. Delightfully crispy puris are smothered in fresh yogurt, decorated with red and green chutneys and sprinkled with corn and pomegranate. Delicious!
Finally we went to her beautiful home, grabbed her bathing suit and headed back to the hotel for a swim. Just as I dipped my toes, a fierce wind stuck. It had picked up all the dust of Delhi and tears were streaming down my face as I ran for shelter. The sudden ferocity of the storm and the big, fat drops of rain were quite impactful. Extrapolating on that short experience, I imagine monsoon season as a tempestuous time filled with the uncertainty of nature's power. Quite intimidating.
We dried off and were off to enjoy drinks and dinner at a lounge before hopping a 4am flight, all the while sharing exciting plans for life and plotting carefree roadtrips to the Indian countryside...
Shanghai
My first corporate job was as an intern at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in Chicago. They had just completed the Jin Mao tower, which was at the time to me was not only a sign of the impending growth of Shanghai but also the awakening of China as a world power. From my first day on the job, I dreamed of visiting Shanghai and witnessing the birth of a new global city.
Almost ten years later, that dream was finally realized.
As I entered the elevator in the Jin Mao Tower to check into the hotel I had seen in slides, articles, company presentations and imagination, I was filled with anticipation of the breathless skyline and broad shoulders of urban Shanghai. To my utter disappointment, however, both smog and the rainy day never allowed me the full impact of that imagined scene.
We whisked off to explore the city immediately, as it was Sunday and we had the afternoon free. Shanghai, like any city, has its highlights as a visitor, but I was immediately struck by how necessary it would be to have a local guide to truly help me unearth all the city had to offer.
We wandered the French Legation and visited Xintiandi, a wonderfully charming collection of shikumen houses that have been restored and renovated into lovely cafes, shops and galleries. The mix of french colonial architecture with Asian influence is a true pleasure and the civility of all the complex and growing surrounding neighborhood has to offer was impressive. We ended the evening wandering the Bund, highly lauded as a fantastic destination due to the renovation and repurposing of the waterfront as an entertainment district.
Following a day of meetings on Monday, I desperately wanted to visit the Taiking Lu area and Bridge 8 to satisfy my art and culture curiosity. Those last few hours of our ceaseless travel were filled with fantastic discovery. Taiking Lu began with the renovation of a factory into studio spaces for artists and design business and has very organically grown with the opening of galleries and cafes. Very casual in nature and intimate in scale, a turn in one direction will pull you into a design shop filled with the latest books from around the world and a turn in the other will bring you face to face with a 70 year old man stirring his noodles in his kitchen, laundry drying overhead. We chatted with shopkeepers, stocked up on design magazines, bought art, and packed ourselves, canvases in our laps, into the car for the airport.
Read more »
Dubai
Finally, I meet Dubai!
Again I find myself filled with expectations and piqued with interest. Dubai was a city filled with myth mystery and hype...and being able to wrap my head around this rapidly growing desert metropolis was both a pleasure and disappointment.
Cranes, cranes everywhere...the city is undoubtedly undergoing a massive boom. The amount of construction is beyond imagination and when combined with the vast, colorless landscape truly is surreal to take in. Full streets, neighborhoods and islands all from scratch. There is no denying the impressive scale of creation.
One highlight was a tour the Palm Jumeirah, the first of the acclaimed man made island communities, which is not yet open to the public. With little sense of arrival, all of a sudden we found ourselves surrounded by densely packed condos and townhouses, each with its own strip of beach...we traveled up the 'trunk' of the Palm until we reached Atlantis, an absolutely massive hotel complex with an impressive aquarium as the piece de resistance. The scale of this building is in keeping with the rest of development in Dubai...there is no sense of human scale or personal experiences, merely grandiose gestures that overwhelm and only sometimes impress.
In terms of business, everyone is in a rush to build. Bigger, better, faster, now. The amount of hotels already built is impressive and the thousands of planned developments is absolutely staggering. There is a huge sense of pride in what has been created and the precedents that are being set in Dubai but to me the greatest disappointment was the true lack of culture and history.
No matter how impressive growth is, development based purely on capitalistic endeavors will never resonate with me in the way that a city building itself in the name of preserving its unique qualities and characteristics can. Overall, I was quite taken with Dubai, but probably more as an intellectually challenging place to truly grasp than a place that I would want to visit, explore and enjoy in greater depth.
Mumbai
We arrived to an dark and hushed Mumbai airport...there was a power outage. Welcome back to India!
I took great pleasure in returning to Mumbai and experiencing it as something of a familiar city. After overcoming the massive barrage to the senses that I had in my first trip, I was able to discover new details and delight in new layers of the city that had been overpowered by the impact of my first visit.
Despite the absolute clamor that characterizes Mumbai, I was able to find slices of peaceful moments amidst the chaos...
Things I noticed, loved, soaked in and will always remember:
-the fantastic elegance of the way Indian women nod their heads 'yes'
-sunrise over the Gateway to India and watching the city rumble to life
-the ritual in every experience
-barefoot waiters dishing spoonful after spoonful of brightly colored pungent foods to the only foreign diners with a smile and a shy curiosity
-watching the dabbawalla's washing all of mumbai's laundry in open air
-weaving between rickshaws in heels laughing at the irony of my attire
-sipping cocktails on the official cricket greens and reveling in potency and nostalgia of the old world british influences
Delhi
With less than 24 hours to spend in Delhi, I managed to pack in a power meeting, a visit to three homes, a night on the town, and a rather intimidating thunderstorm.
After our morning meeting, I met up with a friend who invited me to join her for the afternoon. After boardrooms, hired cars, hotels and business meetings, I welcomed the chance to finally go to someone's home and enjoy a family experience.
We started at her aunt's in Gurgaon, a city just outside of Delhi that is rapidly rising from the dirt as a community centered around a strong core of technology and corporate campuses. I was immediately welcomed as one of the family and six of us curled up in the air conditioned bedroom where we joked, drank tea, and shared stories.
Afterwards we went to another home where the man of the house had prepared Indian street food, something of an indulgent guilty pleasure of his. I sampled every delicious dish and marveled at their complexities. My absolute favorite was what I coined 'Indian nachos' - Chat Papri. Delightfully crispy puris are smothered in fresh yogurt, decorated with red and green chutneys and sprinkled with corn and pomegranate. Delicious!
Finally we went to her beautiful home, grabbed her bathing suit and headed back to the hotel for a swim. Just as I dipped my toes, a fierce wind stuck. It had picked up all the dust of Delhi and tears were streaming down my face as I ran for shelter. The sudden ferocity of the storm and the big, fat drops of rain were quite impactful. Extrapolating on that short experience, I imagine monsoon season as a tempestuous time filled with the uncertainty of nature's power. Quite intimidating.
We dried off and were off to enjoy drinks and dinner at a lounge before hopping a 4am flight, all the while sharing exciting plans for life and plotting carefree roadtrips to the Indian countryside...
Shanghai
My first corporate job was as an intern at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in Chicago. They had just completed the Jin Mao tower, which was at the time to me was not only a sign of the impending growth of Shanghai but also the awakening of China as a world power. From my first day on the job, I dreamed of visiting Shanghai and witnessing the birth of a new global city.
Almost ten years later, that dream was finally realized.
As I entered the elevator in the Jin Mao Tower to check into the hotel I had seen in slides, articles, company presentations and imagination, I was filled with anticipation of the breathless skyline and broad shoulders of urban Shanghai. To my utter disappointment, however, both smog and the rainy day never allowed me the full impact of that imagined scene.
We whisked off to explore the city immediately, as it was Sunday and we had the afternoon free. Shanghai, like any city, has its highlights as a visitor, but I was immediately struck by how necessary it would be to have a local guide to truly help me unearth all the city had to offer.
We wandered the French Legation and visited Xintiandi, a wonderfully charming collection of shikumen houses that have been restored and renovated into lovely cafes, shops and galleries. The mix of french colonial architecture with Asian influence is a true pleasure and the civility of all the complex and growing surrounding neighborhood has to offer was impressive. We ended the evening wandering the Bund, highly lauded as a fantastic destination due to the renovation and repurposing of the waterfront as an entertainment district.
Following a day of meetings on Monday, I desperately wanted to visit the Taiking Lu area and Bridge 8 to satisfy my art and culture curiosity. Those last few hours of our ceaseless travel were filled with fantastic discovery. Taiking Lu began with the renovation of a factory into studio spaces for artists and design business and has very organically grown with the opening of galleries and cafes. Very casual in nature and intimate in scale, a turn in one direction will pull you into a design shop filled with the latest books from around the world and a turn in the other will bring you face to face with a 70 year old man stirring his noodles in his kitchen, laundry drying overhead. We chatted with shopkeepers, stocked up on design magazines, bought art, and packed ourselves, canvases in our laps, into the car for the airport.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
