Titanic Comfort Hotel Istanbul

... was another day that seemed like 4 or 5 days in one. I woke up late and skipped a Turkish breakfast even though I still like it. There is so much food that I haven't been hungry all day after eating so I thought I would try not having breakfast. I went to a part of town called Ortakoy to visit a woman I met on Sunday who has a gallery. She is a jewelry designer and a former architect. Her work is so different and so beautiful and she is amazing since she walks with ...

... been rebuilt in part. The heat was just about as oppressive as Bangkok; most afternoons found me needing to stretch out for awhile in an air conditioned room!

Note to Hung Chee: We stayed at Lithai House (in LP) Think we paid $15 per night for both of us which included a choice of good breakfasts, private bathroom and A/C. Nice staff, too!

After leaving Phitsanulok, we took another 6 hour bus trip north to Chiang Mai where we spent 5 nights ...

... tour groups or we find quiet corners to wait out the large bands to move on.

The Blue Mosque or Sultan Ahmet Camil was an interesting mosque to visit - considering all the other mosques we have seen and visited along our Middle Eastern passage. Unlike the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus where strict protocol of dress was enforced, visitors at the Blue Mosque were asked to cover their limbs and women were asked to cover their heads, but the ...

... is 86 carat and another diamond of 56 carat yahoo babe they are almost fist size and stunning... no pics allowed. The Spoon Diamond was so named as a poor street seller found it and not realising its worth sold it to a spoon maker for 3 x wooden spoons.. and so the phrase and awards began hehe. There was also a huge kitchen building running the entire length of one of the courtyards and turned out 10,000 meals ...

... diameter frame drum) this morning at around 96 bpm, which i selectively sampled and then looped in ableton for this specific purpose (before we left for the studio).  this was slightly more familiar and thus allowed him to relax into the session better.  between takes, i tuned one of the studio's classical guitars to DADGAD and played muhterem a version of "moving mountains"  (from the first stereognosis album, oneirism).  this song contains the ...

... my size and felt like a million dollars. Even in my flip-flops and board shorts, looked absolutely stunning. Not only taht i was able to bargain with him and instead of paying 2800 lira I only paid 950lira!!! It was wicked! THEN, later that day we went to a Turkish Bathhouse! I went completely nude to the get the full experience . It was nothing like the Russian one, but quite an experience. There was no hot suana and jumping in ice cold water, but there was ...

... rest. Spend a fair bit of the night alternating with DP on the loo. Feeling pretty wrung-out by morning, but probably on the mend. Summary of Uzbekistan We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Uzbekistan. Before we came, reading about it being a Police State with the President being in complete control, and the Police continually soliciting bribes, made us a little anxious, but we had no problems at all. We've found before that ...

... Sultanabad to Ajasofia, czyli Hagia Sofia. Sultan wybudowal sobie palac naprzeciw bizantyjskiej swiatyni chrzescijanskiej, zamienionej potem na meczet, zeby pokazac, ze go stac na wieksze cacko. Po obejrzeniu wnetrza Niebieskiego Meczetu, poszlismy nad ciesnine Bosfor, laczaca Europe z Azja. W drodze powrotnej zahaczylismy jeszcze o stare miasto, by na koncu podziwiac Niebieski Meczet i Hagia Sofia noca - jeszcze piekniejsze niz za dnia. Potem ...

... 50 lira?' 'No, I cannot do it. 50 lira means no profit for me. I gave you a reasonable price at the start. If you went to other store maybe they say 50 lira for each case then offer you 'big discount' but I not do that.' Jess and I confer. We tell the shop owner that we will go away and think about it. He starts to look uncomfortable, but I don't want to push him too hard. He seems like a nice guy. I also quite like the goods in question so I say as we are about ...

... we head out to our next destĘnation! The weather is warming up a bit and the skies have become hazy after many days and evenings węth clear and beautiful skies. After the last tour ended many of us stayed around in Ęstanbul so we had some down time to relax and see sights and usually end up drinking Efes beer on the rooftop of one of the hostels where we were staying. The breeze would pick up and on one side was the Aya ...