We’ve been visiting my family in my hometown of Toronto for the past few weeks – my parents live deep in North Toronto, so we’ve spent most of our time up here in the almost-burbs, BUT we’ve also ventured south of Bloor St. to check out some downtown neighbourhoods.

Most recently, we spent the day with my sister and her fiancé in their no-man’s land neighborhood nestled between Leslieville, Little India, Riverdale and Riverside … four East-side hoods that have become vastly more trendy since we left here six years ago. It appears that a commodities boom and low interest rates have made Toronto a much wealthier place than it used to be, and as the West End of the city has begun to price out the hipsters, they’ve moved eastward.

We took a lovely walk through Riverside, and a Flatwhite, under-stated brunch and interiour decor shopping experience later, I realized that I was experiencing a deja vu … of our old stomping grounds in Brooklyn. Not that I’m complaining … I enjoy homemade coffee cuffs, curated art exhibits, surprising homemade chocolate flavours, gourmet hot dogs and bamboo tee-shirts as much as the next (white, upper middle class) guy – I suppose I just wasn’t expecting it here in Toronto. Who knew! But it’s a great thing, Carroll Gardens is my favourite neighbourhood in the world (and I’ve made some inroads into the Western world … so this isn’t as vacuous as it sounds), so I’m pleased to see some clones popping up here in the T-Dot (yes … I agree, it is the Worst Nickname Ever).

2011 was a great year in many ways – but not a particularly impressive year for blogging. In fact, it was downright non-existant. So I’ll sum up 2011 quickly. In January, we moved to Vancouver. I got a new job at a start-up after 9+ years at my last company, Lindsay launched a company – Placeling, and in November, we welcomed our son Cameron to the world. There were many other happy moments, and some challenging ones too, but that’s about it in a nutshell … now we’re all caught up!

Now to a more forward looking topic. It’s always been important to me to come up with New Year’s resolutions, and for what it’s worth, I’m really good at forging new ones every year. Achieving them … well, my record is more dubious. So this year I thought I’d celebrate my return to blogging by making my resolutions a bit more public. I hope that this will result in a more respectable success rate. So, here they are:

1. Be a great wife and mom

2. Get back in shape. Run the Vancouver 1/2 Marathon in May, and exercise regularly.

3. Get creative. Re-ignite my music collection, start blogging again, build a robot with Linds, begin cooking (this should also be included under item #1!) and work on my business idea (more to come on this).

C’est tout. Arguably #3 is actually #3,4,5,6 and 7, so I think this is plenty to concentrate on for now!

Happy New Year!

Linds and I spent four days in beautiful Cappadocia, in central Turkey. I’d heard from many people how unique and naturally beautiful it was, but like many of the experiences on our trip, I didn’t truly appreciate it until we arrived. Cappadocia was formed many millions of years ago (the range we were given was 4-10MM .. semantics at a certain point) by volcanic deposits that created astounding shapes out of the soft rock. The inhabitants of Goreme (where we were staying) once inhabited carved houses, monasteries and churches made out of the rock – the landscape was an integral part of their daily lives. We only saw a few remaining cave dwellings, and a few caves that were used as farm buildings.

Cave Dwelling

Panorama of the Surrounding Area

More Cave Dwellings – you could actually hike up to these and walk around inside. Sadly Cappadocia, contrary to popular belief, was not the filming location for the original Star Wars. It was actually shot in Tunisia.

One of the highlights of our time in Cappadocia was a balloon ride. You rise before the sun, have breakfast with a bunch of strangers – then they take you to the launching place, where you actually watch the myriad balloons being inflated:

Then taking off:

The baskets are actually quite full (I had illusions of a romantic sunrise ride with just the two of us .. not so much); there are about 20 people per small basket – we were sharing our cozy compartment with a Japanese man and a Brazilian couple. The ride itself was about an hour long, and was navigated by an exceptionally skilled operator. More than once, I was convinced that we were going to slam into rock faces, or get tangled in the trees, but he handily navigated us out of harm’s way each time. The views were augmented, not impeded, by the many other balloons taking their daily sunrise voyage (you are lucky to spot one balloon in the sky for the remainder of the day – it appears to be a one shot deal). We have hundreds of photos of the ride, here is a sampling:

At the end, after deftly dodging power lines and skillfully landing on a truck bed, we were given glasses of Turkish sparkling wine, and certificates of accomplishment – I’m really not sure what it is that we accomplished, other than shelling out some cash, getting up at 5:30 a.m. on vacation and not vomiting on the innocent citizens of Goreme below, nonetheless it was certainly a proud day for Wendy Fravis and Lindsat Wat.

We had a number of other memorable excursions in Cappadocia. One was a trip to Derinkuyu underground city, about 40km from Goreme. There are actually hundreds of underground cities in the area, likely created during Hittite times, but used until approximately the 14th century by various groups escaping various other groups plundering Central Anatolia at any given time (the Christians hid from the Romans, the Phrygians from the Assyrians, etc.). This particular city was complete with eight levels, a church, a stable (on the 1st floor), very steep vertical staircases, and temporary burying places. It is unlikely that people lived in these cities permanently, but it is thought that hundreds of people would live there for months at a time.

Another interesting trip was to Uchisar Castle, the highest point in Cappadocia. You can hike to the top for amazing views of Fairy Chimneys and the Pigeon Valley.

The castle itself, carved from rock, with the town below (it’s really pretty incredible)

View from the top of the castle

The Pigeon Valley, where we spent an afternoon hiking

Fairy Chimneys

The Pigeon Valley is so-named for the hundreds of dovecotes (like these ones, the tiny holes in the rock), where pigeons (not doves) would nest, and villagers would go in once or twice a year to collect eggs and dung. Progress is good.

Trails aren’t marked in Cappadoccia, so we spent a long time wandering around the valley, confronted with a number of very steep cliff faces from time to time. It was a fine example of international competition, as together with an Australian women, a French family and an American couple, we managed to find the trail.

Finally, we spent some time in the Ihlara Valley – where we went on a beautiful walk by the stream, enjoying the autumn colours (which we particularly appreciated after being in places where autumn doesn’t really exist), and to Selime, which contained one of the most impressive rock churches that we’d seen thus far.

The Selime Cathedral from the outside

The Selime Cathedral from the inside

We’ve been in Turkey for about ten days, but I feel like we’ve just scratched the surface. We’ll need to return one day. Now we’re off to Berlin, where we’re going to spend a month before heading home to Canada via London for the holidays. The frenetically paced portion of our journey is drawing to a close, but I look forward to sharing some stories and pictures from Europe, as well as some over-arching thoughts about our trip.

We continued our journey Westwards to Turkey, a city that sits on the cusp between East and West (literally – when you cross the Bosphorus, you are crossing the line between the European and Asian continents). It’s a city that infuses, if not assaults, the senses. First, there are a lot of people – with 12.8 million inhabitants, it’s the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and the fifth largest city in the world. I wasn’t expecting this. The city sprawls and sprawls, despite the fact that it’s population density seems quite high (i.e. there are crowds of people everywhere). Secondly, the city is aplomb with markets selling dry goods, spices and food, as well as juices bars and cafes – they are literally everywhere you go. Nowhere is this more apparent than the famous Spice Market and Grand Bazaar. For a sugar lover like me, the Turkish Delight (which comes in tens of varieties), baklava and dried fruit were a huge treat. We did kid ourselves into thinking that the dried fruit was healthy, but after coming off a dazzling hour long sugar high, we had to admit that it probably wasn’t.

Turkish Lanterns

Thirdly, the dynamism of the Turkish people themselves makes the city alive and exciting. It’s a city where you can visit any number of sleek lounges to enjoy a $20 cocktail (Istanbul is not cheap) with fashionable locals, or visit the excellent Modern Art Museum, showcasing a great exhibit by the designer Hussein Chayalan. On the other hand, many of the women wear headscarves and conservative clothing, there are fisherman along the length of the central Galata bridge, and it would not be out of the ordinary to observe a devout Muslim, dressed in traditional clothing, praying on the street.

An Olafur Elaiansson light at the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art.

Women waiting for the bus

We also visited a couple of the remarkable historic sights in Istanbul (of which there were really too many to count, let alone visit). After our time in Uzbekistan and India, where we spent much of our time checking out important historical buildings (largely religious), we decided to limit our traditional sight seeing to a few places. First, we visited the Basilica Cisterns, the largest of a number of underground cisterns in Istanbul. The cisterns, which are 500m below ground level, feature 336 marble columns. They might also look familiar because they were featured in the 1963 James Bond film ‘From Russia with Love’.

We also visited the spectacular Hagia Sofia. I’m not sure that these pictures will do justice to the absolute scale and grandeur of this famous monument (another WHS). The Hagia Sofia was originally an Orthodox Patriarchal Basilica during the Byzantine era, then was converted to a Mosque in the fifteenth century, and finally secularized in the 1930′s and converted to a museum. What makes the building so interesting is that they have excavated the original Christian frescoes, which now co-exist with the traditional Islamic carvings and art. It’s breathtaking.

We have been endlessly entertained by tourists posing for photos along this trip – glamour shots!

We also visited the Topkapi Palace, the most famous palace in Istanbul, built during the 15th century for the Sultan of the Ottoman empire. It is composed of four complexes and hundreds of rooms, although not all of them are accessible. Another WHS, it is quite beautiful, especially the harem (although after paying steep entrance fee to the palace, upon entering the site they make you pay extra for the harem, which seems sneaky). We particularly liked the tiles in the harem, which were quite varied and intricate, as well as the stained glass and mother of pearl inlaid throughout the palace.

The (understated!) Baghdad Palace

Inlaid Mother of Pearl adorned many of the doors

The harem roof

After a long time in crowded, chaotic cities with no sidewalks, it was great to be in a slightly less crowded, somewhat less chaotic city with enough sidewalks that you didn’t fear for your life every time you took a step into the street. As such, we spent a lot of time in Istanbul walking around the different neighbourhoods and experiencing the day to day life of the city. We’d both read Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul (I highly recommend it) before arriving in Turkey, and his memoir/tribute to his childhood home was great fodder for explorations, particularly on the Asian side. Here are some shots of the city – I’ve tried to include a variety from both the European and Asian side, and reveal the juxtaposition of Old vs. New and East vs. West that make Istanbul so interesting.

Wooden houses are still sprinkled around the city

Turkish flags are everywhere in Istanbul – these ones are along the an old aqueduct

Fishmongers

A delivery man bringing clothes to a local shop

A typical alley in Galata

Outdoor cafes are very popular – even as the temperature dropped to 5 degrees celcius

A flim (or commercial) shoot outside our hotel

The view from the Galata bridge to the old city

Dilapidated wooden buildings

Uzbekistan is not generally high on the list of ‘must see’ places for North Americans. It could be the distance and the hassle (16+ hours, no direct flights, an onerous visa process) or perhaps it’s that it’s name ends with ‘stan’, but likely it’s because most people, like me, weren’t really all that familiar with what it had to offer. We decided to visit Uzbekistan because it’s location on the Silk Road left a legacy of gorgeous mosques, palaces and fortresses that make cities like Samarkand, Bukhara and Kiva legendary … (well, at least amongst the retired bus touring community in Germany and France). We were also intrigued by the fact that we know exactly five people who’ve ever been there. So it was with great anticipation that we boarded our Uzbekistan Airways flight from Delhi to Tashkent.

The first thing that you notice when you arrive at the Tashkent airport is that unlike conventional airports, which play host to a number of different airlines, there was only one airline represented at Tashkent International. That’s right – if you want to fly in or out of Uzbekistan, you’re flying Uzbekistan Airways. The second thing you’ll notice is that operations management is not a priority in an autocracy, where everything, from the banks to the airports, are run by a government that is democratic in name only (the president is so popular, that he somehow consistently manages to win 88% of the vote in each election!). We’d arrived from Delhi in tandem with about six other flights from around Asia and Europe, and waited about an hour for our bags to eventually make their way onto one of the two unmarked baggage carousels.

We were picked up by our driver, Serik (while we don’t generally travel with organized tours, they are close to a necessity in Uzbekistan), and transported to the center of Tashkent … to the Hotel Uzbekistan. In this case, a picture really is worth a thousand words:

Interestingly, the world Tae Kwon Doe championships were taking place in Tashkent while we were there, and we checked in at the same time as the team from the Democratic Republic of the Congo .. who knew! Also worth noting was the hotel brothel on the 16h floor. Hotel Uzbekistan truly had it all!

Hotel Uzbekistan is part of a the almost-modern looking downtown core of Tashkent, designed by the Soviets in an effort to create a contemporary Europeanized city. The buildings are large and striking, like this Congressional Hall, previously a popular park until it was torn down last year to commemorate some anniversary or another.

We changed some money – which was easier said than done. Uzbekistan doesn’t have ATMs. So instead of withdrawing local currency, you visit a bank branch, where after a sit down meeting with a bank employee, some paperwork and a mere 4% commission, you have the pleasure of withdrawing American dollars on your credit card. Then you are free to convert your dollars to S’un, at the official government rate (1:1,600), or the real (black market) rate (1:2,250). There’s been some inflation in Uzbekistan. The lowest denomination is 1,000, which means that you are constantly walking around with a huge wad of bills in your pocket. I felt like a gangster.

Tashkent is not a mainstay on the tourist circuit, but it has a couple of interesting monuments and a visit to the local market was a good introduction to local cuisine. Uzbekistan is known for the variety of spices it grows, and also produces a yellow carrot, which they use in their national dish, the pilav. Weddings are very important in Uzbekistan, and they’re important to me too, since my sister Sharon is getting married, and I’ve set out on a quest to find her an international wedding dress of style! Traditional wedding garments are sold in most markets – frilly dresses for the brides, colourful tunics for the guests and gold embroidered dark cloaks for the men

Women grating the yellow carrots for sale

Colourful wedding attire

Sharon – your dress is top left

And this is for the men (Paul ..)

We also visited the beautiful Khast Imom Complex, one of a few historical monuments remaining in Tashkent (it was razed by the Soviets, and then hit by a strong earthquake in 1996). This is the Friday mosque at the complex:

We also visited the local crafts museum, where I was introduced to a number of interesting concepts. The first was a popular national game, Kupkari. Here’s a description from tourism.uz:

The national sport Kupkari (in some areas of Uzbekistan, namely in Ferghana valley, it is called uloq ) is a team game in which the two mounted teams attempt to deliver a headless and legless goat’s or ram’s carcass weighing 30 – 40kg over the opposition’s goal line. A line of horsemen flies off at the sign of the judge. One of them outrides the others and at full speed picks up the carcass of a goat from the ground. That fraction of a second is enough for the other riders to catch up with him and try to take away his trophy. This game called ulak or kupkari in Uzbek, means “the game of many people”. In Russian the game is also called “flaying the goat”.

Apparently after the game is finished, it is customary for the teams to eat goats together – a gesture of camaraderie. Another interesting rural tradition is the use of mini bed-tents for infants. Since rural housewives work hard during the day and don’t always have relatives or friends to care for their infants, they lie the babies down in these wooden bed tents for the duration of the day. They even carve a hole in the floor of the tent so the babies can relieve themselves. Since the floors are too hard for the babies heads, their heads flatten in the back (apparently you are able to notice this on grown Uzbek men). While this tradition has dwindled, it does still exist in some parts of the country.

The third concept an interpretation of the Muslim hijab. The Uzbeks of yesteryear had their own unique and rather extreme interpretation, the paranja. The paranja has only ceremonial sleeves (the woman’s hands are contained within the garment), and their facial area is covered with a horsehair veil. The woman is completely hidden from view. Here I am, modeling a much-too-short version of the paranja.

The next day we set out to Samarkand with our driver Serik. We spent a lot of time in car with Serik, an animated 60-something Kazakh with a great sense of humor (he called vodka factories ‘Russian mosques’) and from what we could tell from our sign language interactions, a fascinating life. He was part of the Soviet Army, fought in Afghanistan and spent some time on the (then) Soviet-Iranian border in the 70′s, poised to defend the USSR in the event of a possible American attack. He was also a great source of random information – i.e. that our hotel owner in Samarkand was actually the local mob boss (said hotelier ended up taking a liking to us and repeatedly attempted to make us drink vodka shots with him).

As we set out on to the highway, two things became quite obvious – the divide between urban and rural development, and the corruption. As it pertains to the latter, Uzbekistan is particularly notorious, and ranks 174 out of 180 on Transparency International’s measure of perceived corruption. While we were impressed by the standard of living in Tashkent (it’s a clean, relatively modern city with good infrastructure, cafes and shops), the countryside is full of mud huts, donkey led trailers and endless cotton fields filled with children and older women picking cotton. In fact, while it is technically illegal, children are regularly pulled out of school for the cotton harvest – a practice that has led to the ban of Uzbek cotton in many Western countries (they still have sizable contracts with Iran, Russia and China). There are also military checkpoints every 30 km or so. Nothing appears to happen at said checkpoints, just a bunch of very bored looking officials who arbitrarily stop cars. With over one million men enlisted in the military and police out of a population of 27 million, there are a lot of bored officials. There are also some propaganda posters dotting the landscape – similar to what Linds and I saw in Cuba many years ago.

Samarkand is Uzbekistan’s second largest city, and was an important city along the silk route. During the 14th century, it was the capital of Timur (Tamerlane), and his mausoleum is located there. It is humbling to visit a city like Samarkand. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, founded in 700 BC, and was ruled by the Persians, the Arabs, and a variety of different Turkic groups before being completely destroyed by the Mongols under Genghis Khan in the 13th century. In the 14th century, Tamerlane decided to make Samarkand the capital of his considerable empire, and it flourished under his reign. In the 15th century, the great astronomer Ulugh Beg built his observatory there – LInds and I were duly impressed by the level of scientific progress made in this region (though the observatory was destroyed by religious fanatics, and after Ulugh, scientific discovery faltered). The city was conquered by a number of other dynasties over the following 500 years, and then finally by force by the Russians in 1868. Generally, we learned that the history of Uzbekistan (and Central Asia in general) is bloody, tumultuous and complex, so I’ll keep my historical summary of Samarkand superficial!

The first site that we visited was the impressive Shaki Zinda complex, a necropolis filled with ornate mausoleums. The mosaics (many of which have been restored) were totally spectacular, as was the woodwork.

An example of the woodwork. There are no forests in Uzbekistan, so wood carving is not widespread and reserved for special sites. Plaster carvings are very common, and there are also examples of papier mache.

Next, we visited Registan Square – the heart of Samarkand, and the location of the city’s executions (which included tossing women into a bag of vicious cats … ouch!). A mosque stands in the center, with madrases on either side – it is truly majestic.

Lindsay made some new friends. They were selling wolf tooth necklaces.

Next we headed to Bukhara, another major center of the region’s Tajik people, along with Samarkand. Due to the dynamic history and ever-changing borders of Central Asia, the population of Uzbekistan is surprisingly diverse. While the official state numbers state that the population is divided as follows: Uzbeks – 80%, Russians – 5.5%, Tajiks – 5%, Kazakhs – 3%, Karakalpaks – 2.5% and Tatars – 1.5%, Western scholars estimate that the Tajik population is actually 20-30% of the population. In addition, Uzbekistan has a small Armenian community (one of our guides was Armenian), as well as a Korean population, forcibly relocated to the region by Stalin in the 1930s. In fact, while the Korean-Uzbeks have now been here for a few generations, you can still purchase kimchi and other Korean delicacies in the markets. There used to be a fairly large Jewish community as well (and in fact we stayed in the Jewish quarter in Bukhara), but with the collapse of the USSR, many of them left for the US or Israel. There are only about 5,000 Jews remaining in Uzbekistan.

Bukhara is another ancient city – people have inhabited the region for about 5,000 years, and the city has existed for about 2,500 years. It lacks the imposing, huge structures of Samarkand, but the old city is completely charming and filled with history. Here are some views of the city:

Kalon Mosque

Sitorai Mosque

One of the three major trading domes (centers of commerce built at intersections of important roads). Caravans traveling along the Silk Road would sell their wares at these domes.

Kalon Mosque

An ornate roof at the Summer Palace, just outside of the city
  

The Kalon Mosque

A local peacock. They actually wander the streets here, which is pretty incredible for a Western tourist like me!

Our next and final stop was Kiva, which entailed a seven hour drive through the Kyzyl Kum desert – a vast stretch of nothingness that seems to go on forever.

We made one stop, at the edge of the Amu Darya river – you can see Turkmenistan on the other side of the river. At various points on our journey, the road was marked with distance signs for cities in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, even Iran and Pakistan – it was pretty surreal.

Khiva is a walled medieval city consisting of two parts – the outer city, which used to have eleven gates, and the inner city, encircled by a 10 meter high wall. The inner city is incredibly picturesque.

Davosa Gate

A cemetery by the gate. Many traditions of Zoroastrianism, the regions original religion still remain, including a belief in the evil eye, and the practice of entombing the dead above ground (although thankfully, they didn’t leave the bodies out to be eaten before entombing the bones).

A wedding on the main street

A family praying in a mosque before the son’s ceremonial circumcision

An unfinished minaret

We elected not to take a ride on this Soviet era ferris wheel

Finally, the interior of our hotel. It was originally a madrasa, then converted to a prison during the Soviet reign. Today it’s a heritage hotel.

Our time in Uzbekistan flew by – it is a such an interesting country, with kind, polite people and gorgeous historical cities (Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva are all World Heritage cities). It is also a very easy place to travel if you’re a tourist. It is so safe and friendly that it’s easy to forget that the country struggles with some major issues, namely corruption and restrictions on free speech. Despite all this, I would highly recommend a visit.