Category Archives: Turkey

WE finished our Turkish adventure today with a cruise on The Bosphorus to take in the view of this metropolis from the famous stretch of water that divides Asia and Europe. For a peaceful hour we followed the curves of the coast, looking at the elegant old houses that line the shore, and keeping clearContinue reading “Bosphorus, by boat …”

ON April 25, 1915, the first young Australian waded ashore at Gallipoli to begin what became one of the greatest episodes in our military history. The first to go ashore were four infantry battalions from the 3rd Brigade, First Australian Division – the West Australian, South Australians, Tasmanians and Queenslanders Charles Bean described as comingContinue reading “Sacred ground …”

IT’S October in Turkey, which would typically mean the weather was cooling down and giving the locals a breather after a steamy summer, but the autumn days on the Mediterranean are still hot with lots of blue sky crowning those magic water views. Another advantage of these glorious days are perfect sunsets, and we hadContinue reading “Mediterranean fire …”

THINK you’ve had a hard day at the office? Imagine harvesting a field of cotton by hand. We have seen lots of cotton during the past few days on the road, and most of it’s being harvested by big tractors that spit the fluffy white balls into oversized bins, but this was the first timeContinue reading “Cotton on …”

ANOTHER day, and night, in Turkey with nothing much to do but enjoy the changing colours of a Mediterranean settlement. We’re in Bodrum, another seaside spot set on the sands of the Aegean Coast, and with a cruise ship in port I decided the best place to be was on the balcony of the hotelContinue reading “Becalmed in Bodrum …”

ALL you need to enjoy a lazy day in Kas is a chair and a balcony to put it on. But make sure that balcony has a view of the water – that’s not hard, as most of the hotels in this tourist town are perched on the hills that rise from the Mediterranean toContinue reading “Colours of Kas …”

HAVE you ever thought about the evolution of the modern-day hotel? Probably not, and I don’t blame you, as tourist digs tend to look the same after you spend a few days on the road and are hardly worthy of grand anthropological study. But I visited a compound today, Sultanhani Caravanserai on the road southContinue reading “Silk Road stopover …”

IT’S official, I’m perfect. I had long suspected as much, but it was confirmed today when I visited the Mevlana Museum in the Turkish city of Konya. There’s a sign above the front door explaining “those who enter here incomplete will come out perfect” and after walking through the grand Ottoman doors, and exiting theContinue reading “Whirling perfection …”