Been back for a couple of days..Wanted very much to update but woe alas, immediately a day after i touched down, i have to move to my new abode and instead of unpacking simply one yellow luggage, i have to deal with like zillions of carton boxes..and of course difference in time helps not as i found myself staying up really late, like till four in the morning and waking up twelve in the afternoon.Somehow or rather, everything seemed topsy turvy and i guess all this travelling is really getting to me ..
Me : As i looked at my own reflection in the mirror, i seemed to have lost the sparkle in my eyes….
Inner voice: but of course the sparkle is gone la! especially when you are looking at yourself like three in the morning and then just seconds after you awoken from sleep..stu….pid!
Me : As i looked at my meals I hardly felt the urge to gobble it all up
Inner voice: but of course you have no appetite la, you have been eating at the weirdest hour ma!
Me : And as i now stare at my mac i could hardly carry on!
Inner voice: but of course la, you twit! you have have yet to even download the pictures that you have taken in Turkey and what materials do you have to sustain this somewhat” becoming to be lame”
and definitely” heading for the hills” post?
Me : And so i shall! But not until i have sorted out the eight cartons of boxes that seemed to be blocking my way to the loo, very difficult to make poo poo…
And so i think, between the sorting out of treasures and poo, i might just have a min to download the pics and then, perhaps i may, if i could, complete my update on Starguide: Turkey.
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So, the quest for Starguide: Turkey continues as i am now back from a day of filming at suntec and the date today is umm..well..21st of september time 22:46. My boxes are yet to be unpacked but, amazingly, i am now doenloading some of the more interesting pics that i have from this trip, not exactly comprehensive though, as the program has yet to be telecasted, probably mid october la..
On the 5th of sept,sin time:2100hrs, i found myself once again in terminal one .This time, however, is not just merely four of us(that’s how big our group is for the programme Destintion MOST wanted.Just me,the ep,soundman & cameraman.Full stop.No camera assistant, no make up artist, no chaperone blah blah blah..) its 129 tourists to be, comprising of folks from singapore, malaysia ,indonesia and even china! Though i was told beforehand that i am leading a rather substantial group, i was rather taken aback by the sheer size of ppl and luggages going on this trip..i was that close to either puke, or to black out and drop to the floor.Somehow or rather, i guess , in this tiny pea brain of mine i knew neither of the above options are ever opened to me and so, i put the shameless on screen me forward and welcomed the group with gusto!
I have got to make myself clear, not that in any way i am adversed to doing this trip..however, one has to comprehend and emphatise that for a great long part of this year, i am practically a loner, a hermit..and most of the time, in some foreign land, my only source of companion is just three other beings and most of the time, i hold conversations with a camera..It was high time that i have to make the switch..and i prayed long and hard that somehow miraculously after a twelve hour flight i might just be able to retrieve a fraction of my former ” wacky,crazy,titilating self…
Apparently, the old Bryan did come back for a brief stint of eleven days..I think he came aboard as we were flying over Iran or Iraq….
I shall not go into like a day to day kind of a thingy as that would mean loading lots of pics and writing lots of stuffs and frankly, i am just too plain old lazy for that.I am just gonna do pictorials and perhaps some little stories or thoughts that tags to the pic.
Now, that’s my size 45 feet against the manifique sunset over the agean sea!!!!!!! Me thought since my other attempts in including myself in the other pics are not so great and so i thought, i should be just so contented that a part of me is in the pic.Me thinks me should have been a foot model.i mean, its really well formed and huge and if i may say, the oldwives tale about the size of the foot equals the…hmm..Oh ya! just a fleeting thought, now, there’s this really funny,vivacious,loud(i mean, EXTREMELY LOUD) and lovely manager from Chan Brothers by the name of Reshel came along this trip and she is to take care of the film crew and link us with the local guides and blah blah blah and you can just die when you are in her company.Anyway, can anyone tell me, how do you pronounce this two words {Agean Sea} Do you say, A) Ah Jen See or B) Agency ?? we were collectively perplexed by this question as somehow or rather, these words came up rather differently from either of us….
So this is me doing a self portrait of my semi naked self out on the balcony.Just managed to get the major part of my face in and a partial shot of the scenery..can’t say that this is the best of both worlds but i think some members of the tour staying above moi did manage to get a couple of my semi naked self doing self pic.very embarassing but wat to do? wats done cannot be undone..should have just marched upstairs and delete their pics..however, did wonder how their shots of moi turned out..
Any idea what’s this? its COTTON!!!!! On our way to cotton castle( that’s not the actual name but i just literally have it translated from mandarin), we encountered fields after fields of cotton and close encounter with cotton revealed to me that they do not exists in stick form for cleaning ears and definitely not wooly wooly bite size for cleaning thy face! Rather pretty though..
That’s me enjoying life( that’s what my own personal quirky T shirt says),sometime around eight in the morning, at the cotton castle..Over here, you can soak your feet in puddles of water on a terrace like farming ground littered with numerous ponds of lukewarm mineral water and its supposed to be really good for your health if you do it like for months..
It is definitely not snow that you are seeing but mineral salts that paints the whole land in shades of white and colour hues of blue like the sky..
Some tourists,not from our group, came forth in bikinis as their intention was to immerse their whole entire being in the mineral water.One word of caution though..better to do it upstream then downstream..129 pairs of feet upstream means you have 129 pairs of feet cum other stuffs trodding all over thy voluptous bikini clad body.. not exactly the best way to spend thy holiday ya ?
That’s the film crew..recording bits and pieces that would translate into an half hour long programme that would allow you guys who are not there to share our joy and discoveries…
After doing my fair bit of filming and after tons of picture sessions, i got to finally immerse my size 45 feet into the lukewarm mineral water, enjoying the luxurious massage that only running water can do..i revelled in the tender swoosh that the water made as it gently lapped around my sensitive ankles and when i almost climaxed in furious unadulterated joy i foung myself looking to my left….Only to realise, that I, mighty me is…in fact…situated at where i would describe as…mid stream.perhaps , well, thirty odd happy looking faces were beaming at me, asking me if i enjoyed the water. i guess, well, playing footsie with thirty odd folks ain’t that bad ya? ( till two days later, i sort off imagined that my feet felt rather ..umm.. itchy..) EEEWWWWWWWWWWW!
always thought that only if i were to go to Salt Lake City in the US that i will then be able to stand on a vast sea of salt.Amazingly, there is a salt lake in turkey and its really salty..My shadow and I had a good old fun time with the noon sun and believe me, its a real experience to stand on sea of salt .…makes you feel like the dish ‘Oysters kirkpatrick/Mornay”!
One of the reasons that i do adore Turkey is that you could get to see a diversity of historical artifacts that are just mindblowing..Roman columns and buildings preserved in almost pristine conditions allows you insights to the ingeniouity the romans applies to their lives..the cultures…ooi ya..simply divine.
I remembered rather vividly that when i was young, i was very much into the mythological figures such as Zeus, Hercules that when i , or , as i walked amongst the ancient ruins that i felt i am living my dreams! When i was there, as i reached out my hands and touched the fallen columns, fingers tenderly tracing the outlines of the grains running along the marble, the limestones that i almost wept with joy for i am actually touching a piece of history!One could only imagine that once upon a time,a roman figure would have done exactly just that..i closed my eyes as my skin made contact with the cold stone, willing with all my heart that it might just reveal to me the stories that were never told…but a cold stone it was.for it revealed nothing to satisfy my thirst of knowledge.I know i should be ever so privilleged to be able to see and to touch history. and So i took pictures.Many pictures.Many, like, many many, i mean, lots, really like lots..yup..guess you got the picture..just this one, because i really have a lot you know,really… LOTS>
I love it when autumn comes along..i simply adore the contrast in colours and whether it turns red or brown it always goes well with the rich blue sky .I wonder if you share my sentiments too..Do you sometimes just like ignore the obvious stuffs around us?Do you revel in the beauty of Nature? Its…gosh..almost beyond words how something as insignificant like the brown wild grasses with some bits of green weeds and blue sky could be so surreal together…
perhaps you might know that turkey is part of the Silk Road and this huge stone mansion is actually one of the rest stops that merchants could stay for a night or more with their goods and camels as they travel through the silky route in search of wealth and new stuffs.Had the pleasure of exploring this historical building with this bunch of lovely folks from the REd flag group..the Hong qi’s.. I name this rest stop mansion “Dragon Gate’s INN” like those you see in those period chinese dramas because, it functions kust the same.Walking through this well preserved building waves of nostalgia hits you over and over again..Only if you were to appreciate the history behind every nook and cranny and if you ever do visit a sight like this, try touching it, rather than just taking pictures.Perhaps you could even bend down and grab a fistful of earth as i told this group to do, find a way to communicate with the past and revel in their existence.Only when you try to understand or at least know the historical facts of such places that you will be able to fully appreciate the long journey to see such sights. If not, it would only be a pile of rubbles or a dilipidated building to your naked eye…..
My favourite part of Turkey would have to be cappadoccia.. the undulating mountains, valleys..the plateaus, the rock formation, the work of years of wind, erosion,……created this magnificent work of art of mother nature…And this time, all its glory revealed to us from another perspective, as we soared into the skies. No more words from me. the pictures says it all….
I have now come to the end of my update and feeling rather pleased about it.
There are still many wonderful stories that i know of but not mine to tell.For it will forever live in the hearts of the 129 lovely folks who were there with me and our trip well documented in pictures that we had gladly snapped away.
To the many wonderful new folks that i had the pleasure of knowing and spending time with on this trip,
thank you for the memories…
