Photo of the Week: Gauri Shankar (Nepal)

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As our group sat in our tents, a warming cup of tea trying to fend the biting cold wind, the last vestiges of yellowish sunlight glistens against the giant 7000 metre Gauri Shankar. Small chortens of stones pay respect to this elegant giant that stood guard over our small trekking group for the evening. As the light changed, Guari Shankar changed mood, the dark rock walls and vivid white snow being replaced by a subtle yellow in the evening moon light.

My Four Wonders of Turkey

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guest post by Henri Mikael for Travelsoon.com

Turkey is a large, culturally rich and historic nation with a wide variety of places to explore and discover. This is my personal list of four favorite locations in Turkey.

Museums of Istanbul

One hardly needs to visit museums while visiting Istanbul as the city itself is a testament to centuries of history with incredible architecture, ancient walls, towers and magnificent palaces. However, Istanbul features a number of excellent museums for those who wish to dig deeper than the surface. The Istanbul Archaeology offers a wealth of historic treasures and is, in fact, three museums in one - including the Museum of Ancient Orient and the Museum of Islamic Arts.

Troy

A famous place to say the least, especially after the 2004 box office hit Troy which starred Brad Pitt and Diane Kruger. While most of the film was fictional, surprisingly the Trojan horse did exist, at least according to history. The Trojans used a big wooden horse ‘gift’ to get inside the Greek walls. The same term has entered our modern language with it being the descriptor for a well known computing virus, that relies on creating a ‘back door’ to a PC to give access to hackers.

Aside from Hollywood films and viruses, Troy is magnificent for its old ruins which were dug up in 1868 with the city thought fictional for a few millenniums until discovered by Frank Calvert in 1863. It is certainly worthwhile adding Troy to your list of places to visit while in Turkey. Note that the wooden horse in Troy is just for fun, not the real deal.

Ephesus

Also known as one of the seven wonders of the world and on the location of the Temple of Artemis, Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, with a quarter of a million in population and boasting the status of the second largest city in the world in the first century BC. The Temple of Artemis, however, has been long gone and only ruins remain. Despite this, the ruins of Ephesus are a well known travel wonder and are easily accessed from Adnan Menderes Airport.

Miniatürk

Turkey offers so many wonders making it impossible to visit everything the country has to offer. While your Turkey holidays may only be short, it is worthwhile visiting Miniatürk, which offers reproductions of the major constructions and buildings that are spread throughout Turkey. While the buildings aren’t the real thing, it is great for those that don’t want to get in-depth with their history, yet want to enjoy their time in Turkey.

Photo Credits: Trojan Horse, Istanbul Museum, Troy Amphitheatre, Ephesus, Miniaturk

The Father of Australia in Lights (Sydney)

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There is an old clichéd travel joke that encapsulates Australia’s convict history. It goes something like:

A man approaches the immigration officer at the airport. The officer takes his card and asks “Do you have a criminal record?. A little despondent, the traveller responds “No. I didn’t know you still needed one”.

When Lachlan Macquarie became the colony’s fifth governor in 1810, the fledgling British outpost had more convicts and ex-convicts than free settlers, with more prisoners arriving regularly. Macquarie took dramatic decisions that set about Australia developing as a nation, bringing early prosperity to this distant land and earning him the epithet of “Father of Australia”. Macquarie’s name appears all over Australia as suburbs, towns, waterways, streets, banks, hospitals and rivers.

Completely changing the standards of the day, Macquarie ordained that emancipists (convicts who had completed their sentences or been pardoned) were to be treated as equals and were to be given the full opportunity to contribute to the emerging country. Some were offered high roles with ex-convicts becoming head architect, a judge and poet laureate among others.

Other convicts on suitable completion of a difficult task were pardoned. The road over the restrictive Blue Mountains which blocked Sydney from the wide open farming lands of Australia was built to a high standard in just six months, with the convict construction crew offered free land to farm along with their freedom in exchange. Indeed, Macquarie is credited with Australian’s value of classless society and a fair go.

Impressively, Macquarie built reasonable relations with the (rightly) suspicious native Aboriginals and unfashionably greatly respected and promoted women’s rights. He planned cities for the future, introduced banking and coinage into Australia, and commenced projects to explore the vast lands and construct key buildings for the future. His canny judgement often overrode the English rulers of the day, his being on the ground being more important than the thoughts of his superiors back home.

Today, along the broad Sydney boulevard of Macquarie Street in Sydney that runs from the Opera House to Hyde Park are many of Sydney’s key historic buildings, including the state parliament, state library, mint (no longer functioning), original convict barracks, an early hospital, St Mary’s cathedral (where Macquarie laid the original stone) and botanic gardens.

To celebrate the bicentenary of Macquarie’s governorship, his stewardship over Sydney and Australia's development and his considerable legacy, the Sydney Vivid festival recently highlighted his achievements in lighting and film projected against these remarkable buildings.

While six buildings were lit, the projections onto St Mary’s cathedral and the Conservatorium of Music were simply spectacular. The columns, arches and doorways were accounted for with the lighting needing such precision that altering a projector by the width of a coin would have completely upset the images.

The photos through this article highlight a small number of these remarkable lighting spectacles enjoyed by thousands of Sydneysiders and visitors alike in an exhibition titled Macquarie Visions, all a part of the Vivid Sydney festival. Other events included a concert for dogs and a Bollywood production over water.

While today, it is nearly impossible to imagine the difficulties of settling a new country, over 12,000 kilometres away from the home country, there is little doubt that Australia enjoys the fruits of visionaries like Lachlan Macquarie that built the foundations of the cultural and civil fabric of today's Australian society.

Photo of the Week: Independence Day (Craig, Alaska, USA)

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This scanned photo from the 1990s is taken on July 4th in the small rustic timber and fishing town of Craig on Prince of Wales Island in southern Alaska. Three of us stayed there for a night before heading into the scenic Alaskan waterways on a boat that looked like the African Queen. With a population of less than 1500 people, everyone seemed to be involved in celebrations with a long parade of vehicles and various sporting and social groups followed by a wonderful afternoon of food and festivities in the main park.

One striking vehicle was the services truck with Smoky the Bear and an unidentified creature on board. Is this a beetle or an alligator or turtle or what? Anyone got any suggestions?

To my American readers, best wishes for 4th of July and to my Canadian readers, my thoughts for the recent Canada Day (1st July).

Drinks Around the World: Masala Chai (India)

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I have only been to India once but my endearing memory is of the superb and varied masala chais served throughout the country. Whether sold by a jaunty chai wallah (someone who serves or sells tea) at a railway station or sold from a rickety stall, heated on charcoal stoves and poured into a clay cup for a few rupees, the sweetened and strongly spiced brew acts as an uplifting instant refresher. I drank at least one cup every day seeking the wonderful Indian markets for the most rustic examples. The smallest villages had chai wallahs eagerly endorsing their fine products.

While recipes and ingredients vary from maker to maker, the primary ingredients are cardamon seeds, cloves, cinnamon sticks, ginger root, fennel and black peppercorns mixed with black tea in boiling water. Strain the tea and spices, add a generous amount of sugar or honey to bring out the intensity of the spices and add milk to taste. While chais are sold in packaged form in Australia (and probably America and Europe), none capture the delicate spicy sensation brewed in India from scratch.

Mostly, masala chai was served with a flamboyant high lift of the pot, ceremoniously poured into a cup from a distance. Chai captures the essence of India and is an experience not to be missed in this remarkable and culturally varied nation.
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At the start of every month, Travel Wonders highlights a characteristic drink experienced on his travel. Previous non-alcoholic Drinks Around the World include Mint Tea from Morocco, Vietnamese slow-drip coffee, Coca Tea from Peru and Austria's herby Almdudler.

Photo Credits: Smoky stall, mixing chai