Father Abraham (In a Purple Headscarf?)

After Mr. Turkish Bull got our stupid, foreign asses onto the right bus, we found ourselves in the middle of Şanlıurfa. On a whim, I dragged Dave into a bookstore, where I scored a pocket Turkish/ English dictionary for 3 lira.

This came in handy, as shortly thereafter we were mobbed by a dozen young boys who would be our friends for the afternoon. Twelve-year old Mahmut somehow had a Turkish/ English phrasebook with him, so we swapped phrases such as, "I hope you have a safe journey" and "How many children do you have?"

little mahmut in the white shirt next to dave

The boys decided to take us to "Fish Lake." As the legend goes, King Nimrod got really pissed off at Abraham and threw him into a fire. God/ Allah was all like, "Oh no you don't," and He turned the flames into water and the coals into carp. The fish in this pond are huge, glossy, and very excited to eat the pellet food sold by vendors in the park.

"fish lake" at dusk

The next day, we made a pilgrimage to the cave where Prophet Ibrahim/ Patriarch Abraham supposedly was born. The sign next to the door noted the segregated sides for men and women and requested that women to wear long skirts and headscarves (and to refrain from taking photos during prayer). Fortunately, I happened to wear my long skirt and to have a scarf in my bag.

entrance to ibrahim's/ abraham's cave

I don't think I would have taken any pictures, anyway. The mood inside the cave is pretty intense. Women swathed in the purple headscarves typical of Şanlıurfa sat on carpet squares in tight rows, either praying or sitting quietly. One woman was reading a beautiful Arabic Quran. Some women were filling up cups or bottles with holy water from a spigot. A little boy ran around, occasionally shrieking. One woman was crying.

It blew my mind to think that Abraham was born here, oh, plus or minus 4,000 years ago. And this city has been continuously inhabited for nearly 6,000 years! Even the historical Buddha was born "only" 2,500 years ago. Such history! And how lucky I am to have visited so many sacred places this year. Too bad Christians, Muslims, and Jews seem to forget that they are all children of Abraham...

urfa's citadel

After visiting Abraham's cave, we climbed to the top of the Şanlıurfa kale, or citadel, to enjoy the great views of the city. Highly recommended, it was a lovely little walk.

other tourists at the top

Şanlıurfa fashion is... distinctive. Many women wear traditional clothing: a velvet, floor length dress with a leather belt, a velvet cloak, and then another light brown cape. It reminds me of medieval dress. Both men and women wear purple headscarves, apparently all the rage this year. But there are also many women who wear trendy long skirts and snazzy, urbane long jackets.  This is Turkey: part West, part East, part modern, part traditional.

women in typical urfa dress

How could I resist? My lone Turkey souvenir is a trendy purple Urfa headscarf.

this picture destroys any chance at holding public office in the united states.
(i'm not sure i'm disappointed.)
but isn't it a pretty color?

Did Father Abraham wear a purple scarf?  I guess we'll never know...

Paradise!

Written Monday, September 20, 2010.

After leaving Malaysia, we headed north toward Thailand.  It was my first overland border crossing in Asia, and it went really smoothly.  Some crossings, like Thailand into Cambodia, have a long-standing, well-deserved, terrible reputation for scams, bribery, long waits, and other travel hassles.  But Malaysia to Thailand was so easy!

We took an overnight train from Kuala Lumpur to Butterworth (still in Malaysia).  In Butterworth, we walked across the street from the train station to the bus station, where we got a ticket for a mini-bus bound for Hat Yai in Thailand.  At the border, we got out of the mini-bus, went through immigration (already had a tourist visa from Kuala Lumpur), and got back in the mini-bus.  In Hat Yai, we got some Thai baht out of an ATM and got onto another local mini-bus bound for Surat Thani.  By that evening, we were walking around Surat Thani, looking for a way to Koh Tao.  We bought tickets on the overnight ferry, and I slept like a baby in its mother's arms.  In the morning, we payed a small fortune for a pick-up truck to bring us from the ferry to a deserted bay on the far side of the island.  And what did we find there?

Totally worth the 36 hour journey.

There are so many beautiful tropical islands on this great dewdrop, but I've never had the pleasure of visiting one.  I'm so glad that we found ourselves on Koh Tao.  It was random, actually--I did a quick google search to find a place that wouldn't be terribly affected by the monsoon season.  Koh Tao, along with the more famous Koh Samui and Koh Phangan, are off the eastern coast of Thailand.  The full moon fell during our visit, so most of the backpackers left for Koh Phangan and the infamous Full Moon Party, so we had the place to ourselves.



The hiking was like the other hiking I've found in Malaysia and Indonesia.  The paths aren't very well marked, and no one really knows the way, but it was refreshing to wander in the woods for a day.

We also went climbing one day.  There is a local shop, "Goodtime Adventures," that rents out shoes, harnesses, draws, and ropes.  The gear seems to be ok quality, good enough that I felt safe using it.  According to Dave, some of the fixed anchors are suspect, core showing in static line (he brought this to the attention of the staff).  Lesson of the day:  know what you're doing.  This is why Davo built all our anchors.  :-D

The climbing is mostly granite slab.  There's just one technique:  SMEAR.  Seriously, there are no hands, and you don't need to think about any sequence.  Just slap your shoes on the super-rough granite and smear your way up the wall.  Toward the end of the day, I was getting the hang of it.  It was great to climb again, even for a day.  I've only climbed twice since leaving the United States.  It definitely made me think of my friends at home, and I was very thankful that the Gunks are only a 3.5 hour drive from Ithaca!

more climbing porn here :-)

My other big adventure:  I went scuba diving!  This was pretty big for me.  Even though I used to like being in the water as a kid, I've gotten more nervous in the water as I've gotten older.  I get freaked out when I can't see what's underneath me, can't see my arms and legs in murky water...  basically, I'm afraid of sea monsters that might bite me in half.  :-)  As I stood on the edge of the dive boat and started panicking, I wasn't sure if I was going in the water at all.  I had to take off my fins and, with a white-knuckled grip, lower my self down a ladder.

Once I was in the water, it was great!  I had prescription goggles, so I could see everything.  The water was very clear, so no sea monsters could sneak up!  Plus, I had fins and was wearing a wetsuit, so I felt pretty well protected.

What a world, under the water...  just as there are so many insects, frogs, skinks, butterflies, birds, and all manner of critters in the forest, there are big and small fishes, sea slugs, prickly things, smooth things, skinny things, fat things, and every manner of critter under the waves.  I had never fully realized how much lives in the water!

Not only is there tons of wildlife in a reef, but the coral forms all manner of underwater shapes.  I imagine there must be entire mountains under the ocean.  I think of mountains all the time, but they usually have trees or snow on them.  Neat to think this exists under the sea (minus the snow).

Plus, scuba diving itself is really neat.  You can stay underwater for so long that you can really take the time to appreciate what's happening around you.

I probably won't dive again, but I'm really glad I did it once.  And that's what I can say about Koh Tao:  I'll probably spend a lot more time in the mountains than I'll ever spend on a tropical island, or even on a beach, but beaches and tropical islands are still quite nice.

Suggestions for visiting Koh Tao:

Long Walks on the Beach, Etc.

Today, I took the doggles for a scamper down the beach at Kennedy Bay.

kennedy bay

Dogs are so "in the moment."  Evie and Ninya chase seagulls like every seagull is a demon that will end the world.  No matter how many seagulls they have already tormented, as soon as any bird comes within barking range, they explode down the beach with the speed of a rocket entering the stratosphere as if they've never seen a seagull before.  At one point, Ninya found a half-rotten fish head.  Nothing I could do--including grabbing her muzzle and trying to extract the gooey fish bits from between her clenched jaws--would persuade her to leave the fish head alone.  In her mind, she and the fish head had become one...  and I was standing in the way of her realization of reality!

dogs with wings on their feet

I was surprised by the variety of critter remains I found while walking on the beach.  Puffer fish...  starfish (or whatever the seven-legged version is called)...  shells...  things I couldn't identify...  I don't remember ever seeing diversity like that on the Jersey Shore.  Sorry, JerZ friends.  :-P  (And I think our beaches here are cleaner, too!)

Also, today I made three loaves of bread:  one whole wheat loaf with poppyseed; one whole wheat loaf with currants and mixed spices (cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves); and one whole wheat and rye loaf with mixed herbs (celery seed, coriander seed, mustard seed, and dill).  It was the first time I've done three loaves in a day, and they all turned out well.  I'll be a baker by the time I leave New Zealand!

Guess I don't have much to say, but I did want an excuse to share some hopeful news:  next week, I'm looking forward to rock climbing.  It's been months since I've climbed anything, and...  my heavens...  it might be a year since I've climbed on real rock.  Is that even possible?!

It's Eel-ectric!

Once upon a time, Bexie was digging some juicy, dark, clay-heavy soil out of the mostly dried out duck pond muck to use in a salad green garden bed.

duck pond...  the upper few centimeters of earth are dried out and crusty, but the muck below is juicy, blank, and dense.

And then...  out of the corner of her eye...  she saw a large worm slither under the upturned soil.

A really large worm.

A REALLY large worm!

hint:  they're not worms

There were baby eels living in the muck of the dried out duck pond!  And not just one eel--in only a few minutes, we liberated a half-dozen from only the top 20 centimeters of soil in a square meter patch.  They thrashed about and were really difficult to grab until they dried out a little.  We forced them to slither into the mouth of a jug of water.  When we turned the water jug upside down and the contents went plop-plop-plop-plop into the creek, some of the baby eels just rested on the sediment for a while.  I reached into the water and ran a finger along its spine.   It was unexpectedly soft and oh-so-slimy.  Now I understand the saying, "slippery as an eel"...  it's descriptive and very true!

Jon postulates that the eels swam into the duck pond during the last wet season.  The last time Tuateawa had any rain of note was a great storm and flood in November of 2009.  This means that the eels had been in the muck for at least 4 months, and perhaps as long as 7 or 8 months!!!

When we got home, I cracked open one of our books about New Zealand natural history from our library.  I wanted to know how on earth these fish could live out of the water!  What I learned was more bizarre than I could have imagined.

(Begin eel tangent)