From tourism to turmoil

Early November is typically a tranquil time on Lesbos, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea with some 80,000 year-round inhabitants. Residents shut the doors of their hotels, restaurants, and other businesses that predominantly serve the summer tourism market and head out to their olive groves for the annual harvest.

This year, though, there are “no vacancy” signs in English and Arabic posted on hotel doors in the main port of Mytilene and lines snaking outside travel agencies. The latter are doing a brisk business not in holiday excursions, but in ferry tickets to Athens, the next stop for the tens of thousands of refugees and migrants who have landed on the island this year en route to mainland Europe.

“It’s usually very quiet in winter, but a lot of businesses are still working even now, restaurants, mini-markets, car-rental agencies, so there’s a bit more life in the villages,” says Lesbos resident Aphrodite Vati Mariola. The beachfront hotel her family has operated since 1989 is not among them, however – they closed two weeks early after bookings went stagnant in early September, when both refugee arrivals and media coverage of the crisis increased....

Conflict in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other country is taking a devastating toll on human life and driving millions of people to leave their homes. This refugee flow is also having an impact economically and socially as in nearby countries such as Greece and Turkey as they struggle to cope with the influx. Late last month, I traveled to Lesbos to volunteer and bring back information about the conditions for refugees on this "hotspot" Greek island. I was also asked by the travel website Skift to write about how the refugee crisis is impacting the economy of this once-popular tourism destination.

Read the rest of my article, "Greek Islands Known for Tourism Continue to Feel Impact of Refugee Crisis," on Skift's website.

Creative guide to a GREAT city

The inaugural GREAT Festival of Creativity rolls into Istanbul next week (20-22 May at SEED), showcasing innovative ideas in a wide range of fields – from fashion and design to technology and education to food and drink.

The festival, which travels next to Hong Kong and Shanghai, is part of the British Prime Ministry's GREAT campaign, an ongoing drive to promote Britain abroad as a place to visit and do business.

To further inspire the "cross-section of creative and commercial Britain" visiting Istanbul for the event, I contributed pithy write-ups of galleries, restaurants, shops and other spots across the city to the GREAT Festival Guide to Creative Istanbul, an online "directory of all that's creative and unusual in one of the world's GREAT cities."

Istanbul: an introduction

Earlier this year, Time Out headquarters in London asked the editors of all local editions to prepare an "ultra-useful" mini-guide to their city – its art, nightlife, restaurants, and sights, along with hot tips and fascinating bits of trivia – that could be used by any of the company's 60 offshoots around the world.

The project editor praised my guide to Istanbul as "fantastic. A gorgeous piece of writing – far and away the best one I've had back so far!"

Following my departure from the magazine, Time Out Istanbul published the piece this month as "Istanbul in short." Have a read and discover what has made Istanbul, despite its many faults, a conqueror of visitors' hearts for hundreds of years and counting.

UPDATE: Time Out Dubai published a shorter version of my city-guide in December under the title "Why you must go to Istanbul."

A little time at the helm of Time Out

I've just wrapped up a seven-month stint editing Time Out Istanbul, the local English-language edition of the popular international line of arts and entertainment magazines. I spent nine years in the United States as an editor at Sierra, the magazine of the Sierra Club, and this brief return to my roots reminded me of how much I enjoy working with writers and conceptualizing packages – or entire issue's worth – of stories that will work together to provide a rich experience for the reader.

As the head of a very small team, I also did my fair share of writing at Time Out Istanbul. In addition to our Gezi Park protest coverage in the July issue, and our Istanbul Biennial preview in the forthcoming September issue, these are some of the stories I most enjoyed researching and writing:

• “Hidden History” – A stroll through Istanbul’s Byzantine past with Context Travel

• “Resisting Nostalgia” – An interview with Turkish artist Ali Kazma on his fascination with transformation

• “Literature as Travel Guide” – Bored stiff by traditional guidebooks? Find your way in the company of the new 'city-pick Istanbul' anthology

• “Getting Away From Them All” – Four sightseeing itineraries for escaping Istanbul's summer throngs

• “Sharp-Dressed Man” – Meet the 83-year-old Turkish-German tailor who's become a hit in the fashion blogosphere

48 hours in Istanbul

From hot young designers to fine cuisine, artistic treasures to awe-inspiring views, Istanbul’s winding streets are as full of contemporary culture as they are of ancient history. Here’s a perfect weekend on both sides of the beautiful Bosphorus...

The Kuwait-based luxury lifestyle magazine B Journal recently asked me to whip up on short notice a weekend itinerary for Istanbul that avoids tourist traps, takes visitors to the lesser-known Asian side of the city, and ties into the magazine's "Style Issue" with a bit of a fashion focus.

Read my "48 Hours in Istanbul" itinerary: pdf

Shopping, Istanbul style

The latest issue of SHOP Istanbul's Style Edition features two pieces I wrote, a cover story about Turkish and international brands making inroads into the city's venerable Grand Bazaar, and a news piece about Hiç Crafts, an appealingly eclectic design store in the up-and-coming Tophane neighborhood.

While the quarterly magazine, published by tourism company Global Blue, focuses on new shopping opportunities for visitors to the city, I took the chance while working on the bazaar story to poke into some of the famous covered market's hidden corners and learn how shopkeepers really feel about their new neighbors -- and about other changes in store for this historic location. That story will (inşallah!) appear in a major travel magazine this coming fall.

Read my articles in the Spring/Summer 2012 issue of SHOP Istanbul: "Market Leader" begins on page 42 and "Eclectic Design Oasis" appears on page 40.

Into the wilds of northeast Turkey

TRAVEL

Into the wild

The spectacular landscapes around Kars beckon birdwatchers, nature-lovers, and history buffs. Words and photography by Jennifer Hattam

I can feel the small bird trembling as I hold it in my cupped hands and walk outside the weathered metal trailer to release it. Bits of feathers explode off its back as it hurriedly takes flight into the crisp, clean air of remote northeast Turkey.

Inside the trailer, Sedat blows gently on the underside of a penduline tit, ruffling the bird’s feathers back from its belly to reveal a tiny round bulge beneath the skin. ‘It’s going to be a mother,’ he says with a smile.

The area around Kars has a bleak reputation, in part due to Orhan Pamuk’s dark portrayal in his acclaimed novel ‘Snow’. And while winters are indeed harsh, with up to four months of snow and temperatures plummeting as low as -40˚C, the vast landscape of high plateaus and green lowlands vividly comes to life in the spring.

Foals and calves totter on shaky legs in lush mountain meadows where nomadic herders pitch their tents. Delicate purple crocuses and bright red poppies – the colour of the traditional bridal veil that gives them their Turkish name, gelincik – burst from the earth. And thousands of migratory birds stop over at Kuyucuk Lake and the Aras River wetlands, where local environmentalists running field research stations have spotted more than two-thirds of all bird species recorded in Turkey.

Russian and Armenian heritage

Unlike their avian counterparts, few human visitors to Turkey make it as far as Kars. Most who do come to see the haunting ruins of Ani, an important trading stop on the Silk Road and the 10th-century capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to travel the 42km to Ani without a private car, though a municipality-run shuttle service is scheduled to start this summer. But the trip is well worth the effort or expense.

Imposing basalt walls bring an end to a long, rutted road that passes through tiny villages seemingly little changed since Ani’s heyday. Beyond the massive main gate, stone churches, palaces, mosques, caravanserais and hamams rise up out of the overgrown grass like islands in the sea. Down in a steep canyon, what’s left of an ancient bridge hangs over the Aras River separating Turkey and Armenia, its impassable state reflecting the closed border between the two neighbours.

Despite the ongoing rift, the Caucasus influence remains strong in the region’s cuisine, architecture and culture. Like other Turkish cities, Kars has more than its share of multicoloured concrete blocks, but they are interspersed with stately Russian buildings made of large, finely cut dark stones. The landmark Fethiye Mosque was once a Russian Orthodox church, its onion domes later swapped out for minarets. Both the Kars Castle looming above town and the Sarıkamış ski area some 50km south-west of the city were the scenes of fierce fighting during World War I, claiming many Russian and Turkish lives.

Remnants of an even older Kars reveal themselves on the slope leading up to the castle, where the 10th-century 12 Apostles Church (Kümbet Mosque) has retained its distinctive Armenian architecture despite being converted back and forth to serve both Christian and Muslim worshippers over the years. Crumbling Seljuk and Ottoman hamams cluster around Kars Stream and the 16th-century Taş Köprü (Stone Bridge) at the base of the castle hill, an area now full of laidback tea gardens.

New tourism initiatives

Long reliant on Ani, the castle and skiing at Sarıkamış to attract visitors, Kars is awakening to its full tourism potential. Last year, the house of famous Turkish poet Namık Kemal was converted into a cultural centre devoted to keeping alive the aşık (minstrel) tradition of storytelling through song. New guided tours show the city through the eyes of Pamuk, the Russian author Alexander Pushkin and the Greek-Armenian writer George Gurdjieff, three famous figures who have depicted Kars in their literary works.

With some of the country’s most spectacular and biodiverse landscapes right in Kars’s backyard, nature tourism is also gaining ground as a way to draw more people to the region without spoiling it. Homestays are available in the nearby village of Boğatepe, where a new cheese museum celebrates traditional products such as the hard yellow Kars gravyer and the unusual local cecil, which tastes like a cross between string cheese and blue cheese.

The Kars-based conservation organization KuzeyDoğa is setting up a visitor and environmental education centre near its field station at bucolic Kuyucuk Lake, a birdwatcher’s paradise. This summer the group will run its first nature tour for foreign travellers, featuring wildlife tracking in Sarıkamış – home to bears, wolves and boars – and bird-watching at Kuyucuk. It is also working with Balyolu, a new initiative to train female beekeepers and take visitors on honey-tasting walking tours. With dozens of bee-friendly plant species thriving in the area, it’s quite possible for every village to lay claim to a sweet taste all of its own.

[BOX] Travel basics

Regular flights from Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir land at Kars airport, 10km from the city centre.

An attractive boutique hotel in an old Russian mansion, the Kar’s Otel (www.karsotel.com, 0474 212 16 16) is the pick of the somewhat-limited lodging options. Its newly opened Kar’s Store restaurant offers good local food, wine, live music and folk dancing. The Hotel Temel (Yenipazar Caddesi No. 9, 0474 223 13 76) is a cheaper, more basic alternative.

The women-run Kamer Vakfı Mutfak ve Café (Halit Paşa Caddesi No. 97, 0474 212 89 57) serves excellent homemade specialties such as hengel, a type of mantı (Turkish ravioli); kesme aşı, a green lentil soup with noodles and mint; and warm, almost ginger-bready helva. Goose is another local favourite dish.

The Turkish-language online Kars City Guide (www.karskentrehberi.com) gives a very thorough overview of the area’s history, culture and sightseeing opportunities.

[BOX] How to volunteer

Each spring and fall, the conservation group KuzeyDoğa Society operates bird research stations at two wetland areas near Kars. Some 200 volunteers from 20 different countries have spent two weeks or more helping watch, count and band (ring) birds at the Kuyucuk and Aras stations. Both facilities are located in peaceful, beautiful rural areas, affording opportunities to hike, swim and relax in between checking nets, collecting data and banding birds.

No experience is necessary, though licensed ringers are in high demand. Conditions are basic, meals hearty and the scenery unparalleled. This year’s spring activities run between March 15 and early June. Contact KuzeyDoğa (0474 212 38 84, www.kuzeydoga.org) for details.

This article was originally published in the March 2012 issue of Time Out Istanbul magazine. See if as it appeared in print: jpg | pdf

For more photos, visit my Flickr site.

Hiking amidst history in the Southeast

TRAVEL

Hiking amidst history in the Southeast

This month, explore the abundant natural beauty and archaeological richness of Hasankeyf. Words and photography Jennifer Hattam

‘Here, taste this,’ our guide Hüseyin said, plucking a handful of green stems from the ground and offering them to us. The scent and flavour were sharp and unmistakable – garlic, growing wild in the rugged hills behind the town of Hasankeyf in Southeast Turkey.

We had set out on a hike as the sun rose, climbing past old cave dwellings and into the canyons. Delicate flowers shook off the morning dew and opened to the sky, leaving the green slopes studded with red blossoms in our wake. Birds circled overhead, spiralling down to round holes in the limestone cliffs where they’d built their mud-dark nests alongside the vertiginous staircases and primitive drainpipes carved into the stone.

Rough-hewn footholds in the rock face brought us up to alpine-like plateaus, then down into slippery white canyons where water pooled in the shade. A hoopoe’s call broke the silence, its ‘hüt hüt’ as distinctive as the black-and-white-striped feathers clashing gleefully with its mohawk-like orange crest.

Another sound, stranger still, began to fill the air, growing louder as its source came into view: a cheap black boom box, being toted by one of a half dozen men in faded suits and worn loafers, following the same rocky paths their ancestors have traversed for 10,000 years.

10,000 years of history

One of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world, Hasankeyf has been swept through and ruled by Assyrians, Romans, Arabs, Artukids, Ayyubids, Mongols – more than 20 cultures in all. Today its dusty streets are home to a dwindling and aging population as likely to greet each other outside the teahouse in the morning with a Kurdish ‘rojbaş’ or an Arabic ‘salaam alaikum’ as a Turkish ‘günaydın’.

The occasional visitor becomes captivated by the town’s charms. A Canadian traveller named Daniel painted the colourful, graffiti-influenced murals inside Nehir Lokantası downtown when not camping out in the area’s caves. But most outsiders who venture this far into the hinterland pull up in tour buses for a photo-op of the massive stone piers in the Tigris River – all that remains of an early-twelfth-century bridge – a quick clamber up to the hilltop castle, and perhaps a cup of tea at one of the rickety restaurants dangling over the water before zooming out again.

The ancient stone citadel, recently reopened to the public after a deadly rockslide last summer, is the town’s main tourist attraction and the source of its name, from the Arabic ‘Hisn Kayfa’, or rock fortress. If current plans for the area proceed as intended, it will be all that is left visible of Hasankeyf.

Controversial dam-construction plans

Perched some 100 metres above the town, the castle would remain on dry ground even if the controversial Ilısu Dam is completed, creating a 313-square-kilometre reservoir that would cover Hasankeyf with more than 60 metres of water. But the area’s 300 other identified medieval monuments – a fraction of what archaeologists believe remains to be unearthed – would be submerged.

For now, visitors who linger when the tour buses leave have the crumbling remains of more than a dozen civilisations all to themselves, save for the storks nesting atop the minaret of the fourteenth-century Ulu Cami (Great Mosque) or the goats grazing near the fifteenth-century Zeynel Bey Tomb, a squat cylinder dotted with rich blue tiles.

In the evening, as an afternoon shower cleared, leaving a rainbow arcing across the sky, we crossed to the other side of the river, where we had been invited to a local home for dinner. Inside the house, the family’s oldest daughter, 17, quickly covered her hair and then spread a laminated floral-printed sheet on the front-room floor. With her curious young siblings creeping in and out of the room, she laid out trays of bulgur topped with fried eggs, bowls of pasta with tomato sauce and mint, slices of cucumbers and tomatoes, and mugs of fresh, thin ayran. A baby in a cradle in the corner of the room slept through it all.

The next morning we again rose early to head into the hills, stopping to gaze out to the horizon, where straight rows of small houses were sprouting in a small patch of green amid the dry, brown foothills – one of the new settlements being built for people displaced by the dam. Turning away from what may very well be Hasankeyf’s future, we looked back into town, where we could see its rich past – its mosques, tombs, cave houses, and cliff staircases – grown small and distant behind us.

[BOX] Travel Basics

Buses run regularly (though not too late in the day) to Hasankeyf from Batman and Diyarbakır, where the two closest airports are located. Accommodations and facilities for travellers are modest but sufficient for a few days’ stay.

Hasankeyf Hasbahçe (www.hasankeyfhasbahce.com; 0488 381 26 74) is the town’s best lodging option, with basic but neat motel-style rooms, a picnic area and a shaded garden. For dinner, order a pan-cooked alabalık (trout) from the hotel’s own pond. Hasankeyf Ögretmenevi (0488 381 27 20), a state-run teacher’s house, accepts non-educators if it has any free rooms.

Fuel up for a hike with a hearty breakfast of fresh-baked bread, eggs, cheese, olives and smoky mercimek (lentil) soup with pungent isot biber (pepper) at Nehir Lokantası, a restaurant on the main road run by a friendly husband-and-wife team.

[BOX] The Ilısu Dam

First proposed in the 1950s, construction on the Ilısu Dam started in spring 2008 but was halted just over a year later when German, Austrian and Swiss funders pulled out of the project, citing environmental and human rights concerns. The Turkish government is now pushing ahead with the project on its own.

If completed, the dam would destroy 400 kilometres of the Tigris River and its tributaries, forcing the relocation of 60,000 people from some 200 settlements in the region and drowning habitat for dozens of endemic species in addition to Hasankeyf’s archaeological treasures. Ongoing protests against the project have been joined by celebrities including Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk, acclaimed film director Fatih Akın and pop stars Sezen Aksu and Tarkan.

This article was originally published in the October 2011 issue of Time Out Istanbul magazine. See it as it appeared in print: jpg | pdf

To learn more about this amazing and threatened place, visit the blog Hasankeyf Matters and the website of the Initiative to Keep Hasankeyf Alive. For more photos, see my Flickr site.

Bosphorus bliss

When the time came to cut the wedding cake, all eyes were drawn to the ceiling of the ballroom as the tiered white pastry descended from its hiding place. A dancer followed, dangling upside down to pour drinks into the guests’ outstretched flutes.

Brides and grooms marrying at one of the magnificent 18th- and 19th-century palaces and mansions lining Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait can choose to celebrate in ballrooms where Ottoman royalty once got married. But the modern festivities can even outdo those of the sultans, who dispatched turtles with candles on their backs to light outdoor parties, paraded giraffes down the street, and set off fireworks for days on end to herald a palace member’s wedded bliss...

As a journalist, I've had the opportunity to be exposed to many different worlds, those of homesteaders in Alaska, miners' families in West Virginia, and conservation biologists in eastern Turkey among them. But perhaps the most foreign experience to date was having Istanbul hoteliers regale me with stories of the lavish waterfront weddings they had hosted – champagne-serving acrobats and all.

Writing a story for the August 2011 issue of J Magazine, the inflight magazine of Jazeera Airways, about Bosphorus weddings in Istanbul gave me a peek into the exotic world of helipads and honeymoon suites bigger than my apartment – and the creativity and effortless hospitality required for the staff at the city's top luxury hotels to make the wildest matrimonial dreams come true.

Hidden gardens reveal secrets of Istanbul's islands

Green spaces are now hard to come by amid the grey concrete in the metropolis that once inspired 17th-century traveller Robert Withers to write: “Nor indeed doth a Turk at any time show himself to be so truly pleased, and satisfied in his senses as he doth in the summer time, when he is in a pleasant garden.”

But though such opportunities are few and far between – for Turks and foreigners alike – in today’s Istanbul, there is still one place where the senses can be so satisfied, a place where, it was said in Ottoman times, the scent of the blossoms could make a person dizzy...

Read the rest of my article about garden tours on the Princes' Islands, “Hidden Gardens Reveal Secrets of Istanbul's Islands,” as it appeared in the May 2011 issue of Time Out Istanbul: jpg

Close encounters with the wrestling-camel kind

It is apparent when we catch glimpse of a strange parade upon debarking the bus that we are in the right place: A stray dog trots down the street after three boys who are leading a small horse behind a pickup truck. The truck is filled with musicians – one beating a large, flat drum nestled between his legs. Two lumbering camels stride in front of them all; the animals are frothing at the mouth, the bells lashed to their saddles clanking like particularly non-melodic wind chimes.

People are believed to have been pitting camels against each other in wrestling matches since the days of nomadic caravans. Today, the tradition lives on in winter bouts along Turkey’s Aegean coast. The largest tournament of the year is held in Selçuk – near the historic Ephesus ruins – where organizers recently added a Camel Beauty Contest to the day’s events to draw more interest. The dusty field where we end up on this sunny Sunday is in a nondescript suburb of İzmir, the third-largest city in Turkey and self-proclaimed “most modern and cosmopolitan.”

Camels waited patiently around the makeshift ring, back hooves splayed, soft shackles around their front legs that tether them to stakes pounded into the ground. They are draped with colourful ribbons and blankets, spangled scarves, and banners proclaiming their names and hometowns, but seem oblivious to the children and dogs running amongst them; the people coming up to touch their heads and pose for photos with them; and the itinerant horn player blaring his zurna in their ears.

Rules of the game

From a raised platform alongside the ring, the voice of the cazgır (announcer) rings out with a wish, “May our animals be strong,” before introducing the contestants. “Küçük Ahmet from Zeytindağ has entered the field…”

Camels wrestle by pushing against each others’ sides, straining for the leverage that could allow them to trip the other up or press their rival’s long neck to the ground. Hefty animals, they circle surprisingly quickly, their hoof-work as fleet as any boxer’s. Two teams of neon-vested urgancı (ropemen) squat in a line on either side of the beasts, ready to sprint into action to pull the camels apart – a tug-of-war eagerly joined by spectators who leap the flimsy fences around the ring to pitch in.

A match lasts 10 minutes, and is won when one animal falls, screams, or runs away. The latter outcome is by far the most popular among the assembled crowd, which roars its approval before scattering as nearly a ton of ungulate bulk hurdles toward the rickety metal fencing – sending people pushing and squeezing out of the way, only to return to their positions a moment later.

As the animals grapple nearby, a little girl, with a puffy coat matching her cotton candy, steps away slightly. “Are you scared?” we ask her. Stifling a smile, she throws her head back with an emphatic “Tsk!”

The show on the sidelines

Unlike another traditional Turkish sport, oil wrestling, where the mere sight of four female spectators is enough to attract TV cameras, camel wrestling is a family affair. Rotund middle-aged ladies in headscarves and flowery pants spread out their picnic blankets on the patchy grass as young women in chic boots pick their way through the mud. Older men in caps and suit coats smoke and eat sunflower seeds, while younger ones hang eagerly on the fence, lifting children up to kiss their fathers on the field with their candy-apple-sticky lips. Some spectators sit on flattened cardboard boxes or newspaper-covered rocks; others with ringside tables tucked into meals served on ceramic plates.

Musicians wend their way through the crowd, their songs rising above the din, as they try to entice some of the men drinking rakı around small white plastic tables to get up and dance. One stretches out his arms and does a few steps in front of his camel before nuzzling the beast’s head.

Smoke rises from mangal (barbeque) and nargile (water pipes) set up on the sidelines, where one man is cooking chicken in a pan of oil over a gas canister; a worn piece of plastic is tied on it forming a shield. Others grilled up slices of camel sausage, pressing small loaves of bread into the frying grease before filling them with meat and wrapping them in newspaper.

As the day progresses, trainers begin to pull the unsuccessful camels from the ring. Some load their animals into large trucks while others lead them home on foot, down through the winding streets lined with graceless concrete-block buildings; without even a carpet prize tied to their saddle to show for the day’s exertions.

[BOX]

Camel-wrestling fun facts

• Turkey has around 500 wrestling camels, all male and of the special tülü breed. Most come from Iran, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

• Wrestling season lasts from December to March, the animals’ mating period.

• Camels perform better in cold weather.

• The carpets, saddlebags and other felt and cloth items worn by the camels are traditional crafts of the nomadic Yörük people.

• The tournament in Selçuk was held in the Ephesus theatre until the late 1990s, when it was moved due to concerns about damaging the ancient site.

• A wrestling camel can cost as much as 160,000 Turkish Liras (approximately 80,000 Euros) and eat up to 5,000 Turkish Liras’ (approximately 2,500 Euros) worth of food a year.

[BOX]

A jaunt to İzmir

The last two camel-wrestling tournaments of the season are in İzmir’s Haydarlı district (March 6) and the nearby city of Manisa’s Gökkaya district (March 20). With regular flights and overnight bus service from Istanbul to İzmir, it’s easy to take a quick trip to catch this unique event.

STAY: The hotels in İzmir aren’t cheap, but the attractive Park Hotel İzmir (150 Turkish Liras/75 Euros per night) and the homey Güzel İzmir Oteli (100 Turkish Liras/50 Euros) both offer good value. Park Hotel İzmir, (0232) 425 33 33. 1366 Sokak, No. 6, Çankaya. Güzel İzmir Oteli, (0232) 483 50 69. 1368 Sokak, No. 8, Basmane.

EAT: Kırçiçeği is a firm favourite for kebab and pide in the restaurant-rich Alsancak district. Kırçiçeği, (0232) 464 30 90. 1443 Sokak, No. 83, Alsancak.

EXPLORE: Hop on a minibus for a daytrip to the less-visited ruins of Sardis, the ancient capital of the Lydian Kingdom, or the beach towns of the Çeşme peninsula, blissfully sleepy this time of year.

This article was originally published in the March 2011 issue of Time Out Istanbul (view jpg version).

A new guide to Istanbul

A new travel website, Simonseeks, had its official launch last month, featuring community-written and expert guides to almost 50 locations, mostly in Europe, but also around the world, from Hong Kong to Cape Town to New York.

I spent a couple of months last fall researching and writing the expert guide to Istanbul, selecting 40 top hotels, 40 restaurants worth visiting, and 20 can't-miss sights, as well as making extensive recommendations on shopping, nightlife, and getting around, and offering my own "insider tips" and personal favorites in the city I've now called home for three years – keeping a few special places to myself, of course.

UPDATE: Simonseeks closed down in 2011. You can read some of my tips from my Istanbul guide on my personal blog.

A fearful traveler confesses all

The San Francisco-based website Salon.com, which I followed avidly in my early days as a journalist, has published a personal essay I originally wrote for my blog about travel, safety, and fear as one of their "Life stories" under the title "All my little illusions of safety."

Though I sat down to write the story the night after a suicide bomber hit a large public square near my house in Istanbul, the essay draws on thoughts and ideas I've been toying with since 1999, some of which were scrawled on pieces of notebook paper I brought with me all the way to Turkey. It's particularly satisfying to have finally given them shape – and to see them in (virtual) print.

Underground adventures

Writing a short travel piece for Sierra about a trip I took some time ago to New Zealand brought back great memories. It's a long flight, of course, but well worth it for the amazing scenery, fantastic food and drink, and potential for adventure.

Where else can you hike across an active volcano, kayak secluded coastlines, and go inner-tubing in caves filled with glow worms? And we didn't even get far enough south to hit the glaciers.

Read my "Explore" piece on New Zealand's Waitomo Caves in the May/June 2009 issue of Sierra.