Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Silk Road Expedition 08-Fall

Exploring Forgotten Villages

In just two weeks we kick off what may be our final SRE of the year. Trying to catch up on the endless summer with no permission to travel, we are heading out on October 8th.
This time we are leading a small group of adventurers from the States on a 10 day trip to the interior and southeast of Turkey and back. Just a few picks to whet your appetite for another armchair adventure.
Picking Up Parts of our Truck in the Outback

Abandoned Nomadic Village SRE08

Want to travel with us? We are putting another group together for August 09,now is the time to get your name in if you want to help us as we explore the villages and tribes along the Turkish, Iranian and Iraqi borders!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Tasting Ramazan

Now that some of the pressure is off and we only have a half a dozen more offices to visit to wrap up our paperwork, we will begin to bring you up to speed with the small stuff of our lives.
Ramazan started a few weeks ago on September 2, a few days before that our apartment was filled with the smell of baking bread and cheese. Wondering where it was coming from I followed the smell down 3 flights of stairs until I hit the basement.
There our Kapici's wife and friends were making Borek village style over an old gas burner with an upside down pan on it. They used the curved bottom of the pan to lay the wet dough on and then stacked up the Borek's starters that were finished.
Stacks of Borek Await Ramazan

Cooking Borek Village Style


Borek is a thin crispy dough with a variety of fillers added. Cheese borek is the most popular, followed by meat borek and occassionally a sweet borek with milk and sugar. It is almost always served hot and has become a staple in our own kitchen.
Our friends and neighbors had gathered together to make a month's worth of borek. They would then be stacked dry in the house and when needed, would be dampenend with milk and water and cooked again in order to crisp it up and be served hot.

As the only male in this harem in the basement it fell to me to be the taster and approve or advise on the different seasonings being used. Kinda hard to believe we are still losing weight when these responsibilities involve such amazing sacrifices as health and weight...but as I have always said "I want to give something back to the community.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Road Trip to Hell

Well, those of you that are creating a fuss about our infrequent postings as of late...you are right. We have been off the job. Just a few notes of news as to the why;
  • We did receive confirmation that our first attorney took our 5k and skipped town on us
  • For some crazy reason that affected my normal "cop mode" stress free life and my BP spiked 190/174, apparently that is something bad
  • We scrambled a bit to borrow 4k to apply for our Visas, since we gave our attorney a free trip
I know...sounds like I am making a big deal out of nothing and for that I am sorry.

NOW for the good news, 3 days after applying for our Visas last week, they were approved and we picked them up this AM and the most important step in the process is finished! Thanks for standing alongside us as we have taken a road trip to hell and back.
Ikhametler Aldik!


Three steps remain;

  • Re-register the jeep in our name-1200USD
  • Get my Turkish driver's license-700USD
  • Apply for our carnet de passage, the permit to drive the jeep overland and across borders and hopefully into Iran, Tajikistan and onto China-200USD 


So if all goes as planned we hope to have all this finished within the next two weeks. Soon as my Valium cocktail kicks in I will bring you up to speed on Ramazan in Turkiye and the food fest that has descended. Thanks for being so patient as we have juggled the plates in our crazy little circus:)

Living, Traveling, and Wandering on the Far Side of the World

Living, Traveling, and Wandering on the Far Side of the World