my parents gave me a ride to logan airport. there was a long line at the check-in counter. i don't think it was for any new security measures, but i think people were kind of skittish and when the airline told them to arrive 2 hours before the flight, everyone arrived exactly 2 hours before the flight, thereby causing a bit of a congestion in the airport. going into my gate there was a bit more security than usual, with multiple metal detectors and x-ray machines and lots of airport security standing around.

so i left boston on my way to amsterdam. one interesting thing was there were no metal utensils on the plane, but instead we all got plastic utensils and a little note apologizing for the plastic silverware due to the recent events. i sat next to this tall young man whom i didn't talk to for most of the flight until we were almost at amsterdam. his name was paul and he was visiting the u.s. for some technical conference. talking to him, we of course talked about the terrorism that had happened in the u.s. from the way he was talking about america, i could detect some of that european superiority complex. i gave him my business card as a matter of formality, but i probably will never hear from him ever again.

at 9am everyone boarded the plane. my flight from amsterdam to istanbul was uneventful. the metal utensils returned. when i sat down this middle eastern looking man sitting next to me said something to me in japanese. i told him in english i didn't understand. that's how i met khalil, whom i thought was turkish but turned out to be morrocan, from paris, currently living and working in the midwest, usa, a mechanical engineer no less, a fellow engineering brother of similar disciple, a polyglot with spoke not only a few romance languages but japanese as well. he was a real operator, flirting with the stewardesses, telling me stories of his travels. he was a real photography buff as well, and gave me tips as to where to go to find the best subjects. after the flight i gave him my business card as well, hoping to hear from him again.

i land in istanbul.it is 2pm local turkish time, 1pm amsterdam time, and 7am boston time. i haven't really slept since leaving home however many hours ago. i am tired, i am confused, i am a little bit scared being in a foreign country by myself. the secret is to concentrate on the things i have to do. first, i needed to buy an entry visa, US$40. after that little transaction, i headed for the custom gate. it took forever and i'm not sure what the agent was looking at that got him all confused as to what to do. maybe my previous china visa? who knows, but i finally got stamped and went through the gate to pick up my luggage. i helped a middle aged french woman (she spoke french to me, that's how i know) pull her heavy bag off of the carousel. she left without saying thank you and i looked down to see i had painfully bent back one of fingernails. this is what happens when you help others! when will i learn my lesson? i stood there waiting for my bags and i started to get worried because most everyone else had already claimed their bags and i was still waiting around. i had horrible images of my suitcases sitting somewhere in amsterdam. so imagine my relief when i finally saw my luggage creep out of the carousel hole. with my two suitcases at hand, i exited the airport and into the pickup zone.

the pickup zone was a throng of people behind a metal barrier, everyone staring at you as you exit, people holding signs with names, the look of disappointment on their faces that you are not who they're here to pick up. i wheeled my bags off to the side and found some seats to camp out at. 3 hours. that's how long i had to wait before ayse and the san francisco crew arrived at the airport. i am super cautious. alone, traveling with so many bags, i can't afford to have anything stolen. so when i sit down, i have everything all tied together with a bag strap. the first order of business was to convert some american money into turkish cash. i had US$300 exchanged into turkish liras. culture shock 101. i got back about $438 million turkish liras. i didn't even know how to count it, but i pretended to count it anyway, just to make the cashier woman behind the counter happy. i pocketed the large wad of cash and sat down, my bags entwined together, waiting for everyone to arrive. i switched from either reading my book, inside the seraglio by john freely, or writing in my journal. there were several times when i felt very sleepy, but i desperately tried to stay awake because i was afraid that if i did fall asleep, i'd be robbed, since i stuck out like a sore thumb in the airport being the only person of asian descent. everyone else looks turkish.

what does turkish people look like? it's hard to figure that one out. there's definitely a look, but it's kind of difficult to describe it. they look middle eastern, but their skin aren't dark like middle eastern people. i like to say they're a mixture of european and asian genes. most have dark hair but not dark eyes. as for the way they dress, most people wear modern european clothing. occasionally you see women with head scarves. men either sport a moustache or are clean-shaven, no beards. the people there are fascinating to look at, because they are so hard to define physically.

after about 2 hours of waiting, ayse's parents and sister ayca showed up at the airport. her mother had a sign with my name on it in case they weren't able to locate me (i found it hard to believe that i could easily blend into the turkish crowd). ayse's mother spoke a little english, her father spoke none, and her sister spoke perfect english. a hired driver took my bags and brought it to the car while we went to an airport cafe to get something to drink and waited for ayse and the crew. it was kind of awkward since we were all sort of brought together by circumstances, but i felt reassured being with friendly faces, even though i didn't really know them (not yet anyway).

when the rendezvous time came around, we went to the pickup zone to meet up with ayse, dave, and heidi as they came out of customs. they all looked groggy as everyone was wisked away to the parking lot. i followed behind them, my 3 hours wait at the airport finally coming to a close.

ayse's parents came in two cars, one just for luggage, the other for passengers. the hired driver drove the luggage car while ayse's father drove the rest of us in his suv. minutes later we were traveling the istanbul highway on our way to their home. despite the fact that i was tired, to be suddenly thrown into this strange city with everything new and unique snapped me awake. i wanted to soak up everything, wanted to see everything, wanted to permanently etch this moment into my brain. seeing instabul from the highway, it looked like a lot of other cities, with sprawls of residential and commercial areas, punctuated by skyscrapers here and there. the thing i noticed right away were the numerous minarets of the mosques that dotted the landscape. i guess living in boston, in america, i don't really notice the steeples of churches. they're very common, everyday architecture. but in istanbul, instead of christian churches with their archetypical steeple and cross, you have minarets and the dome structure of the mosques. they came in all shapes and sizes, large ones and small ones, those with just one minarets, others with many. if you didn't know where you were, the minarets at least gave it away that you're not in kansas anymore.

less than an hour later, with traffic, we arrived at asye's house. her parents live in a very posh gated community, with four swimming pools, a water fountain, duck feeding zoo, jungle gym, and tennis/soccer courts. ayse took us on a tour of the premise, and when we came back we had dinner on the balcony. this was also my first time hearing the call to prayer from the mosque nearby. this is turkey! after dinner we all went to bed, ayca going back to her apartment (she had to work the next day). heidi and i shared a room, she got the bed, i got a cozy cot.

when we got to the airport i had some problems with the metal detector. apparently i forgot some coins stowed away in my pockets and kept on setting off the alarm. one of the guards patted me down but i was disappointed when he didn't check the area between my legs. if you're going to give me a pat down, at least do a thorough job! i might look harmless, but sir, i assure you, i am not! when it came time to board the plane (ayse was in the bathroom somewhere puking besides her mother), a bus came by to pick us up and drove us to the plane. before they allowed anyone to board the plane, they lined up all the suitcases and we had to point to our pieces of luggage. i guess it's for security reasons, make sure they are no unattended bombs going onboard, but it's a good system, because i know for certain that my luggage is going on the plane with me.

the plane ride took but an hour. flipdown lcd screens dotted the cabin. ayse sat with her parents, peacefully sleeping after throwing up some more on the plane. the stewardesses of turkish airline were all very attractive, i was very impressed. i highly recommend turkish air the next time you travel. when we arrived at the airport, ayse's father hailed two taxis and we drove about an hour to the port town of gocek, where our sailboat was waiting for us. we snaked through narrow windy mountain roads before arriving at our destination, a large marina packed with sailboats. we met up with our captain and our two crew members, who took us onto the boat, gave us a tour, and showed us to our cabins. we had dinner on the boat. because it was already dark, we weren't going to head out until the next morning. after dinner, i went with ayse and her parents back onto the surface, where there were a lot of shops and markets selling everything from food to snorkeling equipment to souvenirs like rugs and postcards.

that night was my first night ever sleeping on a boat. the rocking was disorienting at first, but soon it became somewhat soothing and i fell asleep with my portholes opened (don't!), a nice gentle seabreeze blowing into my cabin.

we went back on land one last time to pick up last minute supplies. i bought a stack of postcards, to be tenderly written on during my week at sea. paying for them was a real challenge. having lived in a world of dollars and tens and twenties, it was hard for me to figure out denominations of thousands and millions. finally the cashier had to help me by pulling out the correct bills from my roll of turkish liras. i also got some stamps as well from this little makeshift post office. the little marina town looked different during the day, a lot less active, less people, stores were just opening, and the few people that were out were mostly shopkeepers sweeping up.

soon afterwards we untied ourselves from the pier (when i say "we" i mean the crew of the ship, i basically did what i normally do on boat trips, that is, just sit back and watch everyone else go to work) and slowly motored out to sea. i sat near the front of the boat, and when i wasn't admiring the scenery, i was busy tracking our movements on my garmin vista gps. it was my little ode to technology. i could see how fast we were moving and where we were in relationship to land. on a boat out at sea is the perfect location for a gps because it has no obstructed view of the satellites which means very accurate readings.

our first destination was this area that had a bunch of caves carved into the face of these steep hills. i heard some mumblings about these caves were from the roman era. this is what i'm talking about! this is why i'm here in turkey! to see old stuff like this! we anchored, and immediately everyone changed into their bathing suits and jumped into the water. this was my first time being in the water for quite some time. actually, back in july, julie and i jumped into walden pond after a successful run there. so not since walden pond have i been in the water, and i've never been in the sea before. i got into the water rather effortlessly, dressed up in my life preserver (i can't swim), my snorkeling mask, and my fins. i looked more like i was out fighting a battle than taking a leisurely swim. minutes after i hit the water (the water was quite warm by the way), i saw a kingfisher dart from one side of the island to the other. ancient ruins and exotic wildlife? nice!

later, one of the crewmembers took dave, heidi, and i via speedboat onto the shore so we could climb one of the hills and explore a cave. after a brief climb in some very hot weather, we made it to the cave entrance. we discovered that these were really caves but were actually tombs. the architecture was roman and there was even roman letters carved on top of the entrance (i couldn't make any sense of it however). i had the crap scared out of me when this 6 inch long lizard suddenly slithered out of a hole and then quickly disappeared.

we returned to the boat, where we passed the time either swimming, snorkeling, or feeding the fish which we could see through the clear water. they'd swim by in schools and form a feeding frenzy around the pieces of bread we'd toss overboard. i guess we weren't too concerned about upsetting the delicate balance of the ecosystem! for lunch, we had these little sausage things covered in vegetables, served to us by ayse's hald naked father. it was very nice, the sun was high overhead while we ate underneath the shade of the awning. after lunch we set sail to a different location, the place where we'd be anchored for the rest of the day and into the night.

we parked in this little secluded alcove. secluded up to a point, because as the day went on, other boats started to arrive until there were 3-4 other boats besides ours that were camping out for the night here. anyway, we passed the time engaging in all sorts of water sports.

i saw my very first topless sunbathers. it was the boat next to ours, far enough away that you couldn't quite see the people onboard that clearly - that is unless you had a 24x zoom setup on a digital camera! these women got out of the water and climbed aboard their ship. one pass with the zoom and it was very obvious they they weren't shy about their boobies. we saw many breasts during the week we were out at sea. i sort of gawked a little bit at first, but after so many boobs i got jaded and sort of grew use to it.

dave went fishing with a spool of fishing line, a hook, and some pieces of bread rolled up into little bait pellets. this, after ayse's father demonstrated for us how easy it was to catch these little fishes that were swimming everywhere around the boat by tossing over a baited line and seconds later pulling up a fish. (fyi, these fish were too small to eat.) dave wanted to try his luck and after a few unsuccessful pulls, finally managed to snag a fish. unfortunately, the hook went deep into the fish's head and couldn't easily be extracted. i tried to unhook it but it kept on flapping on the deck. finally it grew calm enough for me to sort of lift the fish and shake it off of the hook, back into the water, where it quickly swam away (a miracle, i thought that fish was dead for sure).

to further enhance our boating pleasure, we had some gin and tonic (with ice) along with dishes of extra salty shelled pistachio nuts. i just had the tonic portion of the drink, much to the chagrine of ayse's father who didn't believe i didn't drink. he joked that i must be a muslim. i loved the little slices of citrus fruit, and discovered later that they weren't lime but were in fact unripen lemon, green on the outside but orange on the inside, picked especially for their extra sour taste.

a passing speedboat caused some excitement on our ship when one of the guys told us they spotted a seal poking its head out of the water about 200 yards away. so everyone was on the lookout for a seal, and i actually saw it a few times, this little thing that would appear out of the water that looked like a dog's head minus the ears. it would submerge and appear someplace else completely random, like some magical sea creature that could materialize at will anywhere in the water. it submerged one last time and didn't resurface, probably having grown tired of us humans and swimming away to someplace else.

after having exhausted myself with snorkeling, i climbed onto the roof of the boat cabin and took some quiet time to listen to my mp3 player, read my book, and write some postcards. at the same time, i was getting seriously cooked by the sun and i think in just that one single day i went from white to black overnight. the kind of bad suntanning where you sort of turn around to look at your back and seriously wonder to yourself, this can't be good. but i got sunblock on, right? sure, it probably washed off when i was in the water, but that stuff's waterproof, right? i decided to put on a second layer just to be safe, but by then it was too late. i did get sunburnt, but only very mildly, and the slight discomfort went away after a day. sometimes you just have to learn your lesson the hard way! oh the price of vanity!

learning something new everyday! by late afternoon the captain and his crewmembers were swabbing down the deck. i learned that they do this everyday to rinse the salt deposit from the ship, thereby preserving the boat. i went below deck, to my quarters, and waited for dinner to be serve. the chef had this gong he'd bang when our meal was ready.

while breakfast and lunch we sort of had things to look at all around us, dinner was different. there was nothing but darkness, the sounds of water lapping the shoreline, and the sensation of the boat rocking (without a horizon to fix your gaze at, the boat's rocking was more readily felt). the only thing we could see was the lights of our neighbor ships anchored off in the distance. for me, there's nothing creepier than the sea at night. i kept on having images of giant squid tentacles reaching out of the water and pulling me under. anyway, dinner was a mish mash of vegetables and rice. nothing fancy, but it did make me wish for something a little spicier, with some meat. while we ate, all sorts of flying insects from the island would buzz around the flourescent lamp above our heads. for me it was quite a treat because i had never seen these insects before, stirring the amateur entomologist within. after dinner we had a dessert of watermelon slices, and after that, i had some strong turkish coffee (bad idea if you want to fall asleep). ayse's father brought out a treat for us which can only be described as pistachio sausages (or turds, but that sounds less appetizing). he wanted us to finish the whole thing, so i became the designated guy in charge of consuming large quantities of this stuff so that my other fellow passengers can be spared of this mysterious delight.

while everyone else was preparing for bed, i climbed onto the roof of the cabin to do some stargazing. this was going to be one of the highlights of my vacation, to get away from civilization, to be out at sea, under a canopy of darkness, illuminated solely by the million brilliant sparkles of distant stars. unfortunately, reality didn't quite match up with my romantic notion of what the seeing conditions would be. first of all, the moon was out, which tends to wash out the stars, but fortunately it was blocked by the hills of the island we were moored to. nevertheless, it didn't seem dark enough to see the milky way, and it was actually a bit hazy. i thought the conditions were similar to perhaps a clear night in belmont. however, i did see one shooting star so i left happy. i also had my ibook with me, running an astronomical starchart program. after a few minutes though i turned it off, the screen was too bright, my eyes couldn't adjust to both the lcd and the sky at the same time.

they had the power generator running for a few hours so the men could watch a soccer game on television. while i was on the cabin roof, i saw them pitch up this little satellite dish antenna so they could receive the signal for the broadcast. i tried to recharge 4 things at once from my little power outlet in my cabin during this window of opportunity. bad idea. i ended up not recharging anything. note to self: four way splitter drawing power from the boat's battery through a 220-110 voltage converter will not work.

6:05am

6:23am

7:08am

as the sun slowly crept up from the horizon to bring light to another day, i watched one of the crewmembers get on the speedboat and motor off to this remote area by the shoreline to catch some fish with a net. the previous day the same guy got dressed in a wet suit and went hunting for fish armed with a speargun. he didn't catch anything, so i think that's why he was up so early fishing (besides the fact that maybe there are more fish right at dawn). around that time ayse and dave woke from their outdoor beauty sleep. johnny walker, you're my only friend! when our fisherman returned, we saw what he had caught. they weren't the most appetizing looking seafood, and one of the fish even had what appeared to be either a bite mark or an open sore. memories of rob's deep sea fishing still relatively fresh in my mind, i decided i wasn't going to eat the daily catch.

what would later become a morning ritual, the bread man came by our ship on his rowboat. apparently the locals know this region is a hot spot for vacationers, and there's a booming business of people on boats coming by throughout the day selling stuff, whether it be food items like homemade bread or ice cream, or services like parasailing or water skiing. this one particular man we called the bread man, he had this most striking feature, grey eyes on a moustached face that looked like it was born frowning. he sold the most amazing bread though, and i'm normally not a big bread guy. his bread was so soft and tasty, it was more like eating cake than bread. and because it was freshly made, it was still hot when we bought it.

breakfast! more of the usual, but we also had boregi ("brick" i called it), which was this turkish bread that reminded me of scallion pancakes. a hungry wasp was invading our breakfast, which caused dave to run up in a panic and squat at the flying insect. ayse's father grabbed a butter knife and when the wasp landed to lap up some honey, he took the knife and quickly sliced the wasp in half, then poked at the abdomen to show us the stinger. nothing like a freshly killed insect to to whet my appetite!

after breakfast we sailed to a different location (site 3), situated next to some underwater ruins no older than a hundred years old at most. we took the speedboat to the site and got into the water to do some exploring. the walls of the rooms were made from stones, and the ground below was covered in sea grass. after our exploration, we all swam the 500 yards back to the ship. i of course was decked out in my life preserver and fins, and basically just paddled backwards effortlessly on my back for the return trip.

for lunch, salad and vegetarian lasagna, washed down with turkish beer (i just had coke and water). dessert, watermelon slices and figs.

prior to leaving this location, we were approached my a boated fisherman (who resembled a mikhail gorbachev) selling some of his daily catch. we bought a large fish (couldn't tell you what kind, they all sort of look the same to me) and a whole squid. i wasn't too looking forward to the seafood and now we were buying more of it. yum!