A busy month for cats

After last night, I  understand what it means when all of the Turks tell me "March is a very busy month for the cats". Ask me about it next time you see me and I will explain it in painstaking detail to you!

If you're ever in Turkey, get a shave.

Notice the close shave on all of these guys!

I'm going to chalk this one up to good luck and curiousity.  I have walked past more barbers in Turkey in the last two weeks than I think I saw in the previous 20.  Turkish men are a fairly hairy bunch and can grow a beard like you would not believe.  So I decided to step into a shop this fine, sunny afternoon and see what all the hype is about.  Boy, am I glad that I did.

Our Turkish rug dealer in Goreme, promised me that if you spread the wealth, it will come back to you triple-fold in life, so I'm giving a new philosophy a try when it comes to money. Today proved it to me once again when I went for the 20 TRY ($10) for two hours option (versus 6 TRY for a haircut at "Mentors") Wow!  Who needs a tourist hamam, when you have a good old fashioned barber (or Berber on all of the signs in Turkey).  Makes Supercuts and the Gillette Quattro (with those ridiculously over-priced razors that never fit the exact handle you have) seem like just another one of those things in America that just isn't quite right.  

Here's what you get at a Turkish Barber for less than 10 bucks:

1.  Wash your hair - This one seems pretty standard.  I have even had this done before in the US, of course they charge you an extra 5 bucks for it there.  Also, its nice to lean forward into real sink in Turkey, rather than back into the big plastic washbasins that they use back home.

2.  Meticulous, hour long scissor cut - I thought the Vietnamese had an eye for a haircut.  Wow!  It feels like you're having a surgery, with each precise snip of the barber critical to the outcome.

3.  Warm brushing of shaving cream - I'm going to buy a nice brush and some good old fashioned shaving soap when I get home.  No more Gillette out of a can.  The warmer and fluffier, the better.

4.  Straight Razor Shave - If you've never done it, you're going to love it.   A bit nerve wracking at first, the pinching and prodding of your skin to get just the right angle, but the result is outstanding.

5.  Burning piece of oily cloth - Not sure what this part is about.  It felt very hot and smelled stange.

6.  Detail Trim - Out come the little scissors and the magnifying glass.  Away go the nose and ear hairs, the mono-brow and any other stray hairs that they may have missed with the straight razor.

7.  Face Wash - Begins with the hot towel. The hotter the better.  I mean really hot. Then facedown into the sink again for a vigorous scrubbing.  Then a barrage of lotion, talcum powder and cologne.

8.  Massage - At a barbershop, really?  These guys beat you up!  It hurts (but, oh so good!)

9.  Hairstyle - A couple scoops of hair gel or some spray and about 5 minutes of tinkering.

10.  Wash you sunglasses,  cup of tea in tulip glass, brief history of Ataturk's life, cigarette.


Do I sound like a metrosexual yet?  Well that's fine, because the Turk men line up for this procedure and it doesn't seem to have harmed their machismo in the least bit.  In fact, it may actually feed it!

Day Tripping in Nairobi - Mara posting

Our friend Madison arranged several day trip tours for us from Nairobi. He took us to Mount Longonot and Lake Navasha on Saturday.  Mount Longonot is about an hour and a half from Nairobi. After passing through the city and surrounding towns, the road drops into the rift valley. There are several lookout platforms and souvenir shops on the descent, although you may want to stay on the pavement. 

It was a cloudless day. We left Nairobi at 7:30 and started hiking around 10 (we had a few stops in Nairobi along the way).  The hike climbs steeply up to the crater rim (the sign indicate it is 8 km from the gate).  You can continue the walk around the rim, up to the summit (another 10 km round trip from the crater rim).  There are views the entire way: zebras off in the distance, the endless rift valley, Lake Navasha, and miles of glittering greenhouses (Kenya is one of the biggest rose producers in the world). 

Parts of the trail are incredibly steep and dusty, but that doesn’t seem to deter hundreds of people of all ages and dozens of Kenyan runners who breeze past, barely out of breath.  At one point, as I withered in the sun, desperately looking for shade on the descent, hundreds of school children came flying down the path at full speed, raising plumes of dust: a herd of mini wildebeasts and gazelles migrating.  There were even a few stragglers who opted to pick their way down the path instead of running (and they were still twice as fast as me!).  I would have definitely been the lion’s prey.
The entire hike took us about 4-5 hours total – sandy, dusty, and in equatorial sun – and cost $20 for nonresident park fee.  Bring LOTS of water and sunscreen! The ranger may try to convince you to hire a guide, but it is completely unnecessary.

 Hungry and thirsty, we drove half an hour to Navasha Lake and stopped at Fisherman’s Camp – a campsite underneath giant acacia trees, with an electric fence to keep the hippos out and two monkeys scheming to steal food.  We plopped down on the bar patio, as “Let’s have a party” blared on repeat.  Our blue cheese bacon mushroom burgers weren’t nearly as tasty as the name implies, but after a steep 10 mile hike, they did the trick, with the help of some Fanta, tuskers, savannah cider, and several bottles of water. 

Our adventure continued on the ride back up the rift valley. Frank, our driver suddenly showed signs of a severe vision impairment, as we bumped, swerved, braked, and passed trucks while the sun descended.  Quite a memorable day!

Honeycare Africa - Nairobi, Kenya

Thanks to Madison, Natasha, Alex and the rest of the crew for letting us hang out for a couple of days.  It's exciting stuff you guys are working on and we look forward to staying updated and involved!

Maasai Mara Safari in Kenya

Our friend, Sachin Dave, made it clear that you haven’t been to Kenya until you’ve been on a safari, so away we went.  We’re exactly halfway through the trip (month 4 out of 8 in total) and right on budget, so we decided that we could afford a splurge for the Maasai Mara Game Reserve (and what a good decision it was). The word “Mara” translates to something like “place of beauty” and it sure is (I just threw that line in to get brownie points with my wife). The landscape is one part big fluffy clouds in a blue bird sky and one part golden sea of grass.  Above the surface is an incredible display of the power of evolution.  There is such a diversity of large antelopes and grazers that no one can deny the science after seeing this place.  Below the surface of the grass lurk the big cats and canines.  We saw the “Big Five” and many more.  But what impressed me more than anything else here was the people.  The tourists from all over the world were, well, they just were.  But the indigenous people, who have carved out a living in this wild country, give off an energy like I have none other I have experienced.  Maybe it’s all the jumping, or the beautiful clothes, but I’ll never forget them.  The Kenyan tour guides and drivers were even more fun.  They speak in codes over the radio, smile and laugh constantly, and ultimately seem to be having a better time than the wealthy tourists who have spent so much time and money to get here.  I think we could all learn a thing or two from these folks. 

Singapore Sling

It’s raining in Singapore today, but still bloody hot.  Typical.  There are two things (beyond the opulent wealth) that I really notice about this tiny city-state nation.  One is acronyms. Some of you know that I used to GIS and GPS for the NPS (National Park Service) and BLM (Bureau of Land Management), but they take it to a whole new level here.   Sure, Malaysia has acronyms for city names like KL (Kuala Lumpur) and KK (Kota Kinabalu), but Singapore seems to use them for everything!  Just read a newspaper from here and you’ll know what I mean (“4C vs 8L is LO-BKK ASAP).  The other thing I notice is the long lines (or Queues or Qs or whatever you want to call them) for everything.  In Singapore there’s a line to get in, to get on, to check in, to eat (which, by the way is well worth it here), to go to the zoo (again, well worth it), to take a piss.  Well, you get where I’m going with this.  I suppose like New York or Rome, everyone has to see this city at least once in their lifetime.  But it sure makes me appreciate the small, lakeside town that we live in North Idaho.  Don’t get me wrong, we were both very impressed by this highly functional, diversified, globalized and sterilized place.  Just not my thing.

Malaysian Foodies

After all of the hiking in the caves of Gunung Mulu we were pretty hungry.  So we flew direct from the tiny Mulu Airport to Kuching, Sarawak in southern Borneo for $40US total (thank you AirAsia – what an airline!) and had a massive lunch for $4US at the local food court.  I LOVE MALAYSIA!  Mee is noodles. Nasi is rice.  Goreng is fried.  So, Nasi Goreng is fried rice.  But wait, it comes in at least two dozen versions.  And really there is at 3 basic kinds of noodles (beehon is thin like ramen, kaoy teow is thick and yellow, and then plain old spaghetti-like mee).  Add in your basic soups (laksa, tom yam, chicken), desserts (cendol shakes, layer cakes, coconut everything, loads of palm sugar – wow, there must be a lot of diabetics here), seafood, nice vegetarian Indian food, not so nice greasy Chinese food, traditional cuisine (Nonya and other specialties), and you have the makings of some the thickest menus and busiest cooks in the world.