Next stop: Turkey

I made it to Europe! The first time I'd left Asia in over two years, and then went right back again - to the Asia side of Istanbul - for dinner. After 5 days in Istanbul, I traveled south to Ephesus, famous for its ancient Greek/ Roman ruins and then to Bodrum, a town on the southern coast before heading to the Greek islands.

Turkey

Istanbul

Spring tulips in bloom

 According to the Turks, the tulips that Holland is famous for originally came from Turkey.

"The History of Tulip from Turkey to Holland:" http://www.kokachi.com/tulip.html

Hagia Sophia: formerly an orthodox church, now a mosque

Sultanahmet aka Blue Mosque

Inside the mosque

All women were required to wear headscarves which were provided at the entrance. The mosque is closed during prayer time but I made it just in time to get a couple minutes inside. During prayer time, outside, I could hear the call to prayer echo between Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque which are only 1km from each other.

Basilica Cistern

Ferry on the Bosphorus

Back to Asia again a couple days later, this time by accident, when I took the wrong ferry.

Ephesus

View of Selçuk, the nearby town, on our walk to Ephesus

Roman baths

Latrines: where people used to do their business
Better than squat toilets in Thailand?

Amphitheater

Şirince, wine village

Wares at the local market

Bodrum

The port

Buildings by the sea
I'm not sure who lives here but they must get wet!

There's no food photos in this one because there are so many they'll be in a separate blog post just for food.

Next: Island hopping to Greece!

The Long Way Home: Malaysia

Leaving Thailand feels like it was a long time ago, but I just got home a week ago. In between, I made a couple stops: Malaysia, Turkey, Greece and Germany. It was the perfect itinerary to transition back. Each place took me a little closer to the U.S., geographically, climatically, and culturally.

Malaysia

While we were volunteers, we weren't allowed to travel to the southernmost provinces of the country (because of violence and insurgency) so naturally the first thing I did after completing my service was take a train to Malaysia (which passes through those provinces).

The formerly forbidden city of Hat Yai *gasp*

Sunset on the island of Langkawi

View from the cable car (Langkawi)

Colonial streets of Georgetown (Penang)

Tea plantation (Cameron Highlands)

Lots and lots of tea

Mossy Forest (Cameron Highlands)

Pitcher plant, which captures bugs by closing its "lid"

Petronas Tower (Kuala Lumpur)

Petronas Towers (KL)

And of course, a blog post isn't complete without a food picture: this is nasi kerabu.

Ordinary Moments

An RPCV's advice for last weeks in Thailand: "Take photos of anything you may not have photographed - your house, your counterparts." The everyday things.

 My house

My front yard

My landlady's house, where I spent many pleasant evenings

Jackie, the dog

My housemate

I discovered recently I have not one, but two of these living above my ceiling.

My bathroom, an integral part of my Peace Corps life

I felt particularly proud taking this picture after cleaning.

My walk to school

 Garlic-loaded truck

I bet they could pile this higher.

 View of my school from the English room

 Me and my host sister, who is studying nursing in Chiang Rai

Faces of Geegu, my little brother at site

The Last Weeks

Question of the week: "How do you feel?"
"Ready to go back, but not ready to leave Thailand."

Said my first goodbye to my bike, which I sent back last weekend.

Played frisbee at Andy's farewell hat tournament. (My team won!)

Received my first goodbye present: Lisu (hill tribe) clothing from one of the teachers.

His wife is Lisu and his mother-in-law made the outfit.

I'm sure the next weeks will be filled with more of the above.

The First of the Lasts

I spent my last weekend in Chiang Mai this past weekend and surprisingly, it was filled with a lot of firsts: ate at two new restaurants that I wish I'd discovered earlier, learned muay thai which I'd been meaning to do since before I arrived in Thailand and took a cooking class which many people have recommended but I've resisted because I prefer eating over cooking.

We've all been making our lists of things we'll miss (and won't miss) in Thailand. Recently I've been thinking I'm going to miss the food so I can at least learn to cook it for myself. So I gave in and signed up for a cooking class with some friends and now it's on my list of recommendations too!

First, our instructor showed us the ingredients we'd be using from the garden.

I guess I'm not a very good student because I forget what this is - turmeric?

Then we went on a short field trip to the market.

All different kinds of rice

Also on my miss list: so many different kinds of fruit!
When I was in the U.S. I thought a banana was a banana.
Who knew there were so many different types?

Then back to the school to start cooking!

Our workspace

A Thai welcome snack that, ironically, I ate for the first time.
It includes all the flavors: spicy (chili),  salty (roasted peanuts), sweet (roasted coconut), sour (lime), bitter (lettuce)

We chose a dish from three different categories: stir-fried, dessert, and curry. Mine were:

1. Pad gra pao (chicken and holy basil)
2. Sweet sticky rice with mango
3. Massaman curry

The sticky rice was easy and mostly required waiting. It had been soaked in water overnight and we let it steam while we worked on the other dishes.

The curry paste was probably the hardest to make from scratch.

Ingredients for massaman

Mortar and pestling them into curry paste turned out to be quite a workout.
I let this 10-year-old French girl do the work while I took a break.

 As you can see, I'm a natural. ;)

Pad gra pao

Massaman curry

Sweet sticky rice with mango

Bon appetit!