Whew. I spent 5 hours today exploring the Topkapi Palace, the home of the Ottoman sultans from the 15th through the 19th century. It's no wonder the regents of Europe regarded the Ottomans as the pinnacle of civilization. Opulent doesn't begin to describe the palace, even now. Here is a sitting room, sideways (Got to figure out why these photos won't appear upright.)

The palace museum is vast, set on the confluence of the Bosporus and the Golden Horn, so the views are amazing. But much of the palace now lies outside the museum. This part of Istanbul is full of imperial buildings and gardens that have been taken over by the town. This park, for example, was once palace gardens, and the statuary is still there for kids to play on.

After recovering a bit, I set off for a walk and promptly got lost, of course. Somehow, I ended up at the "New" mosque, which is only 400 years old. I rested inside the courtyard and watched people get ready for the afternoon prayers. Mosques have washing areas, where devotees wash their hands, faces, and feet before going inside to pray.

Near this mosque is a huge nest of narrow lanes lined with shops and Friday, apparently, is shopping day. I braved the jammed streets and promptly got lost again.

I ended up in a specialized market, where you can buy any kind of small animal or bird and food for it, too. The grumpy man with the jars is selling leeches for medicinal purposes. The yellow pods on the right open up to some bright red seeds. I have no idea what the pods are, but they're eye-catching.

Tomorrow I'm going to ride the ferry up and down the Bosporus. My feet are ready for something else to cover the distance.

I'm sitting on the rooftop terrace of my hostel in Istanbul, looking at the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, and the moonlit Bosporus. The call to prayer has just started up from both of these mosques and a couple of others in the vicinity. It would be very atmospheric if the hostel's sound system wasn't playing retreads of 80s punk music.

I'm footsore and weary after  a very full day seeing all the obligatory sights, including the jaw-droppingly amazing places I just mentioned. Any self-respecting tourist would tell you all about the historic and cultural treasures I've seen.

But I know that you really want to hear about the food.

Here is lunch. I didn't really know what I was going to get, apart from vegetarian "kebap," but it turned out to be this excellent pureed eggplant dish. The red speckles on the onions are pomegranate flakes, which are a popular seasoning: very slightly tart and sweet.

Pomegranate is also used to make a popular drink, fresh squeezed as you watch.

I's a good thing that I like eggplant. because it's the foremost vegetarian option. I had it again for dinner, preceded by this traditional puffed bread with yogurt dip. The bread is hollow inside and crispy when you break it off.

(Don't ask me why this photo is sideways or why I can't rotate it.)

Oh, yes, I was going to give up drinking out of respect for Moslem culture, but here in this tourist quarter of oh-so-cosmopolitan Istanbul, full of barely dressed Aussie girls, I don't feel too scandalous having a beer with dinner.

Okay, you can't entirely escape culture. When they were digging around under the Blue Mosque, they found the remains of the 4th-century Great Palace of the Byzantine emperors. Fragments of the legendary mosaic floor were still there and were restored and moved to a museum. You can see the Greek and Italian influences in these delightful remains, even though they're sadly fragmentary.

More culture tomorrow, when I join the throngs at the Topkai palace.

Monkeys and vipers and boars, oh my!

My stinking clothing and I got back from Bako National Park a few hours ago and I've spent much of the intervening time in the shower. But what a wonderful experience! Probably it was those overwrought Victorian explorer stories I used to read, but I've always wanted to hike in the jungle.

Here is a typical path. You can't tell the steep angle from the picture, but it's almost ladder-like. And you have to be very careful where you put your feet and hands (so you don't upset something that will bite or sting you).

Bako is full of wildlife. I saw a large group of proboscis monkeys feeding in the mangrove swamp at low tide.

I also saw pit vipers, flying lemurs, a couple of other types of monkeys, frogs, amazing butterflies, and a python that two rangers carried out of the kitchen--preceded by several screaming cooks. Wild boars live in the forest and a couple of them have adopted the park headquarters.

A large band of silver leaf monkeys have also taken up residence at the park headquarters. This morning at breakfast they managed to elude the ranger with the slingshot and made off with one camper's sausage, another's toast, and the entire plate of a third person's breakfast. But they're cute little pests.

The jungle here grows on gorgeous sandstone that makes the beaches beautiful.

I wish I could have stayed longer.

And I wish I could have stayed longer in Malaysia. But some issues at home require me to be there, so I'm cutting the trip short and heading back. Thanks, one and all, for reading and for all your comments! See you next trip.

I reach the beach

The rain let up at last and I hopped a bus to a local resort town in search of a beach and a cultural exhibit. The resort was more of a resort-in-progress, but that may have been just as well, as I was able to lounge on one of their beach chairs without anyone minding.

You'll notice that the beach is deserted. Perhaps it was something to do with that ominous storm cloud trundling across the hills beyond.

Early tomorrow morning I'm headed for an overnight in the jungle, so there will be a brief hiatus in these posts. But I hope to have exciting pictures when I get back to civilization. Maybe I'll see a nice python or something. Or maybe the pet pig that hangs around the camp.

Monsoon

It's morning here and I should be out and about, but it's pouring. Although "pouring" doesn't really do this rain justice. Maybe pummeling is the word I want.

Anyway, it's a good excuse to post of couple of miscellaneous things here. Thank you for your comments on the blog, everyone! It's great to know that someone is reading it.

Caroline, you wanted a shot of the sarong. Here it is, taken in the kitchen of this hostel by an adorable, barely clothed young man with long blond hair. (Oh, to be 22 again!)

And for you bird fanciers, here is a hornbill that had apparently escaped its enclosure in the Kuala Lumpur bird park. I learned yesterday at the local ethnographical museum that the hornbill is sacred to the local tribes and it features in a lot of their art and beliefs.

 Early tomorrow morning I'm heading to Bako National Park, a tropical forest preserve that has a lot of interesting flora and fauna. By all accounts, it will be smotheringly hot and I'll be sleeping in a dormitory bed in a building that is rustic, at best. I can finally get good use out of my bug spray. And it will be a miracle if there's anything I can eat. But it will be great!

At last--the jungle!

Years ago, a fellow traveler told me about visiting an orangutan rehabilitation center and I've wanted to see one ever since. Before the practice was outlawed, people here used to keep orangutans as pets--at least until they got too big. To deal with all the newly emancipated primates, the government set up the rehabilitation centers to teach the orangutans to live in the wild.

Being a notorious cheapskate, I took the public bus and walked about a mile alone a lane in the tropical forest to reach the center. In no time the noise from the busy road was submerged by the whoops and squeals and hums of birds and insects. Huge colorful butterflies hung around some of the flowering plants.

To get the orangutans out of the canopy, the wildlife workers feed them at specified times. I saw several different orangutans, but this humongous male was the most impressive.

Back in civilization, I browsed the local markets. Here is a relatively small fabric shop for Patty's viewing pleasure. The fabric in the foreground is batik.

And this part of Malaysia is known for its seafood. These young men were only two happy to show off the day's catch, Notice the hairstyle of the two guys on the left: it's apparently regulation for fashionable young men around here.

The big fish on the left are $4.00 a kilo (2.2 pounds). I'm guessing that's cheap by our standards.

I'm in love!

Yes, I'm enchanted, delighted, and generally head-over-heels about Kuching. It's everything you want a tropical city to be: friendly, laid-back, picturesque... The streets are lined with ancient blooming trees and tropical flowers, the air is filled with the scent of incense from all the temples, and the river is criss-crossed by sampans used to ferry pedestrians from one side to the other. It's unselfconsciously filled with great colonial houses and traditional Chinese shop-houses.

Kuching means "cat" in Malay and the town was given its name in the 1800s by the Englishman Charles Brooke, its self-styled White Rajah. The town is very proud of this association and has erected some kitschy statues in honor of cats.

The river is bordered by a long promenade, where everyone in town seems to be strolling, eating, or generally hanging out. I had dinner there tonight, watching the sun set over the distant mountains, listening to the call to prayer waft across the water, and enjoying a hint of a refreshing breeze. It's hard to think of anything better.