A beach in Bodrum

It's 3:40 pm here and we are in Bodrum, a famous and very crowded beach town in Turkey. We are visiting our dear friends Selal and Juha. And as you can see we are at a very nice beach laying under the sun, drinking beer and eating french fries. It's a very windy and hot day here. And the knee at the front belongs to me.

Have a great day, I am collecting very nice stories and photographs. I will soon share them with you. We are around here for couple days...

Zanzibar

Today, my friend Erdem's adventure in Tanzania continues with a dream island: Zanzibar..

I came across to the name of Zanzibar for the first time in the title of a restaurant in Tesvikiye, Istanbul. When I asked the waiter whether that was a special liquor, he replied smiling: “No sir, that’s an island in Africa”.
Years passed, and I had the pleasure to visit the same island which inspired the owners of that restaurant. And, I learnt that Zanzibar meant the “coast of blacks” in Persian.


A typical fishing boat sailing on the coast of Stone Town, the capital of Zanzibar.

Michamvi Beach.

Zanzibar, on the eastern shore of Africa, is approximately as large as the island of Rhodes. With a population of one million, it is an autonomous entity with a separate representative assembly.

A painter exposing his artworks at a street corner. Each painting has a distinct character with an aesthetic taste. What did strike me more was the colorful cohesion they represented altogether.

Once the capital of the Sultanate of Oman and the centre of the East African slave trade, Zanzibar is arguably the location in Tanzania where you can feel the Arabic influence the most. Its population is 99% Muslim.

A ballerina-looking girl posing for his father at sunset on the shore of Stone Town.

Farrokh Bulsara was born in Zanzibar in 1946. His parents were from Parsi origin in India and his father was working as a cashier for the British Colonial Office. You probably know him more under his new legal name, Freddie Mercury.

His inspiration for the lyrics of the “Bohemian Rhapsody” may have originated from his early childhood in Zanzibar, who knows?

An African girl with a dress in tatters posing like a princess under the rain at the Matemwe beach.

Michamvi coast. A teenager preparing to transport people to the other shore across the bay. He drives his traditional boat in the rising tide of the Indian Ocean.

“Hooked for life...”

It is possible to find various sea food at the night market in Stone Town.

Zanzibar is an attractive market for shoe-producers.:))

There are around 560 ornamented doors in Zanzibar, the oldest of which dates back to 1694.



Bare-footed princess

A girl I’ve met on the street, who accepted my request to take a picture whole-heartedly.



It was past seven in the morning. We met this little boy in one of the narrow streets of the old town. Despite the presence of his mother, he stared startled at the dark lens of the camera.





A Zanzibari girl in Matemwe, with shining black eyes. Although not that obvious, the guy who is reflected on her eyes, wonders how photogenic these Africans can be.

We may talk about the homeland of those wonderful creatures, Kenya, the next time, who knows?


(*): This article is published on the June 2009 issue of www.fotoritim.com and a shorter version will be published on the fourth issue of http://www.photondergi.com/.

June 2009

Tanzania

Erdem Kutukoglu is a friend of mine from my banking days. We worked together for a while in the 90's. While I have passed to a totally different life couple years ago, Erdem is still in the finance sector, succesfully dealing with numbers. However, his real passion is photography and travelling. From time to time he shares his travels and photographs on my travel blog 'mavilimon'. This time he also wrote his trip to Tanzania in English and kindly accepted to be my first guest at the 'turquoise diaries'. Thank you, Erdem'cim...

A brief profile / Erdem Kutukoglu

My enthusiasm for photography intensified during my university education. There were two main drivers then: A photography course I frequented in Istanbul, and my membership of the Photography Club at the university. But my experience in black & white was proved to be short-lived, as I was quickly seduced by the vivid world of color slides. For years, I’ve organized slide shows for my close entourage and more recently, I began sharing my pictures on the web thru critique sites such as Fotokritik and PhotoSIG. My encounter with the digital world is rather recent though, and the pictures you’ll be seeing on these pages are the first products of my digital experience.

You may observe a historical framework in my pictures: that’s rather expected from someone who inherited the DNAs of a family of historians. I always try to bring forward what seems interesting or striking to me, often spending efforts to build bridges between various periods and cultures. A professional tour guide career I developed during my higher education seems to be paying-off along the way.

Apart from photography, I have another forthcoming zeal: traveling. But they have been so inter-connected in the past 20 years that, I frankly don’t know whether I travel to take pictures, or vice versa.
http://www.photosig.com/go/users/userphotos?id=282805
http://www.fotoritim.com/yazi/erdem-kutukoglu--vietnam

Eyes of Africa – Tanzania
“Once you put your foot down in Africa, your life will change for ever…”
Frankly speaking, I’ve always seen these kinds of statements with some deep scepticism. Nonetheless, when I landed in the oldest of the continents, I was so fascinated by its people, its nature and its distinct atmosphere which made me forget the stress of daily life within hours.... that, I began to wonder whether there was truth in that saying...
...
Tanzania is located in Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean. Please don’t go as far as to confusing it with Tasmania : if we assume the African Continent is a chubby “T” letter, then Tanzania is at the upper end of the stick, on the right. It is slightly bigger than Turkey, whereas its population of 40 million is almost half of Turkey’s. With a GNP per capita hovering around USD450, it is the land of Kilimanjaro and the poor, but strikingly beautiful people.

A mother waiting for a bus in an open bazaar, on the Arusha-Kilimanjaro road...

Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar, two regions who were British colonies until the mid-20th century, declared independence in the 1960s, and finally merged in 1964 under the United Republic of “Tan-zania”: “Jamhuri Ya Muno Wa Tanzaniaunga”...

Islam and Christianity are the two leading religions in Tanzania, with each capturing 1/3 of the population. That said, the monotheist religions are so intertwined with the local traditional beliefs that, it is not unlikely to meet a Christian prophet among a crowd you come across on the road, where people line up to ask the prophet in writing for forgiveness, healing, a handsome husband or financial fortune.

Markets in Africa are always colorful. Sometimes it is a woman headgear, sometimes it is a blanket full of rich patterns and colors.

“Swahili” is the local African language spoken in East Africa, most notably in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. During the reign of the Arabs in the coastal area, Swahili came under the direct influence of the Arabic, which explains why the name of the language is also derived from an Arabic word, i.e., the equivalent of “coastal”. Thanks to the existence of Arabic-originated words also in Turkish, it is possible for us to come across to familiar words such as “selam” (hello), “şükran” (thanks), etc.

Toilettes at Ngorongoro National Park.

While driving thru single-storey shanty towns, our eyes were always on the colorful people in the streets. Thus, we were tempted to stop over and walk among them. Except a few Blue-Mosque type youngsters, no one seemed to care about our existence.

A village between Arusha and the Ngorongoro Crater. A few yards away, a crowd had gathered to watch a bulldozer demolishing a building for road construction. Not a single protest, no one crying, no TV live-broadcasting teams, no one being arrested. Just some 100 young and old people watching in peace...

A girl posing on the road to Arusha...

Maasais in Tanzania.

The Ngorongoro Crater

Located in the north of the country, the Ngorongoro Crater spreads around 102 square miles, at an altitude of 7,500 feet above the sea level. Being the world’s largest unbroken volcanic caldera, this crater which is 2,000 ft deep, offers an unprecedented variety of species for the visitors.

Students from a local school visiting the park. An elephant family on a Sunday stroll.

Ngorongoro is estimated to host some 25,000 animals, including the “big five”, i.e., rhinoceros, lion, leopard, elephant and buffalo. Another common mammal is the Thomson’s gazelle, which is named after explorer Joseph Thomson and is often referred to as the "Tommy". 24-35 inch tall and weighing 29-40lb, Tommy has a distinctive black stripe.

Thomson’s gazelles get along well with zebras and wildebeests. They run as fast as 50mph, which may seem not sufficient to evade big cats such as cheetahs, which are able to attain higher speeds up to 60mph. But Thomson's Gazelles can outlast cheetahs in long chases and are able to make turns more speedily. This comparative advantage doesn’t change the fact that half of the new-born is lost to predators before reaching adulthood.
Zebras communicate with each other with high pitched barks and whinnying. A female zebra may give birth to one foal every twelve months. She nurses the foal for up to a year. The babies are able to stand and run 20 minutes after their birth.

Sunset from the western terrace of the Ngorongoro Crater. The moon had started to show its face towards the end of this spectacular event.

Villages of Datca Peninsula

We are spending our summers in the Datca peninsula. July and August are the most crowded times of the year at the beach. However while all the buzz going on at the sea side, there was an entirely different life goes on at the local villages.

There are I think 9 villages in this rather small peninsula and guess what?? All their locations are not in the immediate coastline, but always distant from sea, because of the pirates which was a huge problem until the beginning of the 20th century.

Until couple decades ago all the sea side lands which were considered low quality and not suitable for farming were inherited by the daughters. So as you can guess all the women became rich after the tourism boom. I always think that its a very funny irony.

So here are some photos from the Karakoy village which we have stopped for tea last week. It was all peace and quiet..

Full Moon

Yesterday there was a beautiful full moon. When it first appered on the sea it was in a gorgeous red colour. Then slowly as it rises up, the red turned into a bright yellow.. It's reflections on the sea were breath taking and inviting you to dream and ponder.

While laying on a deck chair and having some 'me time', I remembered a zen story about the moon and ponder about how little actually we need to be happy....

One night a thief visited the little hut of a zen master only to discover that there is nothing to steal. Then zen master caught him and offered him his clothes as a gift not to send him empty handed. Afterwards as he sat naked, looking up, seeing the moon, 'poor fellow' he said ' I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon'

Hope you are not neglecting to enjoy full moons...

First photo: Last night

Second photo: Another full moon in Datca...

Turkish Coffee

As I am a dog person, I can definitely say that I am also a tea person. I especially love green tea. During winter times I think, I can drink it in unlimited amounts. However after a heavy dinner, my one and only favorite is a good cup of Turkish Coffee without sugar...Tips for a good Turkish Coffee: (1) Freshly grinded coffee beans, (2) no tap water, (3) cook it very slowly.. And after you finish drinking if you have a friend who can read your fortune by looking at the shapes in your cup, it means that you are having a perfect Turkish Coffee experience...

Photo: from an application in facebook

Cherries..

'' Live in each season as it possess; breath the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit and resign yourself to the influences of each''

Henry David Thoreau

Have a great week and enjoy your fruits...