The main attraction here is the nearby ruins of the ancient civilization of Ephesus. We were there the day before Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton swung by for a visit - good thing because nobody else was allowed inside while they were there.

Apparently only a fraction of the actual site of Ephesus has been unearthed, but that fraction is astounding, especially if you are a history buff. At the time of it's existence, Ephesus was a seaside city. Now the sea has receded to about a mile away! There's an ancient library, baths, toilets, a brothel, an ampitheater (Sting held a concert there, and the sheer volume of the concert damaged part of the structure), a smaller theater, and some incredible sculpture.

It will take them many years to completely reconstruct or catalog the whole site. It's an immense undertaking. One star attraction is an incredible sculpture of a goddess, whose torso is covered with many breasts. According to the woman who was our native Turkish tour guide, some people hypothesize that they are not breasts, but actually "balls testes". Her words, not mine!

The town of Kusadasi has a nice little village vibe to it, with plenty of hawkers trying to sell you various things. At night after work, I ventured into this sleazy karaoke type place, attracted by the exotic sounds being produced by a synthesizer player. After I had enough of that, I made my way into a much nicer place where I saw a saz (or oud?) player and a singer performing some traditional Turkish songs, and they were incredible.

There were only about 5 or 6 people in the place, all of them local Turks. The songs started out very sad and beautiful, and slowly progressed into very uplifting and rhythmic adventures. The musicians had all of us in the place riveted - I could tell that these people had a deep reverence for their traditional culture. The saz player had amazing technique, especially rhythmically, but was reluctant to accept any praise from me afterwards. He kept saying "oh no, I amateur, only amateur".

BODRUM, TURKEY (visited 10/99 & 11/99; written circa 7/00)

This is a modern village in southern Turkey whose main industry appears to be yachting. In the harbor there is an incredible array of beautiful sailboats. I think this is first time I have ever seen a camel in real life as well, except maybe at a zoo.

By far the coolest thing to me about Bodrum was the fact that I found a tiny little Sufi bookstore which was dedicated almost exlusively to the work of the poet-saint Rumi. I almost flipped out when I saw this. Rumi is one of my favorite poet saints, and I bought one of his books there (translated into English of course). The people inside were extremely nice, but a little surprised that a foreigner would take so much interest in the work of an Arabic poet.

ANTALYA, TURKEY (visited 10/99 & 11/99; written circa 7/00)

Another modern town in southern Turkey, although there is not really much worthy of mentioning in the town itself except for a large carpet warehouse with aggresive salespeople. Having said that, one of the tourists from our ship did a raucous dance in the rear section of the store when one of the clerks put on some very loud rocking Turkish dance music - everyone in the store gathered around and cheered him on. It was as if this man just needed a trigger to break out of his shell and let out years of pent up emotions into a few moments - it was quite an unusual scene!

The real reason to visit Anatalya are two sets of ruins about 1 hour away - Perge and Aspendos. They are similar to Ephesus, although smaller in scale, with surprising infrastructures including public waterworks like aquaducts and sewage systems.

Ted Koppel was the featured ship lecturer on this particular cruise (although his lecture had nothing to do with the region we were in), so I got to meet and "hang out" with him and his wife for the duration of the day tour. I came away from that experience with a lot of respect for him - he's a very intelligent man. It was funny to see him dance, though. At Aspendos there was a traditional Turkish band, and they asked for people to get up and join them in a "friendship" circle dance. Mr. Koppel obliged and boogied down!

ISTANBUL, TURKEY (visited 8/98 & 10/99; written circa 7/00)

The highlights of my visits to Istanbul have been visiting the Blue Mosque, which is an Islamic holy site where streams of blue light filter inside through stained glass at certain times of day; Hagnia Sofia, which is a former Christian structure during the days of Constantinople now turned into a museum; and the Grand Bazaar, where you have to learn to evade unrelenting salesmen at every step.

During one of the daily call to prayers, I was standing at the audio intersection of about 4 or 5 different mosques. They all have men singing Islamic prayers into very loud PA systems which get broadcast all over the area. The overall result is a swirling blend of microtonal voices, a somewhat hallucinogenic effect. It was way cool. Even though I'm not Muslim, and I don't really know much about Islam, I was entranced by the sound and really felt the devotion for God coming through their voices. I am really grateful for having had that experience.

My only other memory of note in Istanbul is getting beamed on the head by a low hanging awning while walking down the street! That was pretty unreal, considering that I'm relatively diminutive.