Bits and Pieces

Well here we are back in Turkey and I'm sorry I'm a couple of days out of sequence now due to catching some thing rather nasty: Had to happen with all the hand shaking and different foods. However we appear to have stabilised for the moment and had a good nights sleep in pamukale last night We are staying the next 2 nights here in the old part of Instanbull with thousands of other tourists. We have traveled nearly 4000 km since we left. It has been a long day today since we left Pamukale. The terraces were truely amazing and being with 16 bus loads of tourists all wading in the so called healthly water springs in various clad bodies was a sight in itself. However I'm going to spend this blog on some tid-bits and come back to serious stuff tomorrow.

As we have spent time traveling through country towns we have noticed that people use their tractors like cars. Whole families can be seen sitting up on the mudguards travelling to and from their house to farm, special carryalls on the back for people to sit on and their hoes, scythes and sickles. During the week women alone or groups of women can be seen hoeing with their backs bent over using a small hoe weeding and mulching crops.

As animals are housed indoors at nights sometimes small holes in the wall are used to push the manure through which is gathered up and used in the fields. Carpets are often seen hanging from houses. I'm not sure if it is for cleaning or to seal the dies and colours used in the making of them. People hang their washing from the balcony. All white garments are together and hung from smallest the the largest and all coloured clothes are hung together. There are very few chooks anywhere and I wonder if they got taken with the bird flu?

Today we passed 2 nuclear power plants. There is no shortage of technology. Cell phones are everywhere, all the security guards have walkie talkies, internet is widely available, not always the latest model though. Few people walk aroung with ipods like you see at home. Today when we stopped for lunch the waiter came out and washed our car window. Imagine that happening in NZ. Thats it for now. Talk to you tomorrow.