Delhi

We have been in the Indian capital for three days, but it feels more like three weeks. I prepared myself for the sadness, poverty, and crowdedness. Instead, of feeling overwhelmed by negativity, however, I find myself overwhelmed with humanity and life. I do not feel sad for the people who sleep on the streets (there are lots). Instead, I find people's desire to carry on and carve a life out of this hectic place amazing.
We have managed to stay in one of the most beautiful hotels, the Oberoi Maiden in Old Delhi. I chose this one because it is close to the Mother Theresa house for orphans. We have been volunteering two hours per morning with kids about 3-5 years old. We have even more respect for teachers who teach this young age. It had been tiring us out a lot! We mostly sing songs and play duck duck goose. Classroom management is tough! But the kids are happy to see us so that makes it worth it.
When I was mentally preparing myself for India, I forgot to get ready for people who would 'trick' us. There are some very kind people who led us away from the train station where we wanted to buy tickets, and sent us to the 'information' centre a few kms away. It was a very elaborate scheme that upset and offended me while Brandon felt amazement and respect. It turned out that there were no train tickets anyways, and we would need to hire a car. We hired one with what we thought was a government tourist agency. When we realized our mistake, we went to the government agency. They told us we had been overcharged . To make a long story short, we decided to stick with our original booked tour. Brandon observed that the private tour company was working harder for our money. It was a big adjustment for me to "play" this game for which I didn't understand the rules. We ended up going for dinner with our tour company friend and had the most interesting time! He had a lot to say about history, spirituality, and psychology (in between trying to convince us to book more tours with him!) We understand how things work a lot more now and really respect this complex amazing country. As our tour guy says, "It's incredible!" (thats the slogan for India tourism). He took us back to his apartment which was not big. He lives with his brother in law who went out to get us chicken and then found us a rickshaw when it was time to go.
We had a crazy and amazing time! We also found a lovely cafe near our hotel. Picture below. Also featured below: our first rickshaw ride (during the scam). Did I mention that the Indian food rocks here?!

The Mediterranean Coast

We spent three nights at Onur Motel in Faralya on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. When we arrived, the owner of the motel pointed to himself and said Mike. We therefore assumed that was his name. We were mistaken and discovered halfway through our stay that his name was in fact Onur. We are still unsure of the explanation of our first meeting. We were treated to a delicious homemade Turkish dinner. Yay!
Our first night was a very noisy one. Between the very loud insects, roosters, and calls to prayer, I didn't feel like I got to sleep at all. The next day, we went in search of a different brand of malaria medication. After reading the frequency of the side effects (hair loss, hallucinations, depression, anxiety, hearing loss, etc.), I really wanted to find the alternative.
We took the minibus into the main town only to find that the brand of medicine we were looking for was unavailable in Turkey. One bonus: we found some awesome earplugs which blocked the "ooch ooch" (Onur's imitation of the insect's persistent noise).
We bit the bullet and took our original medicine. So far so good! We still have all our hair and I was already talking in my sleep before we took the medicine, so Im chalking up weird dreams to changing location every 3 days.
We recovered from our fruitless search by relaxing back at the motel. We sat up on their terrace, used the internet, read and enjoyed the cherries and gum (?) that were brought to us by Mike/Onur.
The next day, Brandon went diving and saw two octopi. Turns out the hectapus charm that he bought in Istanbul worked! I 'snorkeled' which consisted of looking at water and sand. Brandon thinks he got made fun of a lot by his dive leader and buddy because he would hear his name, some Turkish, and then a bunch of laughing.
Our last day, we tried to hike down to Butterfly Valley. It was more of a climb down a cliff which had ropes to help you down the harder parts. When we got to the part with the rope, I decided to turn around. Brandon said that if he had been there with his friend Matt Friar, he would have kept going. Sorry to not be as daring as Matt, but glad to be alive, I found us a restaurant in the next town called the Olive Garden. It was right on a cliff, overlooking a beautiful beach, and the food was delicious!
Onur drove us to the airport and when we shook his parents' hands goodbye (they help run the place and his mom does the cooking), I couldn't help but feel just like I was leaving my grandparents'.
Onto Jordan, but first a Turkish ice cream at the airport.

Capadoccia highlights

1. First ever hot air balloon ride over some really cool rock formations. These were caused by the eruptions of the nearby volcano. People lived in the caves in the rocks until the caves starting doing what caves do (caving in). There are also rocks that are called fairy chimneys. It was very neat watching the balloons get ready. When we landed we had some champagne. It seemed a little early at 7:30 am
2. Esbelli Evi : a cave hotel. This is my favourite hotel of all time. Our first room had a door to a cave with an escape tunnel. I told Brandon he was only allowed to hang out in there during the day and it went without saying that he wasn't allowed to scare me from there. The breakfast was amazing and it was so quiet!
3. Underground city! Super cool place where the Christians used to hide from their enemies. We both agreed that we would never be able to live there (especially after being semi lost and going in a circle twice) and that the enemy didn't have a chance. I'm not claustrophobic, but the longest tunnel (which involved some serious hunching) was way too long for me.
4. Ziggy's: awesome mezze and wine. This is where I liked an olive for the first time!

Long story short

Finally it was our last day in Istanbul. We liked it, but were ready for a break from the big city. So it was laundry time.
Power outage = 7 kg of steaming + wet laundry - affordable dryer < No help from hostel manager= taking to the streets in search of a laundromat
Streets= 2 self proclaimed Turkish actors wanting to help us out.
Search for laudromat= drycleaners = 20$ drying job =3$/kilo (weighed wet)
Time to take two of the nicest people in Turkey for tea.
Tea= facebook + email exchange + promise to find Mustafa a Canadian girlfriend - a bit of spray on sunscreen Mustafa wanted to try after seeing me use it
4 pm = laundry pickup time
Brandon convinces the dry cleaner to weigh the now dry laundry
Us = + $7.50 dry cleaner= - $7.50
Final answer: We are pretty glad the power went out :) Sometimes people's kindness is surprising and completely genuine. For anyone interested, Mustafa is the one without the mustache and judging by his enjoyment of spray on sunscreen, he'll fit into Canadian culture well.

Rooftops and concert

We have been enjoying the rooftop restaurants in Istanbul. We also went to the Zaz concert at a park. She is a French singer and some of the Turkish people knew the words to her songs. While waiting in one of the most polite lines ever, we saw some homemade grilling going on as well as some little cushions for sitting on for sale.
The concert was very fun and civilized. Even though it was standing room only and there was beer being served, no one pushed or tried to get in front of each other.
We have been treated to friendliness and helpfulness in Istanbul.
Now onto Cappadoccia!

Why are there so many cats?

This morning I woke up to what I thought was the sound of Brandon tripping out of the bathroom. When there was no reply to 'are you ok?', I removed my eyemask to find a pigeon had perched on our top bunk. We (Brandon) tried to shoo it out by clapping. It flew into the closed window a couple of times until it found the door.

We are really enjoying Istanbul. The temperature has dropped because of a rainstorm last night. Yay! With no air con in our hostel room, it is a great relief. We were spoilt by air con in Dubai. We have seen most of the sights we wanted to and are going to a hammam this afternoon.
We have also really been enjoying the food and the Turkish beer. Turkish ravioli and mezze have been the highlights.
The lowlight= the abundance of stray cats + fake cat paraphernalia (who knew that word had an r in it?!) Yesterday evening we were having some Efes beer at a very hipster bar. Brandon would get distracted by the FOUR stray cats in the street beside us. He made me watch them for awhile because he is so amazed by their reflexes. I, however, am grossed out by their dirtiness. I do not have any pictures of real cats.

Bye Dubai

We said goodbye to some of our favourite habibis and habibtis (darlings) today in Dubai. Brandon loves the people who work in the restaurant and grocery store in our building. I love these cute kids the most! First stop : Istanbul via the Sharjah airport which has the best airport food court ever.