Thus far we're quite impressed with Turkey. Seems mellow. Everyone is nice. Food is good. This luggage mess is a damper, supposedly it's not yet out of Toronto. But we're not hassled, not ill, not mugged, etc. we have icebreaker stuff that is earning it's weight in gold, especially the socks and undies. Never feels clammy or worn, washing mine now 4 days in. Lifesaver. Or trip saver I should say. Thumbs up.
Air Canada missed the bags on the first flight. Not great, but these things happen. What is unacceptable though is they claim to not exactly know where they are despite electronic bar code tags and that there's been 3 subsequent flights to Istanbul. That's incompetence. IMHO luggage tags need to go RFID so they are known at all points in time much easier. Anyway that's the thumbs down thus far.
I asked Huseyin about bars, as we stood by one when Cindy found a place to buy a hair elastic. His answer probably in itself could generate world peace. He's a 41 year old Muslim guy. He said (and this is verbatim) some people go to the mosque, some don't. Some go to the bar, some don't. Some cover their hair, some don't. But it doesn't really matter.
It's almost sad that that seems so profound.
Aside from alcohol being a big point in that religion, doesn't seem like there's any points on smoking, as there's lots of it, seems most religions don't address it. But they're actually a bit discrete like they too know that others don't really want smoke around, most people smoking publicly chose a spot downwind and/or hold it down and behind their hip.
Cindy and I have been intrigued with Bhutan, and as much as I like taking bikes places, the highly literate and quick responding guy I've emailed with there for half a year, plus some co-workers recent stories, plus this travelling with only a carry on thing, has me leaning towards trekking being a low hassle go with the flow option. I suppose this is what backpackers figured out way back. But even with dainty day packs we're entirely comfortable; it's more we've just had to reset expectation a bit.
In the absence of bikes I was really hoping one google search would have me with a week long dirt bike or Land Rover rental, but this far they seem better at renting little VW's or Korean cars or Renault/Fiat/Citroen.
