Galatasaray-Beşiktaş

On Sunday Lucy and I went to one of the biggest cross-town rivalry soccer games in Istanbul, Galatasaray-Beşiktaş. This was the first soccer game I've been to outside the US, and it was at BJK İnönü Stadium which Pelé called the most beautiful place to watch a game in the world, so I was stoked. After we bought tickets we were told by a Turk not to go this game unless we took a Turk who knew the stadium and the scene -- I guess it's usually out of control. Naturally, we decided to f that and go by ourselves. And really, with a 1:5 police to crowd ratio, what could go wrong? (That's not foreshadowing, so don't get your hopes up.)

Lucy went as a Beşiktaş fan since the game was on their turf. I was too wussy to do anything but play it neutral. Turns out that the only people brave enough to wear Galatasaray colors in İnönü Stadium were seated in a special section that's walled off from the rest of the stadium, surrounded by police in riot gear, and covered with a net. So I clearly should have worn black.
One thing I knew before we went was that the Beşiktaş mascot is an eagle.

One thing I didn't know is that eagles are somehow related to slippers. But the eagle redeemed itself at kickoff when everyone put their wing-talons in the air and yelled. Like so:

By halftime things were getting pretty cold and rainy. Fortunately there was tea, and fortunately we both had waterproof coats unlike Mr Newspaper Rain Hat behind me.

The game was totally awesome, nonstop chanting and yelling, even though it ended in a tie. My favorite Beşiktaş song was (what I'll call) the FU Galatasaray March, where Galatasaray and its fans get told off in three verses.

But at GOAL time, none of that matters...

Japan: Cool Stuff in Kyoto

After spending a couple days in Kudumatsu and an afternoon in Hiroshima, I headed to Kyoto. Gohmann and Chris had to work, so I was flying solo. Which meant I had all the time in the world to check out all these cool things at the Kyoto market:

Chopstick Colored Pencils. Or Colored Pencil Chopsticks?

Japanese Pickles.

Octopus!

The most stylish swine flu masks ever.

Uluwatu, Bali: Where Monkeys Mean Business

The events transpire as follows: First, a monkey sits on the edge of an amazing cliffside temple and pretends to be interested in what's going on to his left.

Second, Duffy is all, "Go sit by the monkey so I can take your picture." Obviously, this is a good idea, so I do it.
Third, the monkey, becoming interested in what's going on his right, decides to improve his ability to see distances.

Next, a heated exchange ensues. I think retrieval of my glasses is worth a certain amount less than the woman who will retrieve my glasses thinks it is worth. We negotiate a price. Meanwhile, the monkey gnaws on his new glasses. Once we agree on a price, the woman throws the monkey a piece of fruit so that he will release the glasses.

The monkey releases the glasses. Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, the monkey is sitting on the edge of an amazing cliffside temple. The glasses go over the edge.

While everyone visiting the temple looks on, a man produces a wooden pole with a hook on it and somehow manages to retrieve the glasses from the brambles below. The monkey takes this opportunity to steal an earring out of a woman's ear nearby. Total retrieval costs run me like 60k Indonesian monopoly money, or about $7. And FYI: when a monkey looks to be casually gnawing on plastic glasses, it is actually eating them. The glasses are worse for wear.

[Note: If I had a picture of it, this would be the point in the post where I would show the sign at the entrance to the temple that warns against wearing jewelry, watches, hats, glasses, or anything else removable, due to aggressive monkeys. Bummer.]

Gohmann: Then and Now

Gohmann circa winter 2009:

Gohmann circa winter 2010:

Japan: Okonomiyaki

I don't really have anything else to add, except, um, DELICIOUS.

Japan: Miyajima

So after our adventures in Hong Kong, Matt headed back to Istanbul to continue his work here, and I headed to Japan for a week with Sarah and Chris.

The GohCotts are living in the town of Kudumatsu, in the Yamaguchi Prefecture of Japan. We flew into Osaka, and then drove (on the wrong side of the road!) to Kudumatsu and their lovely apartment. Where they once saw a Mukade Centipede. Which they promised me had been exterminated.

I should first start by saying that I hadn't really held any lifelong dreams about visiting Japan, but since my friends were living there I thought I should check it out. To my surprise, I fell completely in love with what I saw of it during my time there. It was beautiful, the people were incredibly friendly (to make a gross generalization about an entire nation), the food was great, and I felt like I learned a lot. It is a place with a lot of interesting cultural norms, many of which Chris & Sarah have noted on their blog (and which Chrystal & Ben discussed as well during their time there), which could make it difficult to live there, but as a visitor I was totally entranced.

ANYWAY.

Sarah and I headed to Miyajima on my first day there. Miyajima is an lovely island with docile deer and water shrines.

One of my favorite things about Japan was the beautiful packaging they use. I don't know what was in these bottles (probably sake?) but I wanted to buy all of them.

Same with these. So pretty!

This was the first of many beautiful Japanese shrines I would see on my trip.

Sarah and I hiked around the peak on the Island, where there were some incredible foggy views of the surrounding area.

Hopefully this sign didn't contain any important information.

AND: We went to Hong Kong

Having friends in different international area codes has its perks, like when five of us descend on Duffy's Hong Kong apartment for a week to eat her carefully rationed Tostitos. Chris recounted some of our trip on his and Sarah's blog, but here are some of my favorite memories:

Standing in line for two hours to eat at the WORLD's cheapest Michelin starred restaurant (Tim Ho Wan). Matt thought the pork rolls were amazing.

The Hong Kong skyline. Perhaps more impressive during its cheesy light show. So different than Istanbul!

Chi-lin Nunnery gardens, with long lost friends Sarah and Chris.

Horse races!

Cable car in the mist...

World's largest outdoor seated buddha. Matt being vaguely culturally insensitive.

Chris duking it out with Jackie Chan.

EMERALD VALLEY Hummus. And bean dip. From EUGENE, Oregon, and found in a Hong Kong grocery store. No Emerald Valley Salsa (also known as "heaven on earth"), but there was Tillamook cheese. This is all evidence Duffy picked the far superior international location to live.

Hong Kong Signs

If the subway is flooded....

DO NOTHING!!

And, an homage to an American actress- "Cristin Dunts." I wish it had been "Cristin Donuts."

Bali- the Beach

Because Duffy very eloquently summed up the first half of our Balinese vacation on her blog here, I'll jump right in with the second half. After we spent four days and nights in Ubud, the cultural center of Bali, we needed some of the relaxation time that Bali is famous for. So we headed to the beach! Unfortunately our plans for an all-fun-no-stress vacay were stymied by terrorists, the indonesian plague, and rabid glasses-stealing monkeys.

There were some good parts, too, however.

You know how when life gives you lemons you are supposed to make lemonade? Well, when life gave us a new years eve with a terrorist threat directed at americans, we made friends with 30 japanese tourists and stayed at our hotel all night! Which sounds like it could be bad but in fact it was pretty sweet. We were given special Soba noodles, set off giant fireworks, and listened to "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas about 20 times. And got thrown in the pool by our new friends.

Safety was an utmost concern as Matt assisted these dudes to set off enormous fireworks approx. five feet from where our NYE revelling was occuring.

The next day we visited a beatiful cliff-side temple, where Matt had an encounter with a balinese monkey that I will leave him to recount in a different blog post. Let's just say that his wallet was lighter and his glasses were more chewed on after the experience.

Carrie was infected by the indonesian black plague. Which made our long windy island drives to crowded beaches not as enjoyable for her.

In the end, we finally found the relaxation we had been looking for, about 7 hours before we had to board our flight to leave.

For Matt that included beer in a beer cozy.

For Carrie it meant Indonesian Kites.

For Duffy it meant teaching a Sumatran bartender how to tell knock knock jokes.

For Lucy it meant being at the beach after 6 pm so she wasn't concerned about getting sunburned.

A Balinese sunset w/ Balinese fisherman.

The sign that it was the end of our vacation:

Raider Nation

Yep, an AIR ASIA flight, from KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA to DENPASAR, INDONESIA was proudly sponsored by the Oakland Raiders. Did you have any idea that the arms of Raider Nation stretched so far? Perhaps they are trying to colonize.

The B's of Kuala Lumpur

BULLFROG!!

Matt ate this.

BIRDS!!

Kuala Lumpur bird park.

MORE BIRDS!!

Kuala Lumpur bird park, holding a bird that was about to become Hornbill food.

BUILDING!!

Petronas Towers, tallest building in the world from 1998-2004.

BATU CAVES!!

Statute of Lord Murgan, Hindu God, at the entrance to the Batu Caves.

BABY!

Baby taking a ride into the caves.

BANANA-EATING MONKEY!!

Um, this is a banana eating monkey. Not much more explanation is needed.

BUDS!

Some buds about to go on what they think may be a death-defying bat cave tour. Turns out it wasn't that death-defying. But there were cockroaches!