Raffles: High tea in the Tiffin Room

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

When in Singapore, Raffles is supposedly the creme de la creme of venues to partake in afternoon tea. I couldn’t go to Singapore and not visit the Raffles Hotel (also home to where the Singapore Sling cocktail was born) so go to Raffles Hotel I did. I only had two days in Singapore and had made a booking for high tea at Raffles a month prior to my visit (booking are generally required). Yeah, I know I made a booking for a table of one! Just moi. But there was no way in hell I was going to miss out on tea here. High Tea is served in the Tiffin Room:

From Tea at Raffles

In true Singapore style, it was pouring rain when I turned up. I was lead to a table by a waiter, and to my shock it was on a table set for 6!

From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles

Um, do they seat all the single bookings together so we mingle with random strangers? Is this like the loner loser table? I said to the waiter, “Um, do I sit with other strangers? I just have a booking for one.” “Oh”, he said. “I thought you were in a group”. “No, no, just me.” I replied. I was ushered to my correct table, a table for one, by the window (I might add) with a magazine laid out for me, so I need not look like a total loner. How thoughtful. Albeit, a little unnecessary.

From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles

One of the things here that was a little off-putting as a first impression, was that all the tables were all pre-set with the tiered platters. Made me think, how long had they been sitting there. (There are two seating sessions for high tea here – at 1:30 and 3:30pm).

From Tea at Raffles

I sat down and got comfy for a rainy afternoon of tea and food. In addition to the traditional afternoon tea platter is the buffet which is included in the price. There was dim sum and then some – fruits, scones and a large assortment of Christmas-themed dessert buffet. This is the first time I have been to a buffet dessert afternoon tea.

From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles

I went for the glass of champagne option. Was a little unimpressed by the fact that they served the champagne in a wine glass (and not a champagne glass). As for teas, there are about 4 or 5 teas on offer. You can try as many as you like, and they’ll bring out fresh pots of tea for you.

From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles

Even though it was a booking for one, I noticed that my afternoon platter had a serving for two. I obviously couldn’t get through all that food. Tried to sample a little bit of everything though. Everything here was very traditional. And nothing too creative, but all very edible (not mind-blowing delicious though).

From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles

I enjoyed the little bouquet of fresh white roses which adorned the table:

From Tea at Raffles

They even gave me a cute mini chair to put my handbag on:

From Tea at Raffles

The interior was all very British colonial. White walls, high ceilings, wooden fans. Tea here is popular across all demographics. There were families, kids, men, teenagers, couples, and most tables were occupied.

From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles

Got me some yum cha. The bbq pork buns were delicious. I have a soft spot for yum cha. Now have many soft spots (mainly arse and thighs) as a result of yum cha and other yummy foods consumed over the holiday break.

From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles

Didn’t really try any of the desserts. Was too full from everything else, and I’m not a huge fan of all the traditional Christmas desserts. There were things like Christmas cookies, puddings, stolen, cake logs etc.

From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles

Saved just enough room for scones and fruit.

From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles

I like a little scone with my cream and jam:

From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles

High tea was very pleasant. I contentedly ate and drank and took lots of photos whilst it continued to pour down rain. Wouldn’t have been able to do much sightseeing anyway, so it was nice to while away a couple of hours here. Live music as well. A giant harp-like instrument was being played by a woman. The Raffles Hotel is a fancy five star hotel, complete with red carpet all rolled out:

From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles

Unique colonial architecture makes the hotel hard to miss:

From Tea at Raffles
From Tea at Raffles

The hotel by night:

From Tea at Raffles

Tea at the Tiffin Room, Raffles Hotel. A tick on the bucketlist. Afternoon tea in December (blame Christmas peak season) here will cost you 65 Singapore dollars (platter, unlimited tea and buffet. Champagne extra). Normally it’s about 10-15 dollars cheaper at any other time of the year. Bookings generally required. Seating will only be held for 15 minutes, so don’t be late. Smart casual dress code applies.

Afternoon tea at Peter Bar (Peninsula Hotel, Tokyo)

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

My last afternoon tea review – in Tokyo, at least – for 2011. Although fear not, I will be partaking in some afternoon teas abroad before the year is out. This was my 13th afternoon tea sampled this year. That’s a hell of a lot of scone eating right there. I’ll be leaving next week, so I did my December Tokyo afternoon tea on Sunday just gone – a party of four. After my Autumn leaves photowalk, I walked on down to the Peninsula Hotel in Yurakucho.

From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea

This is the third time I’ve been to afternoon tea at the Peninsula hotel. But it was an afternoon tea with a slight twist. Having done afternoon tea at the Lobby Lounge twice already, they also offer afternoon tea at the bar on level 24. The bar is called Peter – a somewhat unusual name for a bar. Why Peter? More importantly, who is Peter?

From Peter Afternoon Tea

Afternoon tea on this winter Sunday afternoon took place at Peter Bar. I loved the décor here. Am interested in who designed the concept. It was well followed through. It was kind of a bachelor pad vibe with its black chairs, black marble bar, yet had a feminine touch with metallic silver trees and leaves. And if I do say so myself, I think my photos did the place justice.

From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea

From Peter Afternoon Tea

Wide glass windows offer views over Tokyo city, and plenty of sunlight. The light was rather too glaring though, uncomfortably so. Just as well there was only an hour or so of daylight left. The Afternoon Tea set here includes a generous glass of champagne for starters.

From Peter Afternoon Tea

Before the afternoon tea platter was brought out, we were served soup for starters – this was a welcome treat. We had celery soup and carrot soup. Who knew celery even had a flavour. Both were very tasty and warming to consume given the colder weather now.

From Peter Afternoon Tea

I’ve been served all kinds of foods at afternoon teas ranging from churros to mini burgers, to quiche, croquet monsieurs and even spring rolls, but I have never had soup at an afternoon tea before so this was rather different. When you do as many afternoon teas as I have, it’s always nice to note how different venues do their take on afternoon tea. Here there are no three-tiered platters. Instead, it comes out on a metallic silver tree stand with the various branches as the tiers, and leaves as the plates. I totally loved this. I so want me one of these tree platters. The leaf plates even came off the stands like actual plates. I loved that the tree theme of the decor bar flowed through to the servingware. The natural light here provided prime lighting conditions for photo taking.

From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea

Fancy, and oh so classy.

From Peter Afternoon Tea
Afternoon Tea

There was an assortment of bun sandwiches with different fillings – these buns, much like my own, were soft and fluffy. (My buns are perhaps more the former, rather than the latter). They were interesting that’s for sure.

From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea

As for desserts – there were 7 different tasting desserts, including tiramisu!

From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea

So many desserts!

From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea

I enjoyed this one – it was a citrus and almond thing.

From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea

Tiramisu:

From Peter Afternoon Tea

The only slight inconvenience here was that the tree platters are shared between two people – however there was only one of each kind of sandwich and dessert – so this either means negotiating as to how each item is divvied up, or having to cut everything in half so you get to try a bit of everything. We opted for the cutting in half, so we could at least get a taste of everything. We had the waiter, take away our desserts to cut them up. As always, I saved the scones/biscuits for last, accompanied with cream and blueberry jam.

From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea

Tea selection here was rather limited.

From Peter Afternoon Tea

No English breakfast tea. No Ceylon tea. Blasphemous. Went with the Assam which was the next best thing.

From Peter Afternoon Tea

No tea sampling here either. You can choose whichever hot beverage you like, be it tea or coffee – and stick with it. Once you’ve made your selection, it is then unlimited refills. They serve tea here by the cup. Every time you wanted a refill, they’d bring out a new cup with your tea. Much to my disappointment, no teapots. And they were a little slow with the service here. On the plus side, there are decent views. Would have been a great sunset were it not for all the buildings obstructing our view. But that’s Tokyo for you.

From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea

Night view:

From Peter Afternoon Tea

And the glamour novelty factor here makes it worthwhile. I loved the tree and leaf theme that was going on.

From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea
Tea with a view

So want to get one of these! Where to buy?

Leaf tree tea tier

Here is an interesting group shot of my tea friends. We were actually seated in front of a mirror column, so it was actually a little weird to be looking at ourselves whilst eating. Made for an interesting photo though.

From Peter Afternoon Tea

The Peninsula hotel offers two very different takes on afternoon tea. The Lobby Lounge is much more traditional. Peter Bar, on the otherhand is more modern, avant garde. If I were pressed to pick between the two on the basis of an afternoon tea experience, I think I’d go with the Lobby Lounge. Peter Bar is probably better suited as a cocktail bar. Check out how it transforms as a bar by night:

From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea

The interior design here is very cool. Both the Peter Bar and the Peter restaurant adjoin with a funky entrance.

From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea

The afternoon tea menus between the two venues are both very different. Even the scones between the two are totally different. Lobby Lounge plus points: traditional, unlimited tea sampling, better scones, excellent service. Peter Bar plus points: views, modern/interesting, tree leaf platter. I had wanted to go here on the basis of the tree leaf platter alone. Afternoon Tea at the Peter Bar, however, is only available on weekends and public holidays. The Lobby Lounge afternoon tea is available everyday. You can’t really go wrong with afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel at either venue. It does draw the crowds though. The Peter Bar Afternoon tea set costs 4,180yen (with service charge, tax etc all included). The set includes a glass of champagne (not sparkling wine), soups, sandwiches, desserts and scones, and unlimited hot beverage (tea or coffee) of your selected tea/coffee blend.

From Peter Afternoon Tea
From Peter Afternoon Tea

Reservations necessary/highly recommended. I personally only recommend for small groups. The bar is quite small and narrow. It leads out onto the Peter restaurant which I’ve heard is amazing for dinner. Peninsula Hotel, Peter Bar website and info here. Complete photo album can be viewed here.

Turkey travel diary (day 12): Arrival at Pamukkale

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

A very uneventful weekend, recovering from last weekend. Next week is December and then parties and holidays galore! Woo hoo. This will be my last quiet weekend until the new year. Lots of upcoming engagements (not of the betrothal kind). Can’t believe another year has flown by. My boring (but pleasantly so) Sunday involved a sleep-in, and then a walk to the local library – had some books to return…and ended up borrowing more books too. I love libraries. Free books. Genius. I grew up living behind a local library. Our backyard even had a gate straight to the library. I grew up on books and regular trips there. We went there all the time to pick out a dozen books for the next fortnight. One of my “things” (idiosyncrasies, if you will) whenever I move, is to join the local library. It’s something I like to do. I like signing up for membership and collecting library cards. Pretty much every place in Australia and Japan I’ve lived I’ve joined the library. It’s kind of nice to belong to something. The thing with libraries is that they always have books that you wouldn’t normally read. They expand your reading horizons. Especially in Japan, where the English book section is very limited and all oh so dated. Then I went for a swim. I’ve got more time to continue my Turkey travel now, so here goes. (There’s only 4 days left and then I’ll be done.) Tuesday, October 12, 2011 From Selcuk to Pamukkale. I left Selcuk on the Tuesday around early afternoon and was on another coach bus onwards to Denizli. Gotta love the complimentary beverage and snack service on the bus. This time the dude was even wheeling a snack cart down the bus aisle.

From Pamukkale arrival

Scenic bus route through rural Turkey:

From Pamukkale arrival
From Pamukkale arrival
From Pamukkale arrival

Arrived at Denizli a couple of hours later where I took another short bus ride to Pamukkale – another highlight during my trip to Turkey. It’s a tiny, tiny village with UNESCO World Heritage status. Only has a population of about 2,500. It’s popular as a 24-hour stopover. Pamukkale is world-famous for its pristine white travertines – otherwise known as the “Cotton Castle”. It’s a really unusual, fascinating sight. I didn’t really explore them until the next day. I didn’t get to Pamukkale until kind of late-ish around 5pm so I explored the little village via a photowalk. Some people walk their dogs, I walk my camera. The SLR camera – best money ever spent.

From Pamukkale arrival
From Pamukkale arrival
From Pamukkale arrival
From Pamukkale arrival
From Pamukkale arrival

I think one of my favourite things about Turkey was the sky. It was stunning and spectacular everywhere I went. The clouds were amazing.

From Pamukkale arrival

At the base of the travertines is a beautiful park complete with a pond lake and ducks, so I took lots of photos here.

From Pamukkale arrival
From Pamukkale arrival
From Pamukkale arrival
From Pamukkale arrival
From Pamukkale arrival
From Pamukkale arrival
From Pamukkale arrival
From Pamukkale arrival

Such peaceful serenity here. I loved Pamukkale already within an hour of arrival. And the next day was simply breathtaking.

Tokyo Yamathon 2011: I survived…barely.

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

I survived. Woo hoo. I live to tell the story. (And a long one it is, for your reading pleasure). I thought I was on Heaven’s doorstop last night and was worried about whether I would have full use of my limbs again or not. Much to my relief, I can walk. I can walk. Barely. I am a crazy person. Let that be a warning to you. What on earth possessed me to think a 50km walk would be fun. I need my head read. Let me sum up yesterday for you: 50km. 29 train stations. 12 hours and 35 minutes. One hell of a day. Otherwise known as the Ultimate Urban Adventure, or officially as the Tokyo Yamathon. It promised to be such a day of fun, endurance and adventure. What didn’t come with that was the promise of relentless torrential downpour for over 16 hours! I like to engage in a little hyperbole from time to time, but I’m not exaggerating when I say it was like a mini typhoon. Relentless rain all goddamn day topped off with some strong wind. On very little sleep (only 3.5 hours), I woke up early on the Saturday morning just before 5:30am. Got myself to Yoyogi Park at 6:30am for the start of the Tokyo Yamathon. The Tokyo Yamathon is an Urban Adventure Endurance Race. “Yamathon” is a portmanteau of the “Yamanote line” and “Marathon”. The Yamanote line is a train line (the green one) in Tokyo – one of the biggest and most central train lines to Tokyo life. It runs as a circular loop covering all the main stops in Tokyo. In a visit to Tokyo, you can get around to pretty much anywhere you need to go just by taking the Yamanote line alone. For a long time, it was the only train line I would catch. I would just follow the green train line. The Tokyo rail system is a bit of a dog’s breakfast and can be super daunting.

Tokyo Rail Network

The Tokyo Yamathon is a 50km-plus adventure whereby teams of 3-4 people are required to visit every single train station on the Yamanote line – of which there are 29 train stations – and the entire race is to be completed on foot. Sounds awesome, right. It is designed as a walking marathon, but teams can run it if they choose to (no use of trains, taxis, buses, bikes or any kind of wheels). On top of that, is the fact that it’s a navigational challenge – you need to figure out how to get from train station to train station. Totally Tokyo Marathon meets The Amazing Race, right! I swear to god, I would kick arse in The Amazing Race. Kick Arse, I tell you. Maps are provided as a guide, but you’re free to take as many shortcuts or routes as you like. The event is a charity event with proceeds going to Oxfam, so it’s also for a great cause. By following the train line for most of the course covers a distance of approx 52km. With a few shortcuts you can get around to 48-50km. I believe the fastest possible route is about 44km. At any rate, all further than any official marathon race. I tried to Google Map it, but I learnt the hard way after punching in a whole bunch of train stations, that Google Maps only lets you punch in up to 24 stops at a time. 5 short of what I needed! After 24 stations, it told me that it was a distance of just under 36km. Still another 5 stations to go. The aim set by the organizers is to complete it in 12 hours. Teams in the past have taken up to about 16 hours. I believe the fastest time was about 6 something hours (teams who ran the whole way). To ride a complete loop on the train takes approximately an hour. Walking it, considerably longer. There are no road closures, no traffic control, so you have to contend with traffic and the other 20million people that live in Tokyo as you take to the streets. It’s a little bit like a marathon scavenger hunt, except the only thing you’re searching for are all 29 Yamanote train stations. I forgot to mention, you also had to take a team photo at each and every station with the station name in the photo as proof that you visited every train station! The Yamanote line:

The Yamanote line (the green circular loop)

How much fun does that sound?! So imagine my sheer excitement when I was asked to join a team. I was super excited. More than I should have been for a 50km walk. It was only decided less than 7 days ago that I would enter in this race. One of my friends, Ange (Angela) from Hokkaido, wanted to enter, and was looking for a teammate – one that would be genki and reliable (i.e. not cancel on the day of). Hence, Aleisha to the rescue. Hell yeah, I love this kind of stuff! So on Sunday I committed myself to joining Ange’s team. Six days later (with absolutely no training at all), on a Saturday morning, I was at Yoyogi Park. Our team of four was: Ange, Hana (whom I had met once before), Marina (who I met for the first time) and myself (A). Our team name was the “Super HAAMstars”! (HAAM being the first initials of each of our names). Pre-race: We look pretty excited and genki.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Marina and I, coincidentally, had identical running shoes! (Mine, of course, are the dirtier pair.)

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Funnily enough, just to get the start point required riding the Yamanote line.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Over half a day later I would have walked to every one of these stations. As luck would have it, it poured friggin rain all friggin day.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Official departure time. 7:28am At 7:28am, our team officially set off. The Yamanote line being a circular loop – you can choose to do it clockwise or anticlockwise. As part of our strategy, we decided to do the race anti-clockwise. What follows is a photo essay of the Tokyo Yamathon. I’ve listed the approximate arrival time at each station that we reached (I had been taking a memo of the times) and our group photo pose. One of the things we did to occupy ourselves on the walk was to think of a group pose to do once we reached the station. Station 1: Start Point to Shibuya Station. Arrive 7:51am Headed to Shibuya station via a combini stop to pick up breakfast.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

First conbini stop was a Daily Yamazaki.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Because a marathon-plus distance race in the rain was not enough of a challenge, just for fun, we also decided that each combini stop we made would have to be at different chain combini store.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Pose:” Look at me/Yay, we made it the first station” Station 2: Ebisu. Arrive 8:14am. Pose: With the Yebisu (beer) statue. Take 1: Crap, the station name wasn’t quite in the photo!

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Take 2:

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Before I go on, I have to say, that probably the most difficult part of the challenge was finding people at each train station who were willing and able to take a photo for us. We wasted a few minutes at each station trying to approach people to take photos of us, and then having to check the photo to make sure the train station name was included. Given the fact that it was raining, people were wrestling with umbrellas and didn’t have free hands to take a photo or weren’t prepared to stand in the rain to take a photo for us. It got worse throughout the day as the rain progressively got harder. Station 3: Meguro. 8:44am Pose: Normal (no pose).

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 4: Gotanda. 9am Pose: Hands up in the air.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

We were feeling good and doing well at this point. Station 5: Osaki. 9:12am

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Pose: Headshot group photo taken one-handed (self group portrait). Fail.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Take 2: Try and get the station sign in it this time.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Started to pour rain again. We made another conbini stop for snacks, drinks, and toilets. Conbini No. 2 – A Family Mart.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Ange was dressed in a bright yellow rainsuit. No chance of losing her in a crowd. She looked like a human banana. Here is the human banana eating a banana:

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 6: Shinagawa. 9:55am By this time we had walked for about 2.5 hours now. Took some nice scenic en-route photos.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Clearly, we were taking this race very seriously!

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Pose: ABBA (or at least trying to).

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Check out the number of train lines at Shinagawa station! One of those is the Yamanote…we hope.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Time to soldier on. 6 down. Only another 23 to go!

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 7: Tamachi. 10:29am Pose: Charlie’s Angel/007.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Hana wanted a donut.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

And Marina takes a quick stretch:

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 8: Hamamatsucho. 10:49am At some point around here we saw the Tokyo Tower. Another photo moment.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Pose: Angelic

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 9: Shinbashi. 11:10am Pose: Wrestling/Boxing.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 10: Yurakucho. 11:30 We had now been walking for 4 hours. Spirits still high apart from the fact that we were all wet and soggy. Pose: Head Tower.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 11: Tokyo. Time unknown. Tokyo is a massive station. And a lot of it is under construction/renovation. We were hardpressed to find a sign that actually said “Tokyo” on it. Pose: Abbey Road a la The Beatles style.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 12: Kanda. 12:09. Lunch stop. Arrived at Kanda. Pose: YMCA.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Time for a lunch stop. We were wet and hungry. We wanted something cheap, hot and fast. We were not going to allow ourselves to get too comfy at a nice warm cafe or restaurant otherwise we’d never want to leave, so we settled for Yoshinoya where we sat a counter and had gyudon – a hot bowl of rice with meat and some miso soup, for a carb and protein fix. 30min max here and then we were outta there.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

We didn’t want our legs to get too stiff. We also didn’t want to get much colder sitting around in our wet clothes. I changed into a new pair of socks here (had packed a couple of pairs)…not that it did much good. They were soaked again in about 10 minutes. Our map was looking rather dismal and rainsoaked at this point.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

We were about halfway or so, having done Shibuya to Kanda (anticlockwise direction). Did another conbini stop for snacks on the go. We crossed Lawson off our list.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Left Kanda about 1pm and set off on the second half of our journey. From here on out, this so-called “walk” turned into a “swim” as we waded through puddles and heavy rain. Station 13: Akihabara. 1:17pm Pose: Otaku (a signature Japanese nerd/cheesy pose).

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 14: Okachimachi. Time unknown. Pose: “Let’s make use of the pedestrian stripes. It’s a shame we couldn’t use the Abbey Road pose here.”

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 15: Ueno. 1:47pm Pose: “Let’s lift up Hana” (Let’s add some weights to this cardio mix).

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

It was pouring rain and we struggled to get someone who was able to take a photo for us here. We were super wet despite all our rain gear. We had all wet squishy feet as well. Took a toilet break at some public toilets near Ueno Zoo and a mini kit kat break.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 16: Uguisudani. 2:11pm Uguisudani station is a station I’ve never been to before. It’s a tiny station and apparently is an area known for it’s love hotel, hence our pose: Pose: “Hearts” (but it turned out more like a ‘kiss/mouth’ and a ‘heart’)

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 17: Nippori. 2:37pm. Had to set the camera on timer here and we did our own group photo. Pose: Head upside.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 18: Nishi Nippori. 2:52pm Road block: train crossing.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Pose: “Walk like an Egyptian…except nobody told me that we weren’t supposed to look at the camera!”

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 19: Tabata. 3:07pm Pose: A Chorus line – can can dance.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 20: Komagome. 3:44pm. I was starting to die at this point. I was probably starting to die a few stations back, but my legs were getting sore and we were less mentally genki. My patience was waning at this point. We had been walking in pouring rain for over 7 hours now! We got lost around here as we were getting tired and we slacked off on the navigating. Walking additional extra distances = unhappiness. Discomfort was setting in. This neighbourhood was also really boring and residential. Was not happy to be here/there at that point. Stupid neighbourhood. Stupid rain. Stupid walk. Tabata, Komagome and Sugamo were all kind of a blur…. we got a little lost as well as fatigue and confusion and generally not giving a rat’s arse kicked in, so I have probably messed up this recount a little. Was getting tired. We also stopped at a supermarket for a drink stop.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Feeling a bit deflated when we finally got to Komagome. Pose: Deflated grimace.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 21: Sugamo. 4:01pm. Sugamo is an area known as the “Old people’s Harajuku”. Pose: Old people. We didn’t have to act. I was hunched over and limping as it was. Aching back, aching legs. We had walk over 35km at this point, in the rain no less.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Between here and the next station, we needed another conbini stop for toilet etc. Crossed a Sunkus off the list.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Even though it was just on 4pm, it was also dark by now. Gets dark really early now that we’re going into winter.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 22: Otsuka. 4:29pm I was beyond death at this point. Legs were getting cold and stiff. We had been walking for 9 hours now in sopping wet clothes. It was dark, wet and cold. Pose: Bodybuilder. Yeah, we’re strong.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 23: Ikebukuro. 5:12pm. It was a long walk between the previous station and this one. Slowly but surely dying. Ikebukuro means ‘swamp bag”, which is exactly how I was feeling. Ikebukuro was so freaking crowded! We looked like drowned rats as we made our way through the mosh pit that is Ikebukuro. What were all these people doing out and about on a rainy Saturday night?! Go home! Death is ugly, folks.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

We finally got to Ikebukuro at long last! Pose: Ange wanted to do an 80’s lunge pose. WTF. My legs can barely hold me up, let alone do a lunge. I do a half-arsed lunge.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

At Ikebukuro I had officially hit The Wall:

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

And that Wall ain’t pretty:

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

I was wet through to the bone. Wet socks. Wet shoes. Wet hair. Wet face. Wet undies. Wet leggings. Wet shorts. I could have foregone toilets and just peed as I walked – I was that wet. Hell, peeing on myself would have at least made me feel a little warmer. My legs were sore. Feet were sore. I was in a world of pain. The neverending Wall:

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Alas, we soldiered on in the dark and the rain and the wind. The rain and wind got so much by this stage that we forwent the umbrellas which were rendered useless in this crappy weather:

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 24: Mejiro. 5:35pm. Only five more stations left after this one! Mejiro: Eye pose.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 25: Takadanobaba. 5:56pm By this point, I really don’t know what I was thinking. I just wanted this ordeal to be over. The faster we walked, the faster this would all be over. Trouble was, my legs could barely move. Body slowly breaking down. Nothing to do but one foot in front of the other. No matter how slowly. No matter how painful. Are these not the eyes of a crazy person?! Oh, and someone needs to invent windscreen wipers for glasses. Isn’t there an app for that? There should be.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Pose: Astro Boy.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 26: Shin Okubo. 6:36pm. Every step was becoming even more and more painful. I was definitely limping. Another toilet and conbini stop along the way. At least we got to cross a 7-11 conbini stop off the list. I was also getting ravenous by this point. It had been about 6 hours since lunch, a hell of a lot of walking, and not enough eating. A quick snack of some chocolate and crackers.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

This would also be our last break stop for the day before reaching the finish. I caved and had to put a couple of bandaids on my blister that were covering my feet and toes. So much pain. As night was setting in, the streets got more crowded and we had to contend with more pedestrian traffic as people went about their social Saturday nights. I was looking forward to nothing more than a hot bath and bed.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Pose: A kind of korean pose (according to two Japanese girls, there’s a particular korean stance so that’s what we did. Shin Okubo is Little Korea in Tokyo. Great place to eat korean food!)

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Station 27: Shinjuku. 7pm. People central. Shinjuku on a Saturday night. A sea of umbrellas.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Pose: Backs turned. Don’t face the camera.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Only two more stations to go! Station 28: Yoyogi. 7:18pm. Waiting at another train crossing:

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

And the Yamanote line train passes us by, as if to add insult to injury:

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Pose: Crawling out of Yoyogi Station. No pretending there. I was practically crawling by this time.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Only ONE station to go. Point of no return! Station 29: Harajuku. 7:55pm Woo hoo. Harajuku station in sight!

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Last station checked off! Finale Pose: Too buggered to make a human pyramid so here is our STAR pose.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Yay the Super HAAMstars! We walked all 29 stations of the Yamanote line AND in pouring rain and wind. How goddamn happy do we look now that that ordeal was over.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

We still had a little ways to walk yet. We had to check back in to the start point and officially time out. Check in Point. 8:03pm. Official time 12 hours and 35 minutes. About 50 or so kilometres walked. All 29 Yamanote train stations completed. Hundreds of calories burned. As for our conbini checklist: Daily Yamazaki. Check. Family Mart. Check. Lawson. Check. Sunkus. Check. 7-11. Check. We then dragged ourselves to the bar where the afterparty was being held. Had me a well-deserved half pint of beer:

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

And a hotdog (coz, let’s face it, the dogs were barking):

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

And then we passed out!

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Somehow I managed to get home sometime around 10pm. 50km later and I’ve aged about 50 years! Knees and legs are shattered. And in dire need of a wheelchair. Got home and peeled off all my wet clothes. WARNING: Some super gross photos coming up. Look away now. And I hope you’re not eating or about to eat. After over 12 hours walking around in wet socks, wet shoes (despite changing socks twice on the walk), my feet were all blistered and pruny. They were white, wrinkled and just plain disgusting. Blisters to boot. Check out my feet. I honestly don’t know how they made it to the finish line in that condition.

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Here’s the other foot:

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

Sweet Jesus, Bless my soles for they were in need of some major heeling. (Couldn’t let ya go without a pun thrown in.) Had a nice long hot bath to soak and sooth my aching muscles. I tell you, it was a struggel climbing in and out of the bathtub. That was a feat in itself. There was no water hot enough in the world to soak my muscles. I could have fallen asleep in the bathtub. I very well nearly did, except for the fact that my feet were already sooo wrinkly and pruny. The soles of my feet, legs and in particular, the backs of my knees (strangely enough) were in extreme pain. Body had totally started to stiffen up and get tight. Also had aching and bruised shoulder after carrying a backpack all day in the rain. Powdered my feet and lathered my legs in Dencorub. Crawled into bed with a hot water bottle to soothe my feet and legs. I could not walk last night. Extreme pain. I had buggered up my knee as well. Woke up today after a 12-hour slumber. Legs and knees in particular are sore. Sore back as well, actually more my hips but the back of my hips are sore. Legs are still super tight but I can walk….albeit very slowly and painfully. Thought I would feel a lot worse today given that I was in so much pain last night. I was really scared that I would wake up paralysed this morning. I was in that much pain last night. Just lying down in bed hurt my legs. Mostly sore muscles today that should be fine in a week. Apart from that, no major injury. Nothing that a nice massage wouldn’t fix…if I could actually get myself to the front door to leave my aparto. I’ve actually starved most of today because I can’t get out of bed and walk myself to the kitchen. That would require use of my legs. Have to say it was a hell of a lot of fun though. Don’t let all that pain put you off. It was just a shame that it rained all frickin day. Would have been so much more pleasant and bearable were it not for the rain. I don’t mind being tired from all that walking, but being wet on top of that was just nasty. And of course, today was a perfectly dry and sunny day! It was a great way to explore Tokyo and all for a great cause. The Tokyo Yamathon is held twice a year – in April and November. Info here. They have prizes and stuff as well for fastest team, best costume etc. If you don’t have a team but still want to join, they can hook you up with other people and you can join a team. Teams of 3-4 people. Team entry is 6000yen, split between each member is very reasonable as well. Plus 1000yen insurance fee per team. Donations and sponsorship also welcome, as all proceeds go to Oxfam. It was a fun day out. Some teams did it in 6 hours. Other teams will take up to 16 hours. You pass a lot of teams along the way which is great. Exchange words of encouragement, and “we’ll take a photo of you guys if you take one for us” kind of thing. Quite a few teams did it in costume as well! Hard core. A lot of people did it in regular clothes – jeans, street shoes etc. A team of girls were even wearing ugg boots. Respect! Thanks to all the random people we met along the way who were nice to enough to take a photo of us at each station. So I may not have been accepted into the Tokyo Marathon, but this was the next best thing. I may not have ran a marathon, but I know I can walk a marathon, and then some, in rain and wind! Although I don’t know exactly how many kilometres we walked, I guesstimate it around 45-50km. The Yamanote train line by rail tracks is about 39km alone. Obviously we can’t follow the train tracks the whole route around as we are often diverted along buildings, no-through roads, paths, traffic and roads etc, factor in some wrong turns, and your own navigational skills, and it’s closer to 50km. The map given provides a basic route which is 54km, but we reckon we did it in a little less than that. iPhones are allowed so that came in handy too as we Google-mapped our way through most of it. Our team probably took in more pit stops than I would have liked, but still it’s a team effort and that was what got us to the end. We kept ourselves amused with conversation, taking in the sights of Tokyo, and sustained ourselves with encouragement to make the finish line. Our team did awesome! Super proud. The other girls were such troopers! I am sure I was the weakest link. Ange was talking about doing it again in the Spring! Is she crazy?! I might suddenly be otherwise occupied on that day. I’ve always wanted to visit every train station on the Yamanote line and now I have…on foot. I will never look at the Yamanote train line the same again. And how cool is this: I actually saw this on the walk. So apt. It was like it was a sign…literally:

From Tokyo Yamathon 2011
From Tokyo Yamathon 2011

 

Afternoon Tea at Mariage Freres (Ginza)

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

You know you’re a tea geek when you spend your weekend (that is, time not at work) hanging out with your boss and your boss’ cousin for afternoon tea. A few weekends ago, actually the weekend after I got back from Turkey, I went to afternoon tea with my boss (my manager at work) and his visiting cousin from New York. My manager, like me, is a huge foodie. And his cousin is a huge tea lover. And by huge, I mean massive. Ah, a kindred spirit. She puts me to shame. I love the whole experience of “Afternoon Tea” – the food, the tea and the ambience. She, however, was a tea expert and Anglophile (lover of all things British). It did not escape my observant spectacled eyes that she was even wearing tea earrings – on one ear was a teacup and the other ear was a teapot! She was visiting Tokyo and during her two-week stay had partaken in at least four afternoon teas. Impressive. So we tried out a different non-hotel tea venue. They call it a Tea Emporium (Tea salon and restaurant). We went to the Mariage Freres in Ginza on Saturday at around lunchtime-ish. Mariage Freres, if it wasn’t obvious, is a French tea brand, founded by brothers Henri and Edouard Mariage – hence Mariage Freres (The Mariage Brothers). They boast a tea menu of about 500 blends. Impressive. Or so their menu would have you believe. It seemed that each tea we tried to order, they were out of stock. Hmmm, perhaps they list 500 teas but maybe they only have about a dozen in stock. I have mixed feelings about this place. Their tea store is impressive, as is their tea selection (all 500 of them). Food was a little hit and miss. But their service was, how shall I say, perhaps very French (and excuse the stereotype) – they lived up to their rude, arrogant service. Or maybe we were just unlucky. We weren’t able to make reservations here. Apparently, bookings are only available for lunch and not if you’re just having afternoon tea. There are four 4 different dining levels here. And the place was pretty full with ladies who lunch. We were seated on the second level dining area. Tea menu was impressive. 500 teas to choose from. Dilemma. Thankfully, the tea menu was nicely categorized according to tea varieties, and also number coded. They also had a tea book (almost like a tea manual which gave an explanation of all the teas). I will go back at some point to buy that book. Yes, it was for sale. It detailed tea history, tea brewing method, plus a blurb about all the 500 teas on offer at Mariage Freres. For afternoon tea, there are a few options available. It’s not the traditional afternoon tea either. It’s more like a little lunch plate. I recommend actually eating lunch before you come here, and then have the afternoon tea here a little later, because you may not leave here feeling full. I opted for the croque monsieur set – which came obviously with the croque monsieur and a salad. It of course included your choice of tea (except the more expensive specialty blends) and your choice of dessert. So no three-tiered platters here. The all-white tuxedo uniforms that the staff wore did nothing for me, except feel as though I was on the Titanic. I like a man in uniform, but these were just tacky, especially for a tea store. I also noticed that ALL the staff that worked there were male. Not that I have a problem with that. They were obviously aiming to please all it’s predominantly female customers. I didn’t spot a single female employee throughout the Tea Emporium. As usual, I got out the SLR to capture and document the afternoon tea. However, no photos are allowed here! Was told off by the staff! I did manage to get a couple of photos in before they saw me and told me off.

From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres

I then had to put my camera away for the remainder of the meal. With over 500 teas to choose from, I asked what their ‘ninki’ (most popular, number 1) tea was. Here, it’s the Marco Polo – described as Mariage Freres most famous secret mysterious blend with the aroma of Chinese and Tibetan flowers. The aroma of the tea was very vanilla-esque. It was ok. Not my favourite tea. An impressive selection of tea though, so there’s bound to be one to suit your tastebuds – teas from all regions over the world. The staff are a bit picky when it comes to tea service here. And again, maybe it boils down to a bit of arrogance and the French art of tea, but here the teas are especially timed and brewed by their own tea masters, and all you receive is the pot with the brewed tea – free of the leaves. They are very pedantic about their tea brewing methods. Personally, I like receiving pots with the tea leaves in it. This allows the paying customer (us) to enjoy tea brewed at the strength that we desire. Here, you don’t have a choice. Their strength-brewed tea only. It does dispense with the need for a tea strainer…but I quite like tea strainers. Receiving teapots without the tea leaves in it, means no hot water refill either. You’ll need to order yourself another pot of tea which will set you back about 1000yen. I also think Mariage Freres are tea purists – they don’t give you milk….unless you specifically request it. I can understand that to enjoy and savour the subtle flavours of tea, you shouldn’t add milk, but milk in my tea is a huge comfort thing for me, except obviously herbal blends, green teas, jasmine and Chinese and Japanese teas and the like. What amused me here were the tea warmers for the teapots. The teapots were covered in little armour outfits – a metal tea cozy!

From Mariage Freres

I enjoyed the croque monsiuer – can’t go wrong there. The tiny salad was rather lame and not so tasty. The other lunch plate options were the mixed sandwiches, and something else…I can’t remember. If the afternoon tea plates are too light, there are lunch courses on offer. For dessert we got to choose a selection from the menu or the cake display. On offer are scones, creme brulee, macaroons, and a small assortment of cakes and tarts etc. Normally, I go scones, but on this occasion I opted for the earl grey creme brulee. I hadn’t been too impressed by afternoon tea at Mariage Freres, but it was redeemed somewhat by the creme brulee. I managed to sneak in a couple of pics on my iPhone:

From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres

I thought the food was somewhat overpriced for what it was. It’s about 3000yen. I guess, it’s not so bad, considering the tea itself is worth 1000yen for a pot. But for 3000yen I expect to be somewhat full. And sadly, I wasn’t. And the service was really lacking. We then went down to the tea store on ground level. They have beautiful displays of teapots and teacups. (Apologies for poor photo quality. I was trying to discreetly take them on my iPhone).

From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres

Being as it were, in Japan, there was a woman in a kimono:

From Mariage Freres

What I also loved about the tea store are the wall-to-wall shelves lined with oversized tea canisters! I love tea stores that do that.

From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres

Mari had wanted to buy some tea here, but alas, service was non-existent despite us waiting for about 20 minutes. The staff here are really hoighty-toighty which makes for a really unpleasant experience. Quite the turn-off. They instead bought tea at one of the department stores at another Mariage Frere store outlet. As I mentioned earlier, there are about 4 dining levels here. The venue is narrow but it’s built over four floors: In the basement is the:

From Mariage Freres

(Which I should add, is not a museum at all). On the ground level is the tea store. On the next level:

From Mariage Freres

And then there’s the following two rooms:

From Mariage Freres

Some of their cuisine is made with tea as an ingredient (eg, the earl grey creme brulee). In addition to being a tea venue, they offer French dining.

From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres

You might want to take a French cuisine glossary just to read the menu. I took a lot of photos of outside the store where they couldn’t tell me off for taking photos!

From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres
From Mariage Freres

Mariage Freres (Ginza) gets a decent rating on Tabelog. As for the no photo rule – no photos my arse. There’s a whole stack of photos on Tabelog. 255 photos from Tabelog reviewers alone have been posted on that site. And I reckon there’d be a handful of Japanese bloggers who have all taken photos on their keitai. We were unlucky to have been seated right in front of all the staff. Had we been seated away from them, I reckon I could have gotten away with a lot more photos. There’s another Mariage Freres tea salon in Shinjuku. I’m game enough to go and try that one despite the rather disappointing experience in Ginza. I’m prepared to give them a second chance. But it might have to wait until next year. Mariage Freres website in Japan.

Swimming adventures

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

This is the last post, I promise, of swimming pics from Turkey. These are photos that were taken by Mustafah – the boat captain for the last two days. In addition, to driving the boat he would run around and take photos of us all whilst we were in the water swimming. He had an impressive Canon Digital SLR camera. Here are plenty of action swimming shots of me and my fellow swimtrekkers, accompanied by our swim guide escorts. Viva open water swimming. No boundaries. No lanes. No walls to kick off from. No chlorine. We battle the waves, the sea water and the marine life.

From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek

Here’s a few of me, in action:

From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek

One of the minor challenges of open water swimming, was knowing where our destination was. Kind of hard to tell which way to swim and having to sight. Which way? That way!

From Action swimtrek

Middle of the pack:

From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek

Mr. D doing a backdive into the water. Don’t try that at home kiddies!

From Action swimtrek

I forgot to mention that there were a few hand signals that we had to learn for the duration of the trip. There was a signal for ‘help’, a signal for “I’m ok” and can you guess what this one was for:

From Action swimtrek

The letter “W” made with both hands. It meant you were taking a leak in the water, just to let others know around you to keep clear. No one actually made this signal during the trip. We all just peed anyway…but of course you’d swim away from the group. (Well, I hope others were offering the same courtesy!) Here’s a group photo of us yellow-cap swimmers. We look pretty happy and glowing – high on endorphins and sunshine:

From Action swimtrek

Drink breaks involved treading water and having drink bottles thrown to us:

From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek

This is our group setting off for the archipelago swim:

From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek

More action shots:

From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek

And another one of me:

From Action swimtrek
From Action swimtrek
From Swimtrek day 3

I took a couple of videos on the trip. They’re a bit lame. And I haven’t edited them (don’t know how and can’t be bothered). Here’s one of the water as we sail on the boat. Click link. This video was taken at Aperlae. I was in the water and taking a video of the other practising swim drills. This has a lot of noise, so best on mute. And this video is kind of crazy. I was taking footage of Mr. A freedive down to the sunken coast guard boat, but this was the failed attempt. The water was super choppy and it was quite deep in this part of the sea. After the failed freedive attempt, I didn’t realise the video was still running, so I have all this random footage of what looks like me being tumbled around in a washing machine. I’m obviously trying to stay afloat, and tread water, but my hand holding the camera is waving about under the water with the video still running. It was really nice to be able to have the luxury to spend 2-3 hours a day swimming. These swimming adventure holidays are a great way to travel. I promise, no more photos. That’s it. Got no more left to show you. My blog will resume back to its regular dribble of food and life in Japan. There are a few other companies that offer swim adventure holidays. Swimtrek is the most prominent and has the most extensive and comprehensive destination itineraries, but it’s more convenient for those in the UK and Europe. I also highly recommend booking in advance, because they book out really quickly. I booked in February this year for an October departure. I had wanted to go in September, but they were booked out. 3-6 months advance booking is ideal…also gives you time to train and get in shape! There are a few other competitors out there but are more specific to a particular locale. SwimVacations – focus mostly on the British Virgin Islands and Caribbean SwimSafari – is more Australia friendly in terms of location. They run swim safaris in Fiji and Vanuatu. Doing one of the 5km OWS races there is on my bucketlist, but they also run swimming tour holidays as well. Would like to do one of these once I’m back in Australia. And if you missed my day-by-day recount of the week-long swimtrek here are the quicklinks: Swimtrek day 1 Swimtrek day 2 Swimtrek day 3 Swimtrek day 4 Swimtrek day 5 Swimtrek day 6

Turkey travel diary: Day 8 – swimtrek day 6 (last day)

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

So far I’ve only gotten around to posting up the first week in Turkey – the week of the swimtrek – so after today, I’ll put up one more post and that’ll it be it (and maybe one more bonus post). I may eventually get around to posting up some other stuff about my Turkey travels, but I don’t foresee that happening anytime soon. I have over 3,000 photos I need to sort through of my second week in Turkey (3,176 photos to be precise, which I need to organize and cull. Whoa, that’s about 450 photos, on average, I was taking, per day). I really need to learn the art of restraint. Day 6 of the Lycian Way swimtrek: A little sad that the trip was drawing to an end. It would be a day of lasts. This would be our last full day of swimming. Our last day out on the turkish yacht. Another two great swims were had. First up was an archipelago swim – how cool is that. It was a 3.5km circular swim around a small cluster of islands between Turkey and Greece, so we swam from one island to another.

From swimtrek day 6

Towards the end of the week, and by this time, I was suffering from some neck and shoulder chafing. Vaseline – a must. So were some photos of the Vaseline ritual. Rubber gloves and some petroleum jelly. Most of us (especially the gals), opted to apply our own, but our swimguides were on hand to help us out. Mr. D looks rather menacing with his latex glove, looking for his next vaseline victim:

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

Going in for the kill:

From swimtrek day 6

Here’s the start of the archipelago swim:

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

The pink group set off:

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

I look ready to swim:

From swimtrek day 6

One island down:

From swimtrek day 6

Our morning swim was rewarded by a lunch feast of shish kebabs – yum. Our last lunch feast, cooked right on the boat.

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

Can’t top these water views. Seaside dining, redefined:

From swimtrek day 6

And how lucky were we with the weather. We had been blessed with glorious weather and sunshine all week. Temps in the high 20s. Was sporting quite the tan after this week. Lots of delicious, healthy, fresh food:

From swimtrek day 6

Everyone digging in:

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

Lunch was followed by some chillaxing on the sundecks. It was going to be so hard to go back to reality:

From swimtrek day 6

There was more stuff to see underwater. Today, a shipwrecked fighter plane that had crashed into the sea for real (and not just planted there for the scuba divers).

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

Our last afternoon swim was a nice coastal swim past some Lycian tombs and cliffside (about a 2km swim). Here are some action shots during the swimtrek. Each group was escorted by a swim guide in a boat, on hand to throw us drinks when needed and to provide us direction.

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

A water bubble shot of Mr. D:

From Swimtrek day 5

Some fish:

From swimtrek day 6

This last swim was pretty exciting because we got to see a couple of large sea turtles which I thought was really cool. I was swimming with my underwater camera on me, so I was lucky to be able to take these snaps. I was surprised how close we could get to the turtle. The turtle is well camouflaged in the first couple of shots, but then I got some really clear ones:

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

That was one of the highlights of the trip. I’m glad I got to see one whilst we were actually swimming in the water (and had the camera tucked into my cossies). We reached the Lycian tombs:

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

Ah bliss. What a great way to end the swimtrek! Totally satisfied. We climbed back onto the boat and made our way back to Kas. This random fisherman tried to sell us some fish he had caught:

From swimtrek day 6

Back to Kas we went:

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

We finished at around 4pm, and had a few hours to kill before our last final group dinner at the hotel. Water views from my hotel balcony:

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

On this last day, I had one thing I had left to do that I wanted to do – and that was to take a visit out to the Amphitheatre ruins which was about a 20min walk. We had seen it from the water on the previous day, but I had wanted to go out there. I went for a photowalk out to the amphitheatre…to take in one last time the beauty of Kas and my time there, and to see one more last sunset.

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

The amphitheatre was surrounded by olive trees:

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

Great views to be had up here. Definitely worth coming out here for a bit of solitude, scenery and a stunning sunset for a bit of quiet reflection.

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

Best lookout point in Kas for sure, which is probably overlooked by a lot of visitors and tourists:

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

I’ve run out of adjectives to use…stunning, breathtaking, amazing…

From swimtrek day 6

This next photo is a little sad though. It depresses me a bit. Take note of this man…you’ll see why a bit further down:

From swimtrek day 6

It captures such loneliness.

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

I stayed up here for a bit over an hour taking in the scenery, until it got dark.

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

And then I made my way back into town and back to the hotel in time for our group dinner. Took more photos on my way back. Here’s a few of some kittens. Lots of cats in Kas.

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

These were really two kittens and not some trick double photography!

From swimtrek day 6

Now, you remember the photos above of the old man sitting alone at the amphitheatre? Well, I happened to pass him again, sitting alone, in the main town square. I didn’t realise it was the same guy until I actually went back through all these photos! All I remember at the time, was thinking that they were great images to take a photo of, but didn’t realise it was the same old man, alone. Makes me wonder what his story is.

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

Time for one last final dinner, this time a group farewell dinner, as people would be departing the next day. A week went by fast! Drinks first:

From swimtrek day 6

Dinner was on the sea deck by candlelight:

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

We celebrated the last night in style – roasted whole leg of lamb that had been slow-roasted for 10 hours (we had to decided our order the previous day so they can spend the whole day slow-roasting them). What a feast! One leg of lamb was shared between groups of four. I think I singlehandedly ate half a whole leg of lamb. I could totally indulge now totally guilt-free after a week of clocking up 25km of swims.

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

And lots of wine!

From swimtrek day 6

Followed by more drinks – a lot of beer judging by the table:

From swimtrek day 6
From swimtrek day 6

It ended up being a big night for some! People were up for celebrating, and it was the only night that we could let loose with the drinking because we couldn’t swim with hangovers during the week, happened to be a Saturday night too, so a handful went out nightclubbing. I called it a night and went to bed instead. A massive week of swimming, I had no energy left. Most people were also heading back home the next day, but I still had another week of travel around Turkey! Totally satisfied. It had been an amazing week. An experience that can never be relived. Truly magical. Am also totally hooked on doing another swimtrek tour. I had known before I even did this one, that I would want to do one every year…and I think I may very well might. There’s a few other destinations I’m interested in going to. It was a hard decision to do the Turkey one first…so will definitely get around to doing a few of the other destinations over the next few years. Just the idea of it sustains me. If you’re interested in doing a swimtrek, you should check out their website. You don’t need to a fast swimmer to join. They cater for all levels and speed. You can breastroke the whole time if you prefer. Wetsuits, flippers, snorkle masks are fine too. Very little restrictions on swimming. And you can jump on the boat at any time if you prefer not to swim at all. Go on, take the plunge! iSwim, therefore I be. iSwim, therefore I don’t drown. What! Not enough photos, you say. Fear not. More here. You’re welcome. 5193017 2011-11-02 13:44:27 2011-11-02 04:44:27 open closed turkey-travel-diary-day-8-swimtrek-day-6-last-day publish 0 0 post 0 Fitness passing time photography Swimming Swimming Travel travel Turkey _edit_last 253158 Turkey travel diary: Last day swimtrek (officially) http://memoirsofaleisha.blog.com/2011/11/04/turkey-travel-diary-last-day-swimtrek-officially/ Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:30:40 +0000 aleishariboldi@gmail.com http://memoirsofaleisha.blog.com/?p=5193007 Sunday, October 9, 2011 A sad day. The last day of the swimtrek. Officially. (Thank god, you say. Enough of these swimming photos!) It was actually a semi-half day. There were 2 optional early morning swims – at 7am and at 8:30am. I made it up for the 8:30am. Seemed the morning was a struggle for some, given the previous night’s drinking antics. Last swim for the holiday took place in the bay in front of the hotel. Clouds were rolling in, it was grey and overcast. Storms were predicted for the next few days, and indeed it rained for most of the next week. I had been lucky with the weather on this trip. I would have hated to be out on the boat and in the water with it raining all week, especially given how blessed we were with the weather on the week that I did it. The holiday gods had been upon us. Felt a bit bad for the next swimtrek group that would have had a week of rain on their trip. We did a round lap of the bay out the front of the hotel, for a last refreshing swim. The water temp was so much cooler.

From Swimtrek – last day
From Swimtrek – last day
From Swimtrek – last day
From Swimtrek – last day

Breakfast, and then good-byes dragged out during the day as people left – some on flights back home, some onwards with their Turkey travels, and a few were staying an extra night in Kas and leaving the next day. Parting is such sweet sorrow. It was great to have met an awesome bunch of people though. I was due to leave on an overnight bus that evening so I still had the whole day spare. Myself and a couple of the other girls went for a hamam – a Turkish steam bath. This is something that has to be experienced to be believed. For many foreigners that come to Japan – onsens and the ritual (and pasttime) of public communal bathing is quite foreign and can be uncomfortable for some. I’m so used to communal bathing that I don’t think much of it. A hamam is a similar, yet different experience. Basically, your entire body is scrubbed and washed by someone as you lie naked on a marble table. I was a little apprehensive, but I decided to go with one of the other girls and we went together to experience a Turkish bath. When in Rome, ay. The Hamam Experience (Turkish bathing), explained: Strip off and wear a bikini. And wrap a towel around you. You’ll be taken to the steam bath room where basically you lie on a hot marble table and sweat it out. We were in there for an extraordinarily long time – 40 minutes of steaming. It’s usually only about 10 min or so. Then the Turkish woman (or man) comes in and lies you down on the marble table. I think the locals do this totally naked, perhaps, but for most tourists – they let you wear a bikini, although they usually take your bikini top off, so you lie there pretty much naked except for a pair of knicker bottoms. I felt like a sacrificial naked lamb on a marble altar. What follows next is some abrasive dry body scrubbing. I felt as though I was a block of parmesan cheese being grated. They are not gentle with the loofah. You literally see rolls of flesh and dead skin cells being grated off your body. There’s exfoliation, and then there’s a Turkish body scrub. They take great delight in showing you all your dead skin too. They must think we’re so filthy. It made me wonder what the hell I do in the shower all these years, because I certainly hadn’t been seeing this amount of dirt and dead skin on my body. The scrubbing is intense. Good for the circulation though. I had a Turkish lady scrub me, but the other girl I was with, had a Turkish boy scrub her down. It’s all PG though and not at all sleazy. Some hamams are mixed gender as well – this one was. But luckily, no other men at the same time. After you’ve been scrubbed to within an inch of your life, you are washed down with soap. Full on lathery, bubbly soap. This part is awesome. I looked like a soap mummy. They massage you a bit with the soap as well. And yes, you’re still lying down naked the whole time. At one point, she spun me around naked on the slippery marble table. Holy crap, I thought I was gonna fly off. They wash the soap off you and then you dry off a bit. We had gone the massage option as well, so we were taken to the massage room where we laid face down and had a deep relaxing massage. This is the part where they pummel and grind you like a piece of dough. They give it especially hard to the men. I saw looks of pain for one guy that was there after us. But he also had a strong Turkish dude give it to him. I had asked them to go easy on me, so they gave me a young girl to massage me. She was really good. She was thorough. Awesome massage. I felt so clean and fresh. My skin was practically shiny. I felt like a polished apple that he been scrubbed, washed and waxed. And the massage was much needed after a week of swimming. Loved the hamam experience! Exactly what I needed. Spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and browsing the local markets with one of the girls. By this time the rain had set in and a storm was brewing:

From Swimtrek – last day
From Swimtrek – last day
From Swimtrek – last day

Turkish delight:

From Swimtrek – last day

More hidden Lycian tombs in the cliffside:

From Swimtrek – last day

And thus concludes my week of swimming around the Lycian Way, Turkey. A satisfying week of open water swimming. It’s the only way to travel now! Will definitely be doing more swimtreks to new destinations in the future. I hadn’t expected the experience to be so cathartic, like some kind of awakening within me. I was reminded of one of my favourite non-Murakami books; ‘The Awakening’ by Kate Chopin. There’s a certain irony in that some people liberate themselves and set themselves free by drowning in the sea, yet I find so much freedom in swimming in it. Much better to be alive in the water, than not. Water is so lifegiving. And I had had such an amazing holiday. I still had another week of traveling around Turkey (on land) which only further cemented my love for Turkey. Such a beautiful country with diverse landscape. Since I’ve gotten back from Turkey, I’ve only hit the pools once, and I have to say that it’s not quite the same being back in a pool. It’s been a bit of a struggle to face the cholorine box. Much prefer ocean swimming. I did lose about 2kg over the course of the swimtrek which was a nice bonus and was definitely feeling healthy and fit. Am trying to keep the weight off that I’ve lost as well. It’s struggle though as we go into winter here. You’d be hardpressed to gain weight over the week with the amount of swimming we did. A parting gift we received from our swimguides was a map and swim log of the week with the swim routes and distances marked out. That was a really nice touch. A little memento of our swimming achievements:

From Swimtrek – last day

Our approximate daily swimming distances were: Tuesday – 5.5km Wednesday – 4km Thursday – 4.5km Friday – 5.5km Saturday – 6km Week total: 25.5km + leisure swims and walks. I swam more than I ever thought I could over a week. I’ll end with a few nice swimming inspiration/motivation quotes: “Don’t wait for your ship to come in – swim out to it.” ~Author Unknown “I always wanted to be Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up. I can’t fly, but swimming is the next best thing. It’s harmony and balance. The water is my sky.” ~Clayton Jones “Seventy-five percent of our planet is water – can you swim?” ~Author Unknown “H2O: two parts Heart and one part Obsession.” ~Author Unknown “It’s a good idea to begin at the bottom in everything except in learning to swim.” ~Author Unknown And just for laughs: “We swim because we are too sexy for a sport that requires clothes.” ~Author Unknown

Turkey travel day: Day 7 – Swimtrek day 5

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Today’s post is one of my favourite days on the swimtrek. 2 great scenic coastal swims and some really cool photos that I absolutely love. —- Waking up every morning was like this:

From Swimtrek day 5

(A photo of a real sign in Kas – I think it was the name of a restaurant or a cafe). It was like the movie “Groundhog Day” but set in Paradise. Cloud 9 was my new address. Perfect weather, idyllic location, lots of swimming, great food and surrounded by stunning scenery. And because I don’t think I’ve tortured you enough with my photos and exciting recount of my time swimming around Turkey, here are some even more photos. After breakfast, we met a tad before 9am, and walked down to the marina to board our gulet (Turkish yacht), and set sail for another full day of swimming.

From Swimtrek day 5

The town of Kas in the distance:

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

First up this morning was a 3km coastal swim. Another glorious day of swimming. Water was so incredibly warm, and clear, deep and blue. We got to see some really cool underwater stuff today and I took some really neat underwater photos. We passed a sunken coastguard ship that was at the bottom of the seafloor. It had been planted there for scuba divers. The morning’s coastal swim ended at Shark Bay – which is not the most comforting thing you want to hear as an open water swimmer. Shark Bay we found out, was so called, because of a concrete shark statue that lies at the bottom of the water in that bay. I have some action shots of me swimming – gave my swim guide my camera and he took a few shots of me in action, which I thought was pretty cool.

From Swimtrek day 5

And then some unattractive shots of me taking a breath. No one looks attractive in that position. Trying to avoid gulpfuls of saltwater.

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

Even though I was in the middle-speed group, I gotta admit, at times, I had trouble keeping up. I had never swum this much ever (well, maybe not since my swimming squad days back in high school, over a good 15 years ago). 5-6km a day, each day. It was a little tiring. I love swimming, but I’m not that fast. Endurance, rather than speed is my thing. So even though I had no trouble with the distances, I wasn’t very fast. Swimming in a group though was really good for me. It was challenging for me to keep up and made me push that little bit harder to keep up. Some of swims, I was happy to be at the back of the pack. Swimming with others, pushes you to try that bit harder. Because I swim on my own in Japan, I think I’ve gotten complacent with speed and interval training. After our 3km swim, the boat anchored in Shark Bay where we settled in for a few hours for lunch and relaxation and leisure swimming.

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

The water was super clear, so I went on an underwater photo spree.

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

Can you see the Shark statue? (at Shark Bay):

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

I took a really cool underwater photo series of Mr. A (the hottie swimguide. I should add that he was also a nice, decent guy and not just because of his looks). Captured some really cool angles and movement. I’m not sure why I was taking photos of him. As a photographer, I’m constantly seeing things through a lens (which also makes me a super observant person of society and life), he was a really neat photo subject under the water. I’m not sure what he was doing because he wasn’t actually posing for any of these shots – I was just randomly taking photos of him, totally unbeknownst to him. And no, I wasn’t being some crazy stalker person. I, literally, take photos of everything! And these were really nice water angles of him. Of course, it helps to have a body like this (hard to peel your eyes off of):

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

I think these photos are so neat. They are pretty impressive, considering they’re taken on my underwater digital camera – they didn’t come out blurry considering the subject was moving a lot, and very little bubbles in the shot. I think the timing of the frames are also pretty spot on. He was swimming under water and I also had to be under the water to take them. I’m not the most buoyant person either, so that was challenging. Too much body fat – I float too much. The shark statue is kind of a popular spot with scuba divers as well so there were scuba divers about too.

From Swimtrek day 5

Here’s another photo series I cleverly captured:

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

Mr A offered to take a couple of shots of me. He anchored himself with his feet onto the shark statue and stood at the bottom of the sea floor and then had me swim over the top. I should mention that Mr A can also freedive which meant he could hold his breath for a substantial amount of time to capture these photos of me. I love this next photo of me (taken by Mr. A). This would be my favourite. How cool is that! Me swimming over the top of the water, and the photo was taken looking up from the bottom of the seafloor.

From Swimtrek day 5

iSwim. Therefore, I don’t drown. And this is another cool one of me swimming towards the light. This photo captures the essence of my whole experience on the swimtrek holiday in Turkey – me, being in the water, seeing light, seeing clarity. It captures solitude, freedom, opportunity, power, a balance of human existence and nature. Such a purifying and invigorating experience. And this frame captures that. A single moment of an amazing experience that spanned days.

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

Enough of the photo shoot (for now, anyway). Lunch today was fish, which was grilled off the back of the boat by Mustafah (our boat captain):

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

Best water view restaurant in the house:

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

After lunch, we had more fun in the water and more underwater snaps.

From Swimtrek day 5

Here is a neat one that I took of Mr. D (the other swimguide) – cool meditation pose that he’s doing. Do you realise how hard that pose is to do underwater! You’ve got to have no body fat on you to pull that off:

From Swimtrek day 5

More random group shots:

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

And then a couple more playful shots of me that someone else took:

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

Here are some underwater snaps of some fish:

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

And check out this interesting fish:

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

I also went back out to the sunken coastguard ship on the motor dinghy with the guides and took some more underwater shots of Mr. A freediving. This was at a depth of about 19m, which he freedove. Super impressive, and the fact that there were scuba divers down there with masks and oxygen tanks, and was totally doing this on his own – he did have a snorkle mask I think. Check out the sunken coast guard ship:

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

It was a lot deeper out here. The depth was a bit too much for my camera too handle, so wasn’t able to get down too deep.

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

Another short photo series I took of Mr. A freediving – I think he was swimming through the hull of the ship. Mind you, this was nearly 20m under water, as well. He goes in:

From Swimtrek day 5

He comes out:

From Swimtrek day 5

And then back up to the surface:

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

All these underwater shots were not easy to take. I’ve got to tread water in the choppy water, take deep breaths and go under water and focus on the camera lens. You’ve got to time the frames to capture a decent shot, but at the same time try not to get bubbles in the frame, and I was having to keep coming up for air. I didn’t have a snorkle mask so a lot of deep breaths. A lot of fun in the water today. So much stuff to see. It was a very scenic swim. The afternoon was spent doing another coastal swim of about 2km (I think this was the shortest swim the whole week). This time we swam to Pebble Beach (which is close to Kas).

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

Pebble Beach in the distance:

From Swimtrek day 5

And then back onto the boat past the Amphitheatre and back to Kas.

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

We got back to Kas around 4pm and had the evening at leisure. Some of us walked around the local markets before heading back to the hotel.

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

A big group of us went to dinner at Bahce for a mezze feast.

From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5
From Swimtrek day 5

A well-earnt beer:

From Swimtrek day 5

Another solid day of swimming and eating. Today we swam about 5-6km. My body was still itchy and I was getting some chafing on my neck and back shoulders after all this swimming. Definitely feeling healthy and fit. All this sunshine and exercise. This holiday was so motivating and inspiring. It made me feel as though I could do anything. Life was full of so much possibility. A holiday will make you feel that way. If there’s not enough photos here for your liking, then check out the Photo album.

Turkey travel diary: Day 6: Swimtrek day 4

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

This morning we met at 9am but this time we were departing from Kas (not Ucagiz), so we walked from the hotel down to the town marina pier.

From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4

We boarded our new gulet for the next two days. This gulet was smaller and not as nice as the previous two days’ boat. Ah well. We’d been pretty spoilt thus far – with amazing weather, delicious feast and a great location. Can’t complain. Mind you, it was still pretty luxurious.

From Swimtrek day 4

Before I go on, I will also mention the fact that I was suffering some kind of allergic reaction to the water. Despite the clear, warm, blue waters we were swimming in, there was also some kind of sea lice or something. Everyone was experiencing prickling during our swims. Littler critters would sting and prickle all of us. But I have super sensitive skin and an allergy to bugs and stuff, that I started to get an allergic reaction and was breaking out in an itchy rash – much like the one back here in Japan that time. It was the same experience all over. I had major itchy rashes on my arm and torso causing major discomfort. I had prepared for this, and had packed an assortment of creams just in case. One other lady was experiencing the same reaction, me to a worse extent though. All over my arms and torso I had red itchy spots and rashes. My skin is a little bit precious, me thinks. I think I have some kind of histamine issue in my system. Even though other people felt the stinging and prickles, no one else was having a reaction to it. Here are some photos of Kas from the boat out on the water:

From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4

Anyway, today we headed out into Greek waters near the Greek island of Megisti which is super close to Turkey. We were not allowed to step onto Greek soil, (which would have been cool) so we settled for Greek waters instead. Megisti – Greek Island (otherwise known as Kastellorizo – a tiny, tiny Greek island, less than 12 square km):

From Swimtrek day 4

Instead of a coastal swim, we were going to do a crossing swim today.　From Greek waters we would swim into Turkish waters. This was one hell of a rough crossing swim, and it was about 4km.

From Swimtrek day 4

Here we are chilling out on the boat just prior to the swim. Little did we know what was in store for us.

From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4

The swim today was so difficult that we probably swam just under 5km – taking us 1hr and 45min. The conditions were super choppy and bouncy. It was so rough that one of the girls was getting seasick in the water and had to get back on the boat. It was a slog of a swim. Land seemed so elusive. Seriously, felt like we were getting nowhere despite swimming our hearts out. It was long and tiring. Felt like the never-ending swim. I felt like I was trapped in one of those snowglobes being shaken about. Others likened it to being in a washing machine. Either way, not pleasant. I soldiered through the swim. At long last, we got back on the boat. Even the boat was rocking about pretty heavily. Everyone was feeling slightly lightheaded and nauseous. The most traumatising swim to date. But at least we had swum from Greece to Turkey. Pretty darn cool. For extra cheese factor, we had a group photo with both the Greek and Turkish flag. Yay us.

From Swimtrek day 4

During the crossing swim, adding to the fact that we were in super choppy waters, I also happened to get stung by a jellyfish. At no point did I see the jellyfish coz it was so choppy and bouncy, I didn’t know left from right, but I certainly felt it. I swore and clutched at my arm. A jellyfish sting feels as though 20 needles are being jabbed into you at once, and then it just throbs. I kept on swimming though…because clearly I’m hardcore (or just plain foolhardy). Upon later inspection of my arm, you could see the marks that the jellyfish had made – one of which is a full circle around my arm where its tentacle had wrapped itself around – I have a nice little scar that spans my whole arm width, and a couple of smaller whiplash-style sting marks. At least, it doesn’t itch like the rash that covered the rest of my body. I also got stung on my thigh – got a nice jellyfish scar there too. I don’t think these are going away any time soon, but I’m hoping they’ll fade in time. Hopefully a tan will hide the scars. If I were a guy, they’d be totally badass, but alas, I am not, so I just look like I’ve flagellated myself with barb wire. I suppose a jellyfish sting was inevitable. I thought that my reaction would have been worse considering I’m allergic to bees. I had gotten myself an Epipen for the trip in the event of a bad reaction to a jellyfish sting. After being scarred by the morning’s intense rough swim, we were lucky that today was in fact a half day. Hell, we needed the rest of the day to recover. We were midweek into the tour, and one of the days is designated as a half-day so we can fit in our own sightseeing and free time, and get a break from the swimming. I think I was turning into a mermaid. So back to Kas we went for a free afternoon to do as we pleased. I felt a bit lightheaded back on land. I think everyone was feeling light on their feet as we all felt as though we were still rocking about. A combination of the sun, dehydration, seasickness and jellyfish sting. I probably could have done with a nap but I didn’t want to waste the day. Plus, I had errands to run. I took a photowalk through the town. Kas is a small hilly cliffside seatown. It’s quite romantic, really. A nice little honeymoon destination. Here are some photos I took as I got acquainted with the town of Kas. I hadn’t spent much time on land in the last few days.

From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4

Pomegranates are in abundance in Turkey:

From Swimtrek day 4

Once in town, I had to make some travel arrangements for my second week in Turkey. I had not planned a single thing beyond the swimtrek. I was just going to wing it once I got there. I booked a bus out of Kas for the Sunday onto my next destination. I also needed to book a flight back to Istanbul at the local travel agent etc. Just errandy stuff – but super productive. Went to the supermarket just to check it out. I like checking out foreign supermarkets. Got me some Powerade drinks. I was feeling dehydrated the last couple of days despite drinking over 2 litres of water a day. I felt like water alone wasn’t cutting it. Needed me some sugar and electrolytes just to give me a bit of strength. One of the guys told me he had packed protein powder and had been mixing that and drinking it everyday, just to recharge him. Smart. Even though I was eating well, I don’t think I was eating enough in comparison to what I was burning. I was trying to avoid overeating which is easy to do on holidays, mainly to avoid bloating. I didn’t want to eat big meals before big swims. Even though I was eating a lot, it was probably nothing in comparison to what I normally eat. I eat way more in everyday life. Some more photos of the town:

From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4

Not just any beer. BIG beer.

From Swimtrek day 4

Lots of local markets:

From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4

Kas is a really nice pretty town – surrounded by turquoise waters of the mediterranean and the rocky mountains of the Lycian Way. Lots of nice boutique stores, a marina pier and plenty of really nice seaside dining restaurants serving up great food. It’s a really hard place to hate.

From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4

You can do things like parasailing, snorkelling, scuba diving, swimming, boat trips out to the Greek Islands and various day boat trips to other nearby islands and ruins, as well shopping, eating, and sun-tanning (tsk tsk). Do not neglect the suncream. I was really good about applying suncream all over, but the one spot I missed were my hands. With all the swimming I was doing, my hands got quite tanned and look like they’ve aged. Was vigilant about applying it everywhere else though – arms, shoulders, neck, back of legs, back, face etc. Headed back to the hotel where I had a very late lunch and spent some time trying to research and plan accommodation for the rest of my trip. Had not booked anywhere to stay after the swimtrek. Just took it easy for the rest of the arvo. One of the nice things about doing this swimtrek, and just being on holidays in general, was seeing the sun set over the water each day. It was a daily ritual.

From Swimtrek day 4
From Swimtrek day 4

In the evening, had dinner with a two other fellow swimtrekkers at Ikbal – which rates as one of the best places to dine at. The service and food here was amazing!!!! It lived up to its reputation. Another satisfying day…although my body was a little worse for wear – itchy, red and stinging. But with all this swimming, I was feeling fit! Felt so healthy and alive. The endorphins were really kicking in with all this exercise. Swimming is really invigorating and meditative – gives you time to be totally free of thoughts, yet at the same time, an opportunity to reflect. Swimming provides such clarity and I was feeling a change within me. It was also really pleasant to be at one with nature – swimming in the wild deep blue ocean – a whole other world, as well as being in the sunshine, and surrounded by mountains and water. Such a nice change from the daily grind of everyday life and working in an office. Truly a wonderful experience doing this swimtrek and we were only halfway through the week! More photos here.

Turkey travel diary: Day 5 – swimtrek day 3

memoirsofaleishaLeave a comment

Just another day in paradise. Sigh. The holidays gods were truly upon us. Couldn’t have scripted a more perfect day.

From Swimtrek day 3

Another beautiful sunny day on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, and a buffet breakfast to wake up to. Breakfast – a la Turkish style:

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

This is what I ate every morning for the whole week:

From Swimtrek day 3

Lots of watermelon (needed the water and sugar content before braving the gulpfuls of saltwater I’d be consuming), omelette, and the savoury Turkish pastry thing that I could have eaten by the truckload, washed down with a couple cups of tea. I avoided cereal, yoghurt and cheese – can’t really handle dairy before swimming in the sea. Breakfast was served from 8am everyday and we often had to be ready to go before 9am, so we’d be up early every morning to get breakfast before our start time. I have to admit, that I had sore shoulders when I woke up this morning. Super tight back and shoulders from the previous days’ 6km swim. After breakfast today though, we had a video technique-analysis session. The videos that the guides had taken of us yesterday were going to be played back to us on a tv screen (argh, cringe). We all sat around and watched each other’s video (both the above water and underwater film) and critiqued each other’s stroke and technique. The guides gave us really helpful swimming tips and drills to improve our technique. I thought this session was great. Turns out I’ve been swimming wrong for the last 25 years (I’ve been swimming since I was about 5 years old)! Well, not necessarily that I had been swimming wrong, but my form could definitely be improved on. Got some great tips from this session. Swim guide Mr. D, was super helpful and knowledgeable with technique analysis. He does this professionally, as well as being a triathlon coach. Definitely gave me some areas to improve on and some things to address whilst swimming for the remainder of the week. Day 3 was back out at Ucagiz again, so on the bus and back out on the Turkish gulet we set asail. Map of the Lycian Way waters we were swimming in:

From Swimtrek day 3

Drink bottles – they were going to come in handy for the morning swim!

From Swimtrek day 3

First up was a 4km coastal swim which we did in about 1h 22min, with breaks for drinks etc. I was pretty beat after this 4km swim. I was changing my stroke though and I have to say, that this definitely prevented me from getting sore shoulders for the rest of the week! It really made a difference! Arms need to reach out straight, in line with my shoulders and not cross to the middle. Crossing the arms – a big no no. Reach. Roll. Relax. Glide. Get more distance with each stroke. Don’t drop the elbows under the water. Minimize underwater hand bubbles and roll the body more so your torso is also getting a work out. My main problem was the lack of roll in my stroke. I was too flat on the water. Super helpful for my stroke. But I think I was swimming slower as I was trying to focus on all this. Here are some scenic water photos. This one is of the pink group. They were the slowest group, so they always started first to get a bit of a head start:

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

The marine life wasn’t very exciting here (not compared to last year in Dahab, Egypt), nevertheless we saw plenty of somewhat small fish:

From Swimtrek day 3

The escort motor dinghy:

From Swimtrek day 3

Crystal clear water:

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

4km done. After each swim, there’d always be drinks and fuel ready for us – cookies, nuts, fruits and turkish cay (tea).

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

And then lunch on the boat and lazing around on the sunbeds. The swim was worth it for this.

From Swimtrek day 3

I should mention, that at any point during any of the swims, we were free to jump back on the boat at any time. It’s not compulsory to swim the complete distance if we’re not feeling up for it. There’s no shame in getting back on the boat and working on your tan. None at all.

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

My problem with saltwater ocean swimming (and just my personal experience) is that consuming saltwater makes me bloaty, not to mention dehydrated. Saltwater consumption (not intentional, mind you) also makes me poopy in the diarrhoea sense. Swimming, in general, also makes me need to pee a lot. The pressure of the water on my bladder gets to me. I lost about 2kg over the course of this week – I was peeing, pooping, and burning calories like nobody’s business. Anyway, too much information. Moving right along. Isn’t the scenery gorgeous?

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

After lunch, we did a bit of a flat hike through Aperlae to take in some local sights. It was a holiday after all. We walked a flat trail through a sandy track surrounded by mountains. Aperlae thatta way:

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

Saw some local wildlife:

From Swimtrek day 3

And rock art:

From Swimtrek day 3

Our mini-hike was rewarded with another leisure swim.

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

At our destination, we reached a body of water where we had a bit of a dip. Here we got a demonstration of some drills we could do to improve our stroke and we got a bit of play swim to practice some drills. It was also an opportune moment to play with my underwater digital camera (yes, another camera to my collection) which I had bought just prior to the trip. I hadn’t taken too many underwater shots until now, so here are some fun water pics:

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

SPLASH:

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

Watch and learn, folks. This is how you swim:

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

And this is how you relax:

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

Turkey has such an amazing landscape.

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

We then traipsed back to our gulet and then we went for a cruise over the Sunken City – ruins of Aperlae island. This was once an ancient city that was sunk after an earthquake hit. Turkey, like Japan, is prone to earthquakes. The only problem is that Turkey’s infrastructure isn’t built to withstand earthquakes. Just a few days after I got back from Turkey, a rather large earthquake hit the east side of the country.

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

The boat had bottomglass panels so we could kind of see (not really, sort of) the island that had sunk beneath.

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

You could tell just by looking at the water surface, that a city existed below the surface.

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

No afternoon swim today which was kind of nice. The 4km morning swim was enough, and it was nice to have a leisurely sightseeing afternoon. After our scenic sail, it was onwards back to Kas in the late arvo. The rest of the evenings for the week were at leisure with dinner arrangements totally up to us. I joined a handful of the others where we ate at Blue House and feasted on lots of mezze dishes and fresh seafood. And wine and beer. Liquids are important!

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

After dinner we took a stroll through the town – the first time I had been out to see the town of Kas. We windowshopped at the little boutique stores (some great shopping to be had here), and walked down Slippery Slope – which is indeed slippery. I slipped twice. I blame my thongs (of the flip-flop variety – not to be confused with some fabrically-challenged lingerie). Slippery Slope – so called, because the cobblestone ground is so smooth, and it’s quite a slope, so it’s easy to slip. Slippery Slope:

From Swimtrek day 3
From Swimtrek day 3

We got to the town square where a lot of the action is – restaurants, bars, the marina pier etc. We had ourselves some Turkish ice-cream, which is a must-try when in Turkey. Delicious flavours – chocolate and pistachio. Authentic Turkish ice cream is quite unique. Some kind of plant extract is used which makes the ice-cream somewhat chewy. It’s almost like mochi ice-cream. And before they serve it, they pound it and serve it with a long stick. Apparently they use mastic – which gives it its chewiness, and salep – a kind of flour (thickening agent) which prevents it from melting, hence they are able to churn and pound it with a long paddle (I recommend Youtubing “turkish ice cream” for a visual). Ice-cream in hand, we meandered back to our lodgings for another fitful night’s sleep. Lots of swimming and eating, was perfect inducement for sleep. I could totally get used to this life. Photo album link