New Zealand 6 — Hobbiton and Te Papa Museum

Whenever we hear New Zealand, certain images, including sheep, wine, and Middle Earth (since the release of movies ‘The Hobbit’ and “The Lord of the Rings”) automatically come to mind. We are fans of the Hobbit movies, so we went to Middle Earth to see where Bilbo, Gandalf, and Gollum lived on the Hobbiton movie […]

Cambodia/Laos/Vietnam #3 -Wrap Up

The tour to Laos/Vietnam/Cambodia was promoted as a scouting trip by Mehmet. However he scoped out many of the places in advance to ensure that our small group would be comfortable. As always, no one ever goes hungry on these trips. Food in SE Asia is amazingly affordable, made with fresh ingredients, and delicious. The […]

Turkey #8 – Travelers

We are the Travelers….We often enjoy joining small group photo tours with less than 10 people, such as Mehmet’s. We hate seeing so many tourists wherever we travel, so we label ourselves “Travelers”. First, all the travelers in our group have common interests – a passion for photography combined with travel to exotic destinations and […]

Turkey #7 – Gaziantep

We are enroute to Gaziantep, the sixth most populous city in Turkey. It is a diverse community populated mostly by ethnic Turks, plus Kurd and Syrian refugees. When we drove through town, we saw substantial damage from the Turkey-Syria 7.8 earthquake, which was followed by a 7.7 after shock, on February 8, 2023. We learned […]

Turkey #6 – Adiyaman and Mount Nemrut

We left our hotel in Aidiyaman by 2:00 AM to climb Mount Nemrut to see the sunrise. Mount Nemrut is 7000 feet high and was designated a World Cultural Heritage site in 1987. The site is covered with statues of the gods, and some consider this site as the 8th Wonder of the World. When the sun […]

Turkey #5 – Sanliurfa

In Sanliurfa we photographed the biblical Abraham’s Pond and also Abraham’s Cave and Mosque in the afternoon. We visited Karahantepe, an archaeological site in Sanluirfa, where we saw the oldest structures that have been discovered, and were built some 12,000 years ago. This was the first temple built by a mysterious civilization and considered the cradle of our […]

Turkey #4 – Mardin

Above is the view of the ancient city of Mardin in South Eastern Turkey, from our hotel balcony. The minaret did not light up until well after the blue hour ended, which is why the sky is black. Mardin is a UNESCO protected city and one of the most significant cities located in SE Turkey. […]

Turkey #3 – Van

We continue our journey exploring Eastern Turkey enroute to Van, which is filled with ancient sites and many views of Mount Arawat. We took a ferry ride out to Akdamar Island, to photograph an Armenian church. This was a perfect chance to send up our drone, to get aerial images of the church (upper-left, upper-center […]

Turkey #2 – Kars & Dogubeyazit

We photographed the ruins of the old Armenian capital of Ani located right on the border between Turkey and Armenia. Ani is an old fort situated at the top of a massive hill, and is currently being restored. We met shepherds with their cattle still working the hills. There are impressive ruins of Armenian churches […]

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