Turkey (part 1)

[mistress_elaine]

I've given the matter some thought, here's what I'll be doing with this journal in the next few weeks. For the next week or so I'll be posting small parts of my Turkey travelogue. I was originally going to post the whole thing in one or two instalments, but on second thoughts, it seems better to divide it into bite-size chunks. I'll try to add a

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[mistress_elaine]

I like powerlines as a subject in themselves. When they form a nice geometrical pattern, for instance, they can be quite photogenic. When they ruin other views, though, I hate them. And in Turkey they did just that. In a really big and annoying way.

I've learnt that whether or not I can bear 50+ temperatures depends on my surroundings. For instance, I experienced 53-degree weather in Bagan, Burma. It was completely exhausting (it was the one time in my adult life I took to taking afternoon naps; I never actually slept but I needed to lie down), but it was bearable, because Bagan was in the middle of a desert and no matter how hot it got, the air was clean. However, as I'll describe elsewhere, I could not deal with fifty-degree weather in the heavily polluted city of Urfa. What with a thick layer of polluted air clouding the sky above us and noxious fumes rising from the brand-new asphalt, I felt as though I was inhaling poison at every turn, which I probably was. I left that place at my earliest convenience.

The most unpleasant weather I've ever experienced was also in Burma, in the city of Mandalay. Temperatures in the high forties, with a near-100 per cent humidity factor. I mean, Holland gets pretty unpleasant when it's 30° and humid, but Mandalay was something else. I'm amazed I stuck it out there for several days, and actually managed to have a good time, too.