Travel Stories and Photos

[alamo5000]

A couple guys here asked that I put up some stories and photos from my trip... so here goes... it's kind of rough with no editing so bear with me.
---

A lot of people ask me ‘what’s the fascination with travel?’… and they ask in a way that is both interested and confused at the same time…a lot of people are generally confused at my travel habit. A little background is in order I think to help you understand where I am coming from.

I am a Texan by birth… both my mom and dad are… my grandparents were… my great grandparents were as well. In fact I am staying within about 5 minutes from where at least 4 generations all grew up…

After my dad got out of the military he started to break the mold in some ways. He took a job in the oil business and we all moved to Saudi Arabia when I was just a wee child. He worked over there until I was about 14 years old (part of that he was commuting back and forth). To me flying around the world was completely normal. Something about it is just etched in my DNA for some reason from then on.

Later on my dad insisted that he wanted to ‘come back home’ and ‘settle down’ or whatever you want to call it…and that’s what he did… but for the rest of us…it was sheer misery. I was a card carrying globe hopper at a young age but my parents moved us to the middle of redneck Texas and more or less expected everything to be normal… and it wasn’t…needless to say I just never fit it all that well but at the same time I never ever lost my interest and love for the things I like. It’s not that I didn’t have friends or anything, but I certainly never really connected with anyone…so it was pretty tough.

I am a card carrying “Third Culture Kid” (google it if you want) and I still really identify with a lot of things from all over. It’s just hard to explain. So, basically in short I truly enjoy going to other places to see how they live and what they do. It makes me feel more at home doing that than almost anything else on the planet. And I am not talking about a little week long trip to Florida. If I was able to support myself I would probably spend at least half the year or more in other countries experiencing stuff. I don’t know how to explain it. It just is what it is. I’m weird or something I guess.

On this latest trip (which I had to cut short by more than six months) I went to several countries. Africa, Turkey, Korea, Philippines, and a short stay in Japan.
I can easily write a lot about each place but I don’t know that anyone is interested to read it all. So What I can do is share some selected stories and pictures so you can kind of get a taste…

Part 1—Africa

I have a friend that lives in Kenya and he has been inviting me over for a long time. He absolutely loves the place. I can’t really say I share the same passion about it that he does but it was overall a very good experience.

Most people think Africa and in their head it’s all villages and mud huts. Not in Nairobi. Think wealthy Africans driving nice cars and a big city. Nairobi has it all. It’s an expat haven. You can go get the best plate a sushi you’ve ever had there. You can get an 1” thick medium rare steak, you can go to the casino, watch the latest movies, go the mall, go bowling, play golf, or whatever. It’s more or less like a good suburb in the US. Of course it’s different but a lot of it is the same.

I did a lot of hanging out in the city and had a bunch of little side adventures… but one of the best things we did was go off roading down near the Tanzania border. And by off roading… that means really off roading… we were out in the middle of nowhere. The ‘roads’ sucked. Potholes bigger than a VW bug… rock slides…roads washed out… you name it… outside of the major cities there isn’t much maintenance so pretty much we were on our own. It took us about 4 hours or so to drive about 60 miles…

That was to the spot where we were going to hang out and start to off road… there was a lodge out there so we could stop and get drinks and snacks or whatever…it was pretty much an oasis in the middle of the badlands.

Anyway we were smack dab right in the middle of Maasai country. That’s the African tribe you see on TV where they see who can jump highest….
On our way over though it was HOT… I mean stifling hot… probably 110 or more in the shade… and we saw this old lady who was obviously having problems. The Maasai walk everywhere. They are nomadic and they tend to herd goats or whatever but she wasn't doing too well.

She was obviously struggling so naturally we pull over to try and help… no English… but she got the idea… so we finally figured out what to do and we took her to her village. It was the right thing to do on all accounts. Most Africans are very very kind hearted people and the reception we got was no exception. They are genuinely gentle people and that lady was very appreciative that two mizungu (white people) stopped to help. She was kissing our hands and saying ‘thank you’ in her language. It was all very nice.

When we finally got to the village they surrounded our car and were all being super nice. It was just a fantastic experience. We really got a warm welcome to say the least. The old lady though saw my camera and after taking my hands and kissing them she told me she wanted to dress up so I could take a photo.
So that is how I managed to get a completely unplanned, and un staged photo of a Maasai woman. It was pretty epic and a great experience.

Later on we did donuts and chased wildabeest with the car and all sorts of things... it was a fun day...





After I left Africa I went to Istanbul for about a month. Then I went to Korea, then the Philippines...so I can put up more later...

[alamo5000]

Istanbul was by far the nicest place overall that I went on this trip. I think it is absolutely crazy that people treat it like a 'stop over' point... 3 days in and gone... No way man.

If you ever get the chance to go there it is seriously one of the best cities I have ever been to. Just absolutely fun, nice, and there is so much to do. I could easily spend a year in Turkey alone. Around every corner there is something to do and things to discover...it's relatively easy to get around and it's just fun.

I got an apartment on the Europe side of the Bosphorus Strait. This picture is the view from just a few feet up from my apartment. So yeah, it was nice.



There are boats, yachts, water, and just a good vibe. And the people were super cool and super nice. I lived on a hill sort of like this one...



There is a lot of historical sites... and I mean A LOT of them. This one is the Blue Mosque.



There are castles, there are royal palaces, there are a whole lot of things over there... a lot of yachts too.









There were just tons of cool places to hang out and things to do every single day. I really enjoyed my stay there. It is quite a party place too.

I had a lot of very interesting experiences there.

They opened a new soccer stadium and boy... they are RABID soccer fans... they had a party all night long. I can tell you for sure that beer consumption is WAY high in Turkey. People just have a really good time.

At this one event... people showed up... a lot of people... a crowd like this stretched on for about 2km down a 4 lane main road.





I also went to some islands off the coast where cars are not allowed (for the most part) (only like work trucks and such)



Overall it was a great experience.

[alamo5000]

My next stop was Korea. To be honest... I did not like Korea. The food was great and I met some very nice people but I just didn't like it. It was definitely a mixed bag of things...

The night life is crazy but if you are there traveling alone like I was...and you don't speak Korean... it's not going to be as fun as it could be. Conversely if you go with a group of people and you have someone that speaks Korean with you it will help.

The night life is pretty crazy but during the day there isn't much happening as everyone is working or whatever. All I know is I have loved every Asian country I have ever been to, but Korea is the first exception to that. It most definitely was not the people... they were all super nice... and the food was great... but overall... it's not for me.

[alamo5000]

I went to the Philippines for a while... it was shall we say...slow paced...and in some places very very nice.

In the Philippines do not expect to get anywhere fast. It just won't happen. I stayed in a village about 20km from a bigger city and the one way trip was 1.5 hours. I took a trip to another area that was about 100 miles away... and that took me 8 hours to get there... about an average of 8mph the entire trip...

So yes, the Philippines is slow, and it's HOT, and most places don't have AC. But the people are extremely friendly and there are some good places to go there.













As you can tell it's a pretty nice place in spots. I can give a lot more details and impressions later if you want.

[alamo5000]

My last stop was Japan. I did not stay there long at all but it definitely has potential. For sure though take your wallet. It's not cheap.

I think at some point I probably will go back to Japan and explore more but I found it very hospitable... a lot of people can understand basic English if not more than that... it was very organized and clean.... and overall it just had a fun vibe to it.

I think I need to go to Japan and spend more time there to be honest... I only got a small taste, but it was a good taste.

[Jerry R]

Just ........ cool !! Thanks and share some more when you get a chance.

[alamo5000]

Just ........ cool !! Thanks and share some more when you get a chance.

Here's a good one... I got taken down by the Turkish Secret Service. Seriously! LOL

Here's the basic story...

I was out being a tourist in Istanbul so I went to the Blue Mosque to look around and take photos. The first thing I noticed was there was a LOT of cops and security all over the place. I was thinking 'man, is this normal'? (I guess not)... but anyway next thing you know the square (next to the mosque) started filling up with cars and the police came sweeping through... then there was a huge mob of men in suits that came by seemingly out of nowhere. Turns out that the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey came to the mosque for a visit.

It's not every day you run into world leaders while on vacation you know.

Truth be told I wasn't really sure what was going on but a girl that I was talking to was Turkish and she was like 'what in the heck is going on here!?' (she spoke English)...

I wasn't at all prepared and there was NO time to fiddle with the camera settings so most of them did not turn out very well. It was a very cool experience none the less. The pictures will demonstrate just how close I got to them (or rather they got to me).

I kind of got man handled (they were very nice and did not harm me in any way) In fact it was quite gentle how they handled it all. One of their version of the Secret Service guys even came up to me much later on and smiled really big and said 'THANK YOU' and then something in Turkish. I could tell he was a genuinely nice guy and we were both almost laughing out loud it was so funny...He put both hands up and had this GIANT grin on his face... but they wanted people to MOVE and were very professional in their jobs to be honest.

The whole time pretty much it was like I was shooting photos in the middle of a mosh pit. I was getting bumped into, pushed, shoved...LOL

First here comes this big group of men in suits...



Here is a crop from the above photo. The Prime Minister of Turkey is right in the center of the shot. His left shoulder is right behind the guy with the camera's lens. He has on glasses and a lapel pin. His head was slightly turned away from me.



The Deputy Prime Minister is the bald guy with the mustache right in the middle of the frame.




The Prime Minister is on the left (his hand is not in the frame) and the Deputy Prime Minister is on the right, right behind the Secret Service guy that is wearing the blue tie.



This is one of the times when I got 'moved' LOL! The Prime Minister is center left... third face over...



Pretty cool experience for a vacation. As you can tell I was right there on top of the action. I just got lucky being in the right place at the right time. It was a pretty neat experience. I wasn't prepared at all but I had fun! LOL!!!! It was a very memorable experience.

I mean they seriously walked right into me... it was pretty crazy. I was probably less than 5 feet from the guy...but like I said...one of their Secret Service guys grabbed me from the back and picked me straight up off my feet and moved me out of the way...

[alamo5000]

In Boracay a couple of European guys and I swam/waded out to this little island and climbed on top of it to watch the sunset. It was more like a giant rock sticking out of the water. So there we were... drinking beers, relaxing... watching the sunset...



Later on that evening there was an absolutely awesome party on the beach.

Someone with a giant sail boat was parked just offshore... but somebody somewhere sponsored a killer party... they rounded up several small canoes from the beach and filled them up with beer and ice... the place that was hosting it had a bar and chairs and all the amenities you need at a beach party... and there were free drinks all night... They had a killer DJ... there were people from all over the world.... and women... OMG. There were a bunch...

It was pretty damn fun I have to admit. I haven't been to a party like that for a while.

[EO3]

Thanks a lot for sharing your adventures, Alamo! I'd love to get to travel even half this much in my lifetime. I've always been fascinated by other cultures and ways of life.

[alamo5000]

Thanks a lot for sharing your adventures, Alamo! I'd love to get to travel even half this much in my lifetime. I've always been fascinated by other cultures and ways of life.

Trust me... once you go and get to the right place with the right people doing the right stuff... you will be hooked faster than puffing on a crack pipe.

All I can say is my Trumpism... "Trust me"... but in this case it's true. Dream a little about where you might want to go and I will try to get you on some action.... in the grand scheme of things its not that expensive...you can possibly take family too....

Just depends on what you want out of the deal...

[alamo5000]

Thanks a lot for sharing your adventures, Alamo!

This is but a fraction of the whole thing... big picture... I have a lot more... a whole lot more... this was just my latest trip...

My world...when I can get into it... is absolutely awesome....

[alamo5000]

[DeviantLogic]

Enjoyed reading...and you took some great photos.

[alamo5000]

Enjoyed reading...and you took some great photos.

Thank you. I have like 150 gigs of photos LOL

It's gonna take me a while to get through them all.

I certainly had a pretty good time. I wish I wasn't forced to cut my trip short though... I am already plotting the next one.

[UWone77]

Very Nice Photos. Thanks for sharing.