Picturesque Silk Shop

Here are a few images from a beautiful silk and souvenir shop in Bursa city of Turkey. The whole place is done up so quaintly and the colours were so pleasant that I had to share them with you.

The rooster and the hen pictures were an interesting way to mark the washrooms for gents and ladies!

Turkish Delights

Istanbul… amazing Istanbul, erstwhile Constantinople. The colours, the sights and the people! Indeed a cauldron of cultural confluence. Crossroads of religions, continents and races. Capital of the Byzantine, then the Romans and then The Ottoman Turks. A confident civilization, teeming with national pride. Stylish beautiful people. Asian flavours in an European atmosphere.

The ‘Cay’ (Chai or Tea), Turkish Coffee, Kebabs, ‘Raki’ (local alcoholic beverage), ‘Mezze’ (Turkish appetizers). Turkish carpets (remember flying carpets?) and silk from Bursa. Beautiful, mesmerizing, graceful Turkish Belly Dancers. The legacy of the legendary ‘Rumi’ and the whirling Dervishes…and the list goes on.

The whitish beverage in the picture is ‘Raki’, the customary local alcoholic beverage, an anise-flavoured apéritif. (anise: Indian-‘saunf’). You can also see people holding little glasses of 'Cay' in the background.
This guy, a waiter in this hip ‘Turquoise’ restaurant, in serving a kebab dish prepared sealed in an earthen pot which is broken open in front of the diners and served. Mmmm...Delicious and spectacular!

Seagulls over the Bosphorus

The ferry boat ride to the Princess Islands from Istanbul through the Bosphorus Strait into the Sea of Marmara is a spectacular one. The sights of the Istanbul City and its major monuments from the sea and the beautiful views of the islands as you approach them is simply unforgettable. And the seagulls! They follow the ferryboats in huge droves! And the reason? Passengers of these ferries toss pieces of bread at them and enjoy watching them catch the pieces of bread mid-air.

It was exciting to watch these birds swoop down and catch the food mid-air and sometimes even picking them up from the open palms!




The Artificial Intelligence Focus system in my Canon EOS 400D did a real good job in keeping the focus steadfast and gave me unexpectedly good firm shots of the birds.

Contrail

Contrails or vapor trails are condensation trails and artificial cirrus clouds made by the exhaust of aircraft engines or wingtip vortices which precipitate a stream of tiny ice crystals in moist, frigid upper air. Being composed of water, the visible white streams are not, in and of themselves, air pollution. However, vapour trails or contrails generated by engine exhaust are inevitably linked with typical fuel combustion pollutants.

The main products of hydrocarbon fuel combustion are carbon dioxide and water vapor. At high altitudes this water vapor emerges into a cold environment, and the local increase in water vapor can push the water content of the air past saturation point. The vapor then condenses into tiny water droplets and/or deposits into ice. These millions of tiny water droplets and/or ice crystals form the vapour trail or contrails.
(courtesy: Wikipedia)

Was fortunate to capture this on a clear bue sky. When the trail is far away in the sky, can be mistaken for some kind of UFO stuff!

Dubai

Burj Al-Arab, Dubai – probably one of the most photographed manmade structures of the modern world and a symbol of Arab opulence. Could not help but put my budding photographic skills to test. The night time low light conditions seem to have caught on my fancy. Maybe the greater challenges involved makes it more exciting.

The desert safari, a modern day concept of negotiating desert lands on 4X4 automobiles. Also called ‘Dune Bashing’, this exhilarating adventure of riding up and down sand dunes brings in unusual moments of thrill amongst the otherwise barren desert lands. It was difficult to photograph considering the fact that I was getting thrown all around inside the 4X4 all the while! Truly, it’s been quite a journey for mankind from the desert safaris of crossing hundreds of miles of deserts merely on camels to these modern day beasts of burden – the 4X4’s!

At one of the stops there was this interesting little desert lizard posing so smartly for all of us to take its pictures!

Go Shwarma!

'Shwarma' or 'Shawarma', a very common snack seen and eaten around all over the middle east. The tower of chicken meat rotating against a heater is a common sight in the road-side eateries and restaurants. The chicken is shredded and wrapped in flat wheat bread(like 'rotis', also called 'Khabutz' around these places) with vegetables, potato fingers etc. Quite cheap and delicious!

Kuwait Cityscapes

Some amazing cityscapes can be seen out there in Kuwait. Mainly along the seaside where most of the landmarks are built. The Liberation tower and the Kuwait Towers stand out among the highrises as the national landmarks. If you look closely at the horizon seen in the picture of the Marina with the boats, both these landmarks can be seen (lucky that my lens was wide enough at 18mm). The pictures of the Liberation tower were taken in a cold wintry evening from the seaside near the KPC corporate headquarters in Kuwait City. Had to clone out lot of specks on the pictures created by the splashes of sea water landing on the lens.

Muscat

Capital of Oman, an unusual departure from the concrete jungles growing at frantic pace everywhere else in the Middle East. There seems to be an apparent endeavor by the Omanis to conserve a pristine way of life without overwhelming the beauty of nature. There is no indiscriminate construction of high rises and almost all buildings and houses are predominantly painted in various shades of white, which as a mater of fact even reflects the austerity and warmth of the Omanis.

This is one of those rare places where expatriates always have a word of praise and appreciation for the natives.

Oman is supposed to be a paradise for geologists because of the ubiquitous geological outcrops which also form amazing backdrops to the city of Muscat. These are basically subsurface geological stratifications exposed in almost mountainous dimensions. These are formed by tectonic plates striking each other in this area over millions of years.

Being a traditionally seafaring community most of the hustle and bustle of the city is along the coastline. One can also find some of the most scenic and unexploited beaches here nestled among the reefs. The sea waters here are teeming with life and one can enjoy the sights of marine life in trips on boats of various types. Sights of the ‘spinning’ dolphins, orcas, seagulls and many others can make for some very mesmerizing experiences off the shores of Muscat.

The Shangri-La Barr Al-Jissah Resort and Spa is an outstanding beach resort located in one of the most amazing locations in Muscat. A few shots below through my lenses.



All this and the thriving business associated with the oil and gas industry attracts numerous visitors, for business and tourism alike, to this quaint little city of the Middle East.