iSTANBUL

The city really lives up to its press release. It is an amazing place. Glenn joined us for the week. The highlight was a visit to a Dervish museum to see a ceremony. But really the sights, sounds, food and the people are all vying for the top spot.

SALT Contemporary Art and Design

Glenn and I in the Istanbul fun house 

G as the Vitruvian Man at the Great Masters exhibition

Looking up in Suleymaniye

Look! (Aga Sophia)

Dinner at Ciya Sofasi on the Asian side of the Bosphorus

Shoeshine stand

Goya exhibition at the Pera Museum was comprehensive. Here are some details of crowd from the suite of etchings "Tauromachia". Those of you who know me will know why these are here.

Window

Tile work in the Harem at Topkapi

In the Harem

Talismatic shirt, the Koran is written all over  this in an amazing pattern.

Boys horsing around on the Galata Bridge. 

Dunhuang to Tashkurgan, The final Chinese chapter

MoGao Caves  at the beginning of the 20th Century. Before the Taoist monks, archaeologists,  Russian prisoners ran amok. There is a site http://idp.bl.uk/ that is collecting and digitizing as many of the contents of Cave 17 as it can locate. Almost 400,000 manuscripts, documents and paintings were spirited away to museums and private collections.

Although you can't take pictures in the caves, the research centre has 5 painstakingly hand painted exact (down to the mildew) facsimiles

In the originals the lead paint has oxidized to a brown/black. 

How to make a buddha fake in 4 easy steps

Sandstorm

The beginning of the 36 hour sleeper bus ride to Kashgar

Desert Storm

Fixing a bus

Shopping for food and the way up to Mustagh Ata, 47th highest mountain in the Himalayas.  At 7500 M it is still high enough to knock your socks off 

Road disappears in a new dam project

Surreal

One of the many moods of Lake Karakul. It changes every 15 minutes

The ger where we had dinner

Alim, our intrepid guide

Johan

Young technophile playing with the IPad

The lake's mood after dinner

First glimpse of Mustagh Ata

J's mountain offering 

4500M Alim and the magic bowl

Base Camp

Our host's house at 3500M

Making dinner