Bolkar: Travels with a Donkey in the Taurus Mountains, by Dux Schneider
Having finished The Travellers’ Guide to Turkey (1975), perhaps the best, most comprehensive and up-to-date guidebook to that time, my old friend Dux Schneider decided it was time to live his dream: he bought a donkey and trekked through the Bolkar Mountains of Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, getting to know the secretive Tahtacilar (“Woodcutter”) people along the way. What he captured was mystery, tradition, and a time that has now perished in the onslaught of Turkey’s modernization. More…
Zaatar Days, Henna Nights: Adventures, Dreams, and Destinations Across the Middle East, by Maliha Masood
Twenty-eight-year-old Maliha Masood, a burned-out dot-commer from Seattle, bought a one-way ticket to the Middle East to get away from it all. Traveling alone in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Turkey, she unearth more than her Islamic heritage. She did what most of us swear we want to do while traveling, but never seem to accomplish: she really got to know the people of this volatile region. What an eye-opener! More…
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