Raja Ampat: a week at Yenros Homestay, eastern Gam

Posted on February 11, 2023 by Bryan Keith

Raja Ampat, a well-known bucket-list destination, and oh so worth it! Previously I had been intimidated by the complicated logistics and high costs. Well, stayrajaampat makes it pretty darn easy to organize your trip, and you can get a very good idea of just how much everything costs. That’s important because you need to bring all your cash with you, and, yes, it’s expensive.

It took us 26 hours and three fights to get from Antalya to Bali. You might think then that we’d be practically in Raja Ampat, right? Nope, another three flights and another 22 hours.

For Raja Ampat we flew in and out of Sorong like most tourists do. We were in Papua less an hour when Ferda was learning how to chew betel nut from the salak seller where the ferry departed for Waisai.

Welcome to Papua. Ferda learns how to chew bettle nut. by bryandkeith on flickr

Melki met us on time as planned at Waisai,

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Posted in Indonesia, Snorkeling | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

A week in Bali — just Ubud really

Posted on February 1, 2023 by Bryan Keith

I’m behind on this blog but certainly not for lack of material. I have 1000s of photos that I am slowly going through. However, for about six weeks Ferda and I had rather limited electricity and internet access. But that’s getting ahead of myself. First we went to Bali!

IMG_20221214_162344 by bryandkeith on flickr

Back in 1994 Bali was the first place that I ever visited in Asia, and I was rather disappointed. I flew halfway around the world to an Australian spring break style party scene? Yikes. I wasn’t excited to go back. For Ferda, however, Bali was a dream. It seems to be the only place in Indonesia that Turks have heard of. Sulawhat? they asked when Ferda talked about our trip to Sulawesi.

Bali, it turns out, can be heaven, and it’s also a fairly easy place to extend the 30-day visa on arrival (Indonesia seems to make staying in their country harder and harder — no more 60 days on arrival (my first trip) and no more 60-day visas in Ankara (like we did last time)).

We spent the first night in Kuta only because it was between the airport and the office where we needed to drop our passports in the morning. We did find this temple before leaving Kuta:

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Posted in Indonesia, Traveling | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Olaf deep water soloing in the center of Antalya

Posted on December 25, 2022 by Bryan Keith

Nothing new here. I’ve written about the deep water soloing that I do in Antalya at least twice before.

20221020_104931A by bryandkeith on flickr

This time, it’s Olaf. The other difference is that I took these photos, probably the best falez photos that I’ve taken though they’re still not very good. The real reason I’m posting this stuff is I needed some filler material before (hopefully) Ferda and I head off to somewhere more interesting than Antalya.

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Posted in Climbing, Turkey | Tagged | 2 Comments

SUPing in Antalya

Posted on December 15, 2022 by Bryan Keith

Ferda and I first saw a stand up paddle board when we took a canoe out in Newport Bay on the day before Christmas in 2015. Just a few months after that, our friend Olaf brought a couple SUP to Çıralı. We paddled on them for the first time. Since then I had sort of forgotten about SUPs. As we pedaled through central Europe this summer, we starting seeing more and more SUPs, first on the Krka in Slovenia and later on lakes in Italy and Germany.

IMG_20220520_171508 by bryandkeith on flickr

Why don’t we see more of these in Antalya, we wondered? Well, sure enough, after we returned from Europe, I went to Konyaaltı Beach one morning, and I counted more than 15 SUPs on the water. Turns out plenty of entrepreneurs are trying their luck renting SUPs at Konyaaltı this summer. We found Ayşe. Like everyone else it seems, she only gave out her equipment as part of a tour. That might have changed by now. We went with her for a couple hours in August. It was a fun morning.

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Posted in Turkey | Tagged | 1 Comment

North Ridge on Sivri Dağı

Posted on December 5, 2022 by Bryan Keith

After having not been up Sivri Dağı in many years (five?), I went up two different routes last week. The first, shorter and less successful effort, was with Philipp. He had been up to the ridge a number of times but had never made it to the summit. I told him I knew a summit route that didn’t require a rope. Well, we’d only been on the trail about five minutes when Philipp said we were going the wrong way. I suggested we go on. Another five minutes — same thing, and five minutes later — the same thing again. Not being so sure that I was going the right way, I acquiesced. We walked back about 10 minutes and started up what Philipp thought was the correct route.

As we made our way up the wide ramp, I kept thinking we weren’t going the right way, but at the same time it seemed familiar to me. Indeed, all became clear later. We were on the Classic Route, but I had wanted to take Philipp up the Yusuf Yusuf Route. We got to the ridge where you get a nice view of Çalbalı:

WhatsApp%20Image%202022-11-12%20at%2017.19.22%20(3) by bryandkeith on flickr

Looking in the other direction, however, you see this:

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Posted in Trekking, Turkey | Tagged , | 1 Comment