Having concluded that deadly carbomb attacks on foreign embassies aren't that big of a deal in Yemen, we trotted off to the office (that's the kind of consultant we are) then trotted off to the Souk Al-Milh, Sana'a's unspeakably awesome market. We like to think of ourselves as souk connoisseurs, and this is by far the best we've ever been in.
In fact, Yemen has become one of our number-one favorite destinations.This souk, and the city in which it sits, deserves a much more detailed post, but, for those of you who find this part of the world frightening and impenetrable, we'd like to point out that we wandered around the souk, alone, all afternoon without any ill effect. The only concession we made to common sense was not replying "America" to the...
Carpetblogger and Red State Sibling spent last weekend in Bursa, one of Turkey's largest cities, situated south of Istanbul and 30 kms inland from the Sea of Marmara. The historic (as opposed to the sprawling concrete) part of the city climbs up the side of Mount Uludağ and is home to lots of hot spring hammams. As (one of many) terminals of the Silk Road and the center of Ottoman silk production, it has wonderful hans and bazaars, even though the silk production industry has long since moved on to other places.
Now, it's a center of cotton production and is famous for its towels. Had I known how awesome and absorbent Bursa's cotton towels are, I would have bought a million kilos (the guy I bought from sold them for 10 YTL a kilo).
Even though Bursa's full of cotton and silk, this is...
And this town is lousy with them this time of year. The guys slice out the hearts and leave them floating like yellow sponges in buckets of water. Yuck. ...