A Farewell to Alanya and Turkey

See how hard it is to leave beautiful Alanya?

Moving never gets any easier. Losing yet another home is hard and no amount of excitement for the next stage quite masks the hollowness you feel as you pack up the house. The feeling is always the same. The oppressive heat (I always seem to move during summers and in tropical climates), and the intermingling smell of chemicals (cleaning and paint) and slight dustiness as I disturb the softly sleeping piles of stuff that I have not touched in a year.

I hate to see my imprint leave a place. That mark I accidentally left on the wall has been painted over, as if it was never there in the first place. My clutter retreats as the forces of impersonality invade once again, immaculate and alien. My comfort is turning into a stranger before my eyes and I am powerless to stop it.  

With most relationships, both parties are hurting and reminiscing and putting on their nostalgia goggles. There is a sense of validation with the mourning process. Yes, this actually happened. Yes, you meant something to me even if we are going our separate ways. Moving is not like that. While I stare fondly at my butt indentation on the couch, the couch remains indifferent to my presence.

This is the nineteenth home that I have had (I'm counting moving dorm rooms and shifting as a vagabond). This is also the longest that I have lived in one place since I graduated from college three years ago. Alanya/Turkey and I have had our minor differences (usually over the exorbitant price of alcohol), but on the whole I have loved living here. This is a magnificent country that is filled with pretty much anything you could ever want. 

History? In spades. This is the nexus of so many empires that pretty much every stone is a historical artifact.

Thirteenth century ruins here in Alanya, Turkey.

Beaches? There is the gorgeous Mediterranean, Aegean, Bosporus, Black Sea, etc.

Optimal beaches for levitating in Alanya, Turkey. This is Cleopatra Beach.

Mountains? I watch the sunrise over the Taurus mountain ranges from my balcony whenever I stay up ridiculously late.

Gorgeous city surrounded by mountains!

Friendly folk? Yup, Turkish people are amazing.

Who doesn't love a good sense of humor in Turkish men?

Food? Kahvalti is to die for. 

Kahvalti (Turkish breakfast) is my favorite meal here.

An Occupy Movement? Just check the news.

Barriers set up around the Ataturk Statue in Taksim Square in Istanbul for the May Day protests.

In honor of my latest home, I have compiled a photo post of my year here. Twenty-one visitors, numerous trips to Istanbul, Antalya, Cappadocia, Side, and Perge (and yet still so much left to see!), plenty of sun burns, a lot of skin scraped off during Hamam (Turkish bath, and seriously, my dead skin all gathered up could make a mini-mountain), a dead hard drive, my fourth anniversary with the Boy, my twenty-fourth birthday, SOOOOO many statues of Ataturk, entertaining pirate ships, enough cay (tea) to bathe in, enough baklava to get a million cavities, daily calls to prayer to let me know the time, the gigantic sun that almost seems too big to be real, and a ton of kofte consumed: Thank you for being a wonderful home.

While I have written a guide for Istanbul as well as Cappadocia, I have yet to do one for Alanya. This is just my farewell, so stay tuned for an Alanya guide!

The castle walls and old shipyard in Alanya, Turkey by night.

Where else would I get to celebrate Christmas with Ataturk?

We have Turkish flags, cruise ships, diving ships, and pirate ships here in Alanya, what more could you want?

The Turkish men love to pose on the pirate ships here in Alanya

One of the many caves in Alanya. This is Damlatas Cave on Cleopatra side.

Why would I want to leave the land of enormous vegetables? This was taken at one of the daily markets.

Love the random leaping fauna here in Alanya.

I will miss the dramatic views of Alanya.

Daredevils on the castle walls in Alanya.

There are ridiculously gorgeous sunsets here in Alanya.

Yes, that is an actual rainbow around the sun as a halo here in Alanya.

Here is a double rainbow in Alanya.

Now onto the other areas that I have visited and loved in Turkey.

Antalya is the largest city near Alanya (about two hours away) and it is a fun place to visit.

I couldn't resist getting a photo of Ataturk holding the moon.

Glass guy making a nazar (an amulet which wards off evil) in Antalya, Turkey.

The moon with a mosque in Antalya, Turkey.

It's my pansiyon!

Holding the sun with some hot air balloons in Goreme, Cappadocia

Posing in front of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

The Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia from the water.

Light beams and mosques make a good combo in Istanbul.

Ruins all to ourselves in Perge, which is just fifteen kilometers outside of Antalya.

No crowds waiting for photo ops!

Greece doesn't have all claim to columns since these are in Perge, Turkey!

More columns in Side, Turkey.

Apollo's Temple in Side, Turkey.

My last pose in Side, Turkey.

I hope you enjoyed my tribute. If you haven't been to Turkey, I highly suggest you hop on the next plane over. If you have been, then I hope that you share my fond memories of this fantastic country.

Goodbye Alanya, I will see you again someday. 

Moving to Hong Kong Advice

I've traveled around the world since I was born. Living in different countries and being surrounded by people who don't speak English doesn't phase me in the least.

Or, so I thought until I moved to Hong Kong. Yes, I speak Cantonese and people here speak English fairly well so that hasn't been an issue. What has been the problem is that I never realized just how soft, all-encompassing, and secure the State Department bubble was. Sure, there's only so much you can escape your environment, even if you are spoiled with drivers and nice cars but not being confronted with poverty isn't the safety bubble I'm talking about.

Instead, it's the little daily details like finding housing, getting an ID card, figuring out water, gas and electricity stuff, bank account issues, whether or not ATMs are going to charge you out the @$$, and making sure you have a means of procuring large sums of money to cover you because those same ATMs have withdrawal limits and people won't accept foreign checks.

It has been a hellish experience alleviated slightly by the fact that I have family here. When you have a company or the State Department to rely on, housing is provided, they pick you up from the airport, there's a host family to welcome you, all of the rent details are taken care of, and you can easily withdraw money through the company that you work for or through the SD because they will accept American checks.

This is how I've managed to survive and find a wonderful place to live and work:

1. USE A REAL ESTATE AGENT!! I can't stress this enough! I know it seems like it's a great idea to try to find housing for yourself because then you won't have to pay the commission fee (half of one month's rent), but trust me, spare yourself the headache and find yourself a good real estate agent. I spent hours upon hours of my time poring over ads (almost got scammed too!) and it ended up coming up with nothing. Apartments are snapped up too fast in Hong Kong for you to try to find one yourself. Go to the smaller agencies because they tend to not be so narrow-minded in what you can find for your price range and the time of stay. For example, I will only be in Hong Kong for 8 months (the minimum lease period here is supposed to be one year) and my budget was 10,000hk which is apparently too low for a decent place unless you decide to live in a small studio apartment. I went to a ton of the most well known companies, who had rude and snooty agents who just shook their heads and said it couldn't be done. Well I am currently living in a two room apartment with a large kitchen, sizable bathroom, and even a bedroom that can convert into a study. If you are staying for a short amount of time in Hong Kong, try out the serviced apartments but if it's less than a year but more than 6 months, try out the smaller real estate agents.

2. Open up a bank account immediately and find a way to wire money over. The issue that I ran into here was that I had the funds for a down payment on the apartment but no feasible way to access it. In order to actually sign a contract on an apartment here, you have to have the first months rent plus about 20,000hk as a safety deposit (this is in the ballpark of $3000 ish). They don't accept American checks here and ATMs won't let you withdraw that amount. So, either find a very international bank which you can easily access or open up a bank account with a local bank and find a way to transfer the money so you can write a check.

3. Start the process for your Hong Kong ID ASAP. It's needed for EVERYTHING around here and while you can get away with using your passport for a short period of time, try to finish the paperwork for the ID card within a couple of days of your arrival because it takes a couple of weeks before it's ready.

4. The other benefit to a real estate agent, especially a good one, is that she will be able to set up your electricity, water, and gas AND have them send the bill to you in English. She will also be able to help you set up internet if the apartment you find doesn't already have it.

5. Finally, as for job stuff, I have gotten extraordinarily lucky. Exhausted from sending out inquiries on apartments (I hadn't found on yet), I decided to go on to the South China Morning Post to see the job ads. There were a few that caught my eye (all teaching English) and so I sent off my resume, not really expecting anything. Well, this all happened on a Saturday. On Sunday, the real estate agent found me my home. On Monday, I get a call from one of the companies that I had emailed and she asked me in for an interview that day. I jumped out of bed and showered and changed, I rushed over and then, after a 20 minute interview, I was offered a job on the spot! It's as an English tutor/instructor in a private company here and it's been a great first real person job so far.

That's about it on my end for now! I hope that, should you ever choose to move to Hong Kong, my experiences will give you an idea of what it's like.

Hong Kong: Scams, Action Movies and Realtors

So I've been remiss in my entries and I feel guilty. So here's an update of my dealings of late:
1. I'm in Hong Kong

2. I have no job

3. I have no permanent place to live yet

4. Due to my excessive use of lightroom and photoshop, most of what I see appears slightly washed out...

5. I am inundated with realtors

6. I haven't joined a gym but the sheer amount of walking that I do makes up for that in spades

7. I'm realizing just how bad my Cantonese has become

8. Rain boots are surprisingly warm on the inside and unfortunately retain water if water makes its way inside

9. Watched the Expendables and realized how much I miss 80s/90s action movies and their stars

10. I have been delicately navigating through the tangled webs of familial responsibility

11. I have been making friends with the local butchers in order to better photograph their ghastly wares

That's about it... the vast vast VAST majority of my time has been concerned with the whole apartment thing. I never want to do this again, little did I know just how spoiled I had been when I was younger with the U.S. Embassy finding me housing. I've thus far encountered one scam (didn't fall for it though! The woman was allegedly a Swedish nurse who lives in Spain and is engaged, about to be married, and doesn't care about the rent her deceased father's apartment would generate... I think not). A serviced apartment (hotel-like existence with furnishings and cleaning service) seems like the best bet but I just can't let go of the idea of a relatively nice kitchen in which I can help save even more money by cooking.

Other than that, I went to the Peak the other night so I'll leave you with some pretty pictures of Hong Kong's nightscape!

This last one was just to freak you out! Can you figure out what it is? Told you some of my stuff was morbid...
Write back soon-ish!