I’d like to open this post with a quote that resonates with me tremendously:

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
- Heraclitus

I’m sure, dear reader, that you’ve had experiences like I have, where you return to a place you loved, or see an old friend, and find that it’s changed, they’ve changed, and/or you’ve changed.

To try to recapture the past, to try to relive the glory days is an exercise in futility. There was a time for those golden memories, and it’s passed, and now the meydan is full of inşaat, and everything’s different…

My heart leapt at the opportunity to return to Turkey.

Every time I’ve been back there since ~2016, it’s been as part of a flight itinerary to somewhere else. By flying with Turkish Airlines, an extra stop in Turkey adds nearly no cost at all to the ticket.

My main journey was to Southeast Asia, but my heart leapt at the opportunity to return to Turkey. I was tempted to spend almost all of my time exploring old haunts instead of new places, but I restrained myself. My visit lasted 10 days.

I wish it lasted much, much longer.

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Hello, readers, and happy February 2024!

We are now three months into this blog’s fourth year, and as ever, I have been taking photographs, traveling, and enjoying experiences faster than I can write and publish posts about them. 😊

I’m torn between two desires: to spend less time writing, and to spend more time finishing up the 80 some drafts I have lying around. I do, however, know that a few parts of my workflow have really not been working out for me.

Here’s how things are going to look going forwards…

A visit to Kuala Lumpur, perhaps, is not complete without a visit to the Batu Caves.

These limestone caves, on the city’s northern outskirts, are home to a host of Hindu temples.

The first inkling of an idea came in 1890 when Tamil trader K. Thamboosamy Pillai noted that the cave’s entrance resembled the vel, the sacred spear of the god Murugan.

Today, that very same cave entrance is home to a 272 step concrete staircase, and a towering 140 ft tall statue of Murugan.