Video: Spinning Gold In Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar

by Meg Nesterov on


Earlier this year in Istanbul, I was lucky enough to stumble upon a man who spins gold thread at the Grand Bazaar. His noisy workshop is tucked into a courtyard off one of the bazaar’s main “streets,” past a few jewelry kiosks and before a reasonably clean but squat-style toilet. Huge fan belts crisscross the room and antique machines creak and spin spools of thread in metallic and bright colors; the spinner (a former footballer, I later learned) works the room like a conductor. Seeing me and my baby peeking in, he ushered us in to have a closer look and took our photo looking around in awe. I had no need for thread (gold or otherwise) and had a slight fear one of us could lose an eye if we hung around the Ottoman-esque machines too long, but it was a treat to find. Dim light made for poor photos, so I was thrilled to find this video of the machine in action on guidebook extraordinaire Rick Steves’ Facebook page.

After living in Istanbul for more than two years as an expat, it took me a while to appreciate the Grand Bazaar as more than a horrible tourist trap. The key to finding the magic in the Grand Bazaar is discovering the nooks and crannies most visitors miss in their hunt for “authentic” souvenirs (likely made in China) and inexpensive fez hats (forget about the irony that the fez was banned here as a means of modernizing and secularizing the country when it became a republic). If you look hard, you’ll still find real artisans, centuries-old family businesses and relics from former empires. If you want to find this guy, leave me a comment and I’ll try to leave a bread trail to him.

Coping With Post Holiday Blues

by Dave Seminara on

Travel is a beautiful escape from reality. There is no finer way to remove oneself from life’s dirty, mundane realities than to plan a trip. Hate your job? Have a broken heart? Bored with your lot in life? Step right up and book a ticket to just about anywhere. The trip might change your life – or maybe it won’t. The travel industry would like you to believe that a vacation can make you happier. But coming home can be a bitch.

Travel represents freedom, a taste of the good life. It’s easy to visit a beautiful place and think, “I want to live here.” Seize the temptation to bottle up that little whiff of travel euphoria and make it last by not going home. Removing oneself from the daily routine inspires reflection, and travelers often make major life decisions on or right after a trip. But when they return from a trip, especially a very good one, they aren’t quite in a rational frame of mind.As many of us settle back in to work after Memorial Day weekend trips, it’s a good time to ask the question: did your escape produce any lasting happiness bump, or did the good vibes disappear the moment you arrived home to a pile of bills and dirty laundry? I’ve never been very good at going home and according to Dr. Jeroen Nawijn, a lecturer at NHTV Breda University in the Netherlands who studies the correlation between holidays and happiness, I’m not alone.

Dr. Nawijn has written a number of scholarly articles on this topic (some of them available by searching under Nawijn J on Google Scholar) including “The Holiday Happiness Curve,” “Happiness through Vacationing: Just a Temporary Boost or Long-Term Benefits?” and “How Do We Feel on Vacation?” to name just a few. Dr. Nawijn’s research indicates that travelers are a bit happier than non-travelers over all, but the impact of a vacation on happiness is small and it tends to disappear when people return home. The act of planning a trip makes people happy, as does the trip itself, but the happiness bump doesn’t last.

I contacted Dr. Nawijn to ask him about this dynamic and he wrote that “autonomy, or a sense of freedom” is a major reason why people feel happy on a trip and the fact that this autonomy disappears when they return home is why the bump doesn’t last. I asked him what advice he had for travelers coping with post-vacation blues and he replied, “Expect to feel great on vacation and cherish the memories once you’re home. These memories form the basis for anticipating the next trip and offer brief moments of elevated happiness.”

Based upon his research, it would be logical to conclude that if the anticipation of a trip is almost as good as the holiday itself, that one should plan several short trips rather than one big one. But I’m not sure I subscribe to that theory. Dr. Nawijn’s research and my own experience dictates that near the end of a great trip, a traveler begins to dread going home. On a trip of a week or two, you have plenty of time to let go, but on a three- or four-day escape, the gloomy prospect of returning home hits you all too soon.

Researchers from the University of Vermont seemed to underscore that point in an April study that examined some four million tweets from 2011 to study the correlation between happiness and distance from home. They concluded that the further from home someone is, the happier they are.

Expedia conducted a far less scientific online study about vacations and happiness earlier this month and, not surprisingly, their conclusions were rosier than Dr. Nawijn’s findings. Expedia reports that travelers are happier, hornier and like their jobs more than people who stay home. According to their study, 47 percent of people who went on vacations last year like their jobs while 71 percent of those who haven’t vacationed in five years don’t. And 61 percent of those who vacation annually are satisfied with life. But I would have liked to see them ask this question: are you happier when you return from a trip compared to before?

Yet another travel and happiness survey, released in March, concluded that 83 percent of us consider travel an important component to happiness. I concur that for restless souls, like me, staying home is a surefire recipe for depression.

There are ways to cope with the inevitable come down of returning home. Give yourself at least a day after a trip before you have to return to work. Document your trip in writing, and take photos and videos you can enjoy later on. Collect business cards and other little reminders of places that will bring back good memories. And plan outings in your hometown that will make you feel like you are back on the road. But I’ve found that there is only one sure method to cope with post-holiday blues: start planning your next trip.

Photo Of The Day: Petronas Towers Reflection

by Adam Hodge on

It’s tough to take a bad photo of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As it turns out, even when you’re not aiming your camera at the towers you can still get a great shot of them, as Flickr user BaboMike demonstrates in this long exposure of a reflecting pond near their base. The polish of the twin towers’ Islamic-inspired futurism is apparent from any viewpoint in the city, but in the pond they’re given a grittier, almost Gotham-like mood. If you’d like to see your great shots on Photo of the Day, share them with us in Gadling’s Flickr pool.

The Kimchi-ite: Thousands Of Lanterns At Busan’s Greatest Temple

by Jonathan Kramer on

Down in Busan, South Korea’s seaside second city, one of the greatest temples on the peninsula quietly sits. Samgwang Temple is large, imposing and beautiful on any typical day, but becomes a new spectacle altogether for Buddha’s Birthday; for the holiday, it suddenly blossoms with the soft glow of 10,000 lanterns.

It’s absolutely a sight worth seeing, and taking your time to get lost amongst the lanterns in such bright and colorful lights, can be pleasantly disorienting. Each individual lantern is sponsored and paid for by a follower of the temple, an obvious, visible sign of its influence.

There are quite a few lantern festivals throughout Korea and Asia, but this is certainly the largest density of lanterns that I have ever seen.

To get to Samgwang Temple, go to Seomyeon Station on Busan Subway Line 1, where buses 63, 54 and 133 will take you to “Samgwansa Entrance;” unfortunately this is a misnomer and not the actual entrance to the temple. From the bus stop, cross the street and walk up the narrow road before you. From there, make your first left and then your first right. Finally, follow the road and the enormous temple will be at the top of the hill.

For more on Korean culture, food and festivals, you can always check out “The Kimchi-ite” archives by clicking here.

Turkmenistan Capital Claims Guinness Record For Most Marble Buildings

by Adam Hodge on

The capital of Turkmenistan has been recognized by Guinness for having the highest density of white marble buildings in the world. Ashgabat boasts 543 new buildings clad with over 48 million square feet of marble, according to Guinness.

The former Soviet satellite state underwent a dramatic architectural transformation after independence under the leadership of the authoritarian “President for Life” Saparmurat Niyazov, who died in 2006. Concrete soviet blocks were razed and replaced with marble-clad government buildings and housing complexes in a garish display of Turkmenistan’s immense natural gas wealth.

Niyazov’s successor, Gurganguly Berdymukhamedov, attached himself to the record by adding the honorific “Distinguished Architect of Turkmenistan” to his current list of titles.

The Guinness website says that if laid out flat there would be over 10 square feet of marble for every 50 square feet of land in the city. In 2013 Turkmenistan was ranked the fifth most miserable country in the world.

This isn’t the first time that the closed-off country has won itself a new record. It previously won the record for the world’s tallest unsupported flagpole (a record now held by Tajikistan), the largest architectural star and the largest indoor Ferris wheel. Its other conspicuous projects include a $1 billion resort complex on the deserted shores of the Caspian Sea.