Walking on the Roof of the World

Walking on the Roof of the World

We enter Nepal from Kakarbhitta border by walking, after passing the bridge between India and Nepal. We wouldn’t even go through passport check if he hadn’t enter the single-store building after seeing the small old signboard on it. We get our visa in a couple of minutes after paying 40$ as enrty fee and the one page form to smiling policemen. There are 450 kilometers to reach Kathmandu. Our journey starts after buying a bus ticket from the bus station just next to the border for 1000 Rs. (15 $) with one of the “non-AC” buses. We travel for 17 hours waggling with never ending music. There is no other way of getting used to long and shaking trips, even if you are travelling with the most comfortable bus. We arrive to Kathmandu early in the morning and settle in a hotel, named Blue Diamond, in the touristic center, Thamel. 800 Rs. (10 $) for a room per day is cheap for this location, but it is possible to stay in Basanthapur, the old city center close to Thamel, for a cheaper price. Thamel’s streets, full of souvenir shops selling colorful Nepalese cloths and trekking equipment, usually end in a small square full of temples. We also shop for trekking while exploring Kathmandu. There are both cheap local restaurants and luxurious restaurants serving world cuisine in Thamel. After India, it is also easy in Nepal to find vegetarian food. “Dhal Bhat”, consisted of rice, a dish like lentil soup and another food mostly including potato, is the main dish in Nepal. Most of the Nepalese eat this two times...
Jade Farm

Jade Farm

                We are on the way again after two weeks we spent in Istanbul.                 In the evening, we reach Maksudiye village in Adapazarı, at Sakarya basin. It’s a clean, tidy and green Cherkessian village. There are small fields and animals feeding in the village. After looking around in the village, we run into an elegant, wooden garden gate. The green well-kept garden behind the gate is Jade Farm. The founder of the farm is Berin Jade. Jade stands for jadestone in Cherkessian too.                 We park our caravan under a pear tree and meet with Berin and the people who work here. Hundreds kind of plants around us…                 Jade’s farm is on a land larger than 100.000 m2. It’s changed a lot in 13 years with Berin. In the past, it was a place full of just apple and pear trees, but now there are plants for the first time we heard of. Also there are different types of each plant. There is an intense work all day long. We sow seeds carefully with workers and harvest the product. We ask questions to Berin about everything we see, like kids. She answers with patience until the last day.        Everyday, we join the work as much as we can with the guidance of the villager women. We arrange raised beds, sow seeds, place the pipes for drip irrigation, comb out wild herbs. One of the most beautiful things is to eat anything we want to taste without washing or cooking. No GMO, no pesticide.                 Also there is a work...
Eco-volunteer

Eco-volunteer

Our hands are touching the earth and growing seeds with other hands. We think all together and grow together.Our dreams meet and our hopes grow. Our hearts, minds and hands come together; and we realise! We all meet around the dining table of the earth. Then we open our arms and immediately another hand catches one of our hands. While we are on our way to learn from nature and people who acts with nature, we visit communities interested in ecology and ecologic farms to join their work voluntarily. There are a lot of organizations connecting people who want to work voluntarily with communities who need volunteers. Via these organizations, you can contact with farms and communities to support them using your skills according to their needs in return for food and a place to sleep. Also you get a greal deal experiences about sustainable life and organic farming at the end of this process. Working in farms this way is called Woofing. It is named by one of the most popular platforms in this field, WWOOF. WWOOF, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, was founded by an English woman Sue Coppardand and active in almost every country. You should check the WWOOF web site of the country you want to work. For example, you can get information from wwoofgreece.org for Greece, wwoofindia.org for India. You get the right of access to telephone and e-mail information of farm residents to contact after paying membership fee (15-30 Euros) in each country. Any farming information is not required to join. In Turkey, the project is led under the name of TaTuTa (Eco-Agro Tourism and Voluntary Knowledge and...