Travel To Dos - Friday, Sept 3

A suitcase balanced on Scott's head. Or clutched under the arm like a folio. Are these the new 2011 fashion statements for men? Ah no. It is pre-trip preparations where each day the weight of our bags must be carefully monitored. Scott is lifting my bag onto the bathroom scale to gauge its weight. Let your bag grow too fat before departure and there will be lbs to shed in Turkmenistan when luggage must be trim (44 lbs for one checked bag and 11 lbs for one carry on per person). There is much boasting going on this week about who has the lightest bag. Well it surely isn't me however I was most pleased at checkin at the Turkish Airlines counter is afternoon that my bag was under the allotment. Decorum prevents me from revealing my true weight! It's a huge relief to put packing lists in the shredder. What we have I'm sure will be more than enough.

I'm trying out traveling with the iPad for the first time and I hope I'll have good adventures to report. In this week leading up to departure I learned quite a bit about what the device can and can't do. For bloggers who want to shoot in raw beware. You'll need to shoot in raw and jpeg to post or email photos. Ask me when get home. And a regret is that I wasn't able to figure out how to get my password manager up and running on the iPad so I hope I won't have website login issues as we roll along. That's a potential pitfall that I foresee ahead.

This next section is for Susan whose ultra lightweight carryon bag I coveted and ordered. It's a wonderful bag Susan. But. When you fill it with as much stuff as I've got in it (and decorum prevents me...you understand) it then weighs a ton. I am not joking when I tell you that I had purchased wheels to put it on before we went through security! The best $20 bucks I ever spent. I shall leave them in Turkmenistan but until then they will save my life. We're landing! It is 9:30am Turkish time.

By 11 we've arrived at the Hotel Dersaadet and are waiting for our room. What a lovely surprise to take the elevator to the roof garden and find beautiful views of the Blue Mosque and the mouth of the Bosporus. It doesn't hurt that it's sunny and cool with a pleasant breeze.