Silk Road Nomads
Posted at 04:01AM Mar 25, 2008 by CarolB
Meet the Steward family. We dig their moxie! Stan, Ann and their two kids left sunny California to explore, live with, and learn about the peoples, tribes, and cultures of those who live along the Silk Road of High Asia.
Now based in Istanbul, they are fast racking up a tome of adventures that would put Indiana Jones to shame, all the while living a pretty extraordinary life. We caught up with Stan for a chat about his family and their life on the high road.
Your wanderings are epic Stan. Do you think nomads are born or forged?
Short Answer? Forged. We met in Cairo in 81 just two months after Anwar Sadat was killed. Ann (my wife) was on a tour with a church group, I was working as a freelance photographer covering this churches trip for UPI (now Reuters). We met, realized we lived just five miles apart in San Diego, and the rest was history. Actually she hated me and I worked overtime to seduce her. She will deny it today, but all she wanted was 'out' when we first met. Now, we are going on our 27th year together.
In the 90s I was on command staff for the San Diego Police Department. Got my back pieced back together from a fight during an arrest and kicked out in retirement. We sold out of San Diego in 2000. Wandered the U.S. for a few years, landed in Marseille for seven months (hated it) and got to Istanbul two years ago and are now trying to work our way to China, and eventually back. Our goal is to make the Silk Road run many times.
What's the biggest challenge (I'm sure there’s been plenty!) you’ve faced in your travels so far?
Language. Neither of us spoke anything but English when we arrived. Now Ann is almost fluent in Turkish. I am conversational (especially if we are talking about food), but we really work hard to learn because it is in the nuances and inflections of language where I think we understand the culture the fullest.
In our two years in Asia we really haven't faced culture shock in a significant way. If you start talking about humanitarian needs, the acts of terror in Turkey or northern Iraq, then we definitely have been impacted by the senselessness of 'War in the name of God' and that has been a challenge to explain to our kids.
But politics is not our thing... we are really just into getting into the lives, culture and history of whoever lives in whatever village, country or region we are in and trying to experience it to its fullness. It takes a couple of pretty special kids to flow with crazy parents, but they flow pretty well.
What’s the most valuable piece of travel related advice you've ever received?
That the flexible shall not break.
You mention food :) Tell us about your favourite cultural culinary experience?
Oh man, there are many. But the one on my mind at the moment is a little Turkish café I have written several columns about over the years. I used to sit and write there on hot summer afternoons and had tried just about everything on the menu. In fact when we had business cards made we put our address down as 'Cemre Kebap Café, Corner Table'.
The owner was a great guy and always sat near the back chain-smoking and taking orders over the phone. But when it was time for him to eat I saw dishes that were not on the menu. They were special dishes from his own village that he had his staff prepare. One day he said, "Stan, Come here." He gave me a fork and we both ate out of his special dish, some type of hot pepper stew. The food was great but the wall that tumbled that day was that from then on, whenever the cook made the owner his special village dishes, I was always called over to sit and eat with him. He started at one end, I at the other and we finished in the middle. While I paid for all the meals I took at my table, whenever I ate with the owner it was always free.
How have you found blogging your adventures? Does diarising diminish or accentuate your experiences - change them somehow? Where does the blog fit into your bigger 'travel 'picture?
The blog is just the small stuff of our lives. If you were to read my journal (a Moleskine, and if you don't know that name then you better look it up if you are a wanderer!) you would see the deeper thoughts that the public might interpret as political, religious etc. So we have kept our blog on the highlights of our travels.
Lately we have begun to move into being more expressive in our blog (I have been laid up with a broken foot the last two months so it is a bit dry right now, but as we have tried to explain via our blog the experiences, it has continually impressed upon us the amazing opportunity we have to see how people, let me be transparent here; we have been amazingly touched by the acceptance the Muslim community has given us as Americans whose religion is different.
Frankly we have been humbled by these people. What we see on the news is not what we have experienced when we get to know these people as our friends and family.
So, what’s next for the silk road brigade?
In April my parents (in their 70s) are coming to visit, we will take them into the corner where Iran, Iraq and Turkey meet. We know some of the military commanders down there and they know that we like to explore the canyons and mountains in the region. If the Turk/Kurd conflict kicks up any more dust, we will shift to central Turkey and instead take my folks to central Turkey.
Summer 08 - Bukhara, Uzbekistan this summer if Visas can be procured. If not we will continue to follow veins of the Silk Road along Turkey’s eastern border and along the Black Sea.
Fall 08 - Kapadokia again (my 4th trip), and into Hattusha the capital of the ancient Hittite Empire
Winter 08/09 - Possibly our first trip home to the States in 2.5 years. We have been asked to speak at several schools, social clubs etc about our travels.
Spring 09 - Hopefully a few weeks (an annual event at Christmas time) to a little remote village in Wales, UK, not a work trip.
Summer 09 - Back to our flat in Istanbul and the application process will continue to see if we can't finally get Iran and, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan to allow us to travel to the border of China in our own truck.
The hitch is always that they want you to hire a vehicle and driver. We want to travel and explore at our own pace. So we keep asking, fingers crossed, and we feel pretty confident that within the next year or two Iran will finally realize that we are not travelling thru to highlight the 'negatives' but to focus on the people and culture.
If you'd like to travel down a dusty road through northern Iraq with the Stewards, stop by www.silkroadnomads.com
Related Thorn Tree Forum Branch: North East Asia, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus
Category: CommunityHighlight | Tags: blog community iran silk_road turkey
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