Turkish Delights & Travel Highlights

Tavla

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© Backgammon						Info.net

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So once upon a time, when I was traipsing about Turkey, I fell in love with a little game called tavla (a.k.a. backgammon), a tremendously popular pastime among the Turks. Once upon a time, I was also reasonable at this game ... at least, for a foreigner.

But I discovered tonight that I'd forgotten the orientation of the board, and was a bit fuzzy on some of the rules. A look back into my trusty travel diary reminded me of the board set up as above, where if you were the orange player, the bottom left would be your home (and the top left would be purple's home.) But much to my dismay, all online sources seem to show the board in a different configuration! This distresses me greatly. At any rate, I vow to learn to play respectably again, and to fight for the legitimacy of this board configuration! You heard it here first, folks.

Travel friends: the photo montage

I've been meaning to add this photo collection to the page for a dog's (blog's?) age. In no particular chronological order, here's a little shout-out to all of the peeps who made my adventures oh-so-enjoyable this summer.