Gypset Travel: Rhodes to Bodrum

All the ladies in their whites courtesy of Elah. Stephanie, Goli, Bonnie and I. Bonnie is a fashion designer who used to be Donna Karan's right hand woman and now has her own line bonnieyoung.com and authored the book Colors of Vanishing Tribes. She traveled the world documenting vanishing tribes and their textiles - everything from cannibals in Borneo to madmen in Papau New Guinea to Inuits in the North Pole. She's now working on a collection inspired by the Ottoman Empire for the royal family of Qatar so this trip was also inspiration. She helped us select our wares from Elah!

Stephanie and Giancarlo were my hosts, Gypset to the core, as they embark on adventures around the world "exploring consciousness". It's a beautiful experience to get a glimpse into their inner and outer journeys as they discover the world and each other within it. They went straight from our sailing trip to Alice Temperley's teepee party in Somerset England, then to LA for time with their children living the simple California life and then are heading to Costa Rica on a week long ayahuasca retreat hosted by Evolver.net. Stephanie, who lives in Paris at the moment, has a style that is always made up of a carefully curated selection of items - in this photo her skirt is a piece of woven and embroidered fabric that she got on a trip to Cairo that she has belted from vintage leather.

Elizabeth Warner - designer and founder of Maasai Collections. She also was part of the design team responsible for building Shompole, a really cool eco lodge that partnered with the Maasai. Fabrizio Chiesa behind her is a dear friend and filmmaker currently directing a film called "Lucky Dark" a film on the Buddhist teacher and social activist Joan Halifax.

Once in a while, when we were moored for the evening a little motor boat would come up with various wares to sell. This was by far the best boat shop, helmed by a woman called Elah. Most of the nautical salespeople were these wizened wrinkly old men with crusty sarongs to sell. But Elah was good looking and had the best caftans, Turkish towels, cottons, and scarves. The men on the boat suddenly took an interest in buying some souvenirs.

The cutest pastel town in Symi. It was bombed out during WW2. A waiter there named Manos worked his way up and organized a committee for Symi development. There were strict rules for building including the colors that can be used to paint, etc. Manos now owns several restaurants and hotels and is the unofficial mayor of the little town. A friend pointed out a plastic chair across the bay on someone's terrace (against the town rules!) and Manos immediately called the wife of the homeowner and had her remove the plastic atrocity out from public view.

One of the many delicacies from the sea that we had at Manos's restaurant. We had a late lunch and weren't too hungry but he refused to listen to us and continued bringing out course after course despite our protests. It was all insanely delicious.

All natural hot stone spa treatment: swim into a deserted beach at the end of a sunny afternoon. Find a patch of stones that have been heated by the sun. Lay on top of them and have a friend drop one stone at a time on top of your body - the weight and heat of the stones will relax all of your muscles and open chakras.

This was hiking on top of a castle wall at the top of a hill. We still haven't figured out who built this and when.

Most nights we anchored in a small bay. We would all drag our comforters and pillows out under the stars and told stories, played games of metaphor until we fell asleep. It was amazing to be watching the sun rise, the sun set, the moon rise every day, you get the feeling that you are on this spinning, orbiting ball of clay.

A kilim that got caught on some sort of fish trap. Kilim is an ancient form of rug weaving said to have originated in Mongolia and made it over to Turkey by way of the Ottoman Empire.

That's me and my friend Tao Ruspoli who lives in Venice Beach, CA. Tao is a filmmaker and photographer (www.taoruspoli.com), and secretly, a talented flamenco player. Every morning he would wake us up with sliding, bending notes played to the color of the ocean. My bikini is by Insight - an Australian company that makes super durable yet sexy bikinis in crazy prints.

Written by Julia Chaplin, courtesy of Gypset.com.