Currently Reading Shantaram: A Novel By Gregory David Roberts see related

back in bombay

Currently Reading India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond By Shashi Tharoor see related

in Bombay

Currently Reading A Thousand Pieces of Gold: Growing Up Through China's Proverbs By Adeline Yen Mah see related

korea was amazing!

Am at Incheon Airport, soon to leave Korea.  (Naver, Korea's dominant portal, has cafes with Sony laptop computers near my gate - for free!!) It's back to Beijing for another 8 days.  I'll then be in Shanghai for the better part of August 26 before flying to Mumbai that evening.  I missed some perfect-weather days in Beijing but had an incredible time in Korea.  A Wharton friend set up this amazing trip for us and accompanied us the entire way, making it THE most relaxing 5 days I have spent out of the US except for maybe Taiwan.  When I told her that I wanted to experience Korea's food to its fullest, she took me seriously, which included buying a book on Seoul's 100 best eats the day before we arrived.  We had everything from traditional street snacks (like made-on-the-spot rice cakes) to Jeongju's bibimbap to homemade ho bak chun to jigae and Godenguh (type of mackarel fish that they grill in front of the restaurant?) at Pimagol and famous jek suk dukboki near Samchamdong, Changdaegong Palace.  I could go on and on about the food...  I think it's *almost* as good as Taiwanese food? ;)  Some other highlights include making our own hand-mirrors and mulberry paper at Jeongju (where I got interviewed by Korea Broadcasting Company since I was sooo excited when I saw pa chun being made and pan-fried in celebration of Independence Day festivities), strolling through the beautifully green Secret Garden at Changdaegong, and having traditional Korea tea.

It's funny how when watching the Olympics in China I was a little frustrated with CCTV coverage which focused on events that China was competing in as well as offering commentary that I either didn't understand fully or found lacking.  I take back my words now as I can't wait to get back to China's TV coverage -- in Korea we've been watching only the sports in which Korea competes in a language I cannot understand at all!  That said, I watched Korea beat Japan in baseball, Korea lose to Malaysia in men's ping pong, and some men's 1500m freestyle heats in which the national swimming cutie, Park, did not do so well...

Found a neat clip of Lezak's leg in the 4x100m men's freestyle relay with some helpful commentary afterward:

http://www.ignitecast.com/p/RjsqoePn8H/

turkey tips

I thought I would write up some tips/things I wish I had known/things I’m glad I learned with respect to traveling to Turkey.  Thanks to Kathy for the idea!

GENERAL TIPS:

• I realize now that LP is NOT enough.  For a region that is so entrenched in history and changing empires, a companion guidebook for those of you not even joining a (day) tour when visiting the ruins is paramount.  Better yet, I would advise bringing region-specific travel literature, even fiction.  A few weeks before you fly, open the LP and see what travel literature they recommend or go on Amazon.com.  During my last few days in Turkey, I had William Darlymple’s From the Holy Mountain with me, which was an amazing accompaniment in providing background to many of the Christian sites that I visited.
• Bring your own water bottle.  It’s obviously super important to keep hydrated and the expense adds up.  It’s also a pain to be buying water all the time when many tourist establishments (bus company office, etc.) will actually have filtered water dispenser for you to get water from (for free!)

TURKEY-SPECIFIC

-Try the maras (Mado) ice cream - you'll need a knife and fork to eat it as it's been thickened with starches from a wild orchid root that grows in Turkey.  The place that popularized it is not easy to get to (it's east of Goreme/Cappadocia) but Mado has chains in the rest of the country and you need to try the real stuff at least once.  Regular dondurma can be hit and miss.  They even take this orchid root starch and cook it with steamed/frothed milk -- it's called salep and the packets can be purchased at any convenience mart.  Drunk in the winter when it's cold, it was also a refreshing beverage on a summer night with a breeze.

 -Pamukkale: When you go to these calcium travertines, wear your swimsuit!!  And preferably something colorful on top as the pictures against the white backdrop come out much better...  Day tours from Selcuk give you less than 4 hours there, which isn’t nearly enough time to play in the water AND see the ancient city ruins.

 -Antalya: In the old district there is fabulous secondhand bookstore called Owl Books - the owner is very knowledgeable and will even treat you to fresh apricots and cherries for your browsing pleasure.  Goreme also has a fine one called 1001 Books where the money goes to good causes and there is very good categorization and transparent pricing.

 -If you buy plates and don’t want them to accidentally break (which is what happened to me), try to get them boxed.  Problem is that not many places offer boxes.  On the edge of the Goreme town, the Ceramics store (lovely basement level work incidentally of unique designs that replicate Ottoman Empire plates) will box your plates for you (for free!) if you ask nicely.

 -

If you are only going to get ONE Turkish bath (not an inexpensive affair at 35 YTL or close to $30 US, and the USD continuing to depreciate against the Euro, sadly...) AND take a wooden yacht cruise in the Mediterranean (we shortened the 4d/3n from Fethiye to Olympus to 3d/2n), save your hamam experience to when you get off the boat, as you will have lots of seawater and sunscreen to wash off!  The dirt that comes off of you will shock and amaze you.  Of course, check out the hamam for its cleanliness.  If you go in the morning, it tends to be less crowded, and we inferred, cleaner.

 -Antalya has a found-only-in-Antalya dish that Lonely Planet does NOT mention.  I can't even remember the name of it; we saw it in another guidebook and managed to describe it in enough detail that an Antalya local wrote its name down for us.  It was fabulous!  Eggs, tomato, fava white beans, topped with a tahini sesame sauce, olive oil, and parsley; served with pita bread.  There is also a fabulous view of beach and Mediterranean Sea across from the Museum.

 -Don’t start your trip in Turkey with a small town. I don’t think this applies to many people as Istanbul is usually the first stop.  Kathy’s first experience of Turkey was Iznik, which left something to be desired.  Every visitor I found on LP TT Forum was looking for a non-touristy town to end their trip in Turkey, and for that order, I think Iznik is a fine place.  But starting with a place like this means having very limited food options and practically no English speaker except for your hostel owner.

 -the grilled long green pepper is not necessarily spicy.  Some are quite sweet!  Every restaurant's sad has as its base, tomatoes and cucumbers.  But some will dress it up with balsamic vinegar and a red spice that isn't quite paprika but isn't chili/red pepper either.  It's very good and you should ask a local to help you buy it as a spice market if you get the chance (I missed this).

 -If you want to actually SEE the underground city at Kekova, you’ll need to go in a sea kayak.  We met one English guy who runs such an outfit and he says that when you approach the ruins, he'll actually pull you along as you lay on top of your kayak, belly down, snorkeling to see the city.  www.kekovaaktif.com is the URL.  His Turkish wife apparently does cooking lessons too for $20-$30, which is WAY less than most of the quoted prices you'll find in Istanbul and Cappadocia (they all seemed to be at least 50 Euros when I inquired).

 -Consider Bergama as a day tour from Selcuk. There don't appear to be day tour operators in Bergama itself and it's helpful to have a guide at the Acropolis, because as always, ruins otherwise just look like a pile of rocks. 

 -If you make it out to Sanliurfa (ie as part of a Nemrut Tour), Job’s Cave is not part of the standard tour (but Abraham’s carp pools are).  Job’s cave is fabulous!  Well, actually, quite smelly.  But it’s next to a big mosque and when I went there on a weekday morning, I was the only non-Muslim, non-Turkish person there and it was an altogether fabulous experience for shutter-happy me.

-The Cirali Library in Selcuk, which apparently has a lot of Bible-related archaeological history, is only opened on weekdays!  LP doesn’t tell you that, we found out when we called.  Go see what we didn't get a chance to see and then tell me how it was!

- I don’t remember its name but the beach before Kusadasi when you take the dolmus (bus) from Selcuk is way better than the Kusadasi beach itself.  Doesn't have all the grease residues from the cruise ships and tugboats. 

- I was pretty happy when booking our accomodation that all places provided breakfast.  Now, after-the-fact, I know there is a HUGE difference in what you get at breakfast, depending on the place.  So if this matters to you, make sure you ask when reserving/checking out the place! ;)  The base fare which we grew soooo tired of consisted of: bread (a cheap french loaf), tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, jam/butter, and olives.  The fancier ones gave you some fruit selection or better-quality bread (we had french toast at one place).  But the 2 really snazzy places gave us full plates of tons of fruit, Turkish delight, hard-boiled egg (which I mashed with the tomato and cucumber, added salt and pepper to for an egg salad), and/or a cheese-filled roll, the works!!!  In Goreme the fruit plate (below) was huge, AND there were 5 little personal-size condiment selections: butter, cheese, jam, chocolate/Nutella, and honey. 

reflections on turkey

my last afternoon in turkey - what a long way I have come.  two and a half weeks ago i heartily disliked the food here and to be honest had low expectations for the sights ahead.  fortunately, the quality of kebabs improved, kathy and i discovered a mystery spice (paprika?) that made tomatoes and cucumbers more interesting, and pamukkale/efesus/cappadocia did indeed impress.

now, as i prepare to switch "off" turkey and switch "on" taiwan/hong kong/china/olympics, all I can do is wonder when I will return...

...to continue to learn about the early Christian church during the Byzantine period and see the important sites; we walked to and around so many cave churches (in goreme and ihlara valley dating around 10th and 11th century), visited where John probably wrote his gospel and where Mary lived and died, and already i want to see again the aya sofya in istanbul.

...to swim again in the Mediterranean and find new ways to tread water; literally all I did after getting seasick the first day eat, sleep, swim.  had a fabulous time with the dutch, danish, canadians, aussies, and two other americans on our wooden yacht;

...to eat maras ice cream (which made with wild orchid root is so thick that you need a knife and fork to eat it!),

...to walk another valley in Cappadocia (2 down, several more to go); pigeon and red valley (at sunset) were awesome and our guide took us onto rocks for views we could not have found ourselves.  love valley is still on the need-to-walk list!

...to get another turkish bath!!  in HOT anatolia, kathy and I wisely decided that a dinky little waterfall was not worth the sweat and forked over around 30 USD each to get turkish baths....which washed off 3 days of sweat and seawater.  we then bought turkish loofah gloves so as to re-enact the treatment back home. :)

...and to visit other sites like Abraham and Job's cave sites and marvel at how places can be transformed in their religious significance. 

Of course I will not miss eating tomatoes and cucumbers EVERY morning for breakfast (and then for lunch and for dinner), the imam's prayer calls to the local mosque at all hours of the day, and the oven-high temperatures of places like Antalya and Sanliurfa!