Turkish Delight 2013 - Part 2 - ISTANBUL

Kale Cafe

One of my favourite things about my Turkey travel buddies is they share my love for food. A love so strong that we are willing to travel out of our way to eat good food. And eating good food meant eating where Anthony Bourdain eats. This also meant less research needed.

Kale Cafe

Despite the fact that we only had two days to enjoy whatever we can of Istanbul, our first stop of our first day was to go out of our way for brunch at Kale Cafe, part of AB's Turkish breakfast hunt. It was quite far out and the only realistic way was to go by taxi. We got there after 10 but it was already quite busy, but fortunately managed to grab a table almost immediately. We ordered 2 traditional breakfast sets plus a menemen (eggs-in-skillet thing) and had bottomless tea served by a well-toned and incredibly good-looking "Teaboy" (he does nothing but carry a massive tray of tiny tea cups, zipping around the restaurant in between chairs and tables replacing diner's empty tea cups with fresh cups of steaming hot tea).

Kaymak

This is where I fell in love...with Turkish breakfasts. Not because of Teaboy (honest), but because of the stimulation of the senses - mainly the food. There was a LOT of food - really good food, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, olives, lovely runny honey and kaymak (like clotted cream), jams and butter and other spreads, cheeses, a basked overflowing with all sorts of bread, and bottomless and very sweet turkish tea to wash it all down. We sat outside by the road, taking in the view of the Bosphorus, the hum of other satisfied diners, the buzz of scooters zipping by and the envious glares of hungry diners-to-be waiting to be seated. There was no better way to start the day.

I may have been a bit distracted by them muscular arms (and hunger for food) that I didn't take as many pictures of the food as I usually do. I'll take more next time.

Bosphorus Balloon Bob

After a quick stroll in the neighborhood and realising there really wasn't much there except for admiring the Bosphorus (which we'll save for later), we took a taxi back to Sultenahmet area for the serious stuff of sightseeing.

Ayasofya

Ayasofya

Ayasofya

The Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque

Basilica Cisterns

Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace

I honestly wish I had a little typing-fairy that could type out all my thoughts while I travel because blogging a year after the trip really is not ideal - I can't quite remember the emotions and thoughts and questions and revelations that ran through my mind as my sensory organs downloaded all of these spectacular sights and senses into my brain. 

What I can say is...even though you could say that these sites are the "must-sees", the "typical tourist attractions", the "going through the motions" - there's a reason for it, and that is because these places ARE really really amazing. And I would probably do most of it again. My camera could possibly capture all the different colours inside the Ayasofya, or the cracks in the bricks of the exterior of the Blue Mosque, or the lighting in the Basilica Cisterns,  or the number of rooms in the Topkapi Palkace...but not the weird & unique blend of a Greek Orthodox Church and Islamic mosque of the Ayasofya; the hush of the Mosque visitors trying to keep quiet out of respect for those praying in the other half of the Mosque, the chilling echoes and shadows creeping around in the Cisterns, and the magnificent grandeur of the Palace. There really is no place like Istanbul, and there really is no place that better represents East-meets-West.

In the evening we walked to the Spice Market but found that it was closed. We bought packs of tea from a shop run by a Syrian who (like millions of others) fled his recently-war-torn home country. He also recommended a Turkish restaurant to us - which was conveniently right next to his shop. It was decent, but somehow we were too tired and I didn't even bother taking pictures of food there. I also lost my hat in there somewhere and never found it.

Tomorrow morning - we fly to Cappadocia!

Turkish Delights [ 2013 ] Part 1 - pre-gaming

This long awaited post (which had its sneak preview) has finally arrived. Awaited by whom is perhaps a mystery but at least I will have a written record of this.

[The planning]

Besiktas Market

I remember Dawn and I first talked about going to Turkey while sitting in a small Salvation Army's hall in a sweaty May afternoon, waiting for a speaker to talk about child labour or trafficking or something during the Justice Conference Asia 2013. Not long after that (literally 2 weeks after that chat), protests erupted in Turkey, during which our discussions halted but somehow recruited a 3rd - Derek - to be the token male in the party. Three months of emails, dinners and online credit card payments later, we found ourselves on 3 different flights, flying at different times, but with the same great expectations for what's ahead.

[The arrival]

Besiktas Market

My Turkish Airlines direct flight got in at 5am, before sunrise and 2 hours before Dawn's, so I wifi-ed, read, and watched other morning-arrivers from a quiet corner cafe. After a slight scare because we somehow managed to miss each other at the arrivals hall and couldn't find each other for almost an hour, we hopped on the bus to Taksim Square, near where we had booked our Airbnb apartment.

The apartment was on a steep slope going down from Taksim Square. The owner was still inside cleaning the place when we arrived (a good sign!). Derek wasn't arriving til the evening so Dawn and I had a day to do non-mega-touristy things, which actually turned out to be possibly my favourite part of our time in Istanbul.

After some googling and a nearly life threatening taxi ride across town, we decided to check out Besiktas market, sold by the description "refreshingly lacking in tourist tat" and frankly limited by choice as some markets only open on certain days of the week, and also saving "touristy" for when Derek arrives. It was an old 2-storey carpark building turned groceries market - with downstairs selling mainly fruit and veg, and some other foods like nuts, olives, condiments etc. Our eyes and noses feasted on the colours and the freshness and sweetness of the market - pomegranates, figs, persimmons, tangerines, nuts, olives... My new DSLR camera (while clutching it mighty tight and strangling myself with it for fear of losing it) turned out to be our ticket to free / discounted fruits, and great pictures! The market guys loved having their photos taken - I usually ask but some of them were waving at me from a mile away so get me to take their picture. And in return we got some free fruit, or got extra when we bought some.

Besiktas Market - fresh figs!

Besiktas snacks

We ventured upstairs to find stalls selling clothes, garments, underwear, jewelry, knick-knacks, and ladies serving tea and some pancake things which we tried.

Jet-lagged and sleep deprived, we went to increase our caffeine intake at a nearby cafe with Turkish tea and an apple cake. The weather was perfect, we sat under a glass roof and watched Turkish weekenders chill.

After failing miserably to figure out the bus system and get on a bus because apparently you can't pay with cash, we decided to try and walk home, stopping to poke our head and cameras inside a big mosque, and being stopped by the smoke from grilled fish sandwiches ("fish in bread") on the street - which became possibly one of the best things we ate in Turkey. Grilled fish, chopped tomatoes, onions, parsley, and a squeeze of lemon juice - simple, but simply delightful.

Fish-in-bread! 

In the evening, we wandered down Istiklal Caddesi - the main shopping avenue in Istanbul. It was full of cafes and restaurants, shops selling turkish delight and baklava, music and book shops, stalls selling flashing light things and other tacky tourist souvenirs. Too tired to suss out which restaurant looked like it wouldn't scam a load of your money with mediocre tourist food, we had a mediocre meal in some busy kebab place for dinner.


Today, we experienced Istanbul through local eyes. Tomorrow we become tourists.

Too simple. Sometimes naive.

Borrowing an infamous quote from Jiang Zimen for this post. I gotta say that this oversimplifies my thoughts on Occupy which has been trapped in my mind for too long and is now being released in an alcohol-induced rant. But I don't give a rats arse, alcohol or not.

Let's first talk about who's fighting for democracy. How many of these protesters or so-called activitists have actually casted a single bloody vote at legislative council and/or district council elections, or even registered as a voter? If they care about democracy, why are so few of them actually exercising the existed (albiet limited) democratic power they've actually got right now? Why have so many people suddenly become so politically minded or aware?

Do people know how long it took existing democratic countries to actually achieve democracy? Why do people expect it to happen overnight or over weeks? I'm not an expert in politics and I know it's not realistic for that to happen.

I'm all for democracy. But I don't think democracy is as simple as 'one man one vote' for the election of the CE.
Demanding CYL to resign now achieves what exactly? And so what if we get universal sufferage right now? Who in our immature government is qualified to even think about running for CE, and a CE  who would have absolute sovereignty over HK, without the support of China?
"Freedom" doesn't mean absolute freedom to be able to choose whoever we want. Freedom can only work within a properly established legislative framework.

Heck even America doesn't get "one man one vote" to directly vote for their president - "the leader of the free world", apparently (that's a whole other matter). People only get to choose from a few people.

Let's talk about the police. Honestly I think they've been very restrained, aside from isolated incidents. They've tolerated this whole Occupy fiasco for more than 2 whole months. They've been overworked, verbally physically and emotionally abused by the very citizens they're trying to serve and protect. They've had local and international press breath down their backs.

[to be continued]

The insatiable bug...?

"Maybe it's because I travelled too much...there weren't a lot of surprises."

My mum just said that when I asked her how her trip to Japan was.

Granted, she is a very seasoned traveller. But this made me stop and wonder - will I become like this one day? I love to travel, and I seize every opportunity (i.e. I pretty much use up ALL my annual leave) to travel, and I'm always aiming for new places to go to and new things to see. In fact, my new years' resolution this year was to not travel to places I've been before (that failed). But I did go to a lot of new places this year, and each time, without fail, I was amazed and awe-struck by the new things I was seeing and experiencing.

But will this bug eventually become...unsurprised? Will the amazement die out? Am I one day not going to be struck by awe when traveling?

Or is the "bug" actually the motivation to keep finding places that will amaze me and take my breath away?

Or is awe-struckness in the eye of the beholder?

The Promised Land

...or did she just go somewhere really boring?

Cape Jaws

It might have been the 16'C water that I was immersed in, or the wobbly cage I was stuck in with 6 other strangers, but there was something quite chilling - and thrilling - to see a 4.5m great white shark swimming merely a metre or two around you.

Photo credit: "the crazy Irishman" on his go-pro (I literally don't know his name)

This was our final day in South Africa.

Prior to the trip, mum signed us up for shark cage diving - yes you read that right - my mum signed us up for it.

On the cool friday morning, we woke up before 4am, got picked up at 4 something, picked up a few other tourists - including a band of hungover but chatterbox "lads" consisting of 4 kiwis and "a crazy Irishman" - drove 2 hours towards Gansbaai as the spring sun rose over the Cape. After a briefing about no peeing in the wetsuits and no sticking our hands out of the cage to try and pet the sharks, we got on the boat, got driven to the middle of the bay and waited in anticipation, with 6 or so other shark boat-load of tourists. The boatmen threw some kind of fish-gunk-soup into the water, we waited, someone yelled "sharks!", hurriedly got into wetsuits, jumped into a cage about 2.5m tall and 8m (?) wide (wide enough to fit 7 people). I couldn't stop shivering - partly from the excitement but mainly from the bone-chilling cold water.

And, we saw sharks! Casually swimming by, being totally uninterested in the contents inside the cage, 'sniffing' the fish heads that the boatmen dangled over the water trying their best (but rather unsuccessfully) to get the sharks to move quickly or come out of the water.

It's hard to describe the feeling, watching this underwater wild animal getting so close to man...quite surreal but at the same time a little familiar - maybe because we just spent the last 3 days in the safari watching other wild animals (on land) wandering around us as well. But it was still a fun and unforgettable experience (save for the waking up at 4am part and the being cold part perhaps).

And!! How could I mention sharks without mentioning my friend Kathy's amazing NGO - The Dorsal Effect, which tackles the issue of shark finning on the supply side by working with shark fishermen in Lombok to develop eco-tourism as a way of finding replacement income that would otherwise have come from hauling in dead sharks which is causing the rapid extinction of sharks. Having "hung out" with sharks myself and seen these amazing creatures up close, I definitely want to do more to support this cause. 

Untitled randomness

Randomest of random thoughts whilst walking from lunch to coffee...

Why don't we recycle our grey water more? Eg. using bath/shower/sink water for toilet-flushing, using vegetable-washing water for irrigation...

Are there any cafes in Hong Kong that  serve coffee with lactose-free milk, since so many Asians are lactose intolerant?

Neither blue nor yellow

I am for democracy, equality, freedom of speech and expression, and having a government that is accountable to the people that it devotes it's energy and resources to govern.

I am also for justice, law and order, a solid legal system, and a force that serves to protect the city's people, and discipline those who violate it's laws.

But first and foremost, I am for the Truth. For Light. For Love. Love that is patient, kind, joyful, humble. Love that is not rude, not self seeking, not easily angered, keeps not record of wrongs. Love that does not delight in evil but rejoices with the Truth. Love that always protects, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love that can only come from an all powerful, all knowing and always present Creator and Saviour and Comforter, who delights to pour His love into and through us, transcending all understanding and earthly knowledge. Love that is demonstrated on the Cross.