Baklava Time

Right then...having spent 3 great weeks with the in-laws it was time to head to Turkey (Picasa link). I, being a history buff had really been looking forward to this leg of the trip. The lady however, had had enough of Kings, Empires, and assassinations over the past 3 months to the point where she protested even looking at another ruined city/fortress/harem. She was however looking forward to their Baklava.

Hagia Sohia at sunset

We flew directly to Istanbul and landed just as the weather was improving. The previous 10 days had been marked by daily showers and cold stiff breezes - both highly unusual for this time of the year I was told. Still, pulling on a layer and we made our way to the Asian side of Istanbul where our host Varol lived. One fact unique to Istanbul (among other things) is that it is the only city to span two continents. Later in our Turkey visit we were to stay on the European side of Istanbul too, thus getting to see both sides of the city. Upon getting to his place and laying down our bags, we marched right out to one of the best fish restaurants in Istanbul. Along with the great fish we also downed cirrihosis causing quantities of Raki. Raki is to Turkey as vodka is to Russia. Its an aniseed flavored grappa liquor that clocks in at a solid 45% proof. Varol decided that we needed a good introduction to Istanbul and a bottle was essential to that plan. After downing two drinks I demurred from taking the third, whereupon he took it upon himself to finish the rest. Credit to him that we didn't need to carry him to the taxi stand. The next day we got a bright and early start and took a ferry across to the European side of Istanbul. This was to become part of our daily routine and we enjoyed our daily hops between the two continents. The next three days we spent visiting the palace, numerous mosques - including the stunning Hagia Sophia (though its technically not a mosque anymore), and consuming prodigous quantities of kebabs, pide (Turkish pizza) and baklava. A good chunk of our daily 'being a good tourist' time was set-apart in hunting down a good baklava store and then enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Ephesus Library

From Istanbul we headed south along the Aegean cost to Selcuk. The original plan was to head to Cappadocia - a magical place in Central Turkey - but seeing that the temperatures were dropping to -6 C at nights, we decided magic would just have to wait. One our primary goals when we planned this trip was to enjoy a year of sunshine and warmth, and we weren't going to let some underground cities and other sights ruin our plans. So to Selcuk it was, specifically Ephesus. Ephesus was a coastal port of major importance in 550BC - even Cleopatra visited it! A majority of the spices and other precious goods making their way to Europe had to pass through it and the citizens helped themselves to a nice cut off the top - which worked really well for them. However, as is with these things, its booty also made it the target of many a neighbouring warlords. Numerous battles were fought and many a lives lost, which resulted in a slow decline of the city. The final insult though, was when an earthquake struck in the 6th century AD, and silting of the river caused the sea-shore to move out by a couple of miles. Suddenly no-one wanted anything to do with the city and even though there were sporadic bursts of activity, it was completely abandoned by the 15th century AD. Through a combination of various factors though, the city managed to avoid being pillaged for its marble and other building materials and what's left is one of the best preserved ancient cities in the world. The amphitheater was magnificent, the library inspiring and we spent a great day walking around the ruins.

Ruins of Kayakoy

From Ephesus we headed to Fethiye, where I promised Awanti - no more ancient ruins. The devil's always in the details though. I did say 'ancient', so I promptly convinced her to hike to Kayakoy - a more recent set of ruins. The hike was a fairly pleasant tramp over the hills behind Fethiye to a town that needs to be seen to be believed. Turkey and Greece had some major issues to sort out post WWII, and one of the sad outcomes was the displacement of large swathes of Turks and Greeks back to their home countries. Kayakoy was one such town - it was occupied primarily by orthodox Greeks who left enmasse when the swap was hammered out by the two sides. In principal, the numbers were supposed to balance out - and all houses and towns on each side were to be occupied by citizens of the other country. In reality a lot more Greeks went to Greece than Turks moved to Turkey - resulting in ghost towns such as Kayakoy. The town climbs its way up a hill-side and it was eerie looking at the empty shell of an entire town from below. From Fethiye it was onto Kas, which is one classy town. In spite of the large number of hotels and pensions that have sprung up in the last decade, the town still manages to retain an extremely refined, but at the same time mellow feel, and we spent two wonderful days walking around town, eating some great food and doing absolutely nothing.

We headed back to Istanbul for our last two days in Turkey and weren't so lucky with the weather this time around. Things were definitely gloomier - though thankfully there was no rain. On both our nights there we headed out to Taksim, specifically Istiklal Ave. Istiklal is approximately a mile long street that is the pulsing heart of Istanbul. Every evening, hundreds of thousands of Istanbulians head to Istiklal to shop, eat good food, indulge in some people watching, and soak in the atmosphere. It felt like a street festival - only one that was held every night. After devouring some more baklava and packing some more for the long flight to SE Asia, we finally took leave of Istanbul and Turkey.

Cambodia's next, specifically Phnom Penh. The original plan called for us to fly to Bangkok, but seeing the floods situation, we decided to keep flying onto Phnom Penh and head to Thailand later. I've heard fried crickets await us...YUM!

- Ashish