TURKEY - Istanbul/Ankara (2006)

Istanbul: 10.02.2006

Transiting via Amman, we landed at Istanbul at around 2.00 pm. From the plane we could see that it was drizzling and there were patches of snow on the ground. Temperature was 7 degC, which is what we expected anyway. But we wished that it had continued snowing and not changed over to rain a couple of days ago.
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Situated at the western edge of Turkey, part of Istanbul is in the European continent and part of it in the Asian continent, the Bosphorus channel separating the two. The city is a heady mixture of old and new, East and West. While driving to the hotel, huge mosques rose out of the drizzle while modern shopping plazas were thronged by trendy crowds. There is no Arabic here – Turkish, Kurdish, English only. A bit of French is also understood.
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In spite of the rain and the chill, we donned our winter gear, borrowed two biggish umbrellas from the concierge (with ‘Hilton’ written across them – walking ads!) and popped into the Indian Consulate a short walk away. The lady clerk could not help much and we could meet the Consul only in the lift as he was rushing down to end his day and start the weekend!......

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We spent some time in the auto market, hunted down an Indian restaurant and wrapped up our day nicely. We have been promised sunshine in two days, which would make it Sunday and ideal sightseeing weather.

Istanbul: 11.02.2006

This morning was brighter — cloudy but no rain. It even snowed lightly for a few minutes. No wind to speak of, though the day temperature was 5-7 degC.
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This was a Saturday, a half-day for businessmen and consequently for us as well.
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Istanbul has lots of narrow one-way streets, as the city has grown in on itself. Like there is a section of Amman called the Old City, with old walls still in place and three of the sevem gates still standing, Istanbul was also a fortified city and the walls are still visible in long stretches.
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The city has a long history dating from 1000 BC, through the Byzantine era, with the Romans taking over from 200 AD onwards. Emperor Constantine renamed it Constantinople and it became the capital of the Roman empire in 330 AD. The city went through various attacks and Golden Ages till it was finally conquered by the Turks in 1453 and the Ottoman empire ruled it for the next 400 years. It gained its heavy Muslim flavour only then.
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Istanbul always held a romantic image for most Europeans, as the ‘Gateway to the Orient’. Even now, looking at the city’s hybrid nature, we can understand how interesting the middle eastern muslim culture would have appeared to them. To us, it seems like a middle easterm muslim city that has received a dollop of westen influence! The city receives tourists from all over Europe. Therefore, English is not necessarily the most popular language.
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Today we visited two interesting market-places. One was a sort of weekly fair (or ‘haat’) that keeps on shifting location. It happened to be near our hotel today. Stretching over a kilometre, the main lane having stalls covered by tarpaulin, the vendors were selling vegetables (extremely fresh) to household articles to clothing — you name it! Probably all the ladies of Istanbul were there and a great hubbab was the net result. Not very cheap, like all prices in Istanbul, but some items in textile and leather were reasonably priced.......

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We also went to the centre of old Istanbul by bus where the main mosques and the Grand Bazaar are located. The Grand Bazaar is another place like Al Hammadiya in Amman, mainly for tourists and said to have 3000 shops! Closing time is a good time for bargaining and sellers reduced prices with a lot of lamentation as they were anxious to start their weekend.......

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Dinner was at ‘Dubb’, an Indian restaurant in the same area (lunch had been at Pizza Hut, after a decent gap) and we caught a bus back again to the terminus near our hotel. People here are quite friendly and helpful, though short on English. They are quite at home with high-tech lifestyles like coded cards for buses etc, just as in European cities.

Istanbul: 12.02.2006

Today is Sunday, so we woke leisurely at 8.30 am. The first thing that struck my eyes was the bright sunlight and I cheered up immediately. However, during breakfast, our waiter said: “No rain today, only snow!” He was perfectly right. Soon there were flecks of snow in the air, but the fine drizzle also continued. The temperature had dropped to 1 degC!
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We went out by 11.30 am with a new aquaintance, Mr Anis, an old man, a Pakistani industrialist from Lahore. We had met him casually yesterday. A very enterprising person with tractor and motorcycle plants in Pakistan. Close friend of Nawaz Sherif. He was regaling us with a lot of stories as we walked down to Taksim Square around a kilimetre away to catch our bus to old Istanbul. Mr Anis went his own way.......

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It was quite cold today and waiting for a bus in mild rain and snow was a new experience! The local Turks did not seem to be bothered much. We were also determined not to be deterred by anything today! Our bus finally arrived and carried us southward across the Golden Horn channel to the Old City at the southern tip of Istanbul (same place where we went yesterday evening). We snapped photos of the famous Blue Mosque (or Sulaimanie Mosque as it is also called), the Haggia Sophia Museum and the Hippodrome with its obelisks. We did not enter any of the places, including the Topkapi Palace that we also visited.......

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After a lunch at the same Indian restaurant ‘Dubb’, we boarded a tram for the ferry point Imenum. These trams are not like the ones we see in Cal. The tram-stops are barricaded and tickets are barcoded, with announcements like in the Metro. Nice.......

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The ferry for crossing the Bosphorus was also a biggish affair, capable of carrying some 20 cars as well, and a covered deck with a coffee counter for passengers. Very very chilly in the open, with cries of sea-gulls adding to the cold somehow.
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On the Asian side, we wanted to see the Beylerbeyi Palace, up north where the big bridge crosses the Bosphorus. The road went climbing up and the snow gradually thickened till we found the roadsides quite white.Unfortunately, the Palace had closed early, being a Sunday, so we caught another bus to a smaller ferry-point, crossed over by a smaller ferry and caught another bus to Taksim Square, where we had started from.
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It was only 5.30 pm, though dark. We went investigating around the square and found the main shopping road, which was THE main road 100 years ago as well, lined with shops selling mostly wearable and eatable stuff, a thoroughly consumerist road if there ever was one. There were no cars allowed on this wide paved road, thronging with people shopping, window-shopping, or simply out to enjoy a little fresh night air!
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We returned around 8.00 pm and had dinner in our rooms.

Ankara: 13.02.2006

In the morning we were on the streets of Istanbul, working away as usual. Snow had fallen at night and the ground was whiter. However, it was not raining and that was a big relief.
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We had wrapped up the day by 3.00 pm and attacked Pizza Hut for lunch, my stomach cringing now at the continuous onslaught of cheese. I also realised that though the cold (minus 2 degC) prevented sweat, we were losing moisture all the time through breath to the crisp cold air and not drinking enough water to compensate.
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While we were in Pizza Hut, it started snowing in bigger flakes and we sat there enjoying the sight. People here were not concerned about it at all.

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We reached the airport early and were kindly put on to an earlier flight (6.00 pm) to Ankara, so that we landed by 7.30 pm. Ankara was WHITE. Though the road from the airport to the city was dark, from our high seats in the bus we could see fields of untouched snow.
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The Ankara Hilton was a smaller affair than the Istanbul Hilton and when we stepped out of our taxi and walked the small distance to the reception, the minus 5 degC could be felt in our bones. We had a light dinner in our rooms and slept off.

Ankara: 14.02.2006

The morning view from our rooms was really fantastic — roofs covered with snow, snow falling off tree-branches and neat black paths swept clean through lawns and inside driveways. When we went out after breakfast, the snow-shovels had already been in operation and all roads were clear. Still, it was fun to see parked cars laden with snow and with icicles dripping.......

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The Industrial Area that we were going to was quite far, so we cabbed it to the Metro station and caught a train underground. As pro and chic as any European city. We had to walk around a lot for prospecting. Though it was neither raining nor snowing, it was still cold enough to make my fingers ache inside my gloves. Thank God for our boots. Manihar bought his pair in Damascus just before we flew to Istanbul.
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Warm clothes are available here in plenty, of course. I bought a muffler today, to save my throat. Lot of woollen stuff comes from India.

.We do meet interesting people on these trips. One of the prospects who did not speak English called friend to interpret. Later we learnt that he was a guide, who takes people hunting in the mountains. He has been to Pakistan also a few times for hunting, he said!
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Our check-out was slated for 4.00 pm and our return flight to Istanbul for 9.00 pm. No time for lunch as we wanted to visit a couple of sights. How quickly energy gets consumed in this cold! Our breakfast had been burnt away in a couple of hours and we had to buy some biscuits and juice to keep going. In fact I was seriously considering stopping my sugar medicines for the time being! I needed all the sugar I could get.
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We visited the Ankara Castle (or Citadel) and walked around the ice-covered slippery lanes inside. People live there. We were guided to the highest point by a couple of sure-footed children. Groups of Japanese tourists were also going around. They have cold winters in Japan too, so this may be okay for them.......

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After checkout, we thought we’ll go to the airport and try for an earlier flight (there’s one every hour). We stopped at Ataturk’s mausoleum on the way to take some snaps. However, the airline reported that all flights were full up to the one we were supposed to travel in , so we waited out 3 hours at the airport.
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It was snowing in Istanbul when we landed — big fluffy flakes!

Istanbul: 15.02.2006

This was our last day in Istanbul and the last day of our tour as well — just as we were getting used to the cold and had learnt the best way to brush off snow from our clothes!
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We had a couple of meetings in the morning and the snow today was quite ‘satisfactory’. Bigger flakes that made my black coat flecked and spattered white in no time. Even after our business was over, we did not feel like sitting in the hotel waiting for departure time of flights but went for a walk in the snow, to a short cable-car ride that was plying close to the hotel.......

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My flight was to Muscat, with a change at Amman, leaving at 4.00 pm. Manihar had a direct flight to Dubai. So I checked out earlier by myself. Given that there was only one hour gap in Amman, I had an anxious moment when I found that my flight was delayed by 50 mins. However, it somehow ‘made up’ and created a half-hour gap! I reached home at 2.30 am, all fresh.

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SYRIA - Damascus/ Aleppo/Lattakia (2006)

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Damascus: 6.02.2006

This is said to be the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world, with a population of around 6 million (Syria is 17 million).
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All the people here, whether Jordanians or Syrians, look practically European. English is a commonly spoken language, less so in Syria, though. However, these countries are not conservative and the veil is positively absent. Women are trendily dressed and black leather seems to be favoured equally by both men and women.......

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We were at work till around 5.00 pm, when business closes for the day. It was not very cold – around 14-15 degC. Our customer said that he will pick us up at 8.00 pm and take us to two places – (i) on a hilltop with a good night view of Damascus and (ii) to a 1000-year old Hamam for a Turkish bath!
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We first went to a huge souq called Al Hammadiya to pass some time. It was practically a replica of Khan-el-Khalili in Cairo minus the eating places. We ended up buying some things for home, including some warm stuff for Turkey, which was running at 0 degC!......

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We went with our customer to the hill-top, which is quite a popular view-point with cafes perched on the edge. We spent around an hour in one of the cafes, enjoying the view and having tit-bits (fouls, nuts etc) and swapping jokes with our Syrian friend. He has lived in places like Ghana and Angola and his experiences were both serious as well as hilarious.

.We politely declined the offer of the Turkish bath, saving it for Turkey. Anyway, being massaged by muscular Syrians was an uncomfortable notion ….
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I found that Syrians were much more bureaucratic people than Jordanians, with complex governmental procedures. This was, in fact, a ‘taxing’ city, which used to levy taxes on the trade merchants and caravans ceaselessly passing this way. However, Damascus seemed big and well-developed and prosperous. Korean cars have flooded the streets and I could see Chinese makes as well.

.We’ll see later whether we can see a bit of the Old City. As of now, we are scheduled to travel to Aleppo tomorrow evening, spending the night there.

Aleppo: 7.02.2006

We had left Damascus by ‘Pullman’, which a coach type bus, popular here for long-distance travel, as the roads are good. We first disembarked at Hama (or ‘Homos’ as they call it locally) to visit a customer and spent an hour with him. We again boarded a Pullman around 7.00 pm and reached Aleppo by 9.00 pm. Hama is around 200 km north of Damascus (called ‘Miska’ locally) and Aleppo (called ‘Halab’ locally) is another 150 km..

Aleppo is the second-biggest town in Syria. It occupies a strategic trading point midway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates. Initially, Aleppo was built on a small group of hills surrounding the prominent hill where the castle is erected. The small river Quwēq runs through the city.

.We had enquired with our customer for a good hotel in Aleppo and he had recommended Hotel Baron’s in Baron Street. His idea of ‘good’ varied from ours, since, as we alighted from the cab, we were quite non-plussed by the ‘bhoot-bangla’ look of the place. It turned out to be the oldest hotel in Aleppo, built in 1811, and had been practically the only building in town for some time! The counter-clerk (owner?) was also pretty ancient and next morning we were hard put to get a hotel bill! Having said that, however, the rooms were heated by hot-water radiators, the bathroom was half as big as the bedroom and the TV (21”) had cable. Manihar stayed in the ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ room and I in the ‘Agatha Christie’ room, as these personages had graced the chambers at one time.

.Aleppo was colder than Damascus and it was almost 11.00 pm when we went out for a walk and found a nearby falafel sandwich centre who made bumper sandwiches for us.

Lattakia: 8.02.2006

We had only half-a-day’s work in Aleppo and had originally planned to return to Damascus this evening and spend one more day there. However, our work in Damascus was already over and we had heard of the nearby port city of Lattakia, from where goods came into Syria; so we decided to travel there instead and spend the night. The route was also supposed to be scenic and it was a seaside town
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On the way to the train station, we passed Aleppo’s Citadel and collected some knick-knacks from a nearby soup.......

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We boarded the chair-car at 3.30 pm and reached Lattakia at 8.00 pm. It was a pleasant journey, though slow. But the weather was so murky that it turned dark before we passed the scenic hilly stretches.
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We stayed the night at the Meridien, right on the beach, which was closed for the winter. A pre-dinner walk along the beach-side showed up a rough sea, whipped up by cold and gusty winds, shoving the clouds across a dark sky. Nobody would even dream of swimming out here in such weather!......

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Had a soothing dinner in the room of lentil soup, pasta and french fries.

Damascus: 9.02.2006

At Lattakia, the wind worked itself up to a gale last night, howling away outside the windows. In the morning, there was a burst of hail and the verandah was full of sparkling cubes.
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As we had breakfast, the rain gradually stopped and the clouds seemed less black. There was even a splash of sunshine for a little while.
.We check out by 10.30 am, did a round of the business districts and boarded a Pullman for Damascus, that left at 11.30 am and reached at 4.00 pm, with a 30 min break in between.
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Luckily, neither Manihar nor I are very finicky about food. Mostly our lunches would be pretty loose affairs — fafafel sandwich if we were lucky, or just chips and chocolate like today.

.The bus journey was a nice scenic one. The route travels south along the coast till it hits the border of Lebanon, then cuts east across the mountains to Hama on the Damascus-Aleppo highway, then south again to Damascus.
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The mountains were full of melting snow and the brown-and-white patchwork grounds that we were driving through looked beautiful. How I wished we could have stopped for a minute!.

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We collected our suitcases from the Sheraton (we had travelled to Hama-Aleppo-Lattakia with only small bags) and checked into Meridien instead, just for variety. Went out for a long walk to loosen our limbs. The rain was a fine mist and it was below 10 degC. We had an early dinner at the only Indian restaurant in town — the Taj Mahal, as expected! Food was good, after all the irregular grub.

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We returned along a well-known shopping street, the Sara Shallan, and did some window-shopping. Manihar ended up by buying a pair of boots that seemed built to tackle the snows of Turkey.
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Tomorrow we leave for Istanbul via Amman.

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JORDAN - Amman/Petra/Aqaba (2006)

Amman: 1.02.2006

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This is the first time I am travelling to Middle Eastern countries – Jordan, Syria and Turkey (UAE is practically home). Mind you, the people of Jordan etc do not think of themselves as proper Arabs – more European, so to speak. They are all very fair and stylish and lot of them speak very good English, giving a valid gora effect overall.

.I spent last night on a couch in the Emirates Business Lounge, awaiting my 8.30 am connection to Amman, for which Manihar joined me at Dubai. The internet had predicted pretty cold weather – max 10 degC, min 0 degC. So I had bought a short woollen coat and a turtle-neck sweater at Muscat, and having packed it along with gloves and cap in a separate hand-baggage, which I decided not to let out of my possession come what may, I felt that I was adequately prepared. In fact, when we landed in Amman at 9.30 am, it was 7 degC, but quickly climbed to 12 degC.

.2 million out of Jordan’s 5 million population lives in Amman. It is a sprawling city, built on mountainous terrain, therefore full of climbing streets and sudden turning slopes. The traffic was heavy, but good-natured, the shops and arcades very Indian-ish. The people are friendly and most of them speak passable English. Mani speaks fluent Arabic anyway.
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As the day was already half-spent, we worked straight through to 5.30 pm, which is closing time in winter months here, meeting people and surveying the market. The temperature dropped quickly after sundown, hitting 8 degC by 6.00 pm. We went straight for dinner at an Indian restaurant and repaired to our hotel, a bit tired as it was the first day.

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Four Seasons, where we were staying, was a very nice hotel. The rooms have DVD players as well and a choice of free movies at the reception. I chose “National Treasure” (Nicholas Cage) which I’ll try to watch after I write my journal entry for the day. Don’t think I’ll finish it – it’s 9.00 pm already.

Amman: 2.02.2006

Today started cloudy. And windy. And raindrops now and then. Though temperature was around 14 degC, it turned distinctly chilly. Our work ran from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm, after which we called it off and went for lunch at Pizza Hut. The beginning of our meal was slightly spoiled because our order of feta cheese and spinach rolls came to be served as barbecued chicken rolls and we were halfway through our meal before we realised it! The waiter, finding spinach short, had ‘upgraded’ us, expecting feverish thanks, but was faced with Manihar’s indignation instead!

.We visited upmarket Amman, ie the downtown area, and went to a shopping mall. Jordanians dress quite fashionably and well, and the branded shops did have one or two customers, unlike Muscat. The food court was roaring, with no place to sit. They did not allow photography inside, the twits!......

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In all public places, including our hotel, checking and body-searches are quite common. Gun-toting military police are also seen in good numbers.
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We changed our stay plans slightly. Since we also had to visit the town of Aqaba down south (350 km) and the historic hidden city of Petra was on the way, we decided to check out of here tomorrow, go to Petra and stay there (being Friday) and continue to Aqaba next morning, work there and return to Amman at night.

Petra: 3.02.2006

Today was a sightseeing day, although our business purpose was served to the extent that in travelling to Petra, we covered more than half the distance to the southern city of Aqaba, where we have to meet customers tomorrow.

.Morning at Amman was tremendously foggy and very chilly. Ahmed, our driver, promised that Petra would be clearer and warmer. Amman being a hilly area, we were being subject to hilly weather.

.On the way to Petra, we took a diversion to the town of Kerak, which was a fully fortified city at one time, with the fortress at the top looking over rolling plains on three sides. The views were magnificent. The fort itself is quite primitive compared to, say, the citadel that we had seen in Alexandria. However, the position is very good, the city limits bounded by deep river gorges.

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.We reached Petra city (small hilly town, actually) around 2.00 pm. Since the hidden ancient city location closes at 5.00 pm, we straightaway went in, skipping lunch and delaying the check-in till we finished. We engaged a guide as well, as the history was a little fuzzy for us.

.The ancient city of Petra (not the currently inhabited part) actually resides inside a vast area surrounded by hills and limestone cliffs. The formal approach is along a 1.2 kilometre gorge, around 10-20 metres wide at the base and 40 metres high, along which people, horses, carriages, whatever had to travel along to reach the hidden city. It was built up between the 2nd century BC and the 5th century AD, mainly by the Nabataeans, a very gifted Arab tribe originally from north-west Arabia, who had their fingers on all the trade routes going through the region. Caravan control and management seemed to be their specialty. Later on, around 100 AD, the city was captured by the Romans.

.The approach is truly amazing. It was originally a natural gorge along which water used to flow, which the Nabataeans dried out, paved and made into their approach road. In fact, as we emerge from the final crack in the cliff, the Treasury building looms large right in front..

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.The rock formations are diverse and the variety of colours and designs in the rock really great. They had dug water channels all along the walls for feeding the city. During the Roman siege, the Romans simply stopped these channels and the city fell.

.To see Petra’s architecture fully, it would take at least two days, as the places inside the area are far apart. It seemed that most of the dwellings were cave-like and were quite simplistic, with poor natural lighting. Tombs were many, both inside the city area as well as outside the gorge.

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.The rose-red stones and dust lend Petra its typical colour. In the sunlight, the buildings and pillars look positively pink!

.We have put up at the Crown Plaza. Finished our pizza dinner by 7.00 pm and trudged back, quite fagged out.

Aqaba: 4.02.2006

Today I woke at 4.00 am (6.00 am in Muscat) and wished Panna ‘happy anniversary’.
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First view out of the window was the mountains of Petra as the sunlight slowly climbed down from the peaks.

.We took off after breakfast to the port city of Aqaba, on the coast of the Red Sea. A medium-sizes relaxed city of around 100,000 inhabitants. Our work was over in the morning, so we spent some time at the waterfront and looked upon the city of Eilat (Israel) across the Gulf of Aqaba.
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.[For those of you who have seen the classic “Lawrence of Arabia”, Aqaba was the strategically important port town that Lawrence attacked after crossing the uncrossable desert and routed the Ottoman forces.]

.After lunch, we went sightseeing to a natural reserve called Wadi Rum, around 30 km from Aqaba. It is a truly wonderful place, declared as a natural preserve. A tremendously wide wadi bordered by high limestone cliffs weathered for ages into intricate patterns. Our 17.5 year old driver packed us into a mud-spattered 4-wheel drive and took off full-speed across the bouncy grounds, smooth pink dunes and sometimes across rocky slopes. The views were simply fantastic and photos were grossly inadequate.......

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Lawrence had made Wadi Rum also his playground. This was his headquarter during the time he was coordinating the Arab Revolt during WWI. In fact we were shown a dilapidated brick shelter which goes by the name of ‘Lawrence’s house’.

.Two days ago, it had rained in Wadi Rum like it had never rained for 15 years. Deep gullies had formed where there was soft soil. Yet there was hardly any trace of moisture today.

.While returning, we picked up a Canadian couple whose Jeep had run out of petrol! On introduction, we learnt that the man had “just finished starting off a couple of telecom companies” and the lady was an architect. Nice people. We stood together in Wadi Rum and watched the sunset.
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.We reached Amman around 9.00 pm and checked into the Royal Palace hotel this time.

Amman: 5.02.2006

After lunch, we were scheduled to travel to Damascus by road, but we were at a loose end in the morning as all the meetings in Amman were over. So we decided to visit the Dead Sea, which is a half-hour drive from Amman.

.Said to be the lowest sea-level in this part of the world, the Dead Sea is tremendously salty and heavy. Manihar had visited earlier, but I definitely looked forward to the ‘fffloating sensation”.

.The coastal drive to the sea was also picturesque, hugging the mountains. Standing on the beach, we could see Israel on the other side. We changed and waded into the water over very sharp and scratchy salt deposits that looked like corals. A single scratch would burn for a long time. Floating was quite nice (though the water felt very chilly to start with). Half the body practically remains out of the water..

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.The beach also has deposits of black volcanic mud (like I had seen in Kamchatka), which we rubbed all over ourselves and waited in the sun for it to dry – sort of like a pack treatment. In fact it is said to have therapeutic properties. Then we washed it off by another dip in the sea.

.Our driver Ahmed volunteered to take us to some hot springs 10 km away. There was even a hot waterfall that served to give a hot massage to our neck and back as we stood under it. The pools were also steaming hot and very relaxing. The surroundings were not cleanly maintained, though..

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.We drove back to the hotel, checked out and had lunch – you guessed it, Pizza Hut! I swear I would not be able to eat Pizza for a month or so!

.We said goodbye to a customer and got dropped to the Amman-Damascus taxi stand. Leaving at 5.00 pm, we reached Damascus by 8.30 pm, which was quite a decent hour. We checked into Sheraton, but we could make out that the standards in Syria were not as high as those in Jordan.

.We had dinner at the hotel of hummus, mutable, falafel and bread – heavenly!

LINK TO JORDAN ALBUM

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