Peru Diaries - Day 7 - NYE in Chivay

Sorry for the delay in sending this update. We didn't have internet for the last two days.

Day 7 (Tuesday) was another early morning start. We woke up at 5 am in our hotel in Puno, got ready and had a quick breakfast. Then our bus picked us up around 6 am. The bus picked up a few other people and then set off for Chivay.

Chivay is a small town surrounded by mountains on all sides. Our drive from Puno to Chivay was 6 hours long. We made a few stops to see flamingos, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas (pronounced why-koonya) and volcanoes. The viewpoint to see the volcano mountains was the highest point of our entire trip at an altitude of 4910 meters.

After reaching our hotel around 1 pm, we rested for a while. This hotel was part of the tour package for day 7 and 8 so we didn't really know much about it as we hadn't booked it ourselves. It was nice as far as architecture was concerned but we had three issues with it - they didn't have internet, none of the staff spoke or understood English and the location was a little away from the downtown. We told the tour company about these issues and they tried to compensate by giving us special treatment. They took us to a buffet lunch that wasn't too great and all we could eat was things made with potatoes - potato/veggie tempura, French fries and potato lasagna. We had initially planned to go to an optional tour of the nearby hot springs at 4 pm but then we decided to stay in our room and watch a few episodes of Friends (on one of the few English channels on TV) and get some rest.

We asked our tour guide to take us to the New Year's Eve celebration dinner. They picked us up at 10 pm and we went for dinner. It was a lot of fun. We ordered vegetarian food and enjoyed the folk songs and dances performed by local musicians and actors. We made a video of a folk dance that narrates a very funny story about a thief and a girl. After having dinner, we left around 11:10 pm since we needed to get sleep for the 7 am start for the next day. We took a cab and went to bed. We were woken up by fireworks around midnight and surprisingly, they were on quite a large scale, definitely bigger than that fireworks we saw in Calgary for the previous New Year's Eve.

That was the end of a rather quiet day where the highlights were getting to see the animals during our bus ride and the folk dances at the restaurant.

Peru Diaries - Day 6 - Lake Titicaca

Day 6 (Monday) started when we were woken up from a very comfortable sleep in our overnight bus when it reached Puno. We arrived in Puno at 5:15 am.

We took a cab to our hotel. Since it was really early, we were not able to check in but we left our luggage with the hotel. We quickly freshened up and were ready for our day tour of Lake Titicaca.

Our bus took us to the harbor where we boarded a boat. Our tour had two parts - a visit of the floating island of Uros and then a visit of the natural island of Taquile.

Lake Titicaca is more like a sea - 185 km by 65 km and 5 km deep. It is the world's highest navigable lake at 3800 meters. It is situated between Peru and Bolivia.

We had booked the tour with a speedboat option and it looked more like an aircraft inside than a boat. We were at the Uros floating island in 30 minutes.

The floating island was an amazing experience, probably on par with the majestic Machu Picchu. Slaves of the Incan times escaped to this lake about 700 years ago and started living in boats. Then they evolved over time and started building (yes, building) islands from weeds and other natural bamboo like plants found in the lake. We were given a demonstration of the building process and then shown products built by the ten families living on the Uros floating island (there are other islands like it too). In Incan religion, laziness is a sin so beggary is not encouraged and everyone works hard to earn a living. Tourists that visit their island are their main source of income so we bought a little hand made boat from a family and they let us take a picture with them. We also took a serene boat ride in a very sturdy boat made by the island people. The experience is one of the best we've had not just in Peru but anywhere.

Then we went to the natural island of Taquile after a 30-minute speedboat ride. We hiked from one side of the island to the other and then had lunch there. Lunch was made from things that are available at the island - fish, quinoa, rice (after trading their products with the mainland), vegetables and herbal tea. People living on this island grow different crops including potatoes and quinoa.

After lunch we headed back to Puno city and were dropped off at our hotel. We checked-in to our room and took showers. Now we are going to have dinner and after that it'll be bed time since it's another 5 am early morning start for our Colca Canyon tour.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying reading the updates :)

Peru Diaries - Day 5 - Sacred Valley

We woke up at 7 am on Sunday and checked out of our hotel. We left our suitcases with the hotel. Our Sacred Valley tour bus was late and only arrived after we called them from the hotel lobby. They picked us half an hour late at 8:45 am and it turned out that they had sent a Spanish language tour. The Spanish-speaking guide somehow managed to explain to us with hand gestures that we should board the bus and at the first stop, he will transfer us to an English tour. We stopped at a small market and were transferred to an English tour. However, since it was last minute, we got the worst seats and sat in different rows. In short, the day didn't start off on the best note.

We made another quick stop at the Pisac market which was more of a sales pitch by a jewelry store. They showed us how pure silver is mixed with copper to make it possible to create silver jewelry. Then we drove on and stopped at the first archaeological site called Pisac. It's an old town of Incan times that had two sectors - an agricultural staircase-steps-like terraces and a residential area. Again, the architectural expertise of the Incans was on display.

Then we drove for an hour to Urubamba valley where we had a buffet lunch. It must be mentioned that being a Sunday, there were at least 50 other tour buses just like ours carrying 30 people each doing the same circuit so everywhere we went, it was very slow. The buffet might have been okay but because there were too many people, we barely got one serving and the food had limited options, mostly potatoes in various forms.

After the Urubamba lunch, our next stop was at Ollantaytambo and it was easily the best site of the day. These are ruins of an old town that was named after General Ollanta of the Incan army. We had to climb some 300 stairs to get to the top with a few stops in between. At each stop, we were told some bits about Incan history which we had already been told by our earlier guides in the Cusco city tour and Machu Picchu. An interesting reason why this location was chosen to build this town is a natural rock formation on the mountain overlooking the town that looks like the face of a bearded man! Locals believed that this mountain was the protector of this land which made the town a safe place to inhabit. There was a traffic jam when our tour bus was trying to leave and it took us half an hour to just get out of the parking lot. Apart from the ruins and the overlooking mountain-man that we saw, another special thing about the town of Ollantaytambo is that it is an example of an active Incan town - people are still living in houses/buildings from the Incan times (with periodic renovations, of course).

Our next stop of Chinchero was also an interesting one since we were given demonstrations by Quechua women of how they are still practicing Incan traditions and using the same handcrafting skills. We were shown how dyes of different colors are produced from naturally occurring substances and are then used to color textiles. The demonstrating girl was quite funny. There were stalls by different families displaying their products. We bought a couple of things that we liked.

At that point, it was 6:45 pm and our tour guide asked people if they would like to make an optional stop at a church. Some people were interested so he took them to see the church but we told him to arrange us to be driven back to Cusco since we wanted to have dinner before catching our overnight bus to Puno. The transfer bus that we got had an extremely entertaining guide and that's when we realized that our day could have been a lot better only if we had had a more organized tour operating company. Oh well, we did manage to see all the sites in the original itinerary for the day so I guess it's all good. The guide of our temporary ride to Cusco even sang songs (including the famous "La Bamba") and asked everyone where they are from and then narrated a small story about each country.

In Cusco, we walked straight to Green's restaurant (where we had experienced the best food of the trip a couple of days earlier) and had another exceptional meal. After dinner, we got a cab to the hotel and picked up our suitcases. The cab dropped us off at the bus station.

The overnight bus was beyond our expectations and we're glad that we got the first-class seats. Apart from huge and super comfortable reclining leather seats, we were also given blankets and headphones. A small snack tray and tea were also provided. We had the tea, stowed away the cheese bun sandwiches in our bag and got ready to sleep.

Peru Diaries - Day 4 - Machu Picchu

Day 4 update will be a short one for two reasons: (1) Machu Picchu is better described in pictures and (2) we have another early morning tomorrow so we need to sleep.

We woke up at 3:45 am and after getting ready, we were in our hotel lobby at 4:45 am. Our hotel was nice enough to pack us a small breakfast. The bus was late and we were picked up at 5:25 am. We set off for the Peru Rail station in the neighboring city of Ollantaytambo and reached there in almost two hours. Then we boarded our 7:45 am train that took us to the city of Agues Callientas at the base of Machu Picchu. The Peru Rail train ride was 1.5 hours - we had our breakfast on the train and were also served complimentary coffee. Then we took a 25-minute bus that took us from Agues Callientas up to Machu Picchu through winding unpaved roads.

We were at the Machu Picchu gate at 10:10 am, more than 6 hours after waking up. We hired a guide for the two of us and in retrospect, it turned out to be a great decision.

As soon as we laid eyes on this lost city of the Incas, we were spell bound. The grandeur of this city (and it seems unfair to call it a ruin since it's still quite majestic) cannot be described in words, specially when you think of the time when it was built.

The site was specially chosen because of religious, safety and weather reasons. Machu Picchu has only two modes of weather: rain or sun. Rain is good for growing crops and who doesn't like sunshine. Since it is on top of a mountain - the Machu Picchu or literally "Old Mountain" - and is surrounded on all sides by mountains too, it made the perfect setting to have a base hidden away and inaccessible from the enemy. The only way to reach the city was by trekking through the jungle and of course you needed to know the directions. Even now, there are only two ways of getting to the lost city - a 4 day trek of the scenic Inca Trail or the train/bus combination that we used. The religious aspects are even more startling. The Incans believed that life existed in three dimensions - the highest world inhabited by their gods (represented by the bird Condor - we will get to see the flight of the Condor later in our trip), the middle world inhabited by living things (represented by the Puma - another animal found primarily in Peru) and the underworld inhabited by the dead (represented by the snake). Why is this important? Machu Picchu is surrounded by a mountain that is shaped like a condor expanding it's wings, another mountain that looks like a resting Puma and a river that flows like a snake. Another interesting thing is that when you look at the Puma mountain and the condor mountain together, it looks like the face of an Inca who is lying down on the floor. Reading about it might not sound too exciting but seeing all these elements come together in one place was fascinating.

Then we explored different sections of the city with our guide. She showed us the temples, the residence of the high priest, the palace of the Inca king, the apartments of the women, a sundial (a simple stone that is quite a marvel of astronomy - used by the Incas to calculate times, equinoxes and other astronomical phenomena), a garden where all kinds of fruits and vegetables were grown, the terraces or farming areas and the central courtyard. Some areas are still under restoration so they are off-limits. It was a very informative tour and yet again, the quality of stone masonry on display was incredible.

After the tour, when we were making our way to the exit to have lunch, Samia slipped off a stair and sprained her ankle. So we took a one hour break where Samia had a painkiller and we just sat and relaxed. After a little while, we made our way back to a nice sitting area that has been constructed in the Incan style. We sat there for quite some time, read the sections on Machu Picchu from our travel guide book that we got in Calgary, had some snacks and also made two videos - a grazing llama and a llama drying its fur by rolling on the dusty floor of the sitting area.

Machu Picchu is very rightly categorized as a modern wonder of the world and we are glad that we got to experience this breathtaking grand city while it is still open to public.

Around 4 pm, we started making out way back via the same modes of transportation that we had used in the morning. We took a bus down to Agues Callientas followed by a hot chocolate break at a cafe, then caught our 6:45 pm train to Ollantaytambo and then a bus again back to Cusco. We reached Cusco around 10:25 pm and took a cab back to our hotel.

Tomorrow, we have to wake up around 7 am and checkout of our hotel. We'll leave our suitcases with the hotel and then our Sacred Valley tour bus will pick us up at 8:15 am for a full-day trip that will include Pisac, Urubamba, Olantaytambo and Chinchero - four archaeological sites around Cusco city. A buffet lunch is also included. After the tour, we'll come back to our hotel and then take the 10 pm bus to Puno. The plan is to sleep though the 7 hour drive and as soon as we reach our hotel at 5 am, we'll be picked up for another full day trip of Lake Titicaca. It's a lake where the reef is so thick that people have built houses on it and live in them. I'm giving a quick overview of the plan since we won't get access to Internet till Monday night. That's when we'll send the next update.

Peru Diaries - Day 3 - Museums of Cusco

The day 3 (Friday) update is coming a little late because we had a busy day visiting 5 museums and 1 cathedral and we had two excellent meals in between.

We had breakfast and left for the day according to the plan that we had discussed the night before. Our first stop was the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art. It was quite small with only 3 galleries. Some of the paintings were really good and given the lack of exposure in a small city like Cusco, it was quite impressive. The artwork wasn't by any famous artists rather it was the work of upcoming local artists. As a consequence, we were allowed to take pictures with flash which isn't usually the case when the artwork is older and by more famous artists.

Our second stop was the Museum of Regional History one block diagonally across from the previous one. This museum chronicled different periods in Peru's history from the Inca emperors to Spanish Viceroys and how Christianity incorporated local Pagan symbols to form a version that the locals could relate to easily. For instance, in a Peruvian rendering of Jesus' Last Supper painting by a local artist, Jesus and his apostles are feasting on guinea pig and drinking chicha. Guinea pig holds religious significance for the locals and chicha is a local fermented corn drink. Another section of the museum chronicled the life of a Peruvian born historian Garcilaso de la Vega whose father was Spanish and mother Quechuan giving him a unique wholesome perspective on ancient Incan rituals/history and Spanish conquests. Quechua is the term used to describe local indigenous people.

Our third stop was the Museum of Popular Art that was in the basement of the municipal tourism building where we had bought our Boleto Turístico passes. It was a small museum that housed all the entries submitted to an annual local art competition. As expected, there was a range of quality on display but the most interesting pieces were the ones that had been winners in the past. The quick trip to this museum was another glimpse into the artistic talents of the local populace.

The next museum that we visited was in the basement of the Qorikancha archaeological site that we had visited yesterday. There wasn't any new information for us except that we got a little more visual display of the mummification process that the Incans used. Another new fact that we learned was that Incans performed brain surgery using their tools (and Coca tea as anesthesia) with a respectable 65% survival rate! For twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, that's quite remarkable.

After this, we stopped for lunch at an organic restaurant called Green's Cafe. The food that we had there was the best that we have had in Peru so far. All their ingredients were organic and grown locally in the Sacred Valley (that we'll tour on Sunday). Everything tasted divine.

After lunch, we visited the famous Cathedral of Cusco that was built by the Spaniards. The Cathedral is flanked on both sides by two churches that are different in architecture since they were built during different times. We hired a tour guide who gave us interesting information about the Cathedral, the two churches and the Peruvian version of Christianity. For instance, it is traditional in Europe and North America for churches to display Jesus as the main figure. However, in the local Quechuan pagan religion, owing to the importance attached to Mother Nature, all churches in Peru show Mary (mother of Jesus) as the centerpiece. As the guide told us, this shift in focus and inclusion of other elements of the local religious beliefs (guinea pig, chicha) was an attempt by the Spanish Catholic missionaries to ease the conversion of locals to Christianity. Another interesting element that is incorporated in the murals and paintings of this Cathedral is the depiction of Mary wearing a dress that resembles a canopy so that she looks like a mountain. This was done because mountains hold special status in the local religious belief as protectors of the region. Similarly, instead of drawing camels, local artists have drawn llamas to make the preaching more digestible for the locals. In fact, there was a painting depicting a battle between North African Muslim Moors and the Christian Spanish armies in which the Muslims were riding llamas instead of camels!

Our last museum of the day was the Pre-Colombian Museum of Art. This museum is a sister museum of the famous Larco Museum in Lima that we wouldn't have a chance to visit when we go to Lima so it was a surprising treat. The museum chronicles different eras and civilizations that were found in South America before the Incans. For all eras, a sampling of the pottery, woodwork and metal artifacts was on display. Some civilizations' work was so modern that we wouldn't be surprised to find those pieces in a modern artsy cookware store!

The first 4 museums were covered by our Boleto Turístico but the last one had a separate entry fee.

After visiting our last museum, we were quite tired so we did some quick shopping in the old streets of Cusco that have been preserved with the same names since the times of the Incans. Then we decided to have dinner at La Bodega. The restaurant is run by a family in what used to be their home. It had a long waiting line but we were lucky to find comfortable seats in the waiting area so we decided to wait. We ordered a salad and a pizza and both were excellent. By this time, after having walked around 10 km through the day without any long breaks, we were really tired and took a cab back to our hotel. We went to sleep as soon as we got back since the next day was going to start really early at 4 am.

I'm writing this update on Saturday evening as our train takes us back from Machu Picchu. We'll send the update for today (Saturday) when we get back to the hotel.

We hope you're enjoying the updates :)

Peru Diaries - Day 2 - Cusco City Tour

On Thursday, we had breakfast at our hotel and then walked to the Main Square and purchased tickets from a travel agency for two tours - a city tour of Cusco and a tour of the Sacred Valley. Then we bought a Tourist Pass (Boleto Turístico) that allows entry to 16 different archaeological sites and museums. We won't be able to visit all of them but will possibly visit around 10 out of these 16.

We had decided that we would be doing the city tour of Cusco today (Thursday). The tour started at 2 pm and ended around 7 pm. We covered 5 sites (4 of which were covered by the Boleto Turístico) and also stopped at a factory that manufactures products made of Alpaca fur. Alpaca is a type of small camel-like animal that is found only in South America and its largest population is in Peru. Alpaca wool is famous for its warmth which is why it is quite expensive.

Our first stop was Qorikancha. It wasn't too far from the Main Square. In fact, we had seen it in our walk of the city yesterday. Peru was ruled by the Incas and their famous Incan Empire was ended by Spanish colonialists. Qorikancha is an Incan temple on top of which the Spaniards built a Catholic Cathedral. All that remains now are the central courtyard and a couple of temple rooms built by the Incas. The reason that the Incan structures are still intact is the high quality of stone masonry which was a distinguishing feature of Incan architecture. We saw a temple where mummies of female Incan royalty were stored and the other temple was used as storage for male mummies of Incan kings. We were also shown why the Incan stone masonry is so resilient - there was no mortar used to glue the stones together, rather they were carved out like Lego blocks or jigsaw puzzle and put on top of each other so that they fit into each other perfectly. Qorikancha was not included in Boleto Turístico and we paid a separate entry fee.

Our second stop was Tambomachay. It is a beautifully wrought ceremonial stone bath channeling crystalline spring water through fountains that have been functioning since the 13th Century or the time of the Incas. We also saw the remains of a signaling post and all that stands today is the base. From the top of this base, we could see our third stop of the tour which is the Pukapukara signaling post that was also used as a stopping point for travelers coming into Cusco. These travelers were required to pay an entry tax in the form of goods such as coca leaves or fruit from the jungle. We made a quick photo stop at Pukapukara and then moved on.

The fourth stop was Qenqo. The name of this ruin means zigzag. It's a large limestone rock riddled with niches, steps and zigzagging channels. These channels were used for the ritual offering of blood by letting it flow through. Underneath the rock is a cave which has a flat ritual table used for ceremonies and our guide said that women and children might also have been sacrificed there.

Our last stop was Sacsaywamán, the highlight of the day. This large ruin has both military and religious significance. The 9th Incan emperor remodeled the shape of Cusco city as a Puma such that most of the present day city was it's body and the Sacsaywamán temple was the head of the Puma. The gigantic zigzag rocks of the temple walls symbolized the teeth of the Puma. Today, only the giant rocks at the base of the building remain since this temple was mistaken by the Spaniards as a fortress and therefore destroyed. They also allowed the stones of the temple building to be used in the construction of other buildings. The giant rocks at the bottom could not be lifted so they remained intact. Just to get an idea of how big these rocks are, some of them weigh about 300 tons and are 30 feet high. We climbed to the top of the structure that remains today and saw a bird's eye view of Cusco city.

After visiting all these sites, we stopped at the Alpaca goods' factory to get a crash course in identifying pure Alpaca wool. We got an Alpaca blanket for our home that we plan to use as a throw in our lounge.

When we got back to the city, we walked to the San Blas district where we had dinner at a Western style cafe called Jack's Cafe. After dinner, we walked back and will now plan out our day for tomorrow. 4 sites from our tourist pass were covered in today's tour of Cusco city and 3 sites will be covered in Sunday's tour of the Sacred Valley. For tomorrow, we plan to visit a few museums from our tourist pass and other museums that we might like to check out.

Peru Diaries - Day 1 - Calgary to Cusco

We left Calgary at 3 pm on Monday and reached Denver around 6 pm. We had dinner at the airport by sampling a couple of restaurants (Wolfgang Puck and Cantina). After a 4 hour layover, we left for Houston and reached our hotel around 1:30 am. The hotel was right next to the airport. The overnight stay turned out to be a blessing as we got a chance to get some good sleep before the main flight to Peru.

On Tuesday morning, after having breakfast at our hotel, we left for Houston airport. Our flight was on time and we left around 3 pm. It was a Boeing 767 with very comfortable seats but since we had slept at the hotel, we passed the 6.5 hours flight by watching three movies: Elysium, World War Z and After Earth. The entertainment system had great options so we're sure that we'll be entertained on our return flight too. We reached Lima (the capital of Peru) at 11:30 pm local time. Peru is just one time zone east of Calgary's time zone but since they are not observing Daylight savings, Peru is two hours ahead of Calgary in time. We had a very smooth immigration at the airport and the officer virtually didn't ask any questions at all (perhaps because he didn't speak English too fluently). After collecting our bags, we checked-in for our next flight to Cusco and then checked out a few shops at the airport. The Lima airport is quite advanced and we guess that so is the city. We'll explore Lima at the end of our trip. The domestic flight to Cusco was very nice - new aircraft, helpful staff and comfortable seats. We were tired by that time so we slept through the flight. We landed in Cusco at 7 am but our hotel's complimentary shuttle wasn't there so we took a cab to the hotel. Since we didn't know about the value of the local currency (Peruvian soles), we overpaid the cab driver with 30 soles - approximately $14 which is very reasonable for North American standards but our hotel receptionist told us that the ride was worth 10 soles or around $4.

Our hotel Tierra Viva is nice and clean and the service is efficient. It's a chain hotel and we'll be staying at Tierra Viva hotels in other cities too. Our room was at the 3rd floor and by the time we reached our room after taking stairs, we were out of breath - a combination of high altitude and our tiredness. We got altitude sickness medicine from a travel clinic in Calgary but the medicine had not fully kicked in by then. Our lungs seem to be acclimatizing with time though.

We slept for a few hours and then left to explore the Main Square which is a ten minute walk from our hotel. The architecture of most buildings in the square is old and even the McDonalds, KFC and Starbucks are in small shops within these old two-floor-buildings. The highlight of the square is an old church and an old chapel. Since it was Christmas Day, the square was quite festive with decorations and fireworks. We had lunch at the best restaurant of Cusco (Cicciolina). We realized that we don't like the local Peruvian food too much so we're planning on sticking to more familiar options in future. Then we got coffee at Starbucks and strolled on the Main Street of Cusco. On our way back, we bought tickets for an overnight bus that has seats that recline to 140 degrees for sleeping. We'll be taking that bus when we leave Cusco for the next city of Puno which is about 7 hours drive away. The bus will leave at 10 pm on Sunday so we'll sleep through the entire journey, hopefully. Then we went back to our hotel to freshen up and came back for a quick dinner at McDonalds.

In Cusco, we have 5 days - Wednesday to Sunday. On Wednesday, we explored the Cusco downtown on foot and acclimatized ourselves to the high altitude. The plan for the remaining four days is that we'll be exploring the museums of Cusco on one day, doing a city tour of Cusco on another day, exploring the Sacred Valley area for a day and then the main highlight Machu Picchu (the lost city of the Incas) on Saturday. The Machu Picchu day is fixed since we booked the tickets in advance but the other three days we can decide based on what's available and our schedule.

Turkey Diaries - Day 10 - Istanbul to Calgary

On Monday, we had breakfast at our hotel, checked-out and left our luggage with the hotel reception. We saw the spice market and then explored the Chora church. After that, we went to Taksim and shopped at different stores. Then we got back to our hotel where Sohaib uncle's Turkish friend was waiting. He took us to his apartment which is in one of the newer neighborhoods of Istanbul. His wife had prepared a delicious traditional Turkish dinner for us. The home cooked version was even better than what we had tried at different restaurants throughout the trip. After dinner, we had several rounds of Turkish tea while talking to our generous hosts.

Around 1 am, we said farewell and took a taxi to Istanbul airport. We spent a few hours at the airport and then boarded our flight to Amsterdam. It took off on time at 5:50 am and we landed in Amsterdam after mostly sleeping on the 3.5 hour flight. After a 4 hour layover at the Schiphol airport, we boarded the flight to Calgary. After 9 hours of flying, we were back after our first taste of international travel.

Amsterdam gave us a taste of Europe and we will definitely go back for more. Turkey exceeded our expectations and given that now Turkish Airlines has flights between Canada and Pakistan, we might stop over in Istanbul if we use the airlines for a trip to Pakistan. The food, the people, the history, the modern infrastructure - no wonder Turkey is fast becoming one of the most popular tourist destinations. We hope you enjoyed the updates! :)

Turkey Diaries - Day 9 - Istanbul

On Sunday, after breakfast at our hotel, our first stop was the Dolmabahce Palace.

This palace was built in the 19th Century by the Ottoman Sultan of the time. It faces the sea and is a majestic building. The difference between this palace and the earlier Topkapi Palace is that the design and architecture is predominantly European in this one. It's a modern palace in many ways but in some ways it still conforms to the traditional culture of excess and vanity of the Ottoman Sultans. For instance, although the paintings are by the European artists, there is still a Harem. The funny thing is that in the main/administrative section, the paintings depict wars and soldiers and kings whereas the paintings in the Harem are mostly of inanimate objects and no portraits at all. We found that very sexist. There is a humongous ceremonial hall that has a chandelier of crystal that weighs 4.5 tonnes. The hall itself is more like a stadium with ceiling/dome as high as some 100 meters!

After Dolmabahce Palace, we had lunch in the adjacent cafe that had a view of the Marmara sea. Then we went on a cruise of the Bosphorus River. This river passes through the city of Istanbul and separates Europe and Asia. There are castles, palaces, mosques and a fortress on the European side whereas the Asian side mostly has summer homes of rich people with a couple of palaces and one fortress. The cruise itself was very relaxing.

After the cruise, we stopped at our hotel for a little while before going for dinner at a restaurant in Sultanahmet that also had a whirling dervish show after dinner. After the show, we came back and went to sleep. Overall, Sunday was a much more relaxing day than most days we've had on this trip.

Turkey Diaries - Day 8 - Istanbul

Today/Saturday, we woke up at 9 am and had breakfast at our hotel.

Our first stop was Topkapi Palace. It is a palace that was used by most sultans of the Ottoman Empire. It's a huge facility with various sections - sultan's quarters, sultan's privy space, council/court for hearing petitions, kitchens, courtyards, princes' chambers, library, treasury - and all of them are immense in size. The main highlight was relics from Prophet Muhammad's time including his personal artifacts and his companions' belongings. It was also interesting to see the treasures stored in their treasury - gifts from various other kingdoms for the Ottoman Empire, loot from wars and historical artifacts. The crown jewel here is an 82 karat diamond clear as water. We also saw the Harem section of the palace and it was very instructive about the life of luxury and excess that all the Ottoman kings lived. After spending 3.5 hours exploring Topkapi Palace, we went to see two other museums that are located within the larger boundary of the Topkapi Palace area and are called the Archaeological Museums of Istanbul. Both these museums had artifacts from the ancient Roman and Mesopotamian era but these museums weren't as interesting as seeing the Roman ruins at the original site of Ephesus in Izmir earlier in the trip.

Then we had traditional Turkish lunch of kababs at a nearby restaurant. After lunch, we saw the Basilica Cistern. It's a huge underground water storage facility - 230 feet by 460 feet with 300 plus columns and the height/depth is around 50 feet. It was used by Romans to store water in case there was a siege of Constantinople. An interesting quirk is that at the base of two columns, there are two Medusa heads - one upside down and one tilted to one side. No one knows why they are there. Medusa is believed to be a woman from Mythical times who turned anyone into stone who looked at her and legend has it that she had snakes instead of hair.

After Basilica Cistern, we went to the Galata Tower. There was an almost 1.5 hour line outside this tower. This tower was used as a guard tower by keeping a lookout for approaching enemies. It give an excellent panoramic view of Istanbul from the top. After Galata Tower, we had dinner at Taksim Square and came back to our hotel. Off to sleep now. Till the next update, bye!

Turkey Diaries - Day 7 - Istanbul

On Friday, we woke up at 9 am, had complimentary breakfast provided by our hotel and then asked the management to change our room since it was very small. The one that they gave us wasn't much bigger but it had a better floor plan. After changing rooms, we left for our touristy day.

Our first stop was the famous Blue Mosque. The locals call it the Sultanahmet Mosque, after the Sultan who ordered the construction of this mosque. By the time we got there, the Friday prayer had just ended so we prayed Zuhr in congregation. The mosque is fabulous and has a grand building. We also saw the remnants of an Egyptian Hippodrome - just one pillar is left now. This used to be the arena where chariots races were held when the Romans had Istanbul (or Constantinople) as the capital of their empire.

Then we saw the highlight of our trip so far - the Hagia Sophia. It used to be a church and had to be reconstructed after burning down twice during its long history as a church. When Sultan Ahmet took over Constantinople, he converted the church to a mosque by adding minarets. Hagia Sophia remained a church for some 900 years and then a mosque for some 400 years before the secular government of Mustafa Kamal (affectionately called Ataturk which means father of Turks) declared it a museum. The building is just a fascinating juxtaposition of Islam and Christianity. Paintings of Jesus, Mary, John the Baptist along with Quranic verses along with crosses and calligraphic names of Allah, Prophet Muhammad, the four Caliphs and the prophet's two grandsons - you see it all there. After spending about 3 hours at the Hagia Sophia, we had supper at a restaurant.

Then we went to the Grand Bazaar - it has about 4000 shops and all of them are in a covered facility. We window shopped there for about an hour and also got some Turkish Apple Tea. After that, we went to Istanbul's Times Square - the Taksim square. It really is the face of modern Turkey, specially the nearby Istaklal Street with all kinds of European and North American chains, malls, clubs and cafes. We went to a mall, had some snacks since we were tired of all the walking and needed to rest. After that, we got a massage at one of the massage chairs at the mall that operate with coins - a much needed recovery.

Then we got back to our hotel and are off to sleep now. Tomorrow's going to be another touristy day with lots planned. You'll hear about it in the next update, tomorrow :)

Turkey Diaries - Day 6 - Cappadocia to Istanbul

On Thursday, we woke up at 4 am to get ready for our 4:50 am pickup for the hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia. The skill of the balloon pilots is surprising. There were more than 50 balloons in the air with on average 20 people in each of them and yet it all went smoothly. The terrain that you get to see from above is quite varied - volcanic complexes, cinder cones, fairy chimneys and volcaniclastic rocks in different colors of red, white, green and brown. It was a magical experience and we came down after about an hour in the sky when the sun started going up.

After the hot air balloon ride, we went for the "Green Tour" or a tour of Southern Cappadocia that started with a tour of an underground city that the ancient Christians used to hide from the armies of Pagan Romans. After that we went for a 3.5 km hike in a valley. During the hike, we saw a church that's literally "under a tree". We also stopped to enjoy Turkey's special apple tea. After the hike, we had lunch with our tour group and then went to see the largest cave monastery of Cappadocia. There was lots of driving involved in all this so we used some of that time to catch up on sleep. We barely made it to our airport shuttle bus after the tour but the tour company was nice enough to accommodate our schedule and dropped us off in time to catch the shuttle bus. The shuttle took us to the Kayseri airport and then we took a flight to Istanbul, our fourth and last city of this trip - after Amsterdam, Izmir/Kusadasi and Cappadocia. We reached our hotel in Istanbul at around 1 am and went to sleep right away.

Turkey Diaries - Day 5 - Izmir to Cappadocia

We woke up at 3 am in Kusadasi and reached our final destination of Goreme (a town of Cappadocia) around noon - after a taxi from our hotel in Kusadasi to the bus station and a bus to the Izmir airport followed by two flights, Izmir to Istanbul and Istanbul to Kayseri followed by an hour long shuttle bus from Kayseri to Goreme. We are staying in a cave hotel - yes, it's built inside a cave formation. It's an ultimately cool experience and we are loving it!

After freshening up, we went to see the Goreme Open Air Museum. It's an impressive chain of connected caves that were inhabited by early Christians of this area. There are numerous churches inside the cave range and the wall murals carved on stone in all these churches are extremely fascinating. The best preserved of them is the so-called black church because of the predominant use of black in the murals. The black church was very impressive and the highlight of the entire museum. After spending about two hours exploring this museum with the aid of an audio guide, we walked back to Goreme and had a late lunch/early dinner at a restaurant. We had their local specialties and everything tasted delicious. The highlight was pottery kabab - kabab baked inside a clay pot and then the pot broken in front of us at the table to reveal the food - and it tasted divine.

After that we walked back to our hotel and will go to sleep early tonight since we have to wake up at 4:30 am. Tomorrow, first we will take a hot air balloon flight and then take an all-day guided tour that includes a tour of an underground city, a tour of a monastery built inside caves and a hike through one of the several valleys in the area. Breakfast and lunch are also included. As soon as the tour ends, we'll set off for the airport to catch a flight to Istanbul. We'll have dinner in Istanbul. Goodbye till tomorrow's update :)

Turkey Diaries - Day 4 - Ephesus

We had complimentary breakfast at our hotel's terrace that overlooks the gorgeous Marina and then took a bus to Ephesus. Ephesus are ruins of an ancient city from the Roman Empire that are a short drive away from Kusadasi and the main tourist attraction of the small resort town. We hired a taxi that dropped us off at one entrance of Ephesus and we walked our way through the ancient city to the other side where the taxi was waiting for us.

Walking through the ruins of an ancient city is a very different experience from going to a museum since you are able to marvel at how grand the city must have been in its heyday. The city is believed to be the site where the Gospel of John might have been written. We walked on the cobblestone pathway that was the main street of the city in ancient times. On both sides, we saw the remains of several temples and residences. We also saw the remains of public toilets - in those days, only the royal family had the luxury of private toilets and everyone else used the public facility. The Library of Celsus is the second most impressive structure in the ancient city of Ephesus. The outer facade has been reconstructed from its original stone blocks and is quite imposing. The entrance is quite exaggerated and when you go inside, the area of the actual library is quite small. The library was built from the donations of a Roman Senator by the name of Celsus who was then buried under the library.

After the library, we continued our walk and made our way to the most impressive structure of Ephesus - the Grand Theater. It is an outdoor theater and one of the biggest in the ancient world with a seating capacity of over 20,000. The Romans were the inventors of the auditorium style seating and apart from ensuring that every attendee's view of the center stage is unobstructed, this style also ensures the best possible acoustics. We made our way to the top of the seating rows to get a view of the stage and that's when a child with one tourist family started singing and we could hear him perfectly clearly all the way back despite being in open air! If the engineering feats of this theater are incredible, the view that you get from the top is even more impressive. You see the river (that is about a one km walk down from the theater) and the hills that surround the city. After that, we continued walking and saw a graveyard of gladiators and then made our way out of this impressive city.

Then we saw the supposedly last resting place of Mary, mother of Jesus. We also saw the remains of the Roman Temple of Artemis. After that we got back to our hotel and after freshening up, walked around the city of Kusadasi to an island called the Pigeon Island. On our way back, we did some shopping and then had dinner at our hotel's restaurant. Again, very nice food but this time with even better presentation as compared to last night's dinner. We just finished packing and now are going to bed for a few hours before we have to wake up at 3 am to catch our next flight to Cappadocia.

Turkey Diaries - Day 3 - Amsterdam to Izmir

We woke up at 7 am, got ready and went to see Vondel Park, right behind our hotel. We checked-out at 8:15 am and reached the airport at around 10 am after the train from Centraal to Schiphol was late. Our 3.5 hour flight from Amsterdam to Istanbul got delayed by half an hour. That resulted in us landing at Istanbul airport just 1 hour and 20 minutes before our check-in cutoff time for the next flight from Istanbul to Izmir. We had to first buy the on-arrival visa and then go through passport control. The whole thing took over an hour and we had less than twenty minutes left before collecting our bags from the international terminal and dropping them off at the domestic terminal! We ran the whole 20 minutes and barely made it to the check-in counter. We were sweating and short of breath and really fatigued. Then we realized that the airline staff was very laid back and the boarding hadn't even started! We were easily able to get on the flight.

It was a short 50 minute flight on a domestic Turkish airlines called AtlasJet but the whole experience was truly impressive - new Air Bus aircraft, professional staff and great service. In just those 50 minutes, they were able to give us a sandwich, coffee and a snack, in 3 different rounds! Thanks to the busy schedule since last night, this was the only food we had during the day time till we reached Izmir.

After reaching Izmir, we took the free shuttle bus to Kusadasi offered by AtlasJet. The shuttle ride was more than 80 kilometers so it was amazing that the airlines offered it for free. After getting dropped off in Kusadasi at the bus terminal, we took a cab to our hotel. Then we had dinner at a fabulous restaurant next to our hotel.

Turkey is totally exceeding our expectations so far. It reminds us a lot of Pakistan but with a lot better infrastructure such as roads, airports, buses and service quality. It's like implementing the good things of North America in a Pakistani setting. Our hotel is quite modern and Kusadasi is not even a big city of Turkey. Our windows look out over the Kusadasi Marina and what a mesmerizing view it is! The restaurants next to our hotel remind me of Ocean Drive in Miami.

The restaurant had traditional Turkish food - BBQed kababs of different types, lentil soup with salad and a special bread. Comfort food to compensate for not having had a proper meal for over 36 hours. The server was extremely polite and friendly, just like all other people we have interacted with in Turkey so far. After dinner, we walked along the Marina and took pictures. Oh and the weather is just perfect with a gentle breeze and a not-too-high-not-too-low temperature. We are going to sleep now since we have another long day tomorrow. Till tomorrow, good night.

Turkey Diaries - Day 2 - Amsterdam

Sunday was a busy day. After waking up and getting ready, we joined a free walking tour of the city's attractions that started at 1 pm. As we were running late, we had cereal bars for breakfast. The walking tour went on for three hours but was very informative and we got to see most neighborhoods of the city. The walking tour started in Dam square which has the Royal Palace, the residence of the Dutch royal family and Queen Beatrix. Then we walked through Jordaan and saw a mall that's inside a Post Office. We passed through the Red Light District and saw the Old Church that's inside the district and was built here to sell salvation/redemption to sinning sailors who frequented the district. We walked through the Begijnhof Convent and were then shown the widest bridge and the narrowest house of Amsterdam. The common theme of the stories being narrated through the walk was the business acumen of the populace since the inception of the city. The walking tour ended around 4 pm outside the Anne Frank Museum.

After the tour, we had Amsterdam's famous Fries - mine with green pepper sauce and Samia's with peanut sauce. After that we went for a boat cruise that takes you through almost a 100 attractions of the city in a boat that travels through Amsterdam's canal system. After that, we went to see the Anne Frank Museum. The museum is the old house of a Jewish girl who hid there for 2 years with her family trying to avoid getting captured by Nazi Germany. They narrate the story with original artifacts, pictures and interviews that takes you through the various parts of the house including the secret annex where they remained hidden. They were finally captured after hiding for two years as someone in her father's office betrayed them and informed the German gestapo. No one except the father of the girl survived and the remaining 7 people died in Nazi Germany's concentration camps. The father later found Anne's diary that she kept before being captured and got it published in 1940s. The diary has been translated into more than 70 languages and is one of the most widely read books in the world. It was a moving experience walking through the house.

After the museum, we came back to our hotel. We had thought that we'll have dinner in a restaurant that's close to our hotel but it was closed. We tried searching for other places but nothing good was open. We had Dutch stroopwafels that we bought during the day and went to bed.

Turkey Diaries - Day 1 - Calgary to Amsterdam

We took off from Calgary at 4:40 pm local time on Friday for a 9 hour flight to Amsterdam. We will be stopping in Amsterdam for a couple of days before moving on to Turkey. We reached Amsterdam at 8:30 am local time on Saturday, March 23, 2013. After going through passport control and getting our baggage, we took the train from Schiphol airport to the city centre station Centraal and then a tram to our hotel. We reached the hotel at 10:45 am but since check-in was not till 2 pm, they offered to hold our bags but asked us to come after 2 pm. We went back to the city centre after a 10 minute tram ride and walked around. We had some snacks (Dutch stroopwafels and Chicken Schnitzel) and did a tour of the Bijenhof monastery.

It's only 2 degrees Celsius but it feels unbelievably cold because of the strong wind. We were half frozen and kept on ducking into stores to warm ourselves up. We got back to our hotel at 2 pm and checked-in. We were so cold and tired that we went to sleep almost as soon as we felt warmer. We slept for a good 6 hours and woke up fresh but hungry. Although we had thought before the trip that we would sight-see in the evening but given how cold it was, we just ended up having dinner.

We left for dinner after making a reservation for 10 pm. We took the tram but reached earlier than our reservation so walked around the area. We dined at an Indonesian restaurant. The food was fabulous! Interesting concept too - we had what's called a Rijsttafel (a Dutch word that translates to "rice table") where you get to sample a few bites each of some 20 dishes. Most chicken, lamb and beef dishes were superb. They had arranged the dishes in order of increasing hotness so the last two dishes (one beef and one fish) literally felt as if they had put our tongues on fire - THE hottest dish we've ever tasted! You must be wondering why we chose to have Indonesian food in Amsterdam. Well, the reason is that after Dutch conquests of Indonesia back in the day, lots of Indonesians settled in the Netherlands so the Indonesian food in Amsterdam is excellent. In fact, there isn't any native cuisine of the Netherlands - their culinary claim to fame is inventing "French" fries (yes, the name is misleading) and Dutch pancakes (all the ingredients are added to the batter before frying it). We've had Dutch pancakes before in Calgary so it'll be interesting to try the authentic ones here for a comparison.

Again, it was extremely cold. Unlike Calgary's dry cold, the cold here is wet which makes it a lot worse. When the temperature is -2 degrees Celsius, it actually feels like -20 of Calgary! The wind is very strong and it feels like it'll blow you away and just gets into your bones!

After taking a tram back to our hotel, we discussed our plan for tomorrow and marked places on the map. In fact, Samia is marking the map as I write this update. Before the trip, we had planned to visit the tulip gardens tomorrow but given the strong wind and the fact that the tulip fields are open and hence colder, we'll just stick to exploring the city.

Things to do for tomorrow include waking up early, Dutch pancakes (if we can find a good place), Anne Frank Museum, canal boat cruise and exploring the city on foot. We love the city, it has an aristocratic feel to it with a distinct brick building architecture and canals running throughout the city. The infrastructure is really impressive and the people extremely friendly. Till the next update, bye from us!