Day 8: “I have 60 camels. You have two very beautiful daughters. Would you like to exchange?” asked a man addressing my father. While my sister wanted to use the choicest of words for this Turk we came across at 8 am in Sultanahmet, I couldn’t take my eyes off his ear, which seemed surgicallyContinue reading “Turkey! (8)”
Tag Archives: travel
Turkey! (7)
Day 7 : We’d chalked out this day for the smaller pleasures of life, for a mid-afternoon siesta, for a walk in the village. And for the royally famous, mixed origin (Roman and Turkish), communal bathing ritual of the hamam. Waking up to the view of the Pamukkale mountain, knowing that you were in noContinue reading “Turkey! (7)”
Turkey! (5)
Day 5. The rains came and went just in time for our 6 am hot air balloon ride! And guess who were the other passengers in the basket with us? A lot of Chinese (again!) and a Turk couple from Istanbul. Barring the struggle to not photobomb anyone while they kept the shutters going atContinue reading “Turkey! (5)”
Turkey! (4)
Day 4. Did I not tell you about undulating landscapes and fairy chimneys? Add some, actually a lot of, hot air balloons in the foreground. Well, as it happens, with the craze of Instagram, travel bloggers and better-than-ever-before cameras, most hotels in Goreme set up “Instagram worthy shot spots” on their terraces with rugs, mattresses,Continue reading “Turkey! (4)”
Turkey! (3)
Day 3. Oh, my poor throat! I finally did step into a hospital, Haseki Hospital, at 6:30 AM, having woken up at 3 AM to a throat that refused to even swallow saliva. They say it gets better after the worst. I disagree. Bless the soul of the cabbie who offered to help us throughContinue reading “Turkey! (3)”
Turkey! (2)
Day 2. Waking up to the call of azaan for fajr, (last count put Istanbul being home to 3,000 mosques, approximately) the realisation dawned that I was starting to lose my voice – the lump in the throat on the flight couldn’t be diagnosed as misplaced nerves anymore. Turkish Kreps and their fantastic version ofContinue reading “Turkey! (2)”
Turkey! (1)
Day 1. Three months of persuasion, three months of planning and touchdown into Turkey a week after Prez Erdogan declared support for Pakistan was putting me through the jitters because to assume Indian passports would be unaffected would be naivety! A six-hour Indigo flight while revising our itinerary, recalling all the phrases in Turkish thatContinue reading “Turkey! (1)”
Setting Sun.
I looked up from my Kindle and out the window. The air turbulence was distracting. I wanted to stretch my legs that were getting cramped in the narrow leg space provided these days by airlines. Just a few minutes ago, the view from the window had been drab – blues of the lightest kind withContinue reading “Setting Sun.”
Rains and roads (2)
Contd from… Raincoats, contrary to popular belief, can serve dual purposes – it shields you from the rains when you’re outside the car, and from the air conditioner or the winds from the rolled down windows when you are inside the car. Maybe that is what led to the invention of the windcheater. And hereContinue reading “Rains and roads (2)”
Rains and roads (1)
Henry Miller once said, “One’s destination is never a place, but always a new way of seeing things.” Every trip I go on, firms this belief for me. And here’s a new way of looking at roads and rains! I recently went to Pune and surrounding areas – Google weather forecasts and the news channelsContinue reading “Rains and roads (1)”
