After a long day of flying from the UK, with a very early start, Aude finally arrived in Istanbul early Friday evening. We headed down to Baghdad Street, on the Asian side, for a quick dinner of kebabs. Our cab driver was the worst that I’ve encountered in Istanbul – and that’s saying a lot. In the end, we got out and walked, fearing for both our lives and our stomachs if we continued on in the taxi.

I don’t know where this myth started about the Turks having great food. Sure, you can get your choice of lamb or chicken grilled to perfection at most places. But that’s about it for variety. Maybe a salad or some fish, grilled without any sauce. For the record, if I never eat Turkish food again, it will be too soon. The diet is one part of this country I certainly won’t miss. The Turkish have one of the highest smoking rates in Europe – nearly 90% of adults here smoke. And they have a correspondingly low life expectancy. But I suspect that their early death has nothing to do with their smoking – they smoke so they don’t have to eat their rubbish food, and eventually they face their millionth kebab and just give up the will to live.

Never mind. Aude had brought some champagne with her, so we had a few glasses and called it an early night back at the hotel.

Saturday morning, I hired a car and driver to spend the day with us. I did the same thing when I was in Sydney and Bangkok, and I remain convinced that this is the best way to see any city if you’re short on time. Our chauffeur whisked us off to the European side of Istanbul (via ferry, which was a nice way to get our first views of the old city) and then from one place to another, no waiting, no confusion, no language difficulties, and most importantly, no hassle. He even recommended a great fish restaurant for us at lunch. We had the terrace to ourselves, and had a great time watching the world go by.

Aude did a great job setting out our itinerary (I’m usually useless at things like this, and happily handed over the guide book and delegated all responsibility for planning our day, my role having ended at booking the car.) We took in all the big sights in the old city – the Topkapi Palace, the Aya Sofya, the Grand Bazaar, and the Egyptian Spice market. It was a great day out, and the weather stayed absolutely perfect for us.

I took loads of photos, but I’ve chosen a small handful for this website. I’ll stick the rest up later when I finally have some time.

Matt and Aude on the ferry from the Asian side of Istanbul to the European side

A group of Muslim women visiting the Topkapi Palace

There are cats everywhere in Istanbul. Here’s one of the little guys peering out of a fountain at the Palace.

Matthew standing outside the entrace to the kitchen at the Topkapi Palace.

The entrance to the inner courtyard at the Topkapi Palace.

Aude in the gardens of the Topkapi Palace, enjoying the perfect weather on a November morning.

Aude on the stairs in the gardens at the Topkapi Palace.

A view of the Asian side of Istanbul

One of the mosaic doorways at the Topkapi Palace

Lunch in an Istanbul restaurant

Fresh fish!

Aude outside the Aya Sofya

Aya Sofya

Aya Sofya. Clearly the signs didn’t apply to the cats.

Inside Aya Sofya

Inside Aya Sofya

The Blue Mosque

The Blue Mosque

Aya Sofya, looking fantastic in the setting sun

A balloon seller

The Grand Bazaar

Gold sellers at the Grand Bazaar

The Egyptian spice market

Uh oh! Aude needs to be on the lookout for counterfeit products — they’re everywhere!

Our first night out in Istanbul was a bit of a mixed bag, as we clearly struggled with both language difficulties and cultural norms. Based on the recommendation of the concierge at the hotel, we headed down to the harbour to find a restaurant. We didn’t have a specific place in mind, but we were told that there were plenty of good places and that we’d find one if we simply walked around the area.

After a few minutes of walking around, found a place that looked okay. There was a rather formidable woman in the window rolling dough and cooking something, and the place looked busy enough, so we went in.

Enticing us into a restaurant, Turkish-style

Our first struggle was ordering a few beers. We ordered beers, and they were brought out for us – but they were weak and warm. After using our best sign language to indicate that we’d prefer cold beer, we were presented with a bucket of ice cubes! At this point, we sort of gave up on the beer idea and decided to order some wine as well. After considerable misunderstanding, the guests at the next table kindly stepped in and explained that the restaurant was Muslim and therefore didn’t serve any alcohol – which explained why our (apparently non-alcoholic) beer tasted so terrible. We reverted to tea.

Matt and Swami tuck into a Turkish feast

The second problem was trying to explain that our colleague, Swami, was a vegetarian. The concept of a vegetarian is apparently unheard of in Turkey. After explaining politely to the waiter that ‘chicken’ wasn’t really a vegetarian option, we finally ended up ordering something from the big woman in the window – as best we can tell, it was some sort of bread with cheese and spinach. It wasn’t entirely successful, and Swami supplemented his dinner with a few bowls of peanuts at the bar we found afterwards.

Swami in the bar, enjoying a vegetarian diet of peanuts and beer…

We were drawn into the bar by the live music – which seemed like a good idea at the time. In fact, once you’ve heard the millionth song played on the lute with a dodgy Turkish singer, you’re about ready to shoot yourself. He kept turning to us and apparently asking for our requests, but as my Turkish is a little rusty, we weren’t able to comply. He seemed pretty disappointed that we weren’t singing along.

The taxi from hell…

Our taxi ride back to the hotel was a little hair-raising, even by Turkish standards. I suspect we should have been tipped off by the sticker on the side of the cab. Hanging from the rear-view mirror was a shark’s tooth, which indicates slightly more risk-taking behaviour on the part of the taxi driver than, say, a crucifix. We made it back in one piece, but we were definitely more ‘shaken’ than ‘stirred’.

The hotel we’re staying at is brand new, but quality control doesn’t seem to have factored into the equation. Everything is falling apart despite its newness. The light switches are all wonky. The tap on the sink doesn’t work property. The tap on the shower came off the wall when I tried to turn it on. The air conditioning in the conference room doesn’t work. And the lights seem to go on and off at random intervals, plunging our conference room into darkness. At least it adds some excitement to the day.

Finally, a moment of light relief. Realise, of course, that I don’t normally use a bidet. And that I didn’t really intend to use a bidet. But curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to see how the combined toilet / bidet worked. Fast forward to a jet of water shooting out across the bathroom and out into the hallway and frantic mopping up with towels. I’ll stick to toilet paper, thanks.

It’s my last day in Singapore for a couple of weeks. I’m headed to Paris tomorrow to spend the weekend with Aude, then off to Istanbul for two weeks on business. The plan is that all of her friends will meet in Paris to celebrate her 30th birthday, but the party may turn out to be smaller than anticipated if her friends get held up in the transport strikes. The latest news was that very few long-distance trains are running, but that situation may clear up in time for the weekend. In any case, I’m flying in so it shouldn’t be a problem.

A tailor was recommended to me, so I’ve managed to have loads of clothes made this week – although that leaves me with the rather awkward problem of having to cart them around with me for the next three stops on my trip, which might be tricky as I think I’m considerably over the permitted baggage limit.

Shopping in Singapore can be a little overwhelming. There’s lots of visual noise and bright colours vying for your attention!

Had to capture a picture of Spiderman, if only for the sake of completeness after the comments I got in Bangkok!

You can eat very well at the food courts here. US$2 buys you all this…

I also had to go shopping for a winter coat last night – I packed for Singapore weather, and consequently have nothing warmer than a shirt. Weather forecasts for Paris are below freezing.

Buying a winter coat in Singapore presents its own problems – given the year-round warm weather here, they don’t keep many in stock. I finally managed to find one, but you’re not really spoiled for choice out here.

Christmas decorations along Orchard Road in Singapore

Christmas decorations along Orchard Road in Singapore

All against a very Asian backdrop…

A pretty impressive tree at the Takashimaya shopping centre in Singapore

All the decorations are up for Christmas already, although the characters aren’t quite as I remember them. Christmas is clearly commercialised, so Jesus Christ has no part in the events whatsoever. And apparently, neither does that rather secular fellow called Santa Claus. Princess Noel, on the other hand, does make an appearance – whoever she is? It’s all a bit surreal seeing all the Christmas decorations (many of which have a “Winter Wonderland” theme to them) when the temperature outside is brushing 90 degrees.

My next challenge is deciding how I’m going to celebrate Thanksgiving. I’ve made some preliminary enquiries, but it turns out that it’s very difficult to find a turkey in Turkey.

I’m not sure that I’ll ever get my head around life in Singapore. News in this morning’s Straights Times described how a man was stopped by police for dropping a cigarette butt. Rather than face the shame of arrest, he ran away from the police and jumped 15m to his death.

Meanwhile, life has a more pleasant side in today’s Bouquets:

STUDENTS HELPED TO GET PUPPY TO SAFETY

On Oct 31, I was travelling along Bukit Timah Road when I saw a lost puppy running along the right-most lane. I pulled over and tried to get the puppy to safety.

A group of Singapore Institute of Management students stopped to help, and tried to keep the puppy away from the road. Thank you, boys!

– Lynn Chau Li-Ming (Ms)

Awwww…

The new airport in Bangkok is really nice (aside from a woefully inadequate passport control area – passport clearance both into and out of Bangkok took ages and was absolute chaos as people flooded from a number of flights). The airport is bright and airy with plenty of shopping, although my taxi driver said that a lot of what I seemed so nice was superficial. Due to massive corruption, most of the airport has been built on the cheap and is falling apart already.

Still, it’s worlds better than the old airport – the transformation is as big as the transformation between the old and new airports in Detroit, and that’s really saying something!

Statues at the entrance of Bangkok airport

Statues at the entrance of Bangkok airport

Statues at the entrance of Bangkok airport. I’m dying to know what’s happened to cause this expression on his face…

Concourse at Bangkok Airport

Concourse at Bangkok Airport

A funky chair in the new Thai lounge.

Thai Airways lounge. Including a very fast-moving Thai Airways lounge attendant. She’s the blur on the left-hand side.