A 4:40am wake up call to get to the Kathmandu airport for the recommended two hours before our flight turned out to be a little aggressive...the airport didn't even open until around 5:45. We were joined by a group of two hundred or so tourists who also did not receive the memo!
The amount of security checks we went through set an all time record today... But all of them seemed perfunctory and pretty lax. First it was the "show me your tickets and passports" at the door to the airport, followed by "scan all of your checked and carry on baggage and receive a special sticker" (the guy scanning hardly looked at his screen). This was followed by separate male and female hand pad body searches, though they failed to find the bag of masala tea in my crotch.... they never check the crotch! We weren't done yet! After ticketing, we did another scan of our bags (again, from totally disinterested, albeit friendly, automatons). The coup de grace was the bizarre male / female hand padding right before we got on the plane.... You know, in case we found any contraband in the small waiting lounge, and failed to hide it properly in the crotch!
Of course, going to a new country means it must be proceeded by a high profile incident of some sort.... For the love of God - can we stop the bombing people? It's driving my wife to drink! The sad news of the bombing incident in the capital of Turkey, Ankara, has raised the "mountain stress" levels quite high. I did get a laugh which got a smile from Beth as I caught her checking the Canadian Government travel alert site for updates on Turkey about 30 seconds before getting on the plane.... I'm not sure any information can help ease her worry at this point.
With the fuel shortage, we had to make a previously unscheduled stop in Delhi to refuel. Luckily, the plane was virtually empty, so Beth and Abby had four seats each, while Robin and I had two each. Very nice! The flight was nice and smooth, and before we knew it, we were on final approach at the end of this, our 26th flight of the trip. The flying time was still just over eight hours, but we arrived almost two and half hours late from the refuel and a late take-off out of Kathmandu.
We went through the efficient passport control with the electronic visas I'd been carrying around for months in hand. The whole process was very effecient. After grabbing the bags, Beth hit an ATM and I went to Vodafone to get a Turkish SIM card.
The cabbie immediately turned on his meter (what, we don't have to argue?) and soon we were on a roadway that could have been a highway back home. We were definitely getting close to Europe! Actually, the part of Istanbul we were staying in, the old, tourist attraction filled area is actually the only part of Turkey in continental Europe. The girls were pretty jacked up to finally be here as we'd been talking about it a lot lately.
We checked into the nice little boutique hotel that Kim and Alex recommended which is great. Perfect location, compact but effecient clean rooms and very helpful staff.... That's what we look for in hotels, and they had chosen well for us!
It was a quick turnaround, as everyone was really hungry. We went with one of the recommendations the hotel guy have us, and it was just what the doctor ordered. We walked over to the main sightseeing area, skimming the hippodrome and blue mosque, and headed for the tram street which looks like a street you'd find in Paris or Rome. We found our restaurant and I christened the country with a pint of Efes, the delicious local beer.
We had a starter Mezze plate...we were all salivating at the site of real vegetables! We devoured every morsel.... Oh, so good.
Abby had read the food section of the Turkey Lonely Planet book back in Sri Lanka, and she'd been talking about warm apple tea and Turkish delight quite a bit (our ABC trek was full of food talk!), so she was delighted to get both served up as an after dinner treat.
The girls, and I have to admit, Beth and I too, were quite giddy on the way home. This feels a bit like a vacation from the vacation after just a few short hours. For Beth and I, it was a sort of homecoming.... We'd booked a trip to Turkey in October 2001, only to have to change it due to circumstances around 9/11. We ended up going to Italy, but it has always remained right at the top of our destination list ever since.
We strolled through the square leading to the hippodrome and through the historic monument area on the way back to the hotel. The temperature had dropped quite a bit and it felt great. We will have to be in a walking mood tomorrow - I can't wait to explore this fascinating city!
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