Mr. Bsharah's Travel Journal Travels to Tajikistan April 2007 NEXT>>> March 31, 2007
I’m traveling with two other teachers Laura who teaches math and Spanish in Honolulu and Linda who teaches history, English & science at Davis School for Independent Study in Davis, CA. We left LA late as the British Airways flight was delayed while international paperwork was completed. Interestingly at the check-in counter the clerk informed us that our two hour layover in London to catch the flight to Istanbul was going to be very tight as Heathrow Airport is very large and it can take an hour to get from one side to the other. Turns out that our flight was not only late because of the paperwork but the weather and strong head winds delayed us further. As a result we missed our connecting flight to Istanbul by minutes. The problem is that there are only two flights a week from Istanbul into Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Most of the day in London was spent rearranging our itinerary to get to Dushanbe on the next available flight in 4 days. However, in every cloud there is a silver lining. This delay meant we got a day to tour London. After finding a hotel which proved to be very difficult as we are traveling during a peak season in Europe (they take a week or two off for Easter as we do plus there were two major business meetings in London). We checked into the Renaissance Hotel just a few minutes from Heathrow and then chartered a tour of London. Our driver who was Pakistani drove took us on a three hour tour of London during which we visited all the great sights including: Tower of London, London Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the Giant Millennium Farris Wheel, and the theater district. It was a whirlwind tour but well worth it to get a sense of the city and its culture. Then it was back to the hotel to get rested for the flight to Istanbul tomorrow. After some fish and chips and an English ale it was time to get some shut eye after a 11 hour flight and a day of rearranging travel.
April 1/2 2007 The attendant at the Turkish Airlines booth at Heathrow is a very pleasant and helpful gentleman. He realized that as he rearranged our flights we would not make our connecting flight from London back to LA on our return from Dushanbe as the travel agent in the U.S. had us returning from Istanbul to Stansted Airport. So he set up our return flight from Istanbul to Heathrow instead of Stansted which is two hours from Heathrow. We still have a problem with the return connection to LA and are hopefully that someone at Relief International in the U.S. is working on that or we may become permanent residents of London. The flight to Istanbul was approximately 4 hours and took us over the heart of Europe: France, Austria, Hungary, and Romania. Flying into Istanbul was strange. Normally coming into a large city of 13 million you would see the city lit up for miles out. Istanbul remained cloaked in darkness until just seconds before landing. We didn’t have a Visa into Turkey and thought it might be an issue. The only issue was payment of money, once they received the 20 American dollars the Visa permit became a formality. Seems American dollars ease the process. Our driver picked us up and whisked us off through the streets of Istanbul. Driving from the airport to our hotel (Moonlight Pension) located in the old section of Istanbul. While enroute we passed many mysterious places some appeared to be nightclubs others restaurants with bright neon signs and mixed in between were sections of the old fortress wall and guard towers of the city that looking over the Sea of Marmara and the Bosporus that were cloaked in the darkness of Istanbul. I could easily imagine Sulieman or the Ottoman Turks with their soldiers up in the towers or on the walls watching for visitors and guarding against their enemies trying to use the crossroads between Europe and Asia. The streets on the way to our hotel were so narrow the van almost scraped the sides of building or cars along the way. The streets were eerily deserted and dark, yet alive with shadows that bounced off the buildings as if they were the ghosts of thousands of years of souls who have inhabited this ancient city. Our hotel is just above the Bosporus next to the Blue Mosque that is glowing in the night like the Washington Monument. We were greeted at the Moonlight Pension by our host, Gursh (Ush), who informed us that the imans would be waking us up early with morning prayers. Turns out that there were five mosques (including the great Hagia Sofia) within walking range of the hotel so the imans voices over the loud speakers the next morning were louder than any alarm clock. I went out on the street to listen to the last night prayers and imagine the stories the cobblestones could tell of life over the centuries. Gursh told me to go up on the roof of the hotel to get a better view of the city at night. I climbed 5 flights of a very narrow and winding staircase to indeed get a magnificent view of the Mosques, buildings, and waterways around the hotel. Again it was odd how the dimly lit buildings and streets showed an eerie energy as shadows danced off the streets and alleys It almost seemed as if Roman chariots from 2000 years ago were still headed to the Hippodrome for races or other events to amuse the people of Istanbul. It was hard to imagine these same deserted streets would have 13 million people congesting them in the morning. Gursh poured some Turkish tea and like a fool I drank it. Trying to go to bed after the tea was useless. The tea must have the caffeine of a Jolt drink in it. My body was wired and it was impossible to get to sleep. Reading and writing didn’t work so I just laid there until the imams called the morning prayers at 7:00 AM.
April 3, 2007 After a morning breakfast of feta cheese, oil-cured black olives, bread, and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes on the roof of the hotel over looking the waterways between Europe and Asia it was off to explore the cobblestone streets of Istanbul. First stop the Blue Mosque after trying to get into the Hagia Sofia but finding it jammed with tour busses of school children on Spring Holiday. The Blue Mosque was incredible with its ornate architecture and tile work. Four huge minarets anchored the corners with a huge dome larger covering an area larger than a football stadium for prayers. Now it was time to hike up one of the 7 hills of Istanbul to the Grand Bazaar with over 4000 shops all enclosed in a amaze-like structure that once we were in I didn’t think we would ever find our way out without dropping a trail of crumbs. In the bazaar there were beautiful handmade silk rugs, colorful local Middle Eastern clothing, pottery, spices, eating establishments, and anything you could think of through out its many nooks and crannies. Finally after a few hours of shopping a light at the end of the tunnel appeared and we emerged at the University of Istanbul. I didn’t buy anything while in the Bazaar but my fellow travelers sure enjoyed the shopping by making multiple purchases of souvenirs and seriously supporting the Turkish economy. I didn’t buy any items however the Turkish rug salesmen prove to be relentless in their quest to find a potential customer. Think annoying like a used car salesman or door-to-door salesman in the U.S. We toured the campus and then found behind the University the Mosque of Suleiman. Turns out Suleiman the Magnificent wanted to build a mosque grander than the Hagia Sofia. After touring both structures I can say that they are both architectural wonders that match each other in terms of opulence and splendor. It is hard to imagine cutting and placing with such precision the huge marble and granite slabs they did with modern tools let alone the primitive tools they worked with at the time these structures were built. I tried to fit my hotel key between the blocks to no avail. It was amazing to think these buildings have experience the considerable seismic activity in this area over the centuries and survived. Ironically it may not be nature but man who brings these building down as all of them showed serious signs of deterioration as a result of the pollution mixing with moisture as acid snow and rain blackening and destroying the marble and travertine blocks. Signs declared that the Turkish government and other international archeological agencies are working fulltime to protect and preserve these ancient masterpieces however; it appears the pollution is winning the battle. We then headed down the hill to the Golden Horn and the Bosporus, the narrow waterways that separate Europe and Asia as well as Istanbul. After lunch under one of the bridges over the Golden Horn I walked halfway across the bridge to straddle both continents. The sidewalks and bridges were very congested as it seemed all 13 million residents were out taking advantage of the beautiful weather. At times it was like being a sardine in a can, no room to walk or maneuver. Cars frequently came perilously close to pedestrians on the narrow streets with little or now sidewalks. At one point a couple of women screamed as a van hit a post right next to them while trying to maneuver. The Bosporus was a beehive of activity. I have seen busy harbors like LA or San Francisco but they don’t even come close to the ship traffic on the Bosporus. There were so many ships, ferries, and boats that at times it seemed impossible for them not to collide as they crisscrossed the waterways separating Istanbul. Somehow miraculously they survived to only load up with more passengers, cargo, and cars then begin the journey all over again weaving their way back across the congested waterways. After a long day walking all over Istanbul it was time for a meal, Gursh recommended a place called the Doy Doy just a few minutes walk from the hotel. The meal was very good as I ordered a dish that had several Turkish items: lamb chops, spicy chicken, beef kabobs along with traditional salads of yogurt, bulgur wheat, cucumbers, tomato, onions, dried black olives, and feta cheese. This meal more than pleased the palate. The meal was very filling so another walk to the Blue Mosque at night seemed in order. The Blue and Hagia Sofia Mosques sit opposite each other on the hill over looking the waterways that separate European Istanbul and Asian Istanbul. I can only hope my digital camera can capture the incredible beauty of these holy places lit-up at night.
Travels to Tajikistan April 2007
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March 31, 2007
I’m traveling with two other teachers Laura who teaches math and Spanish in Honolulu and Linda who teaches history, English & science at Davis School for Independent Study in Davis, CA. We left LA late as the British Airways flight was delayed while international paperwork was completed. Interestingly at the check-in counter the clerk informed us that our two hour layover in London to catch the flight to Istanbul was going to be very tight as Heathrow Airport is very large and it can take an hour to get from one side to the other. Turns out that our flight was not only late because of the paperwork but the weather and strong head winds delayed us further. As a result we missed our connecting flight to Istanbul by minutes. The problem is that there are only two flights a week from Istanbul into Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Most of the day in London was spent rearranging our itinerary to get to Dushanbe on the next available flight in 4 days. However, in every cloud there is a silver lining. This delay meant we got a day to tour London. After finding a hotel which proved to be very difficult as we are traveling during a peak season in Europe (they take a week or two off for Easter as we do plus there were two major business meetings in London). We checked into the Renaissance Hotel just a few minutes from Heathrow and then chartered a tour of London. Our driver who was Pakistani drove took us on a three hour tour of London during which we visited all the great sights including: Tower of London, London Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the Giant Millennium Farris Wheel, and the theater district. It was a whirlwind tour but well worth it to get a sense of the city and its culture. Then it was back to the hotel to get rested for the flight to Istanbul tomorrow. After some fish and chips and an English ale it was time to get some shut eye after a 11 hour flight and a day of rearranging travel.
April 1/2 2007
The attendant at the Turkish Airlines booth at Heathrow is a very pleasant and helpful gentleman. He realized that as he rearranged our flights we would not make our connecting flight from London back to LA on our return from Dushanbe as the travel agent in the U.S. had us returning from Istanbul to Stansted Airport. So he set up our return flight from Istanbul to Heathrow instead of Stansted which is two hours from Heathrow. We still have a problem with the return connection to LA and are hopefully that someone at Relief International in the U.S. is working on that or we may become permanent residents of London. The flight to Istanbul was approximately 4 hours and took us over the heart of Europe: France, Austria, Hungary, and Romania. Flying into Istanbul was strange. Normally coming into a large city of 13 million you would see the city lit up for miles out. Istanbul remained cloaked in darkness until just seconds before landing. We didn’t have a Visa into Turkey and thought it might be an issue. The only issue was payment of money, once they received the 20 American dollars the Visa permit became a formality. Seems American dollars ease the process. Our driver picked us up and whisked us off through the streets of Istanbul. Driving from the airport to our hotel (Moonlight Pension) located in the old section of Istanbul. While enroute we passed many mysterious places some appeared to be nightclubs others restaurants with bright neon signs and mixed in between were sections of the old fortress wall and guard towers of the city that looking over the Sea of Marmara and the Bosporus that were cloaked in the darkness of Istanbul. I could easily imagine Sulieman or the Ottoman Turks with their soldiers up in the towers or on the walls watching for visitors and guarding against their enemies trying to use the crossroads between Europe and Asia. The streets on the way to our hotel were so narrow the van almost scraped the sides of building or cars along the way. The streets were eerily deserted and dark, yet alive with shadows that bounced off the buildings as if they were the ghosts of thousands of years of souls who have inhabited this ancient city. Our hotel is just above the Bosporus next to the Blue Mosque that is glowing in the night like the Washington Monument. We were greeted at the Moonlight Pension by our host, Gursh (Ush), who informed us that the imans would be waking us up early with morning prayers. Turns out that there were five mosques (including the great Hagia Sofia) within walking range of the hotel so the imans voices over the loud speakers the next morning were louder than any alarm clock. I went out on the street to listen to the last night prayers and imagine the stories the cobblestones could tell of life over the centuries. Gursh told me to go up on the roof of the hotel to get a better view of the city at night. I climbed 5 flights of a very narrow and winding staircase to indeed get a magnificent view of the Mosques, buildings, and waterways around the hotel. Again it was odd how the dimly lit buildings and streets showed an eerie energy as shadows danced off the streets and alleys It almost seemed as if Roman chariots from 2000 years ago were still headed to the Hippodrome for races or other events to amuse the people of Istanbul. It was hard to imagine these same deserted streets would have 13 million people congesting them in the morning. Gursh poured some Turkish tea and like a fool I drank it. Trying to go to bed after the tea was useless. The tea must have the caffeine of a Jolt drink in it. My body was wired and it was impossible to get to sleep. Reading and writing didn’t work so I just laid there until the imams called the morning prayers at 7:00 AM.
April 3, 2007
After a morning breakfast of feta cheese, oil-cured black olives, bread, and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes on the roof of the hotel over looking the waterways between Europe and Asia it was off to explore the cobblestone streets of Istanbul. First stop the Blue Mosque after trying to get into the Hagia Sofia but finding it jammed with tour busses of school children on Spring Holiday. The Blue Mosque was incredible with its ornate architecture and tile work. Four huge minarets anchored the corners with a huge dome larger covering an area larger than a football stadium for prayers. Now it was time to hike up one of the 7 hills of Istanbul to the Grand Bazaar with over 4000 shops all enclosed in a amaze-like structure that once we were in I didn’t think we would ever find our way out without dropping a trail of crumbs. In the bazaar there were beautiful handmade silk rugs, colorful local Middle Eastern clothing, pottery, spices, eating establishments, and anything you could think of through out its many nooks and crannies. Finally after a few hours of shopping a light at the end of the tunnel appeared and we emerged at the University of Istanbul. I didn’t buy anything while in the Bazaar but my fellow travelers sure enjoyed the shopping by making multiple purchases of souvenirs and seriously supporting the Turkish economy. I didn’t buy any items however the Turkish rug salesmen prove to be relentless in their quest to find a potential customer. Think annoying like a used car salesman or door-to-door salesman in the U.S. We toured the campus and then found behind the University the Mosque of Suleiman. Turns out Suleiman the Magnificent wanted to build a mosque grander than the Hagia Sofia. After touring both structures I can say that they are both architectural wonders that match each other in terms of opulence and splendor. It is hard to imagine cutting and placing with such precision the huge marble and granite slabs they did with modern tools let alone the primitive tools they worked with at the time these structures were built. I tried to fit my hotel key between the blocks to no avail. It was amazing to think these buildings have experience the considerable seismic activity in this area over the centuries and survived. Ironically it may not be nature but man who brings these building down as all of them showed serious signs of deterioration as a result of the pollution mixing with moisture as acid snow and rain blackening and destroying the marble and travertine blocks. Signs declared that the Turkish government and other international archeological agencies are working fulltime to protect and preserve these ancient masterpieces however; it appears the pollution is winning the battle.
We then headed down the hill to the Golden Horn and the Bosporus, the narrow waterways that separate Europe and Asia as well as Istanbul. After lunch under one of the bridges over the Golden Horn I walked halfway across the bridge to straddle both continents. The sidewalks and bridges were very congested as it seemed all 13 million residents were out taking advantage of the beautiful weather. At times it was like being a sardine in a can, no room to walk or maneuver. Cars frequently came perilously close to pedestrians on the narrow streets with little or now sidewalks. At one point a couple of women screamed as a van hit a post right next to them while trying to maneuver. The Bosporus was a beehive of activity. I have seen busy harbors like LA or San Francisco but they don’t even come close to the ship traffic on the Bosporus. There were so many ships, ferries, and boats that at times it seemed impossible for them not to collide as they crisscrossed the waterways separating Istanbul. Somehow miraculously they survived to only load up with more passengers, cargo, and cars then begin the journey all over again weaving their way back across the congested waterways. After a long day walking all over Istanbul it was time for a meal, Gursh recommended a place called the Doy Doy just a few minutes walk from the hotel. The meal was very good as I ordered a dish that had several Turkish items: lamb chops, spicy chicken, beef kabobs along with traditional salads of yogurt, bulgur wheat, cucumbers, tomato, onions, dried black olives, and feta cheese. This meal more than pleased the palate. The meal was very filling so another walk to the Blue Mosque at night seemed in order. The Blue and Hagia Sofia Mosques sit opposite each other on the hill over looking the waterways that separate European Istanbul and Asian Istanbul. I can only hope my digital camera can capture the incredible beauty of these holy places lit-up at night.
NEXT>>>