Sunday, June 26, 2005
Istanbul-Paradise-Sept. 3, 2003
Don’t let the $100 visa fee scare you. While it’s true that the Turkish government raised the price of entry for Americans to $100 from $45 (which was already listed as one of the most expensive visas in the world) after Bush’s Iraq folly, we are hoping it won’t last. Brits and other Westerners pay less than $20. The US has retaliated, by the way, and is charging Turks the same.
People say when you live somewhere long enough you get used to its oddities and eventually they seem normal. This must be doubly true for those of us living in Third World countries. When we left the dirty, hot streets of Cairo on Aug. 29 for Turkey on our first vacation outside Egypt since we moved here, we were like kids in a candy store.
My reaction to Istanbul seems pretty funny to my husband. He thinks I have forgotten what it is like to live in a Western-style world. The people, the openness, the beauty, the cleanliness…the modernity. It is something to behold. This city of some 15 million or so has it all. It has an amazing (and long) history of ups and downs, mainly ups. The former palaces and mansions are certainly a testimony to the once all-powerful Ottoman empire.
Today’s Istanbul is thriving and complete with arts, culture, nightlife, academe, history, beautiful people, nice weather, good food, excellent urban transportation system… I could go on.
Picture San Francisco with its bridges, water and hills. Now subtract the high cost of living (a very good meal here runs about $10-$15; hotel rooms are no more than $20 a night), add cobblestone streets, a skyline dotted with some of the world’s largest and most majestic mosques, about 14 million people, and a heavy dose of Mediterranean-style joie de vive. That’s Istanbul.
I remember when I first moved to San Francisco and my new boss at the time was trying to justify the high cost of living there by saying that it was the cost of paradise, and it was a good way of keeping out the riffraff.
Wrong. Paradise is here. And the homeless problem is nil compared to SF.
And the most refreshing part … no harassment of women, foreign or local. There is some benign flirting, but nothing worse than you get in Italy. It’s hard to describe the feeling of letting go. Letting go of the tight knot in my stomach that twists when I am out alone in Cairo. Here I can walk with my head up, look people in the eye, and not worry if I might be asking for trouble.
We are perplexed that we didn’t know Istanbul was like this. Why isn’t Istanbul as much or more of a tourist destination than Paris or London? In my opinion, it has much more to offer than both of those cities.
One of the main reasons why Istanbul is the great city it is today is because of Attaturk. He is essentially the county’s modern founding father. Starting in 1919, he made bold decisions that influenced the way the entire country developed — in such a different way than other Muslim countries.
He established the government as secular republic, changed the alphabet to Latin, and set up a modern democracy. As a result, the country is modern yet retains good Muslim values. Women here are as free as they are in Western society. There are veiled women of course, but there is no backlash against those women who choose not to veil. There is no disdain of women who choose to wear what they want and work where they want.
Turkey still has some issues such as liberalization of some of its state-run companies, and the EU sites human rights abuses as well. But to be sure, Turkey is decades and decades more advanced than Egypt.
The best way to describe the attitude in Turkey is the way it was described to us by one of the many extremely friendly people we met: Freedom. Turks love their freedom and each person is responsible for him or herself. Hamed, who runs a moped rental shop told us this anecdote: For Arabs leading camel caravans, there is always a donkey that the caravan must follow. But Turks, he said, don’t need to follow a donkey. They go their own way. (It’s funnier if you live in Cairo where donkeys are a part of everyday life.)
The only reason we can surmise that Istanbul seems to be a hidden gem is that American fear of the unknown. I no longer buy the money or time argument. Americans have created that as a an excuse. If more Americans traveled to more far-off destinations, airline prices would dip. Look at how cheap it is to fly to London and Paris these days from the states. Once you are here, the prices are much lower than any US destination. And if Americans in general appreciated travel more than work, we wouldn’t be a culture that gives people a meager two weeks of vacation.
As we walked through the city streets of Istanbul and then headed for the countryside of Central Anatolia and the sandcastle-like cave laden valley of Cappadocia, we kept asking ourselves, what’s the catch?
The truth is, we never found one. You should all check it out for yourselves.
Back on the Cairo home front, there’s two interesting stories of late. First, our favorite grocery delivery boy, who’s about 23, has decided to venture out on his own. He is renting a spot right across the street from the vegetable stand where he now works to create a veggie stand of his own. He told us about the backroom dealings that went on when he announced the news to his boss. Mohamed, his boss, terrified of losing customers to Hany, offered the younger man 100,000 Egyptian pounds, about $16,000. Hany proudly told us “I turned around and offered him 200,000 to buy him out.” When we asked Hany how will he distinguish his vegetable stand from his old boss’s stand, he said: “Simple — by the name. I will call it … Pinky Ghost. You should see the logo I created on the computer for it!”
The second story is yet another cabbie story, but it’s a good one. Unlike the French, Egyptians love it when you attempt to speak their language. Even a simple “shukran,” or thank you, will get you a: “Bititkalim Arabic Kwais,” You speak good Arabic. So last week as Davin hailed a cabbie in front of a fancy hotel, he was quoted an insane amount of money for a short ride. So Davin starts yelling at the cabbie in Arabic: “What’s wrong with you? Do you think I am a tourist? Why are you trying to rip me off? Blah, blah, blah.” The cabbie yells right back in Arabic: “You are an idiot. You are a donkey, etc..” So they are literally both yelling at each in Arabic. The cabbie finally drives off in anger, but not before telling Davin: “Bititkalim Arabic Kwais.” You speak good Arabic!
People say when you live somewhere long enough you get used to its oddities and eventually they seem normal. This must be doubly true for those of us living in Third World countries. When we left the dirty, hot streets of Cairo on Aug. 29 for Turkey on our first vacation outside Egypt since we moved here, we were like kids in a candy store.
My reaction to Istanbul seems pretty funny to my husband. He thinks I have forgotten what it is like to live in a Western-style world. The people, the openness, the beauty, the cleanliness…the modernity. It is something to behold. This city of some 15 million or so has it all. It has an amazing (and long) history of ups and downs, mainly ups. The former palaces and mansions are certainly a testimony to the once all-powerful Ottoman empire.
Today’s Istanbul is thriving and complete with arts, culture, nightlife, academe, history, beautiful people, nice weather, good food, excellent urban transportation system… I could go on.
Picture San Francisco with its bridges, water and hills. Now subtract the high cost of living (a very good meal here runs about $10-$15; hotel rooms are no more than $20 a night), add cobblestone streets, a skyline dotted with some of the world’s largest and most majestic mosques, about 14 million people, and a heavy dose of Mediterranean-style joie de vive. That’s Istanbul.
I remember when I first moved to San Francisco and my new boss at the time was trying to justify the high cost of living there by saying that it was the cost of paradise, and it was a good way of keeping out the riffraff.
Wrong. Paradise is here. And the homeless problem is nil compared to SF.
And the most refreshing part … no harassment of women, foreign or local. There is some benign flirting, but nothing worse than you get in Italy. It’s hard to describe the feeling of letting go. Letting go of the tight knot in my stomach that twists when I am out alone in Cairo. Here I can walk with my head up, look people in the eye, and not worry if I might be asking for trouble.
We are perplexed that we didn’t know Istanbul was like this. Why isn’t Istanbul as much or more of a tourist destination than Paris or London? In my opinion, it has much more to offer than both of those cities.
One of the main reasons why Istanbul is the great city it is today is because of Attaturk. He is essentially the county’s modern founding father. Starting in 1919, he made bold decisions that influenced the way the entire country developed — in such a different way than other Muslim countries.
He established the government as secular republic, changed the alphabet to Latin, and set up a modern democracy. As a result, the country is modern yet retains good Muslim values. Women here are as free as they are in Western society. There are veiled women of course, but there is no backlash against those women who choose not to veil. There is no disdain of women who choose to wear what they want and work where they want.
Turkey still has some issues such as liberalization of some of its state-run companies, and the EU sites human rights abuses as well. But to be sure, Turkey is decades and decades more advanced than Egypt.
The best way to describe the attitude in Turkey is the way it was described to us by one of the many extremely friendly people we met: Freedom. Turks love their freedom and each person is responsible for him or herself. Hamed, who runs a moped rental shop told us this anecdote: For Arabs leading camel caravans, there is always a donkey that the caravan must follow. But Turks, he said, don’t need to follow a donkey. They go their own way. (It’s funnier if you live in Cairo where donkeys are a part of everyday life.)
The only reason we can surmise that Istanbul seems to be a hidden gem is that American fear of the unknown. I no longer buy the money or time argument. Americans have created that as a an excuse. If more Americans traveled to more far-off destinations, airline prices would dip. Look at how cheap it is to fly to London and Paris these days from the states. Once you are here, the prices are much lower than any US destination. And if Americans in general appreciated travel more than work, we wouldn’t be a culture that gives people a meager two weeks of vacation.
As we walked through the city streets of Istanbul and then headed for the countryside of Central Anatolia and the sandcastle-like cave laden valley of Cappadocia, we kept asking ourselves, what’s the catch?
The truth is, we never found one. You should all check it out for yourselves.
Back on the Cairo home front, there’s two interesting stories of late. First, our favorite grocery delivery boy, who’s about 23, has decided to venture out on his own. He is renting a spot right across the street from the vegetable stand where he now works to create a veggie stand of his own. He told us about the backroom dealings that went on when he announced the news to his boss. Mohamed, his boss, terrified of losing customers to Hany, offered the younger man 100,000 Egyptian pounds, about $16,000. Hany proudly told us “I turned around and offered him 200,000 to buy him out.” When we asked Hany how will he distinguish his vegetable stand from his old boss’s stand, he said: “Simple — by the name. I will call it … Pinky Ghost. You should see the logo I created on the computer for it!”
The second story is yet another cabbie story, but it’s a good one. Unlike the French, Egyptians love it when you attempt to speak their language. Even a simple “shukran,” or thank you, will get you a: “Bititkalim Arabic Kwais,” You speak good Arabic. So last week as Davin hailed a cabbie in front of a fancy hotel, he was quoted an insane amount of money for a short ride. So Davin starts yelling at the cabbie in Arabic: “What’s wrong with you? Do you think I am a tourist? Why are you trying to rip me off? Blah, blah, blah.” The cabbie yells right back in Arabic: “You are an idiot. You are a donkey, etc..” So they are literally both yelling at each in Arabic. The cabbie finally drives off in anger, but not before telling Davin: “Bititkalim Arabic Kwais.” You speak good Arabic!
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