Koh Chang

So one of Jim's aspirations  for this trip was that we would get to have some time being "beach potatoes". You know, like couch potatoes, but the couch is replaced by a towel  and the TV is replaced by a sprawling expanse of turquoise water just slightly  cooler than a luke  warm bath. This brought us to the island of Koh Chang, lesser known or backpacker-y  than Koh PiPi or Phuket, and closer to Bangkok.  It was a minor splurge, but well within  budget given the favorable exchange rate.

Our first full day on the island, we slept in an enjoyed the beach, on the second day,  we hopped on a snorkeling  excursion to several  of the outer lying islands in the Gulf of Thailand.

Jim's  snorkel selfie

Enjoying  the second deck jump off the boat and into the water

To spy on some colorful fishes and  corals

On our 3rd day on the island, we managed to not  leave the beach from 10:30am until well after 7pm.  We watched the local restaurants  set up their  beach tables in time for sunset, and treated ourselves to some beers in celebration  of a successful beach potato  day.

Our 4th day on the island, we forewent  the beach potatoing in favor of a search around the island for mangroves  and kayaking.  We did manage to find the kayaking place, but it was closed. So instead we enjoyed this nature walk.

That dead ended on this dock, leaving us totally by ourselves,  and provided ample opportunity  for a quick swim.

Ohh, and how did we get to the other side of the island you ask, well by moto of course. With an ID and about 8 USD you can have one of these bad boys for 24hours. No training, so safety course, ohh and did we mention Thailand is a left side drive country?  Needless to say the traffic and mountain switch backs were a bit harrowing, but when we had the open road to ourselves (not too many tourists venture to this side of the island), tooling around on this thing was quite fun.

And we never had to be worried about access to gas because at every roadside stand, you could buy it by the used 750 ml used liquor bottle full for about 1USD.

Bangkok

Thailand,  yes even Bangkok,  is the best smelling place we've  been so far. Fresh and fragrant  flowers mixed with street  stalls doling out tasty treats. Even the trash doesn't  really smell that bad. I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. Jim and I arrived in Thailand  after our no sleep for 48 hour adventure,  and took a pretty  epic nap, leaving us with a few daylight  hours for our first day in Bangkok. 

So we went for a walk, and took  the opportunity  to note the myriad  forms of transportation  that are possible in this town. Metered taxi, tuk tűk ( see right ), bus, sky train ( which we found super easy to use), metro, and moto (ie scooter).

Of course one of our first destinations was the Chautchak weekend market( the largest outdoor  market in the world) . For those of you keeping track, this means that in 3 days, we tackled the largest covered market in the world (Grand  Bazaar, Istanbul), the largest mall in the world (Dubai),and the largest outdoor market  in the world. What did we do at Chautchak?  Eat! Of course. Chicken basil and garlic pork.

And frozen fruit juice popsicles,

And meat on a stick (pork). We also bought a few things, a hat for Jim for sun protection,  and a long skirt for me to allow temple visits (temples, or wat's have strict dress codes )

We crashed pretty good  that first night, but managed to get ourselves up nice and early to tackle the Grand Palace and Wat Pho the next day. To get there from our hostel, we picked up one of the many ferry boats on the  Chao Phyra  river.

For about 30 baht for both of us (that's around a dollar), you can take the 15 minute ride up to the Grand Palace, passing several temples, skyline views, and odd river detritus on the way.

The Grand Palace  is unlike any aarchitecture  we've bumped into thus far on the trip. Gilded  and in mirrored tile living color, these buildings stand out as unique places for respect and reflection.

And the imagery is stunning and strange. Large dragons, and lions, buddhas, and war scenes, all gilded within the walls.

But one of my favorite features  were the recurring  chinese lion statues. Inside their mouths is a carved stone ball. I think it's probably supposed to be a tounge. But I just enjoyed sticking my hand in and playing with this odd stone creature.

Around the corner, we visited  Wat Pho, a temple with a building containing the "big buddah". And he was much bigger than we had thought. This is us with just his head. He also has a whole body, and some very large feet, but oddly, no butt. 

More fun with temple statues

Our  second  and last night in Bangkok before heading off to Koh Chang, we hit up the local street stall for some pad thai  and Chang,  the local brew. Jim was pleased with the quality  of the lager, compared to what had been available  to us the past month in Turkey.  

Two Red Eyes (or 14 hours in Dubai en route to Bangkok)

Want to be really tired?  Take a 2:20 AM flight to Dubai (get there around 8:30 AM), explore a bit, and then fly out at 10:30 PM to head to Bangkok (arriving around 7:30 AM the next day).  After clearing immigration, grabbing our bags, and getting a ride to our hostel in Bangkok it was around 9:30 AM, and we found out we couldn't check in until 2:00 PM.  However, they did let us sleep on the couches in the common area which was awesome and much needed.  That's something you can't do at a fancy hotel.

Anyway, I kind of digress.  Dubai is a bit of a strange place that feels at times like just a long series of hallways surrounded by giant buildings.  You can take the metro from the airport into town which is cool, but it is almost a solid mile from the Burj Khalifa stop to the actual building (through a bunch of aforementioned hallways and the Dubai Mall).  

The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world (and in all the pictures below).  It really is astounding to look at up close.  It has 163 floors and is 2,722 feet tall.  It almost looks unreal.  Naturally, it dwarfs everything around it, but that's no small feat as there are a ton of tall buildings in Dubai.  For example, there are 42 buildings in Dubai taller the Hancock in Boston which is the tallest building in New England at 790 feet tall.

As I mentioned we took a red eye flight to Dubai so we were pretty tired and basically just hung around outside the Burj and inside the Dubai Mall (which is also the biggest mall in the world by square footage, can you tell they like to have the biggest things?)  We tried to go out to the man made Palm Jumeirah Island (and island that looks like a palm tree) but that did't really work out because it would have taken too long to get to a good spot.  We also didn't go up in the Burj though I would have liked to despite my serious fear of heights.  It turns out it is really expensive and you have to book tickets several days in advance to go to one of the viewing platforms (the tallest one is on the 148th floor).

Here is the Burj Khalifa from the plaza outside the Dubai Mall.  There is a fountain next to here too that has the world's largest choreographed fountain show (people in Dubai must lose sleep over what they have that isn't the biggest in the world).  It's cool because of the heights the water reaches as it is shot up, but the height kind of gets lost next to the absolutely enormous building right next to you.  Honestly the shows at the Bellagio in Las Vegas are less crowded, more frequent, and just as fun.

The obligatory Burj selfie that took five tries to actually get the whole building.

Sounding like a broken record by now, but it's really big.

We actually didn't notice it for a while sitting in the outside seating area of the mall food court, but that was probably due to lack of sleep.

Finally, here it is at night covered partially by clouds.  We took off for the airport right after this.  Thailand is awesome and we'll get to that next.

Notes on Turkey : Food edition

You know Jim and I enjoy a good meal. We wanted to share some of the highlights  of Turkish cuisine all bundled in one blog post for you.

Antalya wine, pistachio baklava, and fresh fruit: Dry red wine, fruity, tasty,  but not particularly  memorable.  Baklava, like many sweets here, flaky philo drenched in honey, and fresh fruit. This was the beginning of our love affair with Turkish  clementines,  which we bought by the kilo the rest of our time in Turkey.

Fresh pita with toated sesame seeds, fresh hummus  and olive oil. Does not get much better than fresh.

Testi Kebab : You may remember  this one from the Göreme  blog post. It was a culinary highlight,  mostly for the fun of having a sword crack the pottery in half, but the chicken, red pepper  and onion stew that emerged from that clay pot was also delicious. 

Toast: I know, it's not what we typically think of as toast.  It's  really more of an amped up grilled cheese . With cheese, pickles,  sausage,  ketchup,  and mayo ( and sometimes french fries), it costs no more than $3 and is delcious  and filling.

Durum  Döner : Simply the Döner  wrap. Chicken off the spit,  lettuce and tomato, sometimes pickles, onion, mayo, ketchup, french fries and special sauce. Always served with Ayran, the salty yogurt drink.

Beverages:  Efes, the local turkish  beer, a decent lager. Chai, or tea, black  with lots of sugar, available everywhere, all the time, with everything,  even whén you refuse it. 

Lokomum : Deep fried dough balls fresh coated in honey syrup.  Best when eaten straight out of the fryer, but one serving is enough to send you into sugar shock.

Pide  Döner : Another Döner variation, beef in crusty italian/french  type bread. Also always served with Ayran. Also, at most tables, you will be provided a jar of hot peppers for your Döner.  Highly  recommend  these little guys (see pictured behind the Ayran)

Kumpir: the Turkish loaded baked potato.  Complete with  butter, cheese, corn, pickles, red peppers, sausage, relish, and dill  yogurt sauce. This is enough to feed 2 people, if you can both  tolerate the ridiculousness.  Not my favorite. 

Iskender  Döner : For this variation,  the bread is underneath  the beef, covered in a  red sauce and served with yogurt. Very tasty.

Meze: the traditional  Meze platter, where you can try a little  bit of cold everything.  Eggplant done several ways, stuffed grape leaves, hummus,  yogurt, white bean and egg salad.

Main options 1 and 2: in Göreme  we ordered off a menu main options 1 and 2. We can't really tell you what they were, except to say that Main 1 was beef, and it seemed to be stir fried with spices, onions and peppers. Main 2 was chicken, and was smothered  in what I called turkish barbecue sauce. Both were delcious.  If you ever find yourself at Topdeck  cafe in Göreme,  order Mains 1 and 2.

Fancy cakes: Tuliss and Opera cake at the Hotel Kempinski, Ciragan Palace Istanbul 

Spice Bazar tea, also at the Hotel Kempinski,  Ciragan Palace,  Istanbul 

Payman, inspecting the Turkish  delight  selection at the Spice Bazar. Delight  is like gummy squares of every fruit flavor, best made with honey, sometimes containing  pistachios,  sometimes covered in chocolate. 

Aubergine and Mixed grills. Load your food item onto a spit and throw over open flame, voilà! 

Manti: small meat raviöli serveserved in a garlic yogurt sauce. You expect  it to be one way, but it's  totally  different,  and tasty too!

Raki: anise flavored sipping liquor  that turns white  and cloudy when you add water. Not my favorite,  but if you like ouzo or black licorice  this could be the drink  for you.

And honorable mention though not pictured here:

Turkish breakfast,  particularly  dried fig, yogurt and Quince jam

Simit : Like a sesame bagel (would be great with some kajmak,  see Bosnia post)

Sahlep: a thick,  hot, white,  beverage , made with orchid root and condensed milk. Dusted with  cinnamon. Perfect for those snowy days in Istanbul.

All the eggplant  dishes : Really, you can get it grilled, roasted, smoked, spicy with meat, anyway you try it, it's delicious 

Köfte : Turkish meatballs

Istanbul and Thoughts on Turkey

Istanbul is the 6th biggest city in the world with a population of 14 million people, but it's spread out over a lot of land on two continents.  The area we were staying (Sultanahmet) is the tourist sightseeing hub of the city so it was really busy during the day and pretty dead at night.  It may have 14 million people but it doesn't feel nearly as busy as some other cities unless you are in the middle of the tourist crush.  It was also cold and rainy most of the time we were there, so we didn't explore maybe as much as we would have in nice weather but we hit all the major sights.  Sometimes when you've been outside in the cold for a while it's best to just put your head down and get to warmth.  This may be partially the weather but I liked other parts of Turkey more.  However, the whole experience was made better by seeing friends in person.  Speaking of:

Before we get any further we would like to thank our friends Martina and Payman for exploring Istanbul with us.  Guys, we had a lot of fun and we can't thank you enough for your coming out and adventuring with us (and your storage).  This is us in the lobby of the Hodjapasha center where we watched then whirling dervishes perform the Mevlevi Sema ceremony.  It's a religious ceremony with five people in white robes and some music.  The most interesting part is when they just whirl (hence the name) around for minutes on end. The ceremony itself is a little boring but it is remarkable how they can just spin forever.

Since Turkey is almost entirely Muslim, they don't celebrate Christmas but they do basically co-opt a lot of Western Christmas traditions for New Year's.  Here is a New Year's tree we came across in Istanbul.

This is the beautiful dome of the Blue Mosque from the inside.  You can't wear shoes, but they leave the doors open so it's pretty chilly inside.

Here we are inside.  Chrissy had to cover her head.

Here it is is from the outside.

This is a street in the grand bazaar.  It is one of the largest covered markets in the world and a crazy place.  It's really crowded and everyone is yelling at you to look in their shop.  Most things are overpriced compared to what you can get elsewhere, but you can also haggle to your heart's delight (which Chrissy is better at than me) and it is a sight to see.

This is underground in the Basilica Cistern.  It used to be a water source for the nearby buildings but now it's a tourst attraction.  You can't really see but there are a lot of fish swimming in the water.  Hard to translate to pictures but a really cool place.

There are two Medusa heads in the cistern (the other is upside down).  Mimicking statues is always fun.

Here we are at the Aya Sofya or (Hagia Sophia in English).  It used to be a church (notice the Christian imagery behind us) that the Ottomans converted into a mosque and it's now a museum.  It has one of the bigger domes in the world but it was partially covered by scaffolding.

View from the balcony.

Here we are in a room at the Harem of Topkapi Palace where the sultans lived.  Every room is covered in ceramic tile.

See?

Overall, Turkey is a cool place.  The food is really good (more on that later) and the people are generally friendly.  The people trying to get you into their shop or restaurant can be pretty overbearing though.  It is crazy the different things that were yelled at us.  "Yes, please" was always how most of them started which is annoying because it's an unasked for invitation.  After a while you start to appreciate the ones that at least start with "Hello."  We had people wrongly guess nationalities and start with multiple languages too.  Spanish and German we're probably the most popular.  It makes you wonder their criteria for guessing where you are from.  Usually they just ask where you are from though and then act like they know US geography even though they don't.  When we declined to go into a restaurant once the guy yelled after us "if you don't come back, I'll kill you!"  Some favorites yelled at us:

"I am here!" (No follow up).

"I know what you like: carpet.  Come into my shop, I won't try to sell you anything."  (Also known as the worst sales tactic ever).

"Yes, please.  Ohio?  Tennessee?"