Day 5 - The Neverending Dinner

The work weeks are tough to deal with. Right after work at around 5:30am, the Indian team usually goes to sleep since all their family is also sleeping when they get home. After they get their 7-8 hours of sleep, they wake up and run errands, eat, or do normal daily tasks that we Americans probably do after work. Then after dinner, they head to work, when they aren't the most refreshed from a full night of sleep. I finally experienced this today, and boy was it tough to finish the work day today.

Still trying to adjust to the difference in schedules, I woke up around 11AM, getting about 5 hours of sleep. I spent the next couple of hours working and surfing the web. At around 4:30pm, my colleague picked me up so I could meet with the rest of my Accounting team for a dinner prior to work. We got there at around 5:30pm. Unfortunately, I came to town during a very important local election, which would occur tomorrow. Due to the importance of this election, alcohol was not served yesterday, today, and won't be served tomorrow. They declared it a dry day when we got to the restaurant - no beers or cocktails for me!

The dinner was a buffet, but it would only start at about 7:30pm when everything was set up. We ended up having some mocktails, sheesha, and pre-starters. The first question a waiter usually asks is "Veg or Non-Veg?" to accommodate for the strong practicing Hindu or more lax worshipper. Half of us decided on the Non-Veg while the other half opted for the Vegetarian option. While I was eating, I assumed the pre-starters were the appetizers, and the starters were the actual "buffet" we were paying for. I stuffed myself only to realize at 7:30pm that the real buffet started. Everything looked good, but unfortunately, I couldn't get myself to eat more than a couple bites of the actual meal.

Work was terribly difficult to get through, as we all had food coma by the time the shift started. I definitely caught a couple of my colleagues dozing off... I guess that's the difficulty of working a grave yard shift, here in India, and also anywhere else in the world. 

The Neverending Buffet with my colleagues

Lebanese Prawns

Vegetable Starters

Local Peanut Vendor

Local Fruit Vendors

Day 4 - Delhi to Dehradun

Since I got an abundance of sleep over the past few days, it was effortless for me to wake up at 7am in the morning, something I am not usually able to do during the week. The hotel provided a continental buffet of breakfast items from India as well as the West.

Afterwards, I headed to the Radisson hotel near the airport to have a short meeting with one of our Chartered Accountants for my company, who work on our India side of our business. Man, does it get confusing trying to learn about the India governmental restrictions on operating a business in the country! But I guess it would be the same for an Indian to learn about our procedures here in the USA.

My flight was soon after the meeting, and I headed to the airport to catch the flight to Dehradun. It took 30 minutes to fly to the city located north of Delhi. I arrived at the Jolly Grant airport, which was about 45 minutes drive away from the heart of Dehradun, or the "Doon Valley." My colleagues were there to greet me, and we drove through the only highway to reach the city. Along the way I saw a vast network of forests (or what they call 'jungles' in India).

We reached town where I had some South India cuisine, called Masala Dosa. It resembled a quesadilla, but with peas, potatoes, and spices mixed together to comprise the inside, instead of the cheese you would get in a quesadilla. It was a simple, but delicious first meal here.

I checked into my hotel at around 5PM, which was not very kempt, reminded me of my backpacking days... and three hours later, I was at work! My Indian counterparts work the night shift to allign with Los Angeles working times. Although I was tired from the travel and lack of sleep, the first working day was not to difficult to get accustomed to, probably because I was excited to meet everyone.

Touchdown Dehradun!

The Surya Namaskar - a series of yoga positions to salute the sun.

Masala Dosa, a South Indian dish.

My Accounting Team!

Day 154 - Manisa and Izmir

Volkan, my CS host, and his friend Ahmet took me around some of the tourist spots in both Manisa and Izmir. It was a quick tour since I only had one full day to check out the two cities, which are only 30 minutes away from each other by car or bus.

Manisa is dwarfed in size compared to Izmir, which is the 3rd most populated city in Turkey. There were a couple of sights worth seeing, including the Weeping Rock of Niobe, which according to myth, is Niobe turned into stone by Zeus to end her suffering after she continuously weeps because all her 12 children are killed by Apollo and Artemis. We also visited the Sultan Mosque and the Hamam, but I think I'm too exfoliated from my first experience to pay for another one...maybe at the end of my trip in Turkey.

The city is also known for its special paste called "Mesir" which is a mixture of around 30-40 different spices. It's sweet and chewy, rolled into a long cylinder, like a jumbo tootsie roll. In the past, the paste was used to cure the citizens of various ailments. They were freely distributed to the citizens of the city.

After the short trip to Manisa, we headed to Izmir, where I visited the Clock Tower and the Kemeralti Bazaar. The city was so much more crowded and busy compared to the laid-back town of Manisa. Maybe because I was there during the weekend...

We walked around for a while before Ahmet and Volkan treated me to one of the specialty foods of Izmir - the Kumru sandwich, which contains a huge amount of meats and cheese. In the end, the sandwich won the battle as I couldn't finish it, but it was delicious nonetheless!

Tomorrow I head to Kusadasi (probably the hardest city to pronounce so far in Turkey!) to see the classical city and ruins of Ephesus...

Niobe Weeping Rock

Sultan Hamam

Izmir Clock Tower

Kumru Sandwich

Day 146 - Beyoglu and a CS Party

Benny, Anton, and I headed to the European side of Istanbul to check out Beyoglu, or what is called "modern Istanbul." We took the train and a ferry early in the day to get from Asia to Europe. The ferry took about 20 minutes to get from Haydarpasa Train Station to Karakoy. The weather was overcast and misty so the views weren't as nice as they could have been.

When we arrived, we headed to a restaurant to have our first "doner kebap" meal. Most people didn't speak English very well, so we just pointed at the lamb and were served the meat on sub sandwich buns. Delicious!

Afterwards, we decided to walk uphill  and on the Istiklal Cadessi to reach our destination - Taksin Square, where most of the popular and modern restaurants and bars were located. It was about 2km uphill, and we just soaked in the daily Turkish (and tourist) life as we slowly made our way to the top. I couldn't help but smile when I saw the cobbled streets, European architecture, and people dressed in scarves and longcoats, keeping warm against the coming winter months. It reminded me of being in NYC!

We stopped outside the Galata Tower, which provided panoramic views of the entire city, but decided against going up since it was so expensive. Instead, we stopped by a number of Turkish candy shops, where they made baklava and turkish delight among other sweets. I had three...which was way too much sugar for one person...

It took us about 2-3 hours to reach Taksin Square, only because we kept stopping to take photographs in typical tourist fashion and also to grab lunch and check out a free museum showcasing the work of a South Korean artist working on "Juche" theory films in North Korea. Confusing to say the least...

After reaching Taksin Square, we took a funicular to get to the bottom of the city, before heading to Old Istanbul to catch some quick visits to the Spice Bazaar and Yeni Cami (New Mosque). With those two visits off our checklist, we searched for a good nargile (hookah/shisha) cafe before heading back to Asia.

Later on at night, we all went to a Couch Surfing House Party in Uskudar, where I met some other surfers and hosts from Turkey and other parts of Europe. Apparently, there is a HUGE Instanbul CS community and most of them are so eager to open up their homes, and even cook for you! I only wish I was good enough of a cook to make some good dishes in return...

Doner Kebap Sanwic

Galata Tower

Taksin Square

Yeni Cami (New Mosque)

Spice Bazaar

CS Party

Day 145 - Princes' Island

We woke up to a nice Turkish breakfast made by our host, Ahmet. It consisted of breads with olives, cheeses, and tomatoes, and a Turkish egg dish called Menemen, made with eggs, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and peppers. My first Turkish cultural experience was with food, which I can't argue with!

The first stop on my Istanbul/Turkey tour was Princes' Island, which was a 25 minute ferry ride from the Asian coast. We had a good group of CSers - Anto from India, Benny from Germany, Ahmet from Turkey, and me. I had my first Turkish tea on the ferry ride, which is one of the most popular drinks to have in this country. They are served on small tea cups made of thin glass to prevent the tea from cooling too soon.

There are nine islands that consist of "Princes' Island" and we visited the 2nd biggest island - The Island Chalcitis or Halki (Copper) because of the copper mines that used to be located in the southern parts of the island. The island was small and quiet for this time of year, due to the changing seasons, but we were lucky to catch some sunshine on our visit.

There were old, dilapidated wooden houses next to well-kept houses and Victorian Villas, each with its own character. We bought some lunch and took a horse carriage up to the Christos Monastery and had a picnic with a nice view of the sea in the distance. The air was fresh and clean, a stark change from my travels in most of Asia.

Later on at night, Ahmet cooked us all Turkish Manti (small meat ravioli with yogurt and a mix of spices) while we tried some of the local beers and spirits - raki, which is an anise-flavored drink similar to absinthe. You mix the raki with water, and it turns a cloudy white. The food was excellent, but I usually don't like licorice-flavored things, so the raki wasn't a favorite. Again, so much good food!

Ferry ride to Princes' Islands

Christos Monastery

There are plenty of stray cats scattered throughout Istanbul. It's funny, because all I saw were stray dogs everywhere in Nepal. 

Turkish Manti (meat ravioli with yogurt and spices)

The Local Turkish Beer

Turkish Tea

Day 60 - Motorbiking in Chiang Mai

I decided to rent the motorbike for another day since it is just so convenient to have one while in this city. I didn't have any real set plans on what to do for the day, but figured I would somehow stumble on exciting things to see.

I went to a restaurant recommended by my new CS friend. It was called Huan Penh and served authentic Northern Thai dishes. I was so hungry (eyes bigger than my stomach) and ordered three different plates. The dishes were small enough, and I almost finished everything!

Near the restaurant was another Wat, Wat Phra Sing that I visited. About a hundred or so slippers lined the steps to the entrance of the Wat and inside, the temple was filled with monks chanting and meditating. It was such an incredible sight to see.

I looked over my Thailand guidebook to see what the nearest cities were, because I wanted to just drive around and cover a decent amount of the highway. I drove to a couple cities about 10km outside of Chiang Mai called Bo Sang and San Kamphaeng. The cities is known for it's handicraft villages, which made various items like umbrellas, silverware, lacquerware, and teak furniture. It was slightly raining on my way back to Chiang Mai, but going 60kmph, it was painful, as the rain hit my face and body.

At the end of the night, I headed to the Night Bazaar to check out the merchandise again, before taking another drive around the city, this time getting lost and stuck on a superhighway about 1km outside of Chiang Mai. I was stopped by the Thai police at a random checkpoint probably because I stood out by my unnatural driving. They helped me find my way back luckily and didn't give me any trouble...

Huan Penh - Kao Soy, Kanom Jen, and Northern Style Pork Sausages

Wat Phra Sing

Wat Phra Sing

Bo Sang Umbrellas