Beautiful Istanbul

This is the first of possibly many more entries about my recent trip to Turkey. Decided to write about Istanbul first as it’s one of the most beautiful and intriguing cities that were covered in the itinerary. No trip to Turkey would be complete without a tour of Istanbul and even with the inclusion of the city in our itinerary, I felt like I needed more time to explore this city by myself. I actually don’t mind travelling to Istanbul again…

It’s just amazing that the city was home to so many great empires of yesteryear. And what’s even more amazing is that the symbols of these empires actually co-exist within 1km of one another! The Sultan Ahmet Mosque (better known as the Blue Mosque), the Aya Sofya, the Roman Hippodrome and the Topkapi Palace are all within the vicinity. That the whole area is surrounded by gardens full of colourful flowers makes it even more surreal. When you see things like that, you start to wonder why so many wars are still going on. Oh well, you may say these are just buildings built by different people at different times. Still, building a new empire without destroying symbols of the empires you defeat is quite an admirable act. Also makes it easier for first-timers to Turkey to get a quick snapshot of the history of the country =)

I do not know enough about architecture to actually critique the buildings but I’m quite intrigued by the intricate patterns of the mosaics and stained glass windows in all these buildings. How does one go all the way up to the interior of the dome to pattern the mosaics and glass such that verses of the Quran are arranged so beautifully and neatly? I also love the generous use of marble for pillars and other parts of the interior.

The Topkapi Palace is another wonder in itself. Before I stepped into Topkapi Palace, the palace is just known to me as an untouchable place that kings and queens live in. I’ve never actually dreamt of standing on palace grounds myself. Anyways, the palace is huge and to look at the different rooms and exhibits, we had to join many snaking queues. It’s really good that Turkey is nowhere as hot and humid as Singapore, so even if we had to wait for our turns, we didn’t perspire.

Anyway, our time in the rooms themselves were very brief, cos there were so many people that we can’t afford to stare at the beautiful jewel exhibits but more importantly, there was no point in staring at these jewels cos we can’t own them. We can’t bring them back home, so haha quick glances at the riches of the Ottomans will do.

What I didn’t particularly enjoy was the time at the Grand Bazaar and the Egyptian Spice Bazaar. They have a variety of things but some of the shopkeepers can be quite pushy. And they will pull a long face and cease to be friendly when you bargain or just walk away from their store after asking the price. Not all are like that, but some of them can really put you off. The concept of having an indoor bazaar selling almost everything and anything is marvellous and I would liken it to Shin Sai Bashi in Osaka, Japan,

but wandering through the alleys and browsing through the shops at Shin Sai Bashi was a more relaxed experience. Also, the target groups are different for these two shopping areas in Istanbul and Osaka respectively. While Shin Sai Bashi is frequented by both locals and tourists, the two bazaars in Istanbul are touristy shopping areas. Many centuries ago, there were indeed markets where people would get their supplies from, but ever since they turned into tourist attractions, it seems like they have lost a bit of colour and soul as a trading market. I could have done with less time in the Grand Bazaar and Egyptian Spice Bazaar and more time taking photos of the streets and buildings in the city.

The bazaars aside, I would say the landscape of Istanbul is breathtaking, to say the least. The hustle and bustle of the city can be captured by the activities of the man on the street while the beautiful soul (that sounds seriously familiar, ain’t it? haha…) of the city lies in its works of architecture. At one glance, you wonder how modernity and antiquity can coexist but Istanbul shows the way. That progress doesn’t need to get in the way of preservation.

Walking along the streets can already keep you busy with your cameras but well, nothing beats the cruise ride along the Bosphorus Strait. Reminds me of my distant dream of owning a waterfront house…

Given time, I would really wanna explore Istanbul on my own. Try out the little eateries and take more pictures of people. Maybe can go to Istanbul again if I decide to go some of the countries around the region like Greece or Bulgaria. Not in the next few years, but Istanbul’s definitely one of my top choices for the future honeymoon =) The traffic is crazy and in the heart of the city, you get to your destination faster on foot but if you think about what you can get out of walking through the streets, I guess it’s worth it.

Home Sweet Home

Back from the land of the Turks…

Will write about the trip in installments.

Photos galore in store…woohoo~

Japan ’08 Chap. 3: City Life

My sister suddenly asked for my Universal Studios brochure yesterday and while I was searching for it in my gigantic NATAS Fair bag, I saw some other brochures that made me excited about Japan all over again. You can probably tell I’ve been quite happy these days, if the number of recent posts is anything to go by. While looking at some of the brochures, I realised that there’s so much more of Japan that I’ve not seen, so I shall go there again in a few years’ time haha. But while I accumulate my savings, I shall be contented with recalling the good memories of this year’s trip.

I didn’t start my Japan ‘chronicles’ with a chapter on city life cos although I was excited to see the hustle and bustle of Tokyo while we were ambitiously planning to go on a free-and-easy trip, Japan was to be my great escape from the fast-paced Singapore. Which was why I started with culture and nature. But it’s high time I talk about city life cos it captures the essence of that which has made Japan one of the most industralised economies in the world, though some would point out that the last few years have not been good for Japan economically, politically and socially.

Anyway, I shall take a chronological approach here cos then it’ll end with Tokyo, which basically encapsulates how ordinary Japanese city-dwellers live.

So, first up would be Osaka, the first city we went to on arrival at Kansai International Airport. It was not a very good day cos we (or rather I, cos I shouldn’t speak for Trina & Angel) were all too sleepy to enjoy the full soul and flavour of Osaka. We had taken the night flight from Singapore and since it was my first flight out from my homeland (haha this sounds super cheesy!), I was too excited to sleep while on board. I think after watching a couple of movies I probably caught only forty winks, which explains how unearthly I look in the Osaka pictures.

We went to Shin Sai Bashi, a large shopping area in Osaka with lots of shops along narrow streets selling all sorts of goods. I was quite overwhelmed by the size of the area and the never-ending throngs of shoppers along all the aisles, even though Singapore boasts an equally busy shopping district in the form of Orchard Rd. Also, being one who doesn’t dress to the nines for shopping, I was kinda shocked to see the great lengths the Japanese go to in order to look their best, even when it’s just a shopping outing. Haha I’m not a shopping addict so maybe that’s why I don’t understand the culture of shopping and the workings of it, but well, it was interesting to see thousands of Japanese of all ages and lifestyles hit the shops on a weekend.

Besides the people, the billboards were interesting. I always wonder why Singapore doesn’t have that many billboards cos I think it’s a very good advertising form. Cos it’s big and colourful and it’s really ‘at you’ kinda thing, there’s no way shoppers can miss it. On one side of the quadrangle, there’s even a large electronic billboard which showed commercials and horse races, among other things. That’s probably a bit too happening for Singapore but haha it was interesting.

A cinema in Shin Sai Bashi. It was difficult to get the whole building into the frame cos the streets were pretty narrow so this was the best I could do with my beginner photography skills. Not sure what kinda films they show but I took the picture cos of the interesting architecture. But ‘interesting’ is about what I can say about the architecture cos the knowledge of architecture I have is negligible. I remember reading a bit about architecture in India during the British Colonial Era for one of my EU modules but sadly, I don’t remember the details. So I should not even attempt to comment on this. Shall ask Huiyu about this building when we meet up.

Fast forward a couple of days and we end up at another shopping area, this time in Gotemba.

When I first read up about this Premium Outlet Shopping Mall, I thought: Expensive, sure got nothing to buy. I thought I’d be bored for the 2-3 hours we were scheduled to be there. I was sure proven wrong cos firstly it’s not boring and secondly, I bought quite a lot of things haha. Of course I had to restrict myself to sports labels cos my budget didn’t allow me to even look at the luxury labels that some of the ladies in my tour group indulged in. The shopping mall is not actually located in the city centre but since I’ve been on the topic of shopping for a good part of this post, I might as well just include Gotemba here. I really like Gotemba cos of the generous number of brands covered and the laidback single-level layout that leaves me time for contemplation on what to buy and what not to buy while walking around. Certainly different from the narrow and overly-crowded streets of Shin Sai Bashi, which partly made me not want to buy anything (other than the Hello Kitty brolly for my lil sis) cos I could hardly stop to think.

And when Gotemba provides you with a good view of Mt Fuji, Gotemba wins hands down. I like to do my shopping in a relaxed atmosphere, breathing in fresh air and having lunch while overlooking Mt Fuji. 😉

When we finally reached Tokyo, we realised that the trip was coming to an end so in between shopping and snapping photos, I kept whining about having to go back to work. And we were like saying how fast 7 days had passed and now we had to go back to reality, haha…

At Tokyo, we basically saw things that we used to see only in postcards and on TV. Which is why I don’t see the need to explain everything, save for some things I found interesting. Suffice to say I felt it was a great achievement to able to see these things in person. Seeing the Tokyo Tower, the skyscrapers, the government buildings and the replica Statue of Liberty basically validates what I see on TV. I’ll just include the photos here for your viewing pleasure:

After crossing from Odaiba to Tokyo mainland via the 20min cruise ride, we headed to Ueno, where the Ameyoko Flea Market is situated.

It was like Shin Sai Bashi all over again cos of the amount of people walking on the narrow streets but it’s interesting in its own right. There’s a lot of wet market items like fish, squid and even meat, dried foodstuff like scallops and octopus and a whole range of snacks from plums to pistachios. And because it’s here that I found the first (and sadly the only) Halal food outlet during the course of my trip, I shall remember Ueno forever. 😉

Walking along the streets of Ueno was also interesting for another reason. If you can see from the above photo, I’m basically walking outside pubs, bars and questionable joints, a situation in which you’d hardly find me when I’m in sunny Singapore. At home, I’m really overprotected. But in Japan, I could use my tourist identity to walk there (at least in the day) without much worry.

After some time at Ueno, we went to Shinjuku, one of the busiest shopping districts in Tokyo. There’s of course the trendy Shibuya and techy Akihabara but Shinjuku was already quite a handful for me. You can go blind looking at all the neon lights and the number of people walking around can make you giddy. We didn’t really spend too much time there cos it’s actually not in the itinerary. Some things caught our eyes though…

…like this shop along some back lane. Along the way there were some sleazy joints but I really don’t know what this is. Forgot to ask the tour guide too, or maybe some other people asked but I wasn’t tuning in so I’m left wondering what this place is all about. People familiar with Japanese can perhaps enlighten me on the meaning of the signages at this shop.

Another interesting place. The male version of the hostess club. Most of the guys have the same spiky hairstyle and the same androgynous look. Hardly my type…

After a short bus ride from Shinjuku, we found ourselves in one of the busiest railway stations in Japan, at Shinagawa.

Our hotel in Tokyo was about 5-10 minutes away from this station so after putting our bags down, we walked down the slopes to see how a night in Tokyo is played out. It’s sure busy with all the salarymen and OLs just knocking off from work and buying groceries last minute before catching that train home. But walk away from the station and you find things quietening down a bit. After the long bus ride from the Gotemba since early afternoon and some quick sightseeing at Odaiba, Ueno and Shinjuku, I kinda relished having some peace walking around freely even though some of the shops had closed for the night by then.

On our way down the slope, we saw this sign outside Le Meridien Pacific Tokyo.

It’s just amazing how Singapore markets itself all over the world. Makes me feel proud to be a Singaporean. 😉

And I shall end this post with one of my top 10 favourite Japan photos, taken just across the street from Shinagawa station. In photography, this would probably not be a good photo cos of the blurred images of people crossing the street but to me it’s perfect.

Why?

Cos it successfully captures the soul of Tokyo, the essence of bustling Tokyo which is too fast-paced for even the best cameras to capture. 😛

Japan ’08 Chap. 2.1: Flowers and Trees

This is a continuation of the previous chapter on Nature. Naming it Chap 2.1 cos it’s still Nature but quite specialised in that it’s basically flowers and trees. Not going to write a lot cos I don’t even have to. The pictures are there to explain themselves. Quite a lot of the species, I hadn’t seen in Singapore. So you can imagine how shutter-happy I was whenever I saw flowers in Japan. I even took pictures of flowers in front of people’s houses. Aaah I’d really like to visit Japan in spring again.

‘Nuff said. Pls enjoy the pictures (in 2 parts cos they just couldn’t accept the full file of 30 slides, even though it doesn’t even go near the upload limit).

I’m not a botany expert so I didn’t put in names of species in the slides. Still, hope the pictures have brightened your weekend cos they have definitely brightened mine! 🙂

Japan ’08 Chap. 2: Nature

I seem to have forgotten about Japan, haven’t I? But no, I still look at the photos occasionally when I’m bored, or when I have too much on my hands and I want to run away from it all…In fact, I’m already starting to prepare a list of countries I wanna run to next 😛

As promised in the first post on Japan (which was like 3 months ago!), I’m going to talk about nature. It’s actually very easy, cos I just need to post some pretty pictures and it’s enough to make me wanna pack my bags and fly to Japan again. But can’t just leave my pictures without accompaniment right? Pictures should come with some explanation as the more important thing was the experience.

And Hakone National Park contribute much to the beautiful experience I had in Japan so Hakone shall form the bulk of this post.

A view of Lake Ashi from the bus on the way up to Mt Fuji.

Being in Hakone was relaxing because the pace of life is so slow that it makes for a good (though expensive) retiring place. But at the same time, the scenery around you was simply so breathtaking that sometimes I felt like I was smiling to myself, like I’d die of over-smiling. The picture of Lake Ashi that I have here is not perfect cos there’s actually a reflection of the bus windows but hey if we could have had the opportunity to stop and walk by the sides of the lake, it would have been a more fulfilling experience.

Owakudani Valley, Hakone

While I was already excited when I saw the various lakes surrounding Mt Fuji, being up there at Owakudani Valley made me even more exhilarated. Ok, the first reaction when we got down the bus was actually “shit why issit so cold?”. But we soon got used to it, we braved the temperatures and took lotsa pictures for posterity’s sake.

Many shades of green at Owakudani

I call this place the Hills of Happiness cos I really love green mountain valleys like these. I never thought I could be looking on green hills and calm lakes like that from such a great height so it was thrilling just standing there at Owakudani Valley. Simply awesome…

A bit more about Owakudani Valley. It’s actually an area where sulphur hot springs are in abundance and we all know suplhur doesn’t smell too good. So it was like having rotten eggs all around you. Ironically, eggs boiled in the sulphur hot springs are a delicacy there. It sounds like having eggs which are rotten to the power of 2 but it didn’t look too bad. Trina bought a few and she didn’t really complain about the taste so I guess it wasn’t that bad hehe.

What was bad was actually some unsavoury remarks we heard while climbing up the sulphur hills. Angel, who was attentive enough, heard 2 tourists from a country near Japan questioning our right to be there. Ok maybe I’ve put it too strongly but I find it really weird that some people think we are still living in an age where you just stay put at the place where you were born until the day you die. Anyway, this was roughly how the conversation between the couple went (or at least the part that concerned us):

Girl: Where are they from?
Guy: Singapore.
Girl: What are they doing here?

What were we doing there? Why couldn’t we be there? I don’t earn a 5-figure salary but I’ve made enough money to bring myself to Japan. And living in a city which is just 2 hours away from Japan does not give them more right than us to be there. It’s a pity there are still unenlightened people like that around. I’m not a smart alec but at least I know enough to realise that global tourism has reached quite a lot of corners of the Earth so it wouldn’t be weird finding a Singaporean on some remote hill in Japan.

Oh well, it’s better to talk about Mt Fuji cos it makes me feel happier. Mt Fuji gave me some of the best photos I’ll ever have in my collection. Err but I wasn’t using Fujifilm k? 😉

Anyway, Mt Fuji must be one of the most beautiful and blessed mountains ever cos God made it so even that from wherever that I take a photo, the mountain top would always look the same. This is in contrast to the Chalk Cliffs my brother saw at Rügen Island in Germany.

Hey but I have nothing against uneven works of nature okay. I’m grateful these natural masterpieces are still around for us to appreciate the power of the Creator and hopefully will still be around for my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and all their children to see. 🙂

Frozen in Spring

Taken near the 4th station of Mt Fuji. Mt Fuji has several checkpoints for people to stop and take photos and we were actually scheduled to go up to the 5th station (which was even higher up) but everyone was wow-ing at the clear view we got of the summit when the bus passed the 4th station so it was decided that whatever happened at 5th station, we had to go back down to take photos at the 4th station. And the fact that we couldn’t see anything due to the fog at the 5th station made stopping at the 4th station a definite.

Even then, a beauty does not pose 24/7 for everyone to see so it was extremely difficult to get a perfect shot of the summit. For every photo of the mountain that I was satisfied with, I took at least 4 other imperfect shots.

Barren but Beautiful

Another one of my favourite Mt Fuji photos. Reminds me of the trouble the knight had to go through to save Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, or rather the general fairy tale setting of the daunting forest that any male protagonist has to go through to save his girl. Yes, that’s it. It was so fairy-tale like. So surreal that I wasn’t quite sure I was really there meeting Mt Fuji face-to-face.

And this just adds on to the mystique of Mt Fuji, doesn’t it? You can’t even see the road ahead and are just excited to see what will appear next. Which is how we feel from time to time, isn’t it? The unknown makes us fearful but it’s also the thing that keeps us trying, not knowing whether our next step will lead to jubilation or disappointment.

I wonder where the road will lead me next…

Japan ’08 Chap. 1: Culture/Heritage

Ok I’m finally getting down to writing about Japan. Haven’t uploaded all the pics to web albums yet but they’ll come in batch by batch. Anyway, before I go on, I wanna pay tribute to my camera for the excellent services rendered during the course of the trip. I’m an amateur at photography and digicams but this Canon Digital Ixus 950 IS has so many functions to do justice to what I see around me that the only way pictures can turn out ugly is through my own ineptitude at photography. So, thank you my dear camera, I’ll surely look after you as best as I can.

Moving on to the trip itself, I must say I really enjoyed myself cos the destination was great and the companionship’s even better! As recent as a year ago, I’d never see myself as being able to set aside enough money to go to Japan. And being a person who’s always dreamed about Europe rather than any other place, I actually didn’t see myself landing in Japan as quick as this, haha. But Japan is so interesting a place with lotsa quaint little shops and a rich cultural heritage that makes me feel the amount of money spent was worthwhile. I actually feel like going there again in a couple years to perhaps explore Tokyo a lot more, cos there’s so much more that we didn’t get to see.

Going back to the focus of this post: Culture.

First up is the 1300 yr-old cormorant fishing culture in Gifu. Though this method of fishing is not unheard of in China and Macedonia, the elaborate processes involved and the special garb worn during the fishing season makes the Japanese version worth filming for a documentary.

Which was exactly what the NHK people did, haha.

Well, I guess it was in part due to the fact that the cormorant fishing season had just started so everyone’s excited about it. I don’t understand Japanese but this fishing master must have been explaining the history of the practice and what not.

Of course, we had to soak in the spirit of the season and all so I posed as a fishing master. You’ll never catch me doing something like that in Singapore, haha. Oh I suddenly recall what I learned when I did Sociology of Tourism; the fact that tourists always take on this tourist identity when they travel. I guess I was conforming to that identity.

Pretty cool that they even adjust the date everyday so that we’ll not forget when we took the pic.

And we won’t ever forget the experience we had there. It was really chilly, and I remember I was rather sleepy. The weather was conducive for sleeping lar, just that there weren’t any beds or pillows around.

We had to wait till the sun was down before we could see anything. Hmm isn’t that ironic? You see things in darkness. And sometimes things seen in the dark can be quite beautiful…

…of cos some illumination helps:P Can anyone spot the bird which is diving to get the fish?

Actually when I was thinking about the rationale behind using proxies like birds when one can use fishing nets, I thought it was pretty cruel to tie the base of the bird’s throat to ensure that it can only swallow small fish and not the fish that its master wants. But since the beginning of time, we’ve been using animals to our own advantage. Like using horses and donkey as forms of transportation and bulls for ploughing the fields. Though machines have saved these animals, if you think about it, Man has actually continued to use animals for other purposes like medical experimentation and what not. On the one hand, we have people campaigning for the rights of animals (which really intrigues me cos how do they know what’s going thru the animals’ minds?). On the other hand, we have those to really use animals to do anything and everything possible to preserve the human race. Man’s relationship with animals is just so, so complicated.

Anyway, here’s the Ayu caught by the cormorants. The fish isn’t too big, just about the size of a sardine.

And that’s it for cormorant fishing. Next up are castles or temples, which are considered national treasures. I didn’t go into the prayer halls but the surrounding scenery around these buildings was simply breathtaking. I’ll be dedicating one post to scenery, so now I shall just post some pics relating to culture first.

Osaka Castle, where the warlord who first unified Japan resided.

The apparatus involved in washing of hands before entering the prayer halls.

The practice of drinking water from the mountains around Kiyumizu temple for good luck.

While we were on tour to these different cities, we saw so many groups of school kids also visiting the places that we went to. I just learned from a colleague that the Japanese school curriculum sets aside a period of time just for cultural excursions. Issit a week or a month? I ain’t sure but there were just so many of them, from preschoolers all the way to high school.

Once, from the bus, we saw this group of preschoolers climbing up a hill. It just looked so cute that some people took pictures. I wasn’t occupying the window seat then so I was lazy to stretch our my hand to snap a photo, but I think Angel took a photo of the cuties.

Some of the girls even came in their kimonos/yukatas!

Talking about kimonos, they are expensive but really pretty and elegant. I didn’t budget for kimonos of cos but I bought a yukata set for about 4000yen (about SGD53). Haha I dunno how I can actually wear it in Singapore and it’s a bit too pretty to be worn, so it shall sit in the wardrobe until I decide what to do with it.

I shall end with this picture that we took with a geisha outside Kiyumizu temple in Kyoto. Whether the person is really a geisha or not, we can never establish cos like what Trina said, it might just be someone putting on the geisha garb and makeup. One who’s paid to take photos with tourists like us. But heck lar, she’s all dressed up like one so even if she wasn’t a geisha, playing along by being the gullible tourist doesn’t hurt much I guess, hehe…

Alright, that’s pretty much it for culture. There are of cos so many things I could write about but time isn’t on my side. Have got a family gathering to attend this evening so have to get prepared. Next time when I actually blog, I’ll write about the picturesque views of Japan, though I reckon I won’t have much writing to do. Cos the pictures will speak for themselves 🙂

Back in SG

Back from my fun-filled belated grad trip. Back from fantasy world.

Back to reality. Back to work. Back to scorching hot Singapore. Boohoo…

But have to return anyway, cos my home is here. Nothing beats going back to my own little cave hehe.

I just wish Singapore had better weather…

P.S. Will post snippets of the Japan trip as and when I have the time. Will prolly do it according to theme e.g. city life, skyline, culture, scenery/nature, flora & fauna, food, accommodation…of cos there’ll be some random photos which don’t fall under any particular theme hehe…

P.P.S. Hey Angel and Trina, hope both of you had as much fun as I did in Japan. Really thankful to have been able to travel with both of you who are still going through thick and thin with me for the 10th year running! Well, I know we are all missing the weather in Japan, but what can we do right? haha let’s meet up soon to exchange photo dvds!