Went to Istanbul last month as part of a dealers trip to turkey. Had a really great time. Just capturing some highlights of the same here.
Day 0 - Took the emirates flight from Chennai to Istanbul via Dubai transit. The new Terminal 3 in Dubai was outstanding - tempting u to purchase almost everything on view. I almost bought a W270. The McLaren F1 car that Hamilton drove last year was also on display and I almost called my friend Raj before I realized I didn't have international roaming :) Landed in Istanbul in the evening and we were welcomed in traditional manner with Turkish Delight( local sweet) and a bracelet with Turkish eye on it. Moved to Hotel and rested for the night.
Day 1 - Began with Visit to Grand Bazaar, one of the oldest shopping places in the world with over 1400 shops in a single place. Long parallel lanes and by-lanes were all dotted with shops on either side.We easily got lost inside and if it weren't for the cards given by the travel agent, would have had a tough time walking back to the same gate. One of my colleagues compared it to Delhi's Palikaa Bazaar. There were jewellery shops, carpet shops, antique stores, hookah shops, cloth stores, handicrafts and the like. Some of the carpets were really amazing and I was reminded of a Jeffrey Archer short story about buying a carpet.
Our next stop was the Spice Bazaar - once again similar to Grand Bazaar but in a much smaller scale that specialized in spices and turkish delight. Post the morning shopping extravaganza, we crossed over to the Asian side of Istanbul. The bridge connecting the two continents over the Bosphorous river was amazing. Interestingly, the Asian side looked newer with more modern malls and buildings. Post luch, we hit Baghdad Street - a long stretch of branded outlets on either side. It is supposedly one of the most expensive places in Istanbul to buy/rent. For the next hour or so, all we did was stroll that street up and down. We hardly entered any shops - one because everything was too expensive to even think about buying and two because some of Istanbul's most beautiful women were strolling the street just like us. After that, we drove to Camlica Hills, a sunset spot.Thats when I first tasted Turkish tea and it was easily the best tea I had tasted in my life. Returned to hotel in the evening for the Gala dinner with dealers. Whirling Dervishes(Turkish Janissary band), belly dancers and puppet shows entertained us for the rest of the evening.
Day 2 - A day devoted to exploring Istanbul's ancient architecture. We drove to Sultanhamet (Old City) and learnt about the Roman and Ottoman empires that ruled Turkey. The Hippodrome, St. Sophia, Blue Mosque and the Topkapi Place all stood testimony to them. Was in particuar impressed with Hagia Sophia and its architecture.
Post tea, we hit a big leather retail store(forgot the name). Since we were a large group, we were welcomed with an in-house fashion show of their models displaying their variety of leather jackets.Turkey is world's leading producer of leather but the place we went was so expensive that only few of my really rich dealers managed to buy anything. Returned to the hotel in the evening and went out to a nightclub, Istanbul Inn, for dinner. Were again entertained with traditional turkish shows and belly dancers.
That night since we were free, we(the managers) took a separate cab and explored the night life of Istanbul. We decided to hit one of Istanbul's elite nightclub/discothque. Being a saturday night, getting entry was difficult and also none of us were in the required dresscode. Our local agent pulled a few strings and got us in; however, the music was annoyingly loud and after 20 mins and 140 USD, we were out. After that, we hit Taksim Square, another long stretch of shops similar to Baghdad Street(or Nanjing Road of Shanghai). Again, we spent the time just roaming the street and enjoying the atmosphere. Finally hit bed at some 3 in the morning. Got an extra hour of sleep as Turkey went back by one hour from that night for daylight savings.
Day 3 - Since shopping is a integral part of the trip for most of the dealers, we arranged for a trip to Carrefour in the morning. Along with dealers, even I freaked out buying lots of stuff from Turkey towels to biscuits to turkish delights(again!). Anyways, post lunch we hit Miniaturk, a minature park of Turkey which also happens to be the world's largest minature park. We rounded off the evening with a cruise across the Bosphorus, another highlight of the trip. Came back to the hotel, relaxed a bit and hit the local shopping mall where one of my colleagues added a Turkey Starbucks Coffee mug to his collection of Starbucks coffee mugs from around the world. I too bought one to start the collection :)
Day 4 - Day of departure. Since flight was in the evening, made a visit back to Grand Bazaar to catch up on some last minute shopping. Bought a few souvenirs for friends and family. On the way back, the transit time was very short - just managed to buy some chocolates from Dubai duty free and catch a final glimpse of the Mclaren. Also managed to watch "The Taking of Pelham 123" and a few episodes of friends on the in-flight entertainment!
All in all, it was a pretty fantastic trip! Turkey went right to the top of my list of foreign countries. Of course, the list had a new topper this month when I went to Thailand :) More on that some time later! BTW, my acknowledgements are due to Wikitravel(towards help in preparation), SOTC (tour operator) and my employer Asian Paints (for giving me a free trip :))
