lox.Journal

Going to Turkey

Posted on 2006/04/30 09:52:11 (April 2006).

[26th April 2006]

And there I was, at 6 o'clock moving towards Malpensa to catch the flight to Istanbul. First time for me in Turkey.
Flight went allright, even managed to chat with a rather nice girl on the plane, and when I arrived the new agent Ayla was there to meet me.
Together with her there was also another girl Gaya who works with her in the office, they shared the clients apparently.

Both of them are really nice people, very young (37y.o.) and lively. They started this job recently, quite an hard thing in a society lithe they have in Turkey where the “man” is king.
After a small incident with the car (took the wrong turn), we arrived at Istanbul. The traffic is really bad, a bit like Seoul in Korea, and the exterior look of the city reminded me a lot of Taipei, with very high skyscrapers but also with very small, poor houses. Mind you this is the business center of the city I am talking about.

After a stop at the hotel we went (me and Gaya) to the biggest shopping mall in Istanbul. Here Istambul changes clothes and become like New York. I was amazed.
There was a bit of an interesting point when the security checked our car, and when we had to pass tight security checks (like the one that you have in airports) at the entrance of the mall.

This reminded me that this is Islamic territory and that within Turkey two opposite cultures live together quite close to each other.
Ataturk, the former leader and founder, did a good job of putting them together, but Ayla and Gaya told me that it's not always easy to make them stay this way.

The day was almost over so we went to the office, did a bit of work, and then off to a very nice restaurant, a KEBAP restaurant, where we had a quite marvelous dinner.

After that it was bedtime, I was quite knackered from the trip and from the previous holiday...

Comment 1

Istanbul eh? Aren't we marvellously cosmopolitan here at the 'Maison?

South America and Africa are still untouched though...

Posted by John at 2006/05/01 01:00:20.

Comment 2

I have gone to Africa a couple of times but never managed to post anything from there... As for South America... Well I hope I can go there soon, as well as Australia (though Mad Mumsie was there first as far as the Maison is concerned)... :P Have you thought about doing the summer holidays together somewhere in South Asian countries?