Sometimes when I travel I feel as if I’ve just lived an entirely different life. Of course, we travel for new experiences and to immerse ourselves in other cultures.
But I mean there are a few instances where I sink into the new place so deeply it feels as if it’s become my whole reality. An inexplicable feeling grabs hold; I’m full with the sense that some part of me belongs even as everything is also foreign and unknown.
On rare occasions – Paris was such a case – this feeling does presage a new life.
It’s been awhile, though, since I’ve felt thus transported.
Well, add Istanbul to the list. I can’t believe I was only there for a week; it felt like its own small lifetime. It helped, I’m sure, that 1) I was with my family so I truly was with people from my “real” life and 2) we had an extraordinary homebase that made us feel like we already had family there.
I don’t usually stay in hotels when I travel. I couchsurf, stay with friends, do apartment swaps – these feel like they put me in closer connection to the true city.
For our reunion, though, I wanted to join my family where they were comfortable and we chose a modest hotel in Sultanahmet in the Old City. We couldn’t have chosen better.
It’s no luxury experience. No. It’s a basic hotel but it has Ruhat at reception who by the end of the week was part of our clan. When I had to move for the final day, in fact (I stayed an extra day alone and the hotel was full), I still used Hotel Peninsula as my base and felt as welcomed as if I lived there. The man who served breakfast each morning literally told me I was family now. He looked as if he was going to give me a hug when I left.
more photos: In Love with Istanbul « paris (im)perfect.
Pera Palace, Beyoglu: Istandbul’s grande dame hotel awoke from some much-needed beauty sleep late last year. Rooms are a medley of marble, antique dressers, classic portraits of the city and monogrammed pillowcases. The suites are in a class of their own: some overlook the Bosphorus, while the Agatha Christie suite is where the author supposedly pennedMurder on the Orient Express. The hotel has a spa with an indoor jet-streamed swimming pool and Turkish bath. <p>Pera Palace, Mesrutiyet Caddesi 52, Beyoglu (00 90 212 377 4000; perapalace.com). Doubles start at €230, including breakfast.</p>
Istandbul’s grande dame hotel awoke from some much-needed beauty sleep late last year. Rooms are a medley of marble, antique dressers, classic portraits of the city and monogrammed pillowcases. The suites are in a class of their own: some overlook the Bosphorus, while the Agatha Christie suite is where the author supposedly penned Murder on the Orient Express. The hotel has a spa with an indoor jet-streamed swimming pool and Turkish bath.
Pera Palace, Mesrutiyet Caddesi 52, Beyoglu (00 90 212 377 4000; perapalace.com). Doubles start at €230, including breakfast.
Tomtom Suites, Beyoglu
As European traders colonised the Golden Horn’s northern shores, they left behind a legacy of grand embassies, churches and bourgeois residences. Tomtom Suites was a French law court annexe in the 1850s; evolving into a Franciscan nunnery; then bank archives. Since 2008 it has been a sumptuous mansion with Carrara marble bathrooms and an Ottoman library. The gardens of the Italian Consulate opposite ensure night-time tranquillity, and the top-floor restaurant overlooks the Bosphorus.
Tomtom Suites, Tomtom Kaptan Sokak 18, Beyoglu (00 90 212 292 4949; tomtomsuites.com). Suites start at €200, including breakfast.
Naya, Buyukada Island
The Princes’ Islands take their name from a grisly exile story: unwanted heirs to the Byzantine throne were blinded and shipped here a millennium ago. For the last few centuries these leafy islands in Istanbul’s bay have been a place of ritzy retreat instead, the wooden mansions welcoming Wallace Simpson, Leon Trotsky and other eloping celebrities. On Buyukada Island, the seven-bedroom villa Naya was given an overhaul in 2010 by its German owner. Expect sparkly suspended trinkets, a plunge pool and a garden with sea view.
Naya, Yilmaz Türk Caddesi 96, Buyukada island (00 90 216 382 4598; nayaistanbul.com). Doubles start at €110, including breakfast.
Villa Denise, Arnavutkoy
Villa Denise is a 200-year-old yali, one of the pretty wooden houses that line the Bosphorus’s shores. It has five rooms decorated with jewel-toned fabrics. The owner can arrange for guests to be taken on a tour of the city in a classic car from his collection.
Villa Denise, Birinci Caddesi 50, Arnavutkoy (00 90 212 287 5848; villadenise.com.tr). Doubles start at €110, including breakfast.
W Istanbul, Besiktas
This swanky hotel started life as the dormitories of the nearby Dolmabahce Palace. The building bends around a huge courtyard which most of the chic guestrooms – think goose-down pillows and rainforest showers – overlook.
W Istanbul, Suleyman Seba Caddesi 22, Besiktas (00 90 212 381 2121; wistanbul.com.tr). Doubles start at €243, room only.
I’zaz Lofts, Beyoglu
The new face of Istanbul is summed up by I’zaz Lofts, a chic suite-only concept hotel. It’s housed in a bourgeois apartment block next to the old British Embassy, amid a warren of boutiques and hip hotels. Each of the four designer suites boasts fine linen, fresh flowers and a draped-off Ottoman boudoir.
I’zaz Lofts, Balik Sokak 12, Beyoglu (00 90 212 252 1382; izaz.com). Suites start at US$110 (£73), room only.
via The Big Six: Heritage hotels in Istanbul – Hotels, Travel – The Independent.
Citizens flying Turkish Airlines from 46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa will be granted visas at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport if they also have valid Schengen, UK or US visas in their passports.
Among those sub-Saharan Africa countries are Angola, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Gambia, Cameron, Comoros, Congo, D. Congo, Melawi, Niger, Nigeria, Ruanda, Senegal, Somali, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
With the reinforcement of this new regulation a boom in the commercial ties and the number of passengers flying Turkish Airlines is being expected.
Emphasizing on the efforts for eased visa regulations Mr. Hamdi Topcu, the Chairman of Board of Directors of Turkish Airlines, said “It has been difficult for citizens to apply for visa because of the remote locations of Turkish Embassies in many countries in Africa. With the attempt of Turkish Airlines eased visa regulations have been agreed on and reinforced by both Interior Ministry and Foreign Affairs Ministry. Our President and our Prime Ministered did contribute to the positive outcome of this issue as well. We kindly thank them. The implementation of this decision regarding eased visa regulations for citizens of those African countries with Schengen, UK or US visas in their passports will increase the keen interest to both for Turkey and Turkish Airlines.”
The rules of eased visa regulations for citizens from sub-Saharan African countries are as follows:
* Valid passport,
* Date of expiration should have minimum 6 months of period,
* They should have valid Schengen, UK or US visas in their passports and have not being rejected or deported by those countries before,
* They should be traveling on tourism or business purposes and should have necessary documents (hotel reservation, sufficient monetary funds such as amount of $50 per diem, etc),
* Round-trip flight ticket from Turkish Airlines,
* They should not be among those who were forbidden entering Turkey or have been deported by Turkey before.
Businessmen from SAGA countries are going to be granted six-month valid single entry visas giving a 30 day residence permit in exchange for 20 Dollars or 15 Euros provided that they arrive in Turkey for holiday or within the framework of business or trade talks and are also the bearers of valid Schengen, UK or US visas.
DUBAI: Turkey, which has been enjoying outstanding reputation as the most favorite travel destination in many countries of the world during the last year, is making another strong presence this year at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2011. ATM is the Middle East premium event for travel and tourism trade. Turkey’s participation follows considerable growth in its tourism sector during the past few years, not only in the context of tourist arrivals from the GCC countries, but from the entire world.
Taking the Middle East in consideration, and as a comparison between years 2009and 2010, the number of tourists visited Turkey from Syria has increased from 390,000 to 748,000. Turkey also has won the most of admire by the Lebanese tourists who have increased from 62,573 to 113,212 tourists. From Saudi Arabia, tourists were increase from 59,954 to 76,152 and from Jordan, number of tourists was increased from 62,573 to 85,988 tourists. Iran has increased from 1,150,000 to 1,649,000 tourists, according to Turkish Consulate in an emailed release.Sedat Gonulluoglu, Cultural & Information Attach at the Turkish Tourism & Cultural Office in Dubai, stated that the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism has a long term strategy to promote Turkey’s unique opportunities of multi tourism purposes, which meets the demands of eastern and western tourists at the same time. “Turkey aims to occupy the first position in making the health tourism industry by year 2023. By having over 1500 medical and therapy centers spread out everywhere in the country, Turkey would be an ideal country for multipurpose visits”.From around the world, various studies and surveys have shown Turkey as the most favorite travel destination or the Turkish cities within the top ten destinations. In Moscow, the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry announced that Turkey’s stand at the 18th Moscow International Travel and Tourism (MITT) exhibition, which was held in the Russian capital from 16 – 20 March, 2011, was chosen as the “Best Stand” at this world’s seventh biggest tourism fair. Turkey’s Kemer town was chosen as “the Best Tourism Destination”, Alanya town was chosen as “the Best Family and Children’s Destination” while the Amara Dolce Vite Hotel in Kemer was chosen as “the Best Beach Hotel of Turkey” in a survey conducted by Russian tourism portal Zvezda Travel.ru In Czech Republic, Turkey has been selected as the most popular travel destination in 2010 by the readers of TTG Travel Magazine. Turkey’s national carrier, Turkish Airlines, has also been selected as the third Best Airlines of 2010 at TTG Travel Awards Ceremony held February 12 at the Best Western Hotel Kampa, Prague.In the USA, readers of the U.S. daily “The New York Times” have named the Turkish city of Istanbul as their favorite travel destination for 2010.According to the online travel advisors travelsupermarket.com, Turkey was on the top of the list as “all-inclusive-destinations”, where all travel, accommodation, food, drink, entertainment, and activities are included in one price.The number of tourists arrived at Turkey between January and October 2010 is 25,975,000 tourists with an increase by 6.25% compared to the same period of year 2009. According to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the highest figures came from Germany, 3,987,000 tourists, Russia, 2,996,000 tourists, and England, 2,592,000 tourists.
A chance to be immersed in Islam, particularly Sufi traditions and the mystic Rumi – without having to convert
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 April 2011 20.53 BST
Blue Mosque in Istanbul A reflection extends the minarets on the Blue Mosque, one of Istanbul's Muslim sights. Photograph: Richard Hamilton Smith/Corbis
Blue Mosque in Istanbul
A reflection extends the minarets on the Blue Mosque, one of Istanbul’s Muslim sights. Photograph: Richard Hamilton Smith/Corbis
It has the ingredients of a conventional holiday – experiencing the culture and hospitality of one of the most exciting cities in the world. But few getaways encourage its participants to pray five times a day or try their hand at fasting, especially when those people are not Muslim.
A social enterprise is offering individuals the opportunity to immerse themselves in Islam, without having to convert, through a trip to Istanbul that takes in the regular sights and sounds but also includes prayers at dawn and midnight and lessons on Islam and its basic practices.
It draws heavily on the country’s Sufi traditions – with a particular emphasis on the poet and mystic Rumi. Ben Bowler, from the Blood Foundation, which runs the project, said: “We wanted to focus on Rumi because he is a unifying figure. Turkey has a relatively open brand of Islam and Istanbul is an existing tourist destination.
“There is a willingness to engage with the west. We might not have found it in the Middle East or parts of south Asia. If we were in Saudi Arabia it would have been harder.”
The foundation has called the initiative Muslim for a Month, despite it lasting nine days, and wants to offer a 21-day programme in the future. Bowler said most people would find it difficult to take a month off and admitted even the nine-day programme, which offers bed, board, instruction and sightseeing for £600, could have limited appeal.
“We currently offer Monk for a Month, where people spend time in a Buddhist monastery in Tibet. That is successful. The difference is that there’s a curiosity about Buddhism in the west. People are attracted to it, people who do meditation for example.”
In addition to praying and fasting, participants will forsake alcohol and pork. Smoking is, however, permitted. They will also be expected to carry out pre-prayer ablutions, mastering the art of hoiking their feet into a washbasin as part of the process.
Bowler described the clash between “Muslims and the rest of the world” as one of the most “contentious issues around” and said Muslim for a Month will appeal to “open-minded” individuals who want something educational and cultural.
“Our hosts don’t want to make the prayers obligatory but I think if you’re going to do something you should dive in. They might work up to five prayers a day – including the early morning one”. In mid-May, when the programme is due to start, the dawn prayer in Istanbul is around 3.30am.
An inaugural programme in February involving participants connected to Monk for a Month attracted Catholics, an agnostic, some Jews and a Hindu from around the world. Although nobody converted – and there is no obligation to do so – Bowler said there were changed attitudes and a deeper understanding of Islam.
“If we attract people who are predisposed to like Islam, that’s fine. I would like to think people aren’t so duplicitous that they will see Muslims for a Month as a cheap holiday to Istanbul.
“There is no illusion that bowing down to Mecca five times a day makes you a Muslim. It’s what the rituals and practices represent – a constant consciousness of the divine.”
Outreach programmes about Islam are nothing new. The Living Library, which operates in 12 countries and “loans” people out to challenge prejudice and stereotypes, features Muslims in its lending scheme. Deepening ties with Muslim communities is also a central plank of Barack Obama’s presidency. Last year he hosted an entrepreneurship summit.
Television has also tried to play a part in improving people’s understanding of Islam. Make Me a Muslim, shown on Channel 4 in 2007, featured a gay hairdresser, an atheist taxi driver with a porn habit and a glamour model. Their Muslim mentors guided them in the dos and don’ts of the religion. The BBC’s offering – The Retreat – was shown that same year.
via Be Muslim for a month in Istanbul: pray five times a day and fast | Travel | The Guardian.
Retracting Abraham’s footsteps, a visit to southeastern Turkey brings one back thousands of years to a simpler time.
Photo by: Elad Brin
Southeastern Turkey is what the region we live in must have looked like before it became known as the Middle East and before it became famous for its national, religious and ethnic divides, its trademark bigotry and instability. This remote corner of Turkey is also the area from which Abraham, the common patriarch for Jews, Christians and Muslims, allegedly set off on his epic journey to what later came to be known as the Land of Israel or the Holy Land. These were two excellent reasons to go there.
If I wanted to retrace the steps of Abraham, there were two places I had to go to. The first was the city of Urfa, also known as Sanliurfa (“glorious Urfa”), which simmered with 37º the evening I arrived in it. It rose like an urban mirage out of the desert, like a sun-stroked hallucination or a Middle Eastern Las Vegas.
The bazaar was absolutely stupefying with its labyrinthine maze of streets dedicated to a single artisanship (tin and coppersmiths, tailors, weavers) or commodity (carpets, fabrics, spices, gold jewelry). It was like the bazaar in Istanbul or Jerusalem but without tourists and most of the tacky souvenirs that go with them.
Indeed, this ancient shopping mall might have been here ever since the Bible was written, and its biblical-like clientele still sauntered through it, scrutinized the goods and haggled over the prices while sipping cup after cup of bittersweet Turkish cay.
Could Urfa, so much more Middle Eastern than Anatolian in its atmosphere and population, be the biblical city of Ur, or Ur Kasdim? The Bible mentions Ur four times in the Book of Genesis and insinuates that it was Abraham’s birthplace. According to legend, Abraham (then still named Abram) spent the first seven years of his life in hiding, after local king Nimrod ordered all newborn babies killed following a dream he had in which he was told that one of them would eventually oust him. A similar story appears in the New Testament pertaining to King Herod and baby Jesus, and that’s no coincidence. The number seven, too, is highly symbolic.
King Nimrod’s nocturnal vision came true: Islamic tradition, which sees Abraham as the world’s first monotheist, maintains that it was in Ur that he smashed the town’s idols and admonished the pagan Nimrod, who punished him by setting him alight. Abraham was saved when God turned the fire into water and the hissing coals into gentle carp. Abraham was delivered from harm and landed safely on a bed of rose petals.
Most researchers would locate the biblical Ur in modern- day Iraq (now the archeological site of Tell el- Muqayyar), or Syria (the town of Urkesh). But Urfa’s biggest draw is Golbasi, a centuries-old sacred site which symbolically recreates this very tradition about the deliverance of Abraham. Thousands still come to Urfa to commemorate this story, reverently making their way between the pools, feeding the pampered and lucky carp, posing amid the roses.
There’s a complex of mosques and madrasses where caretakers chase away rowdy children and Iranian pilgrims follow young, turbaned mullahs and record everything on their digicams. I exchanged a few words with some of the Iranians. “It is not actual pilgrimage,” said one of them. “That is done only to a select number of holy cities. You can call it a ‘spiritual visit’ to the place where the first monotheist came from, a very important figure whom we all share.”
Abraham was allegedly born in a cave by the entrance It was an orchestrated, exhilarating routine that repeated itself every day. Could Abraham have seen it with his own eyes? He probably came here when there were still only tents and stalls erected on a weekly basis rather than massive Seljuk and Ottoman structures. Most probably he used barter rather than paper money. But other than that, these would be the sights he’d see, the voices he’d hear and the scents his nose would pick up.
Not even an hour’s ride away, Haran has the reputation of being the hottest city in Turkey. I made my way there one morning. Huge tracts of fertile land could be seen on both sides of the potholed road, crisscrossed by open irrigation canals. The small town definitely puts the “fertile” in Fertile Crescent: This was extremely rich earth, yielding green gold on what is probably Turkey’s best farming soil. Little wonder: This is the biblical Aram-Naharayim, Hebrew for “Aram (set between) two rivers,” the Tigris and the Euphrates. Most people know it as Mesopotamia (Greek for “between the rivers”).
Haran is a dilapidated agricultural backwater of poor Kurdish and Arab farmers within arm’s length from the Syrian border. It is steeped in biblical history: Allegedly, this was where Terah, Abraham’s father, settled after having left Ur. This was already a land of plenty back then.
This is also where Nahor, Terah’s other son, stayed while Abraham set out, following divine instructions, to the Land of Israel. Abraham’s manservant was later sent to Haran to find a match for Abraham’s son Isaac, and this was where Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, married his distant cousins Rachel and Leah.
Even the extreme poverty and incapacitating heat could not take away the place’s magic, with its dozens of conical-roofed beehive houses made of bricks taken from adjacent early-medieval ruins. These houses (unique in Turkey; similar houses can be found in northern Syria) were built some two centuries ago, continuing a building technique used in these parts since the second millennium BCE – believed to be Abraham’s time. They give the landscape a peculiar, out-of-time quality. Why build such roofs, resembling termite hills or clown’s hats? Was it the lack of sufficiently long wooden planks required for level roofs? Or was it designed to capture the heat as high and far away as possible? A clue as to how hot it gets here can be seen in the people’s beds, placed outside the houses on elevated platforms, keeping them safe from the snakes and scorpions while allowing their occupants to catch even the slightest breeze. There is also a neglected, crumbling fortress in Haran and a minaret some 1,300 years old, probably belonging to the first mosque in Anatolia (later I learned that a mosque in the mostly-Kurdish stronghold of Diyarbakir was also claiming this honor).
The locals approached me, smiling broken and yellow-toothed smiles and laughing, motioning me to take their photo. Nevertheless, this was a very conservative place: When I saw a pretty girl and asked if I could take her photo, she obliged on condition that I didn’t show it to the other men in the town.
According to Genesis, Abraham was 75 when he was told by God to “get thee out of thy country… unto a land that I will show thee.” Not an easy journey for a man his age, not in this debilitating heat, not even considering Haran’s relative proximity to the Land of Israel (some 300 kilometers closer to Jerusalem than to Istanbul). But at least the road was open for him. In comparison, even a young and relatively fit man like myself, going leisurely in an air-conditioned car, would be stopped a few kilometers down the road at the Syrian border and sent back. Not to mention the Lebanese and Israeli borders farther down the line.
While I had to make a huge loop to go back to my country, my illustrious ancestor simply made a beeline for the land we now call home. On his way he changed not only his landscape but also his name, going from Abram to Abraham. He was also made promises as to the great nation that he would father from his seed.
