When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.

Next morning we arrived in Trabzon, Turkey all tired due to heat in cabin. However it was pleasant  morning treated us with clear blue sky and sunny. We drove the car form deck to custom impound lot and stood in line for clearance and visa. After standing in line for almost an hour with very few people in line. Visa buying process took longer than expected. It was not due to incompetency of officers but slow computers. Visa cost us $25 and hour and half. Then we wasted yet more time –two hours- to buy car insurance. We followed this gentleman – never knew hit official duty as he was in casual attire of jeans and shirt-with 6 other car drivers in tow. I didn’t bargain or question for $100 fee for 15 days of insurance –as we were tired and hungry and longing for large cup of coffee.

We trudged back to the car and pointed it toward west and drove off from the port in busy town of Trabzon.

Happiness is a direction, not a place. First time in days we saw pleasant roads -Pure bliss. We loved it. Reached 120KM an hour for first time since we left Korea. It was beautiful coastal drive along black sea dotted with small villages. Ee relished that we were in western world. Beautiful roads, plenty of signs, Ami called it sign-galore. Now our life is organized, now we are in instructions driven world, where everything is done by rules and warning signs. We began to miss Russian driving, where you need driving skill and you are free to drive anywhere you may see fit and safe. We got in discussion over the real freedom – as far as driving is concern- if it is in West or Russia. In west we cannot function without instructions and signs While in Russia, use your common sense.

Along the highway we found a nice sport on beach and stopped for lunch- chicken shashlik with rice –which was just great. We intended to reach Istanbul by end of that day, but wasted hours at custom made it impossible. We were followed by our Russian doctor friend and his family van. At halfway in town called Samsun, we parted with them as they were heading south toward Syrian border. He insisted that we should go to Syria with him and he knows some top people and would get us Visa. We promised to meet again and parted, we now headed south toward Merzifon and then further west to Istanbul. We ended up in small village to spend a night. The hotel turned out to be in small village way off the main road. Here we bargained and got the room for $25 for spartan room.

Next day we drove through mountains and discussed about Ottoman Empire, Trojan war, current EU situation with Turkey and their struggle with secularism society which is now under criticism from rather large percentage of people. I have always wondered about these "empires", I have learned that most empire expanded mostly due to enlarge their market or find more new markets and goods. In current time we call this process "EU”. We also discussed about Mr. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk-father of Turkey who spearheaded transformation to secular society and European ways of life thus loosening Islamic way of life- a visionary leader. I would attribute Turkey stability and its economic progress to Mr. M.K. Ataturk.

The road is surrounded by farms, grazing herds, rolling hills and small hamlets. Villages were just beautiful dotted with mosques - almost three to four per town- and women with hijabs. Mosques are beautiful with bigger dome, surrounded by small domes and with single minaret. They all have single minarets and you can spot them from distance sticking out. They looked beautiful. Some of the mosques in larger cities are huge. We arrived in Istanbul around 4PM with anxiety of driving in Istanbul. I have read and heard about some bad driving in Istanbul. We had to cross the entire Istanbul to go to Sultanahmet district, where we wanted stay as its proximity to the places er wanted to visit: Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, Topkapi Palace and Grand bazaar. Sultanahmet is in old Istanbul eastern side of the Bosphorus River. Before we grappled we were already sucked in traffic and we knew we had to tough this out. Well it was hard. We drove like Turks-cutting off, nudging, honking, holding on to our spot and kept smiling. With Ami's navigation skill, we made it close to the area and began to look for a hotel. Most of them were full and some are only for package tours. We met this nice young guy who helped us to find a hotel right across Aya Sophia and Blue Mosque. We can see both of these structures from our window. 

Istanbul has the largest population in Turkey, more than Ankara almost 10 million. Three million more than London and they are all out in streets selling something. We were amazed by their selling skills. No wonder Turks are famous for their trade skills. Here is to some extent explanation of the Ottoman Empire expansion. Grand Bazaar is perfect example of this. What a place. No one walks out of this place without buying something. It's easy to get lost in labyrinth of arcades full of shops on both side massed from floor to ceiling, barely room for the shopkeeper himself. They sell anything to anyone. If they don't have it, his brother or one of the in-laws in other section has it. Carpets seem to be big sale here. Before you know you already have been invited into the shop and find yourself gazing at rolling out of the carpets. Any "no" from you will be converted in to "yes" until you have no more "nos" or "may be" left. It's a bargain hunters' heaven. We thoroughly enjoyed it and resisted all the temptation to buy the carpet. We got away without buying carpets by almost insulting them to reduce the price by 75%. They laughed and left us alone-labeling us cheap bastards. We loved the Turkish tea. Especially apple tea, it's refreshing –you get it free by just visiting any carpet shop.

There is no city like it. Much remains of ancient Constantinople, including churches, palaces, and the Hippodrome. All good ancient cities have rivers. Bosporus river divides Istanbul in two section-western and eastern.The Ottoman sultan Mehmet II constantly attacked the city and mighty western walls during Byzantine empire. No matter how heavily Mehmet's cannons battered them, the Byzantines rebuilt them by night and come daybreak, the young sultan would find himself back where he'd started. Finally he acquired a hugh canon from Hungarian cannon founder called Urban, who actually came to help Byzantine to protect Christendom from infidels, but no money and he ended up selling it to young sultan who then made a breakthrough and it was known as "fall of Constantinople”. As the Ottoman empire grew to encompass the middle east, north Africa, eastern Europe, Istanbul became a fabulous melting pot of nationalities. However, what was the most civilized city on earth in the time of Suleiman the magnificent eventually declined with ottoman empire and by 19^th century Istanbul had lost much of its glory. Nevertheless it continued to be the "Paris of east" and to reaffirm this, the first great international luxury express train the famous orient express connected Istanbul with Paris.

Aya Sofya: The Church of the Holy Wisdom, known as Hagia Sophia in Greek, and  Ayasofya in Turkish, is a former Byzantine church and former Ottoman mosque in Istanbul. Now a museum, Ayasofya is universally acknowledged as one of the great buildings of the world and an amazing place where two cultures remained side by side, thanks to the vision of Mustafa Kemal Artatuk. He converted this already converted structure into museum, thus avoiding as a full blown mosque. Unfortunately nothing remains of the original Ayasofya, which was built on this site in the fourth century by Constantine the Great. Constantine was the first Christian emperor and the founder of the city of Constantinople, which he called "the New Rome." The Ayasofya was one of several great churches he built in important cities throughout his empire. Following the destruction of Constantine's church, a second was built by his son Constantius and the emperor Theodosius the Great. This second church was burned down during the riots of 532, though fragments of it have been excavated and can be seen today. Ayasofya was rebuilt in her present form between 532 and 537 under the personal supervision of Emperor Justinian I. It is one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture, rich with mosaics and marble pillars and coverings.In 1204 the Ayasofya was sacked and stripped down to the bare bones by the Crusaders, a desecration that robbed the church of precious relics and definitively divided the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. Many of Ayasophia's riches can be seen today in the treasury of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. Despite this setback, Ayasofya remained a functioning church until 1453, when Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror entered triumphantly into the city of Constantinople. He was amazed at the beauty of the Ayasofya and decided to convert the cathedral into his imperial mosque. Ayasophia served as the principal mosque of Istanbul for almost 500 years. It became a model for many of the Ottoman mosques of Istanbul such as the Blue Mosque.When the Ayasofya was used as a place of worship, both for Christians and then for Muslims, the focus of the building was the east end, directly across from the entrance. This is because Christian churches are traditionally oriented towards the east, and Muslims always pray facing Mecca, which is east of Istanbul. Thus the bulk of interesting sights are clustered in this area of the Ayasofya's huge nave. Ami raised a interesting question about people who are already in east. My favorite spot is: mosaics are on the upper floor, in the galleries. The South Gallery, where the great mosaics are which were part of original church. The best-known mosaic is  as you enter the South Gallery through the marble door second floor. It depicts a triumphant and kingly Christ, flanked by the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. The mosaics are revealed through pain taking excavation work removing the thick paint covered by Sultan. One thing people can be grateful that they painted on top of mosaics rather than destroying and most of the church is still intact. On ground floor there hung huge wooden circular with Islamic texts on corners.

Blue Mosque: Idea borrowed from Ayasofya to rival the church, Sultan Ahmet I set out to build a monument to rival and even surpass the nearby Ayasofya in grandeur and beauty. The mosque was to be built on the site of the palace of the Byzantine emperors. To appreciate the mosque's design, we approached it via the Hippodrome rather than straight from Sultanahmet park. Once inside the courtyard, which is the same size as the mosque interior, you'll appreciate the building's perfect proportions. The mosque is such a popular attraction that admission is controlled to preserve its sacred atmosphere. Only worshippers are admitted through the main door, tourist must use the south door. As it is in use for worship, the mosque closes at prayer time. We were lucky to have good amount of time before it cleaned out of tourists in the afternoon. We just couldn’t help but sit on lush carpet and enjoy the grandeur of the mosque in every directions-including ceiling of domes by laying down. It was full of quietness and serenity despite flocks of tourists. I have always enjoyed calmness of Churches and mosques. This magnificent structure is nearly a square and covered with a dome of 77 feet in diameter and 140 feet high. There are four colossal standing columns of 16 feet diameter, which give the basic support to the building. Locals call them elephant feet. The mosque has 260 windows which let the sunlight diffuse into the building quite nicely. They were filled with stained-glass in early 17C. The pulpit and nave is worth seeing, made of marble and original. The Imam goes on the pulpit every Friday on the sacred day of the Muslims but he never climbs to the very top as a respect to Prophet Mohammed. Everybody should turn their face to the south when praying, because Mecca is located in South. The interior of the mosque is lined with more than 20,000 handmade ceramic blue tiles, hence it called Blue Mosque. We followed crowed of people hoping that they were all going to see the Topkapi Palace and got lost in this huge park behind Ayasofya and yet another tourist rescued us form going further and pointed us to right direction.

Topkapi Palace: Mehmet the Conqueror started the work shortly after the conquest in 1453. Subsequent sultans lived here till 19th century. Seeing the palace requires good day and it's divided in sections: Harem, treasury, kitchen, spoils of war collection, and wardrobe. It's a huge complex as it should be being a palace, but not as glamour as some palaces seen in India. The floor is stone paved and walls covered with tiles. At the height of its existence it housed 4000 people.

The palace is sectioned in: Imperial gate, Treasury, Harem, court yards, Kitchen, living quarters, school, mosques, and garden.One of the court yard which is full of war booties and gifts from India, China, Iran and Europe.

There is a Fountain of the Executioner where the executioner purportedly washed his hands and sword after a decapitation.

We overheard a tour guide describing Audience Chamber where viziers came here to present their individual reports to the sultan. Depending on their performance and reports, the sultan showed his pleasure by showering them with gifts and high offices, or in the worst case having them strangled by deaf-mute eunuchs. The chamber was thus a place that officials reporting to the sultan entered without knowing if they would leave it again alive.

We saw famous Topkapi dagger studded with three large emeralds, golden watch and diamonds which was subject of the film Topkapi.A jade bowl, shaped like a vessel, was a present of the Czar Nicholas II of Russia which brought the recent memory of our visit to death site of Romanovs in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

My favorite part was harem-home to the sultan’s mother, concubines, wives and children. Sultans were allowed themselves for having bunch of concubines- mostly beautiful women brought here from the countries they have won -at their disposal from which they can choose the queen. I guess because of this they produce successful heir for the empire. I really liked the idea.

The most impressive part was the rooms which were filled with Islamic promotional items. Here we saw an effort to establish Islam as main stream religion superior to others. They have respectfully admitted Moses, David and Jesus as the prophets but Mohammad is the most recent one. Why God needs yet another prophet is the question I and Ami discussed in great length. Did God really make a mistake with previous prophets?  We saw staff of Moses, David's sword, St. John the Baptist's relics- his skull and hand - kind of spooky. I still find it hard to believe that John the Baptists Hand is sitting in a room in Istanbul, and even less likely that after 2000 years it still looks so hand-like, with the remains of flesh on the bones. Perhaps this is a two fingered message to the Christians of the world?  I don't profess to be very knowledgeable on such things, but surely if his hand still exists, shouldn't it be baptizing some lucky souls somewhere?  Anyway, I apologize profoundly for my doubts if they are unfounded, but I certainly had my doubts again as we walked to toward Privy Chamber where one Special interest is the golden shrine that used to contain the cloak of the prophet Mohammed. Also amazed us were Mohammed's tooth, hair form His beard, autographed letter, swords of first four caliphs, and the turban of Joseph. His sword, stamp and other possession brought here from Mecca were impressive, brought us so close to the history and formed few subjects for our discussion later.

We enjoyed Turkey and would definitely come back to explore more. Tomorrow we drive to West to town called Ipsala which borders with Greece. This will complete our trip across whole Turkey from eastern port to most western part of the country.  We hope Turkey is allowed to join Europe thus avoiding Visa process. Turkey is a great country with full of history and amazing people. With that thought we sat down outside table under awning of the restaurant and ordered Turkish beer to quench the thrust due to miles of walking to and in palace.

Best Regards arun and ami

Coming soon Europe Journal

 Travelers never think that they are the foreigners. 

Russia:   As we leave Russia after 22 days, 7500 miles behind us and passed 11 time zones-we crossed Siberia, climbed and descended Urals and Caucasus mountains, sailed on Black Sea, saw 49 Lenin statues, stayed in 16 different hotels-dumps and hotel California, which could be heaven or hell, -were stopped 49 times by police check point, were bribed once. We saw Russian bureaucracy in full action in Vladivostok and most of all we met most amazing people who invited us in to their homes for vodka and horse meat.    Russia is a largest country-almost 17 plus million sq. kilometers.  Population: 143.4 million. Per capita consumption of alcohol: 15.1L per year. Number of Nobel Prize winners: 20.  

Here are our observations: We are proud of our accomplishment of being able to drive across this very large country from most eastern point to most western and trust me we felt it every day. Even local Russian told us that they won’t even try to do what we did. There were few days when we thought we may not be able to make it. We were so occupied getting through these roads that we hardly thought about our own safety. We drove through snow storm in middle of the May, where roads are covered with snow 2’ deep. Drive with your fingers crossed hoping that the car is still on road, as there no snow clear service available in this part of the world. All you see is pure white desert with tree branches touching the ground with weight of snow. We sat in snow with -15 degree for 3 hours due to non drivable conditions.Used road side and woods for daily output of bodily nectar and waste, as toilets are – well cannot describe in words. 

Russia is divided in two regions: East and West. We feel that East has not been touched since tsarist days. The population is very sparse, few hamlets distances away. I guess that's why it has not been developed as West. In west one can see the wealth is flowing. Russia is trying to make up for the lost time and rushing to full blown capitalism. It seems that they want to forget about the past, while in East it does not matter what system they have it in Moscow. The infrastructure, houses, people and even police are different. People from west tend not to cross Urals to visit east. We met few people and see their expressions-what's wrong with you, why would you do think like that- when we told them that we drove from east.They all always without failure would ask how we did we deal with militias (police). People still have old dogma about police and are still afraid of them. The KGB might be history, but ordinary Russians now look over their shoulder and rear view mirror of their newly imported cars for police. Locals still think they live in time of Stalin when it comes to police.

Even cars in west are different than east - more European than Japanese. But people across this massive nation are the same if you avoid the big cities. Great people, ready to help. City people tend to be more westernized than western people. They all well dressed, sometime over dressed, wearing high heels on dirt and dirty walks. Pants are so tight that one can read the credit card number from back pockets. I never knew so many European and American brands till I came here. They love their cars. The influx of foreign cars has only been around for the last 17 years and they don’t seem to get enough.

We will never forget those young samurais, who drive their new Japanese cars on eastern Siberian torturous roads for 5 days, while sleeping in car, carrying nothing but a single pair of clothing, bottle of vodka and 5 spare tires.  

Most wealth is concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Old Stalinist factories outside every town still puking out acidic black smoke, and are still in operation and support local communities. Ami hates these tall smoking chimneys-eye sores.  We think lightly that bad roads all over Russia may be a political strategy of Moscow controlling the imports by not giving them decent roads. Bigger cities we drove through are full of potholes. Life of cars must be 3-4 years. Work in progress on roads is slow or almost not existent. Road work ahead signs must be there for so long that they got rusted and rooted in grounds.

But overall Russians are proud of their nation and will support Putin to take them to next level if not into other planet. We must not forget that this nation was the first one to put a man in space. Now the cold war is over and not spending half of their GDP in arms warfare they could use this money for infrastructures.   Some people we talked are happy to have Russia as its own nation while others feel sad loosing the USSR. Our Syrian doctor friend loved old USSR. Everybody can travel along this vast area of earth in these old USSR countries. Now they need visa.  One Armenian couple  we met in ferry to Turkey who was travelling to Armenia by going to Turkey, than cross in Georgia to go to Armenia, which is only 100KM from Russian border which is close. He couldn't travel through Chechen and Dagestan area due to terrorism with the Caucasian people. You think British screwed up the world boundaries, check out the old USSR and Eastern Europe map. There are still new countries in waiting to be born such as Kosovo. 

Tourism: has been ignored. Most touris we see are from former USSR countries. Hotels seem to cater to local businessmen who are in plenty now.  We see things differently here, but for local people these hotels must be Hyatt or Marriot. We never got the welcomes in hotels as tourist. Immediately on our approach we get "Nyet" no rooms available. They couldn't care a less if we stay there or not. Second issue: Visa and its registration process. This old Visa registration system for foreigners is dysfunctional and we have not figured out what purpose it serves. It is highly important that one does not lose the immigration card-small piece of crappy paper. Losing it can create a huge problem and opportunity for huge bribe.  It creates a constant anxiety and stress. One has to find a hotel or OVIR office to register the visa if you stay more than 72 hours in same city. Most cities do not have OVIR office. There are no tourist offices in tourist spot such as Irkutsk - home of largest fresh water lake in the world. Hotel with registration facilities charge large amount of money for a night due to this service. We figured it out in end why these babushkas-old ladies sitting behind desk- in small hotels didn't care for us. Well they have to go through process by photocopying our passports and visa pages, make an entry in the log book and give us a receipt. Too much paper works for $100 a night room (insert sarcasm here).

We learned that Putin is trying to build a monument in Yekaterinburg where Asia and Europe plates are meeting. Well it will be nice if he fixes the roads first so people can see this monument.  

Economy seems to be good in west part of Russia. Petro dollars appear to be bringing lots of wealth in state. People have money o spend and supplies available in shops unlike what we saw on TV in 90s. They all seem to be able to afford high prices hotels and restaurants, designer clothes. Western brand stores are all over. Despite the bad roads, there are many cars on roads. Putin gets lots of credit for this well being.  People seem to ignore his desire for staying in power forever.   Overall we both liked Russia and her people. It's an interesting place, full of contrast. We never felt unsecure at any time.  

As they say in Russia, Da sva da nia (Good Bye)    

Best Regards    arun and ami  

In my previous journal I forgot to mention about Gulag.

As we crossed Siberia, I cannot help but remembering Gulag. Gulag means Main Camp Administration. Simply put concentration camps but also the system of Soviet slave labor itself, in all forms and varieties: labor camps, punishment camps, criminal and political camps, women's camps, children camps. Even more broadly 'Gulag' has come to mean the Soviet repressive system itself, the set of procedures that prisoners called the 'meat-grinder'. Which started in 1918. Lenin, the revolution's leader, locked up a string of aristocrats, merchants, and other people defined as political enemies. The camps were in every town and they spread mostly in Siberia. When Stalin took over from Lenin there were almost 27 million people passed through these camps. Only as recently as Gorbachev finally dismantled these camps. It is also said that more people died in these camps than Nazi's atrocities. But this was never publicized as during second world war west needed Stalin - an evil genius- to defeat other evil -Hitler. It was also not publicized due to communist sympathizers in west. Recently as 2002 articles started appearing about Gulag. There are more than enough movies and documentaries about Nazi's concentration camps and atrocities but nothing about Gulag. It is also said that Stalin killed more people than Hitler and Sadam Hussein combined. By race, by ethnicity, by political agendas, and any others who did not agree with his agenda. Soviet propaganda promoted greatly the picture of Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt all smiling as if they are all chums. Prisoners in camps attributed 3^rd of Soviet's economy power as they worked by hand on roads, railways,, mines and anything else. Stalin thought this is the only way USSR can be industrialized and expand economy power.

I encourage you to read 'Gulag' by Anne Applebaum. In fact the areas we passed during our drives from Vladivostok to Chita - the drive from hell- most villages were established by these people who were lucky enough to finish their time and decided to stay.