The craziest story ever

For members of my famıly readıng thıs, I do NOT expect you to relate thıs story to ANY OTHER member of our famıly lıke your brothers or parents. Thıs story would gıve me Mom a heart attack. Okay?

Here we go.

Thıs ıs the story from two days ago: my fırst nıght ın Istanbul. I have posted thıs as a travel warnıng to other travellers.


Running through the Jungle (of Istanbul)

So, first night in Istanbul. I haven't met anyone at the hostel, so I'm just expecting a nice quiet stroll around Istiklal street just south of Taksim Square (the maın center of town). Now, I've read all about the scams so I thought I was well prepared.

I think because I am asian, I am an obvious target. Often, it is difficult to tell who is a local and who is not because anyone who ıs a shade of whıte can be a turk... except asians.

So as I'm walking up and down Istiklal, guys are coming up to me, asking me where I'm from, wantıng to be my friend... So I talk to them, but I know they are scamming me, so I polititely excuse myself every time.

So before I call it a night, I head to this bar called "Montreal" (of all places), the wall is decorated with all this Canadian crap. I even ask the owner about the scams and the people coming up to me... and he says "no, its just turkish hospitality!"

So these two guys come in the bar, order beers and sit down to the table next to mine. THey start talking to me, their english is good.... I think since they are just fellow people at the bar, they're possibly not scamming me. One of the guys looks like a crook, you can tell by the eyes, but the other one looks honest, so decide to give them the benefit of the doubt.

After a while of conversation and a few beers, we decide to hit up a "club". I make it very clear to them that I only have 20 LIRA on me, and that I only would go to expensive places... they were like "ok don't worry". I noticed it was odd that one of the guys kept going to the washroom (later I think it was to call people to coordinate the 'club' we were going to).

So we walk into this club, and the place is dead except for some young girls and old men. I should've left right away, but for some reason I didn't. I sit with these guys, me between the both of them in the corner table so I have no chance of getting out... I start to get suspicious and ask questions. They're like "no problem, we split everything 50/50".

Suddenly all the girls get on the dance floor and start dancing... its not real dancing its more like the dancing a girl does when someone orders her to dance. Three girls come over to our table and sit. The girl I am sitting from comes from Ukraine. Then I go to the washroom and one of the guys follows me to also head to the washroom. All these things add up to my conclusion that I am for sure getting scammed.

When I get back to the table, I tell them "its been a great night, but I have to go. Here's my 20 Lira, you guys stay". But they refuse and block my exit and are like... "we'll get the bill now, don't worry". The girls are still sitting next to us. The waiter brings the bill: 720 Lira! Thats about 600 CDN. "We split it 50/50", that's what one of the guy tells me. At this point the girls leave.

So I argue this bill, saying "you guys fucked me over, you knew I only had 20 Lira"... and them saying stupid bullshit. There's no way I could physically escape this club, there are too many obstacles. My best chance, I thought, was to be outside. So I say I'll pay one of the guys 200 Lira once we leave the bar and I go to the ATM. He "pays" the tab with his card, and we leave and bar.

We're walking up the sidestreet to get on to Istiklal street, and my mind is racing with possibilites to get out. Should I risk fighting these guys? I am pretty confident with my abilities, but two guys? In another country? Very risky...

We get to the main street, and right there is a police stand. (makeshift booth). I walk over to them to "ask for directions"... and I end up telling them about EVERYTHING, and how these guys try to extort me for nearly 400 Lira. The police don't understand a fuckın word I am saying. Talkıng to the cops is a guy wearing a bright orange shirt with a nice SLR camera arond this neck who 'translates' what I am saying to the police, although I am sure he is working with the guys who tried to scam me. The police seem unaffected by my story. Crap.

So I think: The police are not helping me, but aren't hurting me either. As long as I am there, the two guys won't try to jump me, but I won't get away scot free as well. I think the scammers realise its going to be difficult to get this money from me and want to cut a deal. One guy says "150 Lira and we will have no problems. Just 150 Lira." Since I don't want to go anywhere with the scammers, we compromise and I will go with the orange shirt guy to get the money then come back.

This is my chance.

I start walking up the street with the orange shirt guy, and I tell him "listen bud, how about I give you 60 Lira and you let me go". He says "no, I can't I konw these guys". I say "you work with these guys", but he says "no, but they are in my network".

So I only have on option - and the conditions are all in my favour. THe guy in the orange shirt looks a little out of shape, and is carrying a large expensive camera around his neck. We reach and ATM and I shake his hand saying "thanks for your help anyway". Then I point behind his back and say "are those guys over there". When he turns and looks behind him, I BOLT DOWN Istiklal street at FULL SPRINT! (with Turkish music playing the background, providing a soundtrack - i feel like I'm in a movie).

I look behind and no on followed me! I keep running, my lungs start to burn, and after about 60 seconds, and duck into a sidestreet into this empty bar and meet the surpised look of the owner. The first thing is do is LAUGH! I laugh for a long time, then order a cola. Then I threw up.

So for the rest of the right, I am very paranoid, ducking into little bars, looking left and right at everyone. I end up at 3 little bars, having cola and tea at each... on the look out while they play lounge music... I seriously feel like I'm in a movie. I make it back to the hostel at about 3am... 4 hours after all this madness began.

So to conclude: the one time I let down my guard and gave the benefit of the doubt I was almost burned, so my trust factor for the locals in Istanbul is very low. But whatever, I scammed the scammers. Those bitches.

Korean girls...

... are the bravest backpackers I have ever met.

I have met a few so far, and the ones I met backpack alone and go to all these different places in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, some of which we would consider "dangerous".

I was very surprised to learn this... These girls are young, asian and pretty good looking and they hitchhike, they go out at night alone, and they meet the locals.

If I was a petite asian girl, I definitely would NOT travel by myself.

It amazes me that they can do all this... it pretty much destroyed all my pre-existing stereotypes of "fobs" girls, with "gung-ju-bang" aka. the Princess Sydrome.

The Call to Prayer

As I am writing right now, the call to Prayer is sounding.

Basicaly 5 times a day, the Mosques sound the call to prayer... and you can hear it where ever you are in the city. There are about 10 mosques in Bergama... so they all play the same recording at the same time so the call is in unison.

The call to prayer is more like a song that is very beautiful... everytime I hear it, I look up the sky and stop and listen.

Yesterday when I was on top Bergama's Acrypolis (my favorite ancient site so far), me and some French backpackers were walking down this pretty dangerous road to get out of the ruins and into town. The view was absolutely breathtaking... and as I was navigating the dangerous rocks, I heard the call to prayer all over the city.... once after the other, the mosques all started playing the call.... and I just stood there are listened as it echoed throughout the city and the surrounding mountains.

I can't wait until I hear this in Istanbul in front of the Blue Mosque and in Damascus... in front of the Great Mosque.

The Aqualand Theme Park

So about 3 days ago I left Kusadasi for Selcuk, the town next to Ephesus, the best preserved Roman City in the world. Ephesus was the shit back in the old days, the capital of the Roman Asian province of Asia Minor. It played a major role in the development of Christianity, and was where St. John was buried.

So I took the early morning minibus from Kusadasi to Selcuk to get to my hostel at 8am, and hop on the tour at 8:30am... but the directions I got from the internet made no sense at all. So I was walking around the ghetto residential area of Selcuk, looking for this damn place and its past 8:30 and I know I missed my tour... I was like fuckkkkk.

But then this guy from his hostel nearby waved me down, and I figure I'd get some directions from him. But I walk into the hostel, and it's got a nice courtyard and there are two korean travellers sitting there (the first asians I have seen in Turkey). So I sit down and start chatting with them and actually it turned out one was Japanese and one was Korean, both girls, both travelling alone. THey told me they were going to the Aqualand theme park that day... and asked me to join them.

Now, when I took the bus to Selcuk that morning I did pass by this park and thought.... man that looks like fun. It pretty much like your standard park.... kind of like Wild Water Kingdom, but I think a little bigger.

So I was like, fuck the ruins, they'll be there tomorrow. I want to go on water slides! So I went to "Adaland"... and it was a great decision because I had an awesome time.

Those slides are FAST! And during the middle of the day this air raid siren sounds off, and I'm like...wtf is going on. Then the loudspeaker says something in Turkish and people start gathering at the main "square" of the park that has a stage.. and then this Turkish techno starts blasting and everyone starts doing this line-dance, with the guy on the stage leading them. And there are these spinklers from the bottom spraying everyone while they did the dance... it was the most random thing.

That's how things are on this trip... the by chance encounters usually lead to an awesome time.

Story formats

Just as a heads up, I won't be writing in a linear timeline anymore, since I think I'm only to have time to update every few days.... I'll just write what comes to mind at the time, otherwise this bitch will be too much of a chore.

Right now it's almost 1pm in Bergama I have some time until my bus to Istanbul tonight... I'll write for a bit, then head out to see some sights and maybe have some tea before I go...

In the Middle East, I just tell them I'm from Hong Kong

... because no one really understands (and I can't explain) that it's possible to be Chinese and be Canadian at the same time... so the conversation usually goes like this:

"from where are you from?"
me: Canada
"Korea?"
me: Canada!
"Korea?"
me: no! Canada...
"Japan?"
me: Hong Kong...
"ohhhhh Hong Kong guzel (means good)"

But I think this works to my advantage because everyone is very intersted that I'm from Hong Kong.

Actually yesterday I was in a nargili (water pipe aka hookah) house that was packed with locals. When I got in everyone started bowing to me and saying "konneechewa" and I was like "no japanese! Chin! Chin!" Actually I think everyone stared at me with jaw-dropping amazement for about 5 minutes when I sat down...

And then I was just talking to the two little kids who were working there, two of the smartest and most curious kids I met, and I taught them the two magic tricks I know... you know the dissapearing card one.... and the dissapearing coin one that I suck at doing.

It was the best time, just sitting there, having tea and smoking the water pipe with the locals. Although my TUrkish was as good as their ENglish (which sux) it was an unforgettable time to just chill with the locals.

In Turkey

I am in Kusadasi, Turkey now. I will be heading to the beach to chill again... there's a beach a little down the road that I'm gonna check out. And no, I am not and never will be sick of beaches. Cuz I love beaches.... hahaha, Si if you are reading this, I know you got that joke.

The trip so far has been a LOT of fun, but I'm glad that stage is over... Greece was just a prologue for my trip, now I begin the main journey out of my comfort zone of chilling with people who speak english and drinking all night. I'll save all of that for Pamplona later on...

The ferry ride last night was pure sketch, lot of shifty eyed mofos looking at me on the pretty empty ferry, so I tried to stay alert for the whole night, although the seats were so comfortable I slept anyway, and all was fine this morning.

I am a little nervous at how things will be from now on because Turkey and Syria will be very different from anything I have experienced. But I am also excited because these are the things that I wanted to see and experience.... I asked for it, and I got it.

Heading to Ephesus tomorrow to see the world's best and largest roman ruins.

Till next time

Hoshjacal! (later, in Turkish)
J

The stories

Just about the story below... sorry there are too many damn stories I have from those last two night, I will be here for hours typing if I tell them all. So remind me to tell you these stories when I come back...

Madness? This is Ios

Sorry it's been a while since I've updated. I am writing this is Turkey, but I'll fill in what happened since Tuesday.

I'm gonna revise what I said in my last post... I said Ios was a party island, like Daytona beach transported into Greece and that it wasn't my style. Fuck that, it was TOTALLY my style. Once I met a couple of peeps, got into the groove and started having fun, it was absolute madness.

A night in Ios is like packing 4 nights of drinking into one long one.

But lets start from the beginning. Basically life in Ios is like this: people wake up in the late morning early afternoon, get some food, head to the beach. All the beaches in Ios are topless, so pretty much the beach is where its at. So from about 2pm-6pm everyone just suns themselves on the beach, talk to the chicks who are tanning and make plans to meet up, gets some food and drinks inbetween, plays some volleyball, then heads back to the hostel for a nap around 6-9pm. Then people wake up, and do some chilling, and pre-pre-drinking.

At about 11pm, the hostels offers everyone a free shot, and then the main pre-drinking begins. We usually went to the main square, where we drank and met random people until about 2am, the bars start getting packed.

From then on our crew from Francesco's hostel (of which our core crew was my dormmates from Room No. 14) usually gets seperated (as what usually happens while shitfaced), I meet new people who are doing the same thing, chill with them, meet up with people we met from the beach, and then it all becomes a blur into about 6am, when somehow I find my crew from room 14 again, and we end up at "Sweet Irish Dreams", the place to go at 6am. This is the place where I saw the flying sandwich... and tons of other shit.

At 6:30am we'll go get a kebab, head back to take a nap from around 7am-11am, and then do it all over again...

Yup, Ios fucks ya up in the best and worst way.

From Dusk to Dawn

So I left the Port of Athens on the slow boat to Ios, where I am writing from.

Left at 4pm and got in around 5:30 am... it was a "slow boat" stopped at every Island. It was an awesome night... the slow boats are good because you can stay on deck for most of the time, and see everything.

So we're stopping at the first island, and I notice the side of the mountain is on FIRE. There was a huge forest fire burning down the side of mountains. They had to bring in those water bomber planes to put it out, but it didn't really seem to do anything. The entire island had a huge cloud of smoke over it... it looked like the Island was just bombed.

I saw the sunset, and the moon set. It was strange, usually when the moon sets, it gets larger as it drops down to the horizon, but this moon was different... it turned blood red, and then slowly faded away. It was still beautiful, as were all the star that you could see perfectly. Last time I saw stars like that was during the blackout a couple of years ago...

So I get into Ios 3 hours ago at 6:00am, and I head to the hostel. I have time to kill before I have to check in at 11, so I head to the bar for an early morning beer. There's people outside talking, so I'm thinking there's like an after-party or something... I walk up in there, and the place is PACKED, and people are dancing on tables, and they're pumping that techno song from Blade. You know, the song from the vampire club scene. Anyway, it was rammed at 6:30 in the morning! People are greeting me out from nowhere, people are making out everywhere, and these three girls dancing on the bar started doing a flying sandwich thing... I can't explain it, I'll upload the photo later, it was weird man. Awesome, but weird.

After I check in, I'm gonna sleep. Cuz tonight is going to be loooong.

Peace,
J

Bought new, less gay sunglasses

So before I left, I was in Ottawa buying last minute stuff from Zellers, and I pick up this pair of sunglasses that I think look sick on me.

I bring them home, and Michelle thinks they make me look gay. My dad called them "feminine glasses" for those "ah-moe". So it got me a little self conscious.

So anyway, in Athens I kept noticing girls looking at me on the subway while I had them on. At first I just through they was checkin me, but their expression was more curiosity than anything. Then yesterday, this one girl walks by me and gives me one of those "what the hell kind of glasses are you wearing" look... and I was like, fuck this I'm buying new sunglasses.

So I bought ones for 5 euros. And these look sick... or so the sunglass-seller man told me. And those guys are never wrong.

J

Leaving Athens on a Slow Boat

So last night I was chilling with this American couple on the rooftop... just beautiful view of the Acrypolis. I was drinking a 3 euro bottle of Ouzo, like the Greek national drink... its pretty much like black licoriche alcohol... nasty nasty stuff but it got the job done of giving me a buzz. Then I went downstairs to make a call, ended up meeting another American traveller, and we hit up some bars. Athens has an AWESOME bar patio scene.

But anyway, I decided last night that other than the Acrypolis, Athens kind of blows... and I don't want to see a museum. On top of that, I think the locals do not like tourists (which is understandable), so there's no warm fuzzy feeling here. So I decided to leave this morning.

But it turns out the boat to Ios leaves in the afternoon, so I have hours to kill before I get on the boat. Hmm... I gotta buy some bread to go with the sardines I bought for dinner - a page out of the Mauritian handbook.

The European cafe culture is awesome......

Peace,
J

Athens is MASSIVE

Im here in Athens now. WOW, Athens is MASSIVE.

I got here at about noon today not having slept for a night... I felt exactly the same as I did the last time I was backpacking and get to London and pulled an all nighter.

Next time I will make a mental note to get the name and number of MORE THAN ONE hostel if I dont' reserve.. which I didn't do in Athens (the only city that I didn't). So it turned out all the dorm rooms were taken, I was hussled into taking a 40 euro private room... and at first I started walking around to find another place, but I was tired, my bag was heavy and I was like - fuck it, I'll just get hte private room. And it was a GOOD idea, cuz the room is nice and the view is awesome.

I started off being a little lonely today, but after I took a nap it was ALL good. Toward the end of the day I didn't mind at all.

I went up to the Acropolis around 4:30 and stayed until about 7:30... it was pretty awesome. The buildings themselves were not as impressive and I hyped them up in my mind, but the view of the city and the Greek islands is just amazing. When you look out into the sea, you see the island rising in the distance, like floating mountains... very beautiful.

I just bought a bottle of Ouzo, and I'm gonna see if I can find some drinkign buddies at the hostel tonight. Probably have another kebab for dinner.

If I don't find anything interested to do tomorrow (since I already did the Acroypolis), I might just head out to the Islands early. We'll see.

Peace,
J

PS I am seeing a surprising amount of Chiense tourists in athens... hong kong people, CBCs (or ABCs) and straight up mainlanders. Mainlanders will pose for pictures with street performers... not just one of them, but every one in the group of 5 had to have one! I was like, is that really necessary.... anyways...

And oh man, the European girls are hoottttt

In London.... 5:23am

Im in London now, 5:23 London time about 1230 T dot time.

No problems with transferring to international depature... I didn't have to go through customs or anything. But IF I did have to go through customs, get my baggage, and then go through security AGAIN, I defintely would not have made it.... this place is busy as a mofo right now.

My flight was actually extremely entertaining... I usually won't make a point to describe my flight, but this one was weird, but good. British TV is actually pretty funny. They were also showing a bunch of R&B and Rap videos from the early 90s.... there were show the video for the Will Smith/Jazzy Jess song Summertime and old Jackson 5 videos. I was grooving in my seat to that.

Flight to Athens in an hour... another 6 hour flight......I am tired as shit, but in a good mood. I can listen to these British people talk all day.

J

June 13, 2007 - 3 more days

Whats up my friends... or in Arabic it would be: Kaifa Haluk Sadiqi!

So on advice of some of you guys, I have set up this blog to let everyone know how I'm doing when I'm on the road.

I've done all the planning I could possibly have done.

Hostels are confirmed, info has been printed, directions from bus stations/airports to hostels have been found, and so and so forth.

The only thing I need to do is make sure my bag is less then 10 pounds, so I don't have to carry it in the check in, cuz when I get to London Gatwick, I have to runnn to catch my flight to Athens, which should be do-able. (hopefully)

This week I have been going through phases of extreme excitement and extreme fear. Fear of the unknown of course, since I am going to all these places by myself, and most of you guys think I'm nuts to be going to Syria.

Anyway I'm on the patio right now just chillin and thinking of stuff I need to do.

Gonna shave my head tomorrow, as my tradition is (and will be from now on) before leaving on a trip like this.

Peace... or Salaam

J