Merhaba! (Hello in Turkish)
So its been two months since I’ve written, and I come to you with another obnoxiously long email (sorry), but Ive been pretty busy. I’m out of Africa and back in the real world (well, sort of), and in early June I returned from my leave of absence and started to work again at Mercer (just changed names to Oliver Wyman Consulting Group). When I started work the gave me the option of doing a boring project in southern Utah, or helping to start a company in Istanbul, Turkey. Tough decision. It was actually pretty tough to just get home and up and leave again, but there were a lot of reasons why this made sense, so I moved to Istanbul about a month ago. I had no idea what to expect when I came, which was one reason why this move has been so surreal, but I absolutely love it here. Who knew Istanbul was so awesome? It has quickly shot up to be one of my favorite cities on the planet.
Istanbul is, by definition, a clash of cultures. It is on a land bridge between Asia and Europe, and is actually the only city in the world on two continents. On the one hand, Istanbul is the largest city in Europe and is quite modern, and on the other, you’re in an incredibly Muslim country - You can probably see the minarets (spires) of about a dozen beautiful mosques from any point in the city – and you’re surrounded by history – it is the land of Alexander the Great, where Achilles battled the Trojans in Homer’s Iliand, and where the Ottoman Empire fought battles that would shape the world. When you’re out at a bar you inevitably hear a few songs of Western Pop music, immediately followed by several Turkish songs where people up their hands and start a traditional dance. Istanbul has incredible food (a very welcome change from the crap in Africa!), is overflowing with culture, is super active with tons to do, and is full of crazy, friendly, passionate people. The city is incredibly busy, yet somehow the chaos is beautifully orchestrated – over the years the hordes of people and cars have somehow managed to find a way to coexist, and couldn’t really function if someone did try to introduce order.
I’ve really been having a blast here since I arrived. We (me and a coworker, Kitty Lee) have fortunately met a bunch of other expats that shown us around, and made it much easier to get a lay of the very unfamiliar land. There are so many hidden streets and awesome bars/restaurants that would take years to find, so its nice to let someone else do the legwork. Right when we got here we met some people that invited us to this bar that is on top of an apartment building, but the building was dark, and kinda looked like we may or may not be chopped into pieces inside, and had no sign, but sure enough, when you emerged on the top floor there was this incredible terrace bar overlooking the Bosphorous (a channel connecting the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea) and the entire city. We also met people who took us hiking just outside the city. Istanbul is HUGE, and we were driving out of the city on the Asian side for about 45 minutes when we rounded a corner were suddenly out of dense, urban Istanbul, and in the middle of cherry orchards in rural Turkey – I’ve really never seen a transition out of a city that sudden before. There was this gorgeous spot to hike through a canyon, and we spent the afternoon climbing and cliff jumping in absolutely perfect weather.
I have done some more touristy stuff as well, though I’m trying to keep my Uber-tourist-american-flag-fanny-pack wearing to a minimum. There is a TON to do here. There are so many beautiful and historic mosques its impossible to list them, but I have checked out the most prominent one, the blue mosque, as well as its neighbor, the Aya Sofia, an ancient cathedral converted into a mosque following the conquer of Istanbul in the 15th century. I’ve also gone to two traditional Turkish baths, which are an incredible way to relax, and quite an interesting experience as well. You change into a little sheet, then head into the bath, which is like a giant steam room. In the nicer ones this room is very ornate, usually a dome and made completely out of white marble. So after you’re all nice and sweaty, a big, hairy, overweight Turkish dude tells you to lay on this marble platform and get a ‘massage’, which is more of a foamy full body assault. No way to follow it up than by getting a nice hot foam shave, except that the shave ended with the man slapping my face with a burning stick. This is apparently to burn off ear hairs, but since I have no ear hair, nor could I understand the man’s explanation in Turkish of what he was doing with the firey stick, I was needless to say a bit alarmed and really wierded out. I have clearly been back.
Although I am loving Istanbul, it was quite an interesting change to arrive here. In the month following my last post I completely circled the globe, was on 4 continents in 4 vastly different cultures. My surroundings were going from weird to weird, just in a completely different direction. The first major change from Africa was my two week stop-over in Cambodia to see Nick Lazos, Jenn Carter, Andy Cashin, and Jeff Kane, who all live in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Great trip. After 5 hectic months in Africa, I was really just looking to relax, and I quickly found that few places on the planet can replicate the relaxing atmosphere you find in Cambodia.
Among the highlights of the trip was a short visit Angkor Wat, a huge complex temple (over 200 sq km!) in the middle of the jungle – Think the nickelodeon show ‘legends of the hidden temple’. In this giant complex there are literally dozens of incredible temples – you could spend days there. We rented bikes and rode all over, and I remember passing huge, beautiful temples that weren’t worth stopping at because there were just so many to see. My favorite temple had these huge trees all tangles up in the ancient stones, they had grown together centuries ago and now the roots would wind in and out of the temple. You’d find monks all of the temples, and at Angkor Wat, the main temple in the complex, I actually met a monk that I hung out with for more than an hour. It was really cool to be shown around by a monk, and it was interesting to talk to him for a while. He was interested in practicing his English, so he was also happy to be hanging out. It was kinda funny though – he was dressed in his traditional orange robe, and couldn’t even touch a woman (on the shoulder or anything), but he carried around a cell phone and was a huge soccer fan.
Also among the highlights of the trip was a two day live aboard scuba dive trip, hanging out with my friends at their place in Phnom Penh, Kane and I kicking the crap out of Carter and Lazos at Shirali Epps, our favorite game which we have now played on 5 continents (will they ever learn the simple rules?), eating the delicious food, especially the pizza, really good, cheap massages, and hanging out on the coast. Aaaahhh, the Cambodian coast. We went to this incredible small town called Kep that may be the most relaxing place Ive ever been. We stayed in this awesome hotel that was essentially a giant tree house, with really cool, secluded bungalows linked by wooden bridges.
I spent the last 4 days of my trip flyin solo, and trying to relax as much as possible before returning to reality. I had no trouble doing this on a tiny island near kep called Rabbit Island. You have to take a small boat on the 20 minute trip over, and we got caught in the middle of a huge thunderstorm. The rain flooded the engine, so we just were hanging out in the thunder on this rickety boat, and I was fairly certain we were going to be struck by lightnight and that the boat, which was filling up with water from the rain and leaks, would sink. “A three hour tour…I kept thinking to myself” I got to the island and it was still pouring, so this family living at the only house on the beach invited me in. They spoke no English, so it was an interesting interaction as I sat there with them and they just fed me some strange looking fish and tried to get me drunk with some mystery alcohol from a plastic bottle. It was actually a lot of fun. Only 40 people live on the Island, which takes about 3 hours to walk around, and there are no hotels, so you stay in bamboo bungalows the families have near their homes, and you eat with them. The bungalows could not be more basic – no bathroom, no windows for the that matter, and only electricity for about 2 hours a day. Wind tears through the bungalows, which keeps you from burning up at night, but also blows out candles, so you’re in bed at 9pm when the lights go out. I met a few cool travelers there, but other than that I just relaxed on the beautiful beaches. An incredible end to the crazy trip.
I hope you’re all doing well and that I didn’t ramble too much.
Take care,
Shelby
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