Istanbul, Turkey

We had Monday to Friday to kill between safari and our next destination in Europe so where to spend it?

Somewhere ancient, with fab food, on the doorstep of Europe, and with a direct flight from Kilimanjaro, please!  We didn't even consider anywhere else.  Istanbul is a place I really felt needed to be done at least once in my life.

We had 2.5 days on our own before friends joined us, so we spent those first few days enjoying paved roads again, seeing more humans than animals and cleaning out all our crevices. 

We weren't in hardcore tourist mode, so were happy to look rather than explore too deeply.

Galata Tower

Spice Bazaar

Kadikoy

Humble-brag ahead: we were on three continents in only two days!

Istanbul straddles both continents of Europe and Asia, separated by the Bosporus Strait.  The majority of people and tourist attractions are on the European side, but the Asian neighborhood of Kadikoy is getting more hip and worthy of a visit.  All that separates the two is an affordable and scenic commuter ferry ride across the Bosporus.

Where there's lots of places to eat, and places to buy things to eat.

And the most flagrant display of police/military muscle I've ever witnessed!

Let's rewind.  A few short years ago there was a failed coup in Turkey, meaning the military tried to overthrow the government.  The government that is super dodgy*.  I never fully understood what happened and why, but I know there were guns and jets and marches in the streets and plenty of deaths (more than the few hundred reported, me thinks).

* I legit don't dare say more, and not just because I really don't know details

So when we came upon hundreds of police motorcycles in formation, blaring their horns in unison saluting a Turkish flag I thought it was happening again.  And holy shit did it freak me out!  My first reaction was to shove my camera and phone deep in my bag, out of sight.  This was intuitive.  I don't want to be pistol whipped or to wind up in a Turkish prison for recording something I shouldn't!  My second reaction was to run in the other direction.  My fight or flight response was so incredibly high in that moment and my ass chose flee.

But we did not.  The motorcycles were leaving (still roaring away, sounding so ominous and creepy) but lots of people were pleasantly watching the action and taking photos/videos, so I unclenched.  But it was a nerve wracking sight in the only country where, prior to my arrival, I've had to cleanse my email and chat history of anything that could even be perceived as critical of their government.

That - you've gotta admit - is fucked up.  Later we asked a woman at our hotel what we'd seen, with video.  She claimed she didn't know, which I don't believe for a hot second.  I think she didn't want to say, especially to foreigners.  That. Is. Fucked. Up!  Free speech, please.

Apologies for the wall of text but I wanted to get that story out there, which means I probably can't ever go back.

And that's tragic if I can't return for the one reason I went in the first place.  Food, glorious, food!

Best baklava I've ever had, bar none.  Best fish rat, too!

By now our Dutch friends Pieter and Erica joined us.

You might remember them from such trips as Barcelona a little over a year ago.  They're good European travel companions, which is impressive as they've spent a lot of the past year living in our fine city of Brisbane!

Our hotel had a rooftop bar that was perfect for having a few brews and watching the sun go down over the minarets.

Despite being almost entirely Muslim booze is bountiful in Istanbul.  Just the way I like it!

Blue Mosque

Built 400 years ago this is still a working mosque today and one of Istanbul's must see tourist attractions.  Except everyone on TripAdvisor said that it was so deep under construction that it really wasn't worth paying to go into.  So we didn't bother.

It's also a working mosque, so they close it to tourists at prayer times throughout the day, which was precisely when we were there.  So we enjoyed the view from the outside and the musical call to prayer, and that was the end of that.

Hagia Sophia

I can't find an exact definition of the word "hagia" so I take it to mean a building that was once a church, but then turned into a mosque, and is now a museum, which is precisely what Hagia Sophia is.

When it made the jump from church to mosque JC did not vacate the premises entirely.

Buying tickets to get in was a huge debacle, with nobody in charge, massive queues and kiosks that barely work, even after accepting your credit card payment.  It's one of the must do's of Istanbul, though, so you've got to suck it up and get in there...eventually.

Basilica Cistern

This place was really nifty, and not just because it was dark and cool which makes for excellent respite from the Istanbul sun.

It's an underground reservoir that was used to store water...1,400 years ago!  Constructed in the sixth century it's quite the engineering marvel for its time.  It can hold 80,000 cubic meters (2.8 million cubic feet) of water which isn't as helpful as knowing how many liters/gallons it can hold, but I'd estimate the size of a football field.  A ton of water!

Boat Trip

On our final day we were flying onward in the middle of the damn night, so we planned a long, slow day after a late checkout at our hotel.  We killed a few hours cruising up and down the Bosporus Strait snapping photos along the way.

We cruised down to the Bosporus Bridge, which is the main bridge connecting the European and Asian sides, and back to the center of town.

We even saw dolphins!  On more than one occasion!

Who knew they lived in such urban, busy water?

After the boat trip we tried to quickly zip through Topkopi Palace, the opulent former residence of sultans of the Ottoman empire and probably the ultimate must do in Istanbul...but it was closing just as we arrived.  Piss poor planning!  That's the second missed must do so far.  But with a 2 a.m. flight, I must say the extra relaxation and 1 p.m. hotel checkout time were probably worth it.  Maybe.

Istanbul Archaeological Museum

Luckily the archeology museum right next door had extended evening hours, so we had somewhere to bum around for a few hours to entertain ourselves with wonders of the ancient and modern world.

Until we got the boot (before closing time, I might add), and off we went to a leisurely dinner.  Still with seven hours to go until our flight!

Our grand plan after dinner was to swing through the Grand Bazaar, yet another Istanbul must do, on our nighttime stroll back to the hotel to grab our luggage and head to the airport.

But wouldn't you know it, that was closed, too!  Bazaars are 24/7 operations, we incorrectly thought.  I was not expecting it to be closed for business at 7pm! For those keeping track:

Top 4 must do's of Istanbul
Hagia Sophia - accomplished

Blue Mosque - not accomplished on purpose

Topkopi Palace - not accomplished due to poor planning

Grand Bazaar - not accomplished due to poor planning

There's clearly a lot of blame here for not checking opening times and planning ourselves accordingly.  However!  I did not find Istanbul an easy place to visit in the slightest. 

Maybe it's because we were staying in an "up and coming" neighborhood (Karakoy) where local fishermen and hardware shops are in far greater abundance than tourist attractions, so we had to travel to get to the action.  

Something as simple as buying a tram ticket was very near impossible.  As we experienced at Hagia Sophia: nobody in charge, massive queues and kiosks that barely work.  Mix thousands of locals with thousands of tourists and it's a stressful place to navigate.  So I'd recommend staying right in the center of the tourist attractions, which I normally don't like to do.

Finally I'd recommend actually planning ahead.  Don't be like us!  And if at all possible, fly out at a more reasonable time than the middle of the damn night!

Safari in Tanzania

There are very few things left on my travel bucket list.  One of those things is - was - a safari in Africa. 

We decided to go to Tanzania, in the east of Africa, rather than South Africa where a lot more people seem to go for safari.  We were there for the animals and nothing else and make no mistake, we were far from the only tourists around!

The flight into Kilimanjaro airport was pretty entertaining, as there were strictly two types of people on the plane: those who were climbing the damn thing - and were super jacked up about that fact - and the calmer set of people headed for safari.  How to tell the difference?  Matching t-shirts!

Most important things first: Did we see the Big 5?  Yes we did!  The Big 5 were so designated as the animals that big-game hunters find the hardest to hunt on foot.  In modern terms it's the main five animals you want to see on safari.

Here they are, in order of most to least abundant:

Lion

Elephant

Cape Buffalo

Leopard

Rhinoceros

We visited different places in one week of safari escorted by two different guides, Ally from a [private] tour company called Maasai Wanderings and Karim through our lodge Nasikia Camps.  We - by which I mean Martin entirely on his own - booked the whole shebang through a British travel agent called Yellow Zebra.

Both our guides were fantastic and absolutely invaluable.  They are so incredibly well trained at what they do and know so much!  We saw very few self-driving fools but the ones we did see I felt sorry for.  Just navigating the labyrinth of corrugated gravel roads with no signage would be enough to put you in an early grave.  Do. Not. Attempt!

We went "game driving" in 4 separate national parks/conservation areas.  They were each surprisingly unique and brought something different to our safari.  I will cover the pros and cons of each:

Tarangire National Park

Pros: 

• easy drive from Arusha (Google Maps says 4 hours but I don't remember that much driving)
• tons of animals everywhere 
• diverse landscapes

Cons:

• Massive ground to cover with crappy roads that can be onerous to navigate 
• minimal public bathrooms/picnic areas/places to get out and stretch your legs
• dusty

Lake Manyara National Park

Flamingos in the distance

Pros:

• fairly small size so not difficult to navigate
• very leafy so considerably cooler
• lots of monkeys if that's your thing

Cons:

• comparatively sparse with animals, especially big ones 

Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area

Pros:

• rhinos (if you're lucky)
• contained area so animals are trapped in for ease of viewing

Cons:

• exceedingly long and hard to get to as you have go up, over and down the crater on bad roads...twice
• not great for up close animal viewing
• lacks greenery and incredibly dusty 
• accommodation on the crater ridge is expensive so you'll likely have to travel a ways to day trip
• rhinos still difficult to find

Serengeti National Park

Pros:

• Great Migration if you go at the right time of year
• lush and green so minimal dust
• public wifi surprisingly available 
• diverse landscapes

Cons:

• waiting for a river crossing takes extreme amounts of patience
• so big you will likely spend 2+ hours each day just getting to/from your accommodation
• far from Arusha so you have two unsavory options: 
• an incredibly long, painful drive or 
• a flight in this dodgy little thing:

We saw almost everything I set out to see except for three things:

• a big, fat python
• meerkats
• crocodiles feasting on animals crossing the river

Mind you crocs were there watching the migration close by they were just uninterested in feasting any further.  I think if you went a few weeks earlier than we were there (late September) you'd see some chomping action as they wouldn't be quite so full and lazy.

Back to the topic of the river crossing, wildebeests are very stupid, indecisive animals so it is far from easy to simply locate a herd and watch them all cross.  We sat for 2 hours - in pouring rain, in an open vehicle - to catch our first crossing.  I was literally reading a book when they finally decided to move! 

You really need time and patience to watch these idiots wander to the edge of the river and back...and to the edge again and back...and to the edge and back...before they take the leap into the river.  But when they finally do it is really awesome.  We saw four river crossings over two full days, totalling many thousands of wildebeests.

Each of the different places we visited was so wildly different but largely had the same animals.  But at the end of the day, my top recommendation, where I think you could see 98% of what you want to see in just a few days is Tarangire National Park.  It is positively brimming with animals (no rhinos, though, sadly but that is true for most of the planet because humans are terrible).  Just look at this watering hole!  It was literally our first stop on our first day:

It was unreal and looked like a movie.  There were about ten different types of animals just chilling there, waiting to be seen.  If you want to do a Tanzania safari efficiently and affordably I reckon 3 days here would do you.

Interesting thing I noticed about the demographic of safari goers is that I saw barely any kids.  Everybody was either young and pre-kids or retirees post-kids.  Maybe it's the expense or possibly because safari isn't exactly smooth sailing.  Long, uncomfortable drives and sometimes a great deal of patience is required.  Not exactly kid friendly touristing.

There is so much we did not do because we were laser focused on seeing animals.  We didn't visit a Maasai village to see how the natives live.  We didn't do any fine dining or city exploration.  We didn't even go to Zanzibar to relax at the beach like [literally] every other person we met.  The most extracurricular thing we did was dip in the pool when they were available after a long, dusty day of game driving.

And of course hang out with Martin's mom!

His dad was supposed to come, too, but was having some pain problems that completely immobilized him.  On infinite miles of crappy roads, trust me, you need to be able to take a beating.  Sad times for the fam, but that just means different adventures in the future!

The final thing we did not do, which I admit is pretty shameful, is see Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, up close and personal.  So it's a good thing we saw it from the air as we were leaving!

Hakuna matata, Africa!