Bazaar and bizarre

All the guidebooks recommended a visit to the Grand Bazaar, a covered market with over 4000 shops selling carpet, jewelry, ceramics, and souvenirs.  It was definitely a sight to see but nothing unique worth getting and lugging back to the states.   I did love the vibrancy of the place and the sales tactics of the sly salesmen.  "Hey China!  You're the best.  Come in and let me take your money."  Slick.

 This guy really wanted to sell us a scarf, claiming, "It's so nice, it makes even ME look pretty."  Despite all the quirkiness of the Grand Bazaar, my favorite part was coming out of it at night into another market of sorts - a bizarre market.  Older men manned their blankets full of used knicknacks ranging from cell phone chargers to cassette tapes to Christmas decorations.  I can totally see my grandpa doing something like this.  He loves picking up crap off the street and thinking it's worth money.  Hey, you never know when you'll need a charger for a StarTAC again.

And let's talk about how awesome this book is:

The sexy and forbidden (Harem)

The highlight of Topkapi Palace was Harem, the forbidden quarter that housed all the sexy concubines.  Well, maybe not all of them were sexy because the non-sexy ones were married off to staff members but the real sexy ones received better schooling and were chosen to have the Sultan's babies who would eventually become crowned royalty.

Walking through Harem was amusing for the pure sake of imagination.  I just kept playing soap operas over and over in my head of beautiful girls running around, discovering their sexuality with the Sultan, and probably experimenting with each other and the other male staffers.  I also imagined Telemundo-like scenarios with the Valide Sultan (prize woman) coming down with a rare illness while the others fought to be the next one chosen, or mysterious murders, or snickering of the Sultan's pee pee size, and lots of slapping.  In slow-mo.  C'mon, haven't you seen Raise the Red Lantern?  I grew up in China watching all kinds of shows and movies about concubines!

So in the pictures below, I map out some possible hiding places and escape plans for those who had enough of the concubine lifestyle!

Topkapi Palace: you kind of have to go

Just like the Forbidden City in Beijing, you can't go to Istanbul without a visit to Topkapi Palace, which used to be the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans.  I was impressed with the simply elegant architecture (no where near as showy as Chinese palaces) but not so impressed with the typo on their audio guide brochure.  As the main attraction, you think they'd get their materials spell checked.  And this is coming from a girl who was in ESL.

Streets of Istanbul

Istanbul is definitely clean mixed with a little fancy schmancy.  Similar to Italy, I like how the old is intertwined in with the new.  There's a lot of people roaming the streets today as it's the last day of their Holiday.  There's also a definite divide between the Asia side and the Europe side of the city.  Locals mostly live on the Asia side, where the streets are hopping and you get a definite city feel.  The Europe side, where our hotel is, is very tourist-based, obviously suited for the business traveler.  The streets are empty at night and restaurants have signs with "too much" English, if you know what I mean.  I feel like whenever I see anything that says, "Best Turkish Food," it reminds me of the Sabarro's in NY that claim to have the "Best NY Pizza."  In which case we all know, they should go F themselves.

Some superficial observations: the women are beautiful and the men are not as much.  Although both sexes possess strong, dark features such as prominent eyebrows and piercing eyes, the women look much sexier.  Maybe it's a product of their makeup and the way they dress, but I would say Turkish women are by far more attractive than Turkish men.  I also find it amusing that all Turkish men have the same male pattern baldness including a noticeable receding hairline and a slight "withered lawn" look a the crown of the head.  I tried taking some pics but was getting all kinds of dirty looks.

And speaking of looks, Turkish men like to stare and they can be very aggressive in their mannerisms.  I was already forewarned about this so it was not a total shock when guys were literally staring at me and my mom, loudly proclaiming: "China!  Japan!  Singapore!  Ching chong ching."  It's ignorance and partially cultural, but it does irk me since this country claims to be part Asian.

P.S: can someone explain to me why the man in the pedestrian crossing sign is wearing a hat?