Istanbul itinerary, Turkey 2023

Silhouette of Istanbul from the Bosphorus

Ever since I watched the series Rise of Empires:Ottoman on Netflix amazed at how Mehmed II, popularly known as Mehmed the Conqueror, captured erstwhile Constantinople from Constantinople XI in 1453 portraying the sheer intelligence & thorough dedication of Mehmed II, I became fascinated by the whole idea of Turkey and included it in my bucket list since 2020. As is the golden rule for any international or domestic travel, it is advised to buy flight tickets minimum 3 months before the final travel date so I started planning from end of February (I was still late). I wanted to avoid the rush & crowd of tourists during summer time, which starts from end of May in Turkey and all the prices - hot air balloon rides, AirBnB, hotels become double or triple of what the prices actually are in winter season. But I also had to keep in mind to avoid the holy festival of Ramadan which ended on 21st April 2023, so I bought the tickets planning to reach Istanbul on 22nd April, i.e. the day of Eid.

Bosphorus Strait & Ayasofya Camii
in the background

Phuket travel, Thailand in December (Part 1)

James Bond Island

Touchdown Phuket

It has been quite a long time since I went to any long vacation. By "long vacation" I mean to say not opening the office laptop for more than 7 days consecutively 😁 As soon as the good news came when the customer themselves conveyed that there will be a lull in the operations due to Christmas & New Year holidays in the US, I started planning the vacation with different destinations categorising them on the ease of getting the visa. My 1st choice was Egypt but as I researched more on Egyptian visa, I gave it a pass & decided on Thailand because:

• the ease of getting e-Visa on Arrival or eVoA
• hotels in Thailand were surprisingly affordable even in the peak season (December)
• the photos and reels of James Bond Island on Instagram tempted me
• Maya Bay has been re-opened by the government after quite a number of years as the beach was shut down to allow nature to heal. Due to overcrowding of tourists, Maya Bay was slowly losing its original beauty so the government took a strict decision & corrective action to close it down.

Maya Bay, Krabi, Thailand

It is a well known fact that Indians have the option of Visa on Arrival in Thailand.

A li'l bit posing before kayaking

I chose to opt for eVoA or e-Visa on Arrival as I didn't want to waste my time waiting in the long queue, that too during the peak season, and miss my next connecting flight. Procedure to get eVoA for Thailand:-

• head over to Thailand eVoA, click on "Apply Now".
• one has to create a profile so that one can upload all the documents viz
• ALL hotel bookings (therefore prior bookings need to be made)
• to & fro flight tickets
• the visa type is "regular eVoA"
• visa fees = 2500 THB per person

IMPORTANT : Carry a global Forex card like Niyo Global (not an advertisement but saying from personal experience) which gives the best international exchange rates or carry enough cash in THB from India. Please DO NOT withdraw cash from ATM's in Thailand as they charge 200 THB per transaction. If you have to withdraw cash there due to unavoidable circumstances, then kindly withdraw a large amount so that the conversion & exchange rates can be somewhat balanced. We were not aware of this & we suffered some heavy losses because of this. So a friendly reminder to my readers - AVOID withdrawing cash from Thai ATM's.

Solo-trip amidst Coronavirus pandemic to Langkawi - Part 2

Sorry folks for being away a long long time. Was caught up in a lot of things simultaneously. As far as I remember, I had shared only my first day experience of solo-traveling to Langkawi. I had already started planning my second solo travel to Perhentian Islands in my head. But unfortunately too much has happened in the last 2 years, I returned to India, I was subject to prejudice & chauvinism in my previous organization which had taken a serious toll on my mental health. In this age of Gen Z, mental health is of highest magnitude for folks like us who are drowned in deadlines & project deliveries. Anyway, back to my Langkawi trip which I undertook when the whole world was in the middle of a pandemic & I am happy that I took the decision of solo-tripping.

You can read all about my 1st day at Langkawi & how to reach there here: Langkawi Part 1.

On the 2nd day I decided to travel to North, North East & Southern parts of the island. This is the reason I always opt for a self driven car - no dependencies on any third party/ies. My 1st halt was at at a wild beach adjoining the Pantai Pasir beach. I realized why the beach was called "wild" as it is completely secluded and isolated. I didn't see any traveler or tourist come to this beach & I had a wonderful me-time here. The only negative aspect of visiting this beach solo was nobody to take my photos so I had to rely on my selfie-taking skills.

Wild beach

This beach is also a classic small scale example of an estuarine system/depositional environment as one can see the picture on the right (terms which only Geologists can decipher 😛).