My Christmas moment ..

The image of Santa riding a reindeer sledge ,makes a whole lot of sense, when you actually see both even though not doing what the image is supposed to show.

Just a few days back when my car stopped at a traffic signal , a boy who sells the Indian flags for independence day ,heart shaped red balloons on valentines day was doing his job this time , with a santa cap in the Christmas season. He was wearing one himself ,the one that has lights and the familiar reindeer figure.  From the 20 deg centigrade artificially cool air in my car I went to the time when I actually did ride the reindeer a week back. After a few meters,  it seemed a little touristy and so I stepped out to feel the snow under my boots rather than under my sledge. Today at the traffic signal, the reindeer suddenly made the calling again , and it was more than it made in the – 12 deg in Norway.

That, I thot was my Christmas moment. I didn’t care if it was 3 days before today the 25^th Dec. I decided to cook myself a Christmas lunch.  I wont get into the single item menu .. but as I set the prawns in the oven ,I heard some old goan folk songs from under my building. When I went to the window ,it took me no time to figure out its source. The music was coming from a car stereo above which hung a good sized holy cross and in front of which I could only see a news paper wide open. "He must be Christian" my mom said ,"celebrating Christmas in his own way" ,her tone was with pity for all those who have to work on festival days. We contemplated for a while to go down with a piece of sweet, to wish him, maybe that would just make his day ,my mom thought. A complete stranger giving sweets on Christmas. 

So I went down and broke the listening and reading session of the driver. A little alarmed at first ,he was when I said "merry christmas" and handed him the plastic 'sweet pouch'. I then stupidly asked him whether he was a Christian .. I dunno why ! he couldn’t understand it ,my question nor what was going on .. With his accent he certainly seemed not from Goa .. and the songs weren’t goan either. Actually when I came up I thot he wasn’t a Christian either. But I wished him ..and he smiled ..  I wished him like I hadn’t wished anyone before even on a diwali or a new year.  I felt a little foolish down there but when I came up I was happy , like my day was made. The meal later was just an addition to my Christmas moment.

The ICE HOTEL

Kiruna .. The northern most town in Sweden. It runs throughout the year on the money that comes from its mining industry and has been doing so over the last 100 years. But then around 20 years back some minds with similar creative cravings got together and a masterpiece was born .. THE ICE HOTEL !

When you create something to challenge your own standards then more than often, new standards are set and others simply follow you sooner or later.  I don’t know who originally devised the ice hotel and I really don’t want to go thru the history of it.  The true creator is not interested in personal recognition, he just wants people to see what he has created and for them to enjoy it .. while he steps aside and watches them wonder at it because by this time he has already moved on, to something else.

The guide at the Ice Hotel, told me that normally the temperature, this time of the year is around  – 30 deg centigrade .. it’s the 15^th Dec and the temperature today in Kiruna is – 2 Deg .. There is a whole other discussion about the effects of global warming in the Arctics and I am not getting into it. As far as I go ,its just that I got to see an incomplete ice hotel and the term global warming made a whole lot of sense than just cribbing about the + 38 deg in Mumbai ,in December. 

Looking at the ice hotel from a distance .. I thot its rather rough, with the cranes still moving the huge blocks of ice .. As I walked through the rooms the outside view didn’t matter. I could feel the warmth of the reindeer skin which covered the entire length and breath of the bed.. all the people including me clicked the pictures lying on the  ice bed .. I never thot how it would be to sleep the night on the bed .. I never wanted to stay in that room .. much like I don’t want to touch an object so  beautiful that, to just look at it from a distance is enough !

I want to write about how involved, the people working in the ice hotel were in their jobs .. the lady at the reception to the man sculpting a guitar from a block of ice in the ‘Rock n Roll Suite’ of the ice hotel (the suites in the hotel are theme based).  But they were just doing what they like .. coz everyone believed in the ICE HOTEL .. just like its creators believed in it !

When you love your work .. the belief comes with it .. and with belief comes joy .. Success and money are just byproduct’s ! The people from around the world look at the ice hotel and applaud the human engineering and the success the many ICE Bars have achieved around the world.

For me, I just applaud all those who love their work and believe that an hotel is possible from a block of ICE !

Santa's Salmon ...

The north of the Arctics .. is  different ! Not only for its climatic conditions .. but also for the locals that live there. Norway .. Sweden and Finland meet up north and the people speak more or less the same language.  I’ve already had very good experiences talking to the Nordic people in Norway. Today it was a Lappish ,Salmon chef .. and lover of good food that made me eat the best Salmon till date.

The Santa Claus village is the most visited place in Finland .. it’s a real big deal to see the real Santa for many. After the first few pictures with the real daddy of santas all around the world ,I got  a little bored of the touristy areas in the village and wandered away to a quiet little corner. I’ve given up shopping for sovenirs and food is always on my mind whether hungry or not. It was already 5 hrs past breakfast .. so when I saw the little wooden board that said .. Salmon ! I did not think twice before entering !

Inside, there was fire burning in the centre and benches arranged around it. Kettles lay over the fire and on the other end was magic being performed. When I read the menu .. it read … Salmon with potato salad and bread .. beer .. coffee .. warm Cranberry juice.. that’s it ! 

When u specialize in something ,it generally ends up on the good side. This .. was far far better than just good ! It was 15 years ,he said ,it took him to cook the fish the way it was being served. The skin was perfectly burnt .. the meat …was so well cooked that at times it melted in my mouth. We sat across the fire and spoke about Salmon .. he told me stories about how this recipe came to him from his parents and how much of an effort it takes right from selecting the wood for grilling the meat to serving it on a plank of a pine tree..

Effort well paid ..

This goes to all those ‘single item’ menu ,food places and their owner /chef’s which after serving the same food day after day to people .. look forward to eating it themselves ! 

And I thot I am going to write about Rovaniemi , the snow and what not !!

Mado .. to do's and conversations !

Mado is  a Turkish Café chain and is famous for its Pistachio Ice Cream. Well I knew it the first time I came here .. but I only had ‘the’ ice cream today. Not that it didn’t occur to me in my previous occasions ,here in Turkey. But the crazy thing about a traveler like me is that ,the top ten ‘to do’s ‘ don’t apply to my travel. Eating a local ice cream which is very famous ,or going to the valley on a horse back etc don’t hit so much in the first few visits simply becoz I know I will return. What appeals is what u don’t find on any website .. talking crazy things with a hotel security guy in broken English .. getting drunk with a total stranger and then knowing that he actually owns the place and becoz of the nice time he wont let me pay and that’s exactly why I want to pay, or simply having a quiet moment with the evening walking in 0 deg centigrade .. many things like these when they come unplanned are enjoyed more ,  I know none would disagree.

So today when I had to surf the net and for that had to get a coffee or something other than food, I entered Mado. At first I was a little surprised when I ordered strawberry milk shake, but then an espresso takes 1/4^th of the time to finish and costs the same. I still had 30 mins to go and an empty glass in front of me ,when  I casually asked the waitress to get me a pistachio ice cream. I continued to type as the frozen desert, came to my table, which I had occupied for the last 80 mins. It was only when I had the first bite that I forgot about everything else on the screen, in front of me. I was having finally 'it' .. but it came to me, like meeting random stranger who makes interesting conversations about his town or country, and somewhere during it you realize ,do i actually know him from before ? The ice cream made  a similar conversation and a very nutty one too .. I let it talk to me as long as it wanted to . . which meant just before the last bit got runny.

A sweet ending hmmm .. I have a flight to catch back to Mumbai (I was going to say home!!) in the next 5 hrs.  As for the list .. well yes I did one of the 'to do’s while in Istanbul' .. 

P.S - Due to my not so pleasant experience at the Istanbul Airport, i was not able to post this on the same day from a lounge ,where i wud've actually had an espresso while posting it. Instead doing it from my office after maybe 20 hrs of much needed sleep. 

The Saz player ..

On my first night in Istanbul , I wanted to sit by the fire and listen to some guy play the Saz. The Saz is the traditional string instrument in Turkey and listening to it live , is as magical as hearing someone play the Spanish guitar somewhere in Argentina over a glass of wine. Well turkey has Raki to replace the wine, but the music stirs in the same euphoric feeling in me !

Being on tour and travelling with people is often very monotonous.  So drinking with a local or smoking like a chimney comes in play at times. Today when the group finished dinner and I was left with two options at 7.30  pm.. 1. Go to the room and bang my head on the wall out of boredom .. or 2. Go to a local café and bang a Sheesha (Nargile in Turkish).

After six days of being on tour and almost forgetting what I wanted to do on my first night , I came across the most amazing Saz player that I’ve witnessed in Turkey. Over the last week ,I’ve always curbed my smoking instinct because 15 TL seems a little too much to spend every night .. today however 20 TL seemed nothing.. Do I need to say more ?!

I really wanted to go ahead and clear the bill of that table on which the musician sat with his two other friends, but then I didn’t know if I would have enough cash to my clear my bill. All I could hear in those 90 minutes was music and then non stop Turkish, but i love the language and it too is music to my ears at times like these .. No , I did not understand a word of it and I was glad that I did not try and make a conversation with them ..Where I wud've had to answer the same questions about India .. what is your population ? ,What about Sharukh Khan ? etc etc .. I just sat there with the pipe to my mouth and the ears to music interrupted by random turkish.

I always smoke the Nargile till it nearly hurts my throat or I loose the appetite for it. But today I departed early .. the coal was bright and the smoke still thick.. But i chose to leave.

The musician next to me had left .. as for me ,it felt like I had just arrived in Turkey !

Outside my window !

In my 3 years of traveling to Turkey and fixing people up to take the Balloon ride over the mountains and valleys of Capadocia, never has 5 am, been this white ! One month back i was touched by the first snow flakes in Austria and now its here in Capadocia ,Turkey. 

There is something about the snow that  Indians of all ages love.. I saw a 70 year lady beat up her husband with snow balls till her hands froze and she had to come in, to sit by the fire. I type sitting next to the same fire .. Snow and to see it falling, is a big deal especially for people from a city which is currently recording its above average november temperatures .. 38 centigrade. I am talking about Mumbai. 

I love the way the snow flakes hit my wind shield and how a layer starts to develop underneath the wiper. Like y'day when I pointed it out to my driver ,he just casually smiled and continued to chew his gum. 

There will be a lot more of it in the month to follow as I take my first tour in December to Norway and where the snow is also accompanied by temperatures of - 20 deg centigrade. The temperature might change from + 5 in Turkey to - 20 in Norway ,but the feeling I guess would be a same .. Exhilaration and excitement to see the fresh snow outside my window !

The Driver .. Guide and Me !

Where else to write this from than the vehicle I spend most of the time travelling in .. The tour bus.

The tour bus is as much of a Job on wheels for me as much it is for the driver and the tour guide. The driver ceases to exist outside the bus and the guide gets done after the sights are visited. What is left is me .. but the 3 of us have our own responsibilities and most of the time we do more than what we’re asked for. Helping with luggage is to what extent a driver goes to, helping me serve food is where the tour guide (if he is kind) goes to .. Me ,well there is no extent to which I can go to .. this is not to please the tourists but to convince myself at times that this is a  vacation for them and not for me :-)

There are times when the 3 of us form a complete unit .. we travel together .. eat together and sometimes even sleep in the same room ,when the hotel fucks up with the bookings. When the tour guide is off showing the sights to the people ,the driver usually invites me to join him in a local café where others in his profession are either talking politics or how less they are paid. Its always the same ,be it Egypt .. Turkey  or Argentina. 

In these cafes, gas stations etc , the others talk to me as if I was born here. All I do ,is say yes in their language . to many people India is a constant source of interest and its sad that I cant keep up with the conversation about my country anywhere else but in the South American Continent.

The last time I checked my contact list on phone,  it had Robert from Poland ,Ahmed from Egypt and many others from their respective countries. Very soon the contacts from out of India will surpass those in India .. or I think they already have.

They meet me only 10 – 30 days in a year depending on the tour. But I spend more time with them collectively than with a friend in India.

This .. I dedicate to all my bus driver’s and guides who show me a good time and make my job more pleasurable.