Bits and pieces from my first visit to Istanbul.

First off, this place is very mindful about its past. Mosques, palaces, museums are in abundance and well taken care of. The powers that be here know that this is the big draw for tourists and they make sure it's accessible and safe (lots of cops). And yes, the view of the Bosphorus I'm sure has been involved in more that just a few proposals (velly lomantic lah!). Taksim Square, where much of the recent unrest was, is over the hill and at least a mile away from Sultanahmet and the Bosphorus districts. In fact, there's a large police station with lots of armored trucks with water cannons on top and guards with MP5s all around right next door to the Shangri-La. No worries.

Now the nits to pick.

The first thing I took note of was at the baggage claim. The baggage carts are all in a row in between the baggage carousels. Baggage carts work on the "put a coin in to unlock" system, like shopping carts do in tougher neighborhoods. What was especially interesting was the locks took a combination of currencies; you could either use a 1 Turkish Lira (TL) coin or a 1 or 2 Euro coin for convenience. They also make a lot more since 1 Euro = 2.96 TL which means you'll be paying more. Solution? Go to one of the forex booths (they ALL charge 4% commission) and convert a $20 for TL. Voila! You will now have change.

Contrary to some of the trip reports I've read here, there is no presence by Citibank here. HSBC is here in abundance, with ATMs at airport arrivals, malls and metro stops. Which reinforces the rule I've had since I started traveling. "Bring the HSBC card for cash". Once you enter the arrival hall, there's an HSBC ATM on either side along with a bunch of local banks. You can't miss it.

In ways telecommunication wise, it reminds me of China, circa 1998. Why? Hear me out. Prepaid SIM cards are EXPENSIVE and takes "two days" to turn service on? Data plans border on usury and information is extremely difficult to find. Need Wi-Fi perhaps? Thinking about ducking into McD's or Starbucks to hop online to check Google Maps or Trip Advisor for a restaurant recommendation? No dice. How come? It requires you to register and more annoyingly, to have a Turkish mobile number so it can SMS you a code for final registration. To top it off, Boingo Mobile has NO roaming partners here so no getting online THAT way. Grrrr! And as an aside, Instapundit and Ace of Spades are blocked at the W Istanbul. I wonder if MsNBC and Daily Kos are blocked as well? I kinda doubt it.

Now I will admit this sounds like a First World kind of problem, being unable to get prepaid data for the trusty iPhone. But travel has changed over the past few years that an unlocked iPhone and prepaid data (in most countries) are probably one of the more useful tools in the flashpacker's backpack. Coming here in some ways is a trip back in time. I didn't expect to have to return to the days of the guidebook and tour guide.

Transportation can be spotty at best. The trams that run through Sultanahmet and end at Kabatas are frequent and plentiful. I've never had to wait more than a few minutes for one to come along. They get a ^ and since they run through the areas touristy folk like myself visit, they probably will be the only part of Istanbul transit tourist will ride. Signage is multi-lingual and stop announcements are made in both Turkish and English.

That falls apart of course, with my experience with the Metro. The trains are slow. MUNI slow. They do not run with any frequency. One ride, I was waiting on the platform for close to 40 minutes. An announcement was made (in Turkish) and the entire crowd made for the escalators. By the time we reached the top, the station agents were redirecting everyone back down. It was either a train was on the way or they didn't want to hand out tickets to the surging crowd of hundreds. Either case, we made our way downstairs and a train eventually showed up. We boarded and then the train sat there for 10 more minutes. Why? I don't know. It's an adventure in some ways. Signage and announcements are all in Turkish. Directions are in Turkish as well so if you're taking the Metro somewhere, be sure you have explicit instructions. This is a bit of a shock for me since I travel extensively in Asia and metro systems there have multi-lingual signage and maps. Even in places people freak out about (how will I know which way I'm going? Or my stop??), such as Japan and mainland China.

Riding anything on rails will require the purchase of a 3 TL token. Each tram or metro stop has several of these machines. You will have lots of change if you purchase anything here and the machines also make change. What these machines will NOT do is issue an Istanbulcard. Every machine I have come across will not issue one with rides on it. So that's an inconvenience.

There are a lot of buses here. However, they all seem to collect fares with an Istanbulcard. I couldn't make out a farebox for coins. But if you don't have an Istanbulcard, you can't ride the bus?

It's winter here and the temps here have finally broken 40F. Everyone here is dressed in drab black and blue jeans. Uggs everywhere. It's almost like San Francisco. Tomorrow I will be on a private tour with the cab driver featured in Bourdain's No Reservations. It's promises to be a "off the beaten track" tour. We will see.