This was to be our first vacation together, and to say we were excited would have been an understatement. Turkey is a place that ignites the imagination; it is also a place that is close to the Middle East. It was the perfect destination for a vacation, Riyadh, Turkey and then straight to India. The airfares, the timing it all seemed perfect. Besides we were getting to see the Turkey in summer; Istanbul, Cappadocia, Gallipoli and the beaches of Anatalya; it was just perfect.
We had been talking about this for months. We had planned out and budgeted the trip, we had told anyone who was willing to listen how excited we were about the trip. We had spoken so much about this that one kind friend even gifted us the Lonely Planet guide to Turkey for our wedding. And then the protests happened.
For months now there had been signs; the photos of Mustapha Kemal on facebook, simmering unrest with the policies of Prime Minister Erdogan and the usual whining on social media. However, having seen the drama of Anna Hazare and his movement in India, we genuinely believed that these were a fringe element. The violence that erupted and the force with which it was suppressed took us by surprise. Days passed and the violence showed no signs of subsiding. Nas Air (the low cost Saudi Carrier we were counting on) played it safe when by refusing to announce its flight plans on the days that we were planning to travel. Each day we would read the Hurriyet Daily looking for signs that things were getting better. But then we asked ourselves whether we really wanted to risk the chance of violence or try something totally radical.
One of the luxuries of working in the Middle East is the joy of a month's paid vacation. However the fact that the month was (at least for the next few years) to be bang in the middle of the monsoons meant that travel plans usually did not include areas where the rains were bad. Monsoon; it is hard to explain the monsoons to someone who has never been stuck in a downpour. Derived from the Arabic word Mausam ( literally:season) the monsoons are a three to four month period of torrential rains that sweep across South and South-East Asia. While in some places (like Bangalore) the monsoons can be limited to the odd downpour followed by some really pleasant weather; in other places it can be merciless. Days on end of showers, in humid sometimes hot weather and the mosquitoes that go with it can destroy the spirit of the most hardened of travelers. Armies from the Japanese in the second world war to the Americans in Vietnam have been stopped in their tracks by the incessant rain.The prospect of getting stuck in these rains had always made us weary of planning a trip to South East Asia in the monsoons.
In the end, given a choice between potential political riots and potential torrential downpours, we decided to put our faith in mother nature and choose the holiday in the rains. After four months of heat and dust-storms the rains seemed like the more exciting of the two options.
South East Asia is a large place, our first inclination was to finish the whole of what used to be French Indochina; Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. But the ease of an arrival visa to Thailand (with no visa for Akanksha) and the prospect of a bus and a land border crossing into Cambodia; coupled with the hassle of getting a Vietnam visa for an Indian and more so for an American, meant that we decided to restrict ourselves to Thailand and Cambodia.
There was plenty to look forward to, Bangkok, Kanchanaburi, the bus to Siam Reap, the Angkor temples and then (hopefully) sail down the Tonle Sap river into Pnom Penh; all this with plenty of hiking and cycling thrown in; we certainly were excited about our travels in the rain....
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