~ Turkish Delight ~ Part 5

 Grand Bazaar and Sultana's 1001 Nights show!!

Later that day, after our Bosphorus tour, we went to Grand Bazaar, one of the largest and oldest covered markets in Istanbul. It is just a few minutes walk from Blue mosque.  Thousands of shops, and so many tourists, it is a busy and buzzling shopping centre I’ve ever seen. There are 1000s of things to buy there. They sell everything from carpets and kilims, leather coats, clothes, suitcases, beautifully decorated Turkish lamps,candle holders and chandeliers, gold and artificial jewelry, spices, hookah pipes, ashtrays, copper and brasswares, ceramic wares with beautiful hand paintings. It is definitely the most happening place in Istanbul, so beware of tourists traps. And Indians do not need any lecture on bargaining skills.  

As said earlier, the shopkeepers are very inviting, like in Ranganathan street, when you just look at the shop, a guy pops out and describes what he has, and asks you to come inside to have a look. These marketing guys (yes!! for these small shops), stand in all corners of sultanahmet.  After a lot of bargaining, I got some carpets, artificial jewellery, and a lot of ceramic articles for myself and my family. 

This bountiful shopping was over, and we went to our hotel, got refreshed, dressed up all-pretty-well, to leave for Sultana’s 1001 nights show. Rhonda and Jessie (our hotel owners..remember??) recommended that we should attend this show. Booking should be made in advance, and preferably through the hotel, so you get some discount, and a free pick-up and drop service at your hotel.

You can hear pleasing Turkish music while you enter the hotel. They serve you with traditional Ottoman and Turkish cuisine, while you wait until your clock strike 9.00pm. Then comes the much-awaited Belly dancer show for 15-20 minutes. There are 3 belly dance performances on regular intervals. Needless to say, they were dancing extremely well and in sync with the music. After the first belly dance performance, watch some traditional Turkish/ ottoman folklore dances from different regions of turkey. 

There is a Harem’s show that gives a theatrical performance of women and their life during Ottoman reign. Before you get bored, there’s another, better belly dancer entertaining you entertaining men(!!!) for another fifteen minutes. Then there is Aşuk Maşuk Show (pronounced as Ashuk, Mashuk),a funny dance show played by 2 male dancers dressed as dwarfs. After this, there is one more final and best belly dance which lasts for more than 20 minutes, and then the floor is open for dancing. 

We danced for a while with the belly dancers for “Awara Hoon” music in Turkish version and for some other music, and it was already midnight then. And we started back to our hotel.

Yet again, here, Turkish people claim that Belly dance was evolved from or before Ottoman reign, but the true history and origin of this dance is still a much debated topic among belly dance enthusiasts. Whether it’s origin is from Egypt or Greeco-Turkey or India or anywhere, I we really enjoyed this show a lot.