Istanbul diary - Day 2 at the Topkapi

Continued from here

Since I received an enquiry on my last Istanbul post as to whether we did anything besides eat, I decided that I had to "defend"  myself and show that I did all the touristy things.  

Yes, Padmanabhan in between all the eating, I actually did go to Topkapi, sneaked in a visit to Aya Sofiya, was wowed by the Blue Mosque, cruised on the Bosphorus, went to the Grand Bazaar, Spice Bazaar, and was even (unsuspectingly) the scapegoat of a mini leather fashion show!

Day 2 was all about the Topkapi Sarayi.  ( No, its not named after the no 1 brand of Turkish Coffee, but is cannon gate;  top=gate, kapi=cannon and Sarayi is Palace)

An early morning start was advised by our son, since he had done the necessary reading and said that would be these vast hordes of tourists wanting to enter the harem part, and this section is only by guided tour, and there are fixed times, so its better we finish that off fast.  So, that's where we headed first.

Topkapi tips

• It opens at 9 am, and there are really hordes of tourists and school children so dont expect a peaceful communion with history, the Iznik tiles or the fountains
• You enter through the first gate into the gardens, and that's free.  This is where Aya Irene, a maha ancient church is located, all locked up for some mysterious reason.The Aya Irene, origins in 4th century, damaged by earthquakes, and resstored in the 8th century by Constantine V
• You need a 10YTL ticket to enter through the second gate Felicity Gate - which is where all the crowds mill, since no one seems to quite know which queue is for what.  
  The Surre-i-Humayun, Felicity Gate, the inspiration for Disneyland?
• You go through security and your now inside, inside.  I mean really inside - where B is marked on the map below.
• Then I stood in line at the point marked "15", which is the ticket counter to enter the harem - another 10YTL.  This area was like a smokers' corner, as all the desperate sorts took their last puffs - no smoking in the harem you see!
• So, that's Rs 720/- per head, please.  Dont stinge by not going into the seraglio, it is worth a visit, most definitely.
• Another great tool is the audio guide, we rented one for our son (5ytl), so keep a photcopy of some id handy, else they want the original!
• We were into Topkapi by 9 am and left by around 2 in the afternoon - basically because we were hungry, and were suffering from an overload of tiles and gold, but you know, its well worth resting in the gardens for a while, and taking each section slowly.  You can go into the harem only once, but the rest of the galleries you can revisit if you dont leave the Felicity Gate.  
• And dont miss the views of the Golden Horn and Bosphorus from the Pavillions - marked 13 and 14.  (We had a fabulous, clear day and the views were so stunning, I forgot about the tiles and the gold!!)  The sultans had it good, most definitely.
  
  

This floor plan of the Topkapi I downloaded from here.   The Bilkent.edu site has a wealth of information, and there's a great 360degrees virtual tour of the harem as well, at the Topkapi Web Page.

Seraglio similarities

While walking through the harem, I was struck by what a difficult and complicated life the wretched sultan led.  Besides keeping his wives happy, he had to ensure peace and harmony among his concubines -atleast so that they didn't scratch each other's eyes out - and then to top it all there were discontented princes by the dozens, and scheming grand viziers as well.  I remember reading somewhere that at its height, the harem had some 2,000 occupants - eunuchs to keep an eye, wives, concubines, slaves, princes....

However, it did not seem so alien to me, a resident of Tamil Nadu, where the current aging Chief Minister has to do exactly the same.  Keep peace between his wives, their offspring and various assorted cousins and hangers-on.  If you look at it in that way, India today doesn't seem so different from Istanbul of the 19th century!!  The Ottoman Sultan would banish an especially troublesome prince to an inconsequential outpost - shades of Azhagiri?!

In Ottomanian times the Valide Sultan, the Queen Mother, was a powerful person.  Strange - not the wife, but the mother.  As you walk through the harem, The Valide's rooms and quarters are very impressive.  

Not everything is open to the public, so you wind your way, first north than a bit west and then north again before you emerge out.  Its like a warren, and new residents would have had a time figuring out their way around.  Oops sorry, didn't mean to be here, and you would run into a black eunuch guard barring your way I'm sure.

The Sultan on the other hand, had a well-defined "road" to make sure he didn't get lost!
The cobbled path that wound through some of the harem corridors, for the king's horses to have a steady footing.

Domes......

.....and Iznik tiles

Baths and Fountains

I still need to write about the Treasury, the Relic room and the kitchen, so Topkapi will be continued in a second instalment.

Istanbul Diary - Adventures of a vegetarian

Continued from here

Given that food is a long-standing interest in my life, I think I should put down our food encounters of Istanbul!  This roaster is called a doner in Istanbul, and is this huge hunk of meat that is driven through a central stake and then rotates as it is roasted by a side grill.  The specialty of this roast, I believe is that the meat basts in its own fat, increasing the yum factor.

This is what my son had on his first evening out, and that was that.  I think he had it every meal thereafter!  Vegetarian me baulked at what  I thought was a rather poor looking dish.  I do eat fish, so I asked the chap hopefully,"Fish?", so he nodded and directed me to the next counter.  Relieved, I went there and I said,"Two doner, one fish"  So he made out the bill and announced with his fingers 8 lira.  Since the doner were 4 each, where was my fish?  Yes, fish, tamam, he said.  Well, the long and short was that there was no fish.  Maybe fish meant pay in Turkish?!  None the wiser, and still hungry, I set off for the coast, thankful that my son was in a better frame of mind, with some food inside him.  The lovely Sea of Marmara stretched in front of us, but I only had eyes for the corn seller!   Called "misir", the corn was on the cob, and for a grand sum of 1 ytl, I got a corn and filled my stomach, and then enjoyed the view in front of me!

That night, we walked up Divan Yolu, looking for places which also served vegetarian, and most of those serving the Doner, did not have any veggie stuff.  There are so many eateries that they habitually employ criers who stand outside soliciting customers, extolling the virtues of their food and restaurant, but everytime we asked "Vegetarian?", they would look crestfallen!  

My son, surprising me entirely, had actually done a lot of internet reading on Istanbul, and was all clued up as to which restaurant we should go to where.  On spying the Pudding Shop, he recognised it as a place with a good review.  And so we went in.  And I discovered ezo gelin, a lentil soup.  Which become my favourite, had it everywhere I think, and each place made it slightly differently, some more spicey others more tomatoey, and I was clever in not enquiring as to what stock had been used!!  I can imagine that in the cold winters, it must be quite an Istanbulli favourite.

They also brought me a fish, which was more than I bargained for.  It was one of those full-fish affairs, with the eyes staring at you and looking rather alive!  I needed my husband's guidance and coaching on how to eat it without crushing all the bones into the meat.  See, fish for me, has always meant a nice fillet, or the meen kozhambus which have chunky bits, with probably a central bone.  That was the first and only full fish meal I had at Istanbul.  But of course, this is a vegetarian's perception, and is completely biased therefore.

The familiar dishes were the kebaps and the kofatacesi, similar to our kebabs and koftas.  Strangely, things like hummus and felafel were missing from the Divan Yolu places, but we did spy them on the menus of the slightly more pricey places - the ones with the ambience and a more European feel.  Situated near Arasta Carsi (Arasta bazaar), on roads like Torun Sok, Mimar Mehmet Aga Caddesi and Kutlugun Sokak (where the Four Seasons Hotel is), these restaurants also had an extensive vegeterian menu, though Continental.  While on Divan Yolu one could easily eat for 4-5ytl per head, in these restaurants you would need around 10-12 ytl per head.

Upmarket ones would also have the criers, though here they would be dressed in suits, shake your hand solemnly and also give you a business card.  A free drink or free hummus at the table would be thrown in!

The depths of salesmanship we encountered was at the Galata bridge, where, unsuspectingly, we walked past the fish sandwich, or balik ekmek restaurants, situated below the bridge, above the water line. (Balik ekmek, or fish sandwiches are a kind of idiosyncracy of Istanbul.  I believe, it started off as fishermen setting up little roasters on their boats, frying the fish and selling them to customers, on-the-go.  It has since become a bit institutionalised, with boats anchored at the south-west end of Galata bridge.  I believe they are at every large ferry station, but we only went past them at Eminonu.) To get back to my original story though, as we walked past the lower level restaurants, we were met by a barrage of salesmen each urging us to go to their shop.  The worst of the lot was at the Yildlizar, the large one to the right (if you click on the pic, you'll see it better), the most fancy of the lot, but also the one who would just not let us go!  He explained how fresh his fish was, then as he paused for breath, I quickly told him we were not eating then and walked on ahead, triumphant in my escape.  I turned back to see husband and son still ensnared.  When they did get out of his clutches, I believe he rambled on about not getting a discount, and Taksim vs Galata, all of which was completely incomprehensible!

So we followed an easy rule, we walked back on the upper side, and went in to the first shop, where we found no selling but a lot of customers!  

I was surprised as to the amount of bread we saw in Istanbul, I mean regular French loaves, not flat bread.  They have a ringed bread called simit,, which according to Orhan Pamuk in his book on the city dates back to Ottomanian times.  I really liked it, it was sweetish, a bit flaky and with lots of sesame seeds to give crunch and flavour.  Then of course there was the flat bread called pide, which tasted a bit like our naan, though I personally prefer the naan.  
But the most plentiful is just regular French loaves, which seemed to arrive in truckloads, really, take a look!  Restaurants would typically cut a loaf into four, and there would be an unlimited supply for each table.  Once I realised this, my miserly ways came to the fore, and I wouldn't order any other carb, but happily chomp down the bread!!

Another great discovery was Ayran, a thick buttermilk (salt), and it is obviously very popular, because every grocer has it and almost every restaurant sells it.  That was a pleasant surprise, to see that other places also have this habit of having thayir or moru with their meals.

The one diner to which my son and I kept returning was Bereket Halk Doner, discovered on Istiklal Caddesi at Taksim.  This is a Turkish fast food chain, where you take your tray walking past the food counter, loading it with all that you want, and then you pay for the portions and take it in to sit and eat.  It seemed to be popular with the locals, and I loved it because everything was on display so you saw what you were getting!  Also, there would be atleast 3-4 veggie dishes everyday.  With the language problem though, I did not get the local names for the dishes.  My favourites were a channa gravy, brinjal and tomatoes and (will you believe it) pasta with curds!!  Like thayir saadam!!

Turkish delights - bazaar style and deli style, take your pick.  My favourite shop for these sweets and turkish figs, and dried apricots and other such goodies was Malatya Pazari!  We discovered it just the day before we were to leave, and for me, a grown 40+ woman, it was like being in Willie Wonka's chocolate factory!  I was so enthralled I regretfully forgot to take pictures!!  You are free to taste, and my son and I went berserk for a while.  Different varieties of Turkish Delight, lovely dried figs of different types, dried mango, papaya, long cylinder-like halvas, salted almonds....  When I think back now, I deeply regret not having bought more from this shop!!  I think this was one instance where if the salesman had been slightly more English savvy, it would have really helped.  They were very helpful, but we just couldn't understand each other, and also some of the packed products were not labelled.  So when we came back to Madras, opened and tasted, the sense of regret was even more!

And how can I forget the baclava store, Baclavaci Said, where we had those delicious pista-filled baclavas.  Oh and the variety - with almonds, hazelnut, dried fruit, chocolate, and god knows what else.

I also tried the Turkish Coffee, though only at the Hyatt, where I think (and this is only my suspicion) they probably adjust it for international tastes, because he asked me if I would like it medium or strong, and then of course we had a communication breakdown since I was trying to tell him I would like it in the authentic manner, and that was just too big a word for him to get, so I shrugged my shoulders and said, "You choose", there was instant relief, and "I get you medium, with sugar."  It was nice but not great, or maybe I didnt have it right.  Always willing to give it another try.  I've actually brought some powder back, so maybe one of these days, I will try to follow the instructions on the packet...  Just maybe.

And how I can forget Dondurma, Turkish icecream, made from goat's milk.  There are icecream stall everywhere selling this stuff.  But what's interesting is that the chaps selling it are all showmen!  Since this icecream melts slowly, they kind of toss it into the air, before putting it into the cone, then they take it out with a spatula, and its sticky consistency makes it easier for them to do some thingamajiggery with it!!

If you are a vegetarian and do not like brinjals, then, as my nephew would say, you would have "a bit of a problem".  But the tomatoes are so luscious and the fruit variety and quality is amazing - tasted fresh cherries for the first time here, and had some delicious fresh apricots and strawberries as well.  And the streets also have water melon sellers and banana stalls.  So, with a little bit of adjustment, you'll be well fed, even on a budget.  Not-so-tight budget, and no problems at all!

I really liked this set of photos  of food in Turkey.  Take a look. 

Yet Another Diabolical Bird ID Quiz

Yet Another Diabolical Bird ID Quiz

Oh come on! You mean people can actually id with this?!

It is diabolical, from 1,000birds.com

An answer to Gardenia's tag

Gardenia had tagged me to answer a few foodie questions, and so here are my answers, finally. Sorry for the delay!

What’s your favourite table?

Its not a table, but the lovely floor and banana leaf lunches we used to eat at my grandparents' place in Coimbatore

What would you have for your last supper?
Lets see now, gulab jamuns and ice cream definitely, dark chocolate, my own home-made chocolate cake, and probably one of every kind of sweet that Grand Sweets makes!
What the hell, its my last supper anyway!

What’s your poison?
All that I like they say is not good for me. Sigh!

Name your three desert island ingredients.
curd, rice and carrots

What would you put in Room 101?
Duh? Dont get it.


Which book gets you cooking?
None. Love t see the pcitures and get fat, though.

What’s your dream dinner party line-up?
I'll skip this.

What was your childhood teatime treat?
Ragi hurittu

What was your most memorable meal?
Visited an in at the base of Mt Fuji, Japan, and when they heard that my mom and I were vegetarian that put out such a spread for us, that we were so touched.

What was your biggest food disaster?
Buying the wrong pasta brand once and ending up with a gooey, starchy mess, which had to be served to my brother. Can you imagine a worst disaster than that? ! Serving an inedible meal to your older brother?! He's sworn off pasta ever since.

What’s the worst meal you’ve ever had?
Probably a recent breakfast on Gulf Air.

Who’s your food hero/food villain?
Food villain - the people who ruin cauliflower
Food heroes - In my case heroine - oh my mom, definitely

Nigella or Delia?
I know neither.

Vegetarians: genius or madness?
it doesnt matter

Fast food or fresh food?
fast food for those junky cravings and fresh food for health

Who would you most like to cook for?
Probably my husband - he's so easy to please, uncritical and doesnt send me into a flap

What would you cook to impress a date?
Best that I dont cook, to impress, I mean

Make a wish.
That I can eat sweets everyday of my life, and suffer no ill effects for it.

Istanbul Diary - day 1

Will we, wont we?

This summer, I seem to be carrying a holiday jinx.  First there were uncertainties about our train tickets to Melghat, and this time it was whether the Turks would process our visas in time!  Tickets were booked, as also hotels, but the Delhi Turkish embassy - reportedly snowed under by a rush of Indians wanting to visit their country - would not even accept our applications until two days before departure!  Luckily, Vijay and his efficient team at eTravel Value  kept us posted, picked up the visas from the Turkish embassy in Delhi, sent it to us by Jet Cargo, so that we could travel as planned.

Travelling from Chennai

Gulf Air was the only viable option, Chennai-Bahrain-Istanbul, with the least hours spent on the commute, so that was the route we took.  Each leg is roughly four hours.  To their credit, they didn't lose our bags and they kept to time, but the in-flight service was truly mediocre.  The wierd thing was that every flight they would go through this charade of giving you headphones and when you tried them on they wouldn't work!!

First impressions

We arrived around 3pm local time, and there were no immigration forms to fill (wow!). The hotel had sent a car, and we were whisked into the city in less than an hour. Highways, huge apartment complexes, but not so many trees. Orderly traffic, and minimal horning - is it only us then who are so rude and impatient?

I was completely taken in by the Pierre Loti Hotel. This small, hotel had a certain atmosphere, the rooms were well appointed, and we had a great view of the street below.
The tram was at our doorstep, and the road that it ran on was called Divan Yolu Caddesi, and was the main street for the old town. Filled with eateries, souvenir shops and everything a tourist needs.
Soon we were down, walking the streets, and everything was around the corner!

To our right was the Blue Mosque, with its characteristic 6 minarets, and a bit further down to the left was the Aya Sofiya - church/mosque/museum!

Big it was, but I thought to myself, its not all that great looking from outside - a bit rustic and unsophisticated, so what's all the fuss about. A subsequent visit inside and I changed my mind!

Around the Topkapi complex, a few cobbled streets, narrow one-ways and down the hill, we chanced upon a garden restaurant, where my son had his first doner ekmek, which started a love affair that lasted through the trip.

And then we hit the Kennedy Cadesi that circles the peninsula and gave us a great view of the Sea of Marmara!

Much like us, there were vendors selling corn (misir), a local bread called simit, nuts and even water! The view was gorgeous and we kept walking wanting to see what was around the next bend! the only problem with this was that we had to walk back as well, and this time it was uphill.

On our way back, we saw a familiar sight - these cars with the Tata symbol, and I must say I was rather pleased on seeing them!

9.00 pm - and the sun was only then beginning to set. Our body clocks were still on Madras time, and so we dropped off to sleep, with much anticipation of the next day.

Continued here

This agama rocks!

Bad joke, sorry.  Well, this is a rather spectacular lizard, and its called a rock agama, so do forgive me.  A Peninsular Rock Agama, to be precise.  This was another treasure that hung around the Chikaldhara resort.  The first time I had ever seen something like this.

I'm not a great reptile person and suffer the usual fears and concerns about all things cold and clammy.  But these two specimens were rather fascinating in a sort of creepy crawly way.

These rock agamas are interesting lizards, it appears.  Their bodies are about a foot long, and their tails could be a foot and a half.  They live in groups and have territorial fights with other lizards, and one weapon seems to be their looooong tail, which they use to whack the head of the enemy lizard.  The thump can be so hard, that enemy could end up with a broken jaw!  Regrettably, our lizard was a peaceable chap and just sat there, or should I say lay there.

Then, there was this other long-tailed fellow on the rocks around Chikaldhara.  Definitely tail once again longer than body.  Is this the female agama or a salea lizard or a skink lizard?  I have no idea, as of now.  Will add the details when I get to know.

Tree Pipit?

(Mr Ramanan took these photos to help us id the bird)

The intitial consensus was tree pipit.  But looking at the bird books have confused me more.

Also, we always saw it in the scrub below and not in a tree....

So, could it be Richard's Pipit?  But the I dont see the long hind claw.

Paddyfield pipit?  Its a bit bigger than a paddyfield isnt it?

And what about Blyth's then?!!

Please pick your choice!

My introduction to butcher birds

The heat and dust of Melghat did knock me off for a day. With a heavy head and a fever I decided to stay up at Chikaldhara one morning, and not take the jungle ride down to Melghat. I did wander through the lanes around and also had the privilege of getting morning tea. (Given the way the MTDC place was organised, it was a real and rare privilege believe me!)

As I sat in the verandah overlooking the valley, a rufous-backed or long-tailed shrike came and sunned itself on the bare tree in front of me. I have not seen this bird before, about a foot long, but immediately recognisable by its profile, and my constant thumbing through bird books. It was quite enjoyable, I must say, drinking hot and sweet chai, sitting in a chair in a verandah overlooking a valley, the cool morning air and the birds come and parade in front of you!

When the group returned I told them about my morning, as they briefed me on their morning walk through the forest, seeing a mamma stork and her 2 juveniles, and coping with an increasingly nervous Deepika!

Shoba then enlightened me about these shrikes - also called butcher birds. They have hooked beaks, and have this rather nasty habit of impaling their prey for future eating. So, tasty worms, bugs, lizards, mice and such like are stuck on to a convenient thorn or barbed wire, and eaten later when they are hungry.

I was quite appalled when she first told me about this habit, but then on reflection I realised its not such a big deal is it?  They are just being clever and planning for future needs isnt it?  Well we do it all the time in our refrigerators - keeping more food than we need!  Okay, its not bugs and lizards, but so what?

And then I saw this video......

A flycatcher and a Colonel

(Photo credit: Mr P Ramanan)
I saw this lovely little bird on my recent trip to Melghat and Chikaldhara. The MTDC Chikaldhara resort did have many feathered visitors, and all we had to do was sit around with our binoculars, and sure enough you would see a daily parade.

One afternoon, Mr Ramanan wandered in excitedly with his camera, and showed us this amazing capture - a Tickell's Blue Flycatcher. Though we all rushed out to try and see it, it had whizzed away by then.

I remember idly flicking through Grimmett and Inskipp's book on birds of South India, and wondering whether I would see any of the lovely, colourful flycatchers on Pg 180! And I was in luck! He showed up again the next day, and I was ready and waiting. Under the fig tree this time. Something blue whirred past my ear, and darted from branch to branch seemingly snapping things out of the air. When it settled for a rest, it was the same Tickell's Blue!

He kept me fascinated and enthralled for a while, as he showed off his flying skills, trilling excitedly (or so it seemed to me anyway!) These flycatchers eat, well flies, and so do need to do these fighter-plane type dives!


Feeling rather pleased with my "sighting" I went off and announced to all the others, rather grandly, then read up about it, and wondered aloud who this Tickell was, who seems to have a lot of birds named after him.

Then, the next day, this little fellow was down by the leaky pipe - remember the one I wrote about here and I took this picture on the left. He is quite small isnt he? Then, of course everybody got a view, and so now all the Melghat gang have seen this bird!

On our return, I did a desultory search for "Tickell", and guess what, he showed up rather quickly, on Wikipedia at that! (What would we do without that marvellous tool?!)  There's even a picture of him there.  This Colonel of the British army seems to have been one active birder, and there's this little blue marvel, plus a flowerpecker and a leaf warbler and a thrush named after him.  

My salaams to Colonel Tickell

What's the worst that could happen?

A friend of mine forwarded me this message.  Its aimed at the global warming sceptics, and shows that even if the doomsdayers are all wrong, the risks of inaction are too high.

Its a 10 min video, but be patient and watch it.

Are discount airlines a good environmental idea?

I came across this article in The Economist...

Posted by: Economist.com | LONDON

Categories: Green issues

WHAT impact does business travel have on the environment? GlobalExpense, a company that manages employee expenses for its clients, has come up with an answer relating to British businesses. GlobalExpense analysed almost 5m claims filed by some 100,000 British employees between 2005 and 2007 and then turned the figures over to Carbon Statement, a company that tracks carbon footprints.

Carbon Statement estimates that the carbon dioxide generated by the average expense-claiming employee from business travel (not including commuting) during a year is the equivalent of them boiling a kettle 105,413 times.

To offset this additional carbon dioxide, it would require six trees to be planted and grown to maturity (taking about 99 years) per expense-claiming employee per year: 22.5 million additional trees per year for the UK.

Assuming, bravely, that the world of business has no plans to plant 22m trees this year, what should environmentally minded business travellers do? The obvious answer is fly less, as flights are particularly damaging. Each year the British workforce claims expenses for 7.7m train journeys, compared with 1.6m flights, but those flights create around six times as much carbon dioxide.

Given that over 40% of the flights in the survey were domestic, the green dream is to put more of these flying businessmen into trains. But the difficulty in selling the virtues of time-consuming train travel is exacerbated by the fact that train fares have become dearer in recent years, and air fares cheaper.

During this period [2005-2007] the average UK train fare has increased by £6.85 – a hefty 20.3 per cent, well above the rate of inflation. This is in stark contrast to the fall in the amount paid for the average airline ticket of 25 per cent over the same period

.

It seems that until the financial cost of travel reflects its environmental cost, the number of fliers is unlikely to drop.

So, while we are hooked to frequent flier miles and discount airlines, maybe its all not such a good idea in the long run.....  

Sigh!  

Anyway, not wanting to give the Americans only bad news The Economist also published some encouraging sounds of how Amtrak has improve, and definitely worth a try.

My son and I bought a tourist pass on Amtrak a couple of summers ago, and went from New York to Atlanta, back to Washington and then on to Cleveland, before returning to NY.

My impression then was that our good old Indian Railways was much better.  Here is why:

• Indian Railways gives me a berth to sleep on overnight journeys, whether I go by second class or first class, while Amtrak decides that the poorer lot shall only get a sitting seat, (and reserves the berths/cabins for their really high-end travellers)
• At every station in India, all my well-meaning relations can come and bid me a fond farewell or an even fonder (I hope!) welcome on the platform.  No such luck with Amtrak, where only travellers get to the platform, there's no one to help with the luggage, and some surly railway attendant will assign you to seats only when you are about to board.
• Nice hot railway food missing in Amtrak, where we got some plasticky junk.
• And the loos.... I think in a train our Indian toilets make most sense.  In the Amtrak journeys, halfway into the journey and the toilets would be clogged with toilet paper....

Oh yes, and Amtrak was as bad as IR in terms of punctuality - I've forgotten how late we were on our return, but it was several hours past scheduled arrival.

Dont get me wrong, we loved the train rides (small matter that I had a tired back at the end of it all), and the pleasures of nice, large viewing windows to look out at the Hudson River all the way back.  The Acela Expresses we used were even better.  If I had to do it again, I would still take the train, but not many middle class Americans do it seems.  None of my NRI relations had, either!

19:00 GMT +00:00 What about Amtrak? Posted by: Economist.com | WASHINGTON DC Categories: Trains

AMTRAK, America's oft-maligned national passenger rail service, has had a rough life. Deferred maintenance, low levels of federal funding, immense debt and competition with airlines have all taken their toll since the quasi-governmental entity was organised in 1971. But by the numbers, at least, Amtrak seems to be doing better. Ridership was nearly 26m in fiscal 2007, a new record. Ridership for 2008 is up 12% so far, according to AFP. Even Amtrak's "built-too-wide" Acela Express service is doing well. The increased security in airports following the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 have made flying a lot more of a hassle, especially for short trips like the ones between New York and Washington, DC or between Boston and New York. For many business travellers, it's simply easier to go from Penn Station in midtown New York to Union Station in downtown Washington, DC than it is to make the long trips to and from the airports that surround those two cities. A trip from New York to Washington on the Acela takes a little less than three hours, doesn't involve passing through security, and usually costs a little over $100 if purchased in advance. (Tickets can set you back more than twice as much if purchased at the last minute.) All-in-all, the Acela is a comfortable, fast option for travel between the major cities of the north-eastern United States. Bloomberg's James S. Russell elaborates: Flying can't be counted on to have a time advantage when you add waits at security checkpoints and travel to and from the airport....Right now, no other rail corridors in the U.S. match Acela for speed, comfort or frequency. Overburdened airports, along with jammed highways, high gasoline prices and global-warming concerns, may at last push longstanding plans to build fast train service between heavily trafficked urban markets like Los Angeles-San Francisco-Sacramento, Houston-Dallas, St. Louis- Chicago-Detroit and Florida's east coast. Yes, Acela is better, though by international standards it remains a joke. It looks good today mainly because driving and flying are looking so bad. Mr Russell is right: the Acela only seems great because the other options are so miserable. But that's been enough for Amtrak to capture, by some estimates, over half of the market for business travel between New York and Washington, DC. One easy improvement could make Acela even more appealing: Wi-Fi. Right now you need to bring a broadband wireless card along if you want to stay connected while you're on the train. But if the various $20 bus services between New York and DC can provide free Wi-Fi on the road, how hard can it be for Amtrak to provide it on the rails? In a smart post on Information Week's website, Cora Nucci argues that Amtrak faces a moment of truth: Business travelers are Amtrak's bread and butter. It should be hustling to make Wi-Fi a priority -- to make it free, make it fast, and make it available in every car on the line. This is the time to do it. High oil prices are placing a golden opportunity in Amtrak's lap. Amtrak already offers a service that is greener, cheaper, about as fast, and less of a hassle than its competitors. It doesn't even require a trip to the airport; it takes commuters from city centre to city centre. If Acela also offered free Wi-Fi, it would be a deal business travellers would find very hard to pass up.