It is my impression that the Chinese don't respect the Filipinos much, viewing them at best as cheap labor, but inferior in all other respects. I have found them to be honest, hard working, deeply loving of their families, and as respectful of a people as any. The female caregivers/domestic help here are universally Filipina (and consistently excellent) and I can recall during so many recent blow-ups in countries that were falling apart due to civil strife (Syria and Libya come to mind) that there were massive airlifts of Filipinos that were working in the construction/oil fields out of those places. It may be partially due to the fact that my job these days is as caregiver/domestic help that I have a special admiration for them. There are a lot of places on the planet that have it bad, but what we need more of are those like the Filipinos that work hard and remain calm in spite of their plight, and urge you to consider them with your charity dollars over people and places that just seem to be simultaneously taking from and hating us.
My one word review of Istanbul...superfantastic. There was a couple more milenia of history in Israel, but when looking at the sites there, you had to use more imagination to "see" it as it had been famously destroyed multiple times. Still awesome, but in Istanbul, the levels of destruction were far less and you could still experience a lot of the sites in nearly the same state as when they were created. My "brief" history starts around the sixth century, with the Eastern Roman Empire and then a few centuries later, the rise of the Ottomans ran an uninterrupted hold on the place for a 1000 years with much of that time being the center of an empire that was as dominant as any on the planet. While the empire fell into decay and disappeared at the time of WWI, Istanbul never "fell" or was sacked, but rather transformed into a secular state under the leadership of Kemal Ataturk. In college, I did my senior paper on him, so I was going in with a respect that fueled a desire to see if what I had learned was true.
The core of the old city is relatively small and was easily (even for a quasi-disabled person like myself) to navigate. Our hotel was perfectly located at the western end of the Hippodrome that served as the cultural center of the city even before it was Constantinople. Our days would start walking along the path the chariots ran and still contains massive obelisks "imported" from Egypt that are 5000 years old. One of the constants of the world is the selective history you get while visiting sites. We were shown the obelisks with pride, but in the middle of the stadium is a tower that used to contain at the top a set of 4 golden chariot horses, and I had read/we were told by our guide that the horses were "stolen" by the Venetians centuries ago and are now housed in St. Marks church, which we saw on our trip there last winter. I always find it telling that countries are still pissed about past indiscretions against them, seem to leave out the parts about their own atrocities (did not hear a peep about what they did to the poor Armenians), yet are so proud showing off their spoils of conquest.
Along the Hippodrome are the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia which are two of the most outstanding buildings not only in the area, but in the world. The mosque (completed in 1616) looked good as new...massive on the outside and impressively adorned inside. Their use of Iznik tiles not only here, but in several of the mosques around town astounds. We had a personal guide for a couple of days and he taught us so much about the customs and beliefs of the Muslims that I had only known peripherally. Eating habits, how they pray, the pillars of Islam, why women cover their heads, truly enlightening. Had heard about calls to prayer of course, but had never been to a country where it is part of the fabric. 5 times a day the calls come simultaneously from the 2000 mosques scattered about and they became a cool part of the scenery. Except for the one at 6:19am every morning of course. All the family except me was able to sleep through it, but it got me up every morning. Would then go up to the rooftop terrace from our hotel to commune with the city...couple of sunrise shots of the Bosphorus and Blue Mosque.
I won't bore you with all the details of what we learned, but will say that it was a reminder that understanding a culture helps to appreciate it instead of only knowing it by prejudice/Fox News. One aspect of Islam that was unexpected and delightful was their respect of cats. Cats , thousands of them, roamed the streets EVERYWHERE. Our guide explained that Mohammad loved his cat and there are several stories of his admiration of them...one is that a cat saved him from a snake attack and that after he pat the cat on his head and back, this act granted all felines with the "righting reflex" for all of time. The cats, seemingly all stray, are well cared for by the citizens. We'd see cat beds in front of restaurants and bowls of food and milk laid out all over town.
There is this stone in the central hippodrome complex that is a remnant from an ancient palace, and in the evening, someone fills all the pock marks of it with cat food and then becomes jammed with the local kitty community.
Next to the Blue Mosque is the Hagia Sophia. It was a Christian church built in 537 by the "Roman" emperor Justinian after the earlier one was destroyed during the Nika riots of 530 (another fascinating tale) . It was later turned into a mosque for centuries but is now a museum. It was the largest building in the world for a 1000 years and is in remarkable condition. The juxtaposition of the Christian and Islamic decoration boggles the mind.
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