Sitting by the bosphorus, watching the most gigantic ships honking past each other, read Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul. Then look around and soak in the atmosphere of a city that straddles two worlds and prepare yourself for namaste, a download on the latest in Indian soaps and never-ending references to Salman Khan!

Once the Turks zero in on the fact that you are from India, they almost impulsively start singing old Raj Kapoor numbers, before switching to Salman Khan hits. And on television, they show all our blockbusters dubbed in Turkish. “Your stories are like our stories,” explained a shopkeeper engrossed in a Preity Zinta-starrer.

Istanbul is a pretty easy city to figure out in tourist terms. Once you land, head straight for Sultanahmet, the complete tourist zone. Besides finding a varying range of accommodation here, you will also live under the shadow of the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofya.

Both structures are must-sees—the Blue Mosque for its magnificent interiors and splendour, the Aya Sofya for its transition from a church to a mosque and now a museum. A short walk away, the grand Topkapi Palace beckons. Walk endlessly through its courtyards, back into the Ottoman Empire.

While all guidebooks will give you details on the monuments, no one mentions the Grand Vezir restaurant, tucked away in a corner opposite the Obelisk in the Sultanahmet square. Charm the owner, a friendly old man, and he will bring out his backgammon board and teach you a few moves. In Istanbul, it helps because at every street crossing, sitting on tiny stools, residents play the game for hours. Sipping on apple tea, talking shop, they move their counters on the board, scoring quick wins and sometimes urging tourists to join them for a friendly match. In Taksim, the “happening” part of Istanbul, backgammon matches continue into the wee hours of the morning against the backdrop of some serious pub-hopping. And don’t be too surprised if every song sung in the nightclubs sounds familiar because they are the Turkish versions of Bollywood chart-busters.

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