Turkish Delights

July 22nd – Arrival to Istanbul
Our first adventure began upon arrival to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen airport: to get ourselves to the hotel despite being under the surprising circumstance where no one apart from the information desk spoke English! As we stepped out of the arrival lounge with a piece of note paper scribbled with Turkish instructions we had no choice but to hand ourselves in confidence to a Turkish passer-by, who then pointed vaguely in the direction of a departing bus. We got on, cynically thought we were being cheated and the bus was going to a different destination. But luckily everything worked out, and an hour’s bus journey and a quick tram ride later, we arrived at Hotel Pierre Loti. The evening was spent in the nearby restaurant district in Sultanahmet, where we sampled the famous Turkish apple tea. It was then back to the hotel in anticipation for early rise next day. In my dream state I vaguely remembered conversing with Rachel as she arrived at the hotel around 2am in the morning…

July 23rd - Istanbul & Bosphorus
Our visit began with a trip to the Spice (Egyptian) Bazaar, where we experienced the mystical smells of different aromas of various spices and met our first mandarin speaking Turk named Jacky Chan! His love for the Chinese people was clearly demonstrated by the fact that the fruit teas were marked as 20 lira per kg in English and stated in Chinese as 15 lira per kg above! It was ingenious! After the bazaar we were transferred to the harbour to board the regular city boat for a cruise on the Bosphorus without prior communication. Even though it is obviously for the best (due to Hagia Sophia closure on Mondays), I just wished people would give us more indication instead of just dragging us around by our noses! It was almost 45 degrees on the day, which we later found out was abnormal even for Turkey (the week we arrived was the week of historical heat wave – lucky us!). As we rolled down the shores of the Bosphorus, we saw the old wooden villas, Rumeli Fortress and Ortakoy Mosque to name a few.
After lunch in the afternoon, we visited the Topkapi Palace and Museum, the residence of the legendary Ottoman Sultans, now converted into a museum. It consists of several exhibition halls, such as he Treasury, the porcelain section, Armoury and Holy Relics. Fred was determined to visit the circumcision room, but was disappointed to found on arrival the room was closed for maintenance. The treasures lacked sophisticated craftsmanship compared to the Chinese collection of the same period, nevertheless they were very impressive, many of them adorned with super-sized jewels. The most impressive item in my mind was the 80-carat diamond ring (?!) The empire must have had trouble maneuvering with such gems on his hand.
With the evening at leisure, our evening mayhem, which Fred later learnt to regret, began! As we walked the streets in search for our dinner, a guy who lived in Taiwan for 4 years working as a chef stopped us – and we ended up eating a grand kebab extravaganza at his restaurant. In an attempt to aid digestion we continued our walks to the Hippodrome area for a drink, where we were stopped by another restaurant owner and ended up having our SECOND dinner at midnight! Having spent all the cash we brought we were ready to call it a day, but the evening continued with another restaurant owner opposite to where we sat deciding to offer us free Raki and kept on calling me his girlfriend (At the beginning this is all a flattering novelty, but as we will find towards the end of the tour it was becoming an annoyance). So we stayed drinking Raki with a bunch of random Turkish people, talking the most random talks (some of which involved random chat up lines and the guy even proceeded to give Fred sex pointers). The evening draws to a close, and as we depart we were farewelled in the Turkish way (one kiss on each cheek and the last one on the lip(!!)) – Rachel got a slightly worse deal though, the guy managed to grab hold of her and planted a hickie on her neck - ewww

July 24th - Istanbul & Bosphorus 2
We strolled around the historical Hippodrome where chariot races were once held, followed by a visit to the Blue Mosque, decorated with beautiful 17th century Iznik tiles. We then visited Hagia Sophia where the Christian church was converted to a mosque by Mahmet and later converted into a museum for current day tourists. The Christian-Muslim fusion décor was a refreshing difference after visiting a dozen mosques in two days. In the afternoon we visited Dolmabahce Palace, the final home of Ataurk – founder of Turkish Republic. The golden interior was so ornate and detailed, I especially liked the cutleries with small butterfly and bird carvings (yes, I’m a sucker for butterflies). The tour ended with a visit to the Grand Bazaar (Kapalicarsi), where many ceramic plates, Turkish teacups, belly-dancing costumes were sold.
That evening was scheduled for us to take an overnight bus from Istanbul central bus station to Selcuk. We were picked up by the mini van that had a broken window, non functional air con system and a rocking suspension. The driver did not know where to pick up all his customers so we drove around Sultanahmet five times, and later finally out of Istanbul, along dark alleys for an hour or so. Just as we were convinced we might be travelling on this dodgy vehicle to Selcuk, we arrived at the central bus station. As JJ didn’t’ make the trip, we had a spare seating on the bus. As it took us so long to get to the central bus station, Rachel and I hit the pillow as soon as we got comfy in our seat. In the middle of the night we were awakened, finding Fred in a massive quarrel with a bunch of Turkish guys! It was 2am in the morning, and we tried hard to sober up as we watched Fred fending off a Turkish guy trying to take JJ’s empty seat, shouting ‘CASH, CASH!!’. (The explanation that came later was that the bus company overbooked their seats, therefore one passenger wish to take JJ’s seat, but Fred insisted on refund for the seat first before letting the guy sit down). Very brave I must admit, we could have been chucked off the bus and be stranded in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night…If JJ knew Fred’s dedication in retrieving any refund possible for him she should be very touched!

July 25th – Ancient Ephesus
We arrived Selcuk central bus station early morning. It was getting hotter by the minute! After a brisk touch up at our hotel, we visited the Ancient City of Ephesus, one of the best-preserved Greco-Roman Cities in the world. After lunch, though our original plan was to visit the House of Virgin Mary we ended up going to the museum to visit the air conditioning system. Fred and another guy on the tour fell sleep on the museum entrance, people kept coming up to ask whether they had permission to take picture of display item no.1: the snoring duo. The museum staff was not too happy though! After the museum we were fortunate enough to pay a visit to the imam of a nearby mosque, who happened to be the tour guide’s very good friend. He chanted the first chapter of the Koran and explained the Muslim faith in detail to us.
Night time is upon us again! The trip is going to become wild! We found a quiet tea shop after dinner, expecting to play backgammon and maybe do a bit of wild Shisha-smoking before returning to the hotel. Little did we know we ended up taking a taxi to a club at Kusadasi with the shop owner and his cousin at 3am in the morning, and ended up attending a giant foam party! Fred, being the most sensible one, nearly had a nervous breakdown looking after the two drunken hyperactive crazy girls ensuring our safety and well-being. Turkish people are definitely friendlier than people of other cultures…

July 26th – Pamukkale Tour and bus to Cappadocia
Today we visited Pamukkale and the ancient site of Hierapolis. Here you will see a perfect Roman theatre, colonnaded streets, Hadrian's Gate and the Necropolis. Pamukkale or "Cotton Castle", is famous for its white lime cascades rise over 300 feet above the ground, with hot, mineral-enriched waters flowing down through the pools and rock formations. It was simply beautiful! As Rachel and I walked the colonnaded streets towards Agora, two policemen came up and wanted to take photos with us, and begged for a farewell kiss (on the lip) as they depart. It is like – hello?! You are supposed to be a professional!! How can you just ask random girls to kiss you whilst you are on the job?! Feelings for Turkish men are on the decline…

July 27th – South Cappadocia Tour
Cappadocia is well known for its Christian hideouts. We hiked through the Ihlara Valley, visiting some cave churches along the way. After lunch we visited the famous Derinkuyu Underground City – it was literally like an underworld. The networks are so well established – apparently about 10,000 people could live under for one whole month, they had their own water supply and the systems also link to other underground cities! It almost feels like Doraemon fantasy land! How cool would it be to live down there for leisure!.
In the evening we had pre-organised an outing to see the Whirling Devlishs. Upon hearing the evening ends at midnight Freddie breathed a huge sigh of relief knowing he could go to bed without having to worry. Little did he know…
During the evening Fred took up the all-you-can-drink offer and downed half a bottle of Raki with the tour guide! He held up good until we returned to our cave hotel, where he passed out to bed and that was end of the night for Fred. Rachel and I on the other hand, having had a fair bit of alcohol in our system as well, followed our guides out of the hotel as they promised to take us to see the stars on the Cappadocia hillside (ok – typing this in a sober state it seems like an obvious excuse, but at the time we thought it was a good idea…) So things got a bit nasty as you can imagine, apparently these tour guide are experts and expect full corporation, luckily we had a narrow escape in the end…

July 28th – North Cappadocia Tour
Fred awake not knowing what happened the previous night, only to be told that if we didn’t get to do a tour today no one was to blame me. Luckily a different tour guide turned up, and it was another full day tour of Cappadocia which started from the Devrent Valley where we found the world known fairy chimneys. We also paid a visit to Goreme Open-Air Museum where numerous rocks carved churches and monasteries situated. After a last glace at the panoramic view of Esentepe we headed back to our hotel, and later transferred to Kayseri Airport for a flight back to Istanbul.

July 29th /30th–Recovery in Istanbul
I think we calmed down after an adventurous week. A refreshing rain took away the heat wave, cooling us down physically and mentally. This marked the end of our trip. A few visits to the spice and grand bazaar, and we say goodbye to Turkey and its many delights.