Our 2nd honeymoon to Turkey 8-17 June 2010

In Ankara where it was almost towards the end of our honeymoon trip to Turkey, Sze Weng asked me “Dear, how would you rate this Turkey trip? Will you come back for more?” Without a doubt, I answered him “10/10 and YES will definitely come back, to cover Eastern Turkey!!”

Turkey is such a beautiful country with majestic historical architecture dating back to Roman, Greek & Otoman empires, magnificent nature scenes and significantly rich culture, that even a rock at some hillside is at least 2 centuries’ old and superbly rich with stories. It was never our choice destination for our 2^nd honeymoon till I heard from my best friend, Joanne who came back from Turkey last year and sang praises about it. After some research through forums, we were captivated with the beauty & magnificence of the country that we decided we could NOT resist it.

We traveled for 10 days throughout the Western side of Turkey; from Istanbul to Pamukkale, then on to Cappadocia and Ankara and back to Istanbul. We visited the famous landmarks in Istanbul and were captivated with the magical Unesco Heritage sites in Pamukkale, Ephesus and Cappadocia.

Our Turkish tour guide, Mr Mehmet, was a true blessing as he was very knowledgeable; literally bringing the history books to life, saved me months of reading on Turkey history. He effortlessly told us historical stories behind each & every iconic destination we’ve been to – had it not for him, we would not have known as much about Turkey as we do now!

Some dos & don’ts that we’ve compiled:

DO NOTs

1. Exchange Turkey Lira in Malaysia

Well, first of all, it’s very difficult to find a money changer who has any TL in the 1^st place. Secondly, 2 years back, Turkey Lira had a “facelift” and those older notes are no longer valid. One of our tour-mate brought some Liras and when she saw the new notes we exchanged at the airport, she was told by Mehmet that she could not use them anymore now and had to go to Turkey Central Bank to exchange for the new notes…oppsie!

2. Travel on your own / attempt self drive

Unless if you plan to visit Istanbul only, traveling on your own via self-drive from Istanbul-Pamukkale-Cappadocia-Ankara will be a majorly tiring task. We spent averagely 4-6 hours in the super comfortable coach, traveling from town to town to visit those magnificent sites; imagine driving on your own – well not my ideal holiday plan lor…

On top of that, the language barrier is a major issue to us. Most of the Turkish people we met, did not speak English (well, our coach driver-no offense to him, did not speak English too and you would think those in the tourism industry would be expected to at least comprehend English to certain extent..right?) This would mean asking for directions will be very difficult and reading road signage almost seemed like an impossible task to us.

The most pertinent point is this – it’s LEFT-HAND drive!! I was just imagining myself driving from the left-hand side, OMG!...I feared for our lives!!

DO’S

1. Engage a good travel agent

We booked this tour package with Golden Tourworld Travel (GTT), a well-established agent in Malaysia. True enough, from food to accommodation; we had the best in class & quality. And like I mentioned earlier, our Turkish tour guide was certainly of 5-star rating (if there’s such rating for tour guides)

2. Be adventurous when it comes to food

What can I say about Turkish food..we did not expect much and hence we were very open-minded when it comes to food. One of the best ways to experience foreign culture is through the food.

We heard so many of our tour mates complaining about the food there…ermm..yeah they tasted very different and not to our local taste buds. They constantly compared the food there with our local versions eg. “Aiya where got people cook chicken like this wan, nothing like the Hainan Chicken Rice back at home!”

Well, if that’s the case, don’t travel overseas and stay at home lah!

3. Read a bit of Turkey’s history & learn a few Turkish terms beforehand

Well, like I mentioned before, a lot of these Turks do not speak English so learning a few basic Turkish terms will come in handy. That’s one thing we didn’t really do, if not for the wonderful tour guide we have, communications with the locals will be extremely difficult :(

4. Good pair of walking shoe & a great camera (certainly)!

Needless to mention that a camera is certainly a must-have for any holiday..but a great camera to capture all & every of those beautiful sceneries there is very essential.

We were very thankful that we brought along our Canon 500D, we were..actually more like ME..was a total ‘cam-whore’. In total we took 1200 pictures in those 10 days of travelling across Western Turkey.

A very good pair of walking shoe is very important as well, there were plenty of walking up and down hills, climbing over ruins, scouting for the most perfect spot to take pictures. The amount of walking done in those 10 days equals 2 months’ worth of exercising!

Daily itinerary through the beautifully taken photographs (all credits go to my hubby)

Day 1 : KLIA-> Istanbul

Arrived in Istanbul at 6.24am local time.

A short drive from the Ataturk airport to Sultanahmet area; we visited the Hippodrome, where 3 ancient columns were located, despite the age they are all in really good condition.

Then we walked over to Topkapi Palace.

Then we were off to Hagia Sophia (Sophia simply means 'wisdom') Build as a church, changed to a mosque, now a museum. Marvellous interior, breath-taking!

After lunch, we spent an hour at the Grand Bazaar which sells any & every thing. Caution : prices are fairly high and if you are NOT keen to buy, pls DO NOT start bargaining. Their culture is such that they assume you will buy once you bargain, which is vastly different from ours!

Then it was off to the Blue Mosque which is built with the order of Ottoman Sultan Ahmet. The blue mosque name comes from the blue tiles covering the interior. This is the only mosque in the world with 6 minarets.

Last but not least, on the 1st day, after freshening ourselves up in Hotel Movenpick (very awesome hotel!), we enjoyed dinner with Belly Dance & Folk Dance shows as entertainment!

Day 2 : Istanbul-Gallipoli-Canakkale

After breakfast in the hotel (yummies!) we proceeded to a Bosphorus Cruise ride, where we saw beautiful architecture with Western & Asian influence - truly a marvelous view!! This is a must do when you are in Istanbul :)

Then the comfortable coach drove off to Gallipoli Peninsula, cruising along the sea of Marmara. We crossed the Daradenelles Straits by ferry to Canakkale and checked into Hotel Kolin, another awesome 5-star hotel in this small town. After dinner, we went for HAMAM (turkish bath), what a great way to end the day..such is life!

Day 3 : Canakkale-Troy-Pergamum-Kusadasi After breakfast, we visited the ruins of Troy (the famous legendary Wooden Horse). Greek & Trojan heroes fought the Trojan War for the honour of the beautiful Helen.

We had buffet lunch at Bergama Restaurant and then we were off to Pergamum (an impressive site of an ancient kingdom), where we explored the magnificent ruins of the Acropolis, the Temple of Athena and the famous library.

Then it was a long drive to the lovely coastal town of Kusadasi, we stayed 1 night at the Grand Blue Sky Hotel. Kusadasi is just a ferry ride away from Santorini, Greece....very tempting..but we did not do it lah! Day 4 : Kusadasi-Ephesus-Pamukkale We began the day with visiting House of Virgin Mary; a very serene, peaceful place. Can live longer if you stay here for long period of time.

Then it was off to Ephesus - one of the world's finest archaeological sites. Some of the highlights here are Arcadian Way, the splendid facade of the Library of Celsus and see awe-amazing majestic Amphitheatre, which is still used for concerts. Elton John performed here to a packed 'hall' a decade ago!

With all that walking, we were rather tired and extremely hungry. After another heavy scrumptious buffet lunch, we headed off to Pamukkale which is very famous for its fantastic white lime cascades formed by hot mineral springs.

We called it a day after checking into Hotel Polat (the so-called 5 star village hotel in this town). Honest review of this hotel, old and nothing compared to all the rest we stayed in before this :( There's a thermal pool in this hotel for our enjoyment but it was raining quite heavily that night, so we stayed away from the pool...sayang-nye :( Day 5 : Pamukkale-Caravanserai-Cappadocia Long journeys for this day, think we must have been sitting in the bus for almost 6 hours to arrive at Caravanserai. The traveled along the Silk Road and arrived at the biggest Sultanhani Caravanserai, which was built in 1299 by Sultan Alaeddin. These are the olden days 'motel' for merchants & animals that were traveling to Asia/Europe to trade their items.

A little further from here, we arrived at Cappadocia, the land of ancient volcanic rocks/caves (where people actually stayed in even till now!)

The hotel we stayed in Cappadocia was Perrisia. Not good, in fact very bad service and lousy food offerings. All the air-conds in the our rooms did not work and when we confronted the front desk staff, they lied to us. They said their central air-cond system broke down and technical staff is fixing it. Maybe only recover the next day. When we insisted to change room, they said it was not possible. What rubbish! Our group got together and pressured the GTT agent to get us new rooms...which he did. The new rooms had good functioning air conds - LIARS!! Day 6 : Cappodocia-Ankara The day started very early for us. Got up at 4.00am to get ready for our hot air balloon ride!! We barely slept as we were afraid we missed the wake up call..haha. By 5.30am, staff from Urgup Balloons came to pick us up for the hot air balloon ride...so excited :) They served breakfast upon our arrival at the 'balloon launch ground'..who needs breakfast when the view is so fantastic...cam-whoring moments again! jolly jolly...

The hot air balloon ride took 1 hour; great views, fantastic experience and a high price to pay..haha..but absolutely worth it. Another must-do in our lifetime - at least ONCE.

Once we landed, the 'pilot' popped the champagne..nice. We were given cert...a very pleasant experience indeed. Back to hotel for proper breakfast and we left at 9am and headed off to Goreme Valley where there are hundreds of chapels carved into hillsides. The first religious colonies found here dates back to 373 AD, an extremely amazing experience. Surrounding Goreme are thousands of rock formations as a result of the eroding rains and winds over thousands of years.Lunch was an unforgettable experience, in a Cave Restaurant.

Then we were off to the Underground city of Kaymakli (depth of 110m) - built to accommodate some half a million people during troubled times and are linked by underground tunnels to other cities. SPLENDID! But Sze Weng did not enjoy the climb through the underground city, he felt claustrophobic.

It's been a long day for us, but certainly worth it. Another long ride to Ankara, where we stayed the night in Hotel Barcelo. Day 7 : Ankara-Istanbul Ankara is Turkey's current capital. It is the administrative center of Turkey and a huge university town. To us, it's the most boring part of this trip. Visited the 'old town' area and then off to Anıtkabir, situated on an imposing hill in the Anittepe quarter of the city is the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, completed in 1953. A museum nearby displays a large collection of Atatürk memorabilia and paraphernalia.

Then it was another 6 long-hours ride back to Istanbul. Loh kung, you are right, they should have an option for us to fly back to Istanbul from Cappadocia. The ride back to Istanbul was a dread :( We were soooooooo looking forward to arriving at Istanbul's Movenpick Hotel so that we could enjoy a hot steamy bath and catch a good nap. Dinner was at Restaurant Great Wall, a chinese restaurant in Sultanahmed area. Very rare find in Istanbul, food quality was so-so only la. But still better than Turkish food...opps! The itinerary above covers 7 actual days of traveling to beautiful spots, the remaining 3 days were air travel only...so not counted..hehe. Lastly, our expenses during this trip:

• Bosphorus Cruise €60
• Hot air balloon @ Cappadocia €360
• Lokum (Turkish delight) €79 (yeah…that’s A LOT of lokums…total 18 boxes!!)
• Extra tips €42
• Hamman (Turkish bath) €50
• MISC €89

Tour package cost : RM5286 per person

Total ‘damage’ in exchange for a lifetime of happy & beautiful memories : RM 13,374 for 2 of us…SIMPLY WORTH IT!

*****