Day 4: Road to Kusadasi

I am so sleepy at this time, but I still want to continue writing in my blog.. It's already 12.08 am Malaysian time, but here in Bangkok, it's 11.08 pm.. So I will try my best to write in this post.. but it will be the last one for tonight..

We left Pamukkale to Kusadasi around 7 in the morning.. we didn't have the chance to say goodbye to the owner so we left him a note..

Kusadasi in 3hours and 26 mins

Along the way we saw few interesting thing and stop for Promegranate + Orange drinks in the early morning.. a healthy way to start our day..

Beautiful view along the way ...

By the way, the road was superb .. clear, wide and safe to travel.. so go ahead, plan a road trip in Turkey.. it's safe to drive here!!!

We stopped to enjoy promegranate (buah delima).. super nice!!!!! 2 lira for 3 if I'm not mistaken.. giler murah!!!

1 lira for a fresh fruity cup... so cheap and yummy!!!

Ahhh.. I'm so tired and can't think anymore.. so I should stop now and continue my writing tomorrow..

Good Night.. 

Day 3: Pamukkale the Cotton Castle and Hierapolis

Next, my story continues to Day 3.. Sorry about the Bangkok story previously.. couldn't help it, I'm too excited with shopping in Bangkok, hahahahahaa .. as I mentioned earlier, I'm here for work so at night I'm quite free, so I use this time to continue writing as I know once I'm back in Cyberjaya, there will be no time to write. Lots of commitment waiting for me at home and work place.

Back to our roadtrip, after the longest driving ever in our journey, we reached Denizli around 8 in the morning.. we drove a little further to Pamukkale and from far you can see the cotton castle up above the hill.. purely covered with white terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water .. we can't wait to go there but before that, we need to find a police station in Pamukkale. I already told about it in the previous post so not going to elaborate more..

We look for the hotel we found in the internet, Algau-Algau Hotel.. a small hotel managed by the local people. the owner can speak fluent english and the wife were so friendly..  we checked in for 45lira per person for 2 rooms and I got the room to myself..there are also other hotels nearby.. up to you which hotel you want.. but I can recommend this hotel as it's clean and warm .. :)

Finally, bed for the night..

As it's already morning, we dumped our bags and continue to the police station, had our breakfast with the handsome policeman and then continue to Pamukkale - the cotton castle and Hierapolis, an old spa behind Pamukkale. Cost for both entrance is 20lira.

Can you see my friend fall down at the background? Hahahahaaa.. it was funny though!!!!

Be careful while walking in this area.. it's slippery.. I never thought we captured this moment, we only knew he fell down when he told us later.. then I saw this photos and I can't stop laughing.. hahahaa..

Pamukkale, Feb 2013

At the entrance.. you have to take off your shoes to protect the color of the place..

The best spa ever!!!! Hot spring..

Then you walk to the back of Pamukkale and you will see Hierapolis.. Both Hierapolis and Pamukkale has been identified as UNESCO World Heritage.. Hierapolis means sacred city in greek.. it was a spa, and now still a spa with 35lira to swim in the hot water inside the spa.. However, according to Wikipedia, the hot springs there have been used as a spa since the 2nd century BC, and people came to soothe their ailments, with many of them retiring or dying here.

The map of Hierapolis.. Imagine how beautiful it was hundred of years before.. love this!!!!

The great baths were constructed with huge stone blocks without the use of cement, and consisted of various closed or open sections linked together. There are deep niches in the inner section of the bath, library, gymnasium and other closed or open locations. The complex, which was constructed in the 2nd century BCE, constitutes a good example of vault type architecture. The complex is now an archaeological museum. (also from WIKI) - The museum closed on MONDAY, on the day we were there.. too bad for us.. hmmmmm... but that's ok.. ;)

Walk a little further, you can see this huge theater  .. beautiful .. and huge!!! (ohh i already mentioned that).. hehehehee...

The huge theater at Hierapolis

I noticed all the historical theater in Turkey are huge!!! At first, by reading in the internet, I always thought that I will never be amaze by all this historical buildings.. but I WAS WRONG!!!!!! I felt the history and the story behind each buildings.. and I love being there.. We spent all our day just here.. admiring both Pamukkale and Hierapolis.. it was superb .. and it makes me fall in love with Turkey even more!!!

Finding our way home.. hehehee

If you drive yourself to this place.. make sure you went out the same way you came it.. Don't do the same mistake like we did.. because once you're out, there's no way to re-enter without paying another 20 lira.. hahahahaa..  at first we were trying to find our way down thru the hills then we realized it's not possible... we need to use the normal road..

We took a cab going down for 18lira.. and we kind of regret it because it was not that far and going downhill.. as a marathoner themselves, both my friends can easily walk for 5-10 km .. so, if a taxi driver tell you it took 5km to walk, or 3 hours to walk.. don't believe him.. it definitely less than that.. we learned not in a good way.. hahahhaa ..

Then, we get to our car. Put our bags and start walking again looking for food. We went inside the first restaurant we saw..

I had Lachmachun.. I like it.. simple pizza

This is the restaurant.. they were really friendly .. Love this place!!!

With Ozzie and her sister (i think).. hehehee

At 5pm, we went back to our hotel and straight away to the bed.. we haven't had proper sleep since day 1 .. so you can imagine how tired we are at that time.. At around 8pm, I wake up to check on the boys, and found them sleeping like a baby.. and of course, they didn't locked the door.. Wake them up to lock the door, scared that someone might come at night and stole things, and then went back to my room to sleep as well..

The next morning, all 3 of us woke up at 5am.. get ready, waited for Subuh at 630am ... left a Thank You note to Algau-Algau owner, and drive to our next destination, Kusadasi .. to see the great Ephesus..

to be continue...

Meroyan di Bangkok ...

If you're non Malaysian, you might wonder what "meroyan" means.. normally "meroyan" is a craziness that a mom's feel within few days after deliver a baby.. the stress and tension emotions having a baby .. but in my case, it's a craziness being in Bangkok .. hahahaa..

I had a seminar in Bangkok and took this chance to see Bangkok with my own eyes.. I never had a chance to come here before and this opportunity came just after I came back from Turkey..  Crazy, tiring but fun..

As I don't really have much time, I just wanted to write about The Platinum, the fashion mall.. if you come to Bangkok, this is a place to be!!.. I'm a bit tired of walking, so I let the photos do the talking..

The Platinum, people bring big bags to shops here.. (first photo)

Beautiful bags .. cheaper than Naraya ..

Inside Platinum .. huuhuuu I found great clothes for my size for a very cheap prize!! yahooo..

Shoesssssssssssssssss... lagi la meroyan mak oiiii...

I bought 2 shoes from this shop.. Lissaza.. nice quality for a good price..

Abih mak shopping.. hahahahahaa.. balik puasa 7 hari seminggu!!!!! hahhahaa

Bangkok .. continue...

I'm still in Bangkok at the time I'm writing this.. but I've move to a different hotel called The Asia Hotel. It's located near to Ratchathewi BTS station (I like to call it Rathathouuiii, like the mouse movie).. hehehe.. actually it's connected to the station.. so if you come to Bangkok and looking for a convenient hotel for tranportation, I would recommend this hotel.. It's connected to the station, easy to move around.. it has a Halal food restaurant nearby, Kak Yah Restaurant and also a few cheap Thai message around.. so it's a good deal.. the rate: we got 1500Baht per night via Summer promotion they had in Agoda.com. Look around few websites like Booking.com or any other you know, you may get a good rate.. no wifi as complimentary, you need to purchase for 200baht per hour or 700baht per day.

If you're a little tight on budget, you may want to check Lub*d near Siam Center.. it's a hostel type and heard that it's a good one.. clean and the staff are friendly.. but I didn't had a chance to go there.. I only heard hear-say..

Anyway, no seminar today. So me and my colleague took the chance to go shopping.. She just came to Bangkok for shopping and she did not registered for the seminar. She used to Bangkok and showed me all the places for shopping including Platinum (which I was meroyan yesterday).. hahahaha.. however, I was still not recovered from yesterday's craziness and a bit scared looking at my purse and it's getting thinner.. so I decided not to do too much shopping today as I wanted to experience Chattuchak, the famous weekend market in Bangkok.

We decided to go to Jim Thompson factory outlet as she need to get a shirt for her husband. I didn't plan to get anything (yet).. hahahaha.. so we bought a 1 day pass for 130baht, which save us few baht because it will cost slightly more than what we payed for.

With regards to the 1 day pass, you can take up to 130 times on and off the train.. end up you only paid 1baht for every trip.. but of course you were unable to use all 130 times.. so you finally gave up and just don't use the rest.. but I think it still worth the price you paid for compared to buy a ticket everytime you take a train..

Back to our trip to Jim Thompson, took the BTS train to Bang Chak station. Use the Exit no 5 and walk further until you reached a junction. Turn right, and go down the stairs. Walk until you see 7-eleven, and turn right. Just walk for about 5 minutes and you can see Jim Thompson's Factory Outlet.

We spend time at the FO for around 1 hour. I got myself a wrislet to replace my previous Coach wrislet that was stolen. Fair price I believe.

Then we decided to take a look at Chatuchak market as the hotel manager said that it's open starting today. As there are also a muslim restaurant at the market, we decided to have lunch there. However, once we reached the place, it was closed. So we just walked around as there were lots of shop closed, there are some opened. Bought few things that friends ordered.

It was hot, and we were tired.. so we decided to come back to MBK to eat at Yana Restaurant. It's located at the 5th Floor of Tokyu's supermarket.

How to get there:
1. Take a train to National Stadium
2. Walk to Tokyu's supermarket (you can see from the train) - it's connected to the station.
3. Go to 5th Floor using the escalator.
4. You can see Yana Restaurant on your left.

It's a bit expensive .. around 400baht-500baht for 2 person. Ok la actually.

But another friend told me that I can get a cheaper halal food at the food court. So you can go to 5th or 6th floor food court.

On the 6th floor, you can find the same baazar like Platinum. We took another tour at this place, but decided not to buy anything as I plan to go to Chatuchak again tomorrow.

We'll see how tomorrow... :)

Went back to hotel around 5pm. Had dinner at Mak Yah Restaurant around 8pm.. and went to bed after finish writing this blog (in a notepad - no free wifi, remember).. hahahaa

Journey from Konya - Adana - Alanya - Antalya - Denizli

In the last post, I told you about our trip in Cappadocia and we left this unique town by noon.. it was still early and we reached Konya (next town) just around 1pm.. prefect time for lunch because we didn't eat anything in Cappadocia.. so we stop for lunch at the first shopping mall we find..

I really like this beef + some bread + sour sauce with tomato paste.. and some pickles..  yummy!!!!

After our stomach full with delicious Turkish food.. we set our GPS to Denizli, which suppose to be our next destination for Pamukkale.. It was my turn to drive and the boys straight away went to sleep.. Remember, we only had 3 hours sleep last night and I have slept earlier after going off from Cappadocia, so I was quite ok to drive although I'm not a fan of driving after lunch... anyway, during the journey, which was suppose to be to Denizli in 5 hours, we were a bit excited to reach the place while it still early (probably around 7pm) and we can have proper sleep.. well.. it didn't happened that way.. huhuuhuuu..

Here's what happened, instead of Denizli, the GPS showed us the way to Adana.. we have no idea how it happened and there are no explanations for it.. we just went to the opposite direction.. if you can see from my previous post, it was way out from our original route..

However, along the way, we saw magnificent view though..

Snow mountains

Superb view that we wouldn't have seen if we went straight to Denizli..

We stopped few times to take all these beautiful photos.. it was so beautiful, I didn't feel regret that we were lost.. But I still remember the conversation between me and Najib.. hehehe..

Najib woke up from his beauty sleep and asked: "Why we going to Adana"...

as a driver at that time, i was: "What?? Denizli will be next to Adana, right?"

Najib: "No.. it's totally different direction".. he took the manual map and showed me the exact location of Adana.. arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.. I was already thinking of bed earlier after driving for more than 4 hours.. we were supposed to be in Denizli by this time..

Check our GPS, it will took another 10 hours to Denizli.. uwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa lagi..

Due to the high frustration feeling unable to get a bed tonight, I don't want to drive anymore.. hahahaha.. so Najib continue the journey and after few discussions, we decided to follow different route which took us to Alanya - Antalya - Denizli.. little that we know what's ahead waiting for us... err for Najib actually (because at this time, I slept the whole way.. sorry Najib & Ijam).

Jeng.. jeng.. jeng ...

I didn't really know what happened.. there were few times I was awaken by the voice of 2 singers in the car, singing few songs.. I smiled and went back to sleep.. but there was 1 time I open my eyes and we were on a slippery road, on the hills, lots of cars and it was raining heavily.. I can see both Najib and Ijam were so serious and concentrate on the road, no more songs .. all I can do was "mengucap 2 kalimah syahadah" and went back to sleep.. it was around 1 a.m I think...

I found this image via google.. this was the most dangerous but beautiful route we ever take.. ahahahahaa

Finally we reached Alanya and decided to change the driver.. Ijam volunteered as he said he's ok to drive .. Najib went behind seat and straight away fall asleep.. I accompanied Ijam for a while but in less than an hour, I started to feel sleepy and can't open my eyes.. I told Ijam to stop if he feels tired or sleepy .. and then I was gone.. sleeping.. automatically..

but.. in just split second, I heard a loud "bang" from my side.. actually, less than 5 mins after I fell asleep, Ijam fell asleep too and the car move to the right and hit a lorry .. everyone was in total shocked, especially Ijam as he told me he was thinking about stopping in the next petrol station to sleep, but he fell asleep before he managed to find one..  poor him, he was worrying about it for the whole day but we told him to forget about it because we don't want it to spoil the rest of our journey.. we promised what ever happened, we will share it together by the 3 of us.. (that's why having a great company during traveling is soo important) .. short note: we did enjoyed the rest of our trip and didn't really think about the accident and the money we need to spend on it later.. my MO - duit boleh cari dan tak boleh bawak masuk kubur pun.. hik hik hik..

Note 1: we actually can claim insurance for the car, but one more mistake that we did, we didn't report the case at Alanya police station.. we went to Pamukkale police station and they didn't want to make any report because it was outside their jurisdiction.. we called the owner and he said he will do the report in Istanbul once we are back, but once he saw the car a week later, he said we were supposed to report in Alanya.. so we end up not having any police report and need to pay for the damage.. huhuuuhuhuhu.. so everyone pasrah dan menyerah.. and pay it without further argument.. senang je dengan kitorang nih.. malas nak fikir2 dan susahkan hidup.. life need to move on!!! hik hik hik.. REMEMBER: make police report at the place of your accident .. wait till morning and make that report.. it will save you some money.. our case is lucky because we shared the total damage so the cost is not too bad for 1 person.. :)

Note 2: Never ever ever ever drive if you're sleepy.. this is always my motto because I had few not so good experience during working in graveyard shift last few years.. you can fall asleep in few seconds and you have no control of it.. luckily our damage was not huge.. imagine if it gone worst..

Note 3: it's ok to be lost or change of direction.. you'll get new adventure that you can tell to your grandchildren one day.. or to a blog.. hahahahaa..

The damage..

This handsome policeman bought us breakfast, but no report.. huhuuuhu

That's one of our memorable journey during this road-trip..

More to come.. 

Additional:
I forgot to mention about our snow trip.. around 4 a.m on our way to Denizli, of course after the accident.. I continue to drive because I was fully awake and shocked by the incident.. so I asked Ijam and Najib to sleep.. of course Ijam can't sleep either so he accompanied me driving.. there was one moment that I remember driving in a fog and I thought it was sand .. a few minutes later, I saw a land of whiteness.. again, I thought it was sand.. but as we reached a small village with some road lights, I realized it was snowy .. Subhanallah.. I was so excited and woke Najib to see the snow as well.. again, we stopped for photos and playing with the snow for few minutes before we realized how cold it is and went back into the car.. hehehee ..

Snow coming down..

All covered with snow.. Best giler!!!

Cappadocia - The underground city..

Our next destination, is the Underground City, Cappadocia. Surf about it on the internet and feel like it's must see place. It's so beautiful and unique.. it has everything I imagine in a flinstone world.. maybe for some people it might be a boring place, but for me and my friends, we found our "awwwwwwwww" moment when we see the whole place..

Before that, just to let you know that this was the longest route in our journey. We have made a very wise decision to rent the car and to start with the longest route first, as we were still excited with the whole road trip and didn't really feel the jet lag yet.. our later route become easy and more relaxing..

Our first 3 days route (where we didn't stay at any hotel until the third day)

To be honest, our trip actually based on MAS Holiday's route but with some personal touch from us. So instead of starting the journey to Bursa, we went the other way .. and MAS holiday's route doesn't include Cappadocia and Ankara.. and we never plan for Adana - Alanya - Antalya.. it was a mistake.. hahahaha .. will tell about it later ...

So just around 2pm, after we took our precious moment to have our Zohor prayer in the blue mosque (btw, I couldn't find place for Wudu' for women, but my friend who was there before told me that place to take wudu' for women is far behind the blue mosque, FYI), we start our car and set it to Ankara. It's in the middle way to Cappadocia. It took us around 4 hours to reach Ankara. We stopped at R&R for our lunch around 3pm.. We actually didn't eat much during our journey. Most of the time we skipped breakfast or if we had breakfast, we skipped lunch and straight to dinner.. most of the time, we ate once a day.. Traveler didn't eat much right? .. hahahaaa .. (iye la sangat kan)..

We stopped for 2 hours at Ankara Mall just to find a place to change our money to lira. We only bring Euro money from Malaysia and didn't change it at the airport because according to the Internet, there's lots of money changer in Istanbul.. It's true though but because our time in Istanbul was so short, we didn't really have the time to look for it.. so in Ankara, we were looking for money exchange like crazy and was so disappointed not able to find one.. we were tired and hungry (sebab sejuk dan penat jalan).. Not many people in Turkey can speak English, so that was another reason we couldn't find it...

AnkaMall in Ankara.. as big as SURIA KLCC maybe..

Then I saw this info counter-lady and it was so fortunate that she can speak English.. it turned out that the only money exchange shop at AnkaMall is a jewellery shop.. if we didn't ask her, we wouldn't have known it .. finally we managed to change our Euro to Lira in AnkaMall for 2.30lira for 1EURO.. then we had our dinner at KFC (not really like it, the coleslaw sucks and the chicken not really a KFC like I used to).. my friend had McD, and he said it was a safe choice. hehehe ..

Tips: you can't change lira in Malaysia, so change to EURO, POUND or DOLLAR, and then change to lira in Turkey.

We continued our journey to Cappadocia around 7pm (i think.. hehehe) .. it was dark by this time.. Actually it was dark by 5pm around this month.. it was still winter in February.. end of winter.. our next trip took us another 4 hours.. but I think we took longer than that because we were quite sleepy and tired..

We set the GPS to Cappadocia and it lead us to an unknown road.. no lights no traffic.. nothing!!! .. in the dark, we tried our best to stay calm by making jokes and laugh along the way, and not to forget, karaoke session as everyone in the car love singing (walaupun suara cam serak2 itik serati).. finally around 3a.m. we can see the town.. but nothing much as it was dark.. try to find the hostel, found it, but no one at the door.. of course, it was 4a.m, so we end up sleeping in the car .. I can still remember how freeeeeezinnnggg it was... but we managed to get some sleep until 7am...

this was not too bad.. there were time we actually on a village road where nothing's around.. hahahaha..

We woke up and try to find a mosque to change and clean up.. but all the mosque in Turkey do not have toilet.. we have no choice but to use the toilet at the gas station.. get ourselves clean (but x mandi.. hehehehe .. cuaca sejuk so x busyuk), changed to new shirt, new undies but same jeans, hahhahahaa.. i really felt like a traveler, something that I really love doing..

and then, we start our exploration in beautiful Cappadocia..

Good Morning, Cappdocia..

First few photos we took after we changed our clothes.. x mandi yer.. ahahahaha

Went to Goreme Balloons center to find out about the cost for a trip..

 If I'm not mistaken, it cost around EURO150 to take the hot balloon.. it start at 7a.m everyday and only 1 trip per day.. we reached there around 9am so definitely we missed it.. it would be a great experience to take the hot balloon, but we didn't really feel regret not taking it.. because we actually climb the hill to get the best view ever.. and we spend hours there just enjoying the beautiful views.. priceless (in fact, it was priceless, as it's free).. hehehee..

Note: we went to Goreme Balloons because we read lots of good feedback about them. When we were there, the operation manager was so friendly and explain everything we need to know about the hot air balloons. We end up taking photos with him (sebagai kenang-kenangan walaupun tak naik)..

We spent until noon taking all the beautiful photos..

 Around noon, we left the city and ahead to our next station - Konya..

Found this fantastic view on our way out from the city.. beautiful Canyon.. another priceless experience..

I have more beautiful photos, but currently I'm in a hotel and the internet is super slow.. really hard to upload photos.. so I'm going to stop here...

Will write again about our journey .. 

Next .. something bad happened during our trip.. jeng jeng jeng..

Day 1: Istanbul - Ankara - Cappacodia

We reached Istanbul at 6am.. we start the journey from KLIA a little late because the pilot said he doesn't want to reach too early in Istanbul if we depart at 1230am.. therefore, he delayed the plane for 30 mins so that we reached Istanbul by 6am, which is fine with us..

Once we touched down, got our passport stamped, get our bags and wait for our car.. we booked a car with http://www.circularcarhire.com.tr for a total of EURO150 + EURO30 for window insurances for 7 days rental.. it's quite cheap and save us money and time..

Waiting for our car at 7am at Atartuk Airport, Istanbul

While waiting, bought myself a turkish number for 45lira with only 5 lira call.. huh, so expensive.. i soon realized that I can get for 25-30lira in town.. so if you're not in hurry to get a number, get it once you're in Istanbul, not at the airport.. then if you want the internet, get a 1GB data plan for 1 week for 20 lira.. in Malaysia, I can get a number for only RM5 and unlimited 1 week data plan for only RM18 (anyhow, stop comparing appple to orange fyda!!!) .. by the way, I use Turkcell line because I read about it in the internet that it's the most reliable one.. and I do agree with the comments because everywhere I go, I get a good signal using this service provider...

Turkcell Sim Card

Our rental car .. first thing, isi minyak dulu.. 4.80lira per liter. Approximately RM8 per liter.. giler mahai..

The only thing that I don't like about renting a car in Turkey, is because of the petrol. As any other EU countries, their petrol is killing us.. on the first day itself, we spent 190lira for gas.. ko kali laa 1.70 kupang... haaaaa terduduk la jugak.. opsss.. that's about RM323 for full tank.. but anyhow.. that's something that we have been prepared for.. so it's not a surprise.. and for the overall journey, i believe we make a good decision renting this car..

Ok, once we settled down with the car, phone and petrol.. we set our GPS to Sultannahmet Mosque as our first destination.. We found a parking (there's a lot OTOPARK signboard around the city) and it cost 10lira per entry.

In front of Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofya..

Behind Hagia Sofya, walking towards Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace

We walked and took lots of photos from Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia and Topkapi.. we didn't go inside Topkapi though.. this 3 places took us to noon.. around 2pm, after Zohor prayer at the Blue Mosque, we start our journey to Cappadocia via Ankara...

OGS and EDS

Our car came with OGS, like a smarttag only it's a sticker on your screen (Malaysia jek x berjaya lagi buat benda nih) ... and the EDS.. lots of EDS.. OMG.. tak tau laa berapa banyak kami kena, but masa amik kereta, tak de plak si owner tu cakap apa2.. hehehehe .. hopefully tak de la kena charge kat kredit kad nanti..

We had our lunch at 3pm in one of the R&R, a lot of R&R from Istanbul to Ankara.. and you can find toilet everywhere.. just look for the WC sign .. and Bayan means "Women" and Bay means "Man" ..

We didn't stop at Ankara, but straight to the Underground city (Cappadocia) ... it was a long journey and GPS showed us crazy road.. dark and nothing around.. at 3am, it was scary.. hahahaha ... but we managed to find the place at 4am, and we decided to sleep in the car instead of getting a room.. we just sleep for 3 hours before morning...

.. to be continue ..

Say what???? Turkey trip bebeh!!!!!

You have to shout when you read the title of this blog ..

I was.. eh still am so blessed with the opportunity to visit Turkey for this time around.. currently I'm in Bergama, small beautiful place in west Turkey.. I'll tell about Bergama later... going to visit the whole town shortly..

But now, just something I wrote previously for this trip:

About our travel group:
We started way before 9th Feb if you include the planning time..

For me, traveling with the correct people is very important in any trip .. because when traveling, there will be certain things that was unplanned will happend... sometimes, decisions will change, places to visit might changed.. bad things happened (mintak simpang) ... but what I'm trying to say is, first thing to do in any group traveling, is knowing who you're going with.. set up the expectation and rules.. and relax.. then you can enjoy the whole trip no matter what happend.. Ultimately, that's what you want in a trip, right??


So far, I can say my journey is how I expect it to happen and I'm enjoying every moment.. great company, great food, great people in Turkey..

Opppsss.. so early jumping into the conclusion.. hahahahaa

My travel group consist of myself (single and going to be 40 in the next few years (uwaaaaaaa), no responsibility yet, just go with the flow, lazy girl, but love to have fun)... hahhahaa what a description i gave at 4a.m in Turkey...

Then we have Ijam (not his real name).. not sure single or not, never tell, I never ask also.. talkative person, also very sensitive and can become so quite in split second... hahahahaa happend all the time, but he get over it very soon, so sorry yerrr Ijam .. mulut mak nih kekadang x leh control.. hahahaha we are actually colleague so we can get along pretty well..

And the last member is Najib (also not his real name) .. he's Ijam's friend.. from Kuantan... very easy going person .. frequent traveler and he loves photography.. cek suka sbb ada laa orang nak tangkap gambar cek..hahahaa

Why did I choose Istanbul?
Maybe because of Lisa Surihani's movie, I believed so... she started to implant the place in my brain through that movie.. it was a boring movie, but the place is so beautiful, it catches my eyes and brain the moment i saw it..

How can I afford the trip??
As a normal level worker, you might be wandering how I can manage to buy the tickets.. Airplane tickets are killing every one who wish to travel ... but you might also heard that "Now Everyone can Fly"? ... hahahaha it's true though.. it's expensive, but with some luck, you might get it really cheap.. my luck came last year during Malaysia Airlines promotion .. when I got my bonus, I told myself that I want to use the money to go for holiday, alone or with friend, i don't care.. so when I browse all the airlines, I got a very-very-very cheap ticket, a total of RM 1500 for return ticket... there are some other factors as well, which I think I'll keep it to myself at the moment.. hehehehee..

What I'm trying to say is - if you want to travel, bookmark all the airlines websites, subsribe to their mailing list etc.. and when they do promotion that fits your plan, grab it.. travel cheap, but exclusively.. hahahahaa... and no one will know that you've booked the cheapest ticket ever when you're on the plane.. the receptionist will treat you as normal as the rest of the passenger who paid 2 or 3 times more than you...

My travel concept
I like the idea of "go with the flow" .. but you still need to have some planning, you can't just go to a place without it.. however, bare in mind that "plan might change" and most of the time, it will change a little or more.. so don't get freak out... just "go with the flow" .. sometimes getting lost, bumped into an accident, or traveling the wrong route and didn't realized it until 5 hours later thank you to the BEST GPS ever (hahahahahhaa) will lead to another beautiful journey that you cannot describe with words... so what the heck.. just get lost.. hahahahahaa .. (something you'll never get by following a tour)..

Will write again later .. till then, here's some photos: