We LOVE ISTANBUL!!

Arrghh back to the boring, dull, greyish and wintery errr..summer London! What do we like about Istanbul? Everything, from the people, tourist sites and of course KEBAP!! We reached Ataturk airport on the 21-05-2008. I give Turkish Airlines both thumbs up. They served full course Kofte meal with in-flight movie channels and their friendly attendants in our 3 hour+ journey. Gosh! how I wish Malaysia Airline could do the same especially on the PR skill and food. The facilities in the airport are absolutely better than Paris Charles de Gaulle, Marakesh and Cairo. We think of it as a mini KLIA, new layout, very spacious, proper signs to guide travellers, police in every corner, systematic and very clean. Then we breezed through the immigration checkpoint without any hassle and our hotel shuttle picked us up. We stayed in Artefes Hotel which is located just a couple a blocks away from Blue Mosque in Sultanahmet area. Well, the first 2 nights were a nightmare as their air conditioning system was broken and the warm temperature of Istanbul (33°C to be exact) had made us too uncomfortable to sleep. Then, added to our misery the WIFI in our room didn't work at all. So, we'd to spend the whole night watching Turkish satellite channels.

Anyway, our disappointment with our hotel facilities was resided when we ventured outside, enjoyed the view of Hagia Sophia, Marmara Sea, every inches of Blue Mosque (because we'd to use the short cut to get to our tram), the panoramic view on top of Galata Tower, Hippodrome, shopping in Grand Bazaar at Beyazit and Spice Bazaar at Galata, the nostalgic train rides at Beyoğlu, Taksim Square, Topkapi Palace, Harem and every single drop of Turkish coffee, çay (tea) and mesmerised by the Sufi whirling meditation. Apart from their taxi (Taksi) which we'd avoided, the public transportation services are very efficient especially the tram. Although, it's normally packed with passengers but it's always on time. Our ferry rides to Uskudar(the eastern side of Istanbul) was a memorable one. The city view of Istanbul with packed buildings, mosques, Topkapi Palace on the hill top and Hagia Sophia is split by Marmara Sea in between with the Asian bridge stretches across the channel. The Turkish people are very friendly toward tourist. They helped us to take our photos, guided us when we got lost in some back alley of Istanbul at Çukur Cuma, gave us various traveller's advices and one thing I noticed, they've got a lot of sense of humours. Those sellers in the bazaars, back alleys, souvenir shops, cafe and restaurants, and on the streets weren't that pushy as those we came across in Cairo and Marakesh. They don't go all the way to hassle tourist. In fact, they like to haggle and sometime they can be humorous just to get your attention using punch lines such as, “Excuse me, you Malaysian? Good! Come to my shop please, all Malaysian like my shop", "I give you 99% discount!", "You go out with me tonight?", "Malaysia Boleh! Come to my shop", "Original price 15YTL, we give you Malaysian price 20YTL", "Purse is cheap only 2 million YTL! oh sorry old price, only 2 YTL! Hahaha joking", "You l ready eat? Good! Eat some more, come on give me a chance..", "Don't go away! Come back please! Let us talk! Excuse me!", "You come back tomorrow? Promised?" etc. Anyway, we couldn't help our self laughing while bargaining with them. They, in fact, are good at their businesses. In some area, when we've a communication problem we just used our usual signs language. Their police are tourist friendly as well.

So, what do we learn from this trip? The word "çıkış" means exit, Kebab should be written as "KEBAP", their delicious rice pudding should be given a 4 stars rating next to their Kebap!, and they should franchise their Galata Bridge's grilled fish sandwich so the whole world would know how tasty they're!

Lastly, thanks to my wife, she'd been a great tour guide in our trip where she spared no expenses in going into detail of the history and culture of Istanbul, the people there and the food as well! ISTANBUL will be on top of our list for our 2nd visit after Berlin!