Good morning everybody. Hope everyone has had a good start today. It's raining here in this part of the world. Such a "perfect weather" to just stay in bed.
I've been neglecting this little space of mine even though I have so much I want to share with you dear readers, who basically are my family members, my really close friends and some nice new friends I've met through blogs.
I've been neglecting this little space of mine even though I have so much I want to share with you dear readers, who basically are my family members, my really close friends and some nice new friends I've met through blogs.
I seldom log on to FB or update status or upload photos any more. I don't know why but I dah tak berminat nak berfacebook. So I feel that my family and friends who wants to know what I've been up to, can actually come here. Plus the fact when I read up previous entries that I've written ages ago, it was so nice to go down memory lane reliving old memories.
Even though I started this blog nearly 3 years ago on a very sad note, there have been some really happy entries here that I don't ever want to forget.
Today's post is just a second part entry of our trip to Turkey earlier in March. I wanted to write more about our trip but with all the traveling back and forth between KL and Singapore, I didn't manage to.
Since it's been nearly 4 months semenjak balik dari Istanbul, bila I tengok balik the pics we took, I dah tak ingat, hari apa, buat apa. Maklumlah, rambut pun dah start ada uban, apatah lagi my memory. haha.
Anyway, I'll try and tell my stories according the pics that I'll be sharing with all of you kind readers.
I'm not really sure how many entries it's gonna take to sum up the entire trip, so dear readers, please bear with me.
Like I've mentioned in my earlier entry, the hotel where we stayed was just within walking distance to all the famous tourist spots. So when it's just walking distance, memanglah kita orang kena banyak walking. But because of the cold weather, it wasn't that tiring at all.
The first morning in Istanbul, after breakfast, we went up to the rooftop of the hotel for some photo shots of the family with the background of the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofya.
The 3 of us on the rooftop of the hotel.
In the background, Aya Sofya
Then we started our first sightseeing activity by walking to Basilica Cistern, which was about 200m away from the hotel (about 15mins walk). Sambil berjalan menuju ke Basilica Cistern, stopped for a while untuk ambil gambar lagi. Maklumlah, baru Day 1, so semangat ambik gambar, berkobar-kobar. :))
This pic of Mr Z and I, (Aya Sofya in the background)
was taken by Shafiq using my little camera.
So as you can see, pic not so professional.
A bit senget. hehe
Another pic of Shafiq and I,
just a few steps away from Aya Sofya.
As we head nearer to our first destination, Basilica Cistern, here's a little information about it.
The Basilica Cistern, is the largest surviving Byzantine cistern in Istanbul and one of Istanbul's popular tourist attraction. (A cistern is basically a waterproof receptacle for holding water) The cistern’s roof is 65m wide and 143m long, and is supported by 336 columns arranged in 12 rows. It once held 80,000 cubic metres of water, delivered via 20km of aqueducts from a reservoir near the Black Sea. It was known as the Basilica Cistern during the Byzantine era because it lies below the Stoa Basilica, a famous square and it was used to store water for the Great Palace and the surrounding buildings.
Inside the Basilica Cistern.
Basilica Cistern is also known as Yerebatan Sarnici in Turkish. It is open every day from 09:00 hrs to 18:30hrs and the entrance fee is 10 TL (about RM18) for foreign visitors.
I think I've put up enough pics of us at the Basilica Cistern. Moving on to our next destination, the Grand Bazaar. At first, we thought of walking there after we were done with the cistern but when we saw the tram, we decided to hop on to the tram to the Grand Bazaar.
Sebelum naik tram, sempat possing dulu. :))
Shafiq and Daddy at the entrance of the Grand Bazaar.
The Grand Bazaar to me is one huge supermarket that sells everything from spices to carpets, jewellery to ceramic plates, beautiful handmade turkish lamps, etc. It is apparently one of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world which attracts about 250,000 - 400,000 visitors daily. (according to Wikipedia).
The Grand Bazaar is opened every day from 09.00hrs - 19.00hrs and it is closed on Sundays and bank holidays.
Shafiq and Mommy inside the Grand Bazaar.
Just to share with you dear readers. Things at the Grand Bazaar is so overpriced. Even after bargaining, I still found it expensive. If you want to buy souvenirs for family and friends back home, try not to buy it at the Grand Bazaar.
The sellers/salesmen here are quite annoying and very pushy. They will even run after you if you leave their shops without buying anything. They also seem to be able to guess your nationality and we usually get to hear "Apa khabar" or "Selamat Datang" when we walked past the shops.
Whenever we enter a shop, we'll always hear the same stories, i.e, they have many relatives in Malaysia. Because of the frequency of their claims to having family members in Malaysia, even Shafiq asked me; "Mommy, why is that in every shop that we entered, the shop people claim to have relatives in Malaysia?"
The nicer sellers/salesmen will try to entice you into their shop by offering you apple tea. We were offered apple tea by a carpet shop owner so we decided to give the apple tea a try. Shafiq loved the apple tea so much that we bought back a few boxes of apple tea from the Spice Bazaar for personal consumption as well as for gifts.
Back to the story at the carpet shop, before we even finished our tea, he must have shown us like hundreds of carpets. Ok, I'm exaggerating here. :p. There was one carpet that really caught my eye but the price 800 euros!!! The initial price was 1200 euros but he was willing to sell it to me for 800 euros. Manalah I mampu nak beli carpet 800 euros. Mengamuk Mr Z nanti. Then the carpet guy said that 800 euros is very cheap for a hand woven carpet that takes many long years to be completed. He then showed me a pic of him & Tun M and said that Tun M bought many carpets from him. I said to him, Tun M is rich but I'm not. So I told him, thank you for the apple tea and no to the carpet.
Nevertheless, the Grand Bazaar is unique and very colourful. It is a one of a kind experience and a must visit spot when traveling to Istanbul.
That's all the stories I have for this entry. I've got to get started on lunch for Shafiq. Will be back again soon. Insya-Allah.
TIll then, have a great day everybody. :))
