Turkey Day 2 _ 10 Oct 2011

After spending our first night for a much needed sleep at the lovely Iris Hotel right in front of Aegean Sea, we set off with our bus the next morning at 7am, that means we had to wake up at 530 am. We began to have our buffet breakfast at hotel / lunch at restaurant / buffet dinner at hotel routine for the whole trip, and i cannot get used to the fact that i need to buy or cook for myself on the second day after i am back to Singapore. It feels good that you do not need to plan for your meals during the trip given the fact that i am not a fussy eater, and get to eat all Mediterranean styles everyday, all kinds of cheese, yogurts , desserts and fruits, breads,eat all you can. Turkish hotel cuisines is very mediterranean style itself, juicy and sweet tomatos, pasta, olive oil and vinegar, lots of herbs, lentil soup, fish, chicken. We also given a chance to explore many kinds of local fruits / snacks along the journey with our very generous local tour guide.

Finally we reached Troia A.K.A Troy was found by Hittite ppl( native of ancient Turkey , dated back to 12th Century BC ), modern Turkey ppl ( Ottoman Turks ) only took over the country in 15th AD, therefore we are able to see many places in Turkey with Greeks / Roman Empire history.

Ancient Troia city ( UNESCO site ) is now nothing but ruins, where the Trojan Horse story based.


A mocked Trojan horse to fool us tourists nowadays.


After that we spent a few hours of bus ride to Pergamon_ Acropolis, due to foggy weather and on a mountainous area we saw there were lots of foggy mediterranean jungles / olive trees plantation/ pomegranate trees plantation/ farmers cottages. Finally we reached Pergamon _ Acropolis, another ancient Greek city site.

View from Pergamon ruins to the lake next to it.

Pergamon ruins, lots of art piece were taken by the German, now in Pergamon museum of Berlin, what a waste. Pergamon has the best library in ancient Greek civilisation, we have also walked past the huge storage places for their wealth, which is now of course empty.


After lots of exercise walking up and down the hill, we headed to our next lodging Hotel Tatlise, along the way we stopped over and enjoy our first bread and butter with honey comb, and of course cay ( Turkish black tea ) for our afternoon tea break.


In that night, Porky sabotaged himself by doing something silly on his luggage ... he he he...

Darby

God bless Turkey

It has been more than a week and Turkey is still on my mind, when we went through the hundreds of photos on our tv screen, the scenery is just breathtaking.

In the Mid of the week, I have found out from Porky on an earthquake happened on 23 Oct at Eastern Turkey, estimated by scientists it could kill about 1000 ppl.

I feel sorry for the ppl in Turkey and hope God bless them, quick ecovery from the disaster and peace.

Sun rise from Hieropolis,Cappadocia, Turkey.

Darby

Turkey Day 1 _ 9 Oct 2011

Upon arrival, we headed to Hippodrome Square, Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia immediately. Our Local Tour Guide has given us a clear insight on how Hagia Sofia ( 1500 yrs old ) was captured by the Turks Ottoman 500 yrs ago and how Blue Mosque was built to surpass Hagia Sofia but failed to. There were lots of picture taken in these buildings (especially Hagia Sofia with lots of Byzantine wall paintings) but i shall not post it here, it is so famous that you can find out about the Orthodox Cathedral and Mosque easily on the web. It was icy cold due to raining for a whole day and long flight hours, so we were quite tired on the first day.

After lunch at a small restaurant beside the Marmara Sea, We then hopped to our bus and headed to Canakkale by crossing Marmara Sea from Europe to Asia via Golden Horn. We napped on the bus and sleepy Porky was salivating profusely when taking his nap. We reached Iris Hotel along Aegean Sea after about 4 hours ride, the hotel is nice and decent, right in front you can see blue and peaceful Aegean Sea. i was planning to catch the sun rise the next morning but due to heavy rain again we could not do so.

The Blue Mosque

Hagia Sofia

Hagia Sofia interior with Byzantine wall paintings

View of Marmara Sea from a restaurant

Crossing Golden Horn by a Ferry, what a nice view.

A lots of .... Turkiye

We were back to Spore last night and felt really unbearable to bid farewell to our Local / Spore Tour Guide and our tour group "brothers and sisters".

We had spent about 10 days together in Turkey and went through the same ceremony of falling in love with Turkey. We shared lots of great experience,some are captured by camera, some are in our memories. I just felt part of me is still left in Turkey besides my spoilt umbrella.

I would always remember Turkey because of
1. its village ppl so sweet that they waved or smiled at you whenever we passed by their villages.. whether they are children/ youngsters or old folks.
2. fruits that so juicy and sweet like honey .. Apples / Melons / Grapes / Pears/ Figs / Plums / Pomegranates/ Quincy etc..
3. foods and drinks that are so unique, like honey combs and butter with bread for tea break, Turkish pizza, Sahlep ( Almond milk tea with Cinnamon powder ) in a cold day. Lotsa lotsa cheese . Thick and silky ice cream from Mado. Not mentioning Turkish Cay ( Tea ) and Kahve ( Coffee ).
4. beautiful landscapes like Cappadocia with Cotton Castle, where i will never forget we tracked the hills and valleys as a group on our foot with our local tour guide. Hot air ballons ride for beautiful sun rise is a life time experience.
5. lots of roses in all kinds of color and lots of wild flowers along the journey. Huge and sweet smelling flowers.
6. clear and blue blue sky , warm when it is sunny.
7. mediterranean plains/ jungles / Agean Sea that reminds me of my childhood stories book, where hares/ foxes / seagulls live.
8. historical sites that occupied by Byzantine/ Greeks / Rome / Turk..
9. our responsible and helpful local and Spore tour guide, made our travelling easier and smooth, wonderful tour group members who are caring and humble persons. Bus driver, Mr Yusoff, for his experience and responsible driving.
10. it is where Piggy and i had 2nd honeymoon in the past 8 years since Taipei, the journey is fun and sweet throughout except i was mad at him twice being overly friendly and causing us stuck with a gooseberry for the last few days. it kind of spoilt my mood a bit , since we have not much time in Turkey and i just want to spend these precious moments with him only, as a punishment Porky had to pull his ears from hotel to Turkey airport on the last day. hehehe...

It was tiring because :
1. long hours flights that my back ached,
2. long hours spent on the bus everyday due to Turkey is a big country,
3. waked up at 5 am and slept at 10 pm and due to jetlag you will wake up again in the midnight,
4. unexpectedly icy cold rains for a few days, and temp dropped to below 10 deg C.
But it is all worth it, and i will definitely do it again if given a chance, except for the next time i will keep myself warm and go with a right pair of shoes.

Merhaba... Turkiye.

Darby

BALLOONS DAY

18 out of our group of 28 Chan Brothers and Sisters climed into the basket on a cold morning for our first hotair balloon ride in Cappadocia. It turned out to be the most memorable 1 hour ride for me (in the sky that is) in Turkey. It is was just magical !!

Our Royal balloon was one of 60 over balloons that took flight in the early morning skies on 14 October 2011. We rose from Ground Zero and climbed, slowly but steadily, to a height of 440 feet or so at its highest. I was worried for Darby (and secretly for myself) before the day. All fears however were brushed aside when I saw the colourful balloons in the sky. Darby too conquered his weak knees and whipped out his camera and soon, we were elbowing each other inside the cramped basket to find space to take the best shots our cameras can possibly capture.

After we landed, we ran over the balloon like kids and drank champagne popped by our female pilot. Each of us also got a medal to celebrate our courage and the flight.

We were all smiling radiantly on our way back to the hotel. What a brilliant morning it was!

Mcdull

CLOUDS AND BLUE SKY

The skies opened and poured rain on us on the first two days of our arrival in Turkiye - what a dampener.

Our prayers were answered when we arrived in Cappadocia or Kapadokya. We were rewarded with perfect weather, fluffy cotton like looking clouds and blue skies!

Mcdull