Turkiye: Day 10

ISTANBUL
Wooo hoo back in Istanbul. Definitely one of my fav cities :)
1. Blue Mosque. We get to go in this time. Its actually officially the Sultan Ahmed Mosque but was nicknamed Blue because of the blue tiles and painting on the domes and etc. Beautiful.

Inside. The wires leading to the original oil lamps (replaced by electric now of course)Outside

2. McDonalds for lunch. We were so happy not to be served lentil soups and bland kebabs for once. Oh and everything in Turkey is halal. Bliss.
3. When it rains, it pours! The winds were so strong.

4. The Grand Bazaar (Turkish: Kapalıçarşı, meaning Covered Bazaar) is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with more than 58 covered streets and over 1,200 shops which attract between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily. Opened in 1461, it is well known for its jewelry, pottery, spice, and carpet shops. (I wiki'ed). But its like a maze in here. And you can only imagine how hectic and chaotic with merchants it was 500 yrs ago. But its pretty much a tourist place nowdays...prices are damn marked-up that bargaining 50% off is not enough. But still very much worth a check out!

In one of the shops that sells lamps and lights. After this picture was taken, the whole grand bazaar blackout-ed for hours...and boy it was an experience navigating and haggling through the maze...but FUN!

5. Kervansaray. Dinner night show. More folk dance and belly dance. Very entertaining :)

One of the stints. A guy threw knife on the board here from a distance from his mouth blindfolded! Oh and you see the Malaysia flag? Every table had a national flag and one of the entertainer sang each of our home country's song. Malaysia's was Rasa Sayang.

I got called up again to join their folk dance. Do I look like I have a 'pull me up' sign on my forehead or something? Should have called my sister, she's the more sporty one when it comes to dancing in front of a crowdThere were 4 belly dancers each with their own individual skills. But by far Asena (picture) is the belle of em all! Dude it was like an earthquake watching her move. Asena is the best anywhere around the world I've seen so far....aaand I just found out that she is Turkey's #1 bellydancer. No surprise there. Ok more googling have led me to this: She has performed at Mig Jagger's concert,Tina Turner's birthday, Queen Elizabeth's palace and special performance for Bill Clinton. No wonder laaa. But if you're into belly dancing, also google Didem (turkey's latest craze)..both taught by the same master sema (asena's mum).

^8

Turkiye: Day 9

ANKARA
1. Ankara Citadel
2. Anitkabir
Ataturk really is a big deal in Ankara...I mean his picture was all over Ankara. He was the modern founder of Turkey and is as good as him giving life to the turks. Anitkabir is the mausoleum for Mustafa Kemal Ataturk...Its very impressive how they also lay out the history of Modern Turkey underground-lots of paintings, battle simulation, quotes & messages, statues and biography etc etc. There was also a peace park surrounding the mausoleum and it contains around 50,000 decorative trees, flowers and shrubs in 104 varieties, donated from around 25 countries...Ok i'm so not into plants but I think its pretty fresh how countries gives trees and flowers for planting as a symbol of friendship and sign of peace. Ataturk's famous expression, "Peace at home, peace in the country"

The Anitkabir
ATA is the army boys that just graduated that day "It is the basic principle to recognise the national forces as the only power, and to rely on the unquestionable superiority of the national will"
-The Sivas and Erzurum Congresses

^8 Cee

Turkiye: Day 8

CAPPADOCIA
1. Kaymakli Underground City

It was used as a shelter and was believed to be there since the Hitite period which is probably thousands of years before christ (ie caveman area-ish i guess??). It is called a city because it was so huge. It could fit 60,000 ppl. This underground city is 40m under and about 8 levels down. Tourist were allowed through the first four levels. Its always 17degrees throughout all the seasons in the year and it gets hotter the deeper you go (towards centre of the Earth). There were bedrooms, storage areas, kitchen, wineries, communal centres etc etc...

Stone door to keep the enemies away. Easy to push from the inside but not from the outside.

2. Somewhere around Cappadocia...3. Have you seen what happens when Popeye eats Spinach...click to enlarge
ANKARA

Ankara is the capital of Turkey... not Istanbul not since Ataturk made the sultans leave within 24/48 hours. Thats coz the Sultans were sellouts to The Allies since the defeat of the Ottoman empire in World War I. Location wise, its pretty central in terms of it being crossroads for trade in Turkey. When we arrived in Turkey the bus drove through streets of shopping. Wheee!! After weeks in suburbia... and all the signs had a big fat discount sign on it. We reached our hotel, checked in, ate and left and the shops were closeeeee :(((( So we ended up just walking about their equivalent of petaling st...well more like a pasar malam (night market)

^8 Cee