Turkey Trip (23rd December 2007 - 1st January 2008)

HELLOOOO i am BACK! From my Turkey trip! Yeah yeah funny place to go, but ah well. Somewhere exotic, and EXOTIC IT WAS!

Piece of advice for exotic goers: Bring maggie mee, thick clothing, loads of toilet/tissue paper, a travel pillow (one of those you can put around your neck and sleep on), a teaspoon/medicinal spoon for doh --> medicine, and perhaps a bed.

Okay i'm joking about the bed but seriously.

Right about the trip, thank goodness the scenery made up for everything, cause all else was... BAD! Really chilly weather, odd food, not-supposed-to-be-budget-but-really-is-budget hotels, funny service, equally funny water... you name it! Okay i'm sorry, i'm not criticing Turkey. It's a great place really. Very historically and culturally memorable, but to live there and eat there, WHOA, had i been there for more than 10 days, i think i wouldn't have made it out alive. As it is, i already fell sick. Just the normal stuff --> cough, flu, fever. But the sore throat is ONE OF A KIND. The worse one i've ever got in my entire life. My entire throat was like.. ooo ahhh gahhh *cough* I know how it started. The weather was very dry and cold, and i was shivering like mad, obviously due to the LACK OF CLOTHES.

This i blame the MOTHER. Haha nah not really, but really. Nah, but it IS her. I said, "Mummy, better bring more clothes, especially since i'm a sum po kia (skinny, scared of cold, kid)." Mum replied,"No la! Don't need! Short sleeves and one jacket can already. It's ONLY going to be slightly above 10 degrees."

HAH! SLIGHTLY ABOVE 10 DEGREES MY COLD BUTT!! It went down to negative 3 degrees! *shiver shiver* So yeah, the weather made my throat very uncomfortable. And the Turkish food is extremely unhealthy! It's all fried! Chicken kebabs, fried fish, potato strips etc. Alright they're very nice, BUT still bad for the throat. And their soup plus salads! They're either too bland, or too sweet -.- Did i mention Turkish people have a VERY sweet tooth? Yep, try the Turkish delights.

Oh yeah, talking about Turkish delights, sorry guys, i only brought back a few, and everyone has to share, cause guess what? RIGHHT! I ran out of money there. Everything's SOOO expensive! And the currency Lira, is almost 1-1 with the US dollar! Whoa the standard of living there is extremely high and pricey! So ah, my family didn't spend much. We didn't even buy anything for ourselves. All we got were souvenirs for friends and family, then we ran out. The toilets there are costly as well. And because my throat was so dry, we had to get a cup of tea (which is considered the cheapest possible thing there in Turkey at every pit stop. Come the last 3 days, all of us suffered, cause we couldn't even buy water (water there is very dirty, so we have to buy bottles), considering how painful our dehydrated throats were already. On the shopping day, everyone bought loads of stuff, and the KOH family was the only one who sat at Macs and stared at each other since we had no money to purchase anything. -.- Zzzzz

Moving on to the hotels. They were all 4 star hotels, but totally lousy. As what one family said, "They are 4 star budget hotels la!" The water is rusty. RUSTY! As in the bathing water that is. The shower heads are all cracked, and it's so... arghh! Even if there was hot water, which there WASN'T, all you wanna do is jump into the shower, sprinkle water on yourself, who cares about soaping and scrubbing, and jump out. Which was erm, precisely what i did. BUT i bathed properly when i got back to Singapore ALRIGHT? Stop giving me that look. I know you are!!

Number 2: The heaters in the hotel rooms were not working as well, so well, you know how cold it gets in the nights. So yeahhh, BRRRR??

Number 3: The last hotel we went to, was called "Cartoon Hotel". And honestly, cartoon by name, cartoon by nature. Why? CAUSE THE BEDS COLLAPSE WHILE YOU ARE ON THEM! Yep! I was sleeping on it, and suddenly i found myself sliding down and at the foot of the bed. So i exchanged beds with my dad, and almost immediately, the poor dazed guy found himself plonked on the floor. I gave him back the bed and slept with my mum instead. Tight squeeze but ahh, so warm. =)

Number 4: ROAARRR the service AHHHH slap slap! The service is so bad. My mum was so piqued! It seemed that for the very reason that we are Asians, we were not treated as well as the Caucasians, so the waiters constantly cleared our plates very quickly without asking, even when it was obviously obviously even to the dumb that we were not done yet. And by the way, teaspoons are almost non-existent in Turkey. We could hardly find one to borrow when we needed one to take our medicine with. Even when we did, communication was such a hurdle that most often that not, we estimated a teaspoon and poured medicine from the bottle into our mouths. Yes don't try that at home children. You might get drugged. We didn't have stirrers either, so we used the ends of our toothbrush to stir our tea and milo. Yeah yeah yeah. -__-

BUT HEY! The scenery was BEAUTIFUL! Word are not enough to describe i. There is so much HISTORY in Turkey! In both the Asian and European continents! OOooo And of course, we learnt a lot about it in our UGC courses. The Hellenistic ages, the nomads, Alexander the Great, Troy, the Turks, the battles... So mach CULTURE and STORIES and ooo... AHHH

All i can say is, you HAVE to visit Turkey at least ONCE in your life. It's a life experience. Really. But once is enough. Really as well. =D I'll post a few pictures up the next time alright? A little tired now. All that medication is making me real drowsy. I walked straight into the balcony door earlier on, thinking that it was open. -.- Mum laughed til her face ached. Grumble. -.-

Night everyone! =)

ps: i'll show you turkish dogs and cats as well okay? Funny eh, how Turkey is 99.9 percent Muslim, yet the Muslims there take in dogs and care for them as well! Different cultures i guess. But the animals there are so tame and adorable! Hee!! =) happy