Travelogue Part 3 : Turkey !

well well well.. this is the very first time I feel like a backpacker, after carrying 16kg backpack from bus terminal to hostel via public bus and writing this in backpackers crowd. Back to the topic, Turkey, a very liberal and open minded city.

Göreme, Cappadocia
We flew from Istanbul to Kayserin (RM650 return) and arranged a shuttle bus (10TL) to the place we stayed, Göreme, part of the huge Cappadocia which covers 4 other towns. The entire place is made up of many tiny mountains and valleys, and SAND! so it's quite dry there and cooling as well during the night.
Plenty of sand castles, something that are very unique and I guess you can't find it at other part of the world. Hot air balloon is not the only attraction, in fact the history of the activity is not very long. Other things like the Uchisar Castle and Open Musuems carry more history than others. 
It's a place where Christianity was spread back in the 5th century; many drawings are still kept in good condition.
Btw, the hot air balloon, it's actually quite scary when it reached 980m, the highest it can go. The view is magnificent though! Of course me Tai Hau being Tai Hau did not forget to take selfie!
Order pottery kebab, awesome food! About our stay: We stayed in a cave! How awesome it was! the breakfast was good as well :)

Istanbul
Flying form Kayserin to Istanbul can be quite annoying in the summer because of the frequent changing weather condition in Istanbul. Our flight was delayed for 3 hours but anyway, we reached there safely. Took a bus Havatas to Taksim from airport (15TL) and a cab to Sishane, the place we stayed.
Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque are some places must go! Very majestic and jaw dropping building. And it reflects how open-minded and liberal it was during the Ottoman Empire where Muslims and Christians could live together. 

We took the Bophorus Boat Tour (40TL) but honestly I feel that it's such a waste of money. I'd recommend people to just go to The Princess Islands via boat (3.5TL) and you'll still get to sail the Sea of Marmara, seeing the Asia and Europe lands.
The journey to Princess Islands takes 1.5 hours, if you're alighting at the last stop, which is the best I think. So please go there earlier, if possible try to catch the 8:30am ferry. You may need a full day there, not forgetting the boat ride takes 3 hours!
I rented a bicycle there for 10TL for an hour. Frankly speaking I did not enjoy the rushing 
ride, so I recommend a longer day there.

Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar are so crowded and too many things to buy. It's very happening. Remember to bargain every time you buy things. Slash the price, like 
SLASHHHHH, but be polite at the same time, Turks are nice people :)

I don't fancy food but Hamdi Restaurant at Karakoy is a must go! The kebabs are affordable (30TL) and authentic! The desserts are good too, like Baklava but a little bit too sweet. Order starter too because the main course is really very small portion. Unless you like bread then I think they have unlimited supply of bread. The view from the restaurant is nice too!

Some other interesting things:
I went for movie, it's cheap (10TL) but this is not the point. The interesting part is that they have movie break!! like 10 minutes break! The movie just paused suddenly and continued  10 minutes later.
Crossing the Greece-Turkey boarder is very unique too. I boarded a night bus (130TL) to Thessaloniki (Selanik) where I planned to save on hostel but it turned out that the night was quite hectic. They did not switch off the light until very late. And soon after they switched it off, they stopped for toilet break. Then not long after that, we reached the 
boarder, it was around 3:00am, bus departed at 10:00pm btw from Otogari bus station.
The passport control/immigration is really not that strict. The officer collected all our passports and took roughly 30 minutes before gave them to the assistant bus driver to return to us while the bus left the office. 
So we were all worried that we did not get our passport back and the bus had already left the boarder!

Next post will be on Greece and Macedonia!

Travelogue Part 2 : CapeTown!

Capetown !!!

With proper planning, we were able to catch the last flight of the day from Jo'burg to CapeTown using Kulula airline, which cost us around RM300. I'm sure the price would have been lower if we finalized things earlier.

Touched down at 10pm and then took a taxi to our airbnb stay. Capetown taxi is never cheap but that's the safest way to travel at night. Cost us 300Zar for that trip.

Traveling around Capetown is so easy now because of the extensive network covered by the public bus "Myciti", which was supposed to be ready to use back in 2010 FIFA World Cup. 

Just like ez link in sg, octopus in hk, the card cost 35Zar and we added 100zar credit.

Sightseeing bus although it's very touristy , it did provide a very comprehensive introduction about Capetown which helped us to plan our itenary for the following days.

Again, winter is the right time to visit. Vineyard is good, with 50Zar we get to taste 5 different wine of which one called pinotage is highly recommended. A cross pollinated grape that can only be found in South Africa.

Kirstenbosch, how can I not mention it?!! It's like the 21st century babylon garden! Every angle you turn gives you photo as if it's used as postcards. 

Next, the Camps Bay. Arguably the South African version of Monaco and also Florida. It has the long beach and nice cliff. My favorite place! Had a great drinking night at Camps Bay the night before I left. Bucket list, ticked! 

Trip to Capetown is not complete without conquering the majestic Table Mountain. We're lucky (I guess) to climb to on the most sunny day. But then I brought 4 layers of clothes. 2 thermal wear, a normal shirt and jacket! "You must be boiling", other climbers said to me. Indeed it's very hot at the beginning but very very windy up there. Guess what, the cable car was closed so we gotta trek down. Well, at least we did a complete trekking. 2 hours up, 1.5 hours down. We took the shortest road, Platteklip Gorge.

The trek itself is very scenic and it was a great experience!

For someone who don't like history like me, I am too attracted to the tour guide and ex prisoner from during the visit to Robben Island. A must must go! Take a ferry from V&A Waterfront, 250Zar. Book it earlier!

Another place that's worth mentioning would be University of Capetown, UCT. Very nice architecture. 

Talking about local delights, we had game reserve as dinner. Crocs, kudus, ostrich, wild hog etc. thanks Matt and Anastasia for bringing us there

Lots more to visit in Capetown, places like Long Street, Green Point, and so many more. Cape prof Hope would be a good place to go I think but we missed it because we were too tired to plan.

If one word to describe CapeTown, I'd say "underated". It's such a wonderful place to visit, to chill and for haneymoon. Judy be careful and don't do stupid things. South Africans are generally very nice and helpful. Talk to them nicely even if you reject their offer. 

And this quote sums up the city pretty well : we don't need holiday, we need a Capetown!