A sorrow night

13 February.

This will be our last full day at Istanbul.

Today,

After breakfast,

We went straight to Emimonu station,

and ride a ferry across Golden Horn of Bosphorus Canal,

Our destination is Eyup Sultan,

where lies the tomb of Ayub al-Ansari, companion, the sahabat of Rasulullah p.b.u.h.

the one who first tried to conquer The Byzantine,

and there's also the mosque of Sultan Eyup.

We met a professor whom explain a little bit about Ayyub al-Ansari.

We're still confused about Ayyub al-Ansari and the Eyup Sultan.

Either it's 2 different person or same.

it's so crowded infront of his tomb, well as like Ustaz Azam said,

"tempat-tempat makam ulama', mustajab berdoa."

Then, we ride the ferry to get back to Eminonu Station,

have some meal.

and went back to the hostel.

At the night,

All of us went for a walk around Istanbul except for Faiz.

We met the kind caligraphy couple whom Afifi met yesterday,

And they were very kind.

Meanwhile,

Afifi went alone.

Seems like he doesn't want to leave Istanbul yet.

We found him alone in front of the Blue Mosque with his hot chocolate,

with quite a sorrowful face.

on our way back.

Now, all of us started to pack our backpack

ready for tomorrow.

Our last day at Istanbul.

Grand Bazaar part 2

12 February

Today our main focus is shopping.

Grand Bazaar is the setting.

once more.

"pashmina"

Today.

it's only for shopping.

So, not much to write.

Seriously, I don't know what to write.

"Amir with loads of T-shirt"

We went shopping from before noon till around 5pm.

Only to know that every seller in the bazaar have recognized us

because for every stand we visit,

we'll ask for the lowest price.

Well, if you don't have much money,

that's what you'll do.

Some still have loads of cash,

Some went withdrawing money from hsbc.

Some got empty pocket.(me)

So, you have to spend based on your wealthiness.

That night,

Some of us still went outside searching for any other stuff,

Some went to buy jersey,

Some went for dinner,

Some went out for caligraphy and came back late.

Oh yeah,

Supposedly,

Today is the date of our flight back to Egypt.

Although things have settled down a bit,

We're still going back to Malaysia.

peace!

Across the Bosphorus, through the spice Bazaar, Straight to Ottogar!

11 February.

So what did we do today guys?

The morning was a waste!

Everyone just laze around the bed.

Not waking up.

And it was like facebooking day,

As everyone opens their Opera Mini that day.

Except Kamil which have something wrong with his browser from which he refer to caused by "accidents during ski"

And Amir still findings ways to solve his currency problems.

We went breakfast this morning,

as it was been served by the hostel.

Then,

we went for Jumaat prayer at the Blue Mosque again.

Only this time we managed to pushed ourselves inside the crowd.

After the prayer,

We ate some 2TL Chicken Doner

which obviously will be our main sponsor for the rest of our remainder days here.

(because its cheap)

Then,

We went for a boat ride across the Bosphorus.

Where we visited both the Europe and Asian part of Turkey.

After 1 hour and half of boat ride,

We went to Spice Bazaar.

And yeah.

There were many spices.

Wawan was attracted to the coffee powder.

You should buy some then.

There were also some cheap Turkish Delights,

T-Shirt, and souvenirs.

Faiz, Kamil, and Nizam want to buy a leather jacket.

So, right after Maghrib,

We all went together to Ottogar,

Because the price there for all kind of jacket is really cheap.

So we all bought at least one thing there.

Including Amir who before this have an issues with his money.

But now,

he is as good as ever.

Grand Bazaar part 1

10th February.

Today we need to check out of Cordial Hotel

because it's already full.

OK fine.

we've found another hostel.

Best Island Hostel.

much cheaper with free breakfast

But before that,

we went to the famous Grand Bazaar located near the Beyazit Station.

"Grand Bazaar"

oopss,

rewind please.

before that we visited the tomb of 3 last Sultan of Ottoman Empire.

Sultan Mahmud 2, Sultan Abdul Aziz and Sultan Abdul Hamid.

Which was buried at the same place with their royal family.

At the grand bazaar,

We just at first surveyed the price.

And bought some little souvenirs.

At the time,

Amir was out of money.

And desperately needed some cash.

*********

Maybe we'll go there again.

to buy some more souvenirs.

We were hungry.again.

And...

We found Half Chicken Doner for only 2TL each!

wow.thats a save.

At a time where our pocket money was about to empty,

We were given hope!

Then,

we took our backpacks from Cordial,

and went to Best Island Hostel.

And yeah,

we were lost again.

The last time we went there,

it was at night.

Surprisingly,

we met Manabo again, our Japanese friend.

He was kind of lost too.

After a while asking direction from the locals,

finally we found our own way.

We checked in.

And yeah!

finally, free WiFi!

So I began updating the blog which the progress was delayed for almost more than a week.

And everyone started to open their Opera Mini.

(facebook-ing)

Nothing much we did then,

only knowing our savings were depleted,

Wawan decided to go to the Supermarket and buy some breads and food.

While Afiq followed him, and Kamil trying to 'muhasabah diri' by walking out alone,

others were in the room.

and me updating the blog.

Breakfast at Hilton Hotel

9 February

We safely arrived at Istanbul Öttögar and went straight to SultanAhmet.

Because we didnt search for any budget hotel earlier,

we decided to take a quick route back to Cordial Hotel where we stayed earlier when we were in Istanbul.

And this is the first time our walk-in registration didn't seem to go smoothly because the hotel was full.

We could only check in at 12pm and now its only around 7am.

At the same time,

We needed to report ourself at the MAS office in Istanbul.

The office from what we read to the address was really far from our hotel.

Regardlessly, we decided to walk.

but before that,

we took a Tram from Çamberlitas to the termınal statıon at Kabataş.

From there we walk.

It was tiring because we haven't eating anything after arrived in Istanbul.

But we really needed to find the MAS office.

After a tiring walk around the place passing a luxurious Hilton Hotel, Open Opera, and the place where stood Atatürk statues,

and also the Besiktas FC satdium,

"Besiktas Stadium"

(We also have seen the Galatassaray Stadium, but from inside our bus on our way to Bursa)

we found the address.

Surprisingly it wasn't a MAS office,

It was some other office.

Some of us were losing hope.

Some trying to be optimistic.

Some were pessimist.

Some trying to lift up again the hope.

Some trying to be cheerful.

Then we checked again the address.

Surprisingly again, they were 2 different address.

The one with Nizam's was different.

It was the address given by the embasy, Mr Shahruddin himself.

So, to shorten the story,

we took a whole half day just tring to search the office.

And we were shock to know that MAS office located INSIDE the Hilton.

wow.

Malaysia really got money.

and then blablabla.

we met Pn Zawiyah the Manager for the MAS at Istanbul

and issuing our ticket on 14 February.

She invites us for some nescafe and Milo with crackers.

Yeah that was our breakfast and lunch.

After bid farewell to her and her staff,

we head to Thaksim Square.

It was more or less like Tahrir square.

And we met the other group which escape from Egypt too.

aha, so we took some picture there.

Knowing our flight will be on Monday,

we went to see the Dolmahbaçe Palace.

The historical palace for the last 6 ottoman Sultan and the death bed of Mustafa Kemal.

The fee entrance was really cheap.

So we did went inside.

In front of the palace which was guarded by the army

After that,

we went back to Cordial Hotel.

The night, 7 of us went for a walk outside.

We have 2 things in mind.

Dinner and searching for other cheap budget hostel to stay for 5 days more.

Cappadocia Tour

8 February

2nd day at Cappadocia.

Today we have a chance to ride the hot air ballon which is famous in Cappadocia.

buttttt.....

The fee ticket was so expensive we thought we'll just look upon the sky and see it flies.

Instead we went for a paid-tour around Gerome

This is the first ever we broke our oath as a backpackers-getting a tour guide.

Yeah we've been in 3 different countries without any paid-help

but now.we need help?

Rationally, in Cappadocia you will really need a tour guide to take you around and so on.

We went to see some wonderful chimney view, Pigeon Valley, went hiking down the Ihlara Valley,

Visiting ancient church, crawling inside the underground city and more.

And we also met some friends from Japan, Korea, China, United States and more.

But Manabo from Japan will be the one to remember.

We start at morning and finished around 6pm.

Our hotel which where we stay-The Flinstone hotel care enough to buy us ticket back to Istanbul.

It was quite difficult to decide to go back to Istanbul as some of us still wants to go adventure

around Antalya-Izmer-Pammukale...but we had to listen to what our leader said rght?

and it's mostly about our ticket back to Malaysia (we still dont have one)

So, as the sun set we took our 11hour journey back to Istanbul.

and we dont regret it.

Quadbiking across Cappadocia

Cappadocia.

Travelling to Cappadocia via bus has a great sight view.

It was like travelling besides a grand canyon only it was full with snow.

It was a wonderful view.

What makes it pain only because we have to stay in the bus for about 11hour for the whole journey from Bursa.

We arrived at Sehir approximately at 8.30 a.m.

From there we need to find another bus to Nevsehir.

We arrived safely there at about 12.00 p.m.

We got 2 task now.

1 important and another one for travel purpose.

The important one was to call the embassy of Malaysia at Turkey to inform about our presence in the country.

"Hello Embassy!"

Mr. Shahruddin ask for our name and Passport number so we could get a flight ticket to Malaysia.

The next task was sight-seeing at Gerome.

After a few walk and photo-capturing,

We decided to take a Quadbike tour (ATV).

And it was AWESOME!

We went uphill, downhill, through the muds, and of course snow.

Owh, it was a great experience.

Whoever wants to go to Cappadocia must not miss this experience!

and I mean it.

We went Quad-biking from 4p.m till almost 6.30 p.m a little more hour from the expected time.

and it was worth it.

Then, we took a little luxury dinner at My House Cafe.

And now at night.

Everyone seems tired.

And maybe not going out because it's freezing cold outside.

Some of went playing pool, some go to sleep, and some went surfing.

Okay it's all for today.

See ya tomorrow.

If You Don't Succeed Once, Try Try Again!

Bursa Day 2

6th February.

We start our day with a chicken soup breakfast at Hacibey.

Then, we started to try and take a walk to the ski resort at Uludag.

But it seems impossible.

Instead, we took a Van.

The journey took about an hour to reach the peak mountain.

One of the main point of the journey, Ski.

Yeah at first everyone didn't know how to do it.

Everyone scared to ski.

Everyone fell down.

"Whoops."

Everyone knock on each other.

But after a few collision and so

everyone started to adapt and ski 'well'.

Wawan was the most impressive one.

After about 2 hour of ski, everyone started to get tired.

The actual plan was to play all day long.haha

Oh yeah.

Our plan was to get to Istanbul by bus that will depart from the terminal bus station at 5p.m

We raced (as usual) to get to the bus terminal and arrived 5 minute late

and (luckily/unluckily) the bus already left us.

So, change of plan.

From the Bus terminal at Bursa straight to Cappadocia at 10pm.

Hope we will not be late for this one.

The Happening Night of Bursa

This morning was a havoc.

Everyone rush to go to Ottogar Bus Station because not to miss our ride to Bursa.

It was unspeakably havoc

The eight of us got seperated from one another to two group

The first four travelers get a tram from Camberlitas to Aksaray

and noticed how much time we'll be spending to take a Metro from Aksaray to Otogar,

We decided to take A cab.

It was more of less like an amazing race.

At 10.02 a.m, we arrived there.

Wawan Rushed himself to the Izmer Tourism Bus Station to tell about our late in arrival.

Luckily the Turks are kind people,

They just say "No Problem, No problem" with a smile on their face,

(Not knowing if they felt otherwise inside)

So we tell them there are still four of us stranded by taking the Metro.

Almost 5 minutes later,

The final four safely arrived.

As soon as they get into the bus,

The journey was awesome,

We took a ferry to cross the Marmara Sea.

It takes roughly about 4hour to reach Bursa.

We arrived around 2p.m.
From there, we take a lunch of rice with cacikwhen Kamil make a new friend with some Bursaspor Fc fans because he wears Olympiakos muffler which he bought at Athens.
We took a bus again to go to the city of Bursa
We stopped at Ulu Camii
and once again we were lost.Faiz ask some locals the direction to our hostel at Inebeye Bl.
The Turks are very helpful in finding us our way,
Not like at Athens.
Okay we met teacher Ahmed at Gunes Otel.
He was very kind and has a history of meeting Malaysian student once from UK.
So we know the service will be good(although there are no WiFi.I can live with that)
At the evening we went outside and pray at Ulu Cami Mosque.

The mosque was build at 1399.amazing huh?

If you visit Bursa,

Then this mosque MUST be in your visiting list.

The Islamic Caligraphy here is exquisitely wonderful.

Bursa is not only place for ski you know.

Then, we went to see folksmusic at a tea shop as recommended by teacher Ahmed.
It was a great experince.
Teacher Ahmed said that after they are back from work, they always go there to play some music (release tension maybe).

Then we went for dinner at a Kebab shop to taste the famous Iskander Kebab.

At 9.00p.m,
Teacher Ahmed invited us along with an Australian couple and a Japaneese woman to see the famous Sufi Dance at their own school.

It was an amazing experience.
we were treated like a VIP there
We get a little enlightment about the Sufi Dance.
All I can say is
Our night at Bursa was wonderful.

From Byzantine to Ottoman.

4th February,

This morning we walked to go to the Bassilica Cistern which only about 10 minutes walk from our hostel.

The Bassilica Cistern which also known as the Underground Palace, is the largest one beneath the city.

The cistern was built by Emperor Constantius.

The length is 140m with width o 70m.

also,

there were 2 heads of Medusa.

I'm sure everyone knows about the legend of Medusa.

Not sure why they were here.

Then, we continue our journey to Hagia Sophia,

located in Sultan Ahmet Square too.

It's just opposite to the Blue Mosque.

It was formerly built as a church serving for about 916 years,

changes into mosque served for 481 years,

before been turned into a museum since 1935.

It is considered as one of the most important architecture monument.

Inside the Hagia Sophia was the most amazing view we've ever see.

It's a combination of early Byzantine architecture, traditional Roman architecture and the Eastern Art.

There are still many traces of the Christians paintings and Arts together with Islamic Arts,

As it was been served as both Church and Mosque.

The qiblat was also a little tilted to the right.

Then,

we were desperately hungry.

We went for lunch at SultanAhmet Restaurant.

A bit expensive,

but we were hungry.

"Turkey famous also for its tea.After a meal you'll always get a cup of tea"

It was Friday,

So it's time for Solat Jumaat.

And we were thinking-Blue Mosque.

There were soo many people there,

We've come a bit late and it's already full inside.

So we had to sit outside.

It was our first time hearing a khutbah in Turkish.

After finishing the Jumaat Prayer,

We took a Tram to go to Topkapi Station to visit the Panorama 1453.

What happens at 1453?

Let me tell you something if you still haven't got any clue.

It was the year when Constantinopole been conquered under the army of Sultan Mehmed 2 or Sultan Mehmed Fatih at the age of 21.

Here you will know the story of how he liberated Constantinopole.

But you will need an audio device.

I greatly advice.

At the climax session,

You will find yourself in the middle of a battle with excellent paintings on the wall and sound effects.

It was quite an experience.

After that,

we decided to go to Sultan Mehmed Fatih Mosque and also his tomb.

On the journey,

We visited the Aqueduct.

"Aqueduct in the middle of the road"

After walking a while,

We reached our destination,

Sultan Mehmed Fatih Mosque.

Unluckily, His tomb were already closed because it's almost night,

Instead we went for Maghrib Prayer there.

"Sultan Mehmed Fatih tomb, The one which Prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h. said the best leader with the best army which will Conquer Constantinopole someday"

That night,

We have some dinner at a Fast Food Restaurant.

Afiq, Wawan and Faiz went to Ottogar to find tickets to Bursa,

while others head back to the hostels.

Uncle Ismael in Istanbul

3rd February.

We arrived at Bus Station in Istanbul

And it was dawn.

We heard azan and head to the mosque.

After the solat,

An old man named Ismael invited us for a drink.

But we still don't have any money in turkish lira.

Although we were very bad in turkish and he didn't speak a word in english nor arabic,

we know he was very kind and friendly.

He buy us soup or here it is called çorba.

We still have another problem.

All the money exchanger opens at 9a.m

So Amir decided to exchange some USD illegally with a guy.

So we had some money to survive this morning.

We took a Metro from Öttögar to Aksaray

But before that an Iranıan guy helped us learn how to buy a Jeton (tıcket)

After that

we took a Tram from Aksaray to Çamberlıtas to go to Cordial Hostel.

After checking in,
we took a little tour around Istanbul.
Firstly,
we went to Topkapi Palace which was constructed during the reign of Sultan Mehmed 2, The Conquerer.
It was used as a management center for the Ottoman Empire and as a primary residence for the Ottoman Sultans.
It was huge palace. (palace has always been huge)
There were a lot of things there,
From the stuff of the earlier prophet, The swords of prophet, swords of the Sahabat, and the caliph to all the royal stuff of the Ottoman empire.
Too many things to write.
You should have just visit it yourself.

"before entering the Harem section"

We were starving that afternoon,

So the second turkish dish that we ate was half chicken doner-kind of kebab,

Then, we went visiting the famous Blue Mosque.
It was located at the Sultan Ahmet square which the building was constructed during his reign.

The mosque has a great six minarets and great cascades of domes.

It was truly a magnificent structure.

The Blue Mosque

Later that night,

We were planning to go for a walk around the city,

but everyones started to faint.

And so,

we call it a day.