On our own

For the first time, we three ladies went sightseeing on our own without any guides on 10th Aug. We took the hotel’s shuttle bus service to Sultanahmet and continued on foot for the next 4 hours. Our main destination today? Grand Bazaar.

Armed with a map and my vague memories of Grand Bazaar’s location (my friend brought me there once 3yrs ago), we embarked on our adventure. It was a bonus for me when we came across Yerebatan Sarnici along the way, also known as The Basilica Cistern or The Sunken Palace. I’ve been wanting to visit this place during my previous trips but didn’t get to do so till now.

Yerebatan Sarnici is a huge underground cistern built by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I during the 6th century. I would never expect to see such a huge cistern beneath Istanbul. I was pleasantly surprised and extremely impressed by the architecture when I descended the 52 stone steps that led to the cistern. It was said that the Byzantine palaces and surrounding buildings got their water supply from the cistern during that era. One of the scenes in James Bond movie ‘From Russia with Love’ was shot here. We tried to take pictures and video, unfortunately the pictures were not ideal due to the dim lightings.

After we left Yerebatan Sarnici, we walked for another 500-600m before we reached Grand Bazaar, one of the largest covered bazaar in the world. We spent over 2 hours browsing through the colourful merchandise on sales. You could find almost anything over there, but bargain is a must. We bought some shaws and bags at pretty good prices.

We rushed back to Sultanahmet to catch the shuttle bus at 2.30pm and reached the hotel at 3pm. We rested a while and proceeded to Galleria for our lunch. To me, that was the best lunch I’ve had since I arrived in Turkey. First, we found a foodcourt. Next, I got my Chinese food and the quality is not bad too. I ordered fried noodles and a plate of fried vegetables (something I miss a lot after eating salad for days) What a wonderful reward after a hot and long walk at the Grand Bazaar!

We shopped around after lunch but didn’t get anything as the style was not to our liking. Generally, men shoes are very fashionable and affordable in Turkey. Sale prices are usually around 99 YTL for genuine leather and the designs are fashionable. I can’t say the same for ladies shoe. I personally find the designs too loud and impractical, and the quality is also not as good. We left shortly as we need to prepare for our early flight the next day.

Bosphorus & Sunset@Marmara Sea

It was 9th August morning in Istanbul. Happy Birthday to Singapore :D We did not fly the Singapore flag but we saw lots of Turkey flags in the city.

Our itinerary for this day was to go for the Bosphorus cruise. Separating Turkey into two Continents - Asia and Europe, Bosphorus is a straits that links the Black Sea and the Mamara Sea. Our boat set off at 12pm for a 1.5hour cruise before stopping over at another port for lunch.

This was my second time on the Bosphorus cruise so the excitement level was not as high but I think my mom and Karen enjoyed it. Cruising down the Bosphorus offers one a different view of Istanbul. Lining the shores were endless rows of beautiful Ottoman wooden houses (called Yali in Turkish), palaces, schools and many other buildings that exude an old world charm. There were also two majestic-looking suspension bridges on the Bosphorus. The first bridge (1074 m)was built in 1973 and is called Bogazici Bridge or the Bosphorus Bridge; the second bridge called Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridge (1090 m) was built in 1988.

Karen and I had fun taking pictures/videos and soon we reached this port where we were to disembark for lunch. We had lunch at Yosun restaurant, which is just by the sea. The restaurant serves typical Turkish meal. We ordered fish as we were getting tired of eating meat. Karen and I ordered a fried fish and grilled chicken to share but the portion was still too huge for us. My mom's fried fish order has 16 fishes (about 10-12cm each) and some vegetables. She commented she has never eaten so many fishes in her life! Well, me too. The weather was extremely hot, the seaview made up for it, thankfully.

After lunch, we hurriedly got onboard again as the boat set off at 3pm. It was another 1.5hours cruise back to where we came from. We felt sleepy after lunch and the humid weather made it worse. We couldn't a seat at the open deck and had to make do with the cabin which was not air-conditioned. Eventually we got a seat at the open deck but we were about to disembark soon.

We saw these boys fishing at the pier and not too far away, a hawker selling what seemed to me like pickles and snacks. They appear very relax, it is not uncommon to see Turks by the beach, pier, parks, cafes enjoying themselves anytime, anyday.

We rested at our hotel before venturing out to the beach next to my hotel to catch sunset. It was a picture of bliss and tranquility before our eyes. My mom has always wanted to see sunset and the sea. Here in Turkey, I am certain the number of times she experienced this was much more than she ever thought she could in two weeks :)

Istanbul vs Singapore

Some facts about Turkey for people who has loads of complaints about Singapore.

Parking in Istanbul is expensive. Regardless if it's downtown, the average parking fee for an hour is US$3. One of the carparks we went to (at Taksim Square) charges were:

First hour 5.50YTL
1 - 2hours 6.50YTL
2 - 4hours 8.00YTL
4 - 8hours 9.ooYTL
8 - 12hours 10.00YTL
12 - 24hours 12.00YTL

Petrol is not cheap either. We make noise when our petrol prices went up to S$1.80/litre. Over in Turkey, one litre of petrol costs 2.80YTL (S$3.22). Cars are cheaper though. I was told a BMW 330 sports car costs approx 65k Euro. Then again, the traffic is really bad. In one of our worst evening peak hours jam, I fell asleep and woke up only to find our car moved metres away from where we were. Forgo the car and take the metro (MRT) you say. But their metro network only has about 5-6 stations in the whole city.

We make a big deal of our 2% hike in GST but the VAT Turks pay is 18%. And if you're thinking of visiting a public toilet, be prepared to pay 0.50YTL (S$0.58). The most expensive toilet I've been while in Turkey charged me 1YTL (S$1.15) and there was only one cubicle, no aircon or exhaust fan. As you can imagine, I was losing more water than I should while getting my business done.

Foodcourts are also a rare sight in Turkey and I think we have more varieties and cheaper prices here. Of course, there's also something about Turkey that makes us envy. Housing for one, is cheaper than ours. We pass by this condomunium each time we travel to the city. It's a new development in the prime area and it faces the Mamara Sea. I was told the floor area ranges from 160 - 200 sq feet and costs between USD300k - 400k a unit.

Oh, it's freehold too. There's no such thing as 99 or 999 year lease over there as land is plenty. Anyone interested?

Old Istanbul City

It's been a week plus since I returned from my trip and I still haven't unpack all the souvenirs that I bought. I guess unpacking them means I've to look for a place to store them and I'm running out of space at home :P Anyway, I really should get down to sorting them out and delivering them to my friends before they become antiques.

From where I left off in Istanbul (I have no internet access when I left Istanbul)... we did not visit the Grand Bazaar the next day (8th Aug) as we spent too much time at the Spice market. Also known as the Egyptian Market, the spice market sells lots of spices, turkish tea, coffee, turkish delights, nuts, souvenirs and many other local stuff. This place is also famous for pickpockets, so beware if you're going there. Many of the stall owners thought we were Japanese and we keep hearing 'konichiwa'. When we did not respond, they went '你好'. Good try :)

We found most of the things that my mother wanted to buy here - nuts, tea of different kinds. The hospitable turks kept offering us to try their nuts, turkish delights and tea, if we want to be downright kiasu, we could actually skip lunch by filling our stomach at the different stalls ;) But being nice and civilized people, we didn't do that of course. We only tried apple tea from two shops and we gave them business too.

On our way out, we stumbled upon a shop that sells stones and accessories. Everything looked so good and the prices were unbelievable too. The cheapest necklace costs 1YTL (approx S$1.15) and the most expensive one that I paid costed me only 3YTL (S$3.45). Of course there were other accessories of higher prices but they were too chunky in my opinion.

Lunch was at a famous kebab restaurant just outside the spice market. Besides the good food, our eyes had a feast of the Bosphorus Straits too.

We visited the Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) after our late lunch. Considered the epitome of byzantine architecture, Hagia Sophia is one of the most visited historical sites in Istanbul. Built in the 6th century, Hagia Sophia was later converted into a mosque in 1453 when the Ottoman Turks conquered Istanbul, known as Constantinople then. In 1935, the church-turned-mosque was converted into a museum and it stands till today. Entrance fee is 10YTL (S$11.50).

Standing opposite the Hagia Sophia is the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Mosque), our next destination. It was built in the 17th century by Sultan Ahmet I as a rival to Hagia Sophia and is the only mosque in Istanbul to have six minarets. Most mosques have four, two or just one minaret. We didn't stay there for long as we were trying to beat the evening traffic but we did not succeed.

My mom, the travel journalist

Here's my mom, the travel jounalist at work again :) She jots down everything that she sees here and is often busy scribbling away, even when she was in the coach to west black sea over the weekend.