I can’t help but feel for the day like Garfield always does. Monday sucks. And waking up in Guzel Izmir Hotel doesn’t help, because the hotel sucks too. We got a flight to catch, and the cab is waiting downstairs for us.
Now that we’ve settled the payment, we left for the airport. All too eager to leave. But the worst is yet to come. It happened that the cabby that the hotel hired for us is too eager to pick us up as well, and he fixed the meter to cater for midnight charge, at 7 am in the morning! In the end, we hadn’t noticed the charge till it reaches close to 60 YTL for a 15km journey, all too dubious for our liking. On our 1st cab in Istanbul, a 30km ride costs us only 30 YTL. Hell. But the worst and most stupid thing to happen was, he stopped halfway along the road to pick up his lady friend! And we were made to share to cab! Maybe we should have exercised passenger rights, but we were not about to jeopardise our journey and compromise on a scheduled flight. It was after we reached the airport that we realise he was moonlighting. What the hell. Moonlighting in front of us at our expense. Even Allah will be angry. This is absolutely injustice.
The check-in and flight has been pretty smooth sailing. And reaching Istanbul was very much a relief. At least there’s room to negotiate something in English here. And guess what, our transport into Sultanahmet, the city centre, was through its Metro! The Metro line is the Turkish equivalent of London Underground and Singaporean MRT, but there’s a particular interesting thing about it. While the journey from Ataturk airport to a certain interchange is train like, the rest of the journey into Sultanahmet is by tram! To be serious, I’ve never taken a tram in my whole life before. My life existed around MRT tracks and buses but tram rides are a first. I mean, I’ve seen tram lines in Manchester and the such, and I know trams are available in Hong Kong as well, though I’ve never had the chance to go there. Well, travels always provide me with firsts, and I don’t know how many times of different ‘virginities’ I’ve given to Turkey. Ha, a little corny but true.
The entire Metro journey into Sultanahmet costs only 3.20YTL, which is a fraction of the 10 YTL per pax that we paid to go by cab. Still, an interesting experience. At least, it gives a nice twist for the day to the morning chopper. I never like to be a carrot, not to mention be seen as one.
We checked in after taking some time to find our hotel, Bahaus Guesthouse. It’s situated along a very prime location, where you’ll find lots of hotels and hostels. Not to mention lots of bars and pubs. Staff are very friendly, largely manned by 2 brothers who are both Turk and Italian. Our room is great as well, not to mention a kinky bed for Jo with a nice woven cover and matching cushion and mini bolster. Me and Kiat got a twin layered bed to ourselves, and I childishly took the lower storey and leaving Kiat to climb. Hope you don’t blame me, Kiat, I think you had fun up there. Ha.
Reception offered us a place for lunch, and Karadeniz as recommended is really a good place. Prices are pretty decent, and food is good. And restaurant staff are very friendly and cute. The manager of the place was ‘stroking’ Kiat’s head every time, and that sounds really kinky, at least to Kiat. The good thing about this place is the feel of it. I mean, the locals eat here and it’s really got the local feel of it rather than those restaurants that cater largely to tourists and feels fake. That feeling was what I set out to look for whenever I plan my travels, and no doubt it always makes me happy. The feeling of assimilation into local culture. Woot.
After lunch, we wanted to go to the Blue Mosque but it was prayer time. And Ayasofia (Hagia Sophia) does not open on Mondays (cursed Mondays). Luckily, we realised that the Topkapi palace does not open on Tuesdays and this is the time to go before we forgo the palace entirely. Jo and Kiat are both highly enthused about the harem, and thus this is a must go. The funny thing is, relying on our instincts, we walked the entire stretch of the 1st courtyard without ever reaching the palace. 2km of it. But the entire stretch is so filled with pretty tulips that I think we wouldn’t have minded.
The palace itself is still under restoration. And entrance is 10 YTL, with no student prices. Hell, the attractions are forgoing student privileges for profit and they are giving no damn to helping the future generations know about humanity’s past. Well, given our fascination with the harem, we can’t help it.
Within the palace itself, there isn’t really anything much to see. We toured a weapons museum and had fun trying to think of how the weapons are being used to kill. Ha. Jo was somewhat disgusted by the bloody descriptions, especially when we were talking about the samurai’s way of dying by his own sword than lose his dignity. Ha, lucky we already had lunch. Looking for the entrance to the harem was a little hassle. And entry prices are as exorbitant as entry into the palace. 10 YTL for it. Kaoz. Can’t they have a little sympathy for poor students like us?
It’s time for us to get in, and simply speaking, the harem is not as good as I had expected it to be. 4 walls and such. That’s about it. Rooms after rooms of tiles and ceramics but the Turks hadn’t ensured it’s interesting enough for people to want to get in again. At least, 10 YTL for Ephesus was pretty much worth it, but 20 YTL to get into harem sounds very much like a chopping board with a big cleaver. I had to end up taking photos of drains and stuff like that to keep myself occupied, and Kiat had fun taking ‘candid’ photos of me taking photos of the drain. Wow. How interesting. In the end, an evaluation of the palace merely adds up to the word ‘boring’.
The Blue Mosque itself is merely a vase. Nice and grand on the outside, but it’s just like any mosque on the inside. The majestic structure lends credit to the architect who designed the place, but other than that it’s only refreshing for Caucasians who do not understand Islam. Well, the highlight of the visit is largely Jo, I must admit. Pretty funny to see her in headscarf, or tudung as we call it. But I did meet something very strange in the mosque. Despite my hunger, it is usual for me to stay hungry till it is dinner time. But the strange thing is, I began salivating non-stop for the entire time I was in the mosque, and suffering from hunger pangs. I do not know why, but there’s something spiritual about the place. And the symptom that tells me this is not normal is when I walked out of the mosque to put on my shoes. The salivating stops, while the hunger pangs leave a tingling sensation in my tummy. Strange but true. Maybe Allah is trying to tell me something, but I never got the message.
We went back to the hotel to put down our stuff, and ask the reception for recommendations to eat. They recommended us a fish restaurant, that is supposed to be decently priced. The restaurant would even provide chauffeuring if required. For our part, we decided to walk there and look around at the prices. Walking along the southern coast of Istanbul is refreshing, for it’s facing the seas and not just a river. For the sake of living the life of royalty, we decided to take up the restaurant, and order wine as well. There’s a live Turkish band that adds to the touristy atmosphere, and the manager who’s probably the only one who knows English served us constantly. Nice fish, nice wine. The atmosphere is the best I’ve ever had since Bodrum’s seaside dinners and I must say 145 YTL for it is pretty decent. I mean, I pay $80 in Singapore for prom which does not really give value to the money paid, but $50 per pax for a good dinner and wine is cheap in my opinion. Not to mention their after-service is good. The chauffeur drives a limousine and never in my life have I set foot in limousine before. Couple that with the wine and the feeling is almost perfect, with 2 good friends beside. Maybe I’m lacking in a lover, but I do not crave that desire actually. Wow, living like a king makes better sense to me now.
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