Sunday, December 26, 2004
// Body Clock

I've finally uploaded the pics and looking back on them makes me miss Turkey so much! The flight Journey was all in all 13 hours including the stopovers at Bangkok and what nots. Food onboard pretty much sucked and I feel that it was an ominous sign to warn us of the horrid food they have over in Turkey. There, its 6 Hours behind Singapore. My body clock is screwed up. I sleep like 12 hours a day. Either that or I'm turning into a pig.

I've covered the trip online! Hehe. so click on the pics yup. >>



As some of you would already know, Turkey is a continent that has one leg in the Asian continent and the other in the Europe continent. When you switch on the TV there, almost every channel is broadcasting the great hype of Turkey joining the EU. I shan't talk about that.

Ait. The 12 day escapade involved us landing in Istanbul, then driving in the tour bus to Troy, then Izmir, Ephesus, Pamukkale, Konya, Nevsehir (copadoccia), then to Ankara, capital of Turkey. From Ankara, we took a domestic flight back to Istanbul, where we spent 3 nights in Istanbul, again. It was a long journey, but fun, nonetheless. Turkey is a beautiful country and Copadoccia is by far my favourite city. Temperatures dip pretty low in Copadoccia in the winter. The lowest ever experienced by my tour guide was -44 deg. The lowest I experienced there was -22 deg. The winds were strong, the kind that can lift you off the ground (can imagine Aizat going 'wahh angin menyelinap ah'), and too much exposure gave you burns (yea like sun burns). My cheeks were badly burnt, but recovered in Istanbul, where temperature was about 8 deg, not that cold.

An insight to life in Turkey..

In istanbul, we stayed near Galatasaray's home stadium. When we got there, it was a Sunday and there was a match going on. Its really scary to see people marching down the streets like marching for a protest. The streets leading up to the stadium was entirely covered with people and we could hear the chants and cheers from our room. People are very enthusiastic about soccer. You don't see people marching down Orchard Road cheering and whatnot when Geylang plays against Sinchi FC, do you? hehe. The tour brought us for dinner at "Istanbulin" some posh place with a live Belly dancing show (can just imsgine Suff going "hello!") which I personally found a waste of time. How can you eat dinner with almost the entire restaurant smoking. It was actually foggy in the restaurant!

Food wise, it was horrible, well with the exception of the kebabs. Who drinks Lentil soup?!?!? Goodness me. The word "Lentil" already sounds disgusting. Most of our meals were 5-course meals, and every restaurant served the exact same thing. Main course was glutinous rice with bland chicken/lamb. I came home missing Singaporean food!

If you think crossing Singapore roads was dangerous, think again. People in Turkey drive without obeying traffic lights. It doesn't matter if some one is crossing the road, the drivers will not slow down. Zebra crossings do not work too. Taxi drivers are rather reckless as well.

Since Ataturk found modern Turkey, he changed many Islamic rules. Its funny to see many beautiful mosques in Turkey, yet no one prays in them. Ataturk aimed to 'revamp' them into modern Muslims. So, they don't pray 5 times a day, their excuse being that God understands, and they can always pay back in their old age. (what if you die young??) So you can see only the old wear tudungs. The young are very much westernized. Ataturk banned the use of 'songkok's (that thingy that Muslim guys wear on their head) because it showed too much themselves being Muslims. Muslims live in the same house as dogs, they don't eat pork BUT they drink wine. Wierd eh?

Anyhows, I'm glad to be back. I'm glad to be Singaporean. hehe.