istanbul: updates

fourth day in Istanbul.

AB is forcing me to update something..but...I'm out of idea!

Hm , just a scratch.

Visited Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia on Thursday,

visited the Grand Bazaar on Friday morning, had my Friday prayer at Beyazit Mosque then went strolling around Taksim, Istiklal Caddesi (shopping street similar to Oxford Street, Champs Elysees, Bahnofstrasse, Bukit Bintang...etc etc, you get it) and Galata, then watched the sun set down to the Golden Horn, Maghrib at Yeni Camii (literally New Mosque) besides the Spice Bazaar, then more picture-taking at the Blue Mosque (again) and areas around Hagia Sophia and Sultanahmet.

After I had my first rice pudding experience at an eaterie near our hotel, we returned to our room because 10.30 PM is just late.

This morning we set off for the Grand Bazaar again, then down to the Spice Bazaar to buy loads of Turkish Delights of many flavors. Among other things such as headscarves, fabrics, ceramic stuffs etc etc.

Then here I am, updating. wee! ('malas' version of an interesting journey, really).

Mind you that I'm travelling under budget, so..souvenirs are most likely to be limited. There are loads and loads of beautiful stuffs to be bought especially at the Grand Bazaar and (sadly) Istiklal Caddesi, with 3,000 shops available at the Grand Bazaar itself, selling everything from jewellery to ornate carpets to the high-end shops at Taksim.

AB's Mom is very, very helpful. Shopping with her makes things easier (and cheaper) - she really knows how to shop and make the shopkeepers drop - her bargaining skills nailed every shopkeeper we met. Anyway, do look for bargains if you come this way to Istanbul, and know your Turkish vocab to make things easier, and yes, they will know if you're a Malaysian and eventually everybody will say that they've been to Malaysia before. Some even went as far as they just got here from a flight from Kuala Lumpur last night.

But the real Turkish people are very, very kind. They love their pictures to be taken, they love tourists, and eventually they love the Lira as much as we do. Turkish are stylish lot, everyone, a hijabi or not, young and old fits in the picture..and here in this crossroads of two continents and a bridge between to seas, everything translates as beautiful.

Well, as they say, time stops here in Istanbul.

Four more days to home, there is still much to explore in this rich yet humble city. The seat of the once great Ottoman Sultans, the Topkapi palace is yet to be visited, maybe tomorrow. Then I'll just say that my essentials of Istanbul has completed, though one's journey to Istanbul is never complete - one would come again here and yet again explore new things - which is why AB's family as been visiting this city at least once a year since 1997 (though the only one yg mmg nmpk excited is mak AB je sbnrnye)

I haven't taste the baklava yet..and maybe some of the fruits..and maybe some more of their tea (cay) varieties..and maybe...nargileh? (read: shisha) haha. kidding. I like the chocolate ice cream here too, even the McD ones are tasty..and the light coke is not so radical..well in a way..tasty lah jugak to be compared with ours.

That's it lah kot, AB and Izzat is trying out the new ubat jerawat we found out down at the Spice Bazaar..it's traditional..and it's kapur barus..our room right now smells as some hantu just passed by..scary.

I asked for a whitening one. That one scared off the girl shopkeeper.
"WHY?? why would you want to whiten your skin? I always want my skin to be tanned!"

"Like this?!" (I'm pointing to my arms at this part)

mcm2 hal lah.

Apparently my skin, which is the darkest skin complexion around (family AB semua putih) except when there's any Black tourists around, is the most desirable skin tone by the people here. Huhu!

The world's greatest lie would be that there is no pictures captured to accompany the babblings above. But as I'm updating from Izzat's computer and unfortunately I'm lazy, so editing the pictures at my computer, choosing the right ones, cropping them and then resizing them then transfer them to Izzat's computer seems too much for the moment, I'm recommend checking AB's blog for pictures from my camera and Izzat's camera. That's because AB is rajin enough to upload the very big pictures using a Turkish languange (yes) version of Blogger.

ok lah, dah habis. next time!

Syukrishairi.

Istanbul, Turkey.