TurkeyTurkeyTurkey! Part2

Day4: KUSADASI – SELCUK – PAMUKKALE

That morning, we set off to Selcuk and made the first stop at the House of the Virgin Mary.We visited her house first, then were allowed some free time to collect holy water from the taps. Best place to see Kiasu Angmohs in action, filling up water bottles with holy water.

It was let’s-force-the-tourists-to-look-at-stuff-they-don’t-need day as we kicked it off with a visit to a government-managed leather jacket factory.

It was proceeded by a trip to a turquoise wholesaler, also government managed. No pictures though.

Then it was off to the ruins of Ephesus (contrary to what I thought, it’s pronounced as Efes-soos, not Efes-ses)

See anything familiar?

The Nike Swoosh = Goddess Nike .

You can see they’re still working to preserve the place.I don’t know why everyone got so excited when they saw this:

Slaves used to warm the latrines for their masters by sitting on them. It isn’t the most comfortable potty around though.

Yes, I took a picture seated on one.

After lunch, it was off to my favourite place, Pamukkale.

It’s basically many many pools containing thermal water. Quite touristy, but the scenery is great.

“The Russians are very good swimmers. Look at them in their bikinis, the water is only 2cm deep.” -(once again, not me)

Fantastic view.

The place reminded me of Alexandria, Egypt.

Look, a dusty beetle!

View from below.

After this last stop for the day, we rested at Lycus River Hotel. I thought Talises Hotel was creepy, this was like waiting for Fred Kreuger to appear from the shadows. My room was far away from the rest of the tour members and I had to walk through a dark corridor with empty armchairs and walls adorned with creepy pictures. Even the room had a picture of garishly-coloured men in a piazza, staring out from the frame.

Dinner was alright, I got to eat an entire piece of barbecued fish..and turkey. Yes, turkey in Turkey <cue cheesy jokes> it was really good though. The fish on the other hand was just alright and had too many bones. I like eating fish that has it’s head still attached. Nothing like having a single lifeless eye stare accusingly at you to boost your appetite.

Day5: PAMUKKALE – KONYA – CAPPADOCIA

One thing about Turkey is that we spend lots of time travelling in the bus because we visit so many places. I thought the 3-4 hour bus rides during the past 4 days were long.

The ride today would be 8 – 10 hours.

I thought I would make full use of it by studying my psychology notes. Instead, I slept. Conclusion: never bother bringing notes overseas.

Along the way, the tour guide made some interesting stops to lessen the dullness.

Say hello to overpriced, diluted apple tea and opium.

Well it was really yogurt, honey and poppy seeds. I don’t like too much honey in my food but other than that it tasted great.

After some more driving, we got off to view a poppy field (trespassing).

As well as a cherry farm (trespassing again).

This is where trespassing advances to stealing. (p.s. those are not my hands)

Then it was grapes.We had lunch at Sultanhani Caravanserai.

After refuelling, we continued our trip to Cappadocia’s Dinler Hotel and retired to bed early because those that signed up for the hot air balloon the next day would have to wake up at 4am. The food at Dinler Hotel was alright, but it was a resort and we had to walk in the rain to the our blocks.

I have an aversion to sleeping in front of mirrors. What I did for the previous hotels was to place my bag on the empty bed that faced the mirror. The smart aleck who designed this hotel gave the rooms two mirrors, so it boiled down to choosing the lesser of the two evils. The shower choked easily and the water had sediments in it. You think Newater is yucky? Try brushing your teeth with chalky water. Better yet, the water that first gushed out was brown.

Oh and a creepy incident happened at this hotel, more in the next post.

Nintendo Cartoon Hour

Fantastic stuff.

Meet Our Son

HAHAHAHA.

The Lonely  Island.

Something that will make you all wobbly

Heard of Junko Furuta?

Wikipedia entry

Facebook group (more detailed)

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This is just fucking sick. Really.

It would totally make sense if she did something that pissed them off so badly that hey snapped and decided to take revenge. Problem is, it was totally random. Something is obviously wrong with society.

To quote a friend:

meh if there is really a ‘god’
these kinda things wouldn’t happen

Makes me wonder sometimes what the higher ups are doing.

TurkeyTurkeyTurkey! Part1

Because I am an extremely lazy person, I shall write this post in as few words as coherently possible.

Day1: SINGAPORE – ISTANBUL

I will never, ever, ever, take Turkish Airlines again. I have never sat in a plane where blankets were of absolutely no use.

Day2: ISTANBUL – BURSA

Jasmine had H1N1 and we arrived 1hour earlier than expected. So I was left to explore the area of Sultanahmet (around the Blue Mosque) alone.

I ventured away from the pick up point. After awhile, I couldn’t stand being gawked and stared at anymore so I returned to sit at the meeting point.

People were still staring. Pfffft. It’s something I had to get used to over the next 9days.

Simit, a pretzel-like bread covered with sesame seeds. They smell great though I didn’t fancy eating something exposed to the elements. Simit sellers are a common sight, especially at touristy areas.

Despite being told to bring scarves to cover our hair  (for women) in mosques, we never had to use it.

After the sights at Sultanahmet, we headed off to take a ferry. Except, the ferry transported vehicles along with it’s passengers.

Then it was onwards to Bursa. We arrived there during prayer time so we were allowed some time to shop nearby before heading on the the Grand Mosque.

The Grand Mosque.

You can usually see pushcarts selling corn (mısır) for 1-1.5liras.

Jetlagged, we dragged our weary bodies to the Keravansaray Hotel. I didn’t take any pictures from the hotel room, because I was usually too scared to draw the curtains for fear of seeing a pasty white figure leap out and dance in front of me. Most of the hotels had a balcony which I didn’t use. Keravansaray had a nice bathroom. The mattress sank in the middle though.

Day3: BURSA – KUSADASI

Breakfast at the Keravansaray Hotel was alright, I couldn’t remember the meal but the cherries were fantastic.

Next, it was on to the Green Mosque.

If you still can’t tell why it’s called the Green Mosque after this picture, you need a better pair of bifocals.On the road to Kusadasi, what could these be?

Zomg Sunflowers!!!

We got off for a photo stop, and you won’t believe the photo-taking frenzy that ensued.

As you can see, I got a tad carried away with taking pictures of sunflowers. I still have 83210743771pictures of them.

We had lunch at Köfteci Ramiz. I don’t usually like beef, but their meatballs were orgasmic divine.

After that it was on to Hotel Tatlises, a hotel owned by famous Turkish singer, İbrahim Tatlıses.

“And in the lobby, don’t be surprised if you see a man who looks like Saddam Hussein.” -(I did not say that)

I hated this hotel because the lights only turned on after you walk past the sensors, then back off when the next sensor was triggered. I was half expecting the floor to collapse  beneath me if I didn’t walk quickly enough -i.e. Super Mario.

Though the view was nice, the hotel was just creepy. I didn’t really like the dinner there either.

- More to come later, picture blogging is still tiring.

Being an INTJ

Snitched from intjforum.com:

What I’ve found that sometimes works is just letting some of the thoughts in my head out. Sometimes it totally backfires. The other day, a girl I’m attracted to asked me, “How’s it going.”

“I’m a little down.”

“Why’s that?”

“I know it’s silly, but I woke up yesterday, went to take a shower and there were ants everywhere in there. Like hundreds of them. I live in an old building.”

“Oh. Gross.”

“Yeah, exactly, and what could I do? I found a brand of ant traps that work really well. Like they go after it like it’s gold. So I set one out and made myself a bagel and watched some crappy morning television.”

“Yeah?”

“So I went back and of course, they were going for the ant bait like crazy. But, I sort of felt sorry for them. I mean, they’re just trying to make a living, aren’t we all? And there were hundreds of them, maybe thousands. I bet there were a few good ants in there – scholars, heroes, innovators. But it was like “antschwitch”, they all were gonna die.”

“Oh, that’s kind of sad.”

“Yeah, do you ever think it’s ironic how there’s “Save the Whales” and “Save the Seals” and all that, but no one thinks a bug has a right to life? It’s like a popularity contest, really. The cuter and higher up on the food chain you are, the more support you get.”

“I guess you have a point…”

“Yeah, I even saw one ant I liked. And he wasn’t going for the bait. I sort of didn’t want him to go for the bait. I named him ‘Harry’. “Harry, don’t be fooled, it’s a trap!” But eventually, Harry followed the rest.”

“Oh that’s sweet.”

“But anyway, I’m talking way too much about ants. How are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m doing okay. Just working.”

“Hey I was going to try this new place I heard about for lunch. What are you doing for lunch? From what I’ve heard, no ants there”

And so on. Sometimes it works.

I found the conversation hilariously odd. Suddenly, it felt nostalgic -I realised this is how I usually think.

No wonder Jasmine says I’m weird.

Selfish

Just one word to describe.

I am so sad now.

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Hellooo London!

I’ve finally managed to sit down and blog about my trip to London and no, it was’t as scandalous as Egypt.

Alright so after an arduous 17hour flight from Singapore to Heathrow, we disembarked and headed to collect our baggage. (Just so you know, the A380 airbus actually seems to have less leg room.) Waiting for our baggage, I realised why Singapore was given the award of “Best Airport “. It took ages for our baggage to appear on the belt though in the defence of the airport staff, it was the A380 and there were 555seats on board that were all filled (the flight was overbooked, I swear the plane was bursting with humans). We left the airport for a taxi we had booked online that cost 39pounds. The fare turned out more than the 39pounds because the flight had a delayed take off and the claiming of our luggages, and we found out from the hotel staff that they could have gotten a cab for us for a cheaper rate.

Well we reached our hotel, the Shaftesbury Premier London Paddington. What a mouthful.

It’s really interesting because houses are built along a street, so in a row of houses, there was a mix of hotels and normal residents. I was initially quite apprehensive about staying at Shaftesbury because I had read quite a few bad reviews online that mainly complained about the size of the rooms. The rooms turned out really nice actually; and the decor was quite posh, they had flat screen tvs, and free broadband (it’s fun logging on to msn at 11pm, talking to people skiving at work in Singapore). Well the room we had booked was a suite because there were 3 of us so I guess that’s why I didn’t find it small. The corridors were a bit of a maze and really narrow, but I’ve stayed in HongKong where the entire establishment seemed to have been built for hobbits so Shaftesbury wasn’t a big deal.

Day1

We started the day off by visiting Buckingham Palace. When I say visit, what we really did was stand outside the palace grounds taking pictures. Nothing like being cheapo in London to feel good about yourself.

Apologies for the dark spot, my camera had that problem a few days before the trip and I didn’t'  think there would have been enough time to get it repaired. It’s a new camera for goodness sake, have better quality checks Fuji!

We walked past some government offices where as I was taking a picture, this Londoner rushed up into the frame with a cheeky grin. Mom wasn’t fast enough at snapping the picture though.

Mom had asked me to do up an itinerary, and I dutifully did so. Dad, being Dad, goes screw the itinerary and leads us along this route that made us feel like heat-seeking missiles in a fridge. We didn’t get to see all the sights I had marked on the map, but we did manage to catch the Buckingham Horse Guards Parade which I opted for because I didn’t want to squeeze with 6564835315378 people to watch the changing of guard’s at Buckingham Palace.

I think it lasts 20-30minutes, and it was interesting for the first 5 minutes. Then I left.

The haphazard missile we were, we headed on.

Along the way, we chanced upon a protest by what I presume are Sri Lankans living in the UK. They were protesting the government’s handling of the situation with the LTTE (bear in mind that during my trip, the leaders hadn’t been caught yet). Cool stuff really, it was a pretty civil protest.

They were protesting right in front of Big Ben.

Dad stopped beside Big Ben for a long long phone call. During which, I got bored.

We walked all the way to both London Bridge and Tower Bridge but I didn’t get very good pictures there.

Near London Bridge (I think) there was a pretty wharf which probably had some historical significance but I was feeling really crappy from walking so much that I didn’t read the signs.

We rounded off the day with a visit to shops near the Shafestbury Paddington. I must say, our hotel was very conveniently located. Not only was it near to Paddington station, but Paddington was also in Zone1. Well basically London’s underground system is divided into 6 zones. My ignored itinerary only consisted of attractions within Zone 1 so I bought a week’s pass for that Zone which was loaded into an Oyster card, similar to the EZ-link card. Though we only stayed 5days and walked almost everywhere, I think we made full use of it because the fares there are quite expensive.

There were shops at Paddington station, like a mini Citylink. Going to Sainsburys and Marks and Spencers was like throwing a kid in a candy shop. There just so many pretty and unusual things.

Note to Vanessa: you can eat sandwiches and chips for 3 years, Marks and Spencer sells them with a bottle of water for 2pounds.

Another note to Vanessa: I almost bought this home for you as a birthday cake.

Then I wondered how long it had been sitting prettily on the shelf.

TCFL

I think I may end up doing Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. Holy shit.