It was an enjoyable trip. There were times we are pissed off with the tour guide, lamented that the time spent on certain interesting places were very short, and complaining about trips to expensive shops for turkish delights, carpets and leather jackets. The early wake up call ... gosh ... But that is a package tour.
We covered a lot of places. Istanbul, Canakkale, Bergama, Kusadasi, Selcuk, Pamukkale, Dalyan, Fethiye, Kekova, Demre, Antalya, Konya, Cappadocia and Ankara. All these in 11 days.
There is a lot of travelling on the road. Most of the interesting places were ancient cities such as Troy, Pergamon, Ephesus, Hierapolis and Simena. All these ancient cities are in certain state of ruins due to age, wars and natural disasters.
It is not surprising that most of the theatres in these ancient cities have remain intact and were preserved very well. In ancient times, theatres played an important role in the cities. This is the place where people gathered to listen to their leaders, watch plays and gladiator fights. The place where they find entertainment and gathered to update themselves on the latest news. Aspendos Theatre is the best preserved theatre. But I felt Hierapolis Theatre is nicest because there is no crowd.
We had a hot air ballon ride in Cappadocia. It was the best activity in this trip. We woke up at 4.30am to go to the site and took an 1 hour ride in the air to see sunrise over Cappadocia, the rock formation, valleys and dwellings in the rocks (cave houses). It is a spectacular sight to see all the hot air ballons raising and flying with wind.
We had lunch and photo stop at ancient caravanserai. In ancient time, this is a place where travellers will stop by for a few days to restock their supplies, feed their animals and refresh themselves before continuing their trip.
We also visited churches and mosques. For historical reasons, the mosques in Turkey has incorporate some the churches features. There are tall thin towers surrounding the main tower which is lower and rounded. It is like a mixture of church and mosque. Well, they were being ruled by Romans who believe in gods, Greek who idolise mythological characters and Ottomans who are Islam believers. The St Sophia Church Museum is an example of a church which turned to a mosque and is now a museum.
Turkey is a place prone to earthquakes and volcano eruptions in ancient times. This is why they have a lot of rock formations (Cappadocia) and thermal springs (Pamukkale). The ancient cities were in ruins are also partly due to the natural disasters.
In terms of cities, Antalya gave us a better impression than Istanbul. The people in Antalya are friendly and we felt safe walking around. We took a tram ride on our 1st night in Antalya and got lost. 2 wonderful women who do not speak English brought us back to the hotel, taking the bus that they directed us; and making sure we dropped at the correct bus stop. Thank you, ladies. As in most cities, there will be dishonest people, so we make sure we question the cashier whenever we bought things if they did not charge the amount that was being displayed.
In Istanbul, people will try speaking Mandarin to us and keep pushing their stuff in front of us to sell them. And I don't like the fact they keep thinking all yellow skin tourists are from China. Avoid shopping in places like Grand Bazaar and Spice Market if you cannot bargain. The sellers are not honest. We got cheated in the weight when we bought Turkish delights and nuts from Spice Market. Even though we did not buy much, well, it is a still a learning experience.
Turkey is a nice place to visit. It has very long history, nice scenic places, beautiful architectures with rich interior designs. These places are very good for photography shots, even though they are always crowded with tourists. We are glad we managed to capture some nice photographs even though we can't stay long in these places.
I had tried Turkish bath, drank Turkish coffee and cay (Turkish tea); ate Turkish delights and kebab. These are wonderful experience ...
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| Hot Air Balloon over Cappadocia |
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| Blue Mosque |
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| Extensive Dolmabache Palace |
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| The 'Old City' of Istanbul |
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| Ephesus Library |
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| Aspendos Theatre |
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| Hierapolis - beyond the stage was once a large city |
