Turkey 3 : Beginning of the long bus ride....

So far in my journey to the west, I've survived Witches of the Western Skies....only to be surrounded by big bullies in military fatigues and guns.

After enduring a few agonizingly boring hours at the gas chamber, it was quite a relieve to be able to face the Uzbekistan Airway's flight attendants again. Once seated, my brains instantly started thinking up possibilities of how to defy and win over the Witches of th.....wait a minute, my be my crazy imagination but...these stewardesses are thin!! And one of them actually spoke and smiled!!!

ショック！！！
（SHOCK!!!)

The in-flight service this time was very good....surprisingly disappointing. I was anticipating a horrible service but they manage to give me a decent service with a few smiles and the usual "Coffee or Tea", then gently settling them down on my tray. Because of their good service, I have nothing else to write here about them....craps....
Allow me to correct myself here. Ehem...Uzbekistan Airways isn't all rotten eggs and sour fruits.....they have pretty good service too. =)

Anyway, we reached Istanbul, Turkey a few hours later. Met up with our local tour guide, Mr. Atilla. He was quite a plump fellow....a good man though. At first, he was a pleasant presence...but he later turn out to be the most irritating piece of lard on the bus. Shall talk about him more in later chapters...


Yup, Atilla is the fat, balding nice looking old man...


The local tour company that we engaged in...

When we got to the bus, all of us walked on the left side of the bus in order to board the bus. Was quite confused at first as there was no door...took me a while to realize that they drive on the right side in Turkey.


In case you are wondering, only us Malaysians took photo of the bus...door-on-the-right bus failed to impress the Japanese.

I'll just cut the crap and show pictures here...


Turkey seems to have a lot of flats around. Well, exactly the term "pigeon hole"(Americans call them that)....just that no pigeons, but turkeys live in them.


Streets of Istanbul....


The city is surprisingly flat....buildings stretching across the horizon. Interesting thing that they don't go beyond 4,5 storeys high.


No, this is not a school nor a government building. They just have flags everywhere...is it the law? To me it's just plain narcissism...



Amidst new buildings, old ruins of the Roman times still remains...above is the walls of Constantinople and the Aqueducts.


We headed to a restaurant which was directly under the old walls....


1st meal in Turkey. Tomato soup and bread..


Next was some kind of grilled fish, chips and rice...

The thing about food culture in Turkey, they come in 3 courses. Starters is always soup, bread and salad. Then the main, which is rice with meat....as for areas near the sea, fish. Last will be dessert. Interesting that they eat both bread and rice....both must be their staple food. As expected of a country where "East meets West". Here I want to do a special mention of their rice...they don't cook plain white rice, it's always rice with some kind of spice or beans. Very fragrant and nice. Best rice I've ever had in my life...

After the meal was the beginning of our very very long ride on the bus.....about 6 hours...maybe more. Sigh....and that's when we found out what's Mr. Atilla's "special talent" is....tell you more soon.