Turkey 7 : Who is Mevlana??

We spent the night at a hotel at the base of the mountain. It was a very lovely hotel with a very lovely hot spring pool...

So, 3 guys; me, Boon and Chin Wooi decide to take a dip at the very lovely hot spring....and as soon as we opened the door, we were greeted by a equally lovely girl in the spring. Chin Wooi reacted like how all guys should react ...

"WAH...Leng Lui ah!!!

And then we proceeded into the shot spring where we "discussed" further about how good she looked and how good her body looked...you know, guy's topic of conversation...FYI, we were talking in Chinese so that she won't understand what was said..

Now, we were VERY VERY sure she couldn't understand what was being said....we met her again the next day at another hotel during dinner time. Lining up behind Boon, she suddenly asked "Where are you guys from?" in Mandarin.....IN MANDARIN!!! Damn, she understood everything that was said at the hot spring!! Can you imagine how embarrassed we was?

"WAH...Leng Lui ah!!!

Hahaha......never fail to bring a smile to my face every time I reminisce this scene.

Anyway, our next stop was Mevlana's Tomb.



Had no clue who this dude was or what he did, but he seemed to be some kind of prominent figure among the Muslim community. At first impression, he seemed like a nice, humble fellow. I mean, judging the plain, gray wall on the outside....plain floral designs carved into wood. And I liked this dead fellow right until the moment I stepped into his tomb.


In contrast with the surrounding plain area, the area around his tomb was lavishly decorated...mostly floral and star designs, the walls was decorated all the way up till the ceilings! Oh, what a S.O.B!! Ehem...S.O.B here translates snobbish old brat...but you knew what I was saying, right? I could have swore that a few parts were decorated with gold leaves...


Anyway, there was a lot more in Mevlana's Tomb but since pictures was not allowed inside(the pic above was taken from Wikipedia)....can't really show you what I saw but I will try my very best to be descriptive.

The "eye"

A holy book....not sure if it was the Koran or not but it's some kind of holy book....had a picture of an "eye" in one of the pages. The pupil was decorated with star patterns, the "white area" of the eye was decorated with floral patterns and the eyelids was decorated with leaves.

My interpretation of this was how Mevlana saw the world....mother nature and the universe. That we must treasure the nature as it is a big part of life. Astrology played a big part in ancient times as means of directions(until someone discovered GPS was more convenient).

Curious with what it actually meant, I approached the Fat Basturk to obtain more information on it. He earlier pointed at the book and mentioned that

"This is a very important book for us Muslims. All self-respecting Muslims know about this. "

Guess what he said when I asked him?

"It doesn't mean anything."

What the hell?!! Then why would they purposely showcase that particular page? It must have some significance...most of the decoration in the tomb are of stars and plants...as is the eye....and you're telling me it don't mean squat??!!! Bullshit!!
FYI, Turkey's main souvenir is a piece of colored glass shaped like an eye....that Fat Basturk!!

The pope's hat

Also on display, a big hat that curiously had the same shape as the Pope's hat. And I don't just mean slight resemblance, the hat had the exact same shape!! Although the color is a dull green with more stars and plants pattern, why the same hat? Either the Pope or this dude Mevlana is guilty of plagiarism!!

The violent holy books...

A few books which Fat Basturk disturbingly labeled as "the holy Koran". Funny that he tried to avoid my lifted eyebrow when he said so. Pitied him a little so I decided to allow him a little breathing room...
Anyway, there were three books in total on display...

1st book : A picture of a Sultan or someone with high social status on a death bed

2nd book : Picture of a war. People were trampled beneath a war horse. The enemy they were fighting were clearly Chinese as they were drawn with paler colors and a slanted eye.

3rd book : Picture of a picnic under a tree in a meadow....presumably heaven.

Look, call me racist but don't these books show what people can do in the name of religion? A man of status dies, and a war ensues. Revenge. Revenge,in the name of religion. Why is it that people get more violent the more they believe in religion??

Muhammad's Beard

Now this is just plain silly...beard cut off from Prophet Muhammad.
Okay, I admit that I can get pretty biased when it comes to holy figures. But what's the big deal with Muhammad's beard? Yes, I know he's the prophet, the one man entrusted with the holy words of god. But why the beard?
And why do people get so damn proud just because they have seen "the beard"? Especially the Fat Basturk. He was so proud he was "one of the few people on earth who have seen the beard", that I couldn't help myself and asked

"So, this beard is holy?"
"Yes"
"Oh, so you mean that everything about the holy prophet is holy and sacred?"
"YES."
"Okay....so, where's the holy scissors that cut the holy beard? Don't they keep those around somewhere?"
"Uhh....I...uhh...well....erm...."
"Okay, forget that question. On what occasion was his beard cut? What significance does this piece of beard bear?"
"I...I don't know."

Hmm...seems to me that this guide likes to not know about anything. Fat Basturk....

Turkey 6 : Mountains washed white..

The next place we stopped at was Pamukale....a place I like to call the biggest and most beautiful fake tourist spot ever....makes me wonder why is it even listed on the World Heritage List.



This place....is a place where the top of the mountain is washed white. THEY say that it has got something to do with minerals in the rocks. Rain falls, dissolves it in water and some kind of chemical reaction then happens, leaving the bedrock white in result.
Now...when we went there, they told us that there's lesser water than usual. Apparently, they controlled the volume of water flowing onto the bedrock...

Oh....so they do have control over the water flowing in...hmm....

If you ask me, I THINK that they somehow secretly mix in bleaching chemical in the water....let it wash the rocks, then BOOM! You have yourself a World Heritage Fake Tourist Spot...


Seeing how tourist flock to this place, kinda wished Malaysia had done something with one of our Mountains as well..
Oh, we all had to remove our shoes before stepping on the bedrock....apparently white gets dirty fast.


They even created steps for us to climb just in case we got bored of...well...a white piece of rock.


This was how the water gets directed away from the bedrock.....this was definitely man made.


Couldn't resist the temptation to stick my feet into hygienically questionable drain. Remember what I said about the bleach in water?? I could have swore that my leg hair that got soaked was a little bit blonder than the rest of my leg.....


Still....I suck my feet in the drain again. I'd risk my leg any day of the year just to get to sit beside a gorgeous lady....ehem, yes, I do think that Fang Zyin is gorgeous...


I find this place rather special....I mean, it's not everyday you get to see white mountain top that's not snow. And the view from there was just breathtaking...

You see the city down below? I didn't see any commerce buildings there....just hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops. A whole town surviving on tourist coming to soak their legs in drains near a white bedrock....it's amazing how much life a World Heritage Fake Tourist Spot can bring...


Honestly, I thought this place was just plain fun....we had a lot of fun taking funny pictures here. So, yeah, we had fun...and in this picture, we tried to express what we felt about the place..

This place is as cool as us...

Turkey 5 : Some Roman leftovers called "World Heritage"

Since I'll be cursing and complaining about the Fat Basturk a lot, I might as well post up a picture of what he loves and talk about most...


Behold!! The great Olive Tree!! All hail Olive...all hail Olive....

Now, back to the main story....

I don't think I have mention this before but Turkey gave me an impression that it is one very messed up country...why? Well, they practically have every sort of architecture of every age!! And as I listened to Basturk nag about Olive trees...I witnessed the age of men as I traveled along the road to ....ermm...sorry, forgot the name of the place...


Once again...the hotel we departed from...


Is this what they call Third World? Looks a lot like Kelantan or Terengganu to me....


View of a great town that stretches to the horizon...


Then, as if transported by time, I'm brought to the time of Adam and Eve before they ate the forbidden fruit and "became adult"...

*In the background*
"And now on your right, another meadow being prepared to plant Olives we turks are so gawd damn proud of...blah...blah...oil...blah...olive..."


Reaching our destination, I realized that I'm transported to the time of the Romans!! or what's left of the Roman empire....

Despite my lame caption for the picture above, I was actually awed by the spectacle before me. What was shown above wasn't exactly Roman ruins...but it's more to ruins of various empires. Since this is near the sea, it was somewhat an important city dealing with trade. Various empires have rendered this place to ruins, rebuilt on it, only to be captured by another empire....and this went on and on for many many years. As a result, this city became a place that possess different architecture of various empires...Romans, Persians...etc


The empires who captured this city.....they must have been poor, or they were environment friendly people because they reuse the fallen pillars and walls to build a new one. Ehem...very sorry to have misled you on "different architecture of various empires"


Look at them two.....notice how they are built from different types of stones. Oh btw, I'm talking about the two pillars behind the girls...







Of all the pictures I took, this one inspired me the most....made me feel that I must not get fat and must remain in shape even in old age so as not to block the path.....


This....this is one of the earliest blogs...written by the great Caesar himself. The text speaks of how his fat soldiers stopped the attack of enemies by blocking the pathway to the city...


The "Bibliotek"...it's said that, the library was sandwiched between two buildings, so, to make it look bigger, the pillars in the middle was built thicker than the ones at the end so as to create an optical illusion that makes it look more spacious.


The pillars on the upper level are built thinner than the bottom ones to create the same effect...


The theater....the place where many people fell asleep to some boring play.


Then Boon and Friends came along to cheer the people up...



One last look at the great theater...and with that we ended our tour at...aww shit, what's the name of the place....Anyway, it was truly a beautiful place. Being in Asia for so long, seeing all this was truly an eye-opener...never knew the world was this big. Oh, throughout the whole tour, Basturk was giving some kind explanation on the site, but I found out that I can get more info by reading the information boards posted along the way.
I once tried to test that guy by asking him about what I read from the info boards....and as expected, he don't know anything!! He said "that there's no such thing...where did you heard that from, you annoying spectacled Malaysian??". I answered by "I read it from that info board behind you, you Fat Ignorant Basturk..." He must have hated me for that as he ignored most of my questions after that!! Haha....1 for Malaysian 0 for Olive loving Basturk...

I didn't mean to humiliate our guide, Mr. Atilla a.k.a Fat Basturk but I was merely curious about how much he knows about the place as he have been there many many times...

And I regretted testing him about his knowledge....I was sorry...truly sorry.....you see, after the tour, he tortured us with more stories when we get into the bus!!!

Turkey 4 : The one irritating Fat Basturk...

Hi folks....it's me resurrected from the LAB(land of abandoned blogs). Sorry la....I had to move to another far away land, and getting internet took longer time than a bored girl on a shopping spree to finish shopping...

Anyway, without further ado....the continuation of my Turkey trip...




The map of Turkey and the route of our journey...starts from the mosque at the top left, do a counter clockwise journey and end at the mosque again...

So far in my story, we have just touched down in Istanbul, Turkey and just finished our very first meal in Turkey. The meal what just what we all needed after the long, arduous flight.....at last! We can finally explore Turkey! And what better way than to travel by bus for 6 hour plus to see the countryside(had no bullet train or domestic flight...no choice lah).



Istanbul was quite a city...lots of buildings and people. But once we got to the countryside....nothing....there was nothing in sight for miles and miles...just one long road with flat meadows along the whole way with a few occasional petrol kiosk to fill up the bus so that we can be in it longer....

Such a long journey...remember Mr. Atilla? The fat guy from the previous post? He must have felt the pressure to entertain us tourist during the 6 hour bus ride....he could have played a movie, didn't do that...he could have sang a song(I actually requested one), didn't do that...he could have provided us tips on how to shop in Turkey, didn't do that too....BUT, he was instead compelled to tell us about what a great nation Turkey is. So, he talked....about how Turkey is a self sufficient country...not importing any goods other than petroleum...have a lot of Olive oil...Cherry...Orange...Beets...
Every gawd damn field we pass by, he will start blabbering

"Now look on your right, this is an olive field..we Turks are proud of our Olive produces.....Olive can be used as....blah blah blah...."

"Now, look on your left, see those sheep? They are harvested for meat and wool. Collected wool would be used to make the 'world famous' Turkish Carpet...the carpet is blah...blah..blah..."

"Now, look at your right again...are you looking? You better look at your right...Now that's also a Oliv....hey, I said look right! HEY!! Keep that speaker on! It is on? Make sure it's on...please listen to me nag about what a great country Turkey is...I said we don't import anything except oil!! hahaha...now we are passing another Olive plantation...blah...blah..."

AARRRGGHHHH....would you just shut up!! You fat annoying Basturk!! As if the bus ride isn't enough a torture, he had us listen to him lecture and nag about what a "great nation" Turkey is...haih...you can't imagine how relieve I was when he said we're reaching our destination and that he have to stop talking...whew...


Finally reaching a ferry port after many hours...the view of the sea was a soothing sight for my sore ass and now bleeding eardrums....Will be continuing our journey by ferry from here...


Originally wanted to take the picture of the Japanese chic in front of Li Jia.....but Li Jia started posing, so I had to take her...

We were in the bus for a long long time(Okay Randy, we got it, stop repeating!!). And we all had a little too much drink and had to take a leak....so...


Can't find a better place to piss at! haha....Geli bo lu?? Anyway, they charged us 50 yen just to use the toilet...


Taken atop the ferry...wished I had a better camera that time...


Reached this hotel very late at night...the first night in Turkey was spent here....in case you are wondering, night time in Turkey is not bright like daytime in the pic(duh..)...this was taken the next day...


The toilet inside the hotel rooms....had to admit that this two bowl setting took me by surprise as I wasn't sure what to do with the left bowl......was I suppose to wash there after shitting on the right one? or was it the other way round? Damn.....it was quite a while before realizing that I'm in an Islamic country. Seems that the left one is used to wash feet before prayers....duh..


The all famous Turkish bath....you pay to bath a naked lady. WOW!!! I could be the owner of that hand pouring water on that naked lady!!!

The bed felt very very comfortable for some reason that night.....especially after a hot shower. Must be because we haven't bathe for 3 days and not slept on a proper bed for 2 nights. Woke up feeling very fresh the next morning...had a hearty breakfast, packed my bags, headed outside smiling, looking forward to the day that awaits me....then I saw the Basturk and realized I have to spend another 4 hours listening to him nag again...

NOOOOoooooo.....

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.