Istanbul! Day 1

Firstly, it was Erin's 5th birthday recently on 3/3/13 but since everyone is not in a pinkest of health and not so much in festive moo...

Firstly, it was Erin's 5th birthday recently on 3/3/13 but since everyone is not in a pinkest of health and not so much in festive mood, the celebration was put on hold. Infact she was supposed to resume schooling on the day but was put on sick leave, by mummy he he he. If you guys still remember, we just came back from Umrah trip on her 4th birthday, and this time, from Turkey trip, on her fifth. She's either lucky or unlucky in this case. Lucky because she got an oversea trip for both consecutive birthdays, unlucky because well, having a birthday so near to date coming back from holiday can be bad since everyone is tad too tired for any celebration.. Only after few days, after every one is in good shape, I went to look for some things for her goodie bags and ordered cake so that she can bring to school and celebrate with her friends. No theme lah since everything is last minute done. Semua caca marba based on what the shops had ha ha ha. Only for the cake, I requested for Rapunzel theme. Anyhow, too little time given, a friend of mine whom I ordered the cake couldn't really come up with proper decoration that suits my requested theme. It is lovely still, to my opinion, despite short notice.

Therefore, happy 5th birthday kiddo.. Love you to the moon and back.. Besar dah kamu Nak :)





A bit on pregnancy, I'm putting a lot of weight, visually, although my gynae said both baby and me is underweight. Craving wise, nothing too obvious or unbearable. My sickness almost gone and my health is improving. For now, people saw me as 'berisi' instead of pregnant if you know what  meant. Nothing much different from my previous 2 experiences only some minor drastic change worth mentioning. I am not so into of milky drinks. I rather am an 'O' person. Teh O, nescafe O.. But lately, my preference have twisted almost 360 degree. My day is not complete without nescafe susu or milo! Mind you, the last time I took nescafe was well, maybe during my teenage years but now, I drooled the moment my mind thinks of Nescafe.. Can't leave without it duuhhhhh.. Caffeine baby nih..

Ok, moving to Istanbul bit.. 

Our flight is morning flight, at 7 am so we had to be at the airport at 4 am. Everything went smooth, no delay whatsoever. We reached Bahrain an hour after and took connecting flight to Istanbul after an hour transit. An hour transit is like no transit at all since you need to board at least 45 minutes before flight time. Reached Istanbul Ataturk Airport around 3 pm. Malaysian is among countries that doesn't need visa to enter Turkey therefore, the custom clearance was pretty much straight forward. Collect our bags and immediately headed out as the hotel representative has already waiting outside with our transport.


:: Camwhore while waiting for hotel pickup. The airport transfers was arrange by hotel with cost of around 50 euro ::

:: Inside pickup. They sent 2 pickups for 16 of us and we shared with Anis's family since Kak Anis's family is bigger in volume and they need one pickup all by themselves ::

Our hotel was handpicked by my husband after few heated arguments. You know, when I was told to pick a hotel, I was more on the interior, how nice the toilet is, how pretty the balcony, how big the room will be and yada yada yada. Where it's geographically located was least of my concerns, usually ha ha ha. So when my husband pick this hotel, Faros Hotel Sirkeci for it's practicality and location wise, I was forced to agree. First, because he was the one paying! Secondly because the majority agreed. Enough said, I was made to convert into liking this hotel almost immediately so should any of you planning on visiting Istanbul, please stay at this hotel. You'll understand why.. Well since I have extra time on hand, I'll give you few reasons why..

  • Location : strategically on the main street of Gulhane in Sirkeci area where souvenirs shops, restaurants, pharmacy are just few minutes walking distance.
  • Located by/on the main tram line (whichever you deemed suitable to use he he he), which is very very important factor since tram is main public transportation in Istanbul to roam around. Not to mentioned, cheap. Gulhane Station is only like 2 minutes away. Trust me, this is crucial factor especially if you're travelling with minors like me. After walking the whole day, you will wish that the tram station is located right smack infront your room door.
  • The room is modern, spotless clean, staffs were friendly, cheerful and very very helpful.
  • Located within 10 minutes walking distance from main tourist attraction like Grand Bazar, Spice Bazar, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace and Hagia Sofia, just to name a few. And yes, we did walk to Blue Mosque and Topkapi on our second day because we haven't purchase our Istanbul Card yet so I can safely confirmed, it is within 10 minutes walk as claimed in TripAdvisor.


4 cukup lah ehhhh...


:: View of Sirkeci stretch from our window ::

:: The hotel ::

:: The restaurant downstairs where we had our breakfast daily, and also suppers most night ::



:: When I said BY/ON the tram line, I'm not joking. You can see the restaurant window and how it is so very near with the passing by tram? You can actually see the tram passenger's face pretty clearly while having your breakfast ::


Journey from airport took around 20-30 minutes, depends on traffic. Settled check in matters, collect maps and some info from hotel front desk and went straight to our room. Pray and bundled up in warm clothing since it was very cold outside. We headed for dinner and also to purchase our Istanbul Card near Spice Bazaar if time permit. One good thing about tram system here is you don't have to purchase Istanbul Card for each and every family members. Just buy one card, top up enough amount and you can swipe it multiple times. Kids below 6 is free but due to Asian kids size was smaller compared with European, some kids did getaway even being older than 6 years old.There will be inspector standing by and he'll decide if your kids should pay or not. As for me, both my girls travel for free so only both of us have to pay. The fees was like 1.95 turkish lira per station so it's very economic.

Another info, most restaurant here provide free pickup to and fro restaurant so basically should you have any restaurant recommended by internet or friends, you can actually get the hotel staff to call and get them to arrange free pickup for you.

:: Going for dinner. I didn't put on boots because I am too lazy to dig for it, plus I was thinking pregnant people usually had higher body temperature and this is also the time where my extra fat could be beneficial. I was soo wrong.. Biggest regret ever! I can't feel my toes 10 minutes after this. Luckily I always had socks in my handbag for solat purpose so I quickly put on those while seating down for dinner. Didn't help much but better than nothing ::


:: Speechless. Anak no 2 biasa nye ehemm ehemmm ayu dan sopan kah kah kah! This one here is an exceptional case ::


:: Tuan tanah yang 'berkembang' dengan memberansangkan sekali ahakkk.. Shop behind me located just across our hotel and you know what, they're about to close/relocate in few days to give way for hotel construction. Therefore, when a shop is about to close, it's only natural they letting go most of their stuffs with pretty good bargain although they didn't really go loud and vocal about the clearance sale. We did a lot of 'investment' here he he he. Even though, at some place you can get certain stuffs cheaper, but considering the fact that you had to carry all the heavy purchases all around Istanbul, cramped inside tram, plus the tram fees, it's all come back to the same or almost similar price. Anyway, by buying here, you can escape all the abovementioned the hassle! ::




:: Mister was sharpening his photography skills. Bagi can laaaa hehe. Honestly, I think this picture came out quite nice and artistic. The PICTURE yer! Not me! Kang ade yang kata perasan plak :) ::

It was such a pleasant brisk walk. While checking in, the hotel staff recommended us to try out local cuisine at one famous restaurant called Hamdi, located at the end of the road, maybe 15 minutes walk. She said, they had among the best authentic grill and kebab and that's where we heading actually.

:: Tram and cars and motorcycle shared same road here in harmony so you need to really watch out where you going. Since the road was pretty small, allocation for pedestrians is minimal so you'll need to be extra careful and watch your back when walking. Pay extra attention to kids cause they tend to loose control focus and running around ::

One thing I loved about Istanbul is, they had many varieties of street food available. Being Malaysian, we loves our hawker and street food don't we? This one below is one example. It sells grilled chestnut or locally called Kestane. If in Malaysia, we have fried chestnut, here they grilled it. Although, I prefer our version more, Turkish version is no less charming in it's own way. Ours are more lembut and lemak while grill version is slightly keras in comparison and tasted somewhat raw sikit sebab you can't grill the chestnut for too long, unlike fried. Hangus jadik nyer :). Erin loves it no matter what. We ate this like a tonnes during our stay. They're everywhere. They also have like jagung bakar and jagung rebus and also pretzel-like local bread which you can find abundance.



:: Istanbul is a very famous holiday spot among Malaysian besides London so we meet actually quite a lot of fellow Malaysians everywhere we go. The movie Istanbul Aku Datang also I heard contributed a lot to Turkish tourism hehe. This lovely family of 3 we blessed to meet and greet was on their transit to Mecca actually ::

:: Haiyaa alas solahhhhh ::


:: If you didn't know already, we had twins travelling with us. Being twins is a huge thing in Turkey because I think twins are a rare sight here. Travelling with twins in Turkey is similar like travelling with celebrities. They caught everyone's attention and we were stops almost everywhere by onlookers. Some want to snap photo, pinch their cheek or tap their heads and some just adoring them. Sure enough, the twins hates the unwanted attentions so much ha ha ha ::


:: Place where we had our dinner. The food is nice but the price tags is quite high. Infact, just keep in mind, the moments you stepped in any restaurants or eating places worth called restaurant in Istanbul, do expect he price to be slightly on the higher side, at times almost triple compared to get-go food ::


:: Shop that caught my attention due to it's odd position. It is located in between pashmina and spices shops. The temperature is so low so arrangement like this is acceptable. The goods doesn't produce any smells at all and there's no fly whatsoever ::

:: After dinner, we still had ample time before shops closing time so we decided to do a quick look at Spice Bazaar. The name tickled all of us he he he ::




:: A friend recommended this shop called Aladdin. The shopkeeper is overly friendly and welcoming. The served us a feast. Warm apple tea and generous tray of turkish delights. Some of us buy soething here and some of us don't. Me for instance, didn't buy anything because I couldn't decide on what to buy. Due to it's super near location to our hotel, we agreed to come back again on our last day to pick our souvenirs then ::

:: Dried food ::

:: Ermmmmmmmmm huk huk huk *cough* cough* ::


:: Wide spread of tea. If you noticed, Turkish loves aromatic tea and fruit or flavors tea ::


:: Another product of Turkey, sabunu or homemade soaps ::



:: This makes a nice souvenirs I reckon. Pretty to look at, nice to smell ::



:: Turkish delights ::


On our way back, we stopped by a kebab shop since most of us still feeling hungry. 


:: You can see that the worker used some special tool to slice the meat so the thickness is even and equal. Then another worker will weigh each portion using the red scale in the picture. Such precise for a 3 lira kebab I think he he he ::



:: Camwhore while waiting for kebab ::


End of Day 1, alhamdullilah..







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