It's been a long while since I've made a thread on PG, but don't count this as a comeback to the platform, only wanting to share the travelling adventure that I experienced in Turkey; the sights, enjoyment, food, hotels etc. I'll write a TL;DR at the end of each segment if you don't want to get bored reading.
Before I start, I'll post the currency rate of Turkish Lira (TL) being converted into both Pakistani Rupees (PKR) and Saudi Riyals (SR):
1 (TL) = Rs.36.56 (as of today).
1 TL = SR.1.35 (as of today).
My travel included 4 companions besides me and our initial planning stage had 6 cities to travel within 12days.
The cities were: (Istanbul -> Bursa -> Denizli/Pamukkale -> Marmaris -> Antalya -> Cappadocia). Due to unforeseen circumstances and in the interest of never having things go as planned we were only able to visit 3 cities: (Istanbul -> Antalya -> Marmaris).
So what were in those areas that we wanted to visit? I'll list the popular destinations that made us choose those locations:
Istanbul: Taksim Square - Sultanahmet/Blue Mosque - Galata Tower - Museums.
Bursa: Chairlift/Cablecar covering nearly the whole city.
Pamukkale: Natural Hotsprings.
Marmaris: Beaches and water sports.
Antalya: Duden Waterfalls and Antalya Aquarium.
Cappadocia: Hot Air Ballon ride.
Our flight was a direct flight to Istanbul's Asian side airport (Sabiha Gocken Int'l) from Jeddah through one of the worst local airlines (FlyNas).
Initial departure was at 9:30am and everything was still on time but the plane took off at around 10:15am. The air experience was OK and boring as all long flights are. The time to reach Istanbul from Jeddah through a plane is the same as reaching Karachi from Jeddah i.e. ~3.45hrs.
We landed on time at Istanbul airport (shocking, I know). We all already had our visas and everything so we were to just go straight towards passport control (there are also on-arrival visa booths and Pakistani Passports easily can obtain a Visa for leisure in Turkey).
After nearly an hour or so of processing through passport control we went to get our pre-booked shuttle service to take us to our hotel in Taksim Square (the most popular destination in Istanbul).
Sadly it was a weekend in Istanbul and the traffic was hectic, it took us around 2hrs from the airport to reach the other side of Istanbul where our hotel was located.
After freshening up a bit, we went out to explore Taksim Square and boy, it was completely European style in mostly everything; streets, alleys, chicks with casual wear etc.
Taksim Square is the most expensive area of the whole Istanbul. Mostly the reason being that nearly all the tourists like to either stay there or visit there a lot to shop. The Currency Exchange shops further along the line of Taksim had close enough rates mentioned on the daily exchange rate on the internet.
The food was hella expensive as well as the drinking water and cold drinks. One 0.5ltr water cost anywhere around ~2-3 TL at Taksim Square from the general stores!
A can of Coca-Cola or Pepsi cost about ~3-5 TL! Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
But if you move around and find street vendors selling water it would be 1 TL which is still expensive when converting to your own currency (as we found out that the price of 0.5ltr water should be 0.75 TL).
Taksim Square was entertaining as there was a lot of walking involved, we were seeing the chicks, historical places. There are clubs and bars which you should definitely avoid at all costs unless you want to be robbed of all your money. There will be guides who will try to persuade you to go into such clubs but avoid at all costs and you will be OK.
You will find Burger King, Fat Burger, McDonald's and Carl's Jr. (Hardee's as we know it) at Taksim Square and the prices for the meals nearly reflect the prices in our local countries, so if you don't want to get tired of eating burgers and what not then you can alternate between these joints for your lunch and dinner).
The smell of the food coming from the local shops or restaurants wasn't pleasant (we experienced this throughout Turkey), it sometimes made us feel nauseous and it will take a lot of time to adjust to the smell.
We did try Turkish Kebabs (kebap as they call it) and Shawarma (Doner as they call it). Kebabs were good, shawarma however was like WTF at times (being used to eating shawarma here in Saudi Arabia and you will also say WTF at what they served). Since Turkey is a Muslim country (LOL), beef and chicken were all said to be halal (even when we asked, further than that only ALLAH knows).
Alcohol was widely available at all restaurants and shops. Ofcourse there were pubs, clubs and bars as well.
TAKSIM SQUARE IN PANORAMAS
Our stay in Istanbul was of 3 nights; 1st day went exploring Taksim Sqaure, 2nd day we visited and toured the famous Sultanahmet/Blue Mosque, the Museum and a famous strip along the water coast where I smoked Sheesha/Hookah and we all ate Waffles and Baked Potatoes (which the strip is famous for). The place was called Ortakoy.
SULTANAHMET/BLUE MOSQUE
ORTAKOY
On the 3rd day, we visited a famous island, called Prince's Island, where a ship took us to the island, it was an okayish island if you're interested in Horse Carriage ride, cycle tour and walking along the coast.
If you're a Breaking Bad fan, you might've probably heard of a cafe that opened up in Istanbul that is themed after Breaking Bad, the last night I spent finding the place to see how it was.
The cafe was pretty good, not only in serving coffee and being cheaper than expected (honestly when you think of such themed cafes (you immediately think that they would be expensive as hell, but this cafe had the prices cheaper than most ordinary cafes), but they even let you take pictures wearing a hazmat suit that Walter White and Jesse wore when they were cooking meth under the guise of a pest-control company.
You may feel silly when taking photos, especially if your friends are not in the same fandom as you or don't even know what Breaking Bad is. We ordered Homemade Lemonades, a cappuccino and a latte.
Lemonade was pretty good, their own recipe. Cappuccino was okay as well as the latte. They serve nearly everything in chemistry lab equipment (beakers, flasks etc).
The cafe was pretty far, it was located in a place called Kardikoy and we had to change around 2-3 metro trains to reach the place.
This wrapped up Istanbul for us and we were on our way to Antalya (due to planning going to hell).
TL;DR: Istanbul is an expensive city in nearly everything, contains mostly historical places, has metro trains for easier travel.
If you live in Islamabad/Rawalpindi, then you'll feel right at home in Antalya. The city is pretty peaceful and everything shuts down at around 10pm at night. Yes, that happened in some places in Istanbul as well with some malls and stuff.
Antalya is a place with less public transport facility than Istanbul. It would be extremely wise to rent a car and travel around.
In Antalya the points of interest that we wanted to see were the Duden Waterfalls and the Antalya Aquarium which boasts to be the world's biggest tunnel aquarium.
Our first stop was at Lara Beach where you can see people sunbathing, doing water sports and what not. It was a pretty beautiful beach in 'many' ways.
After sitting around and walking a bit, we left for Duden Waterfalls, it was a sight to see, one of the most tranquil places and the sound from the waterfall was mesmerizing.
Next stop was the Antalya Aquarium and let me give you a quick tip, it was a HUGE disappointment (for me atleast).
It was my first ever aquarium visit (they have one in Jeddah but need a family to enter and haven't taken my family there yet). I was expecting a lot of sharks, heck even a whale shark or a great white shark but was hugely let down.
The ticket price for tourists was $35 and for Turkish Citizens it was 35TL. I mean WTF, looting off tourists...
They had fishes, many fishes, octopus, eels, starfish, crabs etc but I got very disappointment with the lack of sharks. They had different breeds of sharks but not Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos or commonly knows as a grey reef shark or just the popular shark.
Heh, I even found these heroes over there....
As soon as you enter the tunnel, it will be over as soon as you start enjoying it. Some big tunnel aquarium.
We also saw Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation at Deepo Outlet cinema, the ticket was superbly cheap that we got blown away; only 6TL per person. The cinema screen was decent enough and the sound system was superb.
This was what everything we did in Antalya, oh I forgot sheesha over there...
TL;DR: As soon as you land, rent a car and drive around. Popular places include Lara Beach, Duden Waterfalls and Antalya Aquarium (which is expensive and a huge letdown, if you haven't visited any aquarium then you can give it a go).
Marmaris, the summer city. Many say that all the beaches and activities going over there open only in the summer and boy the heat sure was unbearable. It took us a single bus of ~6hrs from Antalya that took us there.
Marmaris was the city where we had all the fun and did all the excursions that we planned for; Banana Boating, Parasailing and Jetskiing. Bonus points go the unexpected jeep safari and oh yeah we also got a Turkish Bath (Turkish Hammam).
Something for you to see what happened during a break when on Jeep Safari
Dancing Bikinis
All in all, Marmaris was pretty great and a fun city to be in during the summer.
Marmaris happened to be our last stop and after that we went back to Istanbul with 2 days remaining, where our return flight would be as well.
TL;DR: Marmaris is the best city for water sports. It is a summer city and should definitely be on your list to visit.
Nothing much done in Istanbul when we got back, only did some shopping and visited a few historical sites such as the Galata Tower.
Saw Ant-man at the cinema in 3D at Cinemaximum. The ticket price was outrageous! (compared to what we paid in Antalya). The price was 19TL per person and 3TL extra for the glasses. The screen was massive and the 3D was superb as well as the sound system.
THE TRANQUIL SIDE OF ISTANBUL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This pretty much wraps up our tour, with some of the things taken out from here and there. All in all it was pretty great and outstanding experience for us all and the amount of freedom we felt was awesomesaucetastic.
If you have any queries on hotels, food or anything, do drop by and ask.
Kyun? Sahi hai? [MENTION=4999]Pleasant[/MENTION] [MENTION=4177]NaNoW[/MENTION]
Before I start, I'll post the currency rate of Turkish Lira (TL) being converted into both Pakistani Rupees (PKR) and Saudi Riyals (SR):
1 (TL) = Rs.36.56 (as of today).
1 TL = SR.1.35 (as of today).
My travel included 4 companions besides me and our initial planning stage had 6 cities to travel within 12days.
The cities were: (Istanbul -> Bursa -> Denizli/Pamukkale -> Marmaris -> Antalya -> Cappadocia). Due to unforeseen circumstances and in the interest of never having things go as planned we were only able to visit 3 cities: (Istanbul -> Antalya -> Marmaris).
So what were in those areas that we wanted to visit? I'll list the popular destinations that made us choose those locations:
Istanbul: Taksim Square - Sultanahmet/Blue Mosque - Galata Tower - Museums.
Bursa: Chairlift/Cablecar covering nearly the whole city.
Pamukkale: Natural Hotsprings.
Marmaris: Beaches and water sports.
Antalya: Duden Waterfalls and Antalya Aquarium.
Cappadocia: Hot Air Ballon ride.
Our flight was a direct flight to Istanbul's Asian side airport (Sabiha Gocken Int'l) from Jeddah through one of the worst local airlines (FlyNas).
Initial departure was at 9:30am and everything was still on time but the plane took off at around 10:15am. The air experience was OK and boring as all long flights are. The time to reach Istanbul from Jeddah through a plane is the same as reaching Karachi from Jeddah i.e. ~3.45hrs.
We landed on time at Istanbul airport (shocking, I know). We all already had our visas and everything so we were to just go straight towards passport control (there are also on-arrival visa booths and Pakistani Passports easily can obtain a Visa for leisure in Turkey).
After nearly an hour or so of processing through passport control we went to get our pre-booked shuttle service to take us to our hotel in Taksim Square (the most popular destination in Istanbul).
Sadly it was a weekend in Istanbul and the traffic was hectic, it took us around 2hrs from the airport to reach the other side of Istanbul where our hotel was located.
ISTANBUL
Istanbul is divided into 2 sides; Europe and Asia and Taksim Square comes into the Europe side of Istanbul. Our hotel was nice enough to accommodate 5 people and had all the basic necessities; AC/Washing Machine etc. The WiFi was slower than a turtle (we experienced this at nearly every hotel on our trip).After freshening up a bit, we went out to explore Taksim Square and boy, it was completely European style in mostly everything; streets, alleys, chicks with casual wear etc.
Taksim Square is the most expensive area of the whole Istanbul. Mostly the reason being that nearly all the tourists like to either stay there or visit there a lot to shop. The Currency Exchange shops further along the line of Taksim had close enough rates mentioned on the daily exchange rate on the internet.
The food was hella expensive as well as the drinking water and cold drinks. One 0.5ltr water cost anywhere around ~2-3 TL at Taksim Square from the general stores!
A can of Coca-Cola or Pepsi cost about ~3-5 TL! Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!
But if you move around and find street vendors selling water it would be 1 TL which is still expensive when converting to your own currency (as we found out that the price of 0.5ltr water should be 0.75 TL).
Taksim Square was entertaining as there was a lot of walking involved, we were seeing the chicks, historical places. There are clubs and bars which you should definitely avoid at all costs unless you want to be robbed of all your money. There will be guides who will try to persuade you to go into such clubs but avoid at all costs and you will be OK.
You will find Burger King, Fat Burger, McDonald's and Carl's Jr. (Hardee's as we know it) at Taksim Square and the prices for the meals nearly reflect the prices in our local countries, so if you don't want to get tired of eating burgers and what not then you can alternate between these joints for your lunch and dinner).
The smell of the food coming from the local shops or restaurants wasn't pleasant (we experienced this throughout Turkey), it sometimes made us feel nauseous and it will take a lot of time to adjust to the smell.
We did try Turkish Kebabs (kebap as they call it) and Shawarma (Doner as they call it). Kebabs were good, shawarma however was like WTF at times (being used to eating shawarma here in Saudi Arabia and you will also say WTF at what they served). Since Turkey is a Muslim country (LOL), beef and chicken were all said to be halal (even when we asked, further than that only ALLAH knows).
Alcohol was widely available at all restaurants and shops. Ofcourse there were pubs, clubs and bars as well.
TAKSIM SQUARE IN PANORAMAS
Our stay in Istanbul was of 3 nights; 1st day went exploring Taksim Sqaure, 2nd day we visited and toured the famous Sultanahmet/Blue Mosque, the Museum and a famous strip along the water coast where I smoked Sheesha/Hookah and we all ate Waffles and Baked Potatoes (which the strip is famous for). The place was called Ortakoy.
SULTANAHMET/BLUE MOSQUE
ORTAKOY
On the 3rd day, we visited a famous island, called Prince's Island, where a ship took us to the island, it was an okayish island if you're interested in Horse Carriage ride, cycle tour and walking along the coast.
If you're a Breaking Bad fan, you might've probably heard of a cafe that opened up in Istanbul that is themed after Breaking Bad, the last night I spent finding the place to see how it was.
The cafe was pretty good, not only in serving coffee and being cheaper than expected (honestly when you think of such themed cafes (you immediately think that they would be expensive as hell, but this cafe had the prices cheaper than most ordinary cafes), but they even let you take pictures wearing a hazmat suit that Walter White and Jesse wore when they were cooking meth under the guise of a pest-control company.
You may feel silly when taking photos, especially if your friends are not in the same fandom as you or don't even know what Breaking Bad is. We ordered Homemade Lemonades, a cappuccino and a latte.
Lemonade was pretty good, their own recipe. Cappuccino was okay as well as the latte. They serve nearly everything in chemistry lab equipment (beakers, flasks etc).
The cafe was pretty far, it was located in a place called Kardikoy and we had to change around 2-3 metro trains to reach the place.
This wrapped up Istanbul for us and we were on our way to Antalya (due to planning going to hell).
TL;DR: Istanbul is an expensive city in nearly everything, contains mostly historical places, has metro trains for easier travel.
ANTALYA
If you live in Islamabad/Rawalpindi, then you'll feel right at home in Antalya. The city is pretty peaceful and everything shuts down at around 10pm at night. Yes, that happened in some places in Istanbul as well with some malls and stuff.
Antalya is a place with less public transport facility than Istanbul. It would be extremely wise to rent a car and travel around.
In Antalya the points of interest that we wanted to see were the Duden Waterfalls and the Antalya Aquarium which boasts to be the world's biggest tunnel aquarium.
Our first stop was at Lara Beach where you can see people sunbathing, doing water sports and what not. It was a pretty beautiful beach in 'many' ways.
After sitting around and walking a bit, we left for Duden Waterfalls, it was a sight to see, one of the most tranquil places and the sound from the waterfall was mesmerizing.
Next stop was the Antalya Aquarium and let me give you a quick tip, it was a HUGE disappointment (for me atleast).
It was my first ever aquarium visit (they have one in Jeddah but need a family to enter and haven't taken my family there yet). I was expecting a lot of sharks, heck even a whale shark or a great white shark but was hugely let down.
The ticket price for tourists was $35 and for Turkish Citizens it was 35TL. I mean WTF, looting off tourists...
They had fishes, many fishes, octopus, eels, starfish, crabs etc but I got very disappointment with the lack of sharks. They had different breeds of sharks but not Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos or commonly knows as a grey reef shark or just the popular shark.
Heh, I even found these heroes over there....
As soon as you enter the tunnel, it will be over as soon as you start enjoying it. Some big tunnel aquarium.
We also saw Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation at Deepo Outlet cinema, the ticket was superbly cheap that we got blown away; only 6TL per person. The cinema screen was decent enough and the sound system was superb.
This was what everything we did in Antalya, oh I forgot sheesha over there...
TL;DR: As soon as you land, rent a car and drive around. Popular places include Lara Beach, Duden Waterfalls and Antalya Aquarium (which is expensive and a huge letdown, if you haven't visited any aquarium then you can give it a go).
MARMARIS
Marmaris, the summer city. Many say that all the beaches and activities going over there open only in the summer and boy the heat sure was unbearable. It took us a single bus of ~6hrs from Antalya that took us there.
Marmaris was the city where we had all the fun and did all the excursions that we planned for; Banana Boating, Parasailing and Jetskiing. Bonus points go the unexpected jeep safari and oh yeah we also got a Turkish Bath (Turkish Hammam).
Something for you to see what happened during a break when on Jeep Safari
Dancing Bikinis
All in all, Marmaris was pretty great and a fun city to be in during the summer.
Marmaris happened to be our last stop and after that we went back to Istanbul with 2 days remaining, where our return flight would be as well.
TL;DR: Marmaris is the best city for water sports. It is a summer city and should definitely be on your list to visit.
BACK TO ISTANBUL
Nothing much done in Istanbul when we got back, only did some shopping and visited a few historical sites such as the Galata Tower.
Saw Ant-man at the cinema in 3D at Cinemaximum. The ticket price was outrageous! (compared to what we paid in Antalya). The price was 19TL per person and 3TL extra for the glasses. The screen was massive and the 3D was superb as well as the sound system.
THE TRANQUIL SIDE OF ISTANBUL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This pretty much wraps up our tour, with some of the things taken out from here and there. All in all it was pretty great and outstanding experience for us all and the amount of freedom we felt was awesomesaucetastic.
If you have any queries on hotels, food or anything, do drop by and ask.
Kyun? Sahi hai? [MENTION=4999]Pleasant[/MENTION] [MENTION=4177]NaNoW[/MENTION]
