I am back!

It's only been about 3 hours since i reached singapore after a 10 hour plus flight from Istanbul but i am already wishing that it was still last week when i was typing the previous post and waiting to get ready for the flight to Turkey.... I guess it 's my 'Holiday withdrawal symptoms' at work again.. The flight back was shorter than the flight there and more bearable.. I guess it was also because the flight attendants were friendlier on the return flight. On the flight to Istanbul, i think all the passengers owed money to the flight attendants.. Their faces were BLACK!! and they were ULTRA unfriendly...Although i must say that the leg space was the most i have experienced so far, but the flight was ruined by the Very very thin cushions of the seats, the unfriendly flight attendants... After the flight, most of us suffered from aching necks, legs and butts...Haha...

Finally reached Istanbul around 6 am, was met by a quite cute looking guide.. haha.. Proceeded to visit our first site.. I think Turkey is very intriguing... Majority of the population is Muslim but yet there's a visible european influence in the achitecture and the streets... Went to visit Blue Mosque.. Very exciting.. 1st time in a mosque.. and probably will be the only time.. Quite an interesting experience.. took lots of photos... After that went for our first lunch in Turkey.. Didn't really know what to expect..















This was the first day's lunch.. and i still think it was one of the best meals we had in Turkey..The chicken pieces on the plate were removed by HAND from the hot skewer by the cook!! Ouch! I feel pain for his hands...After that we went to visit St Sophia, a church that was converted to a mosque... Interesting right? But it was a pity that there was a metal structure inside it that was built to support and prevent the dome from collapsing as the structure spoilt the entire view...

I shall not go too much into detail about the entire itinery.. I went hot air ballooning though!!.. Very fun! Cooling and hot at the same time.. Haha... It was very hot when the pilot pressed the button for more fire and cooling when we went higher.. It was very overwhelming when we first reached the spot for the 'take-off'. The balloon was huge.. Went for turkish bath too.. though it was quite a disappointing experience... The people didn't really put too much effort into it. We all felt like we just went through a production line. Some were lucky and had a thorough scrub and massage but others were not that lucky.

But i think the most enjoyable was the Bosphorous cruise... It's a strange feeling to be neither here nor there. You have asia on one side and europe on the other but yet when you are on the cruise, you are unsure which side you belong to. But but but... the houses on both side of the Bosphorous were AMAZING!! Amazingly huge too!..Most had their own private pool. Some were the equivalent of 2 bungalows added together in singapore.. Our guide said the minimum that one had to pay to buy a house there was 5-6 million US Dollars!!! Minimum eh!

A few interesting things were having lunch in an underground restaurant, smoking the water pipe, visting the ancient cities, making voice memos on my cameras so that I would not forget what did the different stones represent and trying their local food, although HS did suffer as most of their food came with cheese. Most of us were not used to the food so we depended on bread to fill our tummies..Bread in the morning, afternoon and evening.. Think the entire group will be very afraid to see bread these few days.. Haha

There were very interesting people in my group.. There was a lady that always had an umbrella opened even when it was not sunny or raining.. We had people that came from Philippines and Indonesia to join the tour...

Anway i have to go bathe soon.. See ya all soon...