Across the Land

My Kampung, Wallace Bay. This was my last trip of the year 2012 which is taken annually and free of charge. Although my family and I have been going back religiously since more than 12 years ago, it had been only this year I seriously wanted to pay real attention to the place I called my hometown. Maybe it is this middle-aged syndrome..It has not grown much physically which I felt relieved and it still retained much of it old characteristics. I wish it had more tourist attractions that I could enjoy and blabber about but there are not many. And I'm 'scared' to advertise this small town for tourism because of just one thing. Its cleanliness.  It's dirty and smelly in most parts especially the eating places at Taman Sabindo. Even the area near KFC. This really put me off!  Although other areas might be clean, the phrase that echo in my mind is, ' Tawau ni comot dan selekeh'. Common, Majlis Perbandaran Tawau. But.... Tawau is still my hometown. Wallace Ba...

This is the final post on my November Turkey trip. No more bus tour. This was a walking tour. A friend told us that two days are not enough to cover the huge city of Istanbul and she is right. Even with 5 days extra we still didn't have enough for shopping, eating and sightseeing, especially sightseeing. I felt disappointed for not having another go at the Blue Mosque, especially performing a solat in there and it was so near Ayasultan. I really love this part of our Turkey trip because we were able explore more of the city  at our pace and to absorb in a little bit more the life of the Turkish in the city especially during our shopping sprees. We asked some questions and had conversations to the point that we talked about our families (a few could speak English). The result? We got special price for a few things that we bought. We also relished the variety and savored the flavors of food, curiously entered the eateries and bakeries and ended buying one of each product. Fortunat...

Day 8 (20 Nov 2012) After traveling about 4 hours from Cappadocia, we reached Ankara at 1 pm, timely enough for our lunch. Ankara is the 2nd largest city and the capotal of Turkey, and has 5 million population. The big Ankara Slum on the hill.

Cappadocia, land of natural wonders. It includes Kaymakli, Gerome, Uchisar, and another four centers.   This post is quite long because we stayed here for two nights and visited many places like Kaymakli, Gerome Open Air museum, Valley of Imagination, Carpet making centre, jewelry centre and other view stops. More than half of us went up the air balloon trip.

Day 4 (Nov 16, 2012)

We checked into the Pine Bay Hotel the night after stopping at Anatolia Taste, the Turkish Delights shop. After putting the luggages in the room, we went to have our dinner at the OMG huge dining room. The buffet spread was in another section separated by doors and our table was far down at the back, I was afraid I might spilled the food on the way. I posted a number of pictures about the hotel because I had never been in a hotel with a very big dining area before. It seemed that the hotels we stayed the nights could accommodate many, many guests with the exception of the boutique hotel in Coppadocia. Below is the beautiful view behind the hotel. Pine Bay is located on the shore of Aegean Sea. I didnt know this until I saw the pictures in the camera. Heck, I missed it!

Canakkale is located in the Marmara Region. Kolin Hotel in Canakkale