Places : Istanbul 4

The Grand Bazaar is a place everyone talks about. A must-go place in Istanbul. One of the largest and oldest market, over 3,000 shops, 61 covered streets, more than 300,000 visitors daily. Fancy.

We got a chance to go there on our last day. I wanted to buy little trinkets that I can bring back home and that was my only chance. My mom was determined to find a good leather bag/s with a great deal because we've heard so much about the place and its leather. 

We went in from one of the entrance. I saw 2 things : people and colours. The over-whelming crowds, never-ending long paths in the maze of items and too many local shopkeepers. I can't buy things in there, that was exactly like the last time I was in Beijing and we visited the huge 5-levels building that claimed to sell pirated stuffs cheaper than any other places or while I was in Pasar Baru in Bandung. 

It's a tourist trap - waiting for people to fall in like a huge pitcher plant waiting for its victim. I knew this by the eager look on the shopkeeper's face and the smell of dishonesty. Call me a cynic or whatever, I can read human by what they portray on their outward attitude and appearance. This is a repetition to every place I've been to. Frustrating reality.

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We went in to the leather markets. Coats, bags, hats, briefcase, hanging everywhere. The place smelled like a room full with animal skins. We looked around, trying to find the price range for those things. 

"Ze bag iz 500 Lira", that's around RM 1,000 for a fake Burberry.
"I want local leather, do you have anything local?", I asked.
"Local?"
"Local, here. Leather, hand-made from here. No brand".
"No brand? No-no. Burberry you no like? Gucci? Ferragamo?"
"No, I want no brand". 

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"How much is this one?", showed him the little white bag.
"300 Lira".
"What? No".
"Yes, yes. It iz good quality, see?", he burned the leather using a lighter.
"Too expensive", we walked away from the shop.
"No, no, how much you want?", typing away the calculator fast, "180 Lira, good? Yes?"
"No, no thank you".
"Iz cheap, yes. 150 Lira", he then took the bag and put it in a cheap plastic bag.
"No, I don't want it. 100 Lira?".
Clearly annoyed and started talking in Turkish, "Ok, ok, 100 Lira".
"No thank you".

You see? It's a lying game. We bid the price. Innocent people get cheated, and I hate that. Why can't they just put a proper price tag on each item and give proper discount without having to cheat tourist? 

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I told my little group about avoiding those fake designer brands and try to find anything without those fancy brands. Maybe those things are still real leathers, perhaps local made and tagged with designer's brand just to lure customers or meet the current market's need. They looked, smelled and felt exactly like one - but the fact about buying fake brands just so you can have the tag/name written on your bag, is still wrong. 

I ended up not buying anything from the Grand Bazaar because everything was at least 100 Lira after discount - RM 200 for little leather bag isn't what I need. Finally, I bought bookmarks that looked like Turkish carpet from outside of the Grand Bazaar along the corridor of little shops. 

*I still got 1 bookmark left, avid book reader can send a comment down here to have zis. 

Thanks for reading zis long post ❤

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Places : Istanbul 3

After a long walk, lost in the city of maze, several talks with the locals, a medium-length Metro ride, we arrived at Sultanahmet station. It was raining heavily, we ran to the sidewalk and went into some shops at the corridor near the station. Merely looking at things until the rain stopped. 

People were everywhere. Tourist, locals, faces from all around the globes, variety of languages spoken among those crowds. A pure heart of Istanbul, we were heading to The Blue Mosque, or Sultanahmet. We went to the nearest little mosque for our Zohor prayer - having asked to pay 1 Lira to go to the pubic toilet to take wudu'. Clearly I was annoyed because we need to take wudhu' from little sinks cramped in a small toilet. Old ladies were having a hard time trying to balance of their body. Surely the government thought about improving their Mosque's toilet? After all, the city is crowded with thousands of people daily. 

After the prayer, we walked towards the Blue Mosque. 

The boys bought freshly squeezed pomegranate juice for 5 Lira, seduced by its red ripeness - no sugar, 100% juice, to learned that it does not tasted sweet at all. I challenge all of you to have a taste of it one day, so you would know, how to judge a taste by its looks next time :D

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We arrived at the mosque's area, snapping pictures away. Too many people, too many faces, all eager to take perfect pictures - can't deny that I was overwhelmed by standing so close to the majestic architecture myself. It was a magnificent beauty, and I was speechless. I wish we were more relaxed, slowly sipping in the taste of it, enjoying the view, taking more time, instead of rushing things off. But being in a group teaches us how to be tolerant towards each other, right? And we got countless of explorations to do in the next few hours before the night came.
So I took what I got. 

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And this is what I got, an awkward pose standing in front of the mosque, after my mom forced me to :

Nothing as bad as what I watched in Taken. Everything was light and vibrant, other than random riots, I think this is a safe place to travel alone, strictly using *streetwise 101 rules. Definitely a great place to return to, because it got so many places to be explored, little gems in hidden places and fresh vibes ❤

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Little Stories 81 : Little Urchin

"A ragged urchin", I silently thought.

In front of me was a boy as little as 5-6 years old, clear brown eyes, messy sticky hair and dirty cloth. He smiled mischievously at me. He spoke to me in language that I can't understand. He was pleading with his eyes, with his eyebrows pointed downward and his lips pursed so I would give him another piece of Batik DIY. I gave him 1 the day before and my mom said not to give him anymore or he would sell those later.

"No", I signaled with my index finger to him.

He pleaded some more and I thought "wow, this boy surely knows how to act", a bit obvious but innocently cute. He reminded me of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain that I've read when I was young and learned the word urchin for the first time.

I told my mom about how beautiful his eyes are. She mostly ignored me and asked me to handle the situation or the other kids will keep on pestering at the booth. I thought about a pack of choki-choki I brought from Malaysia. 

So I gave him one. He took it from me fast, clearly happy and ran off.

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The locals said that those wandering kids were not Turkish, they were Syrian refugees. The government gave a permission for Syrians to come and live in Turkey. 

PS : The beautiful little boy came again later the next day for his choki-choki. 

Thank God I bought a pack.

Places : Istanbul 2

On our 5th day:

At Taksim, we went exploring on foot. We found so many beautiful pathways and alleys, welcoming our exploration. The day was hot and sunny but we were hidden by shadows from old buildings and soothing cold sea's wind. We found a beautiful small bookshop and I asked the owner if he sells any map. With little English understanding, he nodded and passed his last copy of Istanbul's map in English version.

Beautiful place, ain' it?

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We used the map to know our rough location, but we were mostly lost in the maze of beautiful buildings and only aimed to go to the sea. It was enjoyable though, walking on random street, finding beautiful roads and shops, meeting local people. 

So we walked from Taksim Park to the sea port in Karakoy and towards Kabatas. And after half of the day spent walking, we decided to take a train ride to Sultanahmet. All decided randomly without any specific plans. The arguments over which way to go were endless, and we asked people several times to guide us. I don't know how my mom can actually go through it the whole day, but it was super fun. 

We were lost several times, but they were the good ones.

:)

I am pretty good with remembering roads and pathways, and quite good with navigating, so this, THIS experience, having to make use of my super-skill, felt totally awesome :D I need more of this, please.

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Place : Istanbul 1

I'm back ! 

I'm quite excited to type down all the things that I've experience so I can get it all out. So I'll write in category : the event, the weather, money, people, places, transportations, little stories, and such. Until I've had enough of talking about Istanbul. 

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About the Event :

It started when my mom received a call from Balai Seni Visual Negara during Eid. She was invited to participate in Malaysia Cultural Week in Istanbul for a week, fully sponsored; food, transportation, accommodation. She was asked to do demonstrations on Batik and teach Batik DIY to people. It was a great opportunity, so we told her that she should go. On one condition that she wanted one of us to go with her. 

On rational mind, I think spending around RM2,700 for a return flight ticket is a bit too much for me. But seeing that :

1) I was the only one with flexible time because I've never used my annual leaves.

2) I was the only one with personal travel fund i.e : money saved for traveling purposes.

3) My mom said she won't go alone - even if it was fully sponsored =.='

4) I only need to pay for the flight ticket. 

So I decided to go.

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Other than helping my mom with the preparation and booth, I taught people how to colour Batik. They were given 10 x 10 inch of fabric with waxed designs. We brought 100 pieces of Batik DIY, and brought back home only 1 piece. So you can imagine the crowd we had on those event days.

Among other participants : kain tenun, wau, potret, water colour paintings, teh tarik & roti canai, anyaman, manik Sarawak, tarian and other local specialties. 

There were people from all over the world; Kuwait, Ukraine, Turkey, China, Indonesia, Singapore, etc. English was not so useful though. Most of people that came by to our booth can't even speak English, teaching only by one obvious word per time and sign language. Kids were really easy to teach, adults can be really challenging. I should do this often.

There was also volunteers from Malaysian students in Istanbul that came to help us during our event. So most of the translations were done by them :D

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On our final day of the event, there was a protest by the local people around our event. I've never seen any live riots before. Things got bad when polices came to control the crowd, we were asked to stay in our booth, protected by the wire fence and security :F Things were hectic afterwards. Helicopters, police fired tear gases and people were running. We packed our things as soon as we can.

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The event was a success, we got overwhelming crowd and response, launching night was colourful and exciting, many new friends. Exhausting - but totally worth it. 

Read the news from Bernama and watch a short video I found on Youtube.

Places : Istanbul

Expensive flight tickets, lost passport, and confusing boarding time. 

If there are still stories for me to tell, I'll be back to write some more.

Behave, readers.

I'm off to Turkey.