Selama 2 minggu lebih kami di Istanbul, kami menginap di Hilton Bosphorus hotel. Sebuah hotel lama yg berprestij. Kalau tak kerana kursus my wife tu, memang le kami tak mampu nak duduk sini. Satu malam duduk sini nak dekat RM1 ribu! Sini memang agak mahal. Turkish Lira adalah 1.5 kali ganda RM.
 |
Ini lah Hilton Bosphorus. Ada beautiful garden besar yg boleh digunakan oleh hotel guests for a 1 km jog. Saya akui memang tak pernah pun mimpi nak duduk hotel cam ni. Syukur, dapat la jugak merasa.
|
 |
Biliknya besar. Balcony juga besar. With a beautiful view of the garden. Kalau nak bilik with view of the Bosphorus, kena la fork out RM1k++ per night. Ke RM2k++? Entah le. Dare not even find out...hihi...
Fyi, masa kami reached hotel, masa tu baru pukul 8:30 pagi and check-in time is 2:00 pm or earliest 12 noon. So kami ingat nak just leave our bags and start jalan2 ke town. But honestly we were very tired and a short nap would be heavenly. The reception staff knowing that we just got off a 10+ hour flight immediately made a call [may be to house keeping kot] and check if there is a room available [standard room]. She asked us to have a seat first at a [luxurious] sofa near reception while she tried to help us. Tak sampai 15 minit, she said yes, they do have a room and we can check-in in 15 minutes time. Like, wow! We really thanked her! Bila room dah siap, kami terus ke bilik and took a nap. It was such a blissful nap :)
|
 |
Bangun dari nap kami rasa lapar sungguh. So apa lagi, cepat2 bukak bag dan out came maggi mee...hahahaha.... Nothing like an instant fix to tackle hunger like mee segera..hihi.. And let me tell you, at that time the maggi mee had never tasted soooo good...hihi....
Ok, ni first few photos of Istanbul that I shot. Of street and people. Hence forth, I took thousands during the 2+ weeks duration. Literally thousands. How do I cope with the shameful and ridiculous total of shots [hahahaha...]? Saya bawak small laptop and external drive. So bila memory card penuh, transfer je ke computer and back em' up :).
|
 |
Dekat2 area hotel ada banyak restoran/cafes. Later2 saya found out belah2 malam, tempat2 tu sgt happenning. But that's not our cup-of-tea.
|
 |
| More eateries. |
 |
Dan ramai pelancung2 Arab.
|
 |
One thing Istanbul city ni saya suka sebab nampaknya semua dah settle. I mean tak der on-going projects la, jalan2 tutup sebab upgrades la, you know stuff like that yg buat nampak city tu cam tak siap lagi. Sini semua dah settle. Of course la ader juga a few here and there tapi tak le bothersome.
|
 |
Ini at the edge of [entering] the famous Taksim Square. Ada teksi stop. Teksi sini ok sebab pakai meter. Nanti later2 saya cerita story saya naik teksi kat sana.
|
 |
Ni Taksim Square. Ambil masa lebih kurang 15 minit jalan kaki dari hotel. Di sini juga ada the central station of the Istanbul Metro network. Later2 during the week, our tour guide kata, Taksim Square ni for the locals is the meeting place. Dari mana pun mereka, kalau nak kemana-mana, mesti kumpul jumpa kawan2 di Taksim dulu. Pas tu baru gerak ke tempat yg nak dituju.
|
 |
Kami noticed ada a few gerai kecik merah ni. Mereka jual roti, jagung bakar mostly. Mereka ni legal i.e ada kebenaran bergerai di situ. Once I saw [a few days later] ada penjual2 yg bertempiaran lari bila kereta polis [mini car] make its round.
|
 |
Once kami saw the Big Bus Istanbul, kami got very excited. Memang dah dari Malaysia my wife suggest kami try this bus tour. She said it'll be like a good initiation to know about the city. More of this later.
|
 |
Tengah2 Taksim Square ni , ada tugu called the Republic Memorial untuk memperingati Bapa Kemerdekaan Turki, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. From one side, Ataturk diabadikan sebagai seorang jeneral tentera yang mengetuai Perang Kemerdekaan Turki pada tahun 1920. Pada arah yang lain pula, Ataturk digambarkan sebagai seorang pemimpin rakyat kepada penduduk-penduduk Turki yang terdiri dari petani, pekerja dan orang kebanyakan.
|
 |
Suasana di Taksim Square. Sangat ramai tourists. Mungkin sebab Summer kot.
|
 |
Tram yg boleh dinaiki untuk ke Istiklal [Independence] Avenue which is a shopping street. There will a post on Istiklal Avenue later2 :).
|
 |
Kedai2 di pinggir dataran. Ramai wanita khususnya pelancung yg pakai garland bunga2 kat kepala mereka. Cute really.
|
 |
Di sini juga banyak restoran2 makanan segera. Daaaaaaging je sajiannya!
|
 |
Kami ada makan di salah satu restoran2 tu. Later2 akan saya buat satu entry pasal makan di sini.
|
 |
Ni pemandangan Istiklal Avenue. Ramai orang tapi tak la sesak sgt sampai tak boleh gerak. Kami bercadang akan ke sini dan jalan sampai hujung later that week.
|
Bersambung....
Di bawah ni saya senaraikan kesemua entries Istanbul saya:
11) ISTANBUL 2014 - Day 03 - PART 03 - PHOTOGRAPHY & WALKING TOUR - ISTANBUL UNIVERSITESI & RAGMEN SAHAF
No photograph may be reproduced, downloaded, copied, stored, manipulated, or used whole or in part of a derivative work, without written permission from Syed Amran. All rights reserved.
