Day 1 : Arrival and First impressions...

The Airport...same problems here - where's the front?? (ckn pana pic)

The Istanbul International Airport was, in my opinion, just like any other European airport, so it was easy for us to find our way around. Getting past immigration was easy, esp. since Malaysians do not need a visa to visit Turkey. I even managed to ask the officers if Turkey already celebrated 'Baygam Ramazan'!

We changed some money at the airport - went to the place with the highest rate. But I forgot a cardinal rule; some money changers charge a commission... oops... Too late for that, but we had some Turkish Lira to last our trip into town.

4Es posing at the arrival exit (Mohamed pana pic)

As promised our Hotel sent a driver, Mohamed, to meet us. Pity he didn't speak English too much. We got on the van and sped off towards our hotel in the Sultanahmet area. The journey took about 20 mins, but it was a holiday so traffic was light. We were treated with a nice ocean view all the way up to the old city walls, when we dived into the old roads behind the Blue Mosque and up to Divan Yolu road, where our hotel was.

The Star Holiday Hotel - the doorway is between those 2 restaurants in the background (Ezal pana pic)

Let's get this out of the way - the rooms were small. Smaller than my master bedroom. Smaller than my stomach. AND it was a crooked L-shape to boot. It was a family room with 3 beds (yay!), but the furniture didn't fit in the akwardly shaped room (boo!)...but then again this wouldn't be that kind of holiday where we would spend most of the day in the hotel, would it?

This room was crooked! but it was comfy and clean for the most part (Ckn pana pic)

We'd planned to rest once arriving at the hotel, which we did - but not for too long coz we were really excited in getting on with the program. The hotel location was exactly as our friend, Razman Hashim, suggested - it's minutes away from all the tourist sites in Sultanahmet, and it has a killer view of the Blue mosque (...from the breakfast terrace, that is).

That's our room (1st floor, the 2 bottom right windows). Yes, our room faced the back alley (Ezal canon pic)

We did get about 37 winks, and after getting the kids ready, we all ventured out to start our holiday proper! But first things first - LUNCH! We decided to just buy a packed lunch and find a place to picnic, especially considering it was already past 1pm and the day was nice and warm.

Our first stop for the day would be the Topkapi palace - not by choice really; we were supposed to have cleared the St Sophia Museum and Basilica Cistern, but the _long_ queues scuttled those plans. To add insult to injury, we experienced the one thing that would always test us with the kids...baby strollers on uneven brick roads!!

View of the Blue Mosque from one of the Cad (Alleys) next to the hotel. Notice the brick roads? (Ezal canon pic)

Resources:

Star Holiday Hotel. 3 Star(!) hotel, our main base of operations

• 60 Euros a night for a family room (considered cheap I think for the period and location). Comes with so-so breakfast (learnt a new trick - take natural or plain yogurt, and flavour it with ...honey! Nice)
• Pros : Location was perfect! Restaurants were plentiful (but high prices - it is a tourist area!), but there was a small tuck shop nearby selling cheap water etc. Kitchen facilities (well, it was the hotel bar kitchen, and I used the facilities). Views to die for (at breakfast!). The staff were warm and helpful (Yassin and Altin Ditko)...shhh, a McDonald's was just an 8 minute walk away...
  
• Cons : Little crooked room! No lifts, so we had to take a lot of stairs. Oh yes, our view was of the offices BEHIND the hotel...
  

Day 1 : Predeparture at Khartoum, Flight on THY...

Day break on Eid, somewhere north of Khartoum (ckn pana pic)

People who have traveled to Turkey in the past would usually take Royal Jordan airlines - their return flight included a one day stopover in Amman (so people would have gotten a 2-for-1 holiday). However, we decided to concentrate solely on Istanbul, and since it's best for us to minimise transit times, then I decided to get tickets on Turkish Airlines (THY).

The only problem with THY is that they do not operate daily flights to and fro. But it worked out for us since we would have one week for our holiday; going out on Friday 12th and returning on Thursday the 18th.

Our flight was scheduled at 5am on the morning of Eid (in both Krt and Istanbul), so we bundled the kids and our bags and left the appt by 3am. Our night driver, Sadiq was on standby, and he even called us up just to be sure. The airport was a hive of activity, considering it was early morning! But it was a routine check-in for us, Alhamdullilah.

Group pic of 3Es - the fourth E was busy... (ckn pana pic)

We met several of our friends at the airport that morning - the Egyptian Air was leaving an hour after us, and this year's choice destination was Cairo. Ehsan was excited at the airport and was continuously running up and down the waiting area to immigration. As always, I was deemed the master of 'travel-diaper-exchanger' (Ckn had the first round with Erica, but she went again, and Ehsan had a rare 'double'...euuuw)! We had to use the public loo, and at one point I had Ehsan standing up on the toilet bowl so that I can use the hand bidet to wash him. An unused filing cabinet was made the changing area. I guess I'm now an expert at this (it started with planes!) and I can handle the stares and smirks easily!

The THY flight was a connecting flight from Addis Ababa, and they were delayed by an hour - Ehsan used that time to clean half of the waiting lounge with wet-ones...

Trick Photography- they look to be the same size, don't they! Both kids had their PJs on because we just took them straight from the bed to the airport (ckn pana pic)

Anyway the flight did arrive and we boarded to a half filled plane and since this was a connecting flight, we found out that other passengers had been bunking on our empty chairs. People were still arguing to be seated as the plane rolled onto the runway! But by this time, the 4Es were tucked in nicely for the trip (I was hoping that all the activity would make the kids sleepy...how wrong I was!). Our flight was scheduled to take approximately 4 hours (which it did), but the time passed nicely and Ehsan was not that unruly, considering.

Our Eid feast - omelette's with turkey and cherry jam (ezal pana pic)

We touched down in the Istanbul Attartuk International Airport at 10am local time (which was the same as in Krt). So far so good!

Resources:
Turkish Airlines. National airlines from Turkey

• Pros : Very good service (e.g. both baby strollers were delivered at the plane door), good food, plane was new and comfortable (definitely more room compared to Austrian Air)
• Cons : Flight out of Khartoum was delayed, and disorganised. Seat assignments were only given at check-in (but priority were given to us)

Gadgets Galore in Istanbul

Like any other trip that I've taken (including trips back home), I've always been in charge of the gadgets that we have to pack and bring - with the express intention of using said gadgets during the trip. It can go from the 'take-for-granted' (ie phone charges) to the bizarre (travel hotplate and bowl for cooking rice...hey, it was useful!)

Well after several holidays and taking into consideration that we are a young family, I knew pretty much what kind of equipment we needed to bring to 'document' our trip to Istanbul (ala Sir Richard Attenborough...)

Cutey, Chubby, Cheeky (Ckn pana pic)

Canon 350D Digital SLR - big macho camera used most of the time by moi of course, since July 2005!

I brought along only 2 of my lens, taking into account that I would only bring either one on our daily outings (it's cumbersome and too heavy for both). The first lens was a Sigma 10-20mm super ultra wide angle lens. I bought that recently in KL exclusively to be used during this trip (it's shown above attached to my DSLR), especially with the promise of beautiful vistas and landscapes of the city. I also used this lens for interiors, considering that some had really high ceilings (look at the background pic - this is a wide angle pic of the inside of the Blue Mosque)

The second lens was a Tamron 18-200mm zoom lens. I've had this for some time now, and it was recommended by a good friend, Arman, late last year. This is my workhorse lens; excellent for the walkabouts, interiors, and closeups of the kids.

Mean Boy at work - so I had to use the zoom lens and take this from far away...! (ezal canon pic)

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01 - This is Ckn's camera, which had its first full field test in Istanbul. In our earlier travels, the main complaint that I would receive is that the monster Canon (hehe) would not come out as often as Ckn would have liked.

So she was adamant that we also invest in a pocket camera, to capture those opportunistic moments. I wouldn't have considered this camera had it not been for (a) its excellent capability in capturing 640 x 480 25fps MP4 movies, which were better than my vidcam (more on that later) and (b) it came in a nice matte Black finish (matches the monster; none of this grey/silver digicam crap, thanks very much!). Anyway, the camera performed very well (just look at the Dervish pic at the top and the one with Cheeky in this post). I don't have a pic of it being held due to its size and Ckn's preference to keep it in her jeans pocket.

Sony Handycam (Can't remember the model number!). Finally, for our video needs, we went back to our nearly-2 year old handycam. Sony really knows it's stuff; this little wonder was invaluable in capturing videos of the holiday. It's cheap to run as we use MiniDV tapes, and the size is a bonus. If you don't have a vidcam and you're looking for a cheap reliable one, then buy a Sony. I originally invested in this when preparing for our move to Sudan, and I've had no regrets.

Alas, we lost the function of the fold-out screen; it just died (witnesses say they saw Ehsan fleeing the incident...). We could still use the eye-piece, but it got harder to use. Hopefully we can repair it in KL later on. Nowadays, if we need to get some fast videos, we just use the Panasonic.

Gorillapod SLR. This is a special camera tripod that was a present from Ckn for my 32nd Birthday (she took the trouble to find out about this device from our wedding photographer, Zainul Firdaus, StudioLine Photography). Take a look at the link and see the monster-legs in action! the funny thing is that I only got to use it once in the St Sophia museum - before 2 policemen came to me and 'politely' reminded me - NO tripods! auuw shucks...but not before I took this pic :

Inside the St Sophia museum. Pity it was full of scaffolding used for the ceiling restoration (ezal canon pic)

Tamrac Velocity. All that gear was initially carried in the Tamrac camera bag that we brought - we used the bag for a few days, but because we decided to carry Erica exclusively in the baby carrier, we decided to use the Deuter as our main mule (...hmm I was carrying the Deuter...so that makes me the ...mule?)

Philips World Stewardess. Finally, we also brought along our iron. Trust me - it's essential! sure we may have gotten it at the hotel, but we couldn't be sure. And with Ckn's tudungs and my shirts, the stewardess proved invaluable for our trip to Istanbul.

Preparation : Istanbul - Travel Plans

So far we've been progressing well on our preparations for our trip next week. We've just got back our passports, with a 1 year extension on our temporary residence permit and multiple entry/exit visas.

As I posted earlier, we've confirmed how we're going to move the kids around. On October 2nd we had a late night discussion to plan our itinerary; the exact hour-to-hour breakdown of our holiday! Ckn beat me to posting about this, so you can read it over at her blog


Field test in Progress : Using the Tamrac Camera sling-bag at Assaha Restaurant. I recently got this bag in KL to carry all our camera gear for the trip. I think Ckn will use the Tamrac, and I'll be taking my beat-up Deuter day bag to carry the kids stuff and misc.

The main things that drew the boundaries for our trip was of course the kids. Unlike our last holiday to Egypt with my parents, we'll be traveling alone this time. Also, we needn't worry about Erica's transport because she was 'attached' to the party (...she was resting peacefully in her mama's tummy. I don't think her mama was restive however...). This time around, we have to factor in the mobility and limits of the kids.

We came up with a plan that allows for at least half a day of sight seeing, with ample time to rest in the afternoon, followed by some light plans in the evenings. Taking into account the time we have in the city, we've divided our plans to cover several areas in Istanbul :

• Sultanahmet - Old Istanbul; This is where all the main Ottoman and historical sites are. We'll be staying here as well so most of the places we want to see will be minutes away


• Galata - North of Sultanahmet, across the Goldn Horn. This is 19th century Istanbul (or older?). There are embassies and Parisien style buildings here, with a museum and a palace
  


• Bhosphorus Sea - The main ferry terminal of Eminonu is also north of our Hotel. We hope to catch a cruise to get a vista of Istanbul from the sea.
  

• The Bazaars - There are 2 or 3 bazaars in the area, the biggest being the Grand Bazaar, followed by the Spice Bazaar. I know it'll be full of tourists and may not be the cheapest place to shop, but then this is a once in a lifetime visit!
  

We've also planned some must-do things in Istanbul, and hope to do all this in our down time after the sight seeing during the day:

• Watch a swirling Dervish dance

• Shop! I hope to find a Hereke kilim rug to hang in our home, some unique decorative plates, apple tea, a Fez hat for Ehsan, and costume jewelery for Ckn. From what i read, shopping in Istanbul should be a nice experience!
  

• Experience a Hamam - a traditional Turkish Bath, with soap massages and a sauna

• Dine - I guess Turkey is known for it's kebabs, but we hope to find a decent fish meal as well

The biggest challenge I feel is the timing. We'll be going before or on Eid and we expect the city to be 'different' because of the holidays; closed businesses, busy-than normal public transport and the crowds. The sites ought to be opened, but I'm emailing the hotel for assistance on some of our other plans. It would be lovely to see places outside of Istanbul, but I think we won't do justice to the city; so all our plans will focus on Istanbul (for now...)

Preparation : Istanbul - Children Conveyance

Well the 10 day countdown to our family escapade to Istanbul will be starting tomorrow. We've been preparing a lot over the past few weeks - tickets and the hotel, but I still haven't sorted out the main deliverable - our travel itinerary! Ckn has been a dear in finding out all there is about the city and Turkey in general, while I've been doing some research myself. I think we've agreed on the places we'd like to see, but we haven't figured out the order that we do so.

One of the main things nagging me is how we will be moving about, the 4 of us. Due to the weather and the amount of walking that we expect to do, we think bringing Erica's stroller and our Mothercare Onyx 3 way carrier (hehe all technical, natch!) would fit the bill.

I tried the carrier on with Erica first - she seemed comfortable, and with the lumbar support, so did I. But that was for about 10 minutes, walking in the house. Would we both be able to stand the sun, pavements, uphill downhill walks? In the end, we decided to bring both strollers and the carrier as well - that way, we can choose the appropriate conveyance for the kids to match our travel plans.

Ehsan wanted a piece of the action, so after testing the carrier with Erica, we tried it on Ehsan. Well, let me share the experience - do not consider putting a 2+ yo child in the carrier! he was moving all about, my back was killing me, and he kept playing with my head...and more importantly - we both just looked plain silly in the contraption!