My Istanbul Winter Trip: Hello Sultanahmet!

Salam semua...mesti ada yg perasan post yg be4 this....tried to upload a vid but the file is tooo big and Internet connection kat rumah ni is toooo snail pace, i think i just have to cancel nawaitu to load the vid. Penat ja buat....huh...! Oklah, nk start citer dah...

We went to Istanbul with Qatar Airways. Bought the tix during the 3 days sale. The tix was rm1900++ all in. Cheap eh? The cheapest i found so far. If u guys read my last last last new year's eve post entitled 12 places i want to visit, Istanbul n Rome were in my wishlist.

Anyway, we departed in the morning..Sapa yg nak naik Qatar Airways from KLIA, i advise u to do online check-in beforehand. Bukan apa, Q for those yg x online check-in, mak aii, 3km long... Serious..! I think it will take almost 2 hours...Ada lebih kurang 100 umat yg berator. On the other hand, if u already have yr e-tix, u will walk calmly, with no hassle whatsoever to the designated counter, with no one, i repeat no one queuing in front of u.. Heavennya rasa waktu tu... I told myself.."pak arab2 ni sumer, x reti nk online check-in ke..? Sanggopla berator berejam..." We sent our bag, p makan, lalu semula kat counter, my gosh, the Q was longer... Oh, we got 25kg each for luggage..x guna habis pon...travel light kan...?

How's Qatar Airways? Patotla menang skytrax award... They were great! Dah rasa mcm ular kembung dlm flight... X sempat nak lapar...x makan, minum, x minum, makan... Tngk movie...ada bnyk movie die...lebih dr MAS rasanya...Pekerja smiling 24 hours...aman hati rasanya... Patotla gaji air hostess mereka mahal, coz 24 hrs bekerja.... Cuma waktu balik, i had a complain..but will tell u all later ah, waktu balik...

Top: Blanket, kit2 dlm pouch n small pillow.
Bottom left: Inside the plane, bottom right: layan Adele...la..la..la...

Jom makan...

 We had to transit at Doha..Qatar Airways kan..mestilah ke Doha... very short transit of 70 minutes. i purposely chose the short transit. No intention to stop longer..regret it later..hu..hu... so, turun2...terus ke next terminal of departure. We had to ride a bus to and from the terminal.

Qatar air space. Lawak plak tengok rumah ala2 kotak kasut...he...he... Ni outskirt area sikit rasanya coz once we
were nearer to the airport, the buildings are more modern.

The journey to Doha took us 7hrs ++ while the journey to Istanbul from Doha was 4 hrs. Dlm flight yg ni, tv rosak..huh...baru puji tadik...may be coz short haul flight kot...down sket quality.

Our maiden glimpse of Istanbul...Excited nehhh...

Process at the airport was smooth. We took the metro. Signboards were everywhere. One would surely not get lost here.

This is the metro at the airport. Havalimani means airport in Turkish

U need to buy a jeton (3TL) for each ride regardless of
the distance (above). So, untungla sapa naik jaoh2...

The journey from the airport will take u about half an hour to reach Sultanahmet. From the airport, u need to stop at Zeytiburnu, cross the street to the other side, buy another jeton and get on the next tram. Sultanahmet, Sirkeci and Eminonu are all on the same line which is the line to Kabatas. U can also buy Istanbulkad at the designated kiosks. The only kiosk I knew was the one at Eminonu. I think there's one at Sirkeci too. If u have the card, u will only have to pay 1.95TL per jeton/ride. Cheap, isn't it..? It's just like our touch n go card where u have to reload it (at the designated kiosk i had mentioned) once the money finishes.

Ini rupanya Sultanahmet! We reached here at about 6.30pm. Winterkan..gelap awal..Ahhh..hate that! Not good
for travellers like us!

One thing I like about winter trip is the cheaper price in everything but the downside are u need to tolerate with the  bad weather and earlier nights...[sigh...]

From GoogleMap, our hotel is just 10 minutes walk from the tram station but in reality...kalau bwk bag, jalan atas jalan batu2 jarang2 mcm kat Istanbul ni, mau 1/2 an hour... But, we did find a short cut later on during our stay... Silap kami jugak p bwk bag troli..But, how on earth would we know that the walkways are like that? jarang2 mcm gigi rongak...x ada pulak tngkp gmbr batu2 jalan tu...or else i can show u... i think those who were already been there would understand what i meant...

After asking people, we arrived safely at the hotel...Ahhh...bahagia tol rasa dah sampai... Turks are very helpful. They are always willing to help u even though they are not so good in English/couldn't speak at all...kadang2 mcm itik ngan ayam, kita pon anggok beria mcm la paham...they showed right but they uttered left, mcm2 lah... The weather at the time we arrived was 13 degree celcius..Ok la, not so cold... From our room, we could see the Blue Mosque di sebalik cabang2 Astro Turki nyer aerial...Ha..ha...

Tu...! Nampak x?

OKlah folks, guess i'll stop here...I will tell u about our hotel in another post...:)

Till then!