Turkey Travel: The House of Virgin Mary, Selcuk

Few distance away from Basilica of St John is where the House of Virgin Mary (Turkish: Meryem Ana) located. The House now serves as a small chapel.

Once we saw the house, my mum request for a picture here. It's not easy to take clear picture of the house and you alone because other visitors want to take picture too. =P

The admission to the House of Virgin Mary is free but you can make an offering inside the chapel. 

You can get holy water here. If you want to bring back and give it as nice souvenir, you can buy the water at the souvenir store which is located near the exit. 

There is a praying wall where you can knot your prayer to. 

I suppose it's really awesome to be able to see a lot of religious sites in Turkey. =)

Turkey Travel: Basilica of St John, Selcuk

After visiting a lot of mosques in the first few days of our trip, today we are going to basilica of St John which is located in Selcuk, near Ephesus.

This place too, has an awesome-looking entrance-ticket. 

The ruins of the basilica, which is used to be a church. 

Here lies the tomb of apostle John. 

A bit random, but the view from up here is gorgeous. =)

One last shot of the ruins at Basilica of St John. Can you spot me and my mum in the picture? Hehe.

Turkey Travel: The Grand Mosque of Bursa

On our 2nd day in Turkey, we visited one of the famous religious site in Bursa, the Grand Mosque of Bursa.

There are a lot of monumental wall inscriptions inside the mosque, to be exact there are 192. The inscriptions are written by the famous Ottoman calligraphers lived in the late 1300s, when the mosque was built.

Closer looks of the Islamic calligraphy. Wikipedia states that the mosque has one of the greatest examples of Islamic calligraphy in the world.

There is also a fountain inside the mosque where worshipers can perform ritual ablutions before prayer. 

How the ceiling looks like. There are a lot of small windows at each dome, from where the lights can come inside the mosque.

You can really feel the peaceful atmosphere inside the mosque. 

The Grand Mosque of Bursa is located in the old city centre of Bursa on the Ataturk Boulevard.

Turkey Travel: Local Turkish Food at Kervan Lokantasi Restaurant, Bursa

We are ready for another Turkey food post *drum rolls* *stomach growls*. (I become the most excited tourist when it comes to food).

Second day in our trip, we realised that whenever the local food are served, two type of food are always there on the table.

First, the bread (watch out for the flies, I'm serious!)

Second, salad. The one with the olive oil, not caesar dressing. Do you feel healthier now by watching this picture? Hahaha. 

And then, I got bluffed by the tour guide. He said that the innards soup is the best soup served by this restaurant. Well, let's just say...I did not really like it and ended up eating my mum's tomato soup. =S

I like the meat though. Carnivore indeed. 

More meat coming up! This time it's chicken. 

There are other food served by the restaurant so if you do not come here by tour group, you may be able to choose what you'd like to order. The menu is in English. =)

Turkey Travel: Blue Sky Blue Mosque at Istanbul

Second day of the trip and we are going to visit the famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul. On the way to the Blue Mosque, we saw an obelisk. It's called Obelisk of Theodosius. For a moment, I thought we have teleported to Egypt. Hehe.

The obelisk is located near to another historical spot in Istanbul, the ancient Hippodrome of Constantinople. The entrance to the Blue Mosque is located just opposite the hippodrome. 

As there is a quota of how many people can enter the Blue Mosque, we have to wait for a while for our turn in the courtyard. Do note that there are certain rules that you must follow before you can enter Blue Mosque. For a start, you have to take off your shoes and put them inside a plastic bag (provided for free at the entrance). Another thing, women must wear head covering inside the mosque (not hat, more like fabric or shawl). 

The mosque has a lot of windows and they look so pretty when the sunlight shines on them. The tour guide told us that most of these colored windows have been replaced with newer and more modern versions and not the original ones. 

The roof and the walls are made from handmade ceramic tiles. Awesome, right?

Blue Mosque is located just opposite the Hagia Sophia Museum. So you should visit these two historical places of Istanbul at one go to save time.

Turkey Hotel review: Ramada Istanbul Old City, Turkey

After our hearty dinner at Buhara 93, we rode our bus to the hotel to spend the night. Our hotel is called Ramada Istanbul Old City. For reviews for Ramada Istanbul Old City, you can visit the link here.

This is how the room with twin bed looks like. I'm sharing this room with my bro. 

The breakfast is served on top of the hotel. The best part is you can go out to the balcony and see the bustling view of Istanbul in the morning. 

There's a metro in Istanbul. Sadly, I had no chance of riding it. 

The neighbourhood surrounding the hotel. Looks pretty cool I think. My cousins are busy taking pictures of themselves with the Turkish flag after my shot. ^^

You can check up the Tripadvisor link here to get more details on the hotel price and location if you are interested. 

Buhara 93 Restaurant, Istanbul

We reached Turkey pretty late, around dinner time. So our first activity in the Anatolian land is...EATING. Which I love very much. *glutton*

Our tour guide brought us to Buhara 93 Restaurant.

Love the homey decor of the place.

The restaurant has a lot to offer however since we came with a tour, what we are having for that night are pretty much pre-determined.

We are in awe of what being served in front of us. Is that a bread?? So big! O_o!

I love eating tomato soup and so happy that this is not the first and last I eat this dish in Turkey. 

The Turks don't really eat rice however since I came with tour group from Indonesia (we are a very avid rice-eater!!), the restaurant serves us grilled chicken with rice. Hahaha. I don't mind not eating rice but I suppose I appreciate this. =P

If you want more details on the restaurant, you can check out this link. I'd say the food are pretty good but I can't really comment on the price because this dinner is included in our tour package. 

Coming soon: Travel story from Turkey

Hello!!! I know I don't really travel a lot so much but I'm so happy that finally I'm able to together with my family for a trip to Turkey! Yeayy!

It has no relation to study in Taiwan whatsoever but since I love posting stuff here, I figure I should just continue posting my travel story here (lazy to create a separate blog). Ke yi ma? =P

This trip is pretty special for me because I've been wanting to go somewhere exotic and far away from Asia (okay, Turkey is technically half Asia half Europe but..). I want to share a lot of beautiful pics from the trip with you my lovely readers! And probably it will encourage you to go there as well! Hehehe.

Okay, enough for now. Stay tune for travel stories from Turkey! =)

For now, here is a sneak preview of the sunrise in Istanbul. <3

My precious collectibles (or junks) from convenience stores

Ever since I moved to Taiwan, I've been joining the craze of collecting gifts from the local convenience stores. The idea is you will receive a sticker from making purchase (min NTD80 I think) in the convenience stores. The stickers also looks damn cute! This is the ones that I got for Doraemon promo way back then. 

And then you grab the small booklet for the coupon. You can get the best gift if you collect the maximum number of stickers. However, if you are not that hardcore fan of convenience stores, you can redeem the gift (the smaller ones and sometimes, the not-so-interesting ones) by collecting probably 8 stickers, depends on the promotion.

I'm a hardcore 711 customer (and so does majority of Taiwanese). So yeah...=P

It is not easy to redeem the gift even though convenience stores are basically everywhere in Taipei. Why? Because of the fierce competition. If the gifts are good, people will go crazy and hence, OUT-OF-STOCK! Arghh! I only managed to get my Doraemon gift in convenience store located at..Taoyuan International Airport! Heck. (I was picking up my friend, not purposely going there for the Doraemon. XD)

It's a cute alarm clock. I supposed that's why people want to collect them. 

I got Nobita's alarm clock which I suppose suits me well because I love napping so much that I do that everyday after having my lunch. What a pig, right? Haha. 

Do check the convenience stores' promotion while you are in Taiwan. You never know, you may be able to get something cute by buying things there. And oh boy, they do sell interesting things! =)

How to order bubble tea in Taiwan?

Taiwan is an island of bubble tea. And they make a yummy one. I have become a bubble tea addict here.

And 50lan is my most favourite bubble tea in Taiwan (not necessarily the cheapest..huuu).

Every bubble tea stall has an extensive menu. Since I still have a bit of difficulty reading all the mumbo jumbo traditional characters, I usually go for the easy options. 

Like the most standard one 珍珠奶茶 (Zhēnzhū nǎichá/ Bubble Milk Tea).

Although it looks simple, there are few questions that the seller will ask you when you order a drink (and hence, the main reason of why I write this post):

1. The size of the drink

There is usually more than one size for certain bubble tea flavor sold in Taiwan. Either you get the normal one (中杯/ Zhōng bēi) or large one (大杯/ Dà bēi)

2. The sugar level

Just like bubble tea stall in Singapore, there is sugar level option for you to choose from. And in Taiwan, the options are usually shown like this. I usually go for 70% cause I have a sweet tooth (少糖/ Shǎo táng). 

3. The ice level

I was a bit confused when the seller ask me this question because I simply never heard this before. I mean, usually the ice level in your drink is pretty standard right? Not in Taiwan! Just like the above sugar level, you can choose how much ice cubes to be put into your bubble tea. I usually go for 少冰 (Shǎo bīng) to make ordering pretty much easier. Hahaha. 

If you cannot decide you can just say "Normal" (正常/ Zhèngcháng) to both the sugar and ice level. 

Now, go grab yourself a cup of bubble tea. And feel the accomplishment when you manage to order one successfully. LOL. 

Taiwan Travel: Alishan Forest Recreation Area, Chiayi

The trip to Alishan would not be completed without a visit to Alishan Forest Recreation Area. And the entrance to the forest is pretty nearby to our hotel (see link).

The walk through the forest is pretty magical I must say.

The trees here are the elders. You can see from the roots under the trunk. 

We passed by two lakes called JieMei (Sisters). It was named JieMei because it is said that two aboriginals could not find love and committed suicide here. U_U.

The smaller one is the Little Sister Lake.

The bigger one is the Elder Sister Lake. It has two wooden "love pavilions" built on it. Wait, isn't a bit contradicting? =P

Moving on, we see the "Three Brothers" in tree forms. They are named "Three Brothers" because of their similarity in shape and height. 

And after that, we saw another tree trunk which apparently named "The Pig-shaped Old Stump". Can you see the resemblance? Hehe. 

The trail is long and go deep inside the forest. We did not really finish the trail due to time constraint so we went back to our hotel after reaching the pig-shaped-stump. Oh well. This is the end of our Alishan trip. =)