Travel - Work Holiday in New Zealand

Originally wanted to blog more on my Turkey trip BUT I received my application result for the New Zealand Work Holiday visa! 

I was kind of in a daze for awhile staring at the monitor, trying to digest what does "APPROVED" means. YES, it is more than just approved, it means ADVENTURE, my next adventure.

Sometimes in life, it is about taking that leap. I have decided to take that leap and now I am preparing for the next one, and I believe there are more leaps to come.

Purposeful Traveller - I think I will not be able to sleep tonight

Travel - Ihlara Valley

Ihlara Valley hike was part of the green tour I took (120TL, about SGD 72) and it turned out to be the highlight for me!

The underground city was awesome, but I did not expect this hike so it was like a gem found. The 3km hike was leisure and not tiring, the weather was perfect, cooling and I did not perspire at all!! Kind of made me miss that place now that I am back in Singapore where I perspire the moment I step out of bathroom. >.<

The valley was formed from volcanic eruption many donkey years ago

It is actually a pretty long route (14km if I am right) but we did only 3km, someday I hope to return and hike all the way!

We have to climb down these stairs before reaching a small monastery

Then the hike begun, just follow the path along the river.

See, I can even wear long sleeve to hike.

Surrounded by Mother Nature

There are many different valleys, with different hiking routes. Let's hope one day I can return for more. Cheers.

Purposeful Traveller - Gem found.

Travel - Goreme, A Unique Landscape

From Istanbul, it was a 10 hours journey to Goreme (which is in Cappadocia). Trust me, I was pretty reluctant to take the bus because can you imagine I don’t even do such long bus journeys from Singapore to Malaysia (e.g. to Penang) anymore but here I am taking such long hours bus ride in Turkey. >.<

The bus ain’t those super VIP with just 27 seats like those we always take for long journeys. It is a 46 seater bus. We went with Metro Turizm for the bus ride because they have a pick up point near Taksim Square. The cost of the ticket is 60 TL (SGD 36).

The bus do have mini-TV to every seat BUT all channels were in Turkish. -_- The seat was comfortable, but for a 10 hours ride it can still be quite exhausting at the end of the journey. They do stop a few times (3 maybe?) during the journey and each time was for about 30 mintues or so. What impressed me was they served drinks (coffee, tea, juices or water) at the beginning of the journey and each time after the stop over.

ANYWAY! After the tiring journey, we reached Neveshire where we have to change to a smaller bus for the transfer to Goreme. Goreme was a total change of landscape from Istanbul, all those rock formations and valleys were simply gorgeous!! I love it!

Arriving at our accomodation - Taskonak hotel. I totally love the dining area which overlooked the entire place. Simply breathtaking!

The room is alil small but other than that everything was great! The host was very hospitable and helped us to arrange the tours and bus tickets. We paid cash and was given a 10 euros discount, we paid 98 euros for 2 nights (16 euro/pax/night) quite a good deal! 

We stayed 3 nights in Goreme and were able to take sometime to enjoy this beautiful place. As we reached on day 1 morning, we did a brief walk around Goreme town and chanced upon OZ Cappadocia. We booked a ATV Sunset Tour for 70TL (SGD 42) and it was lovely! 

All the dirt and dust was worthwhile! It was an awesome sunset caught in the valley! 

We did a red tour, costs 100TL (SGD 60), which covers these....

Uchisar Castle (from afar)

Goreme Open Air Museum 

Views in/from the Open Air Museum

The Devrent Valley (Use your imagination and guess what the rock formations resemble)

Fairy Chimneys

The 3 beauties... -_-

This kind of sums up the red tour which lasted from 9plus to about 5pm. This is more like a sight-seeing/photo taking tour. lol.

What I enjoyed is actually the green tour! Gonna blog again!

Purposeful Traveller - Be in awe

Travel - Cosmopolitan Istanbul

Arrived in Istanbul exhausted from the long long journey but I am thankful to meet a kind Turkish professor on a public bus who shared with me lots of useful information and directed me to the road which led me to my hostel.

First impression of Turkey is a plus.

There is a Havatas bus that can bring us to Taksim Square. The bus stop is located right outside the airport, and the cost of the bus ticket is TL 10 (SGD6)

Like I have said, without the professor's guidance we might be lost for awhile but he was very kind to bring us to Istikal street from where we have alighted which is slightly away from Taksim square.

A trademark of Istikal street

Walking down Istikal street is like walking along orchard road, the street is crowded and there are many eateries and shops. I like the cosmopolitan vibes that come from the street! At the end of my 3 nights stay, I did not regret staying near Taksim square instead of the old city.

Yes it is this crowded!

Turkish delights?

Literally dripping with syrup

Kebab!!!

Endless graffiti that I loved!

Taksim Square at sunset. 

One of the more interesting experience I had in Istanbul was watching Maleficent! I did check with the counter staff if it was in English and from what I understood, it was a yes. Guess what? I watched Maleficent in Turkish.

It costs me 10 TL which is about SGD6, so we just sat through the 2 hours watching since we have time to spare! hahaha.

Purposeful Traveller - Something interesting happens each time you try something new!