Ottoman glory

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Back in Istanbul. Still waiting for a call from Sam, who's supposed to meet me in Istanbul last night! As usual, something bizarre must have happened, like missing his flight to Turkey or something. The last time he didnt call was when he went into coma after an accident! I couldnt do anything without a confirmation from him, whether to check into a room or not. Dropped my bag at a friend's friend's travel agency and headed to the Topkapi Palace, aka Ottoman empire's central. Most of the sultans ruled from here, until a rather flamboyant one built the european-styled Dolmabahce Palace, which is also where Ataturk (founder of modern Turkey) spent the remainder of his days. The Topkapi Palace museum boasts quite unusual artifacts, like Prophet Muhammed's beard hair in vials, his letter to a king declaring Islam IS the path to enlightenment (ie everyone must adopt Islam or else they'd be really sorry..), his mantle, swords and bow. There were even swords from each and everyone of his disciples. The most bizarre items will have to be St John the Baptist's skull and his mummified arm in a partly ruined gold-yielded cast, bones and tissues in excellent condition! eeww... Then I wished I'd own the museum when I stumbled across one of the largest diamonds on earth, the 86-carat spoon diamond, so called because the stupid person who found the diamond in a rubbish dump thought it was a fake and exchanged it for a spoon. Tough luck dude!

As I was enjoying the view of the Bosphorus and Golden Horn atop the Topkapi Palace, finally got the call I was waiting for. As predicted, he lost my number when his friend dropped the phone into a swimming pool. Had I not call his friend earlier that morning, he'd still not have my number. The good news is he's in Turkey, the bad news is he's not in Istanbul. I got quite pissed off cause I'd just arrived in Istanbul that morning, and have to catch a ferry to Bursa the same day, I've barely explored Istanbul. And instead of travelling around the country in a loop, I'm heading in all different directions, north south east and west, which is a complete waste of time and money...and energy as well. Then again, I havent seen Sam for almost a year now, so I was quite excited as well.

Bursa lies south of the sea of Marmara, once a capital of the Ottoman empire, it is now the fourth largest city in Turkey and home of Iskander kebab. Yum... We checked into a 3-star for 4 nights where the room was like freaking USD100/night!! Thankfully paid by Sam's bro's business associates. All this while, I've only been staying in backpackers, it's bout time I enjoy some sorta creature comfort at someone else's expense haha. First thing that came into mind was room service. One night we ordered about 4 items on the menu, the waiter that took the order asked how many people were dining, thinking that he was just asking to make sure they bring the correct sets of cutlery, I casually answered two. 20 minutes later, the food arrived and we had double of everything we ordered!! And the canned fruit juice I ordered mysteriously transformed into a mocktail which suspiciously tasted like cocktail, decorated with an umbrella, orchids and firesparkler. They must have thought we were throwing a party or having a feast. We had a good laugh over it but the next day when we found out that the company was only paying for the accommodation, we didnt find it quite as funny... Cause we had also consumed all the chocolates, nuts and drinks in the mini bar... -_-

Çekirge, a suburb in Bursa, has one of the oldest hamam - Eski Kaplica. Coincidentally, Sam's bro's was staying in Kervan Saray thermal which is just next to the hamam. Again, being freeloaders, we made his bro pay for our scrubs and massages. The hamam which probably dates back to the Ottoman period, has a sense of exoticism quite to my liking. There are separate male and female sections, so you're not under pressure of being stared at and shit... was just so relaxing, lying on a marble platform being scrubbed, lathered with tonnes of foam, and massaged, surrounded by voluptuous naked turkish women (not suggesting anything here :p). Kinda makes me feel 'humble' bout my own physique.. I walked out of the bath, never felt so clean my whole life. I bet if I ran an index finger down my skin it'd even made the sound of a squicky clean glass.

We drove up to the snowfields on Uludag one afternoon, and had et mangal for lunch, which is a really fun BBQ that involves Q-ing the bread as well as the meat and veggies, then you sprinkle the herbs and spices onto the BB and try to make it look as tho you're formulating a magic spell. We ended up sitting around the pit and chucking massive amounts of herbs onto the charcoal for an aromatherapy session... Later in the evening, we drove down to the seaside in Mudanya and had seafood for dinner. Such a marvellous thing to do... up in the snow and down by the sea on the same day.

Bursa used to be the end point of the Silk Road, but it's still got a bustling silk industry, as demonstrated by the Koza Han bazaar and its never-ending alleys of small little shops. I'm quite a shopaholic myself and was really impressed when I didnt spend a single penny on anything! Well except for a little tea break...erm...and dinner (which got me into a whole lot of trouble, but not telling you now, will elaborate in my next journal). Chatted up with the extremely friendly waitress at the restaurant, and was told that she's earning about USD40 a week doing 12 hours each day. That's a pretty crap pay considering Turkey is quite an expensive place to live in.

After spending 5 days here, we figured it was getting a bit boring and it was time to move on.

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