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I have never been to Turkey before. Does anyone have any tips?
(BTW, my hotel has free Wireless Internet) :)
Also check out a Whirling Dervish show.
[youtube.com...]
I spent 2 weeks in Turkey a few years ago. If you're into exploring ancient ruins you are going to love it there.
Can't wait to go back :)
What happened to Singapore?
Singapore has been postponed. My daughter and her fiancee came home for a holiday themselves a couple of weeks ago when they were invited to a friend's wedding. So we felt there was no point in visiting them in Singapore right now. We'll leave that until xmas or early new year hoepfully.
The food was fine but didn't agree with me so, I spent plenty of time on the toilet.
I don't know if they still make a charge for a visa at the arrival airport - if they do, I strongly recommend you ensure you get your passport stamped with the visa. One guy in the huge queue for payment of the visa eventually reached the front of the line, but in the chaos when he handed over his money, he failed to get a stamp on his passport. He had to go around to the back of the queue and hand over another fee.
I rented a car and drove around quite happily - however - do watch out as there don't seem to be many rules of the road and quite often three vehilcles were overtaking eachother on the wrong side of the road.
The people were very friendly and I felt perfectly safe walking around.
Have fun!
WRT driving, I think I'll be content to wander around on foot or take a bus or a dolmus. I have no notion of driving over there.
Oh, and I think you might need some jabs. The FCO site has some further info. [fco.gov.uk]
One final tip - they don't queue in Turkey - elbows at the ready and puuuuussssh! :)
Anyway have fun and wear a money belt!(they lifted my wallet there)...KF
I was actually pleasantly surprised at the levels of hygiene and cleanliness there and the weather at this time of the year was absolutely perfect.
We went for a genuine Turkish bath which was a nice experience. The seafood is the best and cheapest I have found on the Mediterranean. The food in general is also good.
My only complaint would be the constant harassment from the touts outside the bars and restaurants. They really need to put a stop to this. You cannot have a conversation while walking along the street for these guys interrupting you. What's worse is that many of them won't take no for an answer.
I mean what part of "I don't want a shave/lunch/dinner/English breakfast/Turkish bath/excursion/four t-shirts for £10" is it they don't understand?
I was actually pleasantly surprised at the levels of hygiene and cleanliness there
Yes, me too. And all sorts of other refreshing progressiveness too - like a super-efficient country-wide intercity bus network. So my response these days to people who say "Oh, Turkey will never be part of the EU," is to say: "But Greece already is!"
Turkey may be taking a step backward though. The party in power at the moment not only wants to get rid of the headscarf ban on university campuses (which is, admittedly, an anti-libertarian measure, but it's a safeguard against anti-libertarian forces of a more sinister kind) but ratify a new constitution which makes it impossible to every bring in such a ban again.
I mean what part of "I don't want a shave/lunch/dinner/English breakfast/Turkish bath/excursion/four t-shirts for £10" is it they don't understand?
It's Pavlovian. So many rich Western and Japanese tourists have said no to them the first six times they asked and then caved in, they think it's a sure-fire way to sell stuff.
