#beyondayasofya - Ankara Part 3 (and a bit of Konya too)

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Part 1
Part 2

  We went back to the hotel and got the check in process done. The room was comfortable enough for 100TL. Well, minus that there was no air conditioner but it's winter anyway so we didn't really need it and we just turned off the heater. Soon after settling down we looked for a hotel in Konya online and we were lucky that there was a promotion at a hotel that offered only 70TL for one night. After a bit of research of what to do in Konya we went to bed.

  But we weren't even fully asleep yet when we heard a knock on the door, and for glitter's sake it was already midnight. We stayed silent, and in my head I tried to convince myself that there was no ghost in Turkey. We heard another knock on another door and my friend said it was probably a drunk. We heard a knock again. When it stopped we checked if our door was locked and went back to bed. There was still a knock on the other door and after some moments it stopped when we heard a voice telling the person off. Probably a drunk.

  The next morning we checked out, had breakfast and went to Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the first President of Turkey.

Majestic.

  We toured the museum and learnt quite a lot about the changes made during the period of his reign, and really the development of Turkey since he held power was amazingly remarkable from the worldly perspective. 

  Then we went back to the original plan -visiting the Embassy. From Anitkabir we took a taxi to minibus station and went to the Embassy,  but of course, what is life without getting lost along the way? The minibus went along the main road and we didn't realise that we missed the junction to the office. Thanks to Google Map (which has been like our GPS throughout our stay here), we found the office after around almost 1 km of walking. 

  We were greeted by the staffs upon our arrival. I met His Excellency(HE) Ambassador of Brunei with his officer and spouse, told them what we encountered the night before and updated how my life in Istanbul so far. Later on, we went for a lunch before we were brought to their residence for a rest and to clean ourselves up.

  Then we went to Kizilay, which is like the shopping centre in Ankara to meet our friends before going to the main train station. We had not bought our ticket yet, and to make the story short the train we planned to take was full and the next train would be at 9.30 pm. Since the train takes 2 hours to reach Konya we decided to take a bus instead, which takes 3 hours. We went to the bus station and bought our tickets, and asked if there was wifi in the bus and the counter man said yes. Nope, no wifi at all.

  We reached Konya at 10.30 and our hotel called us asking where we were. I informed that we just reached Konya and asked how to reach the place. "You can go by minibus or taxi. Maybe take the minibus," he replied. Konya was foggy that night and in the darkness of the night we barely saw anything. When we got out of the station area to look for a minibus, there was an abi nearby who was about to cross the road, and we asked how can we get a minibus to get to our hotel. He offered, and more like insisted to send us by car because he was heading that way, too. Hesitated, we followed him. He said that he was a police and asked if we had any ID with us. I was still in doubt. We walked further and further away from the bus station, and he brought us further enough to turn my hesitation into suspicion, fear and panic. We reached a dark neighbourhood 10 minutes away from the bus station.

#beyondayasofya - Ankara Part 2

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim 

[Part 1]

  We were surprised and speechless. I dropped my backpack on my bed and my friend dropped seated on hers. We both were suppressing our giggles. It was funny but scary at the same time.  I sat with her, "What are we gonna do now?" I asked laughing, half-amused and half absent-minded. She shrugged. We could only exchange looks and laugh, then look at each other and laugh again. "Let's go outside," I suggested. 

  We sat outside of the entrance and tried to figure out how to get out of the mess. We contacted our friends in Istanbul, explaining what we'd got ourselves into. We were panic and we couldn't think straight. Finally we came up with a solution to request for a new room. Luckily, we could change to another room, but all rooms were mixed, too and all the double rooms were fully booked. The Efes-drinking abi (brother) told us that there would be no problem and if the man was ever to harm us we could just call him and he'd kick him out. We went back outside and sunk to the chairs. It was around 9.30 pm.

  We had no choice but to find another place, and we were on the verge of giving up already that we even considered of staying but our fear managed to keep us sane. We walked out from the street to the road and there was a hotel just across the road. Relieved, we walked in to inquire about the room rate only to be crushed again because it was 250TL per night. We walked along the walkway with hopes that we'd find an affordable place. As we were walking a man in his mid age was going the opposite way, dropping cards. We took a look, and there were different cards with different picture, but each of them was displaying indecent picture of barely dressed women with provocative poses and a phone number. We grew more terrified.

  To add up to that, we couldn't find any hotel along the way. We turned back, and saw a restaurant and decided to sit there for a cup of tea and pull ourselves together. All I could think of that time was to get out of the place, one idea popped in and spontaneously slipped out through my mouth, "Let's go to Konya tomorrow." But of course, we still needed to find a place to stay. We looked for hotels online but none of them were affordable. We tried not to cry, and it was 10 already. Then a light bulb lighted up - we asked the restaurant amca (uncle) if there was any cheap place to stay nearby, and he said he didn't know. We grew more tense that I bit my nail. Then another restaurant amca came and asked why we didn't have any place to stay. We burst out telling what happened to us, and he was shocked that we were obviously Muslims but were put together in a room with a male. The whole restaurant staff (they were only like 3-4 of them) was there, and faith in humanity restored. They helped us to find a new place to stay, and the tea was on the house.

The clock ticked to 11 after some waiting and we went to the hotel,accompanied by the 2nd amca, which was just on the street opposite to the hostel. We were so grateful that we kept on thanking him. Upon reaching the hotel he explained our situation to the receptionist and the receptionist was sympathetic too. We asked how much was it per night and he said 120TL. Another faith-in-humanity-restored moment when we he agreed to reduce it to 100TL.

  But we were not done yet with the hostel. Our stuff was still there, and we had to take them and ask for refund as we already paid for two nights. The amca kindly escorted us to take our things. When we reach there we explained to the abi that we were gonna check out that second. There was a slight dissatisfaction and he told us that it was in the description that the rooms were mixed. I explained that we thought the term "mixed" was referring to "mixed with other people of the same gender" and apologised for the misunderstanding. 40TL was burnt that night for cancelling. We went downstairs to take our things, the man was still sleeping. We tried to quietly pack up and and leave without him noticing, but we tried too hard that we were rushing and he did wake up because of the silent noises we made. We couldn't even be bothered to say anything to him and left straightaway, awkwardly greeting 3 men eating in the kitchen next to the room "afiyet olsun".

#beyondayasofya - Ankara Part 1

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم.

Assalamu'alaikum wrt wbt.

Since I was gonna have my winter break I decided to take trips outside of Istanbul. I tried to plan my trip since December but somehow whenever I try to do so the break seemed so far away I ended up procrastinating. my first options were Ankara, Edirne, Bursa and Konya (came a bit later in the picture), and I planned to tour istanbul too because believe it or not after 4 months I still haven't gone to some places. After some discussions and rearranging my schedule and reconsidering factors,my destinations were finalised -Ankara, Istanbul and bursa.

As the break was coming nearer I panicked as I hadn't made a proper plan. One week prior to the break we finally made a "more" proper plan. My main purpose of going to Ankara was to visit the Embassy of Brunei. My family and I planned to come to Ankara when I first came but we had to cancel due to health reason. I was actually about to do a solo trip, but my mother did not allow me, hence a friend came with me.

I informed the embassy that I was gonna come, made rough plan and bought a bus ticket as recommended by a contact from the embassy 2 days before going. 

19/1/2015 - Day of departure.

That morning I woke up at around 6.30 after sleeping at 1 the night before. After my morning routine it was time to get ready, and later on I finished up packing. We left our dorm at around 8.15 and our bus to Ankara would leave at 11. At around 9 we reached Uskudar for the Marmaray underground train. From Uskudar Marmaray we headed towards Yenikapi and transferred to Metro to reach the main inter-city bus station. Upon reaching the main station we dropped by a nearby mosque for Dhuha, grabbed something for brunch before going to our peron.

By the way I'm kinda a sucker when it comes to organising and minimising, So my clothes were stuffed in a small hand luggage for a 3-day trip. In total I brought a backpack containing a book, a notebook, a small pencil case,  iPad, snacks, cables, power banks and some other stuff and a hand luggage of clothes. 

So at 11 off we went to Ankara, with a bus comfortable enough for a 6-hour trip, complete with a TV for each passenger and WiFi. Surprisingly not long after the bus started to move, we both got carsick, which I think didn't happen during my (only) bus trip to Pontianak in 2009 and after 20 min or so a baby sitting few seats behind of us threw up, and at this moment my body spray came in handy, and not to forget that I realised that I left my charger cable at my dorm halfway through our journey. Ironically out of everything i packed to keep my phone alive which includes an extra power bank, I forgot the lifeline (pun intended). but luck was on my side. Our pit stop did sell charger cables, so a 35TL saved the day.

Alhamdulillah our journey went smooth and the view we saw was just, Subhanallah. It was as if we were sandwiched by snow-covered mountains from distant and as we were nearing Ankara they became closer and closer until at one point all we saw were hills, trees, and snow.

Pit stop

Accommodation 

We started searching on the net for a place to stay a few days before going, but we didn't seem to find any affordable place except for two hostels. I didn't wanna go for them because there were only shared rooms available and they stated "mixed", which meant that the room may put male and female together, but my roommate said that they separate male and female. After considering for a few days. we booked 2 beds in a 3-bed room. but not long after booking it a senior who is studying in Ankara offered to stay at her place. She was in Istanbul and returned to Ankara the day before we left. so we cancelled our booking- fortunately they didn't charge anything. 

In the middle of our journey however she contacted us again with a bad news. her place was occupied at the very last min and we couldn't stay with her. so we placed a booking again to another hostel. 

We reached Ankara at around 5.30. After getting everything done (read : finding our way and getting an Ankarakart, a transportation card for Ankara) we started heading to our place. 

It was around 5 stops and a few minutes walk from the Ankara Otogar. After checking in we went out for solat and dinner. When we first entered our room the other person occupying one of the beds were not in.

Going around

We first walked to Kocatepe Camii which is around 500m from our place. Kocatepe Camii is one of the biggest mosques in the world and can accommodate up to 24,000 people. When we reached the mosque however the lights inside were already off.

After that we went for a dinner. We had nothing fancy, just pizza. Then when we were heading back we dropped by at an arcade to try a 7D cinema.

We continued back going to our hostel, and when we entered our room we found a man sleeping on one of the beds. 

Istanbul -The Land of Strugglers

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
Assalamu'alaikum wrt wbt

When i tell people i was gonna study in Istanbul I gotta endure all the "siuk-jua" reactions. I was actually quite excited as well. the only images I had in my mind were all the tourist attractions. I couldn't help gasping in awe when I first came, and I told myself this is gonna be fun. The first few days went well, and now I'm entering my 4th month, I'm living the reality and things aren't as good as I thought. 

Currently I haven't got my ikamet (residence permit) while all my friends who did it weeks or months after me have got theirs. I'm slowly learning to ignore the stares in bus, train or even in the dining hall at campus sometimes, and now that I can understand Turkish better I need to endure slight mockery too, though this is not as bad as the former, and don't make me start on the bureaucracy. Not forgetting the moments when I got lost trying to go around places. I'm still in the process of managing myself in order to survive this city. 

Other than those, frankly speaking Istanbul is quite pricey as well. People might get excited to shop at the Grand Bazaar, but seriously that place is the last one we'd go for souvenir shopping. And oh my, the men trying to talk you into coming to their shop or restaurant is just overwhelming. Believe it or not sometimes they even come to the extent of following you around. My friends and I wanted to buy the bus ticket to Ankara earlier. It was our first time, and as we got out of the train station at the Otogar Coach, one of the stations that connect Istanbul to other cities, several men were waiting literally at the end of the escalator, asking everyone where they want to go. The Otogar apparently is also an area where there are tens or maybe hundreds of offices of bus companies that provide transportation services. Just imagine the shops in BSB area but instead of shops the inside are ticket counters of many different companies. I was suggested to go with Metro or Varan (bus companies), but the men was so insistent they would bring us to buy the ticket. 

We were overwhelmed and absentmindedly agreed to follow one of them. Took us few seconds to digest everything and I was kinda speechless as we followed him. We stopped for a while, discussed about it and decided that we'd just check the prices first and then compare with other companies. He brought us to one company I didn't manage to see the name. the price was quite cheap but we still decided to check out if we could find better ones. So we explained that we wanted to check out the other companies but the person at the counter and the man that brought us insisted that they got the best price. We said we'd come again if we haven't got the ticket, so we went out and checked out at another company, and when we turn around we saw the man waiting for us outside. At this moment i started to freak out. We got out and he insisted us to go with the company he offered earlier. we politely said no but he still insisted that he even reduced the price. We refused and he gave up, but I sensed dissatisfaction in his face. so we continued to go around the place to go to one of the suggested ticket offices and passing by row of offices we got slowed down by the promoters promoting their companies. at one point an uncle stopped us and pushed us to buy ticket from the company he's working for. he even disallowed us from buying ticket from the company we wanted to buy from saying that they were expensive. When we said 'it's okay, we'll check first' there was a negative change in his expression, and when we left him he followed us and watched us from outside as we were buying our ticket. Creepy, I know. Along our way back too we got stopped numerous time but it was easier since we got our ticket.

This incident reminds me the situation in the Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar or anywhere else in Istanbul. You see same things everywhere. In one row of 10 eating houses its not impossible that you will see 10 doner skewers on display. Thing is you will find same things in one place. At the Grand Bazaar one vendor selling souvenirs are literally not more than 5 steps to the next that sell exactly the same stuff, and worse there are like hundreds of them. Same case with the Spice Bazaar, where hundreds of vendors selling same types of herbs and teas and sorts and they are all priced the same. The competition is just too harsh.

Thinking again I'm actually luckier than the others that come here to make their ends meet, because I don't need to annoy people as much as they do to survive this place unharmed. When even the locals are having a hard life I can't expect myself to get things done easily like they do back home. I think everyone is struggling here, whoever they are. I struggle, they struggle, everybody struggles. It's a good experience though, I would say. I have learnt to appreciate things more, and this place really shows me another way of handling life. And doesn't struggle come to toughen yourself? It does.

According to your potential.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Assalamu'alaikum wrt wbt.

I can't really remember when exactly i started writing (which does not include facebook statuses), but it was around the time when blogging was like one of the craze at that time, probably when I was 13 or so. Around that time too I started to create quite highly imaginative stories, inspired by stories I came across. Time ticked, and I developed. my old blog has been deleted due to inactivity and nonsensical contents but mostly the latter. I started fresh with this new page, with the hope that it can benefit anyone.

New things, however, come with new challenges. Have i talked about insecurity and lack of confidence? One thing about realising what you have become is sometimes we are too afraid of the expectations and reactions we might get from our surrounding. I don't know to what extent is this true but it is I think kind of so me. So many things have been kept to vanish and some even have been kept unsolved. Actually, the only expectation we can't meet is our own expectation of ourselves. It's either because we put a mental barrier between ourselves and our expectations or our expectation is just too high and in the end we feel sorry for ourselves. Guess what? We don't have to. We don't have to be sorry for things we cant do. We don't have to be sorry for not being able to go straight to beyond our limit.

We do have our own limits. but we can expand it if we are willing to. Potential is like a space confined by brick walls. You can walk within it but you can't pass through the wall without having to break it, but of course you need rebuild the wall again in case you tore it down to clear the mess. Hence, utilise whatever is available within that space. You will be able to create more and in the meantime too you will naturally expand the boundary and adds more space according to your necessity. No rush, and no worry, because that space is yours. No one else can walk in it as fabulously as you do.

Coming to terms with the fact that I am, after all, a human being

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
Assalamu'alaikum wrt wbt.

Personally speaking, I think a lot. if only thinking did not require new experience to constantly reshape my view on something i'd be a statue by now. Apart from the huge differences it has with Brunei, Istanbul  is a city full of surprises. The snow in my place was quite thick the other day, for example, and many more other things that have been bombarding me since the first day i came here.

Currently, im being tested with quite a complicated equation. Along the line i'm putting in factors, possibilities, causes, effects, consequences, outcomes and such and try to reason with myself.

Personally speaking, too, i'm actually afraid of making mistakes and i highly prefer perfection despite of not being a perfectionist. When things fall even slightly apart, i'll panic like the world is ending and start apologising though actually there's no big deal with that. when the guilt presents it burns me to ashes. i whisper to myself how stupid i am for making mistakes.

however, with the experiences and the constant thinking/reasoning i realised that i'm actually a normal human being, and human is quite well known to make mistake. i really forgot that i am a human being, not kidding.

im sure someone somewhere is encountering the same problem. we cant accept our weaknesses and start to curse ourselves when they surface now and then, and that is not healthy. we forgot that perfection doesnt exist in this temporary world.

im slowly trying to embrace that natural part of being human -making mistakes. it's hard, but that's just the fact.

Did you just screw something up? Congratulations, you are a normal human being.