Escape to A&W

Hello travel bunnies all!
Ok so this is the second posting here, so we can't say we'll be brooking the trend as there isn't one actually to speak of just yet. But this is a travel blog. And travel is the search of adventure. So what of the A&W around the corner then, accessible by car, where everyone speaks the language, and the worst thing that could happen if you were to lose all of your belongings making such sojourn would be having to bother yor mum/dad/girl/boyfriend to come pick you up?

No. A&W is closing, so this itself is the adventure. We're chasing nostalgia on a Saturday night. Nostalgia in the form of root beer floats and onion rings (if the word "ringo" comes to mind, as the staff call it, then you can identify). Unfortunately, the half of petaling jaya which hasn't gone off to brave the Raya traffic is here with us chasing nostalgia too, resulting in a human line of simultaneous hope and despair. Not unlike war rationing and ration cards I would imagine, less the screams of V2 rockets overhead and a commissar shouting into your face.

Does it matter that the quality of the food has dropped tremendously over the years, or that the price seems to be inversely related to said food? Not really. So here we are anyway chasing a dream :)

Istanbul + Cappadocia (Kapadokya)

                                            To all wanderlusting bunnies, you inspire me.

We decided the week before to just pack up and go. Sure we could've done more research but the hashtag I've decided to live by of late is....#justgo. To discover unfamiliar terrain not through guidebooks and tripadvisor, but by stumbling and tumbling along because the truth is, Turkey was planets and universes away from what I've ever read/heard or could possibly imagine. It was breathtaking and mindblowing on so many levels.

The conversion rate from RM to Lira is approx RM1.5 to TL1. Expect to pay 10-15TL for meals and drinks another 2-3TL. Trams and trains range from 2-4TL per trip regardless of distance, make sure you buy the Istanbulkard which you can share with your travel buddy and top up as you go.

So now, down to the gritty. The where to, what to and how to!

ISTANBUL - FLIGHTS
MH flies 3 times weekly, rest of the week is codeshare with Turkish airlines.
Qatar Airways flies 3 times daily to Doha with 2 connecting flights to Istanbul.

Promo fare for MH is approx RM2800 all-in return but if you dont mind a stopover at Hamad Intl Airport, save RM200 and fly with Qatar - fares approx RM2600.

Personally, nothing beats a nonstop flight with uninterrupted sleep & entertainment.

We flew out on 21st June early morning and left Istanbul on 26th June evening. Our outbound was on MH and inbound was on QR via Doha.

	21-Jun	DEPART KL  5AM  ARRIVE IST 11AM
	22-Jun	DEPART IST   9PM
	23-Jun	ARRIVE KAPADOKYA 730AM
	24-Jun	FULL DAY
	25-Jun	DEPART KAPADOKYA   8PM
	26-Jun	ARRIVE IST  6AM DEPART IST 730PM
	27-Jun	ARRIVE KUL  2PM

ISTANBUL - ROOMS

We stayed in Aksaray which is quite central but would suggest that you find a nice boutique hotel in the Sultanahmet Old City area because that's where most of the famous sights are. For #eets, take a walk to Sirkeci...thats where our pseudo local tourguide took us for some sinfully good and affordable kebabs.

KAPADOKYA -  BUS

Plenty of buses scouring the routes from Istanbul and beyond but we settled for MetroBus.
If you can read Turkish, you can try buying tix on their site Metro Bus but since I was unable to, we took the train from Ataturk airport to Otogar (my Travel Bunny loves the kebab at this station) and bought the tickets at their offices.

Its a 10 hour night bus from Istanbul to Nevsehir Bus Terminal. From there, its a short 10 min ride to Goreme town where you'll check in to your lovely cave hotel.


KAPADOKYA - ROOMS

You'll find that rooms are comparably inexpensive to Istanbul, we stayed at a lovely and cosy place called Kayatas...it was a deluxe cave room with plenty of furniture & massive bathroom. The other place I would recommend down the street is called Goreme House. 
Photo credit to Booking.com which has been my best travel buddy for many years now, and has yet to disappoint.





KAPADOKYA - HOT AIR BALLOON AND TOUR

Our hot air balloon morning started at 4am and we were up in the air a lil past 6 catching the glorious sunrise.It set us back 120 Euros each but well worth it - beautiful bird's eye view of the valley.

This postcard perfect photo fueled long afternoon reveries and formed a pivotal phone conversation for my boy and I because way before "we" became "us", he said lets go someday...and we did :)

There are 3 tours you can choose from covering different areas - Green/Blue/Red Tour.
We took the Green Tour which seemed to cover more interesting sights.

*Green Tour : 9:30am-6pm.
(100TL...approx RM150)
Goreme panorama
Derinkuyu underground city
Ihlara Valley hiking
Yaprakihisar panorama
Serime monastery
Pigeon Valley
Onyx demonstration
*price include entrance fee, transportation, lunch and guide

The Ihlara Valley hike was really nice and as you can tell, a lot of frolicking about in the sun so wear proper shoes!

So that pretty much sums up our short escapade, what touched me most about Turkey were the people. The first day we met a man on the streets who showed us around the Old City. Throughout the trip, we met lots of lovely local people and also a very friendly dog who went on a short hike with us!

Turkey is super underrated, would I go back? - A MILLION TIMES YES!