I am glad that we did this day tour. Our guide was knowledgeable, friendly and well versed in English. Definitely a lovely, affordable day tour without having to waste too much time.
Pamukkale has always been on my bucket list. However, with just 4 days in Turkey I was unsure whether it was even possible to visit this place . Travelling by car would take nearly 7.5 hours, so that really wasn't an option. A week before leaving for Istanbul, I looked up on the internet for any companies offering day trips to Pamukkale. Turned out that there were! Byzas Tours ( http://www.byzastoursturkey.com ) had some pretty good reviews, so we decided to stick with them. They were quick to send us the confirmations and itinerary. Yay, we were finally going to Pamukkale ... by flight! Our flight to Denizli (airport near Pamukkale) was scheduled for 6.30 am, so we were picked up from the hotel rather early. It was an hour long flight. On reaching Denizli, a member of the Byzas team came to receive us. We were then taken to a hotel to freshen up. The tour started soon after. Our first stop was the the ancient city of Hierapolis. We walked for nearly 1.5 hours through the remains of the Roman empire stopping at various points for photos. You have a choice either to walk or just hop back into the van that'll take you to the finish point. There were some magnificently preserved tombs, baths, amphitheatre and other ruins all along the way. At the exit of Hierapolis was Cleopatra's Pool. This was no ordinary swimming pool. Cleopatra is said to have swam in this ancient natural pool. It looked like the Garden of Eden! Unfortunately, it was winter so we couldn't go swimming. The final leg and highlight of our tour was the cotton castle (Pamukkale). It was gleaming white & simply breathtaking! We walked barefoot from the top all the way down to the main road. Though it was freezing cold outside, the water that flowed through this formation was warm. We couldn't resist dipping our feet. This is a UNESCO heritage site. Once we reached down, we were taken for a traditional Turkish buffet. We left Denizli around 7.30pm for our flight back to Istanbul.
I am glad that we did this day tour. Our guide was knowledgeable, friendly and well versed in English. Definitely a lovely, affordable day tour without having to waste too much time.
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The next day we got on the tram as early as we could and went to Sultanahment. The Sultanahmet tram stop has 4 major attractions in Istanbul - Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia and Basilica Cistern. Make sure you try out the roadside pretzels in little red & white carts before anything. We planned on visiting the Blue Mosque first, followed by Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia and finally Basilica Cistern. We visited Turkey (Istanbul and Pamukkale) during the National Day holidays last year. Although it was a short trip (4.5 days) we tried to make most of our time there. The cheapest and most efficient way to get around Istanbul is definitely by public transportation. We bought the InstanbulKart (Rechargeable Transport pass) and used it to get to our hotel in the city centre. The hotel (Holiday Inn Istanbul City) was just a minute's walk from the tram stop which was Pazartekke. The tram can be really crowded during working hours, but we survived! It was already 4 pm when we checked in and almost sunset. After freshening up, we hopped onto the tram and headed towards Sultanahmet to see the gorgeous Blue Mosque. By then, it was dark. We ended up taking some night shots of the Mosque and tasting delicious Turkish ice cream on the way. I cannot recall the exact name of the ice cream shop but its right next to the Blue Mosque and is a must try! Later that day, we visited the famous Grand Bazaar. The place was massive and they had almost anything and everything under one roof. One can easily spend atleast half a day there. There were lamps, spices, shawls, accessories...you name it, they had it. Our dinner that day was the popular "Balik Ekmek" also know as fish sandwich, available in a number of little food joints under the Galata Bridge. A bun loaded with a large chunk of grilled Mackerel and salads ? Hell yeah! Turkey just isnt only about Istanbul. Hopefully I'll make another trip soon to Konya and Cappacodia
During my trip to the Maldives, I stayed at the Stingray Beach Inn in Maafushi. I had always dreamt of staying at an island resort like the ones you see in pictures with water villas, but that never happened. The prices of the hotels on New Year's eve were unbelievably high. But I never regretted my decision of staying at the Stingray Inn. I booked the hotel on booking.com (room + breakfast), which I later felt that I should have done on a full board basis. As I mentioned in my earlier post, Ibrahim - our hotel owner came to receive us and escorted us to the hotel. At the hotel, we were offered refreshing towels and fresh watermelon juice, and they were kind enough to allow us to check in even before time.
The hotel is located on the ground level and has about 10-12 rooms. Our room was clean, spacious, air conditioned and very intricately designed. It had a little bathroom which had all the amenities and was well equipped with all the toiletries. They had an outdoor Jacuzzi which we relaxed in at the end of the day. We did not have any problem in the 3 days that we stayed there, but on the last day there was a short circuit in our room which was promptly taken care of. They even helped us organize our day trips and speedboat transfers. The hotel was just a 2 minute walk away from the beach so it was just perfect. The restaurant at our hotel happened to be one the best on the island so we got to taste delicious Maldivian food as well. The only drawback was, since they had only 1 chef who prepared everything from scratch, it took them about 45 minutes to prepare our food. So we could order, go take a shower and then our food with be ready. But that did not ruin anything for us. For 2 days, I tried out the regular breakfast (bread, egg, waffles, etc), but on the last day I tried out the traditional Maldivian breakfast called Mashuni & Roshi (a mix of grated coconut, tuna, chili, onions served with egg and chapati). I loved it so much that I actually asked for another plate. The hotel had a great menu comprising of a wide variety of dishes (both international & local). So , we tried out various different kinds of food during the course of 3 days - seafood platters, cuttlefish in various styles, octopus, grilled jumbo prawns, curries, grilled chicken and even biryani! I loved everything about this place and would definitely recommend them to others (especially if you are looking for something that doesn't burn a hole in your pocket!) On the 2nd day of our trip to Maldives, which was January 1st, we decided to do a day trip to a neighbouring resort island called Biyadhoo. Our hotel in Maafushi arranged for a speedboat that took us to this island which was about 15 minutes away. Once we reached the island, we had to walk for about a minute to reach the entrance of the resort. At the hotel, we were given some cold towels to freshen up and a tender coconut each. After which we changed into our swimsuits and headed to the beach. The beach at this resort was extremely beautiful and the surrounding areas well with plenty of photo opportunities. Some of us went for a swim, while the rest sunbathed. After a few hours when it got a little too hot, we decided to leave the beach and head for lunch. Since this was a resort island, alcohol was readily available at the restaurants in the resort. We had our share of cocktails, beer, homemade sangria's and lunch at a beach bar. And since some of us were really tired, we slept off on the beach chairs and hammocks near the resort until our boat back to Maafushi arrived. When it comes to our vacations, I am usually the "planner". Oh believe me, if I travel with my husband or a group, no one does anything, I do the planning and they just follow. I usually know where I am going at least 3 months in advance, that gives me plenty of time to plan, But, when my husband returned home from work on December 21st, 2014 and told me that we were going to Maldives for New Year, I was just surprised as well as shocked. Surprised ,because we were going on another holiday, YAY!, and shocked because, "what about my research"? Anyway, in those few days that we had before we left for Maldives, I decided that we would travel by Fly Dubai (as it was so much cheaper and the travel time was short) and stay at a Stingray Beach Inn on Maafushi island. This was a budget hotel that I found on booking.com and had some great reviews. The resort islands for New Year were overpriced ! Now, Maafushi is an island inhabited by locals, and unlike the other resort islands they had a few restrictions. Firstly, there was no alcohol available anywhere on the island and you couldn't bring it from anywhere else as well. Secondly, bathing suits were allowed only on a particular tourist beach on the island. Anyway, we were prepared. We left for Male on December 30th early morning and reached Male sometime around noon. Maafushi is about half and hour away (by boat) from Male. We pre-booked our airport transfer by speedboat with the hotel itself in advance. It was a bumpy but beautiful ride from the airport to our island. We got to see some of the island resorts from far away as well as watch the crystal clear waters of Maldives turn blue, green, and turquoise. Once we reached the island, our hotel owner Ibrahim was waiting for us at the jetty and escorted us to our hotel (about a 5 minute walk). We checked in our room, changed into our bathing suits, took a map and set out. The first place we decided to explore was the tourist beach (about a 2 minute walk from the hotel). It looked like a narrow strip from the outside with a straw fencing. When we walked it, we had the most beautiful view ever. The beach had coconuts tree that were growing in a way that added beauty to the entire strip. We found a shady spot under a tree to sit - while some of us decided to swim, the rest decided to just relax to soak in some sun rays. We had lunch at our hotel itself {More about the hotel in a separate blog post} and spent the evening cycling around the island. At night, there was a New Year party organised by the hotels on that island just for the tourists where we had some games, food, dance, fireworks (all for small fee of course). |
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