After the current Turkey's President, Mr Erdogan made a holistic drastic change in Turkey especially in eliminating all the bad cultures inherited from Kamal Attartuk, it seems like Istanbul is calling me. In addition, I was once read a book written by Abdul Latip Talip entitled Sultan Muhammad Al-Fateh: Penakluk Konstantinopel and found that book is very inspiring. The way Al-Fateh's was been taught and raised up do impressed me and no wonder he can brought back the glory to Islam by conquering Constantinople; today's known as Istanbul.
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| View from London Heathrow Airport Golden Lounge |
It is my personal rule of travel that minimum 10 days is required if I am going to any places that needs me to fly for more than 5 hours. Upon checking my company's calendar, September seems to be the best month although that was the time of season transition in Turkey, especially the Europe side of Turkey. On top of that, September is somehow critical because that was the time when all of us need to submit our annual performance appraisal but upon further analysis, I need to go as well as I do not know when the next opportunity will come. On top of that, by the time I bought the ticket, Malaysia Airlines still offering the direct flight from Kuala Lumpur to Istanbul and I just need to top up around 2100 MYR when I redeemed 30, 000 of my Enrich points.
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| One of the souvenirs shop in Cavusin Koyu 2, Cappadocia, Turkey |
It was about a month to go when we were being informed by Malaysia Airlines that the direct flight to Istanbul from Kuala Lumpur will be ceased; just 10 days before our planned departure. Hence, they allowed us to advise them on the best date to fly and which airport we preferred to transit. Upon discussion, we choose to transit at London Heathrow during departure although it seems like we are adding up 6 hours into our flying hours in total and at Doha for return flight. It is somehow a good experience in spite of my bad experience in London Heathrow Airport and it makes me take out London from my travel buckets, at least for 5 years.
Initially, we shall transit at London Heathrow Airport for only 4 hours prior to board the connecting flight to Istanbul via British Airways. However, due to some technical problem, we have to disembarked from that plane and wait for another few hours for other connecting flight. We were quite nervous as we have bought a flight from Istanbul to Kayseri via Turkish Airlines since we planned to visit Cappadocia and spent about 3 days 2 nights there. And Alhamdulillah, everything went well. Just for your information, we have to walks for almost 20 minutes from Istanbul International Arrival Hall to Istanbul Domestic Departure Hall although it is in the same building.
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| One of the cave hotels in Cavusin Koyu 2, Cappadocia, Turkey |
We stayed at Pandora Cave Hotel in Cavusin Koyu 2, almost one hour from Kayseri Airport and around 15 minutes from Goreme city center. Since we arrived Kayseri at almost 0200 hours, we slept inside the prayer room while waiting for Fajr. We only headed to our hotel at 0800 hours. Upon arrival, we just rest and have few hours sleep before toured around Cavusin area. This area basically offered a lot of cave hotels and you should never missed the opportunity to experience it!
To be continued~
Have a nice day :)
Wassalam.
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