</head> <body><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener('load', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() { if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) { gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({ url: 'https://www.blogger.com/navbar.g?targetBlogID\x3d7269941\x26blogName\x3dA+lit\x27+treat+from+me\x26publishMode\x3dPUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT\x26navbarType\x3dBLACK\x26layoutType\x3dCLASSIC\x26searchRoot\x3dhttps://embracenbreathe.blogspot.com/search\x26blogLocale\x3den\x26v\x3d2\x26homepageUrl\x3dhttps://embracenbreathe.blogspot.com/\x26vt\x3d-388240672236325470', where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"), id: "navbar-iframe" }); } }); </script>
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

it got me singin' and singin'

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

OneRepublic - Say (All I need)

Do you know where your heart is
Do you think you can find it
Did you trade it for something, somewhere
Better just to have it
Do you know where your love is
Do you think that you lost it
You felt it so strong but nothings
Turned out how you want it
Well bless my soul
You`re a lonely soul
Cause you wont let go
Of anything you hold


Well all I need is the air I breathe
And a place to rest my head
Do you know what your fate is
And are you trying to shake it
You`re doing your best and
You`re best look
You`re praying that you`ll make it
Well bless my soul
You`re a lonely soul
Cause you wont let go
Of anything you hold


Well all I need is the air I breathe
And a place to rest my head
Said all I need is the air I breathe
And a place to rest my head
Do you think you can find it
Do you think you can find it
Do you think you can find it
Better than you have it
Do you think you can find it
Do you think you can find it
Do you think you can find it
Better than you have it
Better than you have it
Said all I need is the air I breathe
And a place to rest my head
Said all I need is the air I breathe
And a place to rest my head
Do you know where the end is
Do you think you can see it
Until you get there
Go on
Go ahead and scream it
Just say

love this song..for now...

I think it's meaningful :)


lalalalalalallala sing song..

so long din K le... :(

Labels:


A rainbow to end my day
10:07 PM


Istanbul turkey - 17.4 to 21.4.0

Friday, August 22, 2008

This trip is highly adventurous.

why????

because we travelled during the 1st week of school, totally skipping lessons.. especially for cirong. I was in risk of travelling alone!

I also implusively booked the ticket for this trip because I really wanted to go istanbul! without asking the rest.

I was alone with cirong and both of us were mostly together without sherman, the only guy.

geez! we almost had a culture shock of how friendly istanbul people are!

read on... this is the beginning of 2 small little girls' adventure :P and the journey of turkish delights, turkish apple tea, turkish bath, belly dancing and more!

-----

off and away in turkish airlines!
air tickets were not cheap!
205 euros and with that amount, i can travel by ryanair or easyjet like 2-4 trips!


but it was comfy and with meals!!! wow


below is turkey~~ we have reached our destination.
noticed how clustered the buildings are.


we arrived at metropolis hostel and we got tricked!
when we arrived, they told us we were 5 min late and given off the room to someone else.
duh, i was in a RAGE! i mean 5 min.. this is ridiculous.
and I asked if they can arrange for somewhere else but they say NO!

then we experienced the 1st classic turkish joke... that they were pulling our leg -.-"

lucky they told us b4 my ugly singaporean side face up! heee

THis the rooftop balcony where we can view the black sea and have breakfast (free!)
I thought it was nice.. and the guy told us if we are lucky, we can even c dolphins.


greeted with apple tea added with sugar. not forgetting our hotel area is like elevated, on top of a hill or something.
the guy was also kind enough to explain what things to see in istanbul and what to do.
bonus added that he's quite cute too. hehe


We went out to explore in the night and was strike by friendly waiters to ask us for free apple tea.
we thought why not?
then we took a foto


this was a sight near our hostel


we took a walk to c the night scenes of blue mosque and aya sofya and it was breathtaking!

one strange phenomenon is that we saw tons of tulips all over istanbul since we touched down.
we din even c this much in holland to think that tulip is the national flower.
we wonder why...... soon will be revealed! read on!



after taking a walk, we came across a shop selling turkish delights and our 1st encounter
to be frank, i didn't what to expect that's why explain my scared expression.


this is an view of our hostel window... looks undeveloped but wow, experience xia! i like :P


The next day we proceeded to blue mosque and aya sofya! feeling really excited. we walked there and there's a sense of accomplishment :D

check out the tulips man!!!
so why SO MANY TULIPS?

apparently in the past, the king of netherlands asked someone to select the most beautiful flower he can find in turkey and he did. he brought tulips back and since then, it became netherlands national flower. and so, tulips originate from turkey and with that, tulips festival is also happening in istanbul. how nice to noe :)


this is aya sofya. it's one of the finest building built of all times..by constantine the great and reconstructed by justinian in the 6th century. geez, where am i during 6th century!! one of the oldest building I've visited.
later will show u pics inside. it really WOW me.. hope it did for u :)



The ever famous blue mosque aka imperial sultanahmet mosque, just across ayasofya. built between 1609 and 1616 by architect mehmet.

At first we thot it's older than ayasofya but we were wrong.


the interior paneling of blue and white iznik tiles is amazing.


especially with the candles and light shining in... wow!
look at the devotees praying...so serene



a sucker for tulips. geez! so pretty!!!! din even c that in holland :P
we also heard there was a tulip flower festival held there that's why explain the many tulips we c along the roads.
tulips can only in very special conditions, can't be too hot or too cold so spring is the best.


next we moved on to aya sofya.
One amazing history about this mosque is that it's originally constructed as a church between A.D. 532 and 537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, and was in fact the third Church of the Holy Wisdom.

In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and Sultan Mehmed II ordered the building to be converted into a mosque.

still we can see signs of it being a church before. will show u more later.
when we went in thru the doors, they tell us how old the interiors are, cracking and peeling.
it's just amazing that I am walking in sucha old place.
they even show pictures of people gathering in this place since the early A.D.

wow!


islamic features implanted by ottomans


this marble is SO HUGE. the one behind...us..
I wonder why last time marble, jewels, precious all seem abundant...


the signs of it being a church:




some remains of aya sofya when it was partially destroyed by riots.


the carpet nightmare!!!!

let me relate this incident that became a nightmare.

turkish people are very friendly. some will say hi to us in the streets and ask us in to drink apple tea.
what annoys me is people thot we are from japan or korea and keep "konnichiwa" or "kamsamadae" not sure if it's the correct spelling.
when we say we are not from there and mention singapore. then they will always say, "Oh i din noe singapore girls are so pretty! -.-"

so much for ego booster but the fact is sometimes they have a motive.

and this happens:
this guy strike a conversation with us with this other japanese friend he claimed.
he brought us to this carpet area.. and starting showing their hospitality by giving us tea and cookies.
one by one, he started taking out carpet like educating us of the different kind of carpets aka tapestry.

we nearly fainted when they took out SO MUCH! that u c below. we are embarassed!
we wanted to leave.
they keep telling us to buy.
lucky we are persistent. i mean who wanna buy a carpet in turkey?
OH PLS!
This teaches us to be more skeptical and not give in easily to some 'kind' stranger.
and this make me wonder if the japanese friend is suppose to target japanese tourists. hmmm...


we made our way to spice bazaar!
this shows how crowded and congested the streets there. small and narrow.


pretzels... apparently cirong's fave!


besides all kinds of spices, there's also scarfs, lamps, turkish tea, delights, nuts, accessories.
indeed spoilt for choices!


and this:


0.o
me and sherman..
place my bag in front in case of pickpockets!


we met this unusual turkish stall seller who had his shop filled with chinese characters!
and he can speak really good mandarin.
he was so entertaining.. and his name is 陳 龍
he was also singing a chinese song "dang ni gu dan, ni hui xiang qi shui" from this tv set which taught him mandarin
classic man!


this is his products with chinese wordings!


cute sis and bro mending the stall for selling 'evil eye' accessories.
they are really nice giving us good discounts for buying them :P


at the spice bazaar, me and cirong met with some people who are so persistent to get our sales. pulling our hands, calling us beauties and stopping us... geez! they are DAMN AGGRESSIVE until rong have to hold my hands while we wait.. and i have to be more AGGRESSIVE than them. *bites*

the view of the other side of turkey - separated by the Bosphorus straits
we are on the asian side of the Bosphorus and the other side is the european which have different attractions as well.
as far we realised, the asian side is the poorer side and older side as compared with the european side



we went to a belly dancing dinner show.
it was like 35 euros at GAR, click here for the link


there were folk dances and belly dances with painted faces on the bellies. we find it cute and amusing as the 'boy' and 'girl' kisses. hehe



and not forgetting my fave.. belly dancing. she's so steamy hot.. man.. i wished i had that flexi bod of hers.
there's the last segment where a multi-lingual guy came out and sang songs of multi-languages and countries. the waiter did ask us where we are from.

then we realised what's it for... the guy will sing ur country folk songs!
we started wondering wat song he will sing for singapore?

in our disbelief, he sang "we are singapore, we will stand together hear the lion roar"
you have NO IDEA our reaction. we burst out laughter!!!!!

then he also sang "rasa sayang HEY RASA SAYANG SAYANG HEY..."
really got us laughing and singing along!
OMG! he's good!!! almost every country, he knew wat song tickles them.


went to the topkapi palace which has maze of buildings - focal point of the ottoman empire between 15th and 19th centuries. we can c how the sultans and their court lived and governed.

this palace has become a gallery of precious imperial collections and we can see how different the turkish deem as luxuries. they love the dark precious stones and gold as well.

one thing that truly amazed me was the medieval manuscripts in the pavilion of the holy mantle that enshrines the relics of the prophet mohammed brought to istanbul where the ottomans assumed the caliphate of islam.

It houses the cloak of the prophet Muhammad, his sword, one tooth, a hair of his beard, his battle sabres, an autographed letter and other relics which are known as the Sacred Trusts.

it was AMAZING! I GO WOW! SURE ANOT!!!!!!!! (no offence to muslim friends but really an eye opener) these things are really old and can last for so long for me to c with my naked eye is UNBELIEVABLE.

just something different from the european culture for once!

the gates of salutation


nice tulips :P with the tower of justice


you can see the sea of mamara! how lovely!


nice flowers :P


then we paid more to enter the harem, the secluded quarters of wives, concubines and children of the sultan.
this is the sultan's sink made of gold!


there's a few turkish girls came up to us and wanted to take a foto with us because to them, we are different.
felt like celebrities at that time :X



fave tulips combi: white and red.
because....
it's our singapore flag colour! LIKE REAL! HAHA


next day, we went on a cruise....


we saw the Dolmabahce and Beylerbeyi Palaces, Ottoman summer mansions and Ortakoy mosque, the defensive Rumeli Fortress and Bosphorus Bridge - one of the world's largest suspension bridges. look below!

this fortress reminded me of The Great wall of china small version and it's built in 1452.




Bosphorus Bridge really reminds me of san francisco bridge!
I love it!!



and here we are at the golden horn!
it divides the European istanbul and one of best natural habours in the world (dun play play)
beautiful views! soon later, we took a cable car down the hill and realised there were cemeteries downhill!
as from far, they look like little mininature houses.



next we arrived at the famous Dolmabahce palace, built in the mid-19th century. so it's relatively 'new' compared to the other palaces we went. no regrets, it's really beautiful and european style with many chandelier and astonished me.


one thing very unique is that we have to wear plastic pink covers over our shoes so we wun make the carpet dirty!


one of my fave room! so princessy >.<



it was royalty, royalty, royalty!


there was this section of the main hall in the palace for big events like entertaining guests of the sultan.
and there's a pathway on top like a viewing gallery and this is where it is.
it was known that the sultan's concubines and queens can't be present for such events but can only peep thru to see.

women have always been the inferior party deprived of such privileges. look at how times have changed, tables have also turned. YES, IT'S OUR TIME TO REIGN! haha

this pic is to show how at that time they would have seen from the little glass window.

main hall which look really grand.


magnificent gate! to think we were on the cruise few hrs back in the sea looking at this gate. hehe


nice view again of the bridge at the camlica hill - highest point of istanbul


at the end of the tour, we are so shagged out! because the weather was like 30deg. yea U may think, singapore can be hotter but hello, we have been experience at most 20deg in holland for the past 3 mths! not used to it at all.

I dunno if I should blog this but I thought it's funny so sherman, I pray you dun read this or any NUS professors :X

it's like this:
we were on an academic tour. no, not educational but ACADEMIC.
let me explain, there were so many professors in the tour!
taiwan profs, US profs and of coz, closer to home, an NUS prof.

we found out and told sherman in the bus,
"eh you know she's from NUS and a prof!"
his reply was, " why is she on holiday? isn't this time exam period for students? that's quite irresponsible to enjoy while students are trying to get her to help them for exams!"

the problem is he spoke really loud!
we just shrug it off and laughed it off, harmless one.

then the next thing we got down. the professor approached sherman.. and told him,
"I heard what you said and I'm telling you that I am responsible" something like that.
she was angry, I can see that.

then we were like, "OH SHIT!"

no offence here but it was a very harmless remark from sherman i feel but still I wanna capture this incident down!

then we went to a famous seafood area where they say it's good in istanbul.
it has nice ambience of music BUT! i think it's just like the boat quay of Singapore where tourists can get CARROT.
nevertheless, since we are here why not? but something terrible happen...




THE food was so-so only but what's astonishing is the SERVICE....

this is what happened:
there were so many restaurants to choose from so we decided to go for the best deal or the lowest prices.
In istanbul, there's always a 'salesman' stationed outside to 'pull' customers in. he must look good, talk well and able to bring in people.

so here we have the best LIAR.. who told sherman there will be free dessert, free drinks, 20% disc for our bill.
naturally, we floated in.... i mean HELLO, SINGAPOREAN!

we had a bad feeling of being lied but anyhow, we decided to have a feast.
also rush of time, we asked for the bill early.

to our shock, they billed us like 30-50euros more! and NO 20%, NO FREE DESSERT, NO FREE DRINKS.
geez, sherman then showed his furious side of him that got me speechless.

"fuck off this dessert!!!!!!!!!!" i mean in CAPS.. shouting!

then he calculated for the waiter... breaking down amt by amt.

"you go and learn your maths!"
then this boss-like-figure came out.. and told sherman to SHUT UP!

sherman being a boss himself, replied with eyes popped out, " YOU THEN SHUT UP!"

GEEZ, i was scared we might be followed, slaughtered and maybe cornered by some gangster in some foreign land!!!!!!
it was HILARIOUS. i wanted to laugh but i have to be angry else sherman is going to kill me!

I was like STUNNED... such thing .. such anger.. such a guy like sherman :P
but respect, he helped us earn that justice of saving 30 euros or more...
of coz, he threw 80 euros on the table and we run away with him.

*clap clap*

so we hurrily got in a cab and indulge in turkish massage!
after such agitations, we need to calm ourselves like NOW.

We met really nice people at the massage area called suleymaniye complex which we schedule at 10pm. how cool rite?!
it was AN EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME I tell u.


we had to wear bikini-like then proceeded to this dark room full with marble. the room has dim lights that shone from the top of the ceiling that looks like a dome.

the room is heated up and we are suppose to lie on the marble. the turkish bath place was built since 1550 and cost 30 euros.
soon after 30mins, there's this turkish hairy man who will bathe u (with bikini on of coz) with soap, exfoliate you with scrub and massage at the same time. the bathe took 20min but it felt like HEAVEN! the massage was really really good. he knew where to press and put pressure.

sherman was also handled by a man :X which he so hate.
after that, we are wrapped up like the pic u c above then proceed to rest in an area serving drinks.

it was so SHOIK! i still crave for it. must go again!
they even send us back by transportation~ worth it!


here's the pic of our metropolis owner (owned by the brothers, he's one of them) very nice and very good-looking ;)
he's the trickster who tried to fool me -.-" from the start.



here ends my turkey istanbul trip... I wished I had more time to explore other parts of turkey like the princes' islands, the great bursa, cappadocia dreams, ephesus and pergamum which all need more than 2 days just to travel out! and one more place to see the cotton castle.. google it! it's breathtaking!

one place near istanbul that i really wanted to go is gallipoli where we can c TROY! the trojan horse!
I'm a big fan of achilles and the show!

brad pitt.... drools.

more updates soon!!!!!!

i took 3 days to blog this entry.. OMG!

Labels:


A rainbow to end my day
2:48 AM


Songs of Rainbow

Lynette is the composer of her life Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting


Someday I will find it


Scorpion
23 years of laughter
Driven by hopes, Love and Dreams
Want an exciting Life, daring & bold

The Rainbow connection




The Lovers, Dreamers

Cheryl aka ah chiew
Cheryl
Daniel
Vicki
Rena
Candy Zhumeimei
Sheryl
Mic
Duan
Sue aka Charmaine
Patrick
Rara
Cin
Etel
Lix
Jacqueline
Lainez
Shirly
Feng
Summer
Muliani
Nic
Ruilin
Shufen
Amelia
Jeanie
Shaun Chua
Brian aka zhu didi
Jacky Xu
Kaiyun
Drew
Xueqi
Elvin
Harry (Potter?) hee kidding!
Eve
Jian Wei
Kelvin
JunSheng
Leya
KaiQuan
Xingfu
Ivy the baker!
Kian Boon
Cai Ling
Tejinder
Poh & lee
Daryl
Rong


& me

  • June 2004
  • July 2004
  • August 2004
  • September 2004
  • October 2004
  • November 2004
  • December 2004
  • January 2005
  • February 2005
  • March 2005
  • April 2005
  • May 2005
  • June 2005
  • July 2005
  • August 2005
  • September 2005
  • October 2005
  • November 2005
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • May 2009
  • December 2009
  • February 2010
  • May 2011
  • July 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • April 2012
  • August 2013
  • January 2014
  • March 2014
  • June 2014
  • August 2014


  • The pot of gold at the end

    >> my Friendster account


    www.flickr.com
    This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from zhumei_ahxiu. Make your own badge here.

    Must go


    View My Collection Ads of the world Here!
    Ads that WOW! here

    Someone out here