Was in brisbane for almost 4 days in October. Spent my days hanging out with the fantastic crew, going shoping in brisbane central, and visiting the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary-by myself since no one wanted to go with me.
Lone Pine sanctuary was located a 40 min bus ride away from the center of brisbane.
And it is,according to them, the largest Koala sanctuary in the world.
i was told that visiting a sanctuary is a whole lot of different experience from visiting a zoo. And it sure is!




the same koala a few seconds apart. she's half awake from one of her numerous snooze

5 days in istanbul, the land of a thousand minarets. Before visiting istanbul i dont have the slightest clue as to what a minaret is. Minarets are the pointy towers that are part of the mosque.
And in istanbul you really do find quite a lot of these pointy towers. At sunset the prayers are belted out from each mosque and you hear them loud and clear, each awaiting the other to finish. It is really a cacaphony of sounds , something i find really unique to istanbul, numerous mosques are located in such close proximity that the interlude of prayer sounds are unrivalled anywhere else!


Istanbul's made up of 3 land masses seperated by the water bodies of the golden horn , boshphorous and the marmara sea. Me and gilles stayed in sultanahmet, the bottom left land mass you see in the diagram. Our hotel was pretty close to the blue mosque and the hippodrome. We put up at hotel daphne and were very delighted with our rooms which had a really nice view of the mamara sea. Close proximity to the major sights is a major plus point
however it made us more laid back than usual. And we chilled a good amount.

We each arrived seperately at the hotel, the whole experience was pretty effortless everything ran smoothly no major kinks when coming in.
What did we do in istanbul? i had my first go at a turkish bath, overdosed on turkish delights and raviolis, get mistaken as a chinese/japanese/korean/mexican/kazakstan muslim woman in the mosques, have my picture taken with real turkish muslim women thinking i exemplify the multicultural reach of islam and get patted down by adorable old ladies who seem to love that i took pictures with them. Haggle prices over items with bazaar holders and get asked where i'm from a million times, Get into a zillion meaningless conversations on the streets starting with" where are you from" and ending with "will you like to have a look at my carpet shop?" Get stranded in the airport on my last day and put up in dodgey area in istanbul taksim only to befriend a really nice receptionist at the 2 star hotel i stayed in, discussing my misfortune and our life till 3 in the morning over turkish tea and coffee. If you ask me, we did pretty well for 5 days!

About Turkish Baths. --Rated as one of the major thing you have to experience before you die, we thought we might as well do it since we are in turkey the motherland of turkish bathing.
The female and male sections are seperated thank god. We were told we had to buy an exfoliant cloth of some sort so we can be scrubbed down. I was worried the whole time that i might have to go au natural and was filled with ambivalence that we are really going through it. Gilles kept reassuring me at least i will be able to cover my itsy bits with the itsy cloth provided.
I had to take it all off! yes they were all women but since you had to go on a marble slab in the middle of the bath to be scrubbed down and exhibited i was really traumatised. Next comes a big middle aged lady, armed with the exfoliant cloth to scrub you down together with your itsy bits to the floor. Rigourous scrubbing and touching and rubbing ensued ( they call it massage though) I was traumatized. Definitely something i'll remember for life. *No images provded*










Finally when it comes to getting back, I suffered. Gilles had an earlier flight so we were at the airport early, he departed and i continued waiting for my flight. When it was my turn to check in i was told that all flights are overbooked and it is not possible to get on. I had to stay a night in istanbul and try again next morning. According to the airport staff from the looks of it there isnt any available flights in 5 days. called hotel daphne but they gave out the room intended for me to someone else. In the end had to book a last min 2 stars hotel which was quite expensive in taksim. I felt really muddled and just went with the flow. WHY DOES THESE THINGS HAPPEN TO ME ALL THE TIME? got to the hotel paid my due, got shown my room and hallway was so dark everything was a far cry from the previous hotel we stayed in, I couldnt sleep a wink. Went down to the reception and spoke to the receptionist who invited me to turkish tea and we chatted. Mustafa was the hotel receptionist i met admist my misfortune He was kind enough to offer to go check about the tickets in the morning the next day after his shift work was over and we did just that. finally i found a full fare ticket on singapore airlines back and i really had him to thank for it. Thanks mustafa, I found a new friend in istanbul! * cheerios