My friend told me that she would like to travel to Turkiye on her own. I told her that though she can easily find information on where to go from travel guide blog by Turkish Airlines, it is not a good idea as she will face a problem communicating with the locals.
Most of the stall owners there do not speak in English and their signbaords are in Turkish language.
When you join a travel package, usually breakfast and dinner are served in hotels. Most of the time the food are served buffet style. Food served at the hotels we stayed in were not labeled. The hotel staff could not tell us what were being served as they could not understand what we were asking in English. If the dishes were labeled, fussy eaters like me could do a search to check out the ingredients in the dishes. I was lucky that there was a wide spread of food in most of the hotels, so, I was able to try in small portions, dishes with ingredients that looked familiar. If I did not have enough to eat, I can heat up some MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) from Brahim's that I brought along and eat them in my room.
Most of their desserts were too sweet for me. After trying some at earlier hotels, I stopped eating them. So, if you travel on your own, you may have an issue finding food right for your palate, especially when you have diet restrictions.
On the seventh day of the trip, we were staying at Parion Hotel in Canakkale. I decided to share the MREs that I still have with all my travelling mates. I happily shared on our chat group, the list of MREs we will be eating at the hotel. (The ones I have ticked meant that I have tried them in Malaysia before bringing them over for the trip.)
Yavuz helped me to pass the 31 packets of MREs to the hotel staff at the restaurant we would be eating at. The staff seemed to be able to read the instruction on the package as he said that they have to be heated for 8 to 10 minutes when I told him 5 minutes will do. I watched him relay the message to the head chef before I left for my table. After more than 10 minutes this was delivered to us.
That was a mixture of 6 varieties of rice and 12 dishes that you are looking at. I am sure that the chef had added water to mesh up the 4 packets of glutinous rice (pulut kuning). Luckily it still tasted alright and some of my travelling mates who had missed eating Malaysian food appreciated it.
There was a fee of USD10 to heat up the food. USD10 is about 186 Turkish lira but when I wanted to pay in Turkish lira, as I did not have any US notes with me, the staff asked for 400 Turkish lira. When Yavuz came to the restaurant, he paid the staff. So, if I have travelled alone, and I could not get USD10 for the service, I may have to pay 400 Turkish lira to the staff. I managed to get USD10 from my sister later but when I wanted to pay Yavuz for it, he suggested that I give it to the driver as tip.
Another reason why you do not want to travel without a local guide or a guide from a travel agency is that, no matter where you travel to, accidents can and do happen. When we were on holiday in Europe, an elderly travelling mate fell down a flight of stairs and had to be hospitalised for a night. If you are facing a dilemma in a foreign country, you do not want to be frightened and confused as you are not able to communicate the issues you are facing to get the help you need.
99.8% of the Turkish population is Muslim. Though Turkiye is officially a secular country with no official religion, before entering any mosque there, female visitors must wear a scarf to cover their heads. If you plan to travel on your own, you must do a proper research of their culture so that you will not be stopped from visiting places just because you are not properly attired.
You do not want to be caught offending the locals unintentionally or get arrested for your actions. Do you know that in Malaysia, nine Australians were arrested for stripping to Malaysian flag printed swimwear after an Australian won the Malaysian Grand Prix? Here is another. Four tourists who
posed naked on Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia were arrested and fined. The mountain is considered sacred to the locals and they blame them for a magnitude 5.9 earthquake that occured after their lewd action.
I told my friend that if she still plans on travelling on her own, I suggested that she contact a Turkish guide who can speak in English to make the arrangements. I gave her Yavuz's contact Who can guide her better than a local since her intention is to try authentic local food in Turkiye?
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