Shocked - because Türkiye has only emerged as a "must-see" destination for Vietnamese tourists in recent years, information and images are everywhere, and although there are many and very impressive, they still cannot compare to actually setting foot on this land.
Amazing Tour
is a series of programs promoting destinations for Vietnamese tourists initiated by Travellive magazine. “Türkiye - Real Legends” is the 4th Amazing Tour journey to explore four legendary cities of Türkiye, organized with sponsorship from Nokia and Turkish Airlines.
Istanbul is the final destination in Amazing Tour's journey to discover Türkiye. This legendary land "responded" by giving me wonderful experiences, with a not-so-light dizziness when seeing with my own eyes many unique features with a long, diverse history, a bustling pace of life in the trade transit area... Learning about Istanbul's geography and history can easily be confusing because of the huge amount of information, many periods of brilliant development with their own political, economic, cultural, and religious imprints. Be mentally prepared, because it seems like the thousand-year breath of Istanbul will cover you as soon as you set foot in the city with its citadels, old streets, ancient churches, and the bustling Grand Bazaar for the past 4 centuries.
Istanbul - the final destination in Amazing Tour's journey to discover Türkiye
Mysterious constructions
Sultan Ahmed Square is the first place to visit in Istanbul, because from here, visitors can walk just a few minutes to many ancient monuments such as the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, Basilica Cistern, Topkapi Palace... The square and the surrounding area are always full of tourists and locals. While waiting for the tour leader to buy tickets to visit Hagia Sophia, we gathered around a few small street stalls selling familiar fried cakes like in Vietnam.
Hagia Sophia was built during the reign of Emperor Justinian of the Byzantine Empire, and was a Christian church from 537 (lasting 916 years), becoming a mosque for the next 482 years. In 1935, President Ataturk turned it into a museum - a museum that no tourist can miss when coming to Istanbul. Hagia Sophia is being restored, many corners of the museum are enclosed. Groups of tourists still flock here, attentively admiring this architectural masterpiece, regardless of the view or camera angle that is often "disturbed" by the seat belt system.
Hagia Sophia
Due to the change in religion, Hagia Sophia has mosaics of the Almighty Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Child from the 9th century, the Virgin Mary with Emperor John Comnenus II and Empress Irene (the emperor and empress contributed money to build Hagia Sophia). At the end of the ramp to the second floor of the museum, there is a copper-covered pillar with a small hole on it. Legend has it that anyone carrying sorrows and putting their finger in the small hole and finding it moist will be freed from suffering. The restoration of Hagia Sophia is expected to end in 2019 and on travel forums, visitors are reminding each other to come back next year to see Hagia Sophia in its entirety.
Inside the Hagia Sophia
If you love the architecture of churches, in addition to Hagia Sophia, take the time to visit the Blue Mosque (which is also under renovation) located right across from Hagia Sophia and the equally splendid Suleymaniye Church.
One of the attractions I was most looking forward to was the underground Basilica Cistern, as this and many other locations around Sultan Ahmed Square were used as filming locations for the movie “Inferno”, starring Tom Hanks. The Basilica Cistern is a freshwater storage facility with a capacity of 100,000 m2, can store up to 80,000 m3water, built in the 6th century. This place can make visitors surprised both by its area and grandeur with 336 marble columns carved extremely elaborately. The first feeling when entering the sightseeing area is... cool, not too much steam as I imagined. The path is wide and illuminated enough for visitors to safely explore each area but still creates a mysterious feeling. The end point of Basilica Cistern is the "Weeping Column" with a pedestal of two sculptures of the snake-haired goddess Medusa: one upside down, one sideways. The column was built to commemorate the slaves who died while building the structure. The tour guide said that this column is always wet like the tears of hundreds, thousands of people falling here all year round. I also noticed that this is the only stone column... wet in the area I visited, while all the other columns are dry.
Basilica Cistern underground water tank - one of the many settings of the movie "Inferno"
Located on the Bosphorus Strait, Dolmabahce Palace with its somewhat more modern architecture reveals to visitors a historical corner of the magical city of Istanbul. Dolmabahce has nearly 300 rooms, including staterooms, royal living rooms, lavishly and delicately decorated with 14 tons of gold, 40 tons of silver and 4,500 m2hand-woven carpets. But a few hours of sightseeing was only enough for us to explore a small corner of this palace. The treasure gallery does not allow photography, so only by coming here can visitors see the crowns, jewelry, precious objects and daily necessities of the 6 sultans of the Ottoman dynasty and their harems, walk on the crystal-inlaid staircase that makes anyone hold their breath, see the world's largest crystal chandelier with 750 light bulbs and weighing 4.5 tons, given by Queen Victoria of England...
Dolmabahce Palace
Shopping in Istanbul
When coming to Istanbul, whether you have a lot of time or just stop by for a quick visit, the Grand Bazaar is definitely a place that everyone looks for. I am the type of person who prefers supermarkets to markets, because markets are usually stuffy, hot, and crowded with people. Yet I was once again "wow" when I stepped into the Grand Bazaar located in the old town of Istanbul (an area recognized as a UNESCO Cultural Heritage). This is the largest and oldest covered market in the world, completed in the first half of the 18th century, and welcomes tens of thousands of visitors every day.
Bustling market in the middle of the city
With more than 4,000 stalls selling such a diverse range of products that it is difficult to list them all, Grand Bazaar makes women swoon with stalls selling confectionery, tea, spices, lamps, carpets, glass cups, ceramics, jewelry... and men are fascinated with stalls selling antiques, imitation antiques, leather goods...
More than 4,000 booths selling a variety of products
The vendors in the Grand Bazaar (like all service providers in Türkiye) are all men, extremely polite and skillful, so skillful that they can make customers pay sky-high prices without them even realizing it. Travel forums advise visitors to only pay 1/3 of the price the seller says, then gradually increase it. Another tip is to never show that you like an item, because you can easily be "ripped off" by the skillful and knowledgeable sellers.
I call shopping and bargaining in the Grand Bazaar a mind-boggling battle, very interesting and stressful, every time I think about it, it is still very attractive. I left with kilos of Turkish Delight candy, pomegranate tea, apple tea, glass cups... That is, I firmly forced myself to skip scarves, or other souvenirs, and did not have time to go to the leather goods area which is very famous in Türkiye.
Shopping in the Grand Bazaar has no concept of expensive or cheap, overpriced or profitable, because the item has been bought by the bargaining ability as well as the endurance of each person in each bargaining session that seems to last forever. Spend at least half a day, or 3 hours here, you will see that time seems to pass in the blink of an eye.
If you want to breathe in a more modern Istanbul, Taksim Square and Shopping Street is an ideal destination with shops of international fashion and cosmetic brands, tea shops, cafes, bakeries... extremely bustling.
Some more pictures of Istanbul
More information
Visa:Türkiye is not part of the EU, so visitors need to apply for a Turkish visa. The visa processing time is 15 days if you apply directly at the Embassy. If you have a valid European, American or Irish visa, you can apply for an E-visa with a very quick procedure, receiving the E-visa in just 2 hours.
Trip:From Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh City, there are direct flights to Istanbul. You should use the service of Turkish Airlines - the national airline of Turkey to avoid the hassle of transferring luggage when transiting in Istanbul. Moreover, Turkish Airlines is a high-quality airline and has ideal flight times from Vietnam to Europe, taking off in the evening in Vietnam and landing in the morning in Türkiye.
Time:April-June is the ideal time to explore Istanbul
Accommodation:Istanbul has many types of hotels for tourists to choose from.
Cuisine:Simit, kahvalti, dolma and sarma, manti, maraş dondurma, pide, fried anchovy (hamsi), raki, fish sandwich are some of the dishes you should try.
Transportation:Visitors can easily get around by bus or taxi.
Money:Türkiye uses the lira, 1 lira is worth approximately 4,000 coins.
Skin:Dress modestly. Women should bring a scarf to protect themselves from the sun, and cover their heads when visiting some mosques.
Other notes:
- Take time for a cruise on the Bosphorus Strait to see the Asian and European sides of Istanbul.
- Gifts worth buying in Istanbul are colorful and flavorful Turkish Delight, Kashmir silk scarves, tea/coffee pots and cups, black tea, Turkish coffee, fruit teas, mosaic lamps, carpets…
- Goods in the Grand Bazaar are not all the same, so don't think that if you don't buy one item, you can buy another. Therefore, if there is an item that catches your eye, you should act like you're not interested, and be patient with the "bargaining war" to buy it at a price you can accept.
- Be careful to protect your belongings so they don't get stolen in a jiffy.
