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Identify this Famous Turk... Click for enlargement! To Jim and Peri's Commercial-free CD for Turkish Learning -- now with triple ebook bonus! Also available in Downloadable Broadband Edition Essential Suffixes Printed Book

True Personal Experiences of Travellers to Turkey From Singapore with love... Part 1 -- On the road to Sarımsaklı New Friends... about to take a magical carpet ride? Click for enlargement! Looks like it's gonna be fish for dinner tonite! Click for enlargement and clarity! I've heard about the famous Turkish hospitality time and time again from books and from people who had been to Turkey. And during my trip to Turkey in May 2006, I personally experienced the pure sincerity and the friendliness of people from this wonderful land. Three of us came all the way from Singapore in Southeast Asia -- and it was to be the fulfillment of a dream for each of us... I've been in Turkey with my family 4 years ago, but it was only for a brief visit, 3 days in fact, en route back to Singapore after visiting Saudi Arabia for minor pilgrimage in Mecca. However the 3 days in Istanbul left a deep impression on me, and I made a promise to myself that I'd be back one day. Never did I expect that the day would have come so soon... I was indeed blessed to be given the opportunity. The time was right, the money was there, and I had friends who were keen to come with me to experience for themselves, the magic of Turkey. Our plan was to backpack in a clockwise direction to cover the western part of Turkey in 2 weeks (it was all the time we could afford) to visit the usual tourist places that we'd heard of... from Istanbul, to Cappadocia, then Pamukale, then southwards to Antalya and Fethiye and to travel along the 'Turquoise Coast" to Ephesus, Izmir, Troy and back to Istanbul. We had a rough itinerary planned, but we were open to changes. We had our backpacks, our trusty Lonely Planet Guidebook, our cameras -- and we were eager to start on our Turkish adventure. We expected our trip to be the usual... take nice pictures, try new foods, do some shopping, see the wonders of nature that Turkey has to offer. Who would have thought that the best experience of a lifetime would have come so unexpectedly? We first made friends with our tour guide in Pamukkale (his name was Ali Baba) and, following his advice, we made a heart-wrenching decision to skip Antalya and Fethiye when he told us that it was not such a good idea to spend so much time travelling all the way southwards only to spend 1 or 2 days there. After knowing how many days we had left to spend in Turkey (we were 1 week into our trip), he recommended that we visit Sarımsaklı, a beach town in the west coast of Turkey. He said he'd been all over Turkey, and Sarımsaklı was a much better choice than the more hyped-up and expensive resort beaches of Antalya and Fethiye... Part 2 -- How we almost missed our chance... Related: Other Personal Turkish Experiences Language Related Pages: How To Learn Basic Turkish -- A Practical Philosophy for beginners (Found in the 'Introduction to The Whole Earth Catalog of Turkish Movies'.) Why Off-color language is important too... Essential 700 Club pages Pages with sound files 'Tips' for learning/using Turkish Turkish Doubles Troubles 8 Difficulties of Turkish About Translation Software More Language Related Pages: Translating Turkish, the basics Conjunction Celebration Turkish Verbs Essential Idioms, Index Essential Suffixes, Index Sentence Structure, Standard Turkish Pronunciation Turkish Accenting Numbers in Turkish NewsReaders' Dictionary, Index Unrelated fun: Frequently asked questions about Turkey and the Turkish language Turkish Tongue Twisters Turkish for Kids Pop Quiz Politically Incorrect Turkish Humor Internet and Computer Terms Gossipy Turkish Who's Who Turkish Conventional and 'Erotik' Movies, Index The World's Worst Sport With sincere thanks for this personal experience to Norizah Riduan -- a Singaporean with a taste for Turkish Delights... 31 October 2006

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