Caspian Sea

I still remember in late 70's when subject of Ilmu Alam nowdays (Geografi) was teach by Cikgu Rasid, a very prominent and good teacher, less talk but more action .. this part really chilling myself last time when when we get caught and scuffled for some 'nasty' outdoor activity during school time. Bringing home a staff sergeat ( 3 lines) and at home will be getting few more lines to get sub-inspector rank... hehe. Ok the what is the relation to the title ? during Std 5 we learn about black sea, red sea and caspian sea. Alhamdulillah God gives me an oppurtunity to see with my eyes all three seas and one I could manage to touch it ... caspian sea.

Murad is one of resident's here, a very good man and loves to eat chicken curry.

Few regular friends who has been there like Mr Abe John and Wan Nur could established well with this experience, but for me the dream is come true .. what a beautiful big size of lake and autumn added more fantastic view with amazed half sun glows and cold wind bedded on its surface.

View from Florida Restaurant's

Width 370,000 sq km

Depth 1025 m

Product Sturgeon fish, caviar (every man loves this)

Great Monuments - Historical War

One of the most wonderful scene while visiting turkmenistan this time was when i visited a great monument. This monument was placed at zhangga 40km away from turkmenbasy and was a pit stop for balkanabat traveller. zhangga was a small tabulated residents at southern-west of turkmenistan and really it was a quiet village, mostly by kazakhstan origins, meaning more like to tibetan face looks. I was invited by my friends Juma and Myrat to their house and apartment.
The background (caspian) was lookslike fantastic curtains when we toppled up a 500ft mountain at zhangga. One of most beautiful scene was at monument itself, the monument comprises of 3 statues represent pain and victory over germany-russian war last time.

Turkmenbashi-Krasnovodsk & Turkmenistan

We are staying at Turkmenbashi Otel (!) for the next three days, my room 710 is facing caspian sea and I get full picture of beautiful horizon at every evening. All passport are left at frontdoor lobby, a beautiful decorated arts displayed around lobby with a very popular book "ruhnama" placing along with their first president. We cooked at our friend house nearby with assistance from our tall-handsome driver Myrat we can suit our time efficiently.

IST to ASG

Reached sport hotel at 1630hrs, why stay here ? its about 1 km away from famous istanbul bazaar. Roomrates quiet expansive, usd60 with 3rd class condition but it was among the best rate we could get here, other hotels are quiet good but they only accepted euro. AC not working very well with G-minor flute sound echoing me all night long .. what a life with usd60 here ! Walk around looking for something to buy bu ended up with empty hands, nevermind we will come again here when travelling back home in next 3 months ! Walking to their famous mosque and iftar area, taking photos infront of Istanbul University, walking north to amazed blue mosque, its free to enter, very clean and Allah knows that we almost stuned of great othmaniyah sultans..

We didnt make it on red sofya mosque but we will come back again to visit one of great mosque in turkey heritage. Back to hotel, enjoying pipe music and sometimes without any consent change channel to 103 (secret channel). secret means secret, don't ask.

Wakeup as early as 0430hrs to get sahur at 5th level, bread with an eggs and orange juice. Check in at 12oohrs noon at istanbul airport as first class passenger .. entered turkish airline lounge, spending almost 10hrs sleeping, watching tv and reading as we cannot take any food (fasting maa..) and finally breaking our fast with lentil soup, tasty and nice.

Approximately 2340hrs we inline to boarding Turkish airlines to ashgabat, turkmenistan, what a heck is going on here ..? nothing is left out from airport authority during scanning and checking ! First class ?... like air asia, but the different is center seat was flip down .. what a trick !! flight to ashgabat expected to arrive at 0520hrs, we are served with plov (special turkmen food) and lemon tea .. we keep asking for lemon tea at every hour, they need to pay us on missing first class treatment for almost 4 hours flight ! We do not know which area that we get cross down there but we expected it must be black sea, armenia, azerbayjan, caspian sea and finally turkmenistan.

Arrrived ashgabat at 0530hrs, two rows, for local and foreigner, very cold out here, it almost 16 deg c, 45 minutes with visa and green card processing procedures really makes us tired of all. with usd103 we are given green card to enter turkmenistan with multiple visas entry., thank you ... there was a car took us to nisa' hotel, we paid usd60 for 10 hours, our flight to turkmenbashi is around 2030hrs, so we take an oppurtunity to sleep. 1300hrs we managed to changed usd to manat and took 'taxi' ( sorry .. no taxi here .. every car can be a taxi..) ok i will try to absorb this kind of system .. we proceed to yimpass the biggest shopping complex in their capital city .. same like our tesco.

We 'tapau' or 'paket' our food for breaking fast and at 1805 we moved our ass to their airport, breaking fast at 1810hrs and fly to turkmenbashi at 2030hrs, in flight, seat number is not working at all, not really matters here.. you can seat anywhere you like to seat as long as you feel confortable. No first class treatment, you can seat on first class with same rate .. oops! the only different for local samolet (flight) ticket is cheaper than foreigner (usd24), but so far no problem for us and for locals, most important things we fly save and safely landing in destination..

For first time I tasted mineral gas water, I almost choked and I feel gas aroused into my head ! stewardess only smiles at me .. than I return back with curious pale looking face. She asked me " are you ok, sir ?" .. "please give me a cola .. with less gas" .. she almost giving big laugh to me and then she said "Ok .. cola with no gas for you ..."

Arrived at Turkmenbashi airport approx 1015hrs, they took our passport for registration and our friends are waiting for us with big smiles ...due to their safety procedure we cannot freely out after 2300hrs till 0700hrs, we had rush to turkmenbashi otel.. stop at denis cafe for last meal before check in hotel.

sadakah by our friends ..

What a nice food from turkmenistan ...

MH From KLIA to IST

We boarded MH from KLIA to IST at 0900hrs, we didn't take breakfast as we still fasting, but when figure out it going to be a long journey, approximately 10 hours of flying, we decided to break our fast and consider we are in 'travelling for good mission' and are allowed to do so. We enjoyed the meals like no others ! Flight were full of passengers, majority of them are not from asian. After 3 hours we are crossing India and it took 3 hours also to cross from east India to west of India ! I can't figure out how they managing their country efficiently, they must be a smart politicians, no wonder they can produced 600 movies every year, their technology also was vast and amazed and they have nuclear weapon ! The most powerful and deadly weapon on this earth. Fly over Kuwait, the richest country in this world doesn't make me looks rich, though I'm at first class seat. Slowly but carefully I sip my lemon tea and thinking how their income as taxi driver can up to usd4,000 per month.

Crossing desert east of Saudi Arabia it tooks another 2-3 hours and I'm started to feel dizzy, what can I see outside there only yellowish sand with no human living area (may be I'm so tired), flight then avoiding iraqi borders as gulf war still in tension mode, slowly entering jordan air space, along israel and syria border and left cross Lebanon and lightly on mediterannean sea heading north to south of Turkey. The beautiful of mediterannean sea almost like a dreams, as we enter turkey border the things start to view a different scenario, huge rock wall and hard desert stone remind me to how difficult sahabats spreading islam for good to entire turkey and make it turkey one of most powerful islamic country in this world today.

Approximately 1400hrs we are crossing a scentic view of heaven, a bridge looking which tie asia and europe surrounded by bluish sea and falling mists (autumn season), what a wonderful world as my friend said in his wonderful abuikhlas.blogspot.com, Our airbus landed safely in istanbul airport at 1430hrs, this is my first visit to istanbul and i expected the greenish and soft-cold air would release our long flight modes ..