We can finally travel again! We would love to hear all about your new travels and adventures not just within Malaysia, but overseas too. If you don’t quite feel like travelling yet, that’s OK, as you can always tell us about your past holidays, and what made them so special. Your story – experiences, tips, advice – should be 700 to 800 words long in Word or Text format. Please attach some photos (1MB, captioned) in a separate email. There is no payment for submissions, and we reserve the right to edit all submissions. Email star2travel@thestar.com.my with the subject “Readers Share”.
The call for after-sunset prayer broke through the clinking of the cutlery and glassware in the restaurant. I glimpsed over the balcony and saw ferries gliding across Sea of Marmara, heading towards the European side of Istanbul. Sitting across me at the dining table was Hasret.
“Teacher, do you remember where was the last time we met?” he asked, holding a cup of coffee in his hand.
“Aman Central,” I answered. Hasret and his friends laughed. They were the international students I had worked with during my employment with a private university in Kedah back in 2017. I had made several acquaintances with many Turkish previously but it was during this three-month language programme that I began to know more about Turkey and its culture.
“I will send you a list of good eateries in Istanbul,” said Gulya in a voice message. She was my student from Kyrgyzstan whom I had met on the programme.
Having lived in Istanbul for almost 10 years, she knew the metropolitan city like the back of her hand. “I would really like you to see Uskudar. My classmates and I will meet you there,” she said.
Uskudar is a Turkish town in the Anatolian side of Istanbul. It had never been on my list of top places to travel to. It was my students who introduced me to the town, through the famous Turkish song, Uskudara Gider Iken, which tells a story of a woman’s journey to Uskudar to meet her lover. I had been intrigued ever since hearing the song.
Gulya had advised me to take the 6.30pm ferry from Eminonu to Uskudar but, by when I arrived in Eminonu, the ferry had just left the jetty.
“The next ferry will be in five minutes,” I said to Katherine, a friend of mine from Scotland, who, at the very last minute, had decided to join me on my five-day visit to Istanbul. It was getting dark by the time we boarded the ferry.
The setting sun cast a glow over the city of Istanbul, and the sky had a golden-purplish tint.
I stood on the deck, watching the skyline of Eminonu grow smaller as the ferry sailed through the Bosporus Strait, leaving the waterfront.
We reached Uskudar at dusk; Gulva was waiting at the gate with the other students. “Teacher, we’re going to show you the nightlife in Istanbul. This is what we normally do in the evening,” they said to me as they helped me navigate through the busy traffic.
Crossing roads in Istanbul was a challenge. Many times, I hesitated. Bikers honked at me and Katherine. They were not angry, but rather, amused as they watched two foreigners struggling to cross the road.
Not long after that, we reached the littoral path trailing along the Bosporus Strait, the waterway that separates the European and Asian sides of Turkey. On the opposite shore was Eminonu, on my left was the Black Sea and on my right was the Sea of Marmara.
As we walked along the strait towards the Marmara Sea, my students filled me in with some information about Uskudar. They bought me a fire lantern from one of the stalls. We took pictures and cheered as I released the lantern, watching it fly up in the evening sky.
It was starting to get chilly as there was a cold breeze coming from the Marmara Sea. Somehow, the sound of the splashing waves, the smell of the salty sea water, and the sight of seagulls flocking the pier made me think of my trip to Scotland’s North Sea coast in 2015.
Uskudar gave me the impression of being a calm and friendly neighbourhood. I could migrate to Turkey, learn Turkish, marry a local, live a simple life in Uskudar and be content... I let my imagination run wild.
We continued walking. The blinking lights from the Maiden’s Tower were behind us. I wrapped my arms around my body, occasionally rubbing my palms in my desperate attempt to warm up. Upon seeing this, one of my students, Mustafa, offered me his black woollen scarf.
We stopped by the famous restaurant Hafiz Mustafa 1864 for some creamy kunefe and Turkish tea. We chose a table close to the window overlooking Yeni Valide Mosque. I took a sip of my hot Turkish tea but I could not decide whether it was the tea or the kind company I had that evening that made me feel warm and welcomed.
Never mind my unfriendly encounter with the rude lantern seller – I was far too elated to let it ruin my evening in Uskudar.
The views expressed are entirely the reader’s own.
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