TNBT: Green Bursa.

Rise and shine at about 9.30am. We woke up to the morning prayers from the mosque next door. Our hotel is situated directly opposite the Ulu Cami (Grand Mosque).

I gave the girls a morning call, worried that they might have overslept. To my pleasant surprise, they were already awake and washing up. Hurray! Fantastic start to our trip.

We had our first Turkish meal. Breakfast was a fine spread of cheese, bread, tomato, olive, apricot, eggs and Turkish desserts - not forgetting the cay.

Our hotel had this old-fashioned red lift (with a push-door) which fit at most three people at any one time. The girls wanted to give us a scare, but their plot failed. We heard their giggling, and they got off at the 2nd level, instead of the ground floor! :p

Anyway as I mentioned earlier, the hotel is perfectly located opposite the Ulu Cami, our first sightseeing destination.

From an aerial view, one can easily recognise the Ulu Cami by its 20 domes. The story goes that in 1396, Sultan Beyazit had vowed to build 20 mosques if he was victorious in the battle of Nicopolis in Macedonia; this one mosque with 20 domes was something of a compromise.

My first picture of a local outside Ulu Cami... It is nice to capture the natural side of people when they are not aware that camera is pointed at them.

One of the towering minarets of Ulu Cami.

We took off our shoes before entering the mosque.

Inside, the mosque is beautifully decorated with Islamic calligraphy.

According to 发发, the reason for having these low hanging lamps from the high ceiling was because in the olden days there weren't light bulbs. So it was more convenient and necessary to light the candles this way. We also noticed these low hanging lamps in other mosques around Turkey.

Behind the Ulu Cami is the Kapali Çarsi (covered bazaar). Bursa was traditionally the western end of the Silk Road. Thus, we had to visit the Koza Han (Cocoon Caravanserai).

The beautiful courtyard in the Koza Han.

We were quietly walking around the Koza Han when this shop owner greeted us in Mandarin, "你好 (How are you?)". He invited us in a offered us our first cup of authentic Turkish tea. I thought it was only polite for us to accept his tea - the Turkish hospitality. :)

In the end, we made our first purchase in Turkey - lotsa lovely Pashmira shawls. I guess it felt really good to do some shopping.

发发 attempted a Turkish conversation with the owner. As we bought almost 15 pieces of shawls, we tried asking for discount. But the owner said that he'd gladly offer us more tea but no discount. :p In the end, we were still quite happy to learn our first Turkish phrase, "Tesekkür ederim" (Thank you - pronounced as tay-she-kur eh-day-rim) and taught the owner "再见" (See you again) in Mandarin. :p

We continued to walk around the rest of the bazaar. Some people shouted "Konichiwa" (Good Afternoon in Japanese) to us, while the rest mostly stared at us. I guess it must be really rare to see Asians in Bursa marketplace. In days to come, we learnt that they also recognise us as Koreans, China Chinese, Thais, Taiwanese, and Hongkongers. Occasionally some guessed we were from Singapore. :p

The nuts were really cheap. All kinds of nuts, macadamia nuts, walnuts, etc. We bought one packet of mixed nuts for the journey, and it lasted us for days. :)

Gigantic cauliflowers, the size of human heads!

There were also stalls selling traditional wedding costumes.

Along the way, there was this cat which like XTT-KC very much! :p

We also spotted this familiar logo on the power box... hmmmm....

It was slightly past noon, as we made our way to the Yeşil Türbe (Green Tomb) and Yeşil Cami (Green Mosque). Along the way, students greeted and waved at us. We were beginning to feel like superstar in this strange land.

A clock tower in the centre of the city.

Beautiful scenery of the city outskirts.

Outside the Turkish Islamic Art Museum.

The Yeşil Türbe just behind the Silk Bazaar.

Unfortunately it was still closed for restoration.

Two cats at the Yeşil Türbe looking in the same direction. I wonder what they were looking at...

In the garden beside Yeşil Cami, there was another Garfield-lookalike fat cat. You'll soon notice cats are one of the central themes in our Turkish photos. :p

Yeşil Cami is among the finest mosque in Turkey. Its beauty begins in the marble entryway.

Inside, it is filled with Iznik tiles.

The mihrab towers at almost 50 feet.

On the two main pillars of the mosques are these rotating columns.

These columns are connected to the foundation of the mosque and are used to test if the structure of the mosque is sound after earthquakes. The right column no longer rotates. We could slightly rotate the left column.

As we left the mosque, we met our second friendly person in Turkey, Mr Murat. He invited us into his shop, which he shared with a carpet shop.

He showed us around the shop. According to him, it was of a few hundred years of history.

Repairing old carpets...

And he performed for us on his Turkish flute.

He invited us for tea and performance at Karahas-I Veli Kulltur Merkezi in the evening, and showed us some books which he said will benefit us.

It was only at night when we'd find out the true identity of Mr Murat, our new friend in Turkey.

We walked back towards the city central for transport to Uludağ. Along the way I spotted this huge fly on the Turkish Delight!

And this was our lunch for the day!

We met another kind soul, Mr Bohan, on the bus to teleferik (cable car to Uludağ's Sarialan). Mr Bohan, a ski instructor, guided us to the teleferik and offered to pay for our bus fare.

As we had some time before the next cable car ride up the mountain, we wanted to find a place to eat. An old man at the bus stop, strangely carrying an axe, led us to our first Turkish restaurant, after I held my fingers to my mouth. We enjoyed hot cay, and ordered our first love of Turkish food, the duram. It is some sort of wraps with bbq venison and vegetables. The chefs were really nice to pose for us.

Before we knew it, we had to rush for the cable car ride. So we asked for the durams to be packed.

Excited, with our cable car tickets.

It was only 4+, but we were lucky to catch the sunset on our way up. From the cable car, we could see the whole Bursa city. What a beautiful sight!

Towards the top station, we could see the landscape covered with snow! There were "Christmas Trees" everywhere! Okay, they were pine trees. :p

And then we made contact with snow! It was the first time I had seen and touched snow. :p Although the snow was not heavy enough for skiing that day, it was still quite cool.

We took another 15 mins ride in the dolmuş to the ski resort. By then it was really dark. There was no skiing for us. What a pity.

On our way back down, the scenery was equally breathtaking. Behind, the mountains illuminated by the star lights.

And below, the city lights drawing the outline of the whole city.

Back on the ground, we still had our durams with us! It was quite cold and there seemed to no better place to eat it than the restaurant where we packed it. :p

They were about to close but kept the restaurant open for us. We were quite paiseh when they saw us still holding on to the durams. Ha ha. Instead of chasing us away, they offered us free tea and biscuits.

They even gave us a bucket of hot charcoal to keep us warm! Such nice people! Once again, great Turkish hospitality.

We wanted to show them our gratitude, to give them a piece of token so that they can remember us by.

In the end, the only thing "Singapore" we could find was a two-dollar note. With that, we told them where we came from. :) And hopefully more Singaporeans will visit them next time!

329 05 84. They do delivery too! ;op

The long day had not quite ended yet. There was still a few hours before our bus departs for Canakkale at 2am. We decided to visit Karahas-I Veli Kulltur Merkezi, which Mr Murat had told us earlier in the day.

To our surprise, Mr Murat was part of the Mevlevi Order, commonly known as the Whirling Dervishes. He is the senior member of the group and plays the flute during the ceremony.

He explained to us the meaning of the sema (the dance ceremony). The significance of the dance is summarized as below:

The whirling represents all things that rotate about a center. The moon around Earth, Earth around the Sun, Solar system, etc. The hands action represents receiving knowledgefrom God, and sharing with others. Black cloak represents the dirty heart, the sins. White cloak represents goodness. Removing of black cloak signifies turning from bad to good. The cone hat represents the grave stones. A reminder of the judgment everyone must face during death. Thus must do good. Chanting and music rhythm represents calling of God's name "Allah". Playing of flute need to Hoooo (God).

We had planned to watch the Whirling Dervishes performance in Istanbul, but this was even better. We were able to watch the performance of the authentic ceremony by people who really practice the teachings of Rumi, and at the same time understand the significance of the ceremony spiritually, and not merely as an art form.

After the ceremony, we also made a couple more new friends. Two university students escorted us back to hotel. Bursa can be quite dangerous at night, and it was safer that the locals walked us back. On the way, we talked and joked. One of the guys Bohan kept saying Izmir is one of the most beautiful place in Turkey. Apparently his hometown is in Izmir! They also couldn't believe our age. We probably looked much younger than Turks of our age. :p These two lads seemed to like 发发 alot. They exchanged emails and we took this parting shot with this funny Turkish hand sign.

Back in hotel, as some of us dozed off, we had the first of our routine wait for the night bus. Next stop, Canakkale!