Ainaa Md: Tips when Traveling to Turkey

Turkey is such a beautiful place to visit! Here's some tips I learned when I traveled to Turkey ;) Hope it'll help you!

Warning! Don't buy from street sellers!

(Not an actual picture of them but just to give you a visualization. They're not those street sellers with the movable cart. Instead, they'll be carrying travel books, caps, shirts and other souvenirs in their hand)

If you see a man carrying goods and attempting to sell them to you. As tempting as he may sound with just USD1 for a travel book. DON'T entertain. The moment you take out your money from your wallet, they will slip their hand into your wallet, grab your money and run off. This happened to 3 ladies in my group in the same day. My mom was lucky enough to notice what he was about to do.

Store owners at the Spice Bazaar price their goods based on your nationally
With so many tourist coming in and out, the store owners are familiar with different languages and can straightaway know where you're from. Some may even say they have cousins in your country (all bullshit). I was warned by our tour guided that if they know you're from America or Japan, they will charge you the highest price. So, don't feel afraid to bargain.
Extra info, this is a striking difference from locals who are unfamiliar of tourist. Whether you're from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia or China, they think all Asians are from Japan despite our striking difference in skin colour and other features.

Be aware of prayer times
Take note of prayer times especially on Fridays. We were at a loss because we didn't have enough time as they refuse to sell us when the call for Friday prayers rang. For Friday prayers, it will take another hour for them to open shop. So be aware to make sure you have enough time to shop.

Explore outside of Spice Bazaar for cheaper goods
Try and explore outside of the Bazaar. You will find cheaper Turkish Delights. When we explore further, we realized that Locals may be buying outside. This was evident when the store owners weren't so familiar with tourist as they thought we were Japanese. Unlike inside the bazaar, the store owners clearly knew we were Malaysian from our chatters among ourselves.

Don't buy Turkish delights in already packaged box

(I don't have an exact picture but the boxes looks something like this. The brand which I regret buying was called Ali Baba)

Yes, it's much cheaper compared to the self-packaged per KG ones. But you're better off in buying the slightly more expensive ones that you can try.

Why you shouldn't buy the cheap already packaged ones:
1. The box are deceiving. The box is big but the quantity inside is half the box size. Check the grams.

2. The quality of the Turkish Delights are quite bad... It doesn't taste as good and sometimes, there's not even enough sugar to cover the whole Turkish Delights...

Why you should buy the self service ones:
1. Quality is assured. They look good and taste good. You can try out all the flavours and pick the ones you want.

2. You can pick and see the amount that you're buying. Sucks to be disillusioned by the box size (Partly my fault for not checking the weight...).

Not saying you shouldn't buy it but if you're giving it to someone you care, get the ones that you can pick yourself. If its for the sake of giving, go ahead, you choice.

Must Buy Yummies!
Don't know what to buy when at Turkey? Here's some I would recommend to buy!

1. Turkish Delights (Obviously!)
But instead of buying the normal square shaped ones try the honey flavoured ones. They're absolutely delicious and comes in all kinds of flavour like Rose, Chocolate marshmallow, lime and nuts, etcs.