From Singapore to

This is my last semester and I am in the SEA

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Epilogue

Omg. I could write a script to count the #words in these blog, that I’ve spent hours in the last 4 months. And this is the end. And a beginning and the end. It is always the end at the end. And we keep living and beginning. 

I saw a lot of people traveling and met with some of them. Nice people are traveling and people quits job and travel. Travel is cheap and relaxed and fun. However we get used to things so the traveling. It is not a ‘Can I?’ thing for me. I can travel. Do you enjoy traveling continuously? Can you travel for long time? Of course. But why traveling? To see new places is less exiting than meeting with new people to me. And that is not enough. I should produce. I am not a parasite. And tourism is bad for countries sometimes and we shouldn’t produce wastes like this. Myanmar can’t handle it. I am not going to Vietnam, which I really wanted to, so the Philippines so the Bali! And Japan, and Korea and Mongolia and Australia and 10 times more place. One need to dream about traveling, get really exited and deserve it. Than I will go back to roads. I ran out my credits this time maybe huh? And this was an interesting concept:

English ve Turkce

Bu ilginc bir olaydi. Niyeyse sadece turkce yazmadim sadece. Onla mi alakali? Biraz da ingilizce gelissin. Evet uretmek istiyorum. Daha sonra harcayacagim gonlumce. Gezmek hostur ve herkes gezebilir. Herkes gibi gezmemeli ama. Bu sefer bitiriyorum. Bir daha da gunluk tutar miyim emin degilim. Bu da guzel bir ani boyle. Sag ol var ol dunya. Sevgilerimle. Simdi yeni bir baslangic daha. 

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ridge

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free the sand

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24 - Dubai

This is the end. An early one. What a coincidence that I also finished the last motorbike trip early as my SEA adventure. How long should you travel? How long can you? Why you came back Utku? That’s another post that is the End. But Dubai is just the last city of this blog. An epilogue. 

Evet kehanet dogru cikti ve Utku eve donmeye karar verir sinavlardan sonra. Halbuki Vietnam vardir. Hong Kong ve Filipinler ve Bali. 6 hafta gezmece. Hayata atilmadan son bir gezme atilimi. Niye yapilmadi? Anlatmak zor is cok. 

Eve gidelim.

Dubai’yiye bir Persembe gunu geldim. Kuzenim yeni calismaya basladigi Miracle bir arap kenti. Hani mucizede yok pek iste, her sey planli ve Dubai guzel yer. Gece yollar ve tren sakin ve cok yorgunum. Surekli konusuyoruz, ne guzel. 

Ilk gun gec-gec kalkip yemek yemece Subway’de ve biraz pahali Dubai; ardindan biraz alisveris merkezi (Mall of Emirates) ve Safari.

Eren founded a relatively cheap tour which is 70 AED and we are on the road at 3 to the desert. We arrive there and hop in to the Toyota Jeeps. That was fun ya. And fun is Dubai :P. A jeep and 6 people in the jeep jumping on the desert. Sand is soft and the jeep is  drifting in the ocean of sand. That was as fun as Roller-Coster. After 10 minutes we are in the desert camp, which is 10 min walk from the main road. Pretty close actually, but It seems like somewhere in the middle of the desert. There are 3 camels and a line and a hawk and people and sand,a lot of sand with the strong wind. No shoes allowed here and we don’t need them. We are bedevi. 

Biraz fotograf + kumda yurume ve donup fahis fiyatli seyler yemece ve icmece, bekliyomuyoruz ya. Cok da fahis degil gerci. Ardindan yemek servisi basliyor. O kadar kalabaliga gore oldukca basarili buluyorum. Ve ates sovu ve dans sovu. Basarili basarili. 

Dubai’de ilk kez cole ayak bastim. Ne huzurlu!, 29.04.2016, Dubai

The next day we moved to another house, just by the beach. Dubai is nice full of malls and any kind of nice restaurants. Five Guys, Cheesecake Factory are the surprising ones. That day we went to the old Dubai. Some small building finally. The old city is much better than our expectations and we walk like 3 hours around. Coffee museum is nice. Arabica. We drank the weird arabic coffee and discovered some really nice cafes. We took the boat to the other side after reading some text about Dubai in the museum which we paid 3 AED. minimal.

10 diyorlar 5 diyorum yarisina, tamamini 5e veriyor, guzelce kizartmalari gomuyoruz. Guzeldi yurumek etrafta. Tavsiye edilir. Ardindan Burj Khalifa: bolum sonu canavari. Etkileyici, hem de nasil. Acayip uzun ve saglam, halbuki kucuk aslinda zeminden. Hemen yanindaki Dubai Mall biraz buyukce, birazdan biraz fazla, haylice,, ve sonunda Five Guys yiyorum yillar sonra. 2012 miydi? Burdaki pek iyi degildi sanki. Sonra hareketli arab muziginin ve fiskiyelerin havasina kapilip kivirtip mutlu oluyorum. Fiskiyeyi kim kirmadi?

Dubai uc assagi bes yukari boyleydi. Bir de o aksam Code Jam yapmaya calisip yapamiyorum ve ardindan Cheesecake Factory ile geceyi kapatiyoruz. Dubai 3 gunluktur ve ask iki kisiliktir. Kadikoy Ayi’da bu konuya itirazi olanlar da var. Dubai’yi seviyorum, yasancak yer ilan ediyorum. Para biriktirilebilecek ve guzelce de harcanabilinecek bir yer istenirse. Duyuru.

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Myanmar!

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sabah yuruyusu

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Sulemani Temple

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23 - Bagan

Bagan trenine binmeden onceki gunu Cafe Nova'da blog yazarak gecirdim. Bilmiyorum bu blog da bitince digeri kadar sevebilecek miyim? Moralim bozuk biraz ve karnim agriyor. Uykum da var nedense. Her sey kotu mu gidiyor Bagan'da? Az once cocuklar papaya tabagimi kirdi. Normalde bu kadar sinirlenir miydim? Yoksa karnim agiridindan mi butun bunlar? Ve imla hatasi mi yaptim az once? Neden sorular sorular sorular sorular...Ben de yapistim tekini tuttum. Sinirli sinirli baktim cocuklara. Kactilar onlar da. Kotu bir sey mi yaptim ve neden bunlari deftere degil klavyede bilgisayara yaziyorum. Hayir bu is garip biraz bilgisayara yazma isi. Romantik degil. Neyse belki de son yazim olur bu o yuzden iyi yazayim. Ama iyi yazmak nedir ki? Surekli soru sorabilir misin? Evet uykum oldugu ve keyfimin kacik oldugu dogrudur.

Halbuki o rahatsiz trende bile keyfim yerindeydi. Karsimdaki ispansyol arkadas yere uzaninca ayagimi uzatip 3 saat bile uyudum.  -A keyfimi kaciran diger sey Mandalay'de unuttugum Student Pass. Agliycak misin? Kendine gel! Demesi hep kolay olani zaten- 4 gibi vardik sehir disindaki tren istasyonuna ve atladik taksiye pazarlik yapip. Vardigimda hostele insanlar uyanik e-bike kiraliyorlardi. Ogrendim ki hostelin gun dogumu turu varmis. Cantami birakip ben de katildim onlara. Tintin gittik sakin bir tapinaga pek bilinmeyen ve ciktik ustune. Ne guzel issiz bir tapinaga gonlunce cikabilmek. Ne yazik ki gun isigi kendini gec gosterdi o sabah, ama olsun. (Ama olsun, kismet filan demeyi birakmali. Pratik amaci olmayan laflar bunlar. Evet cayi sekersiz seviyorum.) Ama bir cok tapinagi gorebildigimiz guzel bir manzarayla Bagan'a merhaba dedim.

It was the number of temples not the sun rise which was impressive. Soo many of them. After realizing that the sun is not going to be there because of the clouds, I started to see the temples. Every one of them is similar to another one but each of them was kind of unique. The first question come to mind is why there are only and so many temples here? I still don't have the answer. And you needed to take off your shoes entering any of them. I started seeing temples at 6 am and I had plenty of time. So I visited allmost all the temples until 11. At the same time I was trying to arrenge the bus. And I finally able to arrange it for 8 dollars more. Bagan is unique, but touristic. And each temple you visit has budas like these welcoming you.

Sabahki parca da buyuk tapinaklarin birinde yukari cikan merdivenleri bulmaya calisiyordum ve bir rahibe sordum cikis var mi. Var diyince yureklendim ve duvarin yaninda dar bir cikinti olan yere vardim. Nedense karsiya gecmeye karar verdim ve Prince of Persia hareketleriyle karsiya vardim. Yukarda olmak guzeldi ama yol bir yere cikmadi. Ayni yolu geri dondum. Oldukca yuksek ve elimi koydugum oyuklardan bir guvercin ciksa dusucem. Gercek korku bu olsa gerek.

In the afternoon I meet with Margoux and we went to the remaining temples. The famous and big ones close to the Old Bagan. A lot of local tourists was there due to the new year holiday. And the souvenirs were usually aiming the locals. We went to a temple that is suggested to me and I climbed to the very top. Such a unique feeling, climbing and seeing the sunset on a 1000 year old temple. I think it is going to change in the future. And I am happy to be able to discover the Bagan before it got too touristy.

The other day I planned to run but I slept until 8. We went to Mount Popa by a shared van for 10000 kyat and It was nice to see that really nice temple on a rock. However it was really hot and I don't feel great today. Now I am back to hostel and I am going to try to run to the sunset today. Bus is at 8:30 to Yangoon and I am flying back to Singapore finishing my longest SEA trip sofar. Maybe the last one.  

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just another ruin

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crossing Mytinge River. 1500 for me 1500 for the motorbike.

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a house and the dog

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22 - Mandalay

Valla bu kadar yaziyi okuyabilene helal olsun. Georgetown, Malezya'daki hostel deneyimimden sonra iyi hostellerin oldugu yerlere gitme egilimim oldugu dogrudur. Sanirim bu nedenle temel olarak Mandalay'i aklimdan silmistim. Ama bazen hosteli yanlis yerde ariyorsundur. Karar verdikten sonra Mandalay'e gitmeye WikiTravel sayfasina baktim ve Dreamland Guesthouse'u buldum. Kendisi booking.com ve hostelworld gibi mecralarda yok ama kaldigim en orjinal ve guzel hostellerden biri oldu. Her konuda yardim etmede sinir tanimayan sahibleri, art galerisi ve kursu olan asil amaci, guzel yataklari, yan dukkanda kullandigin kahvalti fisleri, insider customized haritasi, bedava gozluk, cigara ve su servisleri ve cok hos terasiyla gonullerde taht kurdugu dogrudur. Sabah vardigimizda hostele sununla karsilastik mesela.

I was not expecting that but I slept a lot in the train. However I slept more when we arrived to the hostel. I rented the shittiest motorbike ever that evening and went to the south to the ancient villages. First stop was the Mahamuni Temple, which is the second holliest place in whole Myanmar. There is a Buddha inside, which only men visit and you wait in the line to put some gold leaves on the buddha. Since it was the first day of the new burmese year, it was packed with locals.

Then I went to the Amarapura town driving by the Taung Tha Man Lake and saw the U-Bein Bridge. I ended up in a ruin and the town was full of ancient ruins and Pagoda's. The ruin had a voleyball field inside. I realized there are a lot to see here and this was just the beginning.

Sonra aksama az kala Inn Wa'ya yollandim. Koy yollarinda kayboldum. Bir yerden su aldim. Fi cagindan duvarlarin arasindan gecen yollarda agaclarin siper oldugu dolana dolana vardim koye ve duvarlarla cevrili bir sehirle karsilastim.

Ardindan daha da uca gittim ve bir sokaga girdim. Yolda gormustum bircok masa kurulmus ve basinda oturan mahalle ve masadaki rahipler. Sanirim yilin ilk gunune ozel bir gelenek, rahipleri agirlamak. Ve bu caddenin sonunda nehire nazir ucuna kurmustu bu mahalle masayi ve ben gittigimde rahipleri dinliyorlardi. Gun batiminin isiklari ne guzeller Myanmar'da.

That street was amazing. All kind of village life: pigs, dogs, horses, chickens and beatiful people. They offered me some traditional drink. And finally I saw the river. This river is wide.

I wanted the watched the sunset at U-Bein's Bridge but I couldn't catch it. I saw a pagoda on the highway lightened and pretty busy with a lot of locals. For the dinner we went to the market with Kim and met with some locals. They paid for the dinner (israrima ragmen) and food was really good. They also showed me a place to buy beer. A nice couple

In the night I drank two beers with the germans and spoke some deep words about why I am travelling bla bla. It was funny haha. In the morning I woke up with a headache and diarrhoea and give up running. Instead I drove to the hill to see the sunrise at 6. However it was cloudy and didn't worth it. I visited the Pagoda's around the hill and saw the royal palace, which is a square quite similar to the Chiang Mai's, but with beautiful walls. There is definetely a lot to see in and around Mandalay. I didn't know that. I am glad that I came here, I wish I had more time.

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bir koy dolusu mu?

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only 3 people, not even 4

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Just before getting the train to Mandalay. Sunset time and me and the railway guys. Yes we should take a picture together.

Ilginc bir sey yazmak istedigim ve Myanmar’da hep olan. Bir sey soruyosun ingilizce konusabilene. Kendi aralarinda tartisip en iyi cozumu buluyorlar ve ingilizce bilen sana cozumu iletiyor.

2.gozlem: Bir soru soruyosun: misal tren kacta? 5 saniye dusunuyor ve sonra cevap veriyor. Hesap mi yapiyor yoksa ingilizce kelimeyi mi dusnuyor bilinmez.