October 8th

Have arrived back in Sydney and transferred to domestic terminal for flight home in a couple of hours.  Good flight upstairs in A380 but didn't sleep so feeling pretty spacey. Good to be back. Stopover in Singapore ok and opportunity to rest but we didn't actually enjoy it all that much. A lot of travellers to Asia don't choose to go there, believing it is too westernised. I actually liked the modernisation and out-there architecture but had a few unexpected difficulties. We were surprised how geared up it ISNT for tourists. People, including those in hotels, tourist offices, shops etc most unhelpful. Even down to hop on hop off buses that we opted for due to our tiredness, the humidity and limited time. So badly organised. Buses go everywhere but whole thing very confusing and there were tourists everywhere we went looking frustrated, trying to follow maps and understand the system. We were even offloaded at one stage and told to get new tickets as the type we were sold were superseded! Our hotel was well located near Clarke Quay and China town and had gorgeous beds and pillows (you can see where our priorities were at the stage of the trip!) but it wasn't what we envisaged. No concierge, tour desk or luxury facilities although to be fair there was a roof top pool which we didn't get to. It annoyed us until a manager explained that a Holiday Inn with Express in its name indicates fewer services. Wish we'd have understood that to begin with as it was adequate and the room was quite nice so we'd have accepted less convenience had we realised. Anyway, never mind. We were probably a bit tired and grumpy! I had a new taste sensation in durian ice cream. The creamy taste of durian without the stinky fruit itself.
Before I sign off on this blog I will add a round up and some general impressions of Turkey and also fill in some gaps in the itinerary. Sometimes I didn't have time to blog and sometimes after a long day I didn't get around to it. Overall, we had a great time.