Here I would like to share my Istanbul Turkey trip experience to all kdi readers especially about Istanbul transportation, car and road related pictures. And this maybe a guide for those who want to getting around Istanbul. There are many choices of public transport in Istanbul Turkey. The best choice is by using the train or tram. Public transportation in istanbul can be said very efficient and that is maybe one of the factor many of turkish prefer to travel by train. just like other well developed countries in Europe.
TRIP TO ISTANBUL – TRANSPORTATION & GETTING AROUND
Getting around turkey using tram like picture above is very easy and fast. It also offers cheap transportation fee which is only 1.5 TL Turkish Lira for one way journey to any station. (1 TL = 2.3 MYR) That makes Turkey have one of the cheapest airport transfer from Atarturk Airport to Istanbul City Sultanahmet with only 3TL by 1 train and 1 tram within half an hour.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJxM6GgDy-8 425 344]
The main road is for the Tram and all transport like car and motorbike are sharing the same way. They drive right hand side to the front and driver is at the left side. Sometimes you find that the main road is haywire with all cars, tram, bus and motorbike in the same way.
This is the token used to pay the tram or train fee. One token costs 1.5TL. just insert the coin into the machine (background of picture above) and you are free to go anywhere in Istanbul City.
Bus transportation around Istanbul is not very famous. most of them used for travel agent to bring the tourist around. Above picture is the common type of bus found which use Mitsubishi Bus. (picture with Istanbul girl =p)
Ahead of the bus as you can see is a signboard of “WC” which means “Toilet”. Most of the toilet in Istanbul, require you to pay around 50 kurus (0.5TL) to 1TL that makes Istanbul have one of the most expensive toilet. It is really hard to find free toilet in Istanbul. So, for one day journey, you need to prepare at least 1TL for toilet fee.
Taxi service is quite easy because they have a lot of taxi on the road. Paint in yellow colour and most of the taxi use hyundai Accent, Fiat and renault.
The road at 8PM is already quiet without any business, people and cars. The daytime is shorter during winter. Starting from 630am when the sun rise (Subuh) and 5pm the sun already setting down (Maghrib) and it is getting darker.
The road pattern on most of Istanbul land using rock and cement. The city is quite small with many small roads like above as their main road. It is easy for you to walk around because all attractive places in istanbul is near each other. In winter with 6-8 degree celcius, you will feel less tired when you walk around.
Ferry transport to get you to the other side of Straits of Bosphorus Istanbul or to the other side of continent from Europe to Asia.
Hehe.. this is not one of the public transport. the submarine of istanbul defence department. I managed to take a snap of the submarine while crossing from Europe to Asia on a boat.
The boat used by many tourist and the Turkish to travel through Bosphorus sea. The boat fee is only from 10TL to 15TL. Depends on how much you can bargain. =) Quite fun travelling 2 and a half hours on the boat where you can see the scenery of istanbul seaside. the bridge connecting two continents. The other side is Europe and the other side is Asia.
Near the port of istanbul, Eminonu. Where you can get a boat there to cross the continents.
If you want to go to every interesting places in Istanbul, one of the best choice is by using the Plan tours City Sightseeing Istanbul double decker bus which cost around 50TL.
Jom komen!