KUL-IST

 Wed 20/12/23

We would be taking a 4 day road trip, starting from the capital, Istanbul to Bolu, Amasra and Safranbolu. Then we would be returning the car at Istanbul airport and take the metro around Istanbul city for another 3 days.  For this trip, we booked our tickets through Qatar Airways, part of the OneWorld alliance. There is no direct flight from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to Istanbul (SAW arriving and IST departing), so in this trip, we had to transit at Doha (DOH)  before arriving to SAW. We bought our ticket in end November, less than a month from the departure date. Our return trip ticket cost RM 3726 per person. The KUL-DOH sector is operated by Malaysia Airlines, while the DOH-SAW sector is operated by Qatar airways. 

Our flight from KUL to DOH departed at 2.30am to a full capacity plane. I was served with spinach with cheese bread for late supper (partner in crime was already sleeping) and omelette with potato wedges and sausage (which I opted for) or nasi lemak (Partner In Crime's choice). This is the same meal that was provided in the KUL-DOH sector in May during our trip to Tunisia.

spinach sandwich

omelette with potato wedges and sausage

The next sector from DOH to SAW was also full. The seating arrangement was 3 - 3 (similar to MH's domestic flights) with bring your own device and wifi for in flight entertainment. I forgot to bring my earphones, so I watched the movie without sound and just guessed the plot haha. Luckily the flight lasted for 4 hours only. For this sector we were served with sweet potato fritatta and spaghetti

sweet potato fritatta

no IFE screen

We landed at SAW (Sabiha Gokcen airport in Asia part of Istanbul) on time and didn't have to wait too long for our luggage. We then exchanged 200 EUR to 6200 Turkish lira at the airport (1 EUR = 31 TRY), bought a local Turk  Telekom SIM card for 1155 TRY (128 GB - required passport registration) and then proceeded to the Avis counter to pick up our rental car. The pick up point was at the Otopark level Basement 3. Our car was a white Renault Clio with automatic transmission and cost TRY 1468 with full coverage including winter tyres and unlimited mileage. The highway in Turkiye have automatic tolls with no barrier, hence the toll charges was deducted from the deposit for the car, which turned out to be TRY 122. Total mileage was 1004 km

our rental Renault Clio

We settled everything (the car rental took more than an hour due to additional coverage added from original booking) around 2.30 pm and we drove straight to our hotel in Bolu which took us about 2 hours (220 km) through the automated toll motorway, but you would be required to drive at 30km/h for the toll to detect the car plate number and  passing through a few tunnels. We arrived at our hotel Bolu Evim at 5 pm. Our room was booked through Booking.com which cost  (RM 230 / EUR 45) per night with breakfast. Our room was big and even had a kitchen.

one of the tunnels we passed thorugh

Bolu toll both

our room

kitchen in our room

After refreshing ourselves, we walked to the restaurant Kofteci Hasan next door (2 min walking) to replenish our hungry tummies. Our dinner tonight cost only TRY 520 (about RM 80). We ordered Hasan kofte (meatball) and mutlu et (mixed grill set). Cay (tea) was free of charge. We paid dinner by credit card. Then we walked to Carrefour supermarket nearby to buy 2 bottles of mineral water (TRY 4.50 per bottle) and paid by credit card. Already feeling tired from jetlag, we retired for the day.

Kofteci Hassan restaurant

cay and bread as appetizer (complimentary)

mutlu et

Hasan kofte