It’s been 2 months since I traveled back to South East Asia where I was born and grew up to start another nomad journey, this time as a professional writer, marketing guru and more of a travel expert. The plan was not just to enjoy being back ‘home’ a little bit, but also to travel across all the Southeast Asian countries, and start my upcoming series of ‘Digital Nomad Guides’. This idea led to my e-meeting with Sefa Sarikaya – a talented Turkish traveler and founder of Tips for Travelers group. This week, I got the privilege of having him write one of our guest posts on Asia’s Nomad. Read more to explore Turkey with Sefa.
Ahoy Ahoy humans! I’m Sefa from Turkey. The country Turkey. We don’t have any similarity with the animal one. But there are plenty of memes on the internet about this. When I was a child, a group of turkey chased me. Still I have no idea even if they caught me. It was a tiring escape for me. Anyway… I decided to write about misconceptions about Turkey. I hope your mind will change after this article about Turkey.
1) Do people travel by camel in Turkey?
Well.. I’d like to say yes to this question. Camel is one of the best ride for nomads. But I must say no. Because we don’t travel by camel in Turkey. I’m 22 years old and I saw camels in some touristic areas and in the zoo during my life. I mean my whole life. The sentence was like I had lived in the zoo.
2) Do people speak Arabian language?
Some foreign people say Turkish sounds like Arabian. Maybe it’s because we use some Arabian words in our language. But we don’t speak Arabian in Turkey. I’m planning to learn that language for my future job.
3) Is Istanbul capital of Turkey?
Istanbul is not a capital city. But I can understand why people think it’s our capital. It is a metropolitan city and you can always hear about that city in your daily life. The capital of Turkey is Angara. Literally it is Ankara but the local people call it as Angara. Ankara is also very big and beautiful city. But almost every people in this country feel sad about Ankara doesn’t have sea. If you want to be major of that city, you can promise them to make an artificial sea.
4) Do men wear fez?
Again nope. We don’t wear that red hat. But in the past, we were wearing. I mean not me but out anchestors. It stayed at some centuries ago.
5) Is Sharia form of government in Turkey?
Sharia is a form of government in Iran and in some other Arabic countries. But it is not like that for Turkey. Not all women wear hijab. Turkey is a laik country. People can believe whatever they want. People can choose whatever they want. But generally we believe what our family and our environment believe. We choose what our family and our society choose. Just like the other societies on the world.
6) Is Turkey a dangerous country?
Turkey is very safe. But for example when you consider Istanbul’s population (Officially 15 million, unofficially around 20 million) there are various people that government cannot handle. There can be snatching, disturbing to tourists etc. But it is same as other metropolitan cities. So Turkey is not more dangerous than other countries.
I hope you learned a lot from this article. I will write more about Istanbul soon.