#husbandtalks

Do you still remember this picture?

If no, please see my previous writing before (How small is the world? 1): “http://mylongdistancestory.tumblr.com/tagged/husbandtalks”

If yes, let’s go on!

In my previous blog I started to tell a story of a picture. Beginning with the book fair held in Jakarta, a book that impressed me a lot, going on with our journey in Malaysia... And then I felt it as it was going to be too long and boring to read, and decided to leave the rest for my next piece of mind :)

Let me tell some more about our backpacker day in Malaysia, as I am wrapped up in our failure to eat some fresh Uighur dishes we had been craving for. To say in short, we just couldn’t find the restaurant. We had another address that I had found on Internet and a phone number. After walking up and down on Jl. Langkawi (street) of Kuala Lumpur city, we resorted to calling them in order not to spend time and money again for searching another place. But the answer we got helped us end this pursuit of belly politics! The man on the other side only told “Kami tutup hari ini!” that means “we are closed today”. Well… Chinese New Year seems like a golden opportunity for the Malay and other nations living there, except for the Chinese who have to pay much effort for preparations. But the Malay even close their restaurants!

We finally gave in against this grim reality. As my wife had already started to complain about this long walk up and down the street, I offered her to enter to one of those spice paradises of Indian people rowed the roadside. The offer was accepted! We barged into a “Nasi Kandar” restaurant and ordered, or tried to order some big portions of rice, cooked in different ways. My wife asked for a portion of “nasi goreng” with meat, and I asked for my favorite Indian dish, “Biryani”. Why I told “we tried”? Because it is sometimes hard to communicate with Indian waiters at restaurants, just like we experienced when then. We asked for two glasses of iced “teh tarik” but got two heated cups :) It’s ok! At least we could eat our fill for only a few ringgits. Others are only details.

The photo taken in Batu Caves by a stranger who I think cannot speak any languages on earth! He didn’t react and respond to all our questions but just changed his gestures showing that he can’t understand anything :)

After this early dinner, we headed to the cheapest shopping places of Kuala Lumpur, some shopping malls in city center where you can find delicious Malaysian chocolates and streets of China Town which are full of street vendors. We bought some souvenirs and went back to the Commuter Line station, where we began the journey in the morning, to commute back to Selangor, to our hostel (a home-stay-like room actually, but so nice). We walked a long way again as I couldn’t see the path extending to the station but finally caught the last commuter train. Farhan picked us up at “Bangi” station although it was about 11pm and he had a wedding ceremony the following morning! It was the last part of that tiring backpacker day and the next day we were going to be special guests of the bride and groom and follow the couple for their post-wedding photoshoot in a beautiful side of KL, Putra Jaya. What a pleasure for us!

Let’s leave Malaysia experience aside and go to another world now!

We had arranged everything one month before Emel and Farhan’s wedding ceremony, booked our tickets, ordered a creative gift and planned our journey there (including a short visit to Singapore). Here I have to extend my gratitude to Farhan and his family again, who did not let us put our hands in our pockets to pay for accommodation, transportation, food, even snacks and many other things. But the most important side of their help was the hospitality we saw on their constantly smiling faces, which made us feel at home. Thank you once again, family of Uncle Murtza!

After the day of wedding, we had to leave them and Malaysia to realize our plan to see maybe one of the most modern cities (and a country as well) in Asia. There you may enjoy a lot of attractions, travel easily by only using public transportation, see differently shaped and colored faces and hear four different languages anywhere. Yes, you know that “city-state” (or “polis” for ancient Greeks)… That is the Lion City, so-called Singapore (or Singapura, the Sanskrit phrase from which got its name, or Temasek, as Malays call).  The reason for rather well development of this city-state is implicit in history. A colonial passion ruling most of the region for a long while, under different hegemonies, independence together with others but without equality and independence again but this time as a doorway to prosperity… Thanks to the sedulous figures in its recent history, there is nothing more to say about this successful model of unity in diversity (although that’s the official motto of Indonesia’s “Pancasila” policy, we may use for Singapore as well). Now it’s time for both its residents and outsiders to enjoy beauties of the city.

The famous Lion Statue in Marina Bay, Singapore.

Some may find Singapore as a concrete jungle populated by coldfish workaholic people (looking at its highly competitive business environment) and luxury junkies on the other side. If you have already visited this country and don’t think the way round, it means you have never seen the beauty it bears inside. I’ve had lots of Malaysian and Indonesian friends so far. I see most of them as my brothers and sisters. And you know one of them is my lovely beautiful wife and her family is my family as well. Time and again I told that Indonesia is my second home, second nation and family. And most of them are my coreligionists. You know how Muslims feel when they see other Muslims in any part of the world. Happiness and warmth… What’s the connection between these words about already known facts and the Lion City?

Let me give an example to elaborate it.

With my kind Singaporean friend, at Marina Bay, Singapore during Chinese New Year Celebration.

You may be aware of the recent unrest among Indonesian people, either related with politics or economic activities thought to be invaded by the so-called “other side”. There is an increasing intolerance between two different ethnic and religious groups (though there are many others taking a hand in). To say more clearly, that’s the intolerance between some Muslim groups and ethnic Chinese and Christians. Although it is not yet that big of a deal, it’s still a vexing problem for the society. People have still a long way to get over in this aspect. And there’s a lot to be said. Let’s delay discussion of this matter to another writing, which I plan to be about a great figure of Indonesia’s history, who has a big influence on me.

Although “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” (Unity is Diversity) is Indonesia’s motto, it more fits to Singapore (in my opinion). I will introduce you with a nice Chinese-Christian Singaporean whom you see on the picture above. I met him at the “Appreciation Program for Winners of Indonesian Speech-Essay Contest” in Jakarta. There were about 40 or more people there with who I felt peace up to the bone. They had different colors, different languages and maybe different ideologies and religions. But we were all together in peace and loved one another. Please check one of my previous blogs titled as “Where can we find the peace?” to read more about that experience.

In Yogyakarta part of that program, I was surprised to see that we were going to stay at the same room, as we built a nice friendship in Jakarta. He was a real gentleman and a warm, helpful man. Later on I met him again when I went to Singapore to extend my visa to stay more in Indonesia.

Sorry, I forgot to mention. His name is Choon Hong.

He picked me up at Changi Airport, where I made him wait a long time as the immigration officers did not let me get inside easily, he took me for a lunch after kindly asking me whether I prefer some halal food or not and showed me round the city center before taking me to China Town where the hostel I was going to stay at was located in. Though he was busy for some family reasons, he promised to me to come back at night and travel together again. And he did so. He came back at about 10pm and we saw some more tourist attractions of Singapore, also drank two cups of Turkish coffee in a Turkish restaurant near Arab Street. He gave some advice to me for the following day I was going to spend there and took me to my hostel again, to China Town.

Both at night of the same day and the following morning I could find some time to experience Singapore’s unity in diversity. Just for an instance, please visit China Town and see how many temples of different religious groups are built there. I posted a photo there to say what a great tolerance people have in Singapore. See that here, please:

An Indian temple just beside a Moslem Mosque. Eventhough their worshipping program is rather musical, no one shows unrest.

My next trip to this beautiful city was with my wife, after the first part of our journey in Malaysia. This time we took a bus to go there from Kuala Lumpur, thus having a unique experience by passing a border by bus. It would be the next meet of us, Choon and I, this time together with my wife. He could come to see us at night as he had to join a family dinner for Chinese New Year celebrations. Look how similar it is with Muslims’ culture! Having dinner with relatives, visiting elders of the family and many more… We met at Marina Bay where they had already arranged every detail for celebrations and a street food where I had already eaten Turkish “döner kebap” cooked by a Turkish chef living there, just after we arrived to Singapore’s city center. Choon accompanied us a long time there again, with a nice conversation and took us to our hotel at night, treating some Indian bread and two cups of “milo” beforehand. We left him with good wishes until the next time comes to meet again. So what’s the specialty of this gentleman? Let me say to you what happened or not happened after we met and left. We didn’t be Christians, nor did he become a Muslim. We didn’t argue for any reason, but only had a nice conversation about the unity in Singapore. He told as that they celebrate holidays and holy (!) days of all different races and religions here. Muslims, Christians, Hindu, Buddhist, Chinese, Malay, Indian… Thank you Mr. Choon for showing us the beautiful side of Singapore… Wish to see you again, anywhere in the world. Hopefully in my country, to have the pleasure of greeting you, this time not as the guest but the host.

Me, Indian-Singaporeans and Mustafa Center :) Glasses belong to my wife...

Let’s come back to the picture I put here and the previous blog, not to ruffle you more. Actually the story is already written by wife, where she admitted being a “trouble-maker”. Yes, that’s the secret of this picture. Trouble-making… A recent example of “troubles” made by my first-lady happened in our short honeymoon in Carita Beach, which is actually near our home in Indonesia, at Coconut Island resort. We went to the pool for swimming after checking in and went back to our room which seemed like a village house made by bamboo and some kinds of wood. It was a nice place to relax, enjoying sunset in the evening and walking by the sea. Let’s come to the trouble in this beautiful short holiday! The room was a small one for two, even did not have a couple-bed inside but two separate beds placed on the floor. We put them side by side and slept there at night. As we swam in the afternoon, we had some wet clothes to dry. And my wife had a big shawl, a gift from our crazy friend, Dara :) For prayers, she put it on those two beds which were covered with pure white bed sheets. Guess what happened after a while! When we took the shawl back from the beds covered with white sheets, we were shocked to see that its red color had already migrated on one of those pure white sheets! Once we checked the paper on which terms and conditions are written, we saw that we had to pay one million rupiah for any problem with beds and bed sheets! That was not the only trouble I had at that time. I also had (and still have, of course) a woman as my wife who easily gets flurried! Luckily she has a smart husband (hehe :D ) who can pore on every situation regardless of its severity and find reasonable solutions. We just went to a market opposite the entrance of our resort, bought a bottle of bleacher; put the sheet inside the trashcan after filling it with some water and bleacher. Consequence: it turned to be pure white again! The next step was only to put outside to let it dry!

Let’s come to the other trouble you have been waiting for…

Going back to our journey; that day at noon we arrived to Singapore, after a long bus trip from Kuala Lumpur. Of course Singapore’s immigration caused some trouble for me again and we had to wait there for a while, more than other travelers. I have no clue why they do this every time they meet me… Maybe they like me and want to keep me there a longer time to have a nice chit-chat, or because of my poor Turkish passport (not to insult my own country but this is the reality that it is not strong enough). Thanks to my wife, this time they did not question me more and let me go back to bus, though they followed me till there to check my passport again.

The first place we visited with my wife was the Marina Bay area as it was within walking distance from the last stop of our bus, the Plaza business center. We witnessed the beautiful and small artificial lake surrounded by concrete sky-scrappers, but well organized and good-looking ones. We realized the food street and a stand where some men were cooking Turkish döner kebap. I approached there and ask some of the men thinking they may be Turkish, “ne kadar?”, which means “how much?” in English. I realized that the man I asked the question was not Turkish, but he got that I was speaking in Turkish, calling the other blond man, the owner, to say there is a Turkish costumer. He greeted me well, he had a short conversation together and he made some discount for a chicken döner wrap.

The nice Turkish man with his super delicious chicken döner which I had been longing for.

Then we went to our hotel in Little India, using Singapore’s perfect subway line. We had a short walk until our hotel and went up by a lift to have some rest before going out again. Everything was going nice and smooth; we were enjoying our back-packer trip, except for a little unrest caused by the small room they asked us to stay at which didn’t seem similar with the one I had seen on the booking application. We had a rest for few hours and went out to further explore the Lion City and meet our dear friend, Choon again. First we had a walk in Little India, being lost in the throng of hundreds of Indian men! I still don’t know the reason why they were hanging around where there was nothing interesting. I had a chance to see my business center there (just kidding :D ) named as Mustafa Center, you may see on the picture above :)

Then we went back to Marina Bay area where we were in the afternoon as my wife wished to see the Gardens by the Bay which she had heard that had a wonderful view at night. Using the subway again we got there and saw that it really has a beautiful view at night! We met Choon near the Marina Bay, had some chit-chat together; I found another kebap seller and ordered a “pide” (a kind of Turkish bread) for 18 Singapore Dollars!!! And this man didn’t give any discount too! I punished him by not asking any photo :D (hehe). We spent some time there as I mentioned above and went back to hotel with Choon, before leaving him there.

Next day we woke a little bit late as we were really tired due to the bus trip from Kuala Lumpur and backpacker trip in the city. We started the day with China Town, where I had stayed in my first visit to the city and did some shopping there. We had a bus back to KL at around 2pm and had to hurry up in this very last part of our Singapore journey. After I showed the mosque I had prayed at before to my wife and some other nice places of China Town, we headed to another place near to the Plaza where the bus was going to set out from. We only had 15 Singapore Dollars left and had to eat nothing that could cost more than fifteen. We choose the Zam Zam restaurant near Arab Street, where I had eaten before with Choon. It is a Muslim-Indian restaurant that serves some Arabic and Indian halal food. We ordered a “biryani” and “murtabak” as they are my favorites and of course two cups of “teh tarik”! And guess what we saw on the receipt given by the waiter at the end of our meal. It was 15 Singapore Dollars! So we had no money after that meal, except for some chicken feed…

Last one hour of our journey… We, in deed, did not need any money too after that moment. If you have thought that this could be the trouble we had, you are mistaken! The trouble caused by my wife, again… :) We left the restaurant to pray at Sultan Mosque that we arrived only by crossing the street. I performed an ablution and went inside the mosque. As it was the time for the noon prayer, the others prayed together while I did not join them as I had no time and had to leave early to catch the bus. Before I entered the mosque, I told my wife to wait me in front of the fountain. But as you may have already guessed, when I went out she was not there! Darting about inside the mosque courtyard, I started to think that we would miss the bus! I had no money, and even didn’t know whether we could find another bus or not! There were only 20 minutes left and we had a 10-minute-walk to the Plaza. I waited 5 minutes, looking around the mosque. But I saw no one. Another few minutes, but she still didn’t appear! It was just when I completely lost my hope for catching the bus that she showed up from a different side I was not expecting her to be. I was mad as hell and couldn’t help myself shouting her “where have you been?? Didn’t I tell you to wait here?? We just have ten minutes, how can we catch the bus??”… But I had to calm down and think clearly. I checked the map I already captured on Google Maps and tried to figure out the road going to the Plaza. But this time we had to run! So we did. But helter-skelter we couldn’t realize the Plaza which was actually just in front of us, as at the previous day we did take another way to go to the Marina Bay. Batting around there I asked few people where the Plaza actually was, but they had no idea as well. I ran to a wrong direction when I saw the place on my left but had to run all the way back to get to its entrance. Finally I caught the bus and luckily they had not yet left the terminal. I asked them to wait until my wife arrived and bought a bottle of cold water with the chicken feed I had in my wallet. Let’s finish this blog with the last words I told to my wife: “You really want to kill me! This time you really planned this to kill me!”…

We stand where we did stand years ago. Still together, still with love...

Today is the first day, just as it was three years ago today.

First days have always been a reason of motivation for me to write my feelings down.

I decided to write, but only some short passages this time, just like I did two years ago. Two years ago when we experienced that adventurous journey from my motherland to yours and back. This time it will even be simpler...

I know this is only the beginning of our story. If you ask those who have already come a long way in marriage, perhaps they will laugh at us and say some words which will probably mean “You are still young and have a long way to go” etc. The only thing I’d like to tell them is “Tell me about it!”. Please don’t get me wrong. It is not a complaint about my life. Who knows where would we be if not here in this situation? Who knows what would we do now? Would we be together or they take us apart? Anyway, we are still together, still free and still lay back on the same pillow every night. And this is enough to be grateful for the Almighty Allah!

However, it is sure a turning point in our lives and it cannot be simply misprized as a period of rawness. God knows, would those (somewhat) outsiders put up such resistance if they went through the same we have been going through since the beginning of these three years? Would they go on struggling or give up just like some others who got tired even before the beginning of their stories?

How about those claiming to have the same story as us? Do they really know our story? Do they really feel what we feel?

No way I can or dare to belittle stories of others. Each story is unique. And, so mine is…

Today is a gladsome day for us. But it also is a little bit blue…

Gladsome as we have put three years behind us with all its ups and downs, blue as we have been passing through maybe the hardest time of our lives in this wild world.

I know I did not start with heartwarming words to this writing which was supposed to be simpler. At least I claimed so in the beginning but it again turned to be a complicated one. Okay, no problem I think... I remember those words I wrote for you when we sometimes were over the moon and sometimes up in the clouds with the hope to touch each other during that painful long distance time. What beautiful days they were! But isn’t today as beautiful as those? I think it is. And it is only in our hands to make it even more beautiful.

Ok…

This nonsense talk is enough I think. Now let me tell you something, my life, my wife, my everything…

You are stronger than I was thinking before and I know you will be more.

You are getting more beautiful in my eyes every single morning and night.

You are the only one who stays beside me in this hard period of life. I sometimes think like, “How can she stand such a problematic man in her life?” but you do and you are still with me, as my best and biggest supporter.

You are my love. I love you, baby. Just like the first time I wrote to you, I want to sing it out loud that I love you so much!

Please forgive all of my mistakes for these three years’ sake.

I know well that you’ve never lost your hope, but let me tell a story to you which I lived just two days ago. It was one of the strangest moments of my life.

That day (night actually) I met one of the purest humans living on earth. He is probably about 40 years old and if you don’t really know him, you may think he is a dangerous man. His face is a little bit scary and his body is strong enough to harm anyone weaker than him. But when you see the smile on his face, all these iced prejudices start to melt down.

Believe me, I told nothing to him about my past and future! He just heard that we are planning to go to that peaceful place we wish to live. You know where I mean…

But he was so sure when was expressing these words just at in the beginning of our conversation, “You will be very successful soon. Just in three years!”

I was shocked to hear this. What did he mean? How could he be so sure like he was?

Then I started to ask questions to him. He insisted on saying same words to me. “You will go to that country you want. You will stay there three years and start to be successful in the first year.”

I felt really strange and wanted to cry. But I held my tears as I was too shy to do that there.

Then I asked him again: “So, when I will leave here? What do you think about the time?”

His answer was as strange as his first sentence, “Only in three months you will leave here and go there. And you will be successful there in three years. I know you have some problems in your country now. But this is only a little problem. Don’t worry” he said. But he also warned me, saying “When you go there and become successful, don’t forget this country, these people and us. You must come back to here”.

Can you imagine how sure he was talking about my future?

Then again without hearing any words from my mouth, he said, “And you will have a baby soon. And when you have your baby, something will change…”

I will keep this “something” as a secret until that time comes. Please don’t ask anything about that? Deal? :)

Let me give two simple predictions of him to help you believe these words more strongly.

I asked him the reason why I got too many little accidents in only one week.

He said “It is because you have more jobs than before now, your economy is getting better and this is a warning for you. It says ‘Don’t forget sadakah!’ to you”. Then my friend asked him, “What do you think? Is the way going to his home safe now or not?” and he said “There is no problem. It is so safe”.

I thought about these words whole the way going home. The road was strangely empty and there was no problem until I came to the city center. And you know the end of the story and the miracle which saved me thanks to a friend waiting there with the others. No need to give more details I think :)

I was so excited to tell all of these words to you when I came back to home. But I decided to wait until this special day of us as I couldn’t prepare any beautiful gift for you this year. So please accept my simple gifts and these exciting wishes from that pure heart.

So,

What are we waiting for?

Still, I’m (putting up a resistance) I’m gonna work it out You know I’m (putting up a resistance) I’ve got to work it out Lord, I’m (putting up a resistance) I’m ah gonna work it out You know I’m (putting up a resistance) I’m gonna work it out, Lord!

Got to fight it! Got to fight it!

Just listen to this song, say a prayer and relax.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkTwyi4qfqY

Allah has the best plan for us :)

Every picture has a story. So what’s that of this above? I will tell you later on this blog…

I’m back again. I guess you will say “Enough man! We’re bored of hearing your struggle with your own mind for writing a piece of nonsense!”. Or maybe it’s just my bad suspicion. But that’s a big matter for me. To write or not to write; that’s the question! Finally I beat all the hitches, my old netbook which is full of lags, my own laziness to begin writing, my annoying hand phone that doesn’t let me move the pictures easily… By the way, we also decided to write a book that’s going to tell our story from my own and lovely wife’s perspectives. Just wait and see… Don’t forget to follow us until the time comes.

Actually I was thinking to title this blog as “Waiting!” as a novel of a great Chinese author impressed me a lot. Please let me tell some about that.

“Sweatheart, will you wait for me? I will come back to you soon. We are still, still one family, aren’t we? Don’t leave me..” said Lin Kong…

I heard tell of a new author, during a class of mine which is about Asian societies, but through literature. I had no idea who he was and what he had written. As it was my task for one of the classes on Chinese literature, I read only a short story of his. To be honest, I felt disgusted as he gives too many details. Though all those details are the life itself and all of us may witness such incidents, it was still (partly) disgusting to read. Sorry, I forgot to tell the name. It was a book that contains some short stories of a well-known Chinese author (who has moved to USA to make a clean break in his life and decided to use only English as his new adopted language to write), named as “Ocean of Words”. My and Ha Jin’s was a short-dated friendship and I’ve never heard of him again till I encountered his other works in a crazy book fair as its name also suggests: “Big Bad Wolf”. Yes, it was really like a Big Bad Wolf with hundreds of bookworms rambling inside him.

She offered me the book “En(She)Klopedia”. But of course I don’t need a book to understand her!

As I have a bookish wife, we visited this fair (whereby all the books were on sale with at least 50% discounts) two times, first of which was for my wife and the second absolutely for me. During that second visit, while I was bogging down inside the books in every moment and not many things appealed me among those huge book stands, my lovely wife exhumed me from that confusion and showed me a book, which has only a pigtail on its cover. She asked me “do you know this author?”. I said no, without even looking at it carefully (sorry my wife, sometimes I can be uninterested :) However, later I checked that again and realized that it was him, Ha Jin. Later on we found some more books of his and at the end of the tiring journey, being aware of the fact that we can only afford to buy one of them, we chose that “pigtail” which is tied with a red ribbon.

Few days later I opened its first page and you will not believe that I finished it in less than five days. I said you will not believe as I’m not a good reader at all! But its flowing story simply mesmerized me. (Well, I should remember that one of the reasons was my wife got cross at me and kept silent for almost two days! Thanks babe for letting me read the book in such a short while :) The setting was a military hospital (in many of his works Ha Jin tells military stories), the story was about a young doctor (at least young at the beginning), his prearranged marriage with a countrywoman and second love story, and of course his “waiting”. He feels he’s fallen in love for the first time in his life and decides to divorce his wife, who has been taking care of his old mother and father, and later on his own daughter, all the time he’s been away for work. He comes back to his town every summer, but cannot succeed in his action for the divorce. He waits, so his lover does. Until he finally muddles through all obstacles… 

Waiting… 

For about eighteen years… 

For the whole story, please find and buy that book. You will never regret!

Waiting… 

It sounds familiar to me. I know that feeling. Ok, I’ll not wade into my long distance story now, as I did that many times in my previous blog writings. Please have a look at them if not yet you have. Just a few words… We know what is “waiting”. We waited a couple of years for each other, for seeing alive, for touching “halal”. Then we waited to make things right. And we waited for our little prince or princess, though we are still waiting. We waited to move from our lovely home, just because of people’s blindness, fanaticism, bigotry… We are waiting to go back. We will wait for new adventures. Does “waiting” have an end? I think it doesn’t. We will still wait even after we completely move from this earthly earth.

Lunch at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and my dear teh tarik!

Well… Not only are we waiting in this world. Many others also do. They wait for their dreams. They wait for their lovers. Mothers wait for their sons. Guns wait for a hunt. So does darkness, for a light… Yes, I’m finally getting back to the main point, my title, “how small is the world?”. Heroes of “waiting” find fellows everywhere in the world. Also we’ve done. We had a couple of familiars few years ago. Yes, they are Emel and Farhan, whom you see in the picture above. Last year, when we visited them for their first wedding held in Tosya town of Kastamonu just ahead of a doomsday hitting my country, Farhan’s father, Uncle Murtza insistently invited us for the next party in Malaysia. I still remember his words… “Come to Malaysia. Please, welcome to Malaysia!”. The moment, I couldn’t deem it likely as it would be too hard for us to buy tickets to Malaysia, find enough time in January and join their second wedding ceremony there. I just graciously answered him as “InshaAllah. If Allah gives this opportunity to us…” Yes! HE did. He gave us the chance to see these warm-hearted people again. Uncle Murtza, his lovely wife, my fellow Farhan and sister Emel, Farhan’s super brothers (one of them is a virtual pilot!) and other members of his family… I can’t find words for their hospitality, amidst all the “wedding hoo-hah”. They hired a room for us for one week, took us travel in Kuala Lumpur, even bought our tickets to Singapore and bid a farewell with really nice gifts…

I also shared this photo on Instagram and wrote a caption saying “Dünya küçük…”, which means “the world is small”. The world is really small. I know we will meet them again in the future. They are still waiting for each other. May Allah let them fulfill this longing for an eternal life.  And I also know we will meet for other beloveds of ours, in a good time and place…

That looks too short to tell everything about a good fellowship, but I can’t fit all inside this blog. I would like to tell more about them in the next pieces of my mind and fingers..

A nice conversation once again with the family of Medic Mesir :)

So, we were in a part of this small world. Just one day we set aside some time for our backpacker journey, leaving Farhan and Emel for the arrangements of their wedding, which was going to be held the following day. In the morning, we met some other nice people in a luxury (sorry, they took us there :) hotel, for a breakfast. They were Mr. Ahmad Rodzi and his wife Ummi Medic Mesir :) It’s not her name but she is well-known with this ekename. They manage a non-governmental organization that helps Malaysian students to study medicine in Egypt and countries nearby. I met them for the first time in my own country, to help them arrange applications of students, to universities in Ankara. We had that breakfast and left the hotel together with Mr. Rodzi. He took us to the nearest station of commuter line where we headed for our first destination, “Batu Caves”, which is a huge Hindu temple on a hill. Once we arrived, we encountered an endless staircase beside a gigantic sculpture painted in gold. We climbed till the peak under the rainfall, watched covetous monkeys and innocent chickens, took some selfies before leaving the place and asked a strange man to take our photo (whom I think cannot speak any languages available on earth!) from behind to show our hoodies combining the words of “Together-Since-20-14”.  We ordered a grab car, whose driver was a Hindu, and headed to a new place in the hope of finding an Uighur restaurant as we had been craving masterpieces of this unique, peerless cuisine. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it as Google Maps cheated us but also didn’t say no to some biryani and other Indian tastes (teh tarik too, of course). Well… I feel this story is getting too long. To avoid irking you, I will leave the other part of this story, for another blog.

“But how about the picture you put at the beginning. Won’t you tell what its story is?”. I think I will blow the gaff in the next blog. Hopefully soon… But just a clue for you: that picture clearly depicts “innocence” of my real “trouble-maker” wife :)