What actually matters.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

At one point at the beginning of your journey in seeking for His blessings I believe you have this kind of spirit that could burn the sky, and this urge to invite everyone you love to have a taste of loving Him. At least I experienced it.

But of course, Jannah is not cheap, and only those who are really striving for it deserve it. On this road, not everyone is willing to face the challenges, and sometimes in the end, the only thing that you can do is to pray for them who opt to take another route.

I had the pleasure of sitting together with a friend over a dinner. From talking about their local food, the conversation shifted to how their student community is here. Frankly speaking we are not even close, but she is this type of person that makes you feel comfortable to open up to her. She comes from a country with a non-Muslim majority, and here in Turkey, majority of their students are Muslims.  She mentioned that the student body has just recently started making halaqah groups for their students in all provinces in Turkey. I asked how their halaqah is, what is included and whatnots, and she explained. Her group is handled by 3 sisters who are studying post-graduate in several branches of Islamic Studies. It was not the first time I hang out with her, and I know a bit of her background. She comes from a family with a strong religious background which quite explains her, she spent a part of her studying years in religious schools and really, her akhlaq is admirable.

To my surprise, however, she admitted her inability to express her thoughts and opinions in their session, like how this certain verse touches her, and how this verse makes her feel like this and that. She just can’t. Even in the halaqah in her previous schools she faced the same issue. But at the end, she said that the only thing she is able to do is by expressing through akhlaq.

Good akhlaq is what we are lacking nowadays. Akhlaq covers many aspects such as the way we speak, the way we dress, what we talk about, and many others, including, in this modern age, what we post on social media. Akhlaq is what makes the da’wah spreads effectively, because good akhlaq builds trust. Whatever you are trying to prove and whatever it is that you are trying to preach to people, without good akhlaq, it will never touch any heart, because what is in your heart will be reflected through your akhlaq, and only a good heart can touch other hearts.

The best example of such is of course our beloved Rasulullah SAW. With his akhlaq, he managed to leave his legacy of sahabah who inherited his akhlaq and further spread Islam until it ruled 2/3 of the world, and in the Surah Al-Ahzab : 21

There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often.

In the end, it’s your akhlaq that counts.

Taking time.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

I can’t believe that it’s already my 8th month here. Time flies so fast. And after 3 months, I’m currently dealing with the same issue. I can’t count how many times I woke up in the morning feeling frustrated and useless. Instilling istiqamah in yourself is not an easy task.

In all honesty I still find Istanbul hard to cope sometimes. I’m used to the laid-back life of Brunei, while here I have to catch almost everything from the shuttle service, bus, meal and many others. My time needs to be adjusted according to several schedules, unlike in Brunei where I only need to tell my father/brothers/sisters a few hours in advance that I have something going on at this particular hour, and being late a minute or two was not a problem, and leftover food is almost always available.

But Istanbul is not the only issue. Being the first and only Bruneian, I don’t have any experienced Bruneian senior that I can refer to about adjusting my life here. I don’t have anyone to share one common ground with that specify us as Bruneian, like the longing for Nasi Katok, discussion on how the implementation of hudud is going, the craving for ambuyat with cacah binjai, or what news currently trending on Whatsapp.

And to make it worse, I’m moving on from school to university. Life was easy with the fixed schedule and specific set of clothing (read : uniform) and certain achievements that needs to be attained. Now, one hour of the morning is wasted just on choosing what to wear to class. And with only 5 hour of lesson everyday in a foreign land, the urgency to fill the other 19 hours is giving me mental-block.

However, every day I learn something new,something that no educational institution can fit in their syllabus. And after some times I realised that changes need not to be fast, and it’s alright to take time according to what you are able to do. Self-improvement is neither something that happens overnight, nor does it something that has a limit. It is an ongoing process. What matters the most is a change that lasts.

Honouring Children.

cbko

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

23rd April is a holiday in Turkey, and it falls on Thursday this year, which, when added with exam week gives you a long weekend.

It’s called Ulusal Egemenlik ve Çocuk Bayramı or National Sovereignty and Children’s Day. Everyone was excited in class yesterday (for the long weekend of course). Then, out of curiosity I asked our hoca (prounounced as ho-ja, chicher as we say it in Brunei) why is there a festival for children. The celebration is quite massive I would say. So many activities will be carried out, like literally almost everywhere. The answer is quite heart-warming, honestly speaking. It’s a gift from Atatürk to the children of Turkey. Our hoca further explained that because the children are the future of the nation, so a day off to celebrate them was established.

“This national day (23 April National Sovereignty and Children’s Day) in Turkey is a unique event. The founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, dedicated April 23 to the children of the country to emphasize that they are the future of the new nation. It was on April 23, 1920, during the War of Independence, that the Grand National Assembly met in Ankara and laid down the foundations of a new, independent, secular, and modern republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. Following the defeat of the Allied invasion forces on September 9, 1922 and the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on July 24, 1923, Ataturk started his task of establishing the institutions of the new state. Over the next eight years, Ataturk and his followers adopted sweeping reforms to create a modern Turkey, divorced from her Ottoman past. In unprecedented moves, he dedicated the sovereignty day to the children and entrusted in the hands of the youth the protection of this sovereignty and independence.” [source]

It is pretty impressive that children are respected to this extent here. One day of festival from one end of Turkey to the other end. I even heard that the Princes’ Island is only open for children today. I’m not sure whether this is true or not. But still isn’t that just cool?

Most of us know that  the children are our future, but in all honesty I don’t really see much effect from actions taken to brush up the future leaders who lead for real, who will make real progress and improvement, not just enjoying the thousands dollar of cash flowing into their bank account. The level of Sami’na wa Atho’na in our culture is quite worrying, though the Atho’na part is most of the time involuntary. Development can never be done when the fresh ideas that come from current generation are silenced, taken for granted, or preserved for snacks (read : jaruk) and questions are left unanswered just because they “are not worth answering”.

Turkish youth are nationalistic, brave, and they know how to speak up. And the best part is most of the time, they are heard and taken into account. When the hot water dispenser in our floor was not working and some of the Türk girls were going crazy because they couldn’t get their çay fix, they provided a portable one for us to use first before they could get the repair done. And imagine as a person coming from a place where even protests are non-existent, let alone riot, to see the tear gas tank and abang-abang polis waiting right outside of the campus compound already gives me chill. They usually do protest during exam season. I thought it was because sometimes they do protest because they don’t want any exam (illogical, I know, but that’s what I heard), but recently a senior explained that it’s actually because they will do protest if they are not satisfied with the exam question. And you will never know to what extent will they go.  My view might be wrong as it’s only my 6th month here, but that is what I see. These characteristics of Turkish youth, in my opinion, could be the result of the amount of respect the country has given to them.

All in all, I’m quite touched how this sunnah of honouring children is upheld in a country which by constitution is a secular country. Of course Rasulullah SAW did not specify any day to celebrate children, but the Children’s Day is still an excellent effort in shaping the future of a nation. It also should remind us of the sunnah Rasulullah SAW has left us with. Çocuk Bayramı Kutlu Olsun!

For myself first and foremost.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

I can’t really remember when I started to realise that writing is one of my strengths… well minus my so-not-girly handwriting. Back then in school, you know how the questions for language (Malay and English) are right? In that list of questions I have a high tendency to choose creative writing over factual/academic writing. I joined competitions. I found joy in creating stories and connecting the words dramatically, be it in English or Malay. I enjoy putting things into words.

As for blogging I started around 2008 or so. I was just a kid, and blogging was kind of the in-thing. Don’t ask what were the things that I put in there, but they were definitely not something you would expect to come out of me. Even thinking about it makes me embarrassed sometimes. It has been safely deleted. But despite of all the foolish things I said, I actually enjoyed typing down my daily activities, new things I discovered, dissatisfaction and so forth.But despite of all this realisation that I have quite an ability to write, I never actually felt really passionate about it. All the competitions were just for the sake of joining and winning and trying out my luck, which most of the time, I was considerably lucky.

I’m not sure if it has developed into a passion or not, but recently I do feel some kind of relief when writing, especially on my journal which I just started after coming here. I started fresh with blogging around 2 years ago, which I failed to consistently write at first but I have overcome it after coming here, too. And not forgetting the success of “Kuadratik” (nerd aleeeert!!) Alhamdulillah.

As time passes my preference in the way of expressing my thoughts and ideas is expanding. Now, I am more into advocating in making the most out of life. We have a time limit to be in this world, which no one knows except for Allah, so why not make it more meaningful and presentable to Him in the Hereafter?

And in my current work I pour them all out, but as I am re-reading it I see that everything that I say is thrown back to my face.

“O you who have believed, why do you say what you do not do? Great is hatred in the sight of Allah that you say what you do not do.” [As-Saff : 2-3]

 
And then I realised that actually we all know a bit of everything. We know how important it is to focus in our prayer. We know that prayer is an obligation upon us Muslims. We know the importance of sincerity. We know this, we know that. But there are things that we know but we don’t practice, that we deliberately ignore on many unreasonable stances.  Or it’s just seated at the very back of our head, waiting to come out.
So, everything that I said, is not merely me reminding everyone else, but it’s a way of reminding myself, too. In the end, and in truth, it’s me who needs them the most, a normal human being, still trying to strive and struggling to remain on His path.
May Allah forgive us.

The blessing of health and time.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Spring has finally bloomed, and I got the chance to visit Gulhane Park last 2 weekends. I was actually meeting a fellow Bruneian who happened to be studying in one of the madrasahs in Istanbul. I chose Gulhane Park because I expected the tulips to have started blooming, And they did! So we spent that afternoon enjoying the flowers and scent of spring, updating each other about things happening since we last hung out together. The day went well  -until that night I started having fever.

Not only that, I developed quite a bad cough as well, and for the whole week I was sick and I had to stay in to rest. It took around 3-4 days for the fever to completely go away, and currently my cough is not driving me crazy anymore. But I’m still in the process of dezombifying myself after the Sick Week, because falling sick has disrupted my physical and mental system from functioning normally. My plans for the week were badly shifted. My mind wandered more than it usually does, and then at one point I missed being healthy again.

It reminded me of the hadith by Rasulullah SAW on time and health. Time and health are indeed deceiving. We rarely realise their presence until we lost them. As I was resting, too hot (literally) to do anything, coughing my chest out, things i was supposed to be doing and things i had been wanting to do were doing somersaults in  my head, and I started to wish I had done them earlier at the time when my health permits. But I was too late.

Take care of your time and health whenever you can, because once gone, it’s not something you can easily regain.

Things (and people) I have learnt (and am learning) to appreciate.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

If we were given a chance to rant about every bad thing that ever happened to our life we might spend the rest of our life whining, but the wise words tell us to count our blessings instead.

Well actually if I was given a chance to rant I’d be talking until your eardrums blow up. But thinking again…

…..“This is by the Grace of my Lord to test me whether I am grateful or ungrateful! And whoever is grateful, truly, his gratitude is for (the good of) his own self, and whoever is ungrateful, (he is ungrateful only for the loss of his own self). Certainly! My Lord is Rich (Free of all wants), Bountiful” [An-Naml: 40] 

Mindset plays an important role to your mental strength. It highly affects your performance in everything you are involved in, from your career to being a social creature. Gratitude is one of the characteristic of a positive person. Gratitude is knowing that whatever we have, they all come from Allah. Gratitude, makes you forget about complaining.

The path that I have chosen to walk on has taught me a lot of things. I’ve come across with new people, new experience and many other things. Along the way I realised that I have taken a lot of things for granted. I’m currently in the process of accepting the fact that I can’t rewind and rewrite my life. The process is never-ending, anyway. But I know that I can fully utilise whatever I have now to create a better future. 

  • Islam.
I am, by birth, a Muslim. I had the privilege of listening to iqamah the day when I was going to start my journey in this world, but I don’t need to tell what came after that and how I was back then. I can never imagine where would I end up if Allah didn’t cross my path with the right people. Some people have lost the meaning of their life, and some found it, but they couldn’t find a way to reach it. Some struggle to the point of losing their life. But in my case Islam was like a beautiful gift wrapped up nicely that I couldn’t see among other perishable gifts I enjoyed unwrapping. This, too, leads to…

  • Brunei
I never really paid attention to it. Until I realised that it is my responsibility to serve the land that has served me first. Abode of Peace. It is indeed an abode of peace. Despite of internal conflicts that we have (don’t deny that we do have conflicts), it is my home. It is where I was born. The comfort might make me cling to it a bit more than I should, but listening to my friends talking about the problems of their respective countries has made me miss Brunei a bit too much. The people may make you wanna roll your eyes until you can see your brain, but aren’t people meant to annoy you anyway? There, I don’t have to worry about getting stuck in the middle of a protest or riot at the Mall Gadong or tambing (closest equivalent of Taksim Square), or having to wait in a 200-people long line to get a health insurance. In relation to the previous point, I can practice my faith with ease, solat in a comfortable space, and taking wudhu in a clean and easy-to-move-around space. Free religious education, too is provided. Here, if you wanna study about religion you go to the source by yourself, but in Brunei it is given to you without you having to move around much. Not only that, you basically get free education and healthcare.

  • Education
Maybe because Brunei provides scholarship for everyone. Some of us even get monthly allowance to come to school beginning from the Sixth Form. Seriously, who gets money for studying? Bruneians do (disclaimer : I did not receive any monthly allowance during my 6th Form years) and we don’t have to pay for it afterwards. Education leads to advancement. Be it in economy, civilisation, technology and even towards Allah. Some parts of the world are struggling to get access to education, and here I am, sometimes resisting the urge to be absent from class. Some people have to fork out a large sum of money and loan to continue their study, and to make it worthwhile they need to work very hard, having to endure all kinds of pain while we don’t need to work even 100x less harder than them.

  • Money
And I feel sorry for myself for being waaaaayy too better in spending than in saving. Now I realised that I, too, might not be able to continue my post-grad study under a grant. Seriously, in 5 years time anything can change. Our national budget has been cut by a small percent, have you heard? Istanbul has taught me a lot on financial intelligence. Yes, money can’t buy a better future, but to ease your future the involvement on money is inevitable. Self-control is very much needed. Being put in a foreign place means being able to stand on my two feet without having to depend so much on the others in many aspects.

  •  Parents.
Like during those kapih moment I tend to love my parents more. But after quite a while I realised that I am no longer a little girl, I am an adult, who should be responsible for herself and all her actions and decisions,and when calculated it seems like they have spent a lot more than they should for me and I have received more than I deserve, not just in terms of money. And realising that I am an adult now, it comes to my realisation too that my parents aren’t as energetic as they were before, and it cracks my heart a little that I can’t be there to help around the house, and it cracks me more to realise that I haven’t provided a good helping hand while I was able to do so.
  • Family
Nothing can attach you to another person more than blood can. After a long day outside, having to deal with other human beings that are getting on your nerves, you know how good it feels to finally be able to meet the people that shares the same kitchen with you for your whole life, talking about the highlight of your day over a good food.
  • Time
But how many hours have we let to pass by doing other unnecessary things, spending it on other unimportant people, and not utilising it to improve the condition of the ummah? Your family is a part of the ummah, too. Apart from that, with that time we used socialising on social media can be used for us to improve other skills and advancing ourself more, so by the time we are 19 we don’t have to regret over the things we wish we had done when we were 15.
  • Opportunities
Too many chances have passed by, too over unimportant matters.
  • Mistakes
Mistakes = lessons. After a series of them, you will see the wisdom inside every potholes you fell into, and out of them, appreciation will grow.
.

Belajar untuk redha.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim
****
  Hani mengibas-ngibas selimut, menepuk-nepuk katil. Cemas semakin jelas menghias wajahnya yang bersih. Rantai emas warisan dari moyangnya hilang. Sudah dua jam dia mencari tapi hampa. Debaran itu begitu menghangatkan, manik-manik peluh semakin timbul. Dia menyentuh lehernya, membayangkan kalung berloket berlian berbentuk hati itu. Tiba-tiba dia ditembak satu ingatan. Dia melucutkan rantai itu sebelum bermain bola jaring di kampus semalam dan lupa untuk memakainya kembali. Cemasnya berbuah resah.
***
  Operasi mencari dijalankan. Hani mengelilingi gelanggang bola jaring itu dibawah silau matahari, meneliti rumput yang baru dipotong. “Jumpa?” Nabilah bersuara dari jauh sambil menghadang matanya dari terkena pancaran sang suria. Hani menoleh, menggeleng, dan terus mencari. Wajahnya basah dengan peluh dan airmata. Nabilah setia menunggu sambil turut memerhatikan sekeliling, berharap rantai kesayangan Hani akan berkilau disimbah cahaya matahari.
  Hani mula melangkah menghampiri Nabilah dengan riak hampa. Suaranya tersekat di kerongkong. “It’s okay,” kata Nabilah lalu merangkul bahu Hani. Mereka beriringan menuju kereta.
***
 
  Hani melintas jambatan yang merentasi parit besar itu menuju ke masjid. Musim kemarau yang melanda mengeringkan air yang biasanya mengalir deras. Sampah-sarap yang terkumpul di dalam parit itu mengguris hatinya yang cinta akan kebersihan. Dia berhenti, merenung kekotoran itu dengan penuh rasa sebal. Tiba-tiba satu kilauan menarik perhatiannya. Dalam timbunan sampah-sarah itu satu loket berlian berbentuk hati terjulur keluar.
“Alhamdulillah!” Hentakan kaki Hani yang berlari girang menggoncang lantai papan jambatan, dan babak hampir setahun yang lalu bermain di fikirannya.
“Mungkin sudah tiba masanya rantai itu milikkau lagi,” Nabilah cuba menenangkan sambil memandu dengan kelajuan sederhana. Hani masih diam dengan air mata yang mengalir tanpa henti. Nabilah mencuri pandang. “Percayalah, apa yang Allah sudah seal jadi milik kita akan tetap milik kita selagi Allah tidak menetapkan sebaliknya,” sambung Nabilah lagi. Hani masih melayan perasaan. Sekali lagi Nabilah melirik ke sebelah. “Siapa kita untuk cakap sesuatu itu hak milik kita? Kita tidak punya apa-apa. Semua yang ada pada kita adalah pemberian Allah. Bila-bila saja Allah boleh tarik pemberian itu. Segalanya Allah yang punya, bukan kita.” ujar Nabilah dengan nada memujuk. Kata-kata Nabilah menyentap Hani, lalu dia beristighfar, menyesal atas keterlupaannya tentang hakikat itu. Dia terus beristighfar beberapa kali. Hatinya mula tenang. Dia menoleh ke arah Nabilah, lalu tersenyum. Nabilah membalas senyumannya. Dia redha. 
 
(TAMAT)
 
 
Berdasarkan kisah benar. Bukanlah se-epic cerita di atas, tapi cukup menguji sifat redha yang ada dalam diri.
Semoga kita tidak tergolong dalam golongan yang mengeluh saat diuji dengan kehilangan.

Being responsible for yourself.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

It’s been close to 5 months since I left home, and one of the major life lesson I’ve learnt (still having it in fact) is self-management. Not saying that I can’t manage myself before, but after coming here I need to do it more than before. I’m sure I’m not the only one facing this.

No more scream demanding you to clean your room.

No more voice telling you to eat properly to keep your gastric at bay.

Having no one you can wake up at 3 in the morning to drive you to the hospital because your fever has not subsided after 4 days and is keeping you awake.

It’s saddening and breaking you apart at times . All your source of strength is Allah, yourself and your friends. Oh, and your family too, via virtual world.

But deep inside you know that you can’t be forever dependent like that. You know that one day it will end, but you are having it in a different way and maybe a bit earlier. So you decide that you have to get up on your feet on your own, walk your path, try not to stumble.

It’s tiring. One day you might even find yourself shattered all over the place because it’s squeezing you too tightly.

But isn’t that the purpose of Allah sending you into such situation? A strong Muslim is more favoured by Allah than a weak one, and He is impressed by those who do not waste their time of youth.

It’s not a shame to be responsible for yourself. It’s a shame if you can’t be responsible for yourself. Being responsible for yourself is basically providing the best for yourself, not letting yourself astray towards destruction.

Be grateful when  Allah sent you to a place where you need to raise yourself up. Allah is giving you a chance to impress Him. Being away from your family means you need to look after yourself and have control over yourself.

And everybody has a control over themselves, but only one out of two can hold the remote, either desire or wisdom.

You decide.

Worry ends where faith begins.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

After our winter break during the first class we were shocked with the news that we were going to have class on Fridays, 9 am-6pm with 2 hr break between 12pm-2pm, and before this we had an extra day of weekend on Friday, so this explains why we were kinda dumbstruck for days.
Yesterday was the first class. Since I’m a morning person I could cope with the lesson well, Alhamdulillah. But by 3pm-4pm it was a struggle to keep my head on the teacher. In the mid of that a classmate was reading my friend’s palm. We were sitting in a row. I asked her to read mine for fun.
[credit]
The verdict was :
1.     I’m gonna have 3-4 children
2.     I’ll be married to a foreigner.
 
The second one got me staring at my palm for quite some time.
Other than those, my life line is missing. I don’t know what does that suppose to mean, and on the “life” area it’s not too wrinkly, which means my life is not gonna be too bumpy. Well, considering my life now I doubt so. Briefly describing there are only two thick lines on both of my palms, hence due to the extreme faintness of the lines nothing much can be concluded. And oh, another friend also took a look on my palm and said I’m gonna get married early.
Ahem. Stop looking at your palms please.
Note : Believing any form of fortune-telling may negatively affect our ‘aqidah. Na’uzubillah.
The thing about these stuff is we when we believe them it leads to self-fulfilling prophecy.

Urban Dictionary :  Positive or negative expectations about circumstances, events, or people that may affect a persons behavior toward them in a manner that he or she (unknowingly) creates situations in which those expectations are fulfilled. In other words, causing something to happen by believing it will come true.

I was seriously staring at my palms awkwardly, trying to make sense out of the prediction. I checked eHow website on how palms are read and started doing the calculation. Okay so honestly I was kind of scared since I am currently in a multinational surrounding, so the number-2 sounded so highly possible to happen.

 Then it struck me.
 
Why do I have to be afraid about things that aren’t in my hands?
Pun not intended.

These matters had been written on my page. Like my missing life line it doesn’t mean I’m gonna die early, but I know that my day in this world is numbered, and all I need to do is live my life according to what Allah swt has instructed to do. And with all the other predictions, meh. I have many other tasks unaccomplished, for instance my assignment which is due this Monday, keeping all my ‘amal up and improving, to not come back to Brunei as another leech on government’s money, to tell people that there is another life waiting after death, which is infinite times better only if you live the current one enslaving yourself to the Almighty.

If you have enough faith that Allah is always providing the best for you, you won’t budge even a bit to stare at your palm, which I did, you won’t be bothered to wonder who is that person that takes up a spot on one line on the surface of you hand, you won’t be bothered to wonder what problems you will encounter that caused your palm to look ugly. 

The lines on your hands are meaningless, unless if those two hands are worn out due to many good deeds you did.
The most important thing is :-
Rasūlullah e said, “Allah said, ‘I am as My servant thinks (expects) I am. I am with him when he mentions Me. If he mentions Me to himself, I mention him to Myself; and if he mentions Me in an assembly, I mention him in an assembly greater than it. If he draws near to Me a hand’s length, I draw near to him an arm’s length. If he comes to Me walking, I go to him hastily. 
 [Al-Bukhari]

#beyondayasofya – Ankara Part 3 (and a bit of Konya too)

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Part 1
Part 2

We went back to the hotel and got the check in process done. The room was comfortable enough for 100TL. Well, minus that there was no air conditioner but it’s winter anyway so we didn’t really need it and we just turned off the heater. Soon after settling down we looked for a hotel in Konya online and we were lucky that there was a promotion at a hotel that offered only 70TL for one night. After a bit of research of what to do in Konya we went to bed.

But we weren’t even fully asleep yet when we heard a knock on the door, and for glitter’s sake it was already midnight. We stayed silent, and in my head I tried to convince myself that there was no ghost in Turkey. We heard another knock on another door and my friend said it was probably a drunk. We heard a knock again. When it stopped we checked if our door was locked and went back to bed. There was still a knock on the other door and after some moments it stopped when we heard a voice telling the person off. Probably a drunk.

The next morning we checked out, had breakfast and went to Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the first President of Turkey.

Majestic.
  We toured the museum and learnt quite a lot about the changes made during the period of his reign, and really the development of Turkey since he held power was amazingly remarkable from the worldly perspective.
  Then we went back to the original plan -visiting the Embassy. From Anitkabir we took a taxi to minibus station and went to the Embassy,  but of course, what is life without getting lost along the way? The minibus went along the main road and we didn’t realise that we missed the junction to the office. Thanks to Google Map (which has been like our GPS throughout our stay here), we found the office after around almost 1 km of walking.
  We were greeted by the staffs upon our arrival. I met His Excellency(HE) Ambassador of Brunei with his officer and spouse, told them what we encountered the night before and updated how my life in Istanbul so far. Later on, we went for a lunch before we were brought to their residence for a rest and to clean ourselves up.
  Then we went to Kizilay, which is like the shopping centre in Ankara to meet our friends before going to the main train station. We had not bought our ticket yet, and to make the story short the train we planned to take was full and the next train would be at 9.30 pm. Since the train takes 2 hours to reach Konya we decided to take a bus instead, which takes 3 hours. We went to the bus station and bought our tickets, and asked if there was wifi in the bus and the counter man said yes. Nope, no wifi at all.
  We reached Konya at 10.30 and our hotel called us asking where we were. I informed that we just reached Konya and asked how to reach the place. “You can go by minibus or taxi. Maybe take the minibus,” he replied. Konya was foggy that night and in the darkness of the night we barely saw anything. When we got out of the station area to look for a minibus, there was an abi nearby who was about to cross the road, and we asked how can we get a minibus to get to our hotel. He offered, and more like insisted to send us by car because he was heading that way, too. Hesitated, we followed him. He said that he was a police and asked if we had any ID with us. I was still in doubt. We walked further and further away from the bus station, and he brought us further enough to turn my hesitation into suspicion, fear and panic. We reached a dark neighbourhood 10 minutes away from the bus station.