Ottoman Party

There were shops in Istanbul where we can rent an Ottoman custom to dress up ourselves. To prepare for our Ottoman Party, we were delivered to one of thoese shops to choose our own favourite custom. Our Ottoman Party was not only a party, but our next team challenge.

Our exercise for the day was to invite a guest with inspirational stories in their life to our party and share with us their experiences. I must say this was the most difficult exercise. All 'A' members in our team, Anna (2N), Ana (1N), Ashley, Adam together with our local guide Yavuz, held a strategic meeting at the Four Seasons before departing to the Grand Bazzar.

We actually had a number of proposals but none of them seemed perfect. Yavuz suggested to invite his wife to share their love story but we all wanted to test our luck at the Grand Bazzar first. As you know, once we were at a place with interest and fun, we all forgot about our target. We just enjoyed shopping the beautiful souveniors, the Turkish Blue Eyes and a lot many other cheap, colourful and beautiful things at the Grand Bazzar.

When we meet again over lunch, we had no chocie but to accept Yavuz's suggestion. Yavuz alrsoreminded us of the risk of other people might not turn up in the last minute which will spoil our entire plan. His wife and him will of course honour their promise. Yavuz then took us home after lunch to meet his wife and planned for the evening.

Dennis, a bronze-hair beautiful English woman, married a Turkish guy; a Protestian and a Muslim got married at a Cathorlic church...well not quite appropriate to share too much of their privacy here. But for sure their love story was really inspirational.

Ottoman Party & Presentation
As a tradition, we took our group photo over the party with all and everyone in Ottoman custom. Dennis came on time with some visual aids. Our group was picked to present first. The two 'N's were busy organising the visual aid while the boys conduct the presentation together with Dennis. We noticed that the carpet shop owner was the guest of one of our groups. Anyway, as we have guests with us, our boss decided to announce the results the following day.

I've asked my guide to wrap my head to make me look a 100% Ottoman

Yavuz and his wife were so helpful that we were completed impressed. Adam suggested to share our winnings with them. But believe it or not, we acctually didn't win a penny thought we were the second runner-up. The reason being too many complaints. Our boss finally decided to cancel the last team challenge and gave rest of our jackpot to charity. Wow, we can't look down on the power of complaining. But somehow, I did support such decision, as many of us didn't accept the 'rule of no rule' which induced the many complaints at the beginning.

Anna's Amazing Journey - Ottoman Party, Istanbul