Kappadokya: The land of the beautiful horses

Day 8 - Traffic Day

Took a 3 hour ferry from Girne to Tasucu. It was real bumpy and it is officially the worst ride for me in this entire trip! Afterwhich we took a taxi to the Otocar to take another 2 hour bus ride to Mersin. Afterwhich we took another 3 hour bus ride to Nigde to learn that the bus service to Cappadocia stops at 6 pm. The guy at the first Otocar did not tell us this!!! Stranded, we bought our bus tickets for the following morning and proceeded to look for a hotel for a stayover. Eventually we found one and had the cheapest meal ever in Turkey at just $12.50 Lira! SK said that it's like paying to eat chicken rice. I could not sleep well that night as the place seemed a wee bit scary to me. Our room was located on the second level which is very close to the pavement. It's easy for any strangers to climb up to our rooms seriously! Anyway the panacea to this for me...was to pray and go to sleep. haha.

I forgot to mention the the bus rides in Turkey is an experience! We were served drinks and cake! I thought I was on an airline instead! Another tourist I met attested to my statement! Furthermore the "bus steward" was dressed in uniform! I am totally wowed!!

Day 9 - Bus to Nevsehir- Cappadocia - Goreme!

Cappadocia is in Central Anatolia. There are a few towns there including Goreme, Uchisar, Urgup, Avanos, Nevsehir... we were staying at Goreme! The word Cappadocia comes from the word “Catpaducia” meaning “the land of beautiful horses”.We did see some horses! Like men ridding on these horse-carts which seemed to transport me back to the medieval times! On a sidenote, we saw and smelt much more horse dung too. blech!

Went to the tourism office where the kind man called our hotel to pick us up - Local cave house. Somehow the guy from local seemed to put on airs, hence earning the name Ah Zhuai. Still it's a really nice cavehouse to live in! We were so looking forward to staying at the cave for a long while! However upon staying there for the night, we realised that it is so so so cold! This canadian guy that we met told us that right after a hot shower, we should dive into our beds! I could not sleep well at all for the 3 nights in Cappadocia as it was just too cold despite wearing 2 pants, 2 shirts, 1 jacket, socks and under a thick blanket. And Ah Zhuai did not turn on the heater as well.

We went for lunch at Dibek, recommended in the guide book! We had manti, stew, soup, baklava (our first time!) and cappy special! I thought the lunch was not bad but I wonder if he forgot to put some seasoning into the soup as it tasted so bland! And can someone start importing cappy to Singapore! Afterwhich we toured around Goreme, a really tiny and cosy town! The views here are spectacular, the landforms are formed by volcanic eruptions a long way back, forming cone-shaped landforms. Afterwhich we had ice cream at a shop just to be kindly lectured that we are not exploring Goreme enough! haha. He is the only Turk who is able to recognise that we are from Singapore and not Japan or Korea! He introduced us to hike in Zemi Valley which will lead to another valley which has landforms that look like dicks. (45 mins walk he said) I thought my ears were bad but I later realised that I did not hear wrong. We were hiking to look at male genitals. Alright! Also, he recommended to view the sunset at around 6 pm!

So we proceeded to hike! My good chums had their nature's call and left their remnants in the valley. haha. Anyway we realised that the next valley is too far away and the sun is about to set, so we proceeded back and decided to take more photos instead. yay! I was really getting a bit tired. So we proceeded to get to the highest point in Goreme! The view is breathtaking!! Just look at the pictures! The sun set at late 7 plus instead of 6 pm... that guy gave us wrong information!! haha! Anyway on our way down, a car stopped promptly next to us, offering us a ride down to town and indicating that he could take us to a nice and cheap kebab place! Being skeptical shits, I am surprised that we took the ride. I guess the hunger and fatigue that took the skepticism away. And oh boy, I am how glad we accepted his offer and we thereby spent 3 dinners at SOS restaurant!! We met a Canadian there who introduced us to pottery - meat with sauce in a pot! We have to break the pot to eat the food inside. How cool! Anyway SK & I had our first tries that day...just to destroy our pots. It was quite a funny sight!The Canadian also introduced us to Peri Pension, which houses a Jacuzzi in his room at a lower rate compared to our local cave hotel. Well well, destiny is a strange thing isn't it! Thanks to him, we had our good potteries with some spice and a night at Peri Pension!

We bought some white wine, made in cappadocia and chips for consumption! I heard that red wine is very popular in Cappadocia though. And proceeded back to rest!

Day 10 - Green Tour

Our first tour in Turkey at just 50 Lira! In our tour, we have many other nationalities- french, canadian, korean, japanese, macau..! We went to the largest underground city of kaymakli! This underground city is used by the people to stay in during times of war! It's 8 stories underground and the ceiling is low! The tour guide ignar says that the people in the Hittite period are smaller in size and hence the low ceiling! We witness the bedrooms, ventilation shaft that is 40 m in length, wine cvellars, schools! There are no toilets in this underground city though! The sewage is stored in pots and are eventually brought out of this underground city after the war.

Next we went on to another valley and hiked 3 Km! At a point in time, a canadian woman and a korean girl were so captivated by the paintings (the plaster is created by Pigeon Eggs) in the church that they did not follow the tour! Eventually someone discovered that they were gone and ignar had to go back to hunt for them. haha. Lunch was good, we had soup (this soup has some taste! better than the one at Dibek's) , salad and chicken kebab for me. Others tried Adana Kofte. (meatballs which are spicy). Apart from the exciting places that we visited, the people I have met are really interesting! Most of them tour alone and they happen to meet along the way and hence tour together for a short period of time! One japanese lady is really inspiring. She can hardly speak english and she is touring alone in Turkey! Another lady I met from Macau told me that she tours alone in Cambodia as well and she totally enjoys this independence! I am fascinated by them as I never did entertain the thought of touring alone! They totally wowed me!

Afterwhich we went to a monastery where the landscape is once again spectacular. However a pt to note is that the sand here is extremely slippery and Jamie, a korean gal i met nearly fell! Oh mans. And this muscular korean man was approached by a few caucasian ladies for photo taking. lol. What a hottie. haha.

Finally we approached the end of our tour with a short visit at Pigeon Valley and at Onyx Gallery.

We met Hallis of Peri Pension this evening and reserved our last night at his place. He really struck me as a nice & genuine man. We went for dinner once again at SOS. The mushrooms baked with cheese simply melted in my mouth. Yum! We asked this young man where is the einstein looking boss, just to realised they have a father-son relationship. haha. And there is this other mr gam-chek guy who seems to be free lancing. Hopping between SOS and neighbouring competitor. Hmms!

Day 10 - Goreme open air museum, Urgup, Uchisar

We officially moved out of Local Cave House today and I forgot to mention that Ah Zhuai was becoming nicer & nicer each day that a tinge of guilt attacked me momentarily as we moved over to his competitor's place! Oh and I nearly burned Ah Zhuai's hairdryer while trying to dry my dirty jeans after the walk at Zemi Valley. Anyway we concluded that Ah Zhuai is a nice person except that his first presentation sucks. He has a japanese wife btw. Wow.

We walked to Goreme open air museum to realise that we had seen it all, the caves looked like those at the monastery. So we tried to hitch a ride with a tour group to Urgup or neighbouring towns with no avail. But fortunately, we managed to get a private tour at just 15 lira! We took some nice photos at the fairy chimneys and eventually reached Urgup! We were contemplating booking him for the entire day and when we finally decided, he had another booking! We concluded that we were getting increasingly upclass.. private tour! haha!

We bought wine at this winery at Urgup! 25 Lira for their best red wine. Prior to this, I don't really enjoy red wine as I always found the taste too strong for my liking.. but the red wine brewed in Cappadocia is in fact less strong and more fruity. yay!

We walked around Urgup and took a dolmus to Uchisar in a bid to get to the highest point in Cappadocia, the Uchisar Castle! The dolmus stopped at a junction and we walked 3 Km to get to Uchisar. I walked so much in this trip that I think I have nicer legs now. This american couple recommended us to lunch at Le Mouton Rouge (The Red Sheep). Apparently, there are quite a number of french living in Uchisar! And I realised it when they sell french papers like Le Figaro, Le Monde at the small convenience store! And the store names there have the french influence, like Chez Ali. Quite surprising. So we had cheese Pide at Le Mouton Rouge, Cappy again, Skewers and started our first game of Bridge (and there is no more looking back since then). Poor SK eyes started swelling up towards the end of our meal! Vivi and Twm ran to the nearest pharmacy to get eye drops. I asked the waiter for some ice and he could not understand english. I decided to try my luck by asking for la glace and he understood. Totally a french influenced town!! Later he explained that his eyes were infected once due to the pollen from the flower that was placed on our table. I don't quite understand his logic of continuing to place his flowers there! I reckoned that misery loves company. haha. Anyway we took a cab back to let SK have a good rest!

I spoke to this iranian guy at Peri Pension later that afternoon. Our conservsation got a bit awkward as I realised that he is a refugee and he has no choice but to come to Turkey. What is awkward is that I could see the sadness in his eyes as he spoke. So much that I don't know what to say. Singaporeans are lucky people.

That night, the 3 of us went to SOS and have our dinner. Afterwhich we da pao back for SK. And to think SK thought we were bringing leftovers for him to eat!! Qian Bian!!! @#%@^# Anyway as we da pao back to Peri pension back to eat, I saw Hallis and offered him to sit with us. He rejected and came back with a bottle of red wine to share! How nice! Earlier that day, he was telling me he could prepare lunch for SK as well. So it was a nice time with him, as we get to understand more about Turkey. I learnt:

(a) That tourist really likes apple tea, so much that the turks call it tourist tea

(b) They no longer give camels for dowry. It's too passe.

(c) That restaurants serves free tea after a meal

(d) Many turks move out of their towns to work in other cities

Day 11 - Avanos, Nightbus to Antalya

We went to Avanos this bus via dolmus again. Anyway we felt cheated this morning. This guy lurking around the tourist office offered to bring us to a pottery place where I experienced intimidation technique by this linguist. mans. Anyway I decided to take it that I am paying for the entrance fee to watch the formations of the beautiful pottery, designs and even attempting to make my own pottery that was terribly destroyed. In short, I didn't enjoy Avanos as much as Goreme, Urgup or Uchisar. It's really a dusty town.

We headed back to Goreme at this Patisserie where we had rice pudding! Yummie! And we had our ice chocolates and games of bridge again! As i mentioned, there is really no turning back.

Had our last dinner at Cappadocia at SOS where mr einstein looking gave us some souvenirs. He is how sweet. Anyway we feel that he really needs to revamp his place or embark on a marketing campaign. For his food is good but there are few customers! Went back to Peri Pension, another place which is good but is relatively unknown and not recommended in books! Also Peri Pension is the only cave house that has fairy chimneys! Hugged Hallis good bye and this is the end of our tour at Cappadocia. I really love this place and could feel a tinge of sadness as the bus draws me away from this place of cones and fairy chimneys.