Turkey Related Subjects => Places to Visit => Topic started by: Colwyn on October 05, 2008, 13:03:50 PM
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 05, 2008, 13:03:50 PM
Introduction
On our holiday in Turkey this year we celebrated Hilary's retirement. We did this by going for a month and travelling about the country. We began with a week in peaceful and beautiful Akyaka, then set off for a tour of Kapadokya where we spent 7 nights. In addition we had 1 night our journey there and and another coming back to break our journey, 3 nights in Calis, and then back to Akyaka for another 9 nights. Some of our ideas for where to stay and what to do in Kapadokya came from CBF (special thanks to Tel and Rimms), so I thought I would repay this by posting a log of our trip. Might give you ideas about what to do - or more importantly what not to do!
In preparing for the trip we found the Turkey Travel Planner website a great resource. Most of the hotels and the airballoon flight were booked before we left the UK. Because it was such a special trip for us - we had been anticipating doing it for ten years - we spent more money than we would normally on holiday. But it was well worth it. I will try to post an episode each day, spell the nameplaces with Turkish lettering (tell me if this doesn't work), and to include maps and photographs. Hope you enjoy it.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: pookie on October 05, 2008, 13:34:19 PM
Great - Look forward to it, we are planning a trip in June, so your pictures and comments will be really useful. Thank you :)
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 05, 2008, 13:41:43 PM
Kapadokya
Kapadoka is in Central Anatolia. It is bounded by the cities of Aksaray (to the west), Kirsehir (north), Kayseri (east), and Ni&gde (south). In the middle is Nevsehir and nearby are Göreme and Ürgüp.
The geology has been shaped by a number of volcanoes in the region with the largest being Erciyes Da&gi (3916m/12,850ft) in the east and Hasan Da&gi (3268m/10,720ft) in the west. These spewed out many layers of soft ash . Over the years this ash has been compressed into tufa. Water erosion cuts channels into the tufa and swirling winds wrap around them and convert them into peri - fairy chimneys thus producing a weird landscape and also the very fertile tufa soil. Elsewhere deep canyons cut into the landscape - a famous one being the Ihlara Canyon near Aksaray. It is an extraordinary and magical place - and has been reputed as such since Hittite times. The word Cappadocia is Persian and means Land of Beautiful Horses.
FOREGROUND - PERI IN THE MAKING AND BEHIND THEM COMPLETED FAIRY CHIMNEYS AND UÇHISAR ON THE HORIZON
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: julesbob0303 on October 05, 2008, 16:55:22 PM
What a superb photo. Look forward to reading and seeing more. :)
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: tel on October 05, 2008, 18:38:23 PM
wot some credit!!!!!LOL Really pleased that you enjoyed your trip Colwyn. Look forward to reading more.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 06, 2008, 12:23:35 PM
Day 1
Having stayed a week in Akyaka we left, on the first day of Ramazan, for our tour of Kapadokya. We set off in our little Fiat Albea heading for Egirdir as our stop on the way to - a journey of 235 miles/5 hours. In driving from Çalis I guess the journey would be slight shorter. You would probably, like us, approach Egirdir by travelling through the pleasant town of Isparta. The council here has clearly made efforts to prettify the municipality and it has worked rather well. We then travelled over mountains before descending steeply with spectacular views of Lake Egirdir.
We stayed on Yesilada (Green Island) which is now joined to the mainland by an artificial causeway. This is where all the pensions are located. The lake is large and beautiful and, when we arrived late that afernoon it was swept by gale force wind. The town of Egirdir itself is rather disappointing. Its two main features of interest are the castle and the world's only walk-through minaret. The castle turned out to have only one wall standing, and the minaret area was being renovated (or perhaps destructed, it was difficult to tell) so you couldn't walk through. The other notable feature were the old wooden houses which I guess are of Greek origin. The island itself was rather more interesting and, had we time, we could have probably enjoyed ourselves exploring rather more of it.
Our pension, which I had booked in advance via its extremely good website, was probably the poorest hotel we have ever stayed at in Turkey, even the breakfast was not up to standard. They charged us 40 Euro for the night; it was worth 10. Many of the restaurants on the island were not serving alcohol because of Ramazan, but we eventually got a drink and then found a restaurant. We arrived this close to dusk. A car pulled up and the boot was loaded with a vast quantity of take-away food and drove off. Diners started to arrive. Then the muezzin sounded from the mosque, two canons were fired, and the feasting was off. People had obviously ordered in advance and, at the first sound from the minaret, waiters started to run (quite literally) from the kitchen to the tables inside the restaurant and those across the road at the lakeside. We ate the same as everyone else - but I am sure we didn't pay the same price; it was unexpectedly expensive, we even got charged for salad. In the early hours of the morning we were woken by sounds with which we would become familiar over the next few weeks - the pre-dawn drumming to rouse folk to eat breakfast before the break of day. This drummer was of the BANG-BANG-BANG-pause, BANG-BANG-BANG-pause style which, in my view, is the most tedious of all.
Early next morning we were up and ready for our journey to Kapadokya (that would be 285miles/5.5 hours). The wind of the previous evening was gone and the huge lake was calm and beautiful. We began by driving northwards along the eastern side of the lake through apple orchards and lovely scenery. The favoured means of rural transport here (apart from the ubiquitous tractor and trailer) was the donkey - laden with crops, carrying a rider, or pulling a cart. We had intended to travel by what my map told me was the "panoramic route" to Yalvaç but we missed the turn-off (retrospectively we realized it was in the middle of some huge roadworks) and found ourselves unexpectedly heading into Sarki Karaa&gac. So we replanned our route and continued. This was a serendipitous choice because we saw a sight we would otherwise have missed; two large flocks of storks flying high over the hills with at least 50 birds in each. Then we cut eastwards through Hüyük on a small country road that took us over rolling hills that rose slowly until they were quite high, mountains really. We crested the top and saw below us the Central Anatolian Plain spread out below us. Swooping down the steep escarpment we came to Konya.
Konya is a city of some 1 million citizens and is an ugly urban sprawl across the flat plain. It is known as the most devout city in Turkey (so I was surprised to see women without headscarves during Ramazan) and home to the Mevlani, the Sufi Muslim sect that is famous for its Whirling Dervishes. We began to circle Konya via its ring road but were eventually diverted (due to roadworks) through backstreets, an industrial estate, and various derelict areas on a single track potholed road following the optimistic signs "Ankara". That such a route would connect a major Turkish city with its capital seemed odd - if not disgraceful. Finally we rejoined the normal highway and headed for Aksaray.
It is difficult to convey the sheer tedium of this part of the route. The Central Anatolian Plain is almost dead flat - like the Great Plains of the United States when you see then on films. The single-carriageway road is rifle-barrel straight. The plain is, apparently, a major supplier of wheat and barley in Turkey. But, by the time we were there in September, this had long since been harvested. What remained was a parched stubble in vast dusty expanses. There are no features; no trees or bushes; there are few people and fewer animals. In short there is almost nothing of interest. Passing a petrol station every 20 minutes is a major excitement. When we were there were roadworks in progress - another two-lane highway being built in parallel to the existing road. Gravel moving lorries were constantly depositing new heaps of dusty roadcovering on this side of the road travelling across from quarries or depots on the other side and throwing up huge clouds of dust through which you had to slow to a crawl to navigate. There being nothing to give perspective, no benchmark for comparison, distances were difficult to judge. The dot in front on the road might be a car 300 metres in front, or a lorry 1 kilometre away. Actually it was always a lorry that seemed to be spaced at one per kilometre all along this awful road. This - coupled with the white haziness of the sky, the whiteness of the road, the whiteness of the dust clouds, and the parched beige of the fields - made the journey across the plain a hard one. Pity we hadn't taken some CDs to help us along it. The only thing to be said in its favour is, that since few other people other than lorry drivers were travelling that way, it took only an hour and a quarter to cross with accelerator hard to the floorboards.
The end of the Anatolian Plain is marked by Aksaray. Immediately driving became easier and more pleasurable. The relentless plain was replaced by rolling hills, a road dual-carriageway road with broad sweeping curves, and even some vegetation. This improved even more on approaching Nevsehir. This city marks the eastern edge of Kapadoka and after here the landscape changed dramatically. Within minutes we began to feel the magic of the country we had entered. We drove up to the commanding heights of Uçhisar and then down the valley towards Göreme. We stopped at the ‘Panorama View' over Pigeon Valley - and were left speechless. And then down into Göreme to find our hotel.
I had selected this place very carefully on the internet before going to Turkey as we were going to stay for four nights; it was the Kelebek Pension. This little hotel is on top of a small hill in the centre of Göreme and most of the rooms are caves dug from the peri (fairy chimneys) that characterize this part of Kapadokoya. The rooms are great, breakfast/drinking/lounging terraces are great, the views are great, the breakfasts are great. Is the hotel great? You bet it is. We had booked a "Junior Suite" (= big room) at 65 Euro a night. It was right by the swimming pool. Just marvellous. You can get a standard room for 35 Euro which, at an hotel like this, seems to me to be a bargain. We settled into the hotel with smiles on our faces. We were in Kapadoka and it was going to be ............................... well ............................ great.
KELEBEK HOTEL (our room behind the two windows to right of rear entrance)
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Anne on October 07, 2008, 18:38:06 PM
It sounds wonderful Colwyn:D I'm hooked and can't wait for the next instalment.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: STEVErx on October 07, 2008, 19:13:15 PM
brillent colwyn
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 08, 2008, 08:45:03 AM
Hi folks I can promise many more lovely photos on their way. Not because I am much good as a photographer but because many of the sights we saw were just so marvellous all I had to do was point and click.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 08, 2008, 14:13:30 PM
Day 3
Having been driving for two days I was pleased to park up the car for our stay at the Kelebek. After two days of driving we planned a fairly relaxed day. Göreme would be a very pleasant small Turkish town (or large village) without the fairy chimneys; with them it is an enchanting place. Around every corner, overlooking the bars and restaurants, the stacks loom overhead. Many have been carved to form houses or apartments. It is a good place to relax.
But first we went for a walk. We took the dolmus up the hill to Uçhisar and went up to the castle which is reputed to be the highest place in Kapadokya (obviously not counting the volcanoes). The castle is a set of rooms quarried out of a huge rock that commands miles of surrounding countryside. It is a pretty stiff climb to the top, but worth it.
From there we hiked down Pigeon Valley (good walking shoes recommended) bach to Göreme. The valley has this name because of the many pigeon lofts it houses. These, like the houses, are cut into the soft rock. The fertility of Kapadokya is achieved by mixing the tufa soil with guano (pigeon sh*t to you) collected from these lofts. If walking down the valley stick to the left hand side. The path/s are generally pretty good but Hilary didn't like one rather narrow track in a steep place, and cutting across when steep slope with unstable shale underfoot. At one point the path led us to a six foot drop which we decided to aviod and then had to scout around for an alternative route. In short, just about enough difficulty to keep us alert. It took a little more than an hour before we arrived at the outskirts of Göreme, mostly because of the time I spent taking pictures.
We decided that we had had enough exercise for one day and spent the rest of the afternoon at the Kelebek pool or lounging on the divans on the terrace enjoying the spectacular views through a glass of Efes.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Cavfan on October 08, 2008, 16:17:05 PM
It all looks and sounds gorgeous! The pension looks like something from the Holiday Programme!
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: pookie on October 08, 2008, 16:23:22 PM
June feels a long long time to wait now I've seen your thread Colwyn ! Looks like it will be worth the wait though. And you can't imagine what effect the photo of the chilled efes had on me ;):D
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 09, 2008, 14:36:20 PM
Day 4: Part One
This was our top day - in more ways than one. We rose soon after the drummer's visit to prepare for a dawn airballoon ascent. We had chosen to fly with the "Kapadokya Balloons" company. This comes highly recommended by the Turkey Travel Planner website (a brilliant resource). It is, I think, the most expensive of the companies at 230Euro/400YTL/£184 per person. What you get for your money is to go in a small group, in our case just 8 of us in the basket (plus pilot). Some companies have large baskets and sometimes cram in 30 people. You get an extended flight of between an hour and half and two hours, in comparison with other companies that you see landing after 30 minutes or so. You will be the last ones in the sky when you come to land. And you get to fly with Lars (a Swedish pilot with 30 years of experience) or his British wife Kaili (who is also very experienced). We flew with Lars who gave us detailed explanations about the technology and techniques of airballooning.
Kapadokya Balloons has a choice of launch sites allowing the pilots to select the best place for that day's weather conditions. Our two yellow and blue striped balloons rose together at surprising speed. First thing in the morning the air is cold and sinks down the valleys; it is a katabatic wind. The balloon, of course, drifts with it. But the speed and direction of drift differs at different heights. So "steering" the balloon depends on reaching the appropriate height for the route you wish to take. At one point one of our fellow passengers asked: "Why are all the other balloons going down?". Our pilot explained: "They aren't. We are going up". We rose to 5,500 ft. The only sensation of movement was a slight breeze created by our ascent. Lars told us that sometimes the appropriate drift would be in a just a thin layer of air, perhaps only 70 ft; which I guess is just about the size height of the balloon itself. Carried silently by the drift we gently headed down towards Goreme; sometimes high above the valley, sometimes brushing the tops of the foot-high weeds on the clifftops (yes, literally).
As the air warmed the katabatic wind died down, leaving the eight and half ton mass of the balloon hovering over Goreme; in fact hovering over our hotel where we could clearly see our room and our little dark red Fiat parked close by. Then, as the air became even warmer, the anabatic wind began with the air now rising, taking us up Pigeon Valley towards Uchisar and its prominent castle. We drifted over fairy chimney houses, our shadow passing their windows, flirted with the eroded cliffs, and played hide-and-seek in the gullies in between. Flying close by the castle we came into land in a field beyond where the landrovers and trailers were waiting for us.
We had all been trained in the emergency landing procedure in case the basket tipped because of the strength of the breeze carrying away the huge fabric envelop above us. We all had to face away from the direction of flight firmly gripping the blue rope handles (not the red ones). If we felt the basket tipping over we had to crouch so that our heads were below its rim. So we all tensed as we approached the ground, and approached it nearer, and nearer and then stopped. Lars had us hanging four ft above the ground next to the trailer. Now how you get eight and a half tons of balloon to hover I have no idea; it was just awesome. Two assistants ran over from the trailer and pushed the basket towards it and it hovered directly overhead. Then we descended the last four inches and we didn't even feel it when the basket came to end of flight.
To celebrate our survival the assistants decorated the basket with branches and flowers and we toasted ourselves and the crew with champagne and cherry juice cocktails. From start to finish - what an absolutely brilliant experience.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 10, 2008, 15:30:56 PM
Day 4: Part Two
We got back to the Kelebek in time for breakfast on the terrace. We then set off to walk to the Göreme Open-Air Museum. A signpost said it was 1km away; seemed more like 2 miles to us. The museum is in a bowl where a small valley broadens out. From 900 to 1200AD it was a major Byzantine Christian centre with a monastery, nunnery and many small
churches all of them carved into fairly chimneys and cliffs and most with murals of Biblical and other religious scenes - but we didn't spot St George who apparently killed his dragon on top of nearby Erciyes Da&gi (we didn't know that, did you?). One of the churches is known as The Dark Church and has the most spectacular rock paintings. This we thought was because the lack of light inside had led to them not fading. The real reason however is rather more prosaic; for centuries it was used to house pigeons and the walls were covered with pigeon ****. Only after 14 years of scraping them clean did the paintings reappear.
Walking back to Goreme the day had become hot so the little roadside bar half way to town was an irresistible magnet. We sat with a couple of frosty Efes. We saw an elderly, white haired couple also walking back to Goreme. We had seen them first coming down one of the very steep stone-cut stairways from a rock church. She was quite sprightly, he less so but was determinedly plodding round. He apologized to all the people at the foot of the stairway for keeping them waiting. "Come on ‘Dobbin' " she encouraged. Like us they found the bar irresistible, came in for a beer, and we got to talking.
They were on a driving tour that made our trip sound a trivial jaunt. Although English and with their main house in Surrey (where they didn't stay much; she also had a flat in Cyprus close to her yacht in Paphos harbour) they lived mostly in the French Pyrenees. From there they had driven a camping van across Western Europe, through Romania and Bulgaria, and across Turkey. He was 79 and she in her early seventies. We were impressed at the adventure. But this was nothing special for them. He was a retired BBC Foreign Correspondent. Later, by Googling, I discovered he had been an "Africa hand" in the 1960s and 1970s including reporting on the horrors of post-liberation Congo and Idi Admin's Uganda). She was a former travel writer.
They were on their way to Gocek to go on a cruising holiday in an eight-berth catamaran with some old chums. They were staying a few more days in Goreme and were wondering what to do. Airballoooning was outside their budget. We told them of a trip we were going to do the next day and, although they didn't like organized tours ("They are just hard-sell shopping trips usually") they thought it sounded OK and they would think about it. We said our goodbyes and continued our walk back to Goreme marvelling at the stamina, determination and sheer adventurousness of the English upper-middle class - the stuff that built the Empire and all that.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 12, 2008, 10:54:49 AM
Day 4: Part Three
After another beer in Göreme we returned to the Kelebek for a some lounging about, a swim, and a siesta to prepare us for the evening's trip. We had booked for a Whirling Dervish ceremony (50 YTL each) and were taken there on a mini-bus for the two of us. Hilary had been wanting to see such a ceremony for a long time and we had not managed to fit one in when we were in Istanbul. However, only a few miles away near Avanos one was held at a caravansaray - one of those fortressed waystations that protected travellers on the Silk Road with a central courtyard where the camels rested surrounded by rooms for the traders and their valuable goods.
Turkey's Whirling Dervishes are members of the Mevlani sect of Islam centred on Konya. Their Sema ceremony represents a mystical journey of man's spiritual ascent to Perfection and then return to everyday life as a mature being. The Sema has seven stages. 1. A eulogy to the Prophet and all prophets before him. 2. A drum sounding the Divine Order. 3. An instrumental improvization symbolizing the Divine Breath. 4. Salutations from the dervishes to each other. 5. Whirling (Sema) - four symbolic dances - the main part of the ceremony. 6. Reading from Qu'ran. 7. A prayer.
Though neither of us are religious we found it very moving with spiritual playing of instruments, singing and dancing. Quite ethereal. Not all agreed. Four of the people with whom we had shared an airballoon basket were also there. They were very disappointed and one said "What a rip-off!". I don't know what they expected. perhaps they were looking for some manic wild spinning, or a kind of circus show. They didn't seem to have read the leaflets for the trip that told what the Sema ceremony is about. It isn't crazy berserking. It is a highly disciplined form of religious dancing. We were sorry that they didn't appreciate; but we will remember it for the rest of our lives.
I can't show you our photographs of the ceremony because we weren't allowed to take any. Instead I photographed the tacky tourist trinket Hilary bought at a Göreme Panorama View stall and the rather nice pen-and-ink drawing that Hilary she got in Ürgüp. Or you can view a fragment of a ceremony at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=S45OJnQp6mI which, although US, is the closest on YouTube to the experience that entranced us.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 13, 2008, 17:02:17 PM
Day 5: Part One
We thought that the next day might be a bit of a let down after the wonderful stuff we had experienced the day before. In fact we had a lovely day. We had booked with the Hiro travel agency for a full day tour - at 50YTL per person this seemed a very good deal. Indeed I doubt whether we could have done it cheaper had we travelled by ourselves once all the entrance costs, the meal , and petrol costs were added up. And we had an excellent guide as well.
We walked down to the otogar to find we would travel by mini-bus. Hilary sat and waited for others to assemble. They were all backpackers in their early 20s. In total there were 12 of us. We set off up the hill to Uçhisar and stopped outside the Göreme Panorama Camping Park where two more travellers got on board. You guessed, it was the elderly couple we had met the day before. So the complete party was now 14, a very good size for a day trip, and we were no longer the oldest.
The mini-bus went to Nevsehir and then turned south. We traveller thtough fertile countryside with fields of pumpkins (grown for their seeds) and potatoes (which are a major export of Kapadokya). The rural transport of choice was the horse, especially pulling carts but also carrying huge loads on their backs. We were heading for Derinkuyu where there is the largest of the excavated underground cities. Apparently there are over a hundred of these in the region, with 36 being open to the public. They originate as far back as Hittite times (1500-1300 BC) and have been expanded over the centuries since then. They provided havens for the local population against marauders and people could live in for several weeks with their own water supply, food stores, stables and ... wine presses (nice sense of priorities).
What do you have in mind when going to an "underground city" for the first time. I vaguely assumed we would be in a mountainous, or at least hilly, area and the city would be cut into the side of it. But when the bus pulled up in the car park we were in the middle of a broad flat plain. If the guide hadn't pointed it out we would never have noticed the top of a ventilation shaft in some long grass. The original entrance way would have been similarly difficult to find. The city was right under our feet and went down eight levels. We entered by steep steps then along narrow corridors with small rooms on each side and occasionally leading into large open spaces. Millstones could be wheeled across the passageways to block any raiders and were fixed in place by chocks in the little rooms cut by the side of the tunnels. Wells sank deep below the city and ventilation shafts rose from Level 8, through the higher levels, up to the surface. Animals were kept in stables near the entrance because they couldn't get into the bowels of this extraordinary place. Quite an experience.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 14, 2008, 13:49:52 PM
Day 5: Part Two
Our next destination was the Ihlara Valley. This is the most spectacular canyon of Central Anatolia being cut by the Melendiz river that rises on Mount Hasan - one of Kapadokya's great volcanoes. The river never gets to the sea as it seeps away underground a few miles north of the canyon but, even in summer, it runs quite strongly at Ihlara. We arrived at the intricately named "Ihlara Valley Touristic Installation" and descended the 360 steps to the canyon floor stopping off at the rock-carved Agaçatli Kilise (Church Beneath a Tree). The valley has a dozen or so of such churches but we only visited the one - just as well, we were a bit "churched-out" from the previous day. The canyon in the midst of such a dry, sun-scorched landscape, is wonderfully green and refreshing. We walked down the valley for an hour or so, taking a break to cool our feet in the river, before arriving at Belisirma and delightful restaurants with pontoons over the river to take an excellent lunch - and the odd bottle of Efes.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: wickwilly on October 14, 2008, 17:59:10 PM
wonderful photographs. Thankyou for sharing them with us.
WW
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Firo on October 14, 2008, 19:02:54 PM
Fab pics we must have been there at the same time as you. One of the natural wonders of the world and highly recommended. Fi
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Rindaloo on October 14, 2008, 19:58:36 PM
Fantastic photos. I have sent the link to a friend who is interested in going there. Looking forward to more lovely pikkies and the accompanying narrative.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 15, 2008, 11:38:05 AM
Day 5: Part Three
Back in the mini-bus we went to our next stop just a couple of miles down the valley. The village of Selime is overlooked by a steep cliff. A hard climb until you are high over the village brings you to caves in the cliff itself and in fairy chimneys. The largest of these is known as the "cathedral" but this and the complex of other rock hewn rooms was probably a monastery. A pleasure of visiting Selime is that it is off the main tourist route so that the crowds of Göreme Open-Air Museum are absent.
Our last stop for the day was just before Uchisar overlooking Pigeon Valley to visit an onyx factory - from which we excused ourselves have already visited one (11 years earlier). Instead I tried to photograph the rocks changing colour and the pigeons flying home to roost as sunset approached - but without great success. So I took a picture of the nazar boncugu tree. It is amazing to think that all of the tens of thousands of Evil Eye beads sold in Turkey every year come from this single tree. Kapadokya is truly a fertile land.
Then we were off down the valley to finish the journey. We left the mini-bus with our two travelling chums who had invited us to share a bottle of white wine with them. We sat by their camping van and tent, high over Göreme, discussing the pleasures of a touring camping holiday (I could see Hilary was not convinced) and the politics of Turkey, the EU, and France. As it got dark we said our goodbyes and headed down the road back into town.
Another thoroughly good day.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Cavfan on October 15, 2008, 13:06:25 PM
Loved it Colwyn- you should blog!
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: pookie on October 15, 2008, 13:32:18 PM
Wonderful. thank you, keep them coming. Fantastic photos, love the evil eye tree in particular !
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 16, 2008, 12:29:06 PM
Day 6: Part One
The next day we moved from Göreme to Ürgüp and decided to visit Çvusin on the way. This is another location off the main tourist route with a couple of mini-buses arriving per hour, 20 or so tourists exploring for 20 minutes and then driving off again. The old village, of hundreds of houses, has been abandoned due to collapse (in an earthquake I think). By clambering over the wreckage of the old houses you can get to the top of the cliff (middle of photo) and sidle (carefully) to the outside edge overlooking the plain (left of photo). It is worth the effort. You get to find what is left of the Church of St John the Baptist that was built in the 5th century; probably the oldest in Kapadokya. Once inside the narrow entranceway you discover a large space decorated with ancient rock paintings. I am standing on the pulpit in an unconvincing attempt to look ministerial.
We had decided to do some hiking and we set off up the vally that runs into the hills behind casusin in the direction of Passbagi. The path was not much travelled and some of the going was rather difficult which Hilary found rather alarming as we traversed steep and not very stable sloes of tufa. We reached the top of the valley and decided that was good enough and we returned via the ridge on the other side of the valley that brought us back high over Çvusin where some horse trekkers were passing through. LOOKING BACK DOWN THE VALLEY (familiar shape of Uçhisar on horizon)
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 17, 2008, 16:38:45 PM
Day 6: Part Two
On the road again, we headed for the Pasabagi. Here the fairy chimneys are different from the Göreme cones. Instead they are mushroom-like. Again one of these was converted into a church.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 18, 2008, 14:51:45 PM
Day 6: Part Three
Soon we off again and heading for Ürgüp. This is much bigger than Göreme, a town of some 15,000 citizens. Our main reason for going there, apart from a change of scenery, was to stay at the Esbelli Evi - one of the most famous inns in Turkey. Since Ürgüp Belediye distains the signposing of hotels we drove around Ürgüp twice before we found the Esbelli right on top of the cliff behind the winery.
Esbelli Evi was the first cave hotel constructed some 20 years ago by renovating a derelict site. Unlike the Kelebek the rooms are excavated from fairy chimneys but dug into the cliff-face. Its proprietor, Süha Ersöz, has decorated these with old Turkish artefacts - http://www.esbelli.com/ At 90 Euro per night (for cash) it is not cheap, but we have never stayed in an hotel like it. Actually it is not so much an hotel as a dozen or so houses that tumble down the cliff and are linked together by tunnels and stairways all grouped around the main and highest building that houses the lounge, kitchen, dining area, and reception. Guests are free to use the kitchen, help themselves to drinks, and there is even a cave laundrette.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Anne on October 18, 2008, 16:41:47 PM
fantastic Colwyn, keep them coming
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 19, 2008, 11:28:34 AM
Day 7: Part One
Since we hadn't driven very far for a few days we decided to do a round trip of south-eastern Kapadokya. Travelling south we came to Keslik Monastery. This is a splendid place but seldom visited by tourists. Just after we pulled up at the roadside a Turkish couple arrived. We walked together up to the monastery site, paid our 3YTL each and started a tour with the keeper of the site. Five minutes later a French couple arrived. The guide asked if we could speak French. We couldn't. He shrugged and then explained the monastery to us in Turkish, English and French. I am sure if Germans or Russians had turned up he would be able to speak their languages as well.
The monastery has some fine murals that have unfortunately been attacked by graffiti over the centuries. They are also mostly in locations too dark for our cameras (and flash not allowed). Having shown us the frescos with his torch our guide told us to explore the site by ourselves and then when we finished to join him in the garden for a glass of tea. We found a very large refectory - the oblong mass in the centre is a "table". There was also a little chapel in another part of the complex where the iconoclastic ceiling paintings were is good repair. With no crowds we could really appreciate this interesting place. Then we made our way through the pumpkin garden to take a drink in the shade of the trees. Very pleasant.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Rindaloo on October 19, 2008, 12:06:30 PM
What a terrible shame about the graffiti. Have you any idea how old the frescos are?
Really enjoying your thread.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 19, 2008, 14:25:48 PM
Rindaloo I believe the frescoes of saints are 9th century. I can find no information on the iconoclastic (at least I assume they are) abstracts and grape & pomegranate ceiling paintings that I think are exceptionally beautiful. I would be pleased to hear from anyone who knows more.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: JacM on October 19, 2008, 22:43:49 PM
This is one of the most fascinating things I've read (and seen) in ages. Thank you for sharing it with us all; it's really inspirational.
Look forward to the next installment and enjoying looking back over your trip so far. I'd love to make this trip myself so thanks again for all the useful info.
Best wishes
Jac
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 20, 2008, 20:33:52 PM
Day 7: Part Two
From the monastery we travelled south passing some (tufa) fairy chimneys sheltered under (hard basalt) rocks and came to Yesilhisar - the "hisar" bit indicating that this is the location of another rock castle. Turning north we travelled with Mount Erciyes (3917m/12,850ft) but, for our first time in Turkey, we had to wait for a train to clear a level crossing before we could photograph the volcano. Then, back to Ürgüp.
In the evening we went for a hike in Red Valley - also known as one of the Sunset Valleys (due to their running towards the north west). On the way we passed the three most famous fairy chimneys in Turkey - the Father, Mother and Child group - that appear on the reverse of the current 50 YTL note. I spent some time trying to photograph these in precisely the same view as they appear on the currency. This is not possible unless you have some means of hovering about 30 ft off the ground. They are the product of the artist's imagined viewpoint. The other image on the banknote is, of course, the ubiquitous Uçhisar castle - that is several miles away. Then we searched for a long time for the route to Aktepe at the head of the Sunset Valleys. We finally found that the track there was in the middle of some horrendous roadworks hidden behind huge mounds of road gravel. We arrived too late for a decent walk but still managed a pleasant trek towards the setting sun and then back to the top of the hill.
Back in Ürgüp we went for dinner. We had not had any memorable food in Göreme, but both meals in Ürgüp were interesting. The first night we went to the biggest place in town - the Sömine. I had the Kapadokya speciality - testi kebab. This is cooked in a sealed clay pot which is broken open at your table. I had eaten this before one winter in Side. Then, in an almost empty restaurant, the waiter, watched by his chums, carefully tapped the pot all-round and then gave the big hit - which smashed the top of it into a dozen pieces. He had to pour the contents into a bowl and then remove the broken bits. His chums sniggered in a most unseemly way. At the Sömine the service was highly polished. One sharp tap to the pot and it came apart in a neat line. As we were in the heart of the Turkish wine-growing area we decided to splash out on a decent red wine. Some £24 (50YTL) bought us a bottle of stuff that, unlike most Turkish red wine, was drinkable without causing you to wince. Not as good as the Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon I bought at a Bristol supermarket this week for £2.99, but drinkable. When is somebody (probably an Australian) going to start producing bottles of nice Turkish red wine that cost less than a day's pay? I won't hold my breath.
On our way to the Sömine on the first night we had been "highjacked" on the road down the hill by a restaurateur who insisted on showing us his place. It was called the Panorama Cafe - due to its view over Urgup. It was described as a "Manti Restaurant". Manti is a kind of very small Turkish ravioli (I have included a photo of manti preparation from elsewhere on our travels). We were surprised that an entire restaurant should be dedicated to just one dish, although there were other things on the menu, but we went there on our second night to try it. We were the only ones there but the owner assured us that his place was recommended by Lonely Planet and TripAdvisor. And we will add our own recommendation. It was fun.
WOMEN MAKING MANTI (Photograph by permission of the subjects)
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: buddy on October 20, 2008, 23:17:38 PM
Colwyn, this is such a fascinating story of your trip, it would be wonderful to emulate it, but we must wait until the children are off on their own, then maybe. Please keep the diary going, it makes such interesting reading and the photographs are fantastic. Such a great insight into the real Turkey that we hope to discover in the future. Buddy
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: jo b on October 21, 2008, 09:39:48 AM
I remember one holiday in Kalkan we used to go to a lovely famly run restaurant called Ali Babas most days for lunch the food was just lovely...my favourite was sauted lamb with smoked aubergine (never found it on the menu anywhere else).
Anyway one day we arrived and the old lady and her daughters in law were sat just as in Colwyn's photo making manti. Hubbie asked what they were making and was told turkish ravioli and he thought it would arrive simlar to Italian ravioli with a tomato sauce. Well hs face when it arrived it was in a bowl of yoghurt with melted butter on top!
He doesn't "do" yoghurt at the best of time but not wanting to offend Mustafa and his family he proceeded to cover it wth the herb mix and chilli flakes that were on the table to see if it was more manageable. I think he got about half way through before Mustafa came and rescued him by bringing him is usual koftas!
I know a couple of people who tell me that manti is wonderful...but 'll take there word for it there are plenty of other delicious Turkish dishes that I do enjoy.
Colwyn how did you enjoy the manti? Loving your story by the way.
Jo.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 22, 2008, 16:55:08 PM
Hi Jo As you say we had manti in yogurt sauce. Difficult to tell whether it was stuffed with anything really; it just tasted of pasta. Quite nice though.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 22, 2008, 17:11:02 PM
Day 8: Part One
We had nothing booked for this day but before leaving the UK we had thought of staying in Selime to walk in the canyon. Our visit on the day trip confirmed this and we decided to drive there and see if we could find a pansiyon for the night and walk down the rest of the Ihlara valley. The journey through Nevsehir and nearly to Aksaray was uneventful and around noon we turned off the main road and into Selime. We drove past a few shops and down to the river, pulling up outside a restaurant where a young chap ran out to greet us and introduced himself as Ahmet. We had a laconic conversation.
"Where are you going?" "We don't know". "You don't know?". "Perhaps we are going here. If we can find a pansiyon". "Ah, we have pansion*. 50 Lira". "We want to walk down the Ihlara valley if we can get to Belisirma". "Ah. I have car. I can drive you. Cheaper than taxi. 20 Lira".
Although Belisirma was not far away there was a long steep road down from the canyon rim to the river and he would have to return the same way, so we thought this a reasonable price - especially when you consider the horrendous price of petrol in Turkey - 3.33YTL/£1.58 per litre when we were there.
After a little more negotiating the three of us set off for the pansiyon which was about a mile up the road. The hotel, like the restaurant, was called the Çtlak. It was rather a grand place; an imposing exterior, interior decoration modelled on fancily iced cakes, with a trinket cluttered reception and pleasant large bedrooms. It enjoyed a fine view of Mount Hasan. We decided it was just right. We put our cases in the room, Ahmet arranged for a friend to come to collect us all, and we returned to the restaurant to take an Efes on a pontoon in the middle of the river.
Selime is a very small place nested between the cliffs and the river with lots of poplar trees. But ... what is that on the ridge overlooking the village. Ahmet told us it was a new 500 room hotel being built and that it would wreck all the tourist trade enjoyed by the local families. 500 rooms was clearly a Turkish exaggeration, but it was certainly going to be a big place when finished and - we suspected - a horrid eyesore right on the skyline overlooking the river.
* My dictionary tells me that the spelling is pansiyon; but that is not the way the Çtlak spelled itself.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 23, 2008, 12:12:45 PM
Day 8: Part Two
When Ahmet said he had a car and could drive us to Belisirma this wasn't strictly true. He didn't have a car, and he couldn't drive. But he had a friend who did and could and who took us back up the valley. After nearly picking the wrong track, but being put right by the village women, we set off along the river. It was one of the most beautiful walks we have taken. Crystal water running between high cliffs. Along the side of the river women worked in little irrigated gardens growing corn and pumpkins. We startled three herons who flew some metres in front of us for quite a way. There was another rock-cut church. We passed a herd of cattle grazing on the river banks, and a large mixed flock of sheep and goats raising dust in the trees across the water, before coming to an old stone bridge just before Selime. The walk took two and a quarter hours with frequent stops for photographs. There is conflicting advice on the web about walking the Ihlara valley all the way from Ihlara village to Selime. Some say it is a full day's march; others that it is a four hour stroll. We think the latter is probably nearer to it but, of course, it depends on just how many churches you want to visit along the way.
Back in Selime we returned to the riverside restaurant for another beer. We found that we were not the only visitors to the village. A film crew was scouting the area looking for locations for a paragliding shoot. This was a joint Turkish-British venture with an English camera man, a representative of the Turkish company, a Turkish guide, and various other people whose roles were difficult to ascertain; seven or eight in all. They too were taking a drink at the Çtlak Restaurant and they too were staying at the Çtlak Pansion - well they were the only places catering to tourists really. Ahmet's friend took us back to the hotel and picked us up later in the evening to go back to the river for dinner where, of course, the film crew were eating. At the end of the evening we went back to the pansiyon and were invited to join the crew drinking raki on the terrace. We chatted with the Turkish film guy, Cem. He asked about our trip and when we said we were starting and finishing in Akyaka he asked where we stayed there. "The Okaliptus". "Oh yes" he said "Staying with Muammer". Well there are only 70 million people living in Turkey so we were bound to meet someone who knew someone we knew - even several hundred miles away! Cem had met Muammer as a rep for Simply Turkey. We promised to pass on his greetings when we returned to Akyaka. Then we said goodbye and went up to our room. We were rather surprised that all the staff at the hotel lined up at the foot of the stairs to wish us "Goodnight". We felt like royalty.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 24, 2008, 08:48:06 AM
Day 8: Addendum
After dinner at the restaurant on the river we went inside (evenings were getting a little chilly in mid-September in the hills) and had some Turkish coffee. We chatted with young Ahmet. He told us how he wanted to go to work in a city but he couldn't because he didn't have any secondary schooling. His older brothers had gone to school but, when it came to his turn, the family didn't have enough money, and he had to stay home and help out on the family land. We protested that he surely must have had some schooling; how else would he have acquired his very good English (no flattery here, his English was very good). He said he had taught himself. He was clearly an intelligent young man. But, without education, without qualification, he would not get a well-paid city job in Turkey. We comforted him with the notion that at least he was able to make a living in his home village in one of the most beautiful parts of the Turkey - hey, one of the most beautiful parts of the entire world. But this didn't cheer him much.
We wish him well in his life; he is a lovely lad and made our stay the more enjoyable.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: hubblebubbles on October 24, 2008, 20:01:24 PM
Colwyn thank you so much for this absolutely fascinating account of your trip.The photo's are superb and you have made such interesting reading that I have been through it twice !!! Really enjoyed it that much.Best thing on the forum for ages.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 25, 2008, 08:54:29 AM
Thanks HB. The next posting will be advice on what NOT to do.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 25, 2008, 09:08:39 AM
Day 9: Part One
When you are travelling there are good days when some decisions, coincidental events, and accidental happenings conspire to produce a good result. And days when they don't. Our day in the Ihlara Valley was a very good day. It was followed by a bad day.
We had decided to break our return journey from Kapadokya with another lakeside overnight stop - this time at Beysehir. The original plan was to travel from Aksaray to Konya to go to the Mevlani (Whirling Dervish) museum and then on to Beysehir Lake. It would have taken about three hours. However, I didn't fancy travelling that awful road for a second time. In addition Konya is a large city and I suspected that the museum would not be very easy to find. And we had already gotten to see a Dervish performance. So we decided to travel by a more roundabout route via Nigde after which our map promised a "scenic route" southwards. A bad decision.
Things started well. We headed south from Selime coming soon to Guzelyurt at the top of the Ihlara Valley. This is a formerly Greek town where today the main occupation is walking in the middle of the road - a popular pastime all over southern Kapadokya. We discovered that its sole ATM was kaput, but fortunately we had enough petrol to get us to Nigde that is quite a large town.
After Guzelyurt we followed a secondary road to reach this destination that took us up a long narrow valley, with a pleasant river, to the top of the mountains at the pass of Guresentepe (2180m/7150ft). Below us was the town of Nigde. This was an extraordinarily quiet place with the few citizens who were outdoors walking quietly in the middle of the road. This may be the home of the first prototype quadbike in that we saw a motorbike for four wheels but, unlike the more conventional version, this had one wheel at the front and three at the back. It looked rather like one of those children's bicycles with stabilizers except that the two outside wheels were nearly the same size as the one in the middle of the back three. In near silence we found an ATM, filled up with petrol , and headed south. We were now leaving Kapadokya. Things started to deteriorate.
The so-called "scenic route" was not very interesting - unless you are turned on by large fields of giant cabbages - although after a while the Bolkar mountains (part of the Toros/Taurus range) decorated the horizon. Signposts indicated the direction of Adana which reminded us just how far east we had driven. Dismissing the temptation to go there and asking whether they had any spicy kebabs, we turned instead for Ulukisla on the Konya road. It was soon clear that this was a main industrial route to/from eastern Turkey; a convoy of lorries spaced 20 metres apart. Progress was frustratingly slow. We decided to take an alternative route and swung south at Eregli and began to pass through places of which we had never heard. We were now crossing the Central Anatolian Plain again, and it was every bit as boring as the stretch between Aksaray and Konya - but it is wider here.
At least progress was rather faster than it had been on the direct lorry-congested road to Konya we had just left. Until, that is, we came to the roadworks. There are a number of different styles of road building and maintenance in Turkey. One is the way we generally do it in the UK. On a short stretch of road one carriageway is repaired with lights directing single line traffic alternating in using the open lane. This however is rare. More common is the mode in which several miles of one carriageway is replaced in one go with traffic being crammed close together on the remaining road and verge. A third form is simply building an extra two lanes parallel with the existing road (as between Konya and Aksaray). The most annoying, however, is undoubtedly when gravel is simply dumped on top of the road surface for stretches of 10, 20, perhaps 30 kilometres after which the road builders leave for some indeterminate period of time - probably months. When fresh this throws up vast volumes of dust and the gravel constantly threatens to smash your windscreen This is was the form of road "improvement" we now came across. For 20 minutes and more we travelled along a white road, under a hazy white sky, through a parched beige-white landscape, in a white dustcloud that strained my eyes and clogged my chest. Quite horrid.
Eventually we emerged from this dustbowl and came to the industrial city of Karaman with its huge factories - one of which would have rivalled Henry Ford's famous River Rouge plant in its 1920s heyday. We next came to one place that had a familiar name Kazim Karabekir - not because I knew of the town but because it was the name of the revolutionaries who fought alongside Ataturk in WWI and the War of Independence. He seemed to be a cross between a general and a warlord. I doubt whether he would have been very impressed with the little town that carries his name.
Finally, we got to the turn-off that would lead away from this horrible road and into the hills at the western border of the Central Anatolian Plain driving through Bozkir and on to Seydisehir. Storm clouds had begun to gather and hung dark and heavy over the mountains. We still had a long way to go before getting to Beysehir.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 26, 2008, 10:48:48 AM
Day 9: Part Two
Finally, in late afternoon, we arrived at Beysehir. It wasn't what we expected. We had thought that a town on a huge lake would focus itself around the water. But it didn't. It treated the lake as some sort of inconvenience that prevented the town from expanding westwards. The main street had one rather tatty looking pansiyon and an even tattier hotel. A little way out of the centre there was a rather better looking pansiyon. But nothing seemed all that attractive. I had taken an instant dislike to the town. So we consulted the map again and thought that perhaps the southern shore of the lake, a little out of Beysehir, would offer better possibilities - another bad decision.
We set off along the shore of the lake and soon came across a fish restaurant and hotel. Just the sort of place for which we were looking. It was closed and locked. Still, there would be another one a little further on; wouldn't there? We turned west and found that the road, which appeared a short route on the map, was a narrow and very twisty lane. We got stuck behind a bus with no chance of overtaking. But there was a small village ahead. Perhaps that would have a pansiyon. No. But up ahead was a National Park (Milli Parki) where, surely, there would be places to stay. We finally got ahead of the bus when it stopped to let off some passengers. At the next village we stopped and, after making our way slowly around a large funeral party that must have consisted of nearly all the adults of the village, came across a few people who were not attending the ceremony. They assured us that there were some pansiyons at Yesilda&g (Green Mountain) - the next but one village along the lake shore. We tried to discover the correct road out of the village, got lost, arrived back where we started, tried again, and finally set off in the right direction. And soon found ourselves behind the bus - because it had been tortoise to our hare and thus gotten ahead of us again. We came across another little village that was something of an oddity. Sometimes, in Turkey, it seems that building are either over 2000 years old (and ruined) or less than 50 years; with nothing in between. In many cases nineteenth and twentieth century houses have collapsed - either due to poor construction or earthquakes. But this village was of an age that, had it been in Britain, would have been called "medieval". We were tired, hungry and thirsty by now and so did not stop to take photos. Instead we pressed on to Yesilda&g.
We pulled into the village square (a car parking area) and approached three men chatting outside a local shop. We asked if there was a pansiyon in the village. There then began a pantomime that will be familiar to anyone who has travelled off the beaten track and asked directions, in scant Turkish, to people who have no English. Once our requirement was realized there was scratching of heads, and deep frowning. One chap looked up the road to our left; another stared hard to the right; the third looked back in the direction from which we had come. None was going to admit: "I don't know". [This is rather like ordering a meal in a restaurant when you have asked for lamb and are told "Chicken is very good". If you insist that lamb is what you would really like then, and only then, are you told: "Kuzu yok - there isn't any lamb. Tavuk var - there is chicken"]. We were directed across the square to someone outside the bank, who went inside and phoned, and we asked to wait. The storm that had been threatening now began with big juicy raindrops and we sheltered inside the bank. Finally a chap arrived and with a brisk command instructed us "Come". He led us across the road, up some stairs above a shop, and showed us his "pansiyon". It was a doss house. The room contained a bed; and nothing else. Not even a "Turkish wardrobe" (i.e. a nail banged into the wall). The bed had sheets but God knows how long they had been there. I hesitantly asked about the tuvalet (toilet) and dus (shower). These were communal facilities; one a hole in the floor, and the other a dripping pipe loosely connected to wall. When I say "communal" that would be the case if anyone else was staying there. There wasn't. Indeed I doubt whether anyone had stayed there in a very long time. Not only were we the only tourists in the village, we suspected that we were only ones they had seen in ten years - if ever. Hilary gave me a look; she does that well. I said "I think we will go on to Beysehir, thank you" - or as near that as my Turkish would allow and we made our escape. Hilary muttered: "I would rather sleep in the car". With the UK running out of prison cells I think I have a recommendation for where our surplus convicts might be accommodated. But only the worst cases of course.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Kernowrebel on October 27, 2008, 15:43:48 PM
Brilliant narrative and photographs. Thank you so much for sharing this with us all. We are planning a trip to this area next year and this has given us so much information, particularly what not to do!!
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 27, 2008, 16:14:55 PM
Day 9: Part Three
I couldn't face retracing our journey along the winding road to Beysehir that would take well over an hour so decided instead to follow the road northwards along the western shore of the lake. This, at last, was a good decision. Not only was the road much faster but there were glorious views over the lake. There are no photographs though as dusk was approaching and I was hoping to get onto the main road to Beysehir before it got dark. There was very little traffic on the road except for some strange vehicles we had not seen in other parts of Turkey (the reader may have noticed my mild obsession with forms of transport). They looked like farm trailers that one would expect to be towed by tractors but these had small engines - they looked and sounded like lawnmower two-strokes - bolted onto the front so they were independent. [The next day I managed to get a rather poor shot of one ot these driving past]. Hilary enjoyed the scenery whilst I pushed on to see if we could get a place to sleep. Travellers are recommended to follow this tour around the lake - but not at the end of a day of very hard driving.
Finally we got to the main road and began heading south towards Beysehir. So it was that we unintentionally came to Sarki Karaa&gaç for the second time on our trip. When we arrived at the main square we were greeted by a heartening sight; on one side of the road an hotel and on the other a restaurant. We pulled up outside the Otel Korkusuz. It was rather an oddly designed place. On the ground floor were shops and at the side a petrol station. There were some steps up to the first floor where we found a deserted reception. An inquiry at the mini-market underneath brought a guy running from the petrol station. He showed us a room which we could have for 60 Lira. Rather a lot we thought, but we were in no mood to bargain. We had travelled 587 kilometres (365 miles) over difficult roads and I had been driving for 11 hours. We gratefully accepted the offer. We discovered another oddity of the hotel. We had been given a room at the front of the hotel overlooking the square. It had a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling picture window. Not the sort of place to forget to pull the curtains at night because you would be in full view of the everybody in the main thoroughfare in the morning. After we had put our suitcase in the room we went to search for a beer. of course there were no bars open. We went to the first mini-market to see if they would sell us some Efes; "Hayir, Ramazan". And a second: "Hayir Ramazan". And a third; "Evet". Great. We sat in our room and drank the beer until we calculated that the evening food rush (the breaking of the day's fast) had finished, had a simple meal in the "restaurant" (lokanta really) across the road, and then collapsed in our room.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 28, 2008, 14:39:45 PM
Day 10: Part One
We were up early the next day, too early for breakfast, and took a stroll around the little town. Stallholders were setting up for the weekly market in a little square the main feature of which was a waterfall in a tree. We'd not seen one of those before.
Soon we were heading south towards Beysehir. In the morning it looked rather better than it had the previous afternoon. Perhaps I had been tired and not given the place a decent chance. We headed for the town's most famous building - the Selcuk mosque Esrefoglu Camii. But the mosque was locked with huge padlocks. We walked all round and tried every door. No way in. Damn. We were standing outside wondering what to do next when the door opened and a coach party of city women emerged - readily identifiable by their uniform of slim long coats and tightly wrapped scarves. It seemed that they had booked a private service, but now the mosque was open to the public; which consisted of us.
Although Hilary had brought her own scarf and shrug (which is, it seems, a sort of cardigan thingy) a local woman insisted on dressing her in Turkish gear. We went through a beautifully tiled entranceway into the lovely mosque. This is a wooden construction built between 1296 and 1299. The flat roof is held up by 42 cedar treetrunk columns with carved and painted capitals, with a pool in the centre, under what used to be an open roof - now covered by glass. There is a magnificent blue-tiled mihrab (prayer niche indicating direction of Mecca) and a carved walnut mimber (pulpit). After we had been admiring the building for about quarter of an hour we were approached by a man who introduced himself as the imam. He told us about some of the history and features of his camii. Then he said that, as it was ramazan, he spent much of the day singing. He took a step back, so that he was about four feet from us, and proceeded to demonstrate for a couple of minutes. It was surprisingly loud and powerful; quite magical. We felt very privileged. I recalled something that the Turkish guide of the film crew had told us in Selime; that the imam at Beysehir had won a national prize as the best religious singer in Turkey. When he finished I said, "I think you have won a prize for singing". Modestly he turned his head to one side and shrugged his agreement. He invited us to contribute to the mosque preservation fund. Unfortunately we had left wallet and purse in the car but I emptied my pocket of all the change I had which he happily accepted. When we left and returned shawl and scarf the woman outside the mosque she tried to sell Hilary some trinkets I tried to explain, "Yok para. Imam - para", that we had given the imam all our money. She clearly didn't believe me. Oh well.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 29, 2008, 18:06:57 PM
Day 10: Part Two
After the mosque we set off southwards again. It would be another long drive (566k/350m); but this time we had already booked our hotel and knew where it was. We were heading for Çalis. It was where we had had our first three holidays in Turkey and we would laze about, visit old friends, and indulge in some nostalgia.
We travelled a pleasant road through wooded mountains towards Managvat until we arrived at the Mersin-Antalya road. I had driven this before so knew what to expect; a straight, flat, boring road congested with traffic.
If there was any scenery worth viewing on thir road, which there isn't, it would be obscured by thousands of huge hoardings. After some time we approached Antalya with some forebodings. When I had been there before we had gotten comprehensively lost. We weren't looking forward to replaying the experience. Here is the problem. Antalya doesn't believe in the usual signposting of Turkey. Instead of nice big clear signs indicating the next city it assaults the eye with dozens of nasty little yellow signs that might indicate cities, nearby villages, or even suburbs of the city. Antalya distains to mention Fethiye, beneath its contempt, and - as far as we could see - makes only one mention of Mugla. We figured out that we would have to travel north on the Burdur road before turning left to go via Korkuteli to Fethiye. After travelling to and fro in the traffic-jammed centre of Antalya we spotted a little yellow sign indicating the road to Burdur. It was only a little while later that we discovered the underlying meaning of this sign. Which was "This is the direction you should take for Burdur. If, that is, you want to travel by the most miserable, convoluted, roundabout, route through broken down suburbs, along roads that are mostly under construction (or deconstruction), without benefit of any further signposts, and where the local citizenry are outstandingly stupid and have no idea where the mythical Fethiye might be except that if you wanted to get there you should not be on this road in the first place, so it is all your fault". Now I realize that it would be difficult to fit all this onto a nasty little yellow sign, but it would be more honest if it was done. After much cursing, backtracking, stopping and asking, and hoping for the best we found ourselves travellihng westward - at least in the right general direction - along a tatty narrow road which inexplicably ("This is Turkey") converted into a brand new, empty, six lane highway for one kilometer until it ended its brief existence at the main Antalya-Burdur road that the local transport authorities had tried to hide from us. There were, of course, no signposts. Nevertheless we finally managed to discover the turnoff to Korketli and were able to continue our journey. It had taken an hour and a quarter to get from one side of the city to the other. Should you find in some market some tee-shirts saying " I HATE ANTALYA " could you get a couple (one small, one large) and I'll buy them from you when I'm next in town.
Now we back on the right road we travelled over relatively low mountains, separated by plateaux, on another good route through forests. We found Korketeli to be a pleasant, surprisingly large, town (with excellent signposting!) and the bitter taste of Antalya had cleared from our mouths.
It was late afternoon when we pulled off the main road and headed into Calis. We crossed the little canal, turned right, and parked behind the Nil Motel where we would stay for three nights. We had booked a large room at the front looking over the prom onto one of the best coastal views we have seen anywhere. Later, as we relaxed with a couple of Efes, I took the obligatory "Çalis Sunset" photograph. It never fails to please the soul.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Gorgeous_bird on October 29, 2008, 19:21:30 PM
Excellent - really enjoyed the read- Thanks Colwyn
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 31, 2008, 10:11:38 AM
Conclusion
After three nights in Çalis we set off again for Akyaka. Hilary asked if we needed to stop at an ATM before we left. I replied that we only needed 30 YTL for petrol and wouldn't be needing to spend anything else before we reached our destination. But, of course, that was because I hadn't anticipated being caught on speed camera just after Goçek. Two policemen called me over to the side of the road and, once they had established that we spoke English, happily chatted with us about our holiday while one filled in a form specifying my offence (111 k/hr in a 90 k/hr zone) and the other filled in my fine. "You pay cash?". We scrabbled around and Hilary fortunately managed to come up with most of the money and I added a few extra coins. Total 87 YTL (£40). We paid up and they wished us well on our way - smiling and waving. As we got into the car Hilary said, in a voice loud enough for the policemen to hear, "Yavas, Colwyn, yavas". And closing the door muttered; "I told you. You drive too fast". Which was the only thing she said for the next half an hour. Subsequently it was surprising just how often she was able to get the phrase "paid your fine" into conversation: "We'll have to stop at an ATM because I don't have any money now I've paid your fine"; "Do you think we'll be able to afford a meal this evening - having paid your fine?"; "Quite an expensive trip wasn't it? Especially after paying your fine"; and so on.
Our journey had taken us over 1500 miles and used up over £200 of petrol (plus 87 TYL fine). It was an absolutely wonderful experience. I think the seven nights we were in Kapadokya was just right for a visit that took in all of the top must-see/do things without anything being repeated (except visits to rock churches and monasteries). I thought our time there just about perfect, but Hilary found some of the tracks rather difficult. Getting there and back was different. If I never see the Central Anatolian Plain again it will be too soon. Perhaps the best way to see Kapadokya would be to fly to Kayseri airport and skip this part of the trip.
I started this travelogue with some hesitation. I have posted thousands of words and over 150 photographs. This is the longest "postcard" I have ever sent and the most "holiday snaps" I have shown anyone. I wondered if people would get fed up with it. If you have been following the thread I hope that, if you have never thought of going to Kapadokya, it has made you start considering it; or if you have thought of going it brings it closer to the top of your list and offers some suggestions on what to see and do; or if you have already been that it brings back some good memories. It really is a most magical place. Postscript
Back in Akyaka, on market day, we were walking towards the marketplace when we spied a couple of people walking determinedly up the hill in the opposite direction. "Look who's coming" I said. It was - I imagine you have guessed - the travellers we had met in Kapadokya, the former BBC foreign correspondent and the travel writer. Sitting and drinking some fresh orange juice at the market cafe we learned that they had booked in for three nights in camping ground in the forest - and had then added a couple of extra nights. The pronounced it "Absolutely delightful". I was pleased to hear that he had also been fined for speeding (87 YTL for exceeding the limit by a mere 6 k/hr; apparently if you didn't have cash it would be 110 YTL). We said our goodbyes to this very pleasant and interesting couple. She had told us earlier that she would get a few articles from their trip; perhaps getting them published in the Guardian or the Observer. We shall look out for them.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: calvin 1949 on October 31, 2008, 10:30:54 AM
Amazing glad you shared this with us all Regards Calvin
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Diverbaz 1 on October 31, 2008, 13:59:29 PM
Thank you Colwyn, it has certainly given us something to look forward to when we do the trip.
Baz 8)
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: jennyjo on October 31, 2008, 14:02:42 PM
Thank you so much for sharing your travels, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it and seeing the wonderful photos. You should be a travel journalist as you express yourself so well in describing all the places you visit, as well as the pitfalls. Again thank you for taking so much time to enable us to share this with you.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Colwyn on October 31, 2008, 14:18:15 PM
Thank you to all the people who have made kind comments about my travelogue. I have thoroughly enjoyed re-appreciating the experiences.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: terrie on November 20, 2008, 15:46:08 PM
thanks Colwyn,finally got round to reading your final instalment.great read,with some good info,and pictures,thanks again..
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: julesbob0303 on February 15, 2009, 22:10:42 PM
Colwyn, have only just got round to reading all this after watching the programme last week (Explore on BBC2) where Cappadocia was featured. What an interesting article - I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all about your travels (it has certainly beat Sunday night viewing on the tele :D ).
This is something we would love to do, but maybe in a few years time, when we haven't got to worry about teenage children. :)
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. (Don't know why I didn't read all of this at the time of posting.) ;)
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: jcrian on November 29, 2009, 17:22:33 PM
What an amazing trip and fantastic write up with photos.
Will bookmark this for future reference and hope to follow in your footsteps one day.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: tony jenkins on March 28, 2011, 18:07:04 PM
Just came across this very interesting piece by Colwyn. Fantastic!!! I would not like to do it myself, I prefer to chill. Really enjoyed Colwyn recalling his wifes remarks regarding his speeding fine.
Title: A Trip to Kapadokya
Post by: Old Daffodil on March 28, 2011, 21:32:30 PM
I really enjoyed your story and photographs too.I visited Kapadokya,Konya etc and had a great time but regretably lost my nerve about going into the underground city as I suffer with claustrophobia. Your photographs are really a pleasure to see.