After lunch that day, we got into the bus and continued our journey for about three and a half hours to the town of Pamukkale in another province, Denizli, famous for its Hierapolis historical site. Pamukkale itself means "The Cotton Castle" and it is named so because of the long-established textile industries within the area as well as the natural features formed by hot springs and the limestone formation from its mountainous area, shaping what is called white travertine. Meanwhile, Hierapolis (in Greek, hieron: holy place, temple; polis: city) is the name of an ancient city built by the hot springs area on the hill during the Hellenistic and Roman period. The city was important for worship and of course, for spa, on which ancient people used for relaxing and for medical purpose.
In the modern day, Hierapolis ancient site was famous to tourists, therefore giving opportunity for hotels to operate nearby the area. However, for conservation, all the hotels were relocated down the mountain to save the site. Our hotel for the night also operated near the historic site in the past, however now it is located in the modern town of Pamukkale, down the hill.
The ancient Roman Bath, the biggest building in Hierapolis, is now used as artefacts museum. We were not so lucky to get there on Monday since it is the weekly off for the museum. The tomb of Saint Philip the Apostle, who was martyred in Hierapolis is also inside the site. Last but not least, there is also a thermal pool named Cleopatra's Pool, nowadays used for people as spa. Unfortunately, we did not bring swimming suits to enjoy the spa.
On the hill, there were Turkish ice cream stall, 5
TL for three scoops with different flavours. The ice cream here was less sweet for me, don't really know whether it is caused by my tongue got problem after sipping hot tea to quickly during the stop on the journey to Pamukkale. After eating ice cream, we went out the historic site. We went in on foot, but for going out, we took shuttle minibus which cost about 1.5 TL per person. Not everyone in our group took the minibus, however, since they preferred to walk to go out the site. The minibus used was similar to Indonesian public minibus called
angkot, therefore some of us, especially younger ones, acted as if they were
angkot drivers shouting to get passengers, which are quite common in Indonesia.
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| Here is the minibus, but this one is left hand drive |
The hotel down in the town of Pamukkale was the only one of our hotels that was "stingy" for Wi-fi usage. They just provided the Wi-fi around the lobby area, while in the rooms, it is not available. Also, they were really stingy that they did not provide free mineral water for guests. Even we had to pay for the mineral water bottles from the mini-bar inside the refrigerator. My family opted to buy two big bottles of mineral water from the hotel restaurant.
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| Found this in the hotel: Speechless about the name... |
As usually does during the trip, we had dinner in the hotel. The meal was also buffet, just as the lunch, with typical local choices.
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
The day was the one with the earliest wake-up call, only until the day (because in the next few days, this "record" will be "broken"). We were woken up at 5 a.m. and departed for our next destination at 7 a.m. Our ultimate destination was Cappadocia in Central Anatolia region, travelled in total about 11 hours, with several stops along the way, including one in Konya to see the Mevlana Museum, from which the Whirling Dervishes rooted, and an ancient caravanserai in Aksaray. In the beginning of the journey, Ümit told us bad news that the original hotel we intended to stay got problem with their air-conditioning system, it was 4-star hotel, but due to this incident, we had to be relocated to another hotel, which was 5-star (but Ümit initially told us that we would be
upgraded to a 3-star hotel >_<).
Along the journey to the Mevlana Museum, we stopped by two places. The first one for toilet stop in a town in Afyonkarahisar Province, notorious for its opium production. And yes, we were suggested to try opium ice-cream. Opium, when used as flavour or seasoning, does not have addictive effect, especially if it is only in small amount. The taste is a bit bitter, however, so I enjoyed the ice cream more. The second stop was for lunch in Akşehir town, in Konya Province. The Konya city itself, where Mevlana Museum is located, is two hours drive more.
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| Akşehir, where we had our lunch for the day |
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| The grilled chicken was probably the best meal I had during the whole trip in Turkey |
Outside the restaurant, there were sellers of börek or something, I am not really sure. This is because of my following conversation with the seller (and maker):
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| Me: "What is the name of this?" Seller: "One, five liras" > < |
After lunch, we continued our journey. In previous days, Ümit told us that on bus journeys, he wanted volunteers from our group to entertain the rest by singing a song. Since no one volunteered, too shy to do it, Ümit picked randomly from the tour members list, there were four lucky people called up, my father being the first. But instead of singing a song, admitting that he had bad voice, he told stories of Nasreddin Hoja, related to our immediate destination of the journey. He also told us an embarrassing story when he was still a college student. I did not quite remember what the rest of those "lucky" ones did; not everyone sang a song, but I remembered at least two of them (both women) did sing a song, one sang Indonesian song and one sang Japanese one. Nevertheless, actually I had made an anticipation during the journey to our lunch area by typing the lyrics of a song learned and memorized from Wikipedia aided by YouTube should I be in the position of my father. But this may have raised eyebrows on Ümit and the driver. Why? Because the song I prepared was
İstiklal Marşı.
Mevlana Museum
Then, we reached to our first destination Mevlana Museum in Konya city. Like the Hagia Sophia, it was a religious centre turned into museum by the republican government. The mosque, inside which the mausoleum of Maulana (Mevlana) Jalaluddin Rumi, a Sufi mystic who inspired the Whirling Dervishes dance. Inside the mausoleum, now a museum, no photography was allowed, but there was several interesting artefacts, including the original script of Mesnevi, literature work by Jalaluddin Rumi, and the beard of Prophet Muhammad. Anyway, this is one of the sites into which admission is free, other than the Sultanahmet Mosque.
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| The sarcophagus of Mevlana is below the green dome, and note that renovation works is progressing. |
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| One of several proverbs from Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi |
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| Figurines instructing how to perform Sema, the Whirling Dance |
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| Another dome and minaret, by which the study chambers of the Sufi followers was situated |
Sultanhanı Caravanserai
We then continued our journey to Sultanhanı town in Aksaray Province, for another one and a half hours. There, we visited a disused but still well-built caravanserai, a term for the lodging for long-distance travellers together with their animals and cart in the days where long journey was doable by that mode. In the heyday of Seljuq Empire as well as the Silk Road, merchant travellers from the East travelling to the West and vice versa, typically camels were used. A camel is very strong but it can only travel up to forty kilometres per day, so the travellers had to take break by that distance every day on their journey in places called caravanserais. This Sultanhanı Caravanserai was only one of them.
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| The main gate of the caravanserai, the gate seemed to be designed to accommodate people, camel, and their cart |
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| Documentation from the government: Is this usable for Turkish-English parallel text? :D |
In its usage days, there were two parts of the caravanserai. Besides the guest rooms, the outdoor courtyard was used for summer, where camels rested outside, while the inner hall was used for winter.
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| Remains of cart wheels and axes found in the outdoor courtyard |
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| Outdoor courtyard: probably a watch tower? |
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| One of the guest rooms adjacent to the outdoor courtyard |
When inside the indoor hall used on winters, one of our group members said that he felt something supernatural there, in the inner right corner of the hall. I approached the particular spot, but since it was too dark and the atmosphere was not right for me, I decided not to go further. Also, when I reached home to observe the photos to be uploaded, I was shocked to find strange white orbs on the photos I took inside the hall. I tested my camera and it was all right, no lens flacks. My mother's camera also showed similar orbs patterns on the same spot. According to what I knew from the media, the occurrences of orbs in photograph may indicate high intensity of unusual energy, most likely leftover of the past or maybe still living supernatural beings. Maybe he was right, but since I was all right there, I thought that the energy was at least not malevolent.
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| Leftover of a perhaps broken-down cart: Do you notice white orbs of various sizes here? |
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| Orbs found everywhere inside the hall |
After exploring the caravanseai, when I just left the toilet near the caravanserai premises, there was an interesting experience that a local little boy on bicycle greeted me from afar with, "Konnichiwa", maybe thinking that I was Japanese. Indeed, Japanese tourists seemed to dominate Asian tourists in Turkey, but Korean and Chinese were not uncommon as well. Maybe the boy did not know "Annyonghaseyo" nor "Ni hao?" :))
We then continued our journey uphill, to Cappadocia. Cappadocia itself is not a province nor a city, but an area spanning across several provinces, but was dominated by the present-day Nevşehir Province. All the main attractions we visited were located in several towns within this province. Our hotel was located in Ürgüp town.
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| Along the way to Cappadocia with plantation of watermelon, potato, and wheat. To the right was Mount Erciyes while to the left was Mount Hasan, two big mountains in Cappadocia area. |
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| A building from the Ottoman Empire era, maybe a museum today |
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| Highland of Cappadocia beyond the bushes and trees |
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| Modern two-storey houses with rock caves on the background. The houses on the caves predated these two houses, though |
We then reached our hotel in Ürgüp, which was the only 5-star hotel during our journey. There, we had dinner (buffet) and rested for the day. All our programs in Cappadocia were to be completed the next day. Before checking-in, there was a registration for those who were willing to join the hot-air balloon tour the next day early morning, really early since we were supposed to wake up by 4 a.m. All four of my family, together with most (but not all) members of the tour joined although my sister initially refused to go since she was hard to wake up early in the morning, but at the time she said it was all right to join. The rest of the members who did not go got extra sleep hours :))
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