The main reason for tourists to visit Cappadocia is the seemingly well-formed rock formations in the region. Some unique features of the rock formations are naturally created, but to add to its uniqueness, people also carved dwellings on the rock formations, giving historical aspect to the place. These dwellings are called cave houses, which still exist until now and even turned into cave hotels and cave restaurants. But for the housing purpose, (Turkish) government seems to have encouraged dwellers to move to more modern houses in the town areas of Nevşehir, the province where most of our point of interests to visit are located.
On Wednesday, 4 July 2012, we woke up at 4 a.m. to catch the hot-air balloon flight tour, which always start early in the morning. We were picked up by the balloon flight operator company van at our hotel, not by our usual tour bus. As said before, this flight tour was optional so not everyone of the group joined the hot-air balloon. It costed 200 US dollars per passenger. The hot-air balloon is among the recommended activities to do in Cappadocia, to explore the aerial view of the beautiful rock formations there.
Ümit had said the other day that Turkey was one of the several (less than 10 if I am not mistaken) countries in the world having hot-air balloon flight, among the others mentioned were United States and Australia. For sure, Singapore was not included in his explanation :)) That was why for me it was a must-do thing.
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| Early morning view of Cappadocia |
We were first transported by the van to a café to get some free morning refreshments (too little to be considered as breakfast; we would have breakfast at our hotel after the flight). After that, we were transported to the embarkation point of the balloon flight.
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| The moon had not disappeared |
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| Approaching the embarkation point of the balloon flight: Notice some balloons here |
All hot-air balloons, as flying objects, are given registration numbers as same as the aeroplanes. For Turkey, the format is TC-XXX (three letters). All balloons I saw had the first of the three letters by "B" followed by arbitrary letters, but I could not see what was ours. We had to wait for the balloon to be inflated by hot gases. The sound of the process was very noisy, but interesting to be observed.
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| Our balloon being pumped: Our local guide Ümit (middle, white shirt) tour leader Stevia (right, checkered shirt) observing. They just waited on the ground while we were flying |
After the balloon is ready for flying, we boarded the cabin, which was shaped like a big basket divided into four sections for passengers standing (not sitting) and one reserved middle section for the flight captain, who also acted as a tourist guide for features we passed. On our balloon, there were several other tourists from other countries as well. The number of people on each side of the cabin must be equal otherwise the balloon might have flown sideways or even toppled.
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| All aboard |
Before leaving the ground, we were briefed about landing that we had to not take pictures during landing process and had to take brace position by holding on to the railings on the sides of the cabin while bending our knees, putting our feet forward and pushing our body backward. However, take off was smooth and slow but sure.
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| The engine that made the balloon fly |
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| Watermelons on the ground, became further and further down from us |
We went through several altitude levels to explore Cappadocia. The embarkation and disembarkation point would never be the same since the flight really depended on the wind direction. The total flight itself took approximately one hour.
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| Other balloons belonging to several different companies |
At different altitude, the view would be different. The balloon flew through various rock formations, valleys and even high on the sky.
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| Rock formations viewed from lower altitude |
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| Collision: Sometimes it did happen but all right |
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| Going through a valley: This might have been used as a cave house. Do you notice the door? |
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| This other balloon had flown higher. We eventually followed this |
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| An amazing shot on the highest altitude we went through |
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| The balloon flight captain told us that it was a castle, named Ortahisar (mid-left) |
After the one-hour flight, our balloon descended to the ground. We were told to take a last photo shot and turn off our camera. We were ready at the brace position instructed before the flight and I then knew that the landing was bumpy and not nice. Assuming that the landing had completed, as the person standing on the outermost side of the cabin, I climbed out to disembark, but were told off by the ground staff by beating me with their palm :( to return to the cabin. I knew then that the balloon had to be deflated completely first so that it would not soar again when there was wind.
On the ground, the captain, as well as ground staff members, congratulated us for the safe balloon flight. They offered us champagne and sour cherry (I chose the latter) and distributed each of us a certificate that we had our balloon trip. Afterwards, we were transported back to our hotel for shower and breakfast before starting the land tour in Cappadocia. Good prelude on the aerial view was followed by land tour :)
Kaymaklı Underground City
After shower and breakfast, we started our full day tour in Capppadocia by our first point of interest, Kaymaklı Underground City, which is listed as one of the world heritage sites by the
UNESCO. There are many underground cities in Cappadocia, mainly built by people to live and to avoid from persecution. Underground cities in Cappadocia were built and settled by Hittites civilization, and later by early Christians to hide from persecution by Roman empire. Therefore, in Kaymaklı, there are sections of the underground cave dedicated as church. While the largest excavated underground city is Derinkuyu, not Kaymaklı, Kaymaklı is the more tourist-friendly since the passage in and out for tourists are clearly separated and marked.
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| Placard in front of the main gate to the underground city. Note the UNESCO logo |
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| Façade of the underground city. Here, we were listening to Ümit's briefing |
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| Walls inside the cave |
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| This cave section used to be church, the hole on the left was place for altar |
There are several levels in the underground cave, going deeper and lower. Those different levels are connected one another by a long but narrow and short-ceiling tunnels. We were instructed to stay as one group all the time inside the underground city to avoid getting lost. While going down through the narrow tunnels, there were many other tourists and it would be difficult to catch up with the others of the group if we got lost.
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| Going deeper through a narrow, short-ceiling tunnel |
After going deeper and deeper, we went up through different pathways. The pathway in and out are each marked with arrows with different colour (red for going in and blue for going out). While going out, we found also a round stone used to be used to block the entrance to the underground caves when attack happened. That was how the inhabitants of the underground city survived themselves. To the underground city, there were more than one entry that should enemies harass them by smoke to suffocate the inhabitants, they could still survive through another secret doorway.
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| This boulder is used to block the doors to the cave |
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| Used to be kitchen |
Uçhisar Castle
After going out from the underground city, we left for our next destination in Uçhisar town, famous for its rock-carved castle. The word "uç" in Turkish means "to fly" while the word "hisar" means "castle", so Uçhisar itself means "Flying Castle", and became the name of the town where the castle is located. We only took photograph from outside and did not try to climb or enter the castle.
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| Every ancient castle in Turkey has Turkish flag on top of it. Do you notice where the flag for this? |
There was also camel ride costing 2 TL per person per ride. However, that was only for posing, not for camel ride tour.
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| Here is the camel with one of my group members on top of it |
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| The cave houses on the opposite of the castle |
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| Natural features nearby is also attractive |
Kaptan Osman
After leaving from Uçhisar, Ümit brought all of us to Kaptan Osman, with a nice view of Cappadocia highlands and, more importantly, Turkish ice cream. Each of us all got one cone ice-cream for free and we were allowed to buy more, 3 TL each. One cone ice-cream was with two different toppings which can be chosen freely. The uniqueness of this was the seller tried to make fun of us by doing acrobatic actions, twisting and throwing the ice-cream with the cone, of course, after we had paid 3 TL each cone with two toppings.
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| By this long stick, the seller tried to make fun of the buyer by twisting and throwing the ice cream, without any failure, amazingly |
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| While eating ice cream, we were exposed to the beautiful scenery like this |
After that, we boarded our bus again to have lunch in different area of Cappadocia. This time, we had lunch in a cave restaurant.
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| This is the exterior of the restaurant, just like the normal building ("kaya" means "rock", so it is a "rock restaurant") |
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| But inside, we knew for sure that we were inside a grotto |
Göreme Open Air Museum
After lunch, we continued our journey in Cappadocia to a museum. Usually, museum is identical to be indoor and (for some) boring place. But this museum is not really museum in that definition, since it is called open air museum. It is called museum since it preserves history, but the "collections" of the museum is different, which are cave houses, churches and monasteries, not antique goods as in conventional museums.
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| Among the "collections" of the museum |
There were several cave churches inside the Göreme Open Air Museum compound. We just entered two of them, namely Apple Church and Snake Church. They were named so by the most well-known paintings inside each. There was also a cave church named Dark Church, which costed another 8 TL for entry. The naming was due to the poor lighting inside. None of our group members entered it but it was said that the paintings inside were more beautiful. No photography is allowed inside the cave church; this is the rule inside the museum.
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| View from the back of one of the cave buildings |
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| Entry to the Apple Church, no photography is allowed |
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| Cave monasteries uphill |
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| View from the monastery façade |
Fairy's Chimneys and Camel Hills
We then left the Göreme Open Air Museum for our next last two point of interests in Cappadocia. But before that, we stopped by a shop selling gem products well-known in Cappadocia, selling various kinds of gems, especially onyx. But since the items were too expensive and we did not find use of it, I and my family did not buy it (FYI, one item may cost roughly more than twice of my monthly stipend from the university).
We then went to our next destination, which was the Fairy's Chimneys. The "chimneys" were naturally formed, not carved due to the weather effect on the rock formations. Since the features looked like chimneys but weird-shaped, those were called "fairy's chimneys".
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| The three of the Fairy's Chimneys |
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| Another "chimneys" |
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| But below, there was a sign like this >_< |
After the Fairy's Chimneys, we boarded our bus again and rode to the Camels Hill, with rock formations naturally shaped like two-humped camels. Like the Fairy's Chimneys, the camels "statues" were not carved.
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| There were several "camels" on the hill; this was only one of them |
Turkish Night
After the Camels Hill, we went back to our hotel for shower and dinner, but the tour programme has not finished because we would go to a restaurant quite distant from our hotel to watch live performance of Turkish folk dances. Unfortunately that night, my mother was too tired to go so she had to take rest while the rest of our group went to watch. My sister, albeit encouraged to go and watch, insisted that she stayed with my mother. So, I only went with my father. We went to the show venue by our tour bus.
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| While waiting for departure time, those teens played billiard, a free facility from the hotel |
The venue of the show was quite distant. It took half an hour to get there. The venue was another cave restaurant, but this seemed to be larger than our restaurant for lunch. The show was begun by performance of Sema, dance of the Whirling Dervishes. During the Sema performance, no flash photography was allowed due to the sacredness of the dance but after the performance, they whirled again (just to simulate) so that we could take photography with flash.
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| Sema, dance of the Whirling Dervishes |
The show was continued by performances of percussion, folk dances and as the highlight the belly dance. Our group was offered with snacks drinks, starting from water, carbonated drinks, juice, wine and rakı, Turkish signature alcoholic drink, originally colourless but turned milky after being mixed by water. By my father, I was not allowed to drink that due to the high-concentration of alcohol. However, after tasting a half glass of wine, I found it too bitter, so I just drank juices and soft drink (cola).
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| Percussion performance |
Turkey is divided into seven geographical regions, each of them has its own unique culture, including music and dance. However, lack of commentary during the show made me have no idea about what dance it was and where it came from, so the show became uneventful. Nevertheless, the performers wanted our participation in the show, so in folk dances which are communal in nature, they drew some of the audience to join the dance. There were three dances with such characteristic, and I was drawn three times :))
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| In such dances, they would grab audience to join the dance, since I was drawn, no picture of the audience dancing |
After all the folk dances ended, the following set of dances was the highlight, which was Turkish Belly Dance, also a signature dance of Turkey.
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| Turkish Belly Dance with attractive (but not so young) women |
The show that night ended at about 11 p.m. So we reached back to our hotel at about midnight. However, since the wake up call the next morning was generous, we had enough sleep.
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