Day 8 - Cappadocia to Pamukkale

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We have a huge drive ahead of us, about 6 hours in total. We started at 7:30am. At 9:30am we arrived at a 13th century Sultanhani caravanserai, which was pretty impressive. It is located 40km west of Aksaray on the Silk Road, was built in 1229 and after a fire was restored and extended in 1278. The richly carved entrance portal is made of coloured marble and leads into a courtyard, in the centre of which is a pavilion mosque. Along the right-hand side of the courtyard is a decorated colonnade and to the left storage rooms and chambers. Beyond the courtyard is a huge enclosed hall with nave and side aisles supported by four rows of eight pillars and a forest of arches. A dome at the centre of the nave lets in light and pigeon.

Our next stop was the famous mausoleum of the sufi philosopher Mevlana which we very interesting.

Not much interesting happened after that. We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant and had a great feed of barbecue chicken, salad and bread. The Turks are huge on their bread, almost every meal comes with some type of loaf. Since there's not much to report, I can go a little deeper into describing the country. It is a place of contrasts, for example there are lots of stray dogs in the cities. They are all tagged, fed, neutered or spayed, vaccinated, and checked on by the government, yet there are women and children begging on the streets. We just drove through a town that looks like it is from a World Vision ad. Dirt roads, fields being worked by hand, dirt roofed and thatch roofed houses, yet full cellphone reception and really fast mobile broadband, hundreds of ks from the nearest main center. Women in full hajibs, with only a tiny slit for their eyes walk next to women wearing low cut tops and short skirts. Walk past one shop and the stereo is playing Lady Gaga, next door traditional Islamic music is playing. Yesterday in Cappadocia a brand new SLK Mercedes went tearing past a horse drawn cart. A very strange place by our standards.

Another thing, the armed police, and the guards armed with MP5 sub machine guns.

So only a partial update today, it is 4:00pm, and we still have 2 hours off travelling in front of us. Pamukkale is the Waiwera of Turkey, famous for its thermal springs.

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