Blogs from Central Anatolia, Turkey, Middle East - page 5

Cappadocia region is famous for its troglodyte villages, subterranean churches and fortresses have been hewn from the soft, porous, rock. The rock formation has been formed by both wind and rain eroding softer rock creating a surreal landscape that look like fairy chimneys Underground dwelling were built into the remaining rock by Greek Christians trying to escape the Muslim onslaught and persecution. They used them as hiding places in times of war and contained underground churches, wine cellars, food storage, sleeping quarters and even places for animals. For defence they have large stones that could be rolled crossed certain passage ways. The underground villages are a complex multi storey structures with a series of interconnection passages ways at different levels. For air circulation a series of ventilation shifts were used which allowed fresh cool air to ... read more

We next travelled across the central Anatolian high plateau to the region of Cappadocia. On the way we stopped at Konya to visited the Mevlana Whirling Dervish Museum. This museums contains a mausoleum for the founder and other important members of the movement. Under Islamic law you can not depict people or animals in images so for decorations, designs are created using geometric shapes, colours and verses from the Koran. Tulips were again growing outside including some striking black ones which are really just deep dark purple. We also stopped at 13 century Caravansera at Sultanhani. All along the famous silk caravan route from India, secure night stops or camps were built to protect merchants and their goods and support trade. When we visited sections of a movie was being filmed there, so it had been ... read more

Today was another first: riding in a hot air balloon that landed directly on a trailer. I've ridden in two balloons before, once in South Africa and once over the Valley of Queens in Egypt. Both times the landing consisted in all passengers squatting below the basket rim level in crash positions, as the baskets was dragged and bumped along until they ground to a halt, rattling all bones in all bodies - I always enjoy that! But today in Cappadocia we landed gently and upright, on the trailer AND given a ladder to get in and out! (You usually have to scramble up over the wicker with tiny footholes.) I'd treated us to ballooning as it was something Glyn had never done, hoping it would perk up the holiday and although it was expensive, that's ... read more

When we first arrived in Turkey, we never foresaw us being in the back of a pharmacy with Glyn face-down on the tatty sofa getting an injection. But that's part of the exciting unknown of foreign travel, right? The original plan for today was to hang out in Goreme for the day, take an overnight bus to Fethiye and then on to Olideniz for paragliding. But after another dreadful night, it was clear that Glyn could barely walk down the street, let alone sit on a long distance bus. And looking online, they say the buses have three toilet stops, in other words, no facilities onboard. Our hotel was able to let us stay an extra night, but the guy was vague when I asked about finding a doctor. I googled doctors in the area with ... read more

Sigacik August 29 2014 Our visa collecting in Ankara has gone better than we dared hope so we have headed for the seaside prior to meeting Jayne and Paul in Fethiya. In the case of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan with support of Letters of Invitation obtained via Stan Tours we got the visas from the consulates in Ankara on the same day. The biggest challenge turned out to be paying them. I have written previously about the Usbek consulate experience. It was similar for Turkmenistan. This time there was no friendly Turk and we were sent of to find the "Ish" bank so we could directly into the consulate account. People on the street we asked told us where it was and we still could not find it at first. In fact we walked past it because ... read more