Continuing from the last Postcard…
Day 4
Onward to Cappadocia
In the small hours of the morning, we headed to the airport for our flight to Cappadocia. We checked out of Appletree Hotel for the time being (we were to return to the same hotel on our way back from Cappadocia), repacked our bags with the domestic flight baggage eligibility in mind, and took a cab from the hotel to the airport.
Cappadocia, an ancient district in east-central Anatolia, is situated in present-day Turkey on the rugged plateau north of the Taurus Mountains. The boundaries of the region have varied throughout history. Cappadocia’s landscape includes dramatic expanses of soft volcanic rock, shaped by erosion into towers, cones, valleys, and caves.
We were going to Cappadocia to, apart from other things, watch the hot-air balloons that soar above the landscape at sunrise.
When we reached the airport, it was still very early in the morning. We found some decent vegetarian eats at the airport, downed some coffee, and got ready for the short flight. The 80-minute flight was comfortable and uneventful. The Cappadocia airport is tiny compared to the gigantic Istanbul airport.
Panoramic Cave Hotel
Our son, Sid, and our daughter-in-law, Prerana, had booked our accommodation at the Panoramic Cave Hotel which promised to be another first-of-its-kind experience for us. A pick-up from the airport had been arranged via the hotel.
The Panoramic Cave Hotel is located in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Goreme town. It is one of the unique cave and stone hotels in the region. First opened in 1994, this is a family-owned and run hotel.
The hotel offers a total of 15 rooms, some built into the cave, others arch rooms made from original stone, and 6 rooms situated in the UNESCO fairy chimneys. Most rooms offer spectacular views of the town or the surrounding valleys.
Our check-in time at the hotel was 2 PM. We reached there early and enjoyed being there on the premises. The sun was out and the day was very pleasant. The hotel boasted terraces at multiple levels at vantage points with a sweeping view of the valley. We settled down comfortably on a set of outdoor wooden benches with comfortable cushions. True to her nature, Jyothi quickly occupied a cushioned wooden swing. We were served Turkish tea even as a large patio umbrella was quickly set up for us. The buffet-style breakfast was generous with lots of options for vegetarians like us.
Later, we checked into comfortable rooms. Though the outer structure was ancient, the rooms were very well appointed.
At the hotel Reception, I asked the young girl for the wi-fi password. She smiled but was unwilling to help. She just said, ‘I am sorry!’ I was taken aback. The hotel counted wi-fi as one of the facilities available there. We certainly needed wi-fi. Sid also had a similar experience with the girl. Only later we understood that ‘iamsorry’ was the hotel’s wi-fi password. We ended up having a hearty laugh. Such quirky snippets add to our travel memories.
Here’s the view from our arch room at the Panoramic Cave Hotel after it had rained…
Ah! Photography!
I love photography. There was a time when I used to carry heavy-duty gear complete with my DSLR camera and lenses in an unwieldy camera backpack. Then mobile phones became so advanced that they were good enough to capture that moment.
Now I carry an AI-powered small camera – Insta360 – with a selfie stick and a solid tripod. The power of this camera is that I can create pictures that can fire one’s imagination.
This picture was taken from the terrace of the Panoramic Cave Hotel.
I set up the tripod on the glass top of a cane table. I was at the far end, operating the camera from my mobile phone.
Thanks to some post-production work, in this picture, the whole place looks like an island in the ocean or an inhabited planet suspended in outer space.
Well, didn’t I just say that some pictures from this camera can fire our imagination?
A self-drive car – so much convenience!
Sid rented a self-drive Fiat Aegea automatic car. Normally such cars are handed over to the customer with a full tank but in this case, the fuel tank was only about 40% full and we were to return the car after use with the same amount of fuel in the tank. This expectation became a little tricky as filling the tank was dependent on a variety of factors: the average fuel consumption of the car, the distance to be traveled, and how far apart the gas stations were in the area. The car rental company would not accept the car back with less fuel in the tank and if were to leave the car with more fuel in the tank, it would constitute a loss to us – a typical middle-class dilemma!
Anyway, we went about exploring the area. In hindsight, renting a self-drive car was a very smart decision. It gave us a lot of flexibility.
Avanos
We headed to Avanos, a town in Nevşehir Province known as ‘Venessa’ in ancient times, with a history dating back to BC. Avanos’ most important industry is pottery production, an industry which probably dates back to Hittite times and which makes use of clay from the red silt of the Kızılırmak.
Prerana wanted to try her hand at pottery and we found Chez Garip, a modest pottery studio that allowed people like us to make something on the potter’s wheel.
In about an hour, Prerana was the proud owner of a small vase she had made. She took the vase in a cardboard box to their home in Cambridge, UK.
After securing Prerana’s masterpiece, we head to the Pasabag Valley.
Pasabag Valley
Pasabag Valley, also known as Monks Valley, is a unique and stunning destination located in the Cappadocia region of central Turkey. It is situated about 10 kilometers from the town of Goreme and is one of the most popular attractions in the area. The valley is renowned for its unusual rock formations, which have been shaped by volcanic eruptions and erosion over thousands of years.
Pasabag Valley is a geological wonder, characterized by towering fairy chimneys, some of which reach up to 40 meters in height. These tall, cone-shaped rocks are formed of soft volcanic tuff and have been eroded by wind and water into a variety of bizarre shapes and formations. The valley is a testament to the remarkable power of nature, and it is no wonder that it has become one of the must-visit destinations in Cappadocia.
Here, Sid is seen climbing into one of the Pasabagi Cones.
It was a very relaxing day. We took many pictures. I had all the time in the world to set up my tripod and take pictures using my Insta360 camera.
Even as we were returning to the hotel, it started to rain. Once we reached the hotel, the rains were heavy. It was magical to be with the family and watch the rain from our room with a sweeping view of the valley. It is precisely on such occasions that one appreciates the power of travel. A change of setting breaks the monotony of life and enriches our perspective.
My Quote #213 says, ‘Travel teaches us that our perspective is just one among many.’
Read here my post, ‘Travel in Genes’, on our family’s tryst with travel across three generations…
Devrent Valley
With the car at our disposal, we headed to Devrent Valley a.k.a Imagination Valley because of the weird rock shapes as a result of what geologists term differential erosion. The rock formations here resemble a dolphin, seal, camel, and so on. The camel is easily spotted but for the others, one needs a bit of wild imagination.
Here’s Sid pointing at the rock resembling a camel in the backdrop…
By the time, we finished our tour, it was time for dinner. We headed to the Delhi Darbar Restaurant for some Indian food. Both Jyothi & I had left India only 4 days ago and yet when we spotted an Indian restaurant, we could not resist the idea. Such is the appeal of Indian food for us, I guess!
We came back to the hotel and settled down for the night. We were to wake up early in the morning to watch the hot-air balloons. But just as we reached the hotel, we were treated to a stunning view from the hotel’s terrace.
Day 5
It was a very early start to the day. We were still groggy from our sleep. We had enquired about the best location on the hotel’s terrace for viewing the hot-air balloons rising into the sky from the valley below and had occupied vantage positions. I had set up my tripod with the camera. It was a little breezy morning and I was careful with my tripod lest it gets knocked down in the breeze. Fortunately, I had set up some counterweights on the tripod to keep it steady. Now it was a matter of waiting…
Initially, I noticed some fire at a distance to my left. Very soon, the fire intensified and that’s when I realized that it was a hot-air balloon preparing to begin its ascent. In a few minutes, I could notice many such small fires on the horizon. And then we spotted them…hot-air balloons rising gracefully from the valley and gently soaring into the sky.
Soon, many such balloons joined them, and in a few minutes, the sky was full of them. What a sight!
We took a lot of pictures…
In a way, this was the high point of our Turkiye trip – pun unintended!
I recorded a 29-minute video of the hot air balloons and thanks to technology, using the camera’s AI-supported editing software, I took this original video, multiplied the speed 64 times, and added some music. Now you can enjoy this 27-sec video to get a sense of what we witnessed.
Watch the skyline on the left of the frame as the balloons rise in the air and float in the sky, moving across to the right of the frame. For those with an eye for detail, you should be able to spot the fire in several balloons’ envelopes as the burners inject flames into the envelopes to generate lift.
Having woken up pretty early to watch the hot-air balloons, we went back to sleep. Mission accomplished!
Kaymakli Underground City
It is believed that beneath the town of Cappadocia, there are around 200 underground cities. Many of them are still waiting to be rediscovered but as of 2023, we can visit three of them; Ozkonak, Derinkuyu, and Kaymakli underground cities.
One of the biggest and best-preserved underground cities in the area is Kaymakli Underground City, which is thought to have been created by the earliest Christians as a refuge to hide from persecution. The Phrygians, a civilization that flourished in central Anatolia from 1200-700 BC, are credited with building the Kaymakli Underground City. The people, who had become Christians, had expanded their caverns by adding chapels and Greek inscriptions when the Phrygian language disappeared during the Roman era and was replaced with Greek.
An intricate system of tunnels, chambers, and galleries has been excavated deep into the volcanic tuff rock at Kaymakli Underground City. There are eight floors in the city, although only four are accessible to the general public today. The underground city can hold up to 3,000 people and is over 85 meters deep. We come across low, winding passages, steep stairs, and rooms that have seen a variety of uses as we explore Kaymakli.
While we had a great tour inside the Kaymakli Underground City, I felt it was quite claustrophobic for me. In addition, moving inside involved crouching, bending, twisting, and occasionally scraping one’s head against the very low roof. At the end of the tour, all of us were nursing some minor bruises. Now many memories of the trip were in my head and some happened to be on it too!
Honestly, I was relieved to be out of the Kaymakli Underground City. Inside the Underground City, occasionally, I felt as if I had been dropped into the Guna Caves – not sure if you have watched the Malayalam movie, Manjummel Boys, based on a true story.
Uçhisar Castle & Love Valley
Once out of Kaymakli, we regained our composure and headed to the Uçhisar Castle, a tall volcanic-rock outcrop, one of Cappadocia’s most prominent landmarks and visible for miles around. Riddled with tunnels, it was used for centuries by villagers as a place of refuge when enemy armies overtook the surrounding plains.
Again, we took a lot of pictures here.
We visited Love Valley and found it to be more of the same. We quickly returned to Goreme town and walked around the bazaars to pick up some souvenirs. After picking up some snacks for dinner, we went to return the rented car. Our bags were already in the car and the arrangement was that a driver from the rental car company would drop us to the airport for our flight back to Istanbul.
The owner of the rental car company estimated the excess fuel in the car (beyond the 40% level) and adjusted the excess. I thought his gesture was professional. By the way, throughout this trip, we experienced very tourist-friendly practices.
We returned to Istanbul and checked back into Appletree Hotel. It was like a homecoming.
Coming up next in the final ‘Postcard from Turkiye’: a visit to the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Bazaar, and a leisurely walk through the Istanbul streets as we celebrated Jyothi’s birthday by visiting Viyana Kahvesi for their iconic Cheesecake and experiencing the Transcontinental crossing from Asia to Europe in a matter of minutes…
