Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Pengalaman di Cappadocia, Turkey - Travelogue Turkey



MANISNYA CINTA DI CAPPADOCIA 

Manis sungguh pengalaman saya di Cappadocia.





Setelah 2 malam di Amasya, kami meneruskan perjalanan kami ke Gerome juga dengan menaiki bas. Perjalanan memakan masa hampir 6 jam kerana bas ada berhenti di beberapa tempat.

Tiket Bas Yildizi dari Amasya ke Goreme, Nevsehir


Kami tiba di Gerome around jam 5 pagi, masih gelap dan tiada stesyen bas di Gerome. Memang tak sangka tiada stesyen bas rupanya. So dalam hening subuh yang sejuk lagi mamai sebab tidur dalam bas bangun-bangun dah sampai. Memang diam sekejap turun bas tak tahu mana arah nak tuju. Kebetulan, kami ternampak minaret masjid, terus kami bawa beg kami dengan harapan dapatlah crash-in dekat masjid pula. 

Alhamdulillah, sejuk-sejuk tu kami dapat masuk ke dalam masjid sementara tunggu subuh dan siang hari. Sejuk dia memang tak terhingga. -2 degree celcius and forecast with snow at that time.

Setibanya hari siang, kami terus bersiap mencari hostel kami. Di Cappadocia, kami mencuba untuk menginap di hostel pula.

Susah juga sebab tercelah-celah antara hotel-hotel lain. Jalan pun berbukit sedikit. Akhirnya kami berjaya sampai ke hotel kami. Sampai je hotel dongak tengok langit dah banyak hot air balloons. uwaahhh. Terus jakun kau! Takpe orang paham kan. 

One thing you must experience in Cappadocia is "staying in a cave hotel". Really the Flintstones-style! We booked "Stay In Peace Cave Hostel" through Bookings a month earlier. The room is for 3 of us with shared bathroom were not really beautiful but it's comfortable, the floors were covered with earthy colored carpets and the uneven rocky walls but made the whole experience very primate. A little bit cold, but it's a cave, so it's okay.  The breakfast was really nice and is served on a balcony overlooking Goreme. The hostel is just 500m-walk to the sunset/sunrise viewpoint but we kinda missed to watch sunset/sunrise from all because we over-slept. haha.

Our hostel
View inside hostel
Balcony view
Hot air balloons view from our hostel
   
Basically, our 3 days and 2 nights in Cappadocia fills with a lot of activities such as: 

Day 1: Gerome town's sightseeing, haggling tickets for hot air balloon and scooter, sleeping and enjoying ourselves to some Chinese foods after one week stuffed our tummy with kebab.

Day 2: Hot Air Balloon flight in the morning and the rest of the day travel by scooter around Cappadocia. And at night went for souvenir shopping around town.

Day 3: Fly to Izmir

hot air BALLOONS the best experience in my life


Di Cappadocia, kami berkenalan dengan operator hot air balloon kami Kadir and Semit. Meriah dapat bersembang dengan diorang. Kami takde budget untuk menaiki hot air balloon yang sememangnya mahal. Masa berjalan around town tanya harga, tengok package kami singgah di office Angelos Travel. Peramah sangat Kadir, owner Angelos Travel. Orang Turkey ni baik-baik, datanglah mana-mana kedai kebanyakan akan tawarkan teh. 

So melalui Kadir, yang kesian dengar cerita kami, dia bagi harga discount untuk kami naik hot air balloon dengan syarat jangan letak harga, atau beritahu customer lain masa hendak naik hot air balloon nanti. haha. baik lah. sis turut je.

Melalui Kadir juga kami booking transportation kami pada hari ke-3 untuk ke airport. Cost daripada hostel menaiki van untuk Keyseri Airport ialah 20TL.

Setelah 2 kali tambah air teh, bersembang tentang Cappadocia dan sebagainya, selepas hampir 2 jam bersembang kami setuju untuk ambil pakej hot air balloon bersama Angelos Travel. Sebab tu manis sangat pengalaman kami disini. Perkara yang kami tak jangka, no plan at all, akhirnya we did it. Dapat juga pengalaman naik hot air balloon di Cappadocia. Fefeeling Fazbulous tak? haha. 
On the day we rose hundreds of metres above an Cappadocia valleys, mountaintop rock villages and rock castles and I had one of those ‘is this really happening?’. For the next hour, as the sun rise we floated among multi-coloured balloons, all seemingly suspended between earth and sky, in between rock fairy chimneys down into valleys and soared up to get an incredible panorama of Cappadocian Land.

















Selepas 2 jam sesudah menaiki hot air balloons kami terus meneruskan adventure kami di Cappadocia.


cappadocia day tour: a do-it-yourself guide


Why? 

Disebabkan kami nak berjimat cermat, kami DIY sendiri trip di Cappadocia ikut cara kami. After researching from various guided day tour options around Cappadocia we felt nothing quite fit what we were looking for.

There's a lot tour that you can pick from, ranging from Red, Green and Blue Tour. But tour group options felt too big – big busses, big groups, and attractions packed too much we afraid we unable to enjoy Cappadocia as we want. We hate feeling constrained at places that we want to explore deeper.

So back in Malaysia, I found a few travel blogs that suggesting a DIY itinerary for us to follow for best places to go and not to go in Cappadocia within our allocated time. 

One of the options suggested is by renting a car and guiding ourselves around the region. But we felt that we are not confident enough to drive in Turkey, with just 3 people and the total cost to hire a car and pay entrance fees to the attractions and parking fees are still quite expensive for us. 

Ammy Yus suggested renting a scooter as we pass by a few shops. Immediately we knew this felt just right. Even though it was cold, our face feels numb from the cold breeze, we successfully traveled with scooter exploring the beautiful landscape of Cappadocia.

We only rented 2 scooters while one person is in charge of Google maps navigation.




 places to go

Pitstop 1 - Fairy Chimneys Pasabag

10 mins away from Gerome. No entrance fee. 

Activities: 

Follow trailed far enough from the road you can have the valley to yourselves. In Cappadocia magic can seem real. I kept questioning myself, is this planet earth? What else but enchantment could shape rock and stone into spindly stems that rise, mushroom-like, out of the earth? How could geology ever explain such a surreal phenomenon? 






Pitstop 2 – Zelve Open Air Museum

Cost: 10TL.

The longest time we spend is here.

The Zelve Open-Air Museum, which once housed one of the largest communities in the region. They were forced to evacuate the Valley in the 50's when life became dangerous due to the risk of erosion. They left the site to set up a modern village.

Zelve Open Air Museum offers three different converging walking paths to explore its three valleys. On Path 1 remnants of village life can be seen including the old değirmen (mill), with a grindstone and graffitied wooden beam. On Path 2, explore what’s left of the Geyikli Kilise (Church with Deer) and on Path 3 visit the simply adorned rock-cut mosque.
















Pitstop 3 - Avanos Town 

About 8 km from Gerome is a lively town. We packed our own lunch and have our lunch by the river. And later we stroll around Avanos town like the locals do.









Pitstop 4 - Goreme Open Air Museum

We didn't go in, instead, we explore the area outside the Goreme Open Air Museum due to time constraint. We spend to much time in Avanos so we have to cut short our trip here. But the outside view of Open Air Museum is just beautiful as other places we went to. The views to me really are straight out of fairy-tales.









Pitstop 5 – Esentepe Panoramic Viewpoint 

It is actually a toilet stop or rest area! No, I did not lie. 

Located between the small towns of Uchisar and Goreme. If you are driving from Gerome you could easily spot on your left a large area where tour buses and cars stop. The view of the valley behind the shops is beautiful. There are small lanterns and evil eyes hang off the bare leaf trees.




Pitstop 6 - Uchisar Castle

Cost 7TL

Our next stop is the Uchisar Castle and it is hard to miss as it stands high above the rest of the Cappadocia region. On top of the Uchisar Castle gives us an astonishing panoramic view of the landscape.

Cars, tour buses, and people were just dots on the horizon. It was easy to sit there for an hour in peace and contemplate the thought of living in the area permanently.

We sat on the top of the castle enjoying our sunset and this was the perfect way to end a long and adventurous day exploring Cappadocia on our own.








Although 6 pitstop may sound a little to you, we really enjoyed our DIY day tour in Cappadocia. Cappadocia’s weird landscape is what makes it magical. Its strange beauty is unique and I doubt if you will ever see a place like this anywhere else on the planet.

There are other places that you can visit but it's quite far to travel by scooter which are:
  • Kaymakli Underground City 
  • Derinkuyu Underground City
  • Ilhara Valley
Later if I had a chance to come back again to Cappadocia I would love to try to:
  • Staying in boutique cave hotels again
  • Hiking/ATV the valley i.e. Ilhara Valley and Rose Valley 
  • Visits to underground cities
  • Watch Cappadocia’s Epic Sunrises and Sunsets
  • Hot air ballooning (maybe again)

Other photos from Cappadocia adventure

The only Chinese Restaurant we found in Turkey

pin pin

Souvenir shop around Gerome town

One of the shop found in Gerome

COST IN CAPPADOCIA

Berikut adalah estimation of expenses kami sepanjang di Cappadocia:
  • Transport
    • Scooter rental - 60TL per day 
    • Gas/Petrol - 10TL
    • Van transfer from Hostel to Kayseri Airport - 20TL 
    • Flight from Kayseri to Izmir (Sunexpress) - 42 EUR (3pax) = 53 TL per person
  • Hotel
    • 42 EUR = RM 388 (2 nights) 
  • Meals and titbits 
    • 30 TL 
  • Miscellaneous 
    •  Entrance ticket 
      • Hot Air Balloons - approx. 230 TL 
      • Zelve Open Air Museum - 10 TL
      • Uschisar Castle - 7 TL 



This the end of our little adventure in Cappadocia. 
Cappadocia is a truly peaceful, beautiful, and magical place that I ever visited.


Till next travelogue: Kusadasi - Ephesus

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