CAPPADOCIA

The first month I came here (end of March) I was with my parents in law. We had just like 11 days in Istanbul and masa tu hubby kerja kuat. Only one time where he had 2 solid off days so we went to an another part of Turkey, Cappadocia (Kapadokya). We took a flight from Ataturk Airport (near our place) to Kayseri Airport - we figured out later that we should fly to Kapadokya Airport instead, which is located in Nevsehir - much more nearer to the area we were going. Hubby already booked a rental car form Kayseri so there was a guy from the rental car company already waited for us at the airport.

Disebabkan tak ada langsung map and we had NO IDEA AT ALL where we were supposed to go so we had wasted about 2 hours finding the correct way! We finally managed to find a map and talked to someone who understood English. She couldn't speak English though but at least she knew how to say "go straight" while showing us the map of Kayseri haha. Adoiyai. Novotel kot! Go learn English lah. Huhu. Sebelum sampai area yang nak dituju kami singgah di Avanos untuk tengok pottery demonstration. Banyak pottery shops kat situ tapi kami tersilap pergi tempat yang mahal. Tiqahtertipubang!

We arrived in Uchisar (booked hotel there) later in afternoon. Sempat lunch (tried the pottery kebab. sedap), solat and bought souvenirs along the way. We also visited the Goreme Open Air Musuem because we had to pass through the area before Uchisar. So we didn't want to waste a lot of time pergi patah2 balik. Goreme Open Air Museum ni is a member of Unesco World Heritage, so it is a must go place kat Cappadocia. Ada about 11 small gua kat museum tu, with rock cut churces tables and benches. Each associated with a church. memang unique habis! My PIL tak larat nak discover semua gua though, sebab tinggi2. So they waited for me and hubby instead. 

In Uchisar we stayed at Buket Cave Hotel. Ye. Seperti nama nya, bilik-bilik hotel nya memang dalam gua. The cave hotel memang torbaekk! Haha. Rasanya semua hotel kat sini dalam gua sebab itu cara orang sini tinggal dulu. So main point dia nak suruh hayati sejarah. Haha. Satu je masalah, malam memang sejuk gile! Dah namanya dok dalam gua. memang sejuk tahap nak pukul orang. Huhu. Nanges!

Lewat petang tu we went to Uchisar Castle which is the highest point in the region, to witness the sunset. Hikhik. Romantik tak ktrg. Haha. Memang view dia...Subhanallah. Spectacular! Tak payah mendaki castle yang tinggi tu pun, duduk kat luar castle tu je dah cukup tinggi and nampak keseluruhan Kapadokya.

The next day we woke up early for the main activity here in Cappadocia - hot air balloon trip which hubby already booked earlier. Ada tour van datang pick up at the hotel around 6am, took us to their building/office for breakfast and simple briefing before we went off on the hot air balloon. Patutnya tengok sunrise from the balloon tapi sebab keadaan angin pagi tu tak berapa betul, so flight delayed. Tengok sunrise from the ground je. But it was fascinating anyways. Balloons semua naik sekaligus, tak kira tour group yang mana pun, bila keadaan angin dah okay, semua balloon took off at the same time. Tak de lah tepat2 tapi masa lebih kurang lah ikut balloon mana siap dulu, fly lah. The balloon drifted over Goreme and the Cappadocia valleys. Up in the air around 45 minutes, memang tinggi dia fly, tak lah macam yang the one kat Putrajaya tu haha. Really worth the money. After landing siap bagi minum - wine or juice, celebrating the pilot. And yang penting dapat sijil! Haha. Takde la penting pun nank buat ape je kan, but yeah.

We went back to the hotel for breakfast, packing back, bersiap untuk balik. Sebelum ke airport kami singgah satu lagi tempat wajib pergi, an underground city - Kaymakli. At first plan nak pergi Derinkuyu, which is the deepest underground city, tapi yang tu lebih jauh. So daripada buang masa, kami pergi je yang second famous one, which is the widest underground city. Impressed sangat2 macam mana orang dulu boleh bina city UNDERground yang sangat lengkap. Siap ada church, wineries, kitchen, storage places blablabla. Fuyyoo. Cuma sejuk lah. Haha. Diorang dah lah tak berbaju at that time kan. Can't imagine.

So itu lah sahaja trip kami ke Kapadokya. Lepas ke Kaymakli tu we headed back to Kayseri Airport and balik ke Istanbul.

The driver

Tempat pottery mahal

Making pottery kebab

The valleys

The open air museum in Goreme

Entrance to the lobby

Entrance to the rooms

Me and hubby's room

Inilah castle tu. We didn't went up anyways. Malas.

The sunset

Breakfast at the tour office or something like that

It went really high, tak tipu

The pilot

Group photo before we took off

Can you spot me? hehe

Breakfast at the hotel

Belakang tu semua cave hotels in Uchisar area

Underground city, Kaymakli

The end. For Now.

DELHI

Tengah semangat nak menulis ni jangan dihalang. Hehe. Cik abg kerja plak..lagi la layan menulis sorang kat bilik ni.

Erm..So after Hong Kong, hubby's next stop was Delhi. So I went there too. Of course I went back to KL (from Hong Kong) and the next day terus fly to Delhi. Cheaper that way, instead of taking flight from Hong Kong to Delhi. Kena menyimpang jauh pulak tu. Tak kuasa.

Frankly speaking, I think thats gonna be my first and last trip to India. Procedure visa leceh amattttt, and I accidentally basahkan passport maka visa tersebut (yes, yang saya dapatkan dengan susah payahnya) dah mengembang sampai tak nampak muka. So I don't think they'll accept it sebab they seemed very particular about procedures and stuff. Surprisingly huh?

But overall, trip to Delhi wasn't that bad. Hubby sampai dulu and he waited for me at the airport. Sampai hotel pun dah petang and there was nothing much to do. Hubby brought me to Janpath - small shops lot underground. Memang murah lah barang2 dia - leather and kain especially. But to be honest, the place was kinda scary to me. Tu lah, asyik shopping kat KLCC je! Haha. 

The second day, we woke up very early because hubby had booked us a private tour to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is. It was a very good trip I must say. Ada representative datang pick us up at the hotel, hantar ke train station, and di Agra pun ada driver datang pick us up at the station, and of course he was the driver for the whole day. And the good thing is that we've got a tourist guide all to ourselves - felt like one-to-one tuition pulak when he talked about histories and all haha. Cuma yang part kurang best nye sebab mamat tourist guide tu bawak ktrg ke tempat shopping souvenirs yang mahal2. Itu aje la yang tak best pun. In Agra we went visit Agra Fort, Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri - the must go historical places. The driver sent us back to the train station and sampai Delhi ada sorang lagi driver datang pick up and hantar balik hotel. The price pun not bad at all. Sebab including first class coach for the train, breakfast and dinner dalam train, yang for me, quite okay. And yang penting - bersih! Lunch was also included, which was supposed at a 5 star hotel in Agra, but we requested to change the venue, to a halal 5 star restaurant. So we could taste a complete traditional Indian's meal yang halal. Sampai hotel dah midnight, memang flat habiss laki bini.

The next day pulak we went shopping, to a big shopping mall which I couldn't remember the name, and to Sarojini, like a market along the streets near to our hotel. Ini memang ada dalam tentative program ye. Hehe. Sebab ada kawan bagitau kain cotton kat india sangat murah. But I didn't expect it to be SANGATTTTT murah. Eee...frust sebab tak dapat borong banyak. I only brought cabin size luggage can you imagine! Nasib baik tak pecah beg tu.

Sekian sahaja cerita Delhi. Pergi lah! Tak rugi pun.

Dalam tuktuk! The main public transport there.

Our train ticket which was included in the tour.

At first I was like, coffee and biscuits je?
Belum sampai Agra pun dh lapar balik!

And then this came. Owh..Okay lah ada bread and cereal.
Baru la kenyang betul.

Sekali lepas habis cereal, ada lagi another meal. Omelette and banana.
And I was like, what??! Ini sudah baguss!! Kena buat review ni!

Dapat tdo kejap je before breakfast huhu.

Hubby takyah cakap lah! Ada 5 minit pun dia sempat tdo, ape lagi 2 jam!

The executive coach memang sangat luas!
Very comfortable lah for a 2-hours journey.
Lagi luas daripada naik EY punya flight haha.

Agra Fort

The perks of having personal tour guide!
Tanya la banyak mana pun tak ada sape nak kacau.

The Taj Mahal

Our traditional Indian meal for lunch.

Fatehpur Sikri