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.