s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

After Istanbul we flew to the middle of Turkey. This involved a 6AM departure form the hotel so we could make our flight- thankfully no laggards that morning. The flight was mostly clear, so I managed to catch sight of the conga-line of ships making its way through the Bosphorus, and the many cargo ships parked along the coast. It also provided a nice view of the sprawl of Istanbul, and we caught sight of Ankara during the flight.

Nevshehir airport in Cappadocia was opened up for our flight, and once we had passed through, the airport went back to sleep. At ~4000 feet Cappadocia is a much drier landscape, composed of volcanic ash (ignembrite?) ejected about 10,000 years ago from one of the two volcanos visible on the horizon. [Cappadocia is drier, yes, but all of Turkey is so much more lush than northern China was, it's astounding. --T.]

Our first stop was to visit the “castle” [at Uchisar. -T.]. The eroding volcanic ash is what has left Cappadocia such a dramatic landscape. The “castle” was a large structure that had been used as a fort of millennia as the natural garrison point for the region. It was once part of a byzantine heliograph system that provided 3-hour communication between Jerusalem and Constantinople.

From there we made our way to the carved churches in Goreme. The oldest bits dated to the 9th century. Most of the faces had been defaced. The explanation given at the time blamed either iconoclasts or religious wars (christian/muslim). Another interesting theory is that the faces of the saints were chipped away to make magic/holy healing potions.

Many of the carved churches had partially collapsed over the years, leaving half-open structures.

Our hotel in Cappadocia was really cool. Built in 1962, it was carved into the rock above pigeon valley. Part of the hotel was in the hillside, and the rest was made from the stones of that hill. While the rooms are small by modern hotel standards, staying in vaulted stone rooms carved out of the living rock is really cool! The long halls were quite dark, and each light had a motion sensor, so a short section of the hall would be lit, but your destination further down was always wrapped in inky darkness. [They'd done a pretty good job updating the look of the hotel from its 60's origins. But the "Cave Bar" on the lowest floor was still all groovy curves and pod-like booths: very cool! -T.]

The dinner spread in the hotel is also worth mentioning, as the chefs had far to much fun carving watermelons in artistic fashions, and there were more desert options than you could wave a stick at.

The first evening (Friday the 21st) we took the option of attending a Sufi religious ceremony being held in a 12th/13th century caravanserai. The whirling dervishes.

There were six dancers, though the master kept his black (worldly) robes on the whole time, and merely observed the other dancers. There were three musicians (also in black), providing flute, strings and voice. The music by itself was unearthly and enchanting. The ecstatic nature of the dancing could be seen by the expressions on their faces. Half an hour of spinning, yet they remained stable. Afterwards Hassan arranged a private session where we (our group) could ask the master some questions.

[No photos allowed of the ceremony itself, but the Seljuk caravanserai made up for it. -T.]

Saturday it was off to the underground city. For me, this was one of the best and most memorable portions of the trip. Later (in Georgia) we would see other underground cities and monasteries, but none were like the one in Cappadocia. This was a warren of tunnels, a 3-d maze winding deep into the earth. No straight lines. Everything had an organic feel to it. This seemed more a place carved by mole-men than by people. In one place we came across a vertical shaft, our lights could not see the bottom. They estimated the city we were exploring would have held two or three thousand people.

Tam and I would have been happy to explore for hours!

[I will spare you the dim, blurry photos taken in Kaymakli -- Google "Cappadocia underground city" and you'll find much better ones, from Kaymakli, which is where we went, and also the more famous Derinkuyu, and others. -T.]

There are apparently about 20 known such cities in the region, some dating back to the Hittites. They have found ancient tunnels linking some of the cities, tunnels going for 20-30 kilometers.

But the city did not make sense to me. If it was a place of hiding, why did it have internal doors to seal off sections (which speaks of active defense)? How would hiding be effective, it’s very easy for your opponent to “camp” any entrances, or simply steal all your agricultural wealth and leave. Need to read some of the archaeological evidence, and see if I agree with their conclusions.

Afterwards we were taken to a couple of sites where we could get panoramic views of the landscape, and see the “fairy chimneys.” These conical structures have a cap of harder basaltic rock which protects it from erosion. Many of these “hats” had been knocked off over the years to prevent the structures from animating at night and causing mischief. With wind whistling through these strange forms, many of which look like men and beasts, it is no wonder they gained a reputation for magic.

[Better photos from the balloon later. -T.]

From there it was off to the carpet factory and showroom. We learned a bit about the process, saw silk being extracted from silkworm chrysalis, were taught about natural dyes, etc. The women weavers (weaving carpets is work for women only) get paid by the knot, and a quick and skilled silk-on-silk weaver can make more and US$ 1,000 a month- which is often more than their husbands make.

We got a lecture on carpets, including tips for how to spot a polished cotton carpet that is being sold as silk. I think everyone on the tour got at least one carpet. This makes the carpet factory happy. It also made Hassan happy, as the factory gives him gift carpets every now and then if his tours buy enough. I think we earned him another carpet. (Especially those people on the tour who bought the beautiful- but very expensive- silk on silk carpets.)

Then we were off to the potter (more crafts that tourists can buy). They wanted someone to throw a pot, and when nobody else moved, I eventually volunteered. My first thrown pot in 20+ years didn’t totally suck, at least.

Afterwards everyone was shopping, and I was wandering around bored. Somehow I found myself arm-wrestling the bored staff of the place. This produced many laughs. I guess I am one tourist they will remember. (And they had to bring out their strong man to beat me!)

That evening was the option of a “Turkish Night”, but only Tam and I elected to go. This made us feel a bit guilty, as the driver had to haul us out and back, time I am sure he would rather have been sleeping or watching TV.

The “Turkish night” took place in a cave hall [as in, carved into/under a hill. -T], with multiple vaults radiating off a central stage. The place was filled with multiple busloads of Italian tourists. Very boisterous Italian tourists.

The Sufi “ceremony” portion of the show was a very different experience. They spun for 15 minutes, but the music was canned, and there was no sense of ecstasy from the dancers. I guess that is the difference between “real” and “tourist grade.” The main dance troupe had 5 men and 5 women. The men also did percussion bits. Through the night and a series of costume changes they danced us around the various folk traditions of Turkey.

The solo dancer was an Azeri woman that Hassan had heard about. Her first set involved spinning, and spinning and spinning. We wondered if she was trained by the Sufi to manage that feat. Later she came out for a set of Oriental, and showed some amazing belly rolls. She was really good, to bad none of the photos really came out. I was glad I knew what I was looking at, so could see the skill she was displaying. And any trip to Turkey that does not involve at least one evening of quality dance is a trip wasted!

[I wish these guys had had a DVD. I'd have gotten a copy for me/us here in NZ, and a copy to send back to the Dancing Ladies in the States. They had a lot of neat moves that would have been *great* to steal. I'm sorry I couldn't get a better photo of the Azeri chick. This particular dance, as Stephen describes, was entirely done at this stately spin. For the first part, she was making patterns with these four painted drums. Then she handed off the drums one by one to an assistant (still spinning) and did stuff with her arms and head and hair. Then she did stuff with the layers of her skirt -- the two main layers were stitched together at the *hem*, and she untied the waistband of the top layer and lifted it over her head, so she became this sort of spinning top. Then she put it the layers back down and... more skirt work. Hard to describe. Her later piece was sort of a standard Orientale in a more tribal-style costume, to a piece of music we'va all danced to, though I can't remember now exactly which one. She was good, though. -T.]

The next morning (the 23rd) we were up very early, a 4:15 wakeup call, and that after a late evening at the “Turkish Night.” But it was worth it, oh yes, for we were going hot-air ballooning!

The flight was fantastic. Spectacular. Wow. Our pilot was fun and funny, and spoke wonderful english. He has ballooned for years (had his Albuquerque belt buckle), though we discovered at the end that this was his fist commercial flight! That probably explains the middle-aged Turkish man on our flight, an inspector/certifier of some kind.

We were the first balloon up, which worked to our advantage (nearly 50 would go up). The early (pre-dawn) wind was good, and carried us in the right direction, right into the red rocks and canyons full of “fairy chimneys.” I am glad we had seen Cappadocia from the ground first, because otherwise it would have been anti-climatic after seeing it from the sky.

Now, my imagination of a balloon flight involved going up a few hundred feet, then drifting along looking at the patchwork landscape beneath. That was not our flight. At first he took us straight up, but as the wind pushed us slowly towards the red rocks, he let us descend. When we got amongst the valleys and hills he began “terrain following”, keeping us only a few meters above ground as the wind carried us up one side of a valley then down the other. The spectacular terrain was not simply below us, it was all around!

We spotted a rabbit and two foxes from the air.

The descent on the far side involved the pilot trying to get us to a fallow field, while radio-talking with the team with van and trailer below, as they drove around trying to rendezvous with us. The goal is a fallow field, as the farmers get cranky when you crush crops. When we were close to the ground two ground crew ran up and grabbed the hanging ropes. With careful use of heat and venting, and pulling by the crew, he didn’t just land in the fallow field, no he landed the basket right onto the back of the trailer. Very skillful, very efficient! (We spotted a few balloons on the way back that were not having such successful landings.)

After breakfast we packed and hit the road. The bus-portion of the tour was starting. More on that in Part 4.

PS- sorry about the lack of photos. The PC with all the downloaded photos decided to have its power-supply fail. Replacement has been ordered, and it should be back up and running soon, and we will get the photos put back up into the posts.