Turkiye Day 7 - Cappadocia Green Tour Part III

Assalamualaikum. Marhaba.

Previous post (here).

Moving from Ihlara Valley to Derinkuyu Underground City; somewhere not too far from the valley. On the way to Derinkuyu, I can see the sunlight no more. Rasa sejuk mula mengigit kulit. Unpredictable Turkiye weather.

Before entering; our guide gave us a bit of an introduction about this underground city. Lastly he asked if any of us have claustrophobia or anything related to being fear when being in an enclosed space. Masa ni lah aku contemplating whether mau teruskan niat untuk masuk or just stay di luar & cuci mata tengok deretan kedai (nan sedikit & very very uninteresting). Before I could decide, Umar took our silence as a "No, no one in this group suffer such fear." 

Maka masuklah kami secara berjemaah. Because the entrance was a bit narrow, semua pun masuk dengan tatatertib. Ikut turn gitu.

10 April 2015

Derinkuyu Underground City

"This underground city is an ancient multi-level underground city in Nevsehir, Turkey. Having depth to approximately 200 feet, it is large enough to sheltered as many as 20,000 (!!) people together with their livestock & food stores. It is the largest excavated underground city in Turkey." -wiki-

# The entrance.

# Passage in the Underground City.

The city contained not only livestock & food stores; but also stores, kitchen, stalls (yes, they did trading down there), wine & oil presses, ventilation shaft, well & religious school. It has at least Eight Levels.

# U have to crawl to get through that passage. And I opted to walked upon the 'mini-bridge' above it.

There's a narrow vertical staircase between the Third & Fourth Level in which lead to the cruciform church.

# Tarik nafas paling dalam; if I'm not mistaken this is the staircase that lead to the church.

# Overcoming my fear in an enclosed room. Walhal nafas adalah turun naik; hidung kembang kuncup. Nasib ndak pengsan.

# A 55m ventilation shafts; have been used as a well. If the outside world is not accessible, this shaft is used to provide water to those hiding underground.

# The church which is located at the lowest accessible level in the city (Fifth Level). 

# The church no longer has its original cruciform architecture.

# See that two small holes on the right side? It was said those were once used to tie the livestock.

# Oh yeah, like I said earlier. They had serious jual beli business down here back in the days.

# Yang menseriaukan.

# To the graveyard room. And I was able to reached this far only. Sekian.

We finished touring the underground city in less than 2 hours. Pastu masa untuk another destination. The last one in our itinerary. 

On the way, snowfall lagi sekali. Nasiblah masa ni badan sudah dapat adjust & adapt with the sudden temperature changes. Else, jadi beku lah lagi aku. Sebab kejadian ni lah nama Elsa terus melekat kemas di dahi aku. 

# Seputih salju. Yet another white journey back to Goreme.

Pigeon Valley

# Sumpah lawa! Terus rasa macam mau cari dward di dalam sana. Tiba-tiba!

# Macam mimpi. Masih ndak percaya aku pernah beridiri di depan benda ni semua. 

# Saujana mata memandang.

Di bawah pokok tulah where I met few rakyat-negara-sendiri tengah layan aksi gegar pokok tunggu salji jatuh & pose. Nampak aku, semua menjeling muka masam. Maka haruslah si Err pun malas layan lantas atur langkah pi tempat lain. Ada ku kesah? Hello, the two minah with me were Koreans tau! Lagi kerlas layan orang kampong I tau.

We stopped the most sekejap at this place. A 'fleeting stop' I must say. Adalah dalam 15 minit keluar dari van before we were called to get in sebab masa untuk gerak to our final destination. And I thought the pigeon valley would be the last one kan. 

Turned out; kitorang melawat kilang *ok my bad I forgot what factory it was*. Ada demo how the thing was done, then melawat tempat pameran yadda yadda. Next thing u know, of courselah sesi racun minda untuk beli produk diorang. Luckily tiada aksi paksa-memaksa. Most of my tour members opted to lepak outside the shopping area. Ada few members from our group & other groups yang gigih tanya itu ini. Thank God we didn't spend much time there. 

From the factory, we were sent back to our respective hotels. I picked up my bags at the reception room, lepas tu singgah washroom to take my shower. Although my system failed to produce even an oz of sweat the whole day, still I felt stuffy thus the need to shower. Perlu badan segar bugar & baju sewangi alam supaya boleh naik bas & tidur dengan aman. It's going to be a long night in the bus. 10 hours plus journey to Istanbul. Bertabah! 

Dari hotel, aku walkertapaki jak pi bus station. Relakan hari berwalkertapaki sebab jalan menurun bukit. Kalau menaik, memang awal lagi aku panggil teksi.

# Dinner cum supper. 

Sempat isi perut before naik bas. Alhamdulillah bus arrived & departed on time. Macam biasa, once the bus moved the attendant will started pushing the cart full with snacks & hot drinks. Aku sempat kidnapped few snacks before I called the night off. Considering aku baru lepas melantak, any drink is a big no-no. Nanti ndak pasal-pasal mau terkucil tengah jalan. Buatnya RNR jauh lagi, ndak kah jadi aksi spiderman dalam bas kan.

Seating arrangement kali ni 2-2. So aku tiada choice untuk ambik single seat. And ditakdirkan kali ni bas adalah full. Tinggal harapan untuk dapat vacant seat sebelah. Nasib minah sebelah aku adalah super behave. Kami bekerjasama tidur dalam 'zon' masing-masing. 

Esok pagi buka mata sudah sampai Istanbul. The whole journey tidur mati. Eh adalah sekali terjaga sebab bas stopped untuk ambil penumpang tapi ndak tau negeri mana. Paling bangga, aku ndak sedar bas singgah RNR. Jadinya tiadalah si Err singgah toilet sepanjang malam. Achievement yang boleh dibanggakan. 

So what's next? Misi untuk tawaf Istanbul before my flight back to Malaysia later that evening. Hoyeah! Sikit masa lagi akan habislah entry Turkiye ni. Insha Allah. Hwaiting!

Till then, annyeong!

eryantierdabdulkarim

Turkiye Day 7 - Cappadocia Green Tour Part II

Assalamualaikum. Marhaba.

Previous post (here).

As said earlier, lunch was part of the tour cost. But drink is excluded. We made our lunch order while in the bus on the way to the restaurant. Took us nearly an hour to reach the Star Restaurant somewhere near the Ihlara Valley from Selime Monastery. Never mind part jalan jauh for we had a good 'rest' before the lunch. Cuaca sejuk haruslah mengundang rasa ngantuk. So tidur adalah rahmat.

10 April 2015

Star Restaurant, Aksaray

# Bread is FOC when u're in Turkey. We were served this before our meal arrived.

Masa ni baru berkenal sama dua Koreans. Both speak very very fluent English & Italian. Both studies in Rome. Ok ni memang golongan ado-ado. Tapi yang buat si Err excited haruslah upon knowing they're from Korea. Orang kampong! Annyeong. Sudah dapat geng, teruslah makan bersama semeja sehati sejiwa senada. 

# My lunch. If I'm not mistaken this was neither fish nor chicken. I chose vege + rice. 

Ihlara Valley

After lunch, we headed straight to Ihlara Valley for our 3km hiking walk activity. I was already half freezing at this moment. But immediately felt relieved once I saw the green view of the valley. Which only meant one thing to me; no snow here. Bolehlah hiking dengan tenang tanpa gigil. 

"Ihlara Village was formed by the Melendiz River thousand of years ago. It is believed this valley housed more than 4,000 dwellings & a hundred cave churches decorated with frescoes. Around 80,000 people once live in this village."

# Green green grass; walau pokok nan-mati.

# Attention seeker. Pun sibuk join kami kena briefing before starting our hiking walk. 

We entered the village via the 2nd entrance; and had to go down nearly 300 steps to reach the village from the entrance. And silently I prayed to still be able to climb those stairs when we're done hiking later.

# Snowfall stopped torturing me because these came to 'rescue'?

The guide brought us to few cave churches in this village. The churches here are reminiscent of the early churches of Syria & Coptic churches of Egypt. I didn't take much pictures inside the churches for I opted to listen the explanation from our guide. Malangnya, berdengung. Nan hado yang aku dengar.

# Church under the Tree; different from the other churches of the Byzantine world because the decorations & paintings all betraying the strong eastern influence.

# We walked following the Melendiz River while climbing rocks & trees at certain points.

Had a 5 minutes rest at a small shop in the village. Sepanjang hiking, it's either trees of river that we encountered. And suddenly a shop appeared. Magic gitu. Sini bolehlah singgah tumpang washroom. Or beli souvenirs. Or mencekik lagi beli light snacks. But because we just had our lunch prior coming, I didn't buy anything here. 

# Small shop; located just where the river expand.

# Bunch of chairs & tables are setup here. Sesuai untuk yang mau singgah isi perut di sini.

# Pokok kering mostly nya. Ingatkan spring semua akan hijau memekar.

# Ancient domestic dwellings opened from the valley walls.

# Thousand of pigeon holes.

Tengah sibuk admire all those pigeon holes, suddenly I saw a gate in front of us. Pastu banyak tour buses & also tour vans parked. Barulah sedar that we have reach the end of our tour. And I later found out this place is also the 3rd entrance to this village; called Belisirma Village. 

Jarak hiking walk adalah 3km; and I did it in an hour. Bolehlah bikin keluar peluh & panaskan badan. Terus ndak jadi demam si Err. Alhamdulillah. 

So where's next? Haruslah tempat yang aku rasa 50-50 mau join or ndak. Mencabar kecekalan minda. Part keluar masuk; turun naik bukit or gua boleh tolerate lagi; tapi part masuk underground ni aku seriau extra. Nantilah aku continue entry. 

Till then; annyeong!

eryantierdabdulkarim