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