Some would say the essence of traveling is discovering places which are dramatically different to where you live, experiencing cultures and meeting people that are completely different to ones you are used to. By this measure, Turkey is definitely one of the best countries we've been to so far. The moment we landed in Marmaris, the mosques and foods and people and signs and smells all yelled at us: "HI GUYS, YOU'VE JUST LANDED ON THE ASIAN CONTINENT".
We only stayed a few hours in Marmaris (it's actually a pretty filthy resort town, the beach was covered in dusty gravel and rubbish), and hopped on a bus to Pammukale instead, a small inland town famous for the huge travestine pools and the old Roman city of Hierapolis by which it's built. We hadn't booked accommodation in advance, but we must have stood out as a pair of Western tourists walking round with huge bags, as within half an hour we had half the town running round offering us the cheapest deals in town.
The huge expanse of travestine pools in Pammukale (travestine is a kind of limestone). The water is meant to have healing powers, which was the main reason the Romans built a town so close to it. Not so sure about the healing powers, but as long as it's bringing in the tourism dollars, let the tourists think whatever they want. A pretty spectacular place!
We felt like completely different people after rubbing the healing sediments over our skin.
Too far, Felix.
Hierapolis is one of those Roman cities that takes a bit of imagination to picture what it was like...
If Pammukale seemed like a bit of an unusual place, Cappadocia was completely insane. We stayed in Goreme, a little town that survives on tourism, bang in the middle of Cappadocia in central Turkey. Cappadocia is famous for the crazy rock formations that exist throughout the region, and the many churches and dwellings that were carved into the rocks hundreds (sometimes thousands) of years ago. It's a pity none of the cave dwellers still used the rock caves and 'fairy chimneys' as permanent habitations, they seem like pretty awesome places to live. Unique, if nothing else.
Goreme. Some of the rock dwellings are still used as hotels, but they're pretty expensive, and we felt the novelty of sleeping in a cave would wear off pretty quickly.
A nunnery at the Goreme Open Air Museum, made for very small, nimble nuns.
The most mind boggling thing was the sheer amount of weird rock formations all over the place. We got lost amongst them for hours, meeting the odd Turkish family along the way. Seriously, is this even planet Earth??
Inspired by the stunning scenery, Felix insisted on this mildly racist outfit for his modelling shoot.
The Cappadocia Hot Air Balloons, every morning at sunrise. We had nowhere near enough money left in the budget for a ride, but we felt like we got a way better deal watching from the ground anyway. It cost us zero dollars!!!
The cheapest way to get around in Cappadocia: split a car between 5. Less than $15 per person for the day, including gas! It ran on LPG, so essentially we were driving round in a glorified barbeque.
Street cred was through the roof.
We stumbled across the local hangout spot, at the geothermal Lake Nar. Anyone playing 'spot the foreigners' at this lake on this day wouldn't have found it too difficult.
The Cappadocians weren't satisfied with just building houses in funny shaped rocks, they went and built whole cities underground, too. This one is Kaymakli underground city. It was actually pretty impressive - it extends 8 storeys underground, has heaps of really narrow and steep 'streets', kitchens, churches, wineries and even stables. It also had some 'extra for expert' sections, where they didn't have any lights on.
Being underground does weird things to people...
To top it off, Turkey's even got a few canyons. You da bomb, Turkey.
Next time: The big beautiful 'bul.
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