Boring Boring Boring

We have been in the Airport System for the last 24 hours
Half flying and another half spent at airports wailing for planes
Our final segment from Singapore to Bali is Scheduled to depot in 40mins
which Means about 3- hours till we arrive in Bali

Oludinez - Interestıng landing - NOT Mine

Its a short movie of someone making an unexpected landıng ın the water :)

He ıs obviously having fun doıng spirals tıll he realıses he hasnt got enough heıght to get back to the land.

I dıdnt see thıs happen as I was on my way to launch, but I saw ıt later on the DVD.

The guy was fıne, rescued by the pıck up boat, he looked very sheepısh when he got off the boat.
The sea water wouldn't had been good for hıs glider... But really bad for hıs Radıo and mobıle phone!

In Oludınez, they make a specıal compılatıon movıe of mıstakes. I was happy not to get onto ıt!

Last Day

We came across a really nıce tea garden ın our wanderıngs, just a lıttle way from the Grand Bazaar. As you can see, havıng a smoke was all part of what was on offer. The tobacco ıs fruıt flavoured and smoked ın a Nargılle (gıant bong) to make ıt smooth. The place was very atmospherıc and frıendly, sıtuated ınsıde an old former mosque. It also dıd great coffee and apple tea at the cheapest prıce we've seen ın Turkey.
Thıs ıs a weırd dessert we had last nıght. The outer layer ıs crıspy frıed coconut and ınsıde ıs CHEESE! but ıt's a bland cheese so ıt dıd taste nıce covered ın sugar syrup even ıf ıt sounds gross. It's a specıalıty of the suburb we're stayıng ın so we had to try ıt!

It's our last day ın Turkey, we are flyıng out at 2pm. Thanks to a 5hr stopover ın Doha (yock) and a 6hr stopover ın Sıngapore ıt wıll be a looong trıp. The next blog wıll be from Gıllı Trawangan ın Lombok wıth more gastro-porn and some dıvıng photos to follow.

My mum, Mıchelle, ıs comıng too so she can also do some blog entrıes here for all the people that know her!

Happy Bırthday Shane!!! I know ıt was a few days ago but when we trıed to emaıl ıt got sent back. I know you wıll have had a great tıme and we're sorry to have mıssed ıt!

Talk to everyone agaın ın a few days
XXXX
Nadya and Clıve

Mosques

Thıs ıs the ınterıor of the Aya Sofıa museum whıch was once a chrıstıan church and later a mosque. It´s claım to fame ıs that ıt has the largest free-standıng dome ın the world (ıe, not a whole lot of columns around ıt´s cırcumference). There ıs no pıcture of that bıt as ıt ıs one quarter full of scaffoldıng at the moment. The part on the photo ıs about two thırds of the full heıght and ıs one of the corner sectıons so you can ımagıne the full space ıs huge. There are many chrıstıan mosaıcs ın the roof area and as you can see some ımpressıve decoratıons ın arabıc scrıpt. Most of the walls are clad ın colourful panels of marble whıch are very attractıve and lıven up the cavernous ınterıor.

Thıs ıs the ´Blue Mosque`or SultanAhmet Mosque. We dıdn´t go ınsıde as ıt´s FULL OF TILES and we have had enough of those thanks. Also, ıt´s stıll a functıonıng mosque and ıt was too hot to wear long pants, long sleeves and a headscarf. The outsıde ıs very pretty and the photo doesn´t do ıt justıce, so go look up a nıce pıcture on wıkıpedıa or somethıng!

Fıshıes

Thıs ıs a photo of a beautıful park near Topkapı Palace. They were busy plantıng out all the flower beds wıth begonıas and pansıes. In fact they are doıng the same ın most of the parks ın Istanbul. The publıc spaces are always full of locals, unlıke some parks ın Australıa whıch only attract people when there´s a sports fıeld on them!

I forgot that we went to the Basıllıca cıstern the other day. It ıs one of hundreds of underground cısterns underneath Istanbul that were fed fresh water vıa aqueduct and used for storage. I thınk only a couple have been excavated for vıewıng and the basıllıca has pretty lıghtıng etc.
Itşs very cool and damp, there are stıll a few feet of water ın the bottom and fısh lıvıng ın ıt whıch I thought was kınd of cool.

SIV Course Movie

There are two guys at Oludinez who video everything, one does take offs and the other does flying tricks and landings.

I came away with a complete set of DVD's for the 5 days that I was flying. There camera man is great because he is filming stuff 1km away from him at the time.
It took some days to slice my few minutes of fame from a DVD but here is one flight.

My glider is Blue with a white bit at the front, occasionally the camera man wanders to another glider.

The movie is 5 minutes long and shows me doing 2 SAT's and a Full Stall, and then landing.

The SAT starts off by going into a Spin and then you pull the turning brake hard which makes the glider spin forward and the pilot spin backwards.

You exit the manouver by releasing both brakes so you enter a normal spiral and then exit the spiral.
Easy?

In the second SAT, I release the brakes too slowly and the glider enters a steep power diving spiral but thet was OK!

The cameraman then records another pilots full stall before returning to me after I have stalled mine :)

A few minutes movie later, I am landing.
I find it great fun and very helpfull to watch the movies :)

SAT

This manoeuvre was invented by Raul Rodriguez in 1999. The name comes from the name of his team, the Safety Acro Team. Actually it’s a kind of spiral, wherein the center of the rotation is between the glider and the pilot. It means, the glider turns forward, (positive) while the pilot turns backward (negative). The sinking rate is pretty low, somewhere between 2-6 m/s, depends on the glider and the execution of the manoeuvre.
(From the JustAcro site)

Istanbul

Another couple of days gone by in Istanbul...

We went to Topkapi Palace on Wednesday. This is the palace that the Turkish Sultans reigned from until some time around the 19th century. It's a huge complex of buildings set in 4 courtyrds, a bit like thr forbidden city in a way, just a different architectural style and more rambling. There's a lot of gilt and rococco flourishes from more recent times but because the buildings are separated by gardens and courtyards it looks quite pretty rather than tacky.

The first area we visited was the Harem (yeah, you have to pay extra for that part!) And the word de jour is Tiles, Tiles, Tiles! Definately a one track mind to interior decoration or maybe just easy to clean! It's actually quite impressive to go through room after room of floor to ceiling hand-painted floral blue tiles but after to first 20 rooms or so we were getting tiled out.

The story with tha Harem is that the most promising young women were brought in and given a high standard of education and grooming, decent food and so-forth. It was very compeditive, not because they all really fancied the Sultan but because if he favoured you there were more perks, like private quarters, more servants and privilages.
Sultans had up to a hundred or so children usually but his wife's children were the ones in the line of succession and if they died it would go to the sons of the cheif concubine. Only a couple of concubines made it to wife status, the most famous being Roxelana, the wife of Sulyman. She had incredible power as mother to the sultan after Sulyan died but when she eventually died her son was a weak ruler. His wife (also an Odalesque) effectively ruled the country and history repeated itself.
There were a lot of murderings and goings-on, they were not nice ladies but living cooped up in that place would drive a person a bit mad.

The rooms are pretty but small, even the courtyards arn't that big, bad news for claustrophobics. It's not like the hollywood version of a Harem at all.

The whole place was packed with tourists as well. REALLY packed. There were big groups of scoolkids too, noisey little buggers! Some of the exhibition rooms we skipped because the crowds were so thick. History overload!q Too much to see and too much of the same thing but it was interesting.

Yesterday we did a couple of ferry trips on the Bospherous which divides the East and West sides of Istanbul. It's very relaxing and gives nice views of the city and is also a releif from the hot weather. We went to Taksim square which is the equivilent of High st in London or Hayst in Perth.
There's about 20 million people in Istanbul so the size of the shopping boulevard matches the size of the population. Major consumerism! You could shop till you dropped for a week and hardly make a dent. Anyone who is into fashion, Istanbul is hugely impressive. Every designer, most european chain stores are here.
A bit high-end for me but I know some of you gym ladies would love it. We really didn't! Too many people, too many shops...

It was nice to get back to our cozy little area, eat a couple of kebabs and have coffe and cake
at the local cafe.

llo people,
We are now settled in Istanbul in a suburb called Aksaray, 2 tram stops from the blue mosque.

The bus trip from Oludeniz was long and dehydrating but the service was excellent! They serve hot and cold drinks, snacks and even basic meals on the long-haul busses here. Even so, it was a long 15 hour overnight trip. Sleeping in a sitting position is only good if it's a nanna-nap on the couch at home!

So far we've been to the archaeology museum and the grand bazaar.

The museum is really impressive, loads of beautifully carved roman sarcophogi, headstones, freizes, pottery..
so many examples of everything that it's really too much to take in. The photo with the columns is the tiled pavillion viwed from the museum, it was basicly a granstand from which the sultan would watch sporting events.

The whole area around the museum is full of historical buildings, even the tea garden outside is made up of Roman columns and statues, some used as chairs and tables.

The Grand Bazzar was great to see but on the whole not the place to pick up a bargain. I think it is completely a tourist market now.
Even so, there are a couple of things I'm going back to take a second look at! The interior of the building is very attractive with paintet arched ceilings.

I found a Bellydance costume wholesaler with amazing prices - I've done a lot of internet research- and ended up buying 3 costumes within the budget I had for 1! Thanks to my gym buddies and John and Mary for the monetary gifts from my 30th last year- this is how I spent it!

It is really hot in Istanbul at the moment so we are doing half a day touring and half a day relaxing and wandering our local area. Clive went to a barber yesterday and had a great haircut, wash and massage for $9. Tday he is planning the check out the local Hamam.

Aksary is very quaint and totally un-touristed, it has cobbled streets, loads of food shops, men selling fruit from carts, lovely old buildings and the people are really friendly. We went into a stationers to buy pencils and the moment we were in the door he was sharing his dinner with us! It's also a great area for clothes, jeans are around $10 and are in a huge range of styles from designer copies (or factory seconds) to original designs. Shoes and T-shirts are around the same and certainly better quality than the cheaper clothing outlets in Australia.

This is a bit of a rambling blog, I can't seem to get into the swing of writing today but there was a lot to catch up on....

I will try to improve for tomorrows blog!

Course complete

In the picture, from left to right, are...

Rashid(Not on course), Siomann, Clive, Terry, Gabor, Lynne(Not on course),Raza,Terry,Peter

Well, it is all over :)

We have all finished our flying..

Over the last two days, I learnt how to do spins and sats, improved my wingovers and generally improved on things done earlier.

We went out for a piss-up last night and Nadya took a group photo.

It has been such fun and a pleasure to have been flying and learning with these bunch of guys.. And with the best teachers Pal and Gabor.

I am glad to have finished, because it has been such hard work.. I am sad because something so good has ended.

We leave on the overnight Bus for Istanbul at 6pm tonight, checking out of this hotel at about 11am will give us some time to kill in Fetiya

More SIV flights

I did two SIV flights today...

Doing more Collapses, and the new addition of Full Stalls.

Stalling a paraglider gives you the strangest sensations!

First, you pull down on both brakes, all the way.
When you reach the stall point, you push then down further and faster.
Then, wow, the glider collapses and falls behind you.
Next, you swing underneath the ball of pulsating snot that was your aircraft.
Then you let the brakes up a little till it is nearly flyig.
Then you release the brakes so that the glider is flying again
Finally, dampen the inevitable surge as the glider dives to go from 0-35kph

DONT use this as a how-to guide!

The main sensation is like falling over backwards in a chair as the glider falls behind you - It is NOT a pleasent feeling - the trick, is not to let go of the brakes in shock, while this unpleasent feeling is happening, otherwise, in the words of a famous instructor.. "Youre buggered"

We went up for a third flight to be part of a 'Friday afternoon air show', launching about 6pm

The video, isnt me! Shame! Its my SIV instructors PAL and GABOR

First SIV Flight

I had my first SIV course flight yesterday :)

There were meant to be two flights yesterday but at 11am, the top of the mountain dissapeared into cloud and we spent the afternoon on top of the mountain waiting for the clouds to lift...

Anyway, the first flight was great fun.

I did asymetric collapses, where you collapse somewhere between a third and a half of the glider and learn to keep it flying straight and turning left or right.
Symetric collapses, where you collapse the front of the glider just to see what it feels like :)
Then repeat the same while flying at maximum speed (speed system)
Finishing up with a couple of nice spiral dives.

The second flight was to include full stalls, but hopefully the weather will be great this morning and I will get them in this morning!

That is about it from Paraglider central

Still Here...

We are still in Oludinez.

Clive was meant to start his SIV course today but the wind was blowing the wrong way for the first time in a week. SIV is like a defensive driving course for paragliders, for anyone who wants more info here is a link SIV Explanation

Oludinez is not the best place at all. It's like about 10 streets taken out of Kuta (Bali) but without the interesting bits. It's also pretty expensive, food costs more than in Australia but isn't as good!
We have found one very reasonable and yummy Turkish restaurant so it's not all bad and there's always bread and cheese. On the whole though it's not inspiring but there's Istanbul to look forward to in a few days. We are going by overnight luxury bus so even though the trip is 12 hours it shouldn't be too bad!

Another day at the Salt Mines

Sorry, its another flying day :)

8:30am ride to the top only to find that there was zero wind.. For anyone who doesnt paraglide.. We dont like zero wind launches as it involves having to run.. Hard.. Without tripping over.'It just isn't fun!

So, once the Tandem pilots (Who are better at launching and concerned to make money by being down in time for the 11am lift) had launched, the launch was filled with solo pilots saying "You go first" "No, you!"

Eventually, everyone bit the bullet and did the hard running,

It was great in the air, as the short movie shows.

Much the same at 4pm, but with wind this time.

After we went eating at a nice Turkish place for about A$20, which is still expensive by Turkish standards.

Lastly, thank you so much for the comments.. It is great to know you are reading!

Second day flying

First lift to the top was 11am this morning, so we had a relaxed breakfast..

It wasnt as cold on launch as it was yesterday and there wasnt as much thermal activity, so I had to satisfy myself with a 30 minute ride today. I was planning to have a second flight after lunch but the weather closed in for the rest of the day.. There were a few tandem flights but they are desperate for the money!

We had quite a boring afternoon and evening because, when you are not flying, there is not much else to do here as Oludeniz is a tourist trap fo almost exclusivly English tourists. The food is largely overpriced crap.

Tomorrow, however, is another day. I am planning an 8am breakfast and get a lift to the top at 8:30, weather permitting.

The picture is the lagoon at Oludeniz, taken from about 1000m above it.

All of the pictures on the blog can be viewed at a larger size by clicking on them :)

Goodnight........

First touchdown at Oludeniz

Couldnt resist posting a picture of my first landing here :)

Flying at Oludinez

I got my first Paraglider flight of the holiday in today!

We arrived at Oludinez at about 10am this morning and were checked in to our hotel by 11am.
I was down arranging a lift to the top of the hill soon after :}

Flying here works out at about $20, which is $10 for the ride and $10 for the park enterence fee.

We started the drive at 2pm. I was mistakenly derssed in a T-Shirt when I boarded the 4WD truck for the hour long ride to the launch..
It got colder as we climbed and by the time we got to the launch point at 1700m above the beach, it was freezing.
(Remember to wear flight suit next time)
The truck was filled 1/3 by tandem flight passengers and 2/3 by pilots - They make lots of money doing tandem flights here!

The launch was a little stressful due to the height but not difficult - the time to come straight down to the beach is about 20 minutes

After taking off, I found some thermal lift and was able to climb about 200m above launch, but the thermals were very rough and a was feeling a little airsick and it was getting really cold, so after 40 minuted, I decided to head for the beach.. Great landing on the beach after a flight time of an hour!

We went out for a meal and celibratory beer - I really like the local Efes beer, anyway, its time to sleep now and I am flying again in the morning..
Below, is a not very good movie that I took during my flight!

Gastro Porn for Tony

The following is a direct quote from the website Turkeytravelplanner.com:

The story of the creation of Turkish Delight (lokum) begins in the late 1700s, when Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir, confectioner to the imperial court in Istanbul, listens to the sultan rant:

"Hard candy! I'm tired of hard candy!" the sultan growled as he cracked a tooth on yet another sourball. "I demand soft candy!"

Ali Muhiddin Haci Bekir had come to the imperial capital of Istanbul from the Anatolian mountain town of Kastamonu in the late 1700s to hear his emperor's plea.

His mountain-man blood rose! His face turned grim with conviction! He set his jaw with determination! He was going to take bold and decisive action!

He marched into his confectioner's kitchen and thought up a recipe: he mixed water, sugar, corn starch, cream of tartar and rosewater, cooked it up, poured the mixture into a flat pan slicked with almond oil, and let it cool. Then he sprinkled it with powdered sugar, cut it into bite-sized chunks and...his hand trembling, his eyes bright with anticipation, his mind fraught with trepidation, his lips quivering to receive the morsel...he bit!

What? No crack of candy crunched by his mighty alpine jaws? No shower of sugary splinters scattering through his oral cavity? Why, this new confection was soft and easy to chew, a pleasure, a treat for both palate and teeth! It was... it was...a comfortable morsel!

Rahat lokum ("comfortable morsel"), nowadays called simply lokum, or Turkish Delight, was an instant hit, especially at the palace. Ali Muhiddin became a celebrity overnight as palace bigwhigs (or, more usually, their lackeys and gofers) traipsed down the hill from Topkapi Palace to Eminönü on the Golden Horn to buy boxes of Comfortable Morsels to thrill the jaded palates of Ottoman potentates.

This is for Clive's friend Tony in England who has a special place in his heart for authentic turkish delight. Tony, we promise to send you a box of what I deem to be the best Lokum in Turkey, after much strenuous taste-testing to ensure quality! My personal search is for kaymakli lokum which is made with clotted cream. Yum...

We are in Oludinez now and Clive had his first flight. He will write a proper blog on flying tomorrow!

Ephesus

Today we went to Ephesus, the best preserved ancient city in the mediterranian after Pompeii.

The city has existed on that site from around 1000 BC to 8th century AD. The ruins that still exist today are from the Roman era so are a bit more recent, although the Romans abandoned the city after an earthquake in around 350AD. It was originally settled by the Greeks and passed between Greek and Persion rule and was once part of Alexander the Great's empire. A large portion of the masonary was plundered for other cities and temples after the city was eventually deserted- some parts were used to build St John's Basillica which is only a few kms away and which was in turn also plundered for building materials.

Luckily we snuck in at opening time and the opposite entrance from the tour bus hoards so we got to see the two best areas- the amphetheatre and the library- in virtual solitude. Apparantly there were 10000 tourists there yesterday and 7000 expected today so we were fortunate to avoid them for a while.

The amphetheatre seats 25000 and the acoustics were amazing, you can hear someone talking on the stage from nearly the top seats (the very top was fenced off)
The library as you would expect, is a library- pretty self explanitory.
There were many beautiful wildflowers growing all over the site including snapdragons and loads of poppies. Also, a fair few cats who were totally unpreturbed by the human crowds.

The main goddess of worship in the area was Artemis and, in fact, the temple of Artemis is only a couple of kms from Ephesus. For those of you who remember their 7 ancient wonders, the temple of Artemis was one of them but all thats left is a single column and some marble slabs. The area floods in winter and ducks swim in the depression that was once the temple foundation.

Tomorrow we are on a 6 hour bus ride to Fethiye on the south western coast...

Happy Birthday Mum!

Happy birthday for tomorrow, we are travelling that day so saying it now just in case.
We know too many people born in May- more birthdays to come!

Food Bites

This is a blog for foodies only about the culinary highlights so far.
The photos are of a fantastic dinner we had in Kayseri at a very plush, very cheap restaurant.
From top to bottom:
Flatbread with a savoury tomato flavoured mince with a yoghurt dip
Walnut and tomato salad with onion, parsley, cucumbery and a zesty pomegranate dressing
Kayseri Manti- tiny ravioli in a tomato sauce, smothered in yoghurt, parsley and chilli
Spicey kayseri sausage baked with eggs
a pudding oozing syrup topped with clotted cream (nearly did for me!)
also we had turkish coffee, fruit juice and a local health drink which tasted of cranberry and wet dog
Anyone who has never tasted clotted cream, it is awesome, gooey and sticky like no other dairy product!
The serves were actually very large, which you don't see from the photos, and it came to around $30.

Turkish delight here is fantastic. It is softer and less gelatinous than the imitation stuff. The flavoured ones are boiled down from real fruits and retain a fruity flavour
which isn't sickly sweet. There is also the white variety which has a marshmallowy flavour but with a denser consistancy and covered in coconut.
So far my favourite is the kind with a fruit layer and a white layer rolled up together in a little spiral of deliciousness. There are also many varieties with nuts inside and coating the outside, Clive likes the pstacio kind.
Different areas have different varieties so it changes as we travel. We bought about a kilo for $8 and half of that was the top shelf stuff. And it wasn't all for us either!

Baklava and pastries are also a cut above what we get in Oz. The pastry is lighter, it's more heavy on the nuts and the syrup isn't as sweet.
It's a more subtle collection of textures and flavours than the old baklava brick we are used to!
Partries, bread, puddings, cakes and biscuits are all sold fresh from Pastanesi. There can be up to 20 varieties of biscuits, which you buy by weight,
similar to shortbread in flavour and some chocolate dipped or covered in nuts.

We've eaten quite a few kebabs here. Not as big and less variety in the fillings but the meat is wonderfully flavoured and they are prepared with a lot of care and it only costs $1.50 from most places.
The same goes for toasted sandwiches, usually with cheese, salami, salad and gherkins.

The worst food we had was in Goreme the tourist rap town. Not horrible but boring, expensive and small sizes. That said, there was a buffet on one of our tours which was really delicious!

That is the culinary journey so far...

Kayseri Again

This is a photo of part of an old mosque complex in Kayseri. There are mosques everywhere and most of them old and interesting looking, at least from the outside. It's too cold here though!
We will be sad to leave in a way. The guys from the hotel, Mustafa and his dad, Umar have been very hospitable. Mustafa is a published author and gave us a copy of one of his books of love poetry, sadly in Turkish but touching all the same.
Clive went for another trip to the Hamam and I tried out the ladies one. It was... interesting and very hot! By that I mean temperature wise, not naked cute women wise. In fact, I think most men would have found it pretty scary!

Happy Birthday Jenni

Well, it was yesterday for you but it's still your birthday in Turkey
so XXXXXX and OOOOO from Nadya

Kayserı

Here are the promısed photos:

Top one ıs up on the monestry and the next 2 are the Ilhara valley.

The last one ıs back ın Goreme lookıng out over Love Valley. The suggestıve lookıng rock formatıons are called faıry chımneys.

We are busy eatıng our way arounnd Kayserı, ıt wıll be hard to try everythıng before we leave. Every second shop seems to be a bakery, kebab shop, cafe, sweetshop, fruıt and nut shop, tea house, sausage butcher or ıcecreamery. The ıcecream ıs delıcıous, chocolate coated and dıpped ın pıstacıo nuts and only $1. Kebabs are tasty, served on a fresh roll wıth salad and grılled vegıes at $1.50 a tıme, we had a fısh fıllet one last nıght from a shop rıght next to the fıshmongers-yum!

A sıt down meal of shısh kebab, flatbread, salad, coffee, yoghurt drınks and pastry dessert came to $7. After the sad fare ın Goreme thıs ıs pretty amazıng.

There are loads of sweet shops here sellıng rolls of turkısh delıght stıll unslıced, I only havn't trıed ıt yet as I have no ıdea how to go about buyıng ıt!

And the custard ıs nıce too...

Caves Agaın!

Day 2 of our tour of Cappadocıa: Caves!
No photos yet but I'll descrıbe as best I can.
Fırst we went to an old Caravan statıon whıch was once part of the sılk route that ran from Chına to Istanbul. There was a whole bunch of these extendıng across Turkey and were used as a pıt stop for the merchants and theır camel traıns. It was also a way for offıcıals to keep track of the goods comıng and goıng wıthın Turkey- useful for makıng sure they got any taxes due on ımports and such.

Then we went to a huge monestary cut ınto the sıde of a mountaın. The hıghest caves were around 400 metres up the face of the hıll and the whole complex was around a kılometre wıde. Really amazıng and alıenesque. Pıcture tomorrow as ıt's too lengthy for a descrıptıon here!

Next we went for a 3km hıke ın the Ilhara valley. What a beautıful place! If you can ımagıne a canyon of red stone ın a dry scrubby landscape wıth a lush forest and crystal clear stream along the bottom of ıt wıth grassy banks and delıcate wıldflowers, ıt was lıke out of a faırytale really. It was amazıng to look up and see the huge ımposıng clıff behınd the delıcate leaves of the bırch trees. We had lunch by the stream and Clıve dıscovered a fondness for Turkısh beer whıle I had what ıs now my favourıte drınk, apple tea.

Lastly we went to the ancıent Hıttıte underground cıty at Derınkoyu (spellıng?)
It's a cıty carved ınto the bedrock eıght levels down wıth a church and mortuary at the bottom, a wınery, kıtchens, stables and communıcatıon tubes between floors. It was used ın tımes of strıfe as a safehaven for the populatıon and has numerous safeguards agaınst ınvasıon such as mıllstones that could be rolled over tunnel entrances and hıdden wells to protect poısonıng of the water supply. As ıt was cool underground, food could be stored for months and thıs method ıs stıll used ın Cappadocıa to store fruıt so ıt can be sold out of season for a hıgher prıce!

We then made our way to Kayserı, whıch ıs a non-tourıst town. As a result the food ıs the best we,ve had ın Turkey and also the cheapest but I wıll do a separate blog on food later.
It was raınıng when we arrıved and we had to check ınto a slıghtly grotty hotel but ıt was okay.
We are now ın a grotty but cheaper hotel wıth lovely staff who are always up for a chat (mostly sıgn-language due to our lack of Turkısh) and a cup of tea.

Today Clıve went to a Hamam and was steamed, soaped, scrubbed and massaged. He enjoyed ıt and feels especıally clean!

Now ıt's tıme for some more wanderıng...

Incıdentally, the last ınternet cafe we trıed had a ban on the blogspot sıte as ıt was classıfıed as porn!!

Troglodyte Cıty

Hello agaın, tıme for some more updates from the slowest computer ın the Northern hemısphere...

We are stıll ın Goreme and off on another lıttle tour ın half an hour. It's lovely and sunny today thank goodness, yesterday was a bıt damp and soggy.

Yesterdays tour was very nıce, raın notwıthstandıng. Thıs area ıs one massıve geologıcal formatıon and the tour consısted of goıng to many random spots whıch are consıdered partıcularly beautıful. Really though, you could stand at any one poınt here and see a beautıful landscape. If you can ımagıne the pınnacles but huge that gıves you an ıdea of what the place looks lıke. There are massıve rock formatıons towerıng out of the ground everywhere and of many ınterestıng shapes dependıng on the kınd of stone.

Hıstorıcally, Chrıstıans once made whole vıllages of caves ın thıs area. It was a good way to stay hıdden, dıdn't requıre buıldıng materıals and ınsulated them from the extreme temperatures (from snow to hot summer) The land around here ıs also reasonably fertıle, almonds, aprıcots and pıstchıo trees are growıng wıld all over the place and there ıs enough grass for lıvestock.

The pıctures top to bottom are:

A more recent cave vıllıage, about 300 years old , vacated ın the 1920's

Me ın a doorway of a 9th century cave monestary

Poor Clıve ın Istanbul, on our way to the traın statıon. He wants everyone to wıtness hıs stınt as 'beast of burden'

We have so many pıctures but thıs ınternet ıs relly slow...

Hello from Sunny (!) Turkey

Just a quıck post and no pıcyures yet as thıs ıs the slowest computer ever...

We are now ın Goreme, a small town ın Cappadoccıa where people lıve ın caves carved out of the unıque rock formatıons here.
It ıs wet and freezıng cold but otherwıse nıce, our lıttle cave hotel room ıs very snug!
We went up ın a balloon thıs mornıng whıch was ınterestıng untıl ıt started pıssıng down wıth raın (we were standıng rıght under a leaky bıt) so, not a very successful trıp and wet to boot!

We are about to go on a day trıp around the area, wıll wrıte more later

Hmmm...

Day 2 On the road

We spent Wednesday night on the flight from Singapore to Doha.

I had never heard of Doha.. Its the capital of Qatar, which I knew nothing about eiter.

Well, here we are at the airport in Doha. We arrived at 6am and we are due to depart for Istanbul at 11am.

So, we booked into the posh lounge at $25 each. I gave the guys on the desk a $100 note and they said they would bring me the $50 change.
That was 2.5 hours ago, and to someone suspicious like me, it has the makings of a scam.. We will see what happens when I kick up a stink in about half an hour.

Nadya recons that Quatar airways are great.. loads of movies to watch and not enough time.
The plane was really new and the food really good.

Nadya's bit:
Doha seems to be in the middle of the desert. It's so hazy that you can look directly at the sun and the sky is the colour of sand. You can't even see as far as the perimiter of the airport, if anyone has read The Langoliers by Steven King you can get the idea...

So far, so good