Cappadocia: Cool Caves and Rampant Rip-Offs

 

After being stuck in Antalya with really bad food poisoning, we were excited for one of our expected highlights of the trip, a small town called Goreme, in the region more well known as Cappadocia. As Sarah described in the previous blog, she had endured a good deal of hassle in getting us a ticket to Goreme at the end of the Turkish holiday. Well, by the end of the day, we had realized why this bus company had seats available.

 

Our first clue that we were in for something shady should have been that the bus driver and attendants got into several verbal altercations with passengers during the first hour of the ride…this after the bus was nearly 45 minutes late to Antalya. Still, it was comfortable enough, and the service seemed similar to other bus rides we had taken in Turkey. As time went on, though, more arguments broke out, and we started to wonder about the quality of the company. We had read about rip-off scams in these towns, where bus companies sell tickets to the nearby town of Neveshir, then force people to pay for inflated cab rides to Goreme.

 

I knew ahead of time that we would most likely have to pay for the cab because our ticket was for Neveshir, but we felt lucky to be on the bus. However, a couple of Swedish guys on the bus had read a similar warning and made sure that their ticket said “Goreme” on it. They had asked the bus workers several times about this and received vague answers. I know this because we had time to discuss after the bus dropped everyone off at a station before disappearing for a half hour. Little did we know that they had a plan to keep us from creating a scene at the bus station.

 

Finally, after a full day’s drive, we were dumped unceremoniously on the side of the road a couple of miles away from the Neveshir bus station. I guess the bus company figured that if we never got to the Otogar, they wouldn’t have to deal with transferring any of us. A small argument ensued, but they were unloading our bags, and it was clear that we would be left, so I spent the time asking for the nearest dolmus station. After the bus left, we walked to the dolmus station, only to find that they were not running because of the late hour. Finally, the four of us hailed a cab, and we rode into Goreme with the Swedish dudes at a reasonable price…crisis averted.

 

Because the hour was late, however, due to our rescheduled plans and the extra 3 hours eaten by the bus company, our hotel had given our room away. The owner gave us a cup of tea, cleaned out the dungeon, and gave us a crappy room with the promise that he would give us a nicer one in the morning after one came available. This, we would later learn, is how the world of Cappadocia seemed to work; it was a major paradox of amazing surroundings and manipulative people. Those of you who visited Cappadocia 10-15 years ago might remember a majestic place full of caves with a mix of friendly villagers and hippy visitors; well, the place is still majestic, but tourism has definitely ebbed away at the people’s morals.

 

The next morning, we awoke and fought the flies for our breakfast, although neither one of us was eating much more than bread after the pukefest that was Antalya. We asked for our room change, but the owner told us that none of the better rooms would be available unless we wanted to share a bathroom–a direct contradiction to his promise the night before as well as his website‘s description of the rooms. I told him we would rather have a double, and he said that he could do that in our current room; sure enough, several hours later, our two twin beds had been pushed together. Of course, the bathrooms were as skuzzy as before…wonderful.

 

Despite the human issues, Goreme is breathtaking…hundreds of rocky pinnacles, often called fairy towers, spring from the ground, and the majority of them have been carved out in caves, many from ages ago. The town itself is really small, and it is easy to see why it captivates so many people. Our main agenda for the day was the open air museum–a series of ancient churches carved out of the rocky fairy towers outside of town.

 

The churches were outstanding…many of which featured ancient frescoes of the ascension, the crucifixion, and other famous Bible scenes. Several major differences were evident in the scenes…for instance, the people who inhabited these caves believed that there were four magi instead of three. It was remarkable to see the caves themselves, and many of them had been carved complete with multiple small domes. Our favorite place was known as the dark church, and was wall to wall frescoes…a Biblical retelling among the rocks.

 

Even here in the midst of all the churches, however, we saw corruption. While waiting to enter one of the churches, I had read an explanation of the frescoes inside; the paintings featured a picture of a saint with a large chest and long beard because he was the holiest man around; once in the church, we heard a tour guide explaining that it was a picture of a woman who had been vain, and so God punished her by giving her a beard, so that no one would marry her. Again…majestic setting but poor human behavior. Regardless, the museum itself was quite interesting.

 

We decided to hike back to town, taking a scenic route through something called Rose Valley. It was really fun to hike around the old caves and ruins; we followed signs that said that the ancient Rose Valley church was only 1 KM away for about an hour and a half…we got closer and made what seemed to be a lot of progress, but the signs still said 1 KM away. Eventually, after passing through several roadside stands and, strangely, several private gardens, we found the church and spent five minutes in it before hiking back.

 

Lunch was in the tiny nearby town from Goreme; we ate our first real meal since being sick and enjoyed a couple of Cokes. The hike had been fun, but it was really hot out, so the refreshment was nice. At lunch, we were entertained by a group of the most timid looking tiny Asian girls I had ever seen who had rented these huge four-wheelers and were all wearing bandanas…Trung, no matter how much you claim them, I do not believe that any of these people were your relatives–they were Chinese! I will always enjoy memories of the biker gang that I met in a small town in Cappadocia! Get the hogs, girls!

 

Once back in town, our main afternoon entertainment was the Hamam, or Turkish bath. We had to be separated here, but we were both treated to an hour of pampering. Before entering the actual bathing area, I stood looking confused at the towel-type wrap you are given; luckily, a worker came by, and said, “Towel first and underwear too…always the same question!“ First, we were given a mud face mask, then led to a sauna for 15 minutes. This was followed by a pre-bath shower, then we sat on a marble slab. The bather then rinsed us, exfoliated with a course brush (I didn’t know I had so much dead skin) before rinsing by dumping a bucket of water over my head, and then using what looked like a pillowcase full of suds to soap me up. He sort of massaged the soap in, then dumped another huge bucket of water over me to rinse again. Feeling very clean, I sat in a lukewarm spa until several people got in sans towels…I got out very quickly then, took another shower and went into the waiting room for an oil massage. Both Sarah and I left feeling very clean and relaxed…it was a great splurge. After a nice dinner, we returned to our dungeon feeling happy.

 

Tuesday morning, we hopped on the first tour bus that we had taken in our travels with a sense of eagerness. Our time was limited here, and we wanted to see a lot, so we thought that booking this through our hotel was a great solution…the tour promised to cover a lot in a short time. Having gone into this thing with reluctance about tours, we left that afternoon with the same exact reservations–yes, we saw cool things, but the tour itself was a farce!

 

Our first stop was a panoramic viewpoint of Goreme; it was a very pretty spot, and we got a few pictures before checking out the two small gift shops set up at the viewpoint. Little did we know that the shopping would be the focus of this tour we had paid good money to see. I guess our Turkish tourism experience was complete! Back on the bus, I started to notice that our “tour guide” spent a good deal of time staring at his badge, as if he had never seen it before and wondered what it might say.

 

The next stop was something we really wanted to see: an underground city called Derinkuyu (Deep Well). True to its name, the well was dug some 400 M. under the ground. The city was inhabited as late as the 4th century BC and as early as the 7th century BC, and people moved there during times of war, when they could survive for up to 6 months living underground. We learned this from Lonely Planet and by eavesdropping on legitimate tour groups.

 

 

Our tour, on the other hand, went as follows: Enter gate, sprint down the tiny, dark staircase to the bottom of the city where we stood in a small church (the “guide” told us this, said we could take pictures, and then moved on–I noticed that he had been standing directly beside a sign that read, “Small Church–Photographs OK.”–apparently, I was just as capable of giving the tour myself), sprint up a level or two to a living room where he pointed out a toilet hole, sprinted up another staircase to a kitchen (again labeled clearly with signs) where we could take photos, and then sprinted all the way up to the exit. The whole thing was 20 minutes, a far cry from the hour that he had promised. He pointed out that we were welcome to shop for the remaining 40 minutes, but most of us ignored him, jumped the exit turnstyle and went back to explore on our own.

 

Once back down in the city, we discovered lots of really cool stuff–a stable for the livestock they brought down with them; some living areas with beds carved into the walls; and a monastery complete with a large baptismal pit, student dorm, and long stone dining table. Heavy round stones, similar to the style that is said to have blocked the grave of Christ, could be seen at the ends of some of the tunnel. The small inhabitants of Derinkuyu had created a sophisticated underground tunnel city, and it is only one of 35 known of these cities in Cappadocia!

 

 

The next activity was a hike through pristine Ilhuru Valley, at the bottom of an impressive rocky canyon along a beautiful narrow river. Both Sarah and I looked longingly at the lovely crack systems in the rocks; it would be a fun place to climb. People once lived in cave houses in these rocks as well, and the hike is known for its frescoed cave churches. We were supposed to see two or three, but we only saw one, with another crap explanation from our “guide”; we passed two more churches but did not enter either. I confronted the “guide,” and he tried to say that we couldn’t see the second church because it had collapsed; I got several laughs from other frustrated people when I asked sarcastically whether the church had just collapsed today and he said “yes,” but we never saw another church despite my riling up the group.

 

After this, despite his urging us to hurry up, most of just sort of set our own pace and said to hell with our “guide.” He even missed the turn to head up the path to the restaurant at the end of the hike! Despite this joke of a tour, the scenery along the hike was beautiful, and the hike itself was a nice break from the bus.

 

After lunch, we stopped at the Selime Monastery, where our “guide”–having given up even keeping up the show–let us wander around at our leisure. The design was similar to other cities and churches that we had seen in the area, so it was relatively easy to figure out what we were seeing anyway. We had a blast exploring the monastery which climbed up through the rocks of the hill.

 

Our final stop was Pigeon Valley, another viewpoint located conveniently beside a turquoise factory that we could “tour.” The “tour” was a short sales pitch downstairs in front of a window where people were working before gaining free (FREE!!) entrance into the showcase, where we were allowed to shop. Everyone left immediately. The bus got back to town over an hour early, but I think that we were all glad to be finished. We had seen some neat things in spite of the rip-off nature of the day, and I was proud that we were able to approach the day with a sense of humor and still get something out of the experience once we had figured out we were getting screwed.

 

Both Sarah and I would like to visit this area again someday, believe it or not–although, we would rent a car, and explore this fascinating place on our own–without the help of our screwy hotel and their tour company.

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3 Responses to Cappadocia: Cool Caves and Rampant Rip-Offs

  1. Trung says:

    I didn’t know you were heading to Goreme. I have relatives that were visiting there as well. You wouldn’t happen to run into them…?

  2. Jola says:

    Interesting… just a note, Asia will be the same (rip-off scenarios everywhere). Everyone wants to take you to their “silk shop”. You must be very clear about your expectations before booking anything or getting into a rickshaw.

  3. Crystal says:

    We had a similar situation in Mali this year with the transport just dumping us off… we were lucky enough to find a 4×4 jeep heading up our direction, and we met a local Muslim girl who was helping us out and taking the ride also. The price for the air conditioned 4×4 was actually decent. However, they dropped us at the junction, which was about 6km from the town we were going. On top of this, it was midnight! The girl who was helping us had her brother picking her up, but he was on a motorcycle, so he couldn’t fit us 3 and luggage. A few guys came over to us, and wanted to charge an exuberant rate for the short ride. After being encircled by about 15 guys at one point, I told Janine we just needed to walk away a little bit. Eventually a nice fellow offered to take us for what we wanted to pay (I knew he wasn’t a “cab driver”), and he ended up being our guide out to the Dogon Village a few days later. Funny how things work out, sometimes 🙂

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