Cappadocia - The underground city..

Our next destination, is the Underground City, Cappadocia. Surf about it on the internet and feel like it's must see place. It's so beautiful and unique.. it has everything I imagine in a flinstone world.. maybe for some people it might be a boring place, but for me and my friends, we found our "awwwwwwwww" moment when we see the whole place..

Before that, just to let you know that this was the longest route in our journey. We have made a very wise decision to rent the car and to start with the longest route first, as we were still excited with the whole road trip and didn't really feel the jet lag yet.. our later route become easy and more relaxing..

Our first 3 days route (where we didn't stay at any hotel until the third day)

To be honest, our trip actually based on MAS Holiday's route but with some personal touch from us. So instead of starting the journey to Bursa, we went the other way .. and MAS holiday's route doesn't include Cappadocia and Ankara.. and we never plan for Adana - Alanya - Antalya.. it was a mistake.. hahahaha .. will tell about it later ...

So just around 2pm, after we took our precious moment to have our Zohor prayer in the blue mosque (btw, I couldn't find place for Wudu' for women, but my friend who was there before told me that place to take wudu' for women is far behind the blue mosque, FYI), we start our car and set it to Ankara. It's in the middle way to Cappadocia. It took us around 4 hours to reach Ankara. We stopped at R&R for our lunch around 3pm.. We actually didn't eat much during our journey. Most of the time we skipped breakfast or if we had breakfast, we skipped lunch and straight to dinner.. most of the time, we ate once a day.. Traveler didn't eat much right? .. hahahaaa .. (iye la sangat kan)..

We stopped for 2 hours at Ankara Mall just to find a place to change our money to lira. We only bring Euro money from Malaysia and didn't change it at the airport because according to the Internet, there's lots of money changer in Istanbul.. It's true though but because our time in Istanbul was so short, we didn't really have the time to look for it.. so in Ankara, we were looking for money exchange like crazy and was so disappointed not able to find one.. we were tired and hungry (sebab sejuk dan penat jalan).. Not many people in Turkey can speak English, so that was another reason we couldn't find it...

AnkaMall in Ankara.. as big as SURIA KLCC maybe..

Then I saw this info counter-lady and it was so fortunate that she can speak English.. it turned out that the only money exchange shop at AnkaMall is a jewellery shop.. if we didn't ask her, we wouldn't have known it .. finally we managed to change our Euro to Lira in AnkaMall for 2.30lira for 1EURO.. then we had our dinner at KFC (not really like it, the coleslaw sucks and the chicken not really a KFC like I used to).. my friend had McD, and he said it was a safe choice. hehehe ..

Tips: you can't change lira in Malaysia, so change to EURO, POUND or DOLLAR, and then change to lira in Turkey.

We continued our journey to Cappadocia around 7pm (i think.. hehehe) .. it was dark by this time.. Actually it was dark by 5pm around this month.. it was still winter in February.. end of winter.. our next trip took us another 4 hours.. but I think we took longer than that because we were quite sleepy and tired..

We set the GPS to Cappadocia and it lead us to an unknown road.. no lights no traffic.. nothing!!! .. in the dark, we tried our best to stay calm by making jokes and laugh along the way, and not to forget, karaoke session as everyone in the car love singing (walaupun suara cam serak2 itik serati).. finally around 3a.m. we can see the town.. but nothing much as it was dark.. try to find the hostel, found it, but no one at the door.. of course, it was 4a.m, so we end up sleeping in the car .. I can still remember how freeeeeezinnnggg it was... but we managed to get some sleep until 7am...

this was not too bad.. there were time we actually on a village road where nothing's around.. hahahaha..

We woke up and try to find a mosque to change and clean up.. but all the mosque in Turkey do not have toilet.. we have no choice but to use the toilet at the gas station.. get ourselves clean (but x mandi.. hehehehe .. cuaca sejuk so x busyuk), changed to new shirt, new undies but same jeans, hahhahahaa.. i really felt like a traveler, something that I really love doing..

and then, we start our exploration in beautiful Cappadocia..

Good Morning, Cappdocia..

First few photos we took after we changed our clothes.. x mandi yer.. ahahahaha

Went to Goreme Balloons center to find out about the cost for a trip..

 If I'm not mistaken, it cost around EURO150 to take the hot balloon.. it start at 7a.m everyday and only 1 trip per day.. we reached there around 9am so definitely we missed it.. it would be a great experience to take the hot balloon, but we didn't really feel regret not taking it.. because we actually climb the hill to get the best view ever.. and we spend hours there just enjoying the beautiful views.. priceless (in fact, it was priceless, as it's free).. hehehee..

Note: we went to Goreme Balloons because we read lots of good feedback about them. When we were there, the operation manager was so friendly and explain everything we need to know about the hot air balloons. We end up taking photos with him (sebagai kenang-kenangan walaupun tak naik)..

We spent until noon taking all the beautiful photos..

 Around noon, we left the city and ahead to our next station - Konya..

Found this fantastic view on our way out from the city.. beautiful Canyon.. another priceless experience..

I have more beautiful photos, but currently I'm in a hotel and the internet is super slow.. really hard to upload photos.. so I'm going to stop here...

Will write again about our journey .. 

Next .. something bad happened during our trip.. jeng jeng jeng..

Day 1: Istanbul - Ankara - Cappacodia

We reached Istanbul at 6am.. we start the journey from KLIA a little late because the pilot said he doesn't want to reach too early in Istanbul if we depart at 1230am.. therefore, he delayed the plane for 30 mins so that we reached Istanbul by 6am, which is fine with us..

Once we touched down, got our passport stamped, get our bags and wait for our car.. we booked a car with http://www.circularcarhire.com.tr for a total of EURO150 + EURO30 for window insurances for 7 days rental.. it's quite cheap and save us money and time..

Waiting for our car at 7am at Atartuk Airport, Istanbul

While waiting, bought myself a turkish number for 45lira with only 5 lira call.. huh, so expensive.. i soon realized that I can get for 25-30lira in town.. so if you're not in hurry to get a number, get it once you're in Istanbul, not at the airport.. then if you want the internet, get a 1GB data plan for 1 week for 20 lira.. in Malaysia, I can get a number for only RM5 and unlimited 1 week data plan for only RM18 (anyhow, stop comparing appple to orange fyda!!!) .. by the way, I use Turkcell line because I read about it in the internet that it's the most reliable one.. and I do agree with the comments because everywhere I go, I get a good signal using this service provider...

Turkcell Sim Card

Our rental car .. first thing, isi minyak dulu.. 4.80lira per liter. Approximately RM8 per liter.. giler mahai..

The only thing that I don't like about renting a car in Turkey, is because of the petrol. As any other EU countries, their petrol is killing us.. on the first day itself, we spent 190lira for gas.. ko kali laa 1.70 kupang... haaaaa terduduk la jugak.. opsss.. that's about RM323 for full tank.. but anyhow.. that's something that we have been prepared for.. so it's not a surprise.. and for the overall journey, i believe we make a good decision renting this car..

Ok, once we settled down with the car, phone and petrol.. we set our GPS to Sultannahmet Mosque as our first destination.. We found a parking (there's a lot OTOPARK signboard around the city) and it cost 10lira per entry.

In front of Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofya..

Behind Hagia Sofya, walking towards Topkapi Palace

Topkapi Palace

We walked and took lots of photos from Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia and Topkapi.. we didn't go inside Topkapi though.. this 3 places took us to noon.. around 2pm, after Zohor prayer at the Blue Mosque, we start our journey to Cappadocia via Ankara...

OGS and EDS

Our car came with OGS, like a smarttag only it's a sticker on your screen (Malaysia jek x berjaya lagi buat benda nih) ... and the EDS.. lots of EDS.. OMG.. tak tau laa berapa banyak kami kena, but masa amik kereta, tak de plak si owner tu cakap apa2.. hehehehe .. hopefully tak de la kena charge kat kredit kad nanti..

We had our lunch at 3pm in one of the R&R, a lot of R&R from Istanbul to Ankara.. and you can find toilet everywhere.. just look for the WC sign .. and Bayan means "Women" and Bay means "Man" ..

We didn't stop at Ankara, but straight to the Underground city (Cappadocia) ... it was a long journey and GPS showed us crazy road.. dark and nothing around.. at 3am, it was scary.. hahahaha ... but we managed to find the place at 4am, and we decided to sleep in the car instead of getting a room.. we just sleep for 3 hours before morning...

.. to be continue ..