With all the recent tensions going on in India I do not think I would have visited Turkey now if it was planned after all of this terrorist activity started. Such a beautiful land it is, but still love for homeland is more important. We Indians have enjoyed travelling to Turkey but guess it will not be the same anymore.

This is from my early April visit, I mentioned in my earlier blog, Cappadocia is one of the most unique places that I have ever visited. The central Cappadocia region and its neighboring areas have a very different landscape. This place is famous for its cave houses. I can say this place is a visual wonder, all those towering rock formations are truly a sight to see. The most famous activity to do here is the hot air balloon. I was so much looking forward to it and we had booked in advance. But it turned out to be a disappointment as the weather went bad. We were even picked up from our hotel at 4:30 a.m. and along with us there were many other people also. We reached the venue and waited for some time and then it was announced that the ride is cancelled for that morning, since it was very windy. And for that reason, I was planning to visit Cappadocia again some time in future, because this is one of the best things to do here and it has always been my wish to do the Hot air balloon ride, but not any more.

I found Cappadocia comparatively cheaper than Istanbul, be it food or souvenirs, it was reasonably priced. My opinion was other way around. I had thought that since this is a very famous tourist place, it will be over-priced, but to my surprise it was the opposite. Also, the people here are very humble and soft spoken. On day 1 after settling in to our hotel, which was around late afternoon, we stepped out to visit the local market, which was only 10 mins walk from our hotel.

You can see, it's a quaint little town and maintains the old charm. We stayed a little away from the main center of Cappadocia, the only reason being that place is very crowded. The area we stayed is called Urugup, which is around 15 - 20 mins drive from the main spot. It was a good decision made, because one time when we visited the main center, I was going crazy seeing so many people in the market area.

They have some fancy dine-out places also on top of the hill, but as a tourist it's best to avoid, because these kinds of places are over-priced. My Son wanted to go, I asked him to go and check the menu and prices first, after seeing that he only refused to go :-)

On the way we came across these Ponies, you could ride them in certain places.

You could also take a camel ride at some places

These are all hotels made in the caves.

When you talk about Turkey, the one main thing that comes up is its famous Evil Eye. You find them everywhere and the local shops have them all over the place to ward off any evil eye on their business. I bought quite a few of them to gift to my friends.

And we ended the day with some wine and dine. Here the person who was serving us was a very chirpy Turkish guy, we had loads of conversations. He was a fan of Indian movies, so he kept asking us about all Indian movies. The wine suggestion was also his to go with one of the local ones of the region and it truly was a good one.