Surban Urgup

... after over a month of spicy food, this burger really hit the spot. Back at the Kismet we get Faruk to show us some of the rugs that he has for sale. It turns out that a friend that owned a rug store had died, and the sons left the contents of the store in Faruk's care. Faruk, who used to be a rug salesman agreed to show them to guests to see what could be sold. After looking at most of his collection we bought a ...

... and looks much better than many of today's hostels, and with a theatre, as every place in Turkey has. We also went to a pottery place, where a guy showed us how he made pots using millenia-old methods. He specialises in recreating Hittite ceramics, but these were far too expensive even for a future trader like myself. Turkish bath PURE AGONY!! It started off promisingly, with our whole group in the sauna, and hot water poured over our heads in a cooler area ...

... here at the hostel, we are using some computers with Japanese Windows, with the Turkish script, so some actions can be complicated...) Anyway, we are spending our time trekking in the region, through valleys that wind in a fantastic landscape sculpted by millenia of erosion, and where people (mostly christians for about a millenia, but muslims these days), have taken refuge in caves, and in cave houses carved out of the soft ...

... certainly not what you'd call dirt cheap. When I asked Laynni if she bargained at all she replied "No, of course not, it goes by weight." Fair enough. The ring salesman, or "ringer" as I like to call them, takes the ring, weighs it on his private scale then, without publicizing that number, multiplies it by an arbitrarily chose price, also not shared, eventually coming up with a clearly defined and obviously non-negotiable number. Of course, now that I think ...

... them was called manti - it was like ravioli pasts with mince, yoghurt and a red tart vinegar type topping -- hard to describe but the taste was fantastic! After thanking the family for lunch we continued looking around the area - seeing the famous fairy chimneys, checking out rocks that looked like camels and one that looked like the Virgin Mary. Others looked like dogs, snakes and rabbits -- it was great but we were all pretty happy there ...

... that adorned walls and ceilings. Most of these date from the 9th century, and there are about 30 churches in all. Just seeing this area gave awesome impression - Not only that this exists today and has been preserved, but that more than 1000 years ago, groups of people took the trouble to create this community. We spent a fair amount of time walking the circular route, with the kids investigating every nook and cranny, including the ...

... ride to Goreme (Cappadoccia) the same night we left Fethiye. It was rather exciting to guess who would arrive (if at all) at the Goreme Ötogar first, me... or my wet T-shirts. Cam and I were dumped off the bus at about 4am in the dark. It was cold but I had won the race. My 3 shirts hauled their sorry butts over the line after 9am. I didn't see them finish though as I was sound asleep in my new cave-like home recovering from the exhausting 12 hour dash across Turkey.

... 7 I got the best haircut of my life. The guy was like edward scissorhands (thanks stacy for the accurate description). His scissors wouldn't stop opening and closing, even when they were away from my hair, he just had good scissor rhythm (probably a good dancer too). After the cut, he cut a few of my long eyebrow hairs and then threaded all around my eyebrows. Then he waxed the area around my eyes and cheeks. He did all of this after ...

... the valley, and although we were disappointed to discover that the frescoes in question were heavily damaged, the rest of the church was amazing well preserved, with vividly coloured and detailed frescoes on almost every surface - well worth the hike along the winding and rocky trail by the river. By this point the sun was started to get low in the valley, so we headed back and hit the road again, this time taking the winding back roads out of the valley ...