In this Turkey trip, I spend most of my time here. I stay at Cappadocia two whole days and two nights and then will fly back to Istanbul as I would like to take my time at where I dream to be all my life as much as possible. This review might be a little bit longer than usual because there would be a lot of pictures. However, I assure you that you would be really pleased with the photos I have taken for you all, thank you everyone for reading this.

In my opinion, I think Cappadocia is like a handsome flirty young man who is also lovely, thoughtful, strong, warmth and always willing to help.

I spend approximately 10 hours traveling in a bus from Pamukkale to Cappadocia while luckily I sit comfortably alone. At Turkey, they do not allow lady to sit with stranger man, they could only sit together only when they are couples or come together. As you could see, Turkey is the safe country for women traveling alone.

I arrive about 7 o'clock in the morning at Goreme which is the center town of Cappadocia. The bus stops at the bus terminal and this bus also has a group of Thai people as well. There are three people in this group which I meet this lovely people since I was at Ephesus. We get off at the tourist information center, and the staff asks us about the hotel information as he will call the hotel reception to pick us up. Fortunately, they have this kind of service at Cappadocia, we do not have to walk to the hotel on our own. We wait for a little while then here come a van to pick up the other Thai group. The information center staff calls to my hotel once again to confirm with the driver and the hotel asks me to wait for another five more minutes. I wait for a while then a big black sedan car parks in front of me. A handsome young man opens the door and asks me “Melek Cave Hotel, right?" I was stunned for about three seconds then I nodded. He takes my bag to the car and takes me to the hotel.

Actually, my hotel is not far from the bus terminal, however, it is the mountain way if I walk up hill and have to drag my bag alone with me, it would be somehow very painful. The guy who picks me up is actually the hotel receptionist. He could speak English very well like European people. Therefore, I ask him where he learns his English from. He then tells me that his ex-girlfriend was European and that is why his English is pretty good.

At Cappadocia, I think we have to stay at the cave hotel. Why the cave hotel? Because how many times in your life that you could sleep in the cave and that cave is operated as the hotel? I choose to stay in the cave hotel which is located near the mountain and not far from the bus terminal. This hotel is a family own business, they only hire one staff who is the receptionist as they would like the employee with good English language. This hotel has only ten rooms.

Image: A door lock of the cave room, it takes me five seconds to figure out ^^.

My room is not yet done; it would take around 2 hours to finish the cleaning. Therefore, I will go and take a walk at the downtown Goreme. I am still a little numb and blur from the bus ride as the discomfort of sleeping on the bus and I have not enough sleep. The first thing that my body want it right now is a cup of strong coffee, I didn't have coffee for almost a week. I hope Turkey would serve a good cup of coffee even though Turkey is the city of tea. I keep walking around finding a coffee shop, Ah!!! It is a coffee shop right there. I sit down and call out for the waiter and order a cup of hot Latte. Just for a short while, a cup of Latte is served in front of me. At this place, the coffee is served with desserts and flowers. I sit and relax for a little bit, finish my coffee and then head back to my hotel.

Finally, my room is ready. The receptionist gives me the key and leads me to the room. The door is opened, I then explore a little and the bathroom is pretty clean. Moreover, the bed is rather big, thus, I think I would sleep really well tonight. I take a shower and take a nap for little while. Then I wake up around noon and think where should I go first today? As from the plan, I have three places I would like to go today. First, I would like to visit Uchisar, second is the open-air museum and the last one is seeing the sunset.

I change my clothes, pick up my camera and ready to go. Today is really hot, I head to the bus terminal for the bus to Uchisar and the bus fee costs 2 Lira. Uchisar is the city next to Goreme around 6-7 kilometers. The bus parks aside the street and I could see the castle of Uchisar from the eye distance. So this is the castle of Uchisar which I had seen in the photos. I have never known that we would climb to the top of the castle. At the top, there is Turkish flag and I want to touch that flag. Therefore, I am willing to pay 6 Lira to climb up to the top without thinking.

I have come to touch the flag at the top of Uchisar castle finally, I walk around the castle for a bit and now it is time to go down. When I head down, I meet an old generous man who comes and asks me whether I would like to see some of the rooms in the castle or not that he would takes me to. He tells me that not many tourists know about those rooms as the entrance is at the back of the mountain and if you are not here with the tour guide you aren't be able to go there. He also says that he used to be a tour guide before and now he already retired. I quickly agree to go with him as I am quite curious to see those rooms.

The guy takes a detour to the back of the castle; we go through the narrow way to the cave entrance at the back. He takes me to every corners, the weather is cold and comfy. I have taken a photo of the back of the chimney of Uchisar castle as well.

Travelling this time gives me a lot of aspects of life. I say thank you and goodbye to the guy as I say Turkish people are very generous, trust me. I walk down to the front of the castle; however, I do not want to take a bus back yet. I love to walk so when I look down into the valley below the castle in a distance view, there is a narrow passage to the other side of the road. Okay, I'll go straight down to that narrow path.

When I start walking, the weather is rather hot but I like it as there is no one here and it is quite peaceful. I walk down the hill alone and indulge with the atmosphere around me. I love adventure and love travelling. I continue walking until I reach the main road, then I stop by the store and ask how could I head back to Goreme? They tell me that when the bus to Goreme passes by they will call the bus for me. While I am waiting for the bus, the guy at the store says that this year the tourism in Turkey is not so good. There are a lot of terrorists' news, hence, the tourists are lesser this year. As he speaks, I am thinking that Thailand also faces the same problem. Before the bus comes, he gives me the small evil eyes. Then it is time to say goodbye and I wish him luck for the business to get better soon.

Heading back to Goreme, the next mission would be visiting the Open-Air Museum which is around 2 kilometers away from Goreme. It is not far, nevertheless, the site is located up hill. I feel rather exhausted climbing up as I have just climbed up hill at Uchisar and walked across the hills to the main road as well. Nevertheless, I only have two days to spend here, I have to go there anyway. I take my tired legs to the Open-air Museum at last. I feel exhausted like I could not walk anymore. I stop by at the café and buy a drink to freshen up. The Coke can here is pretty different as its can is in orange and pink color instead of red. But the taste is just like our Coke in Thailand, I would say.

I decided not to go to the museum anymore, not that I do not want to see it, but I can barely stand on my legs anymore. Furthermore, I have to walk back to the hotel as well. There is no bus between here and Goreme, only you have to call a Taxi but I do not want to. I think that walking down the hill would not be tired as walking up anyway. What would I do when I get back to hotel? I would be unconscious of cause. At first, I intend to go and watch the sunset after this but then again I'm way too tired. I do not think that I could walk up hill anymore today. In my opinion, it seems that two days are not enough for many activities. If I have a chance to come back here again, I would spend more than two days to soak up the atmosphere. Tonight, as I'm too exhausted, I'm going to do nothing except eat and sleep.

This morning, I wake up pretty early as do you guys still remember that I have booked a Green Tour since Pamukkale. Today, the tour will come and pick me at 9:30 am. Eh!!! I am waiting and waiting but why the tour is not coming to pick me up yet? I am waiting until 10:00 am, here comes a handsome man getting off the van and walking toward me, and then he tries to read my name. I tell him don't try to spell it as I think I'm the one. Moreover, my name is quite long, you don't need to try.

He asks me where am I from? I say Thailand and he says Oh!! Another Thai tourist. I am pretty confused why he says that.

As I get in the van, I get it now as the group of Thai people that I have met on the arrival date is here as well. We actually have fun on the day of the tour, I actually miss them. The first attraction we are going is the Underground City which is an ancient city that was dug deep to the underground. There are many chambers downstairs and it is quite dark inside that it is pretty hard to take a photo. The ancient city is a place for Christians' refuge to escape from the Romans who tried to kill them at that time.

Image: Our tour guide is the man with sunglasses sitting behind this ticket.

Our next destination is called Ihlara Valley. It will take approximately four kilometers walk along the river of the valley. I walk along, admire the scenery and take some pictures of the surrounding. Walking along the Valley feels like walking at Chiang Mai, Thailand. I follow our handsome tour guide who really takes the work seriously as he explains the information to us all the way. I think he's so cute, he has a long hair but he bundles them. Since I came here, I have never seen any guy with a long hair; he is the first one here in Turkey. Ohhh!! Gosh, I think I like a guy with long hair. We walk until the half way, and then we stopover for a rest at one of the store. Here, you could get some drinks and desserts. I sit next to our guide, we talk and when he stare at me, I'm really embarrassed. Then, we keep on walking and our guide says that at the end of the road we will stop by for a lunch. As we reach the place for our meal, I go up the stairs and accidentally got bump by some stranger which I nearly fall down. Luckily, our guide grabs my hand just in time and then holds my hand until we reach our table. My heart is pounding really fast right now. By that time, I am still shy and shock so I forgot to take any picture of the restaurant. There are three kinds of food to choose from which are fish, meat, chicken and vegetables and I choose the fish dish.

We take a little time to eat and then we continue our journey. Next attraction, he is going to take us is the Monastery Valley. When we stop at the spot, the guide describes the information of the place for us and everyone turns to look at the Monastery. I stand in the front and he actually puts his hand on my shoulder, therefore, I do not hear what he is saying at all as all I know is my heart beats really fast. He tells us that we will stay here around 45 minutes. Everyone walks up the hill, but I am not as I want to get a ticket for taking picture first. Therefore, I tell him I would like to borrow a ticket, he then smiles and asks me when will I head back? I tell him tomorrow morning, he says if I want a ticket you need to trade with a dinner with him tonight. Did he just flirt with me?? I smile back and say I will tell him when the tour is done then.

From the Monastery, we are now heading to a store that selling various rocks and then the souvenir shop. I didn't buy anything as I intend to purchase at Istanbul because I did not want to carry anything. Therefore, I just wait in the front of the store, he walks right beside me and ask to go out with him again. Before I could reply back, everyone is heading back. The last destination today would be the Panorama View. The view here is very stunning, we do not get to stay here very long as it is time to head back to Goreme. The guide asks everyone where to drop them and most of the people would get off at the bus terminal and only some people are living in other cities.

At the Goreme bus station, everyone gets off the bus, and then I walk toward my long hair guide. I tell him that I haven't paid for the tour fee as the agency at PamukkaleHe stares at me and says I thought you want to pay me tips and then he laughs. He jumps down the bus, and asks me to follow him to the office as I have to pay there. When I finished paying, he asks me what would I do next? I answer him that I did not have any plan this evening, but I only want to see the sunset scenery. As yesterday I missed it, thus, today I do not want to miss it again. And in the morning, although I am not riding on the balloon because I'm afraid of height, on the other hand, I just want to take the photos of those balloons. Then I have to take a flight back to Istanbul in the morning as well. He tells me that do I know that the most beautiful sunset scenery is at Uchisar. Come on, we will have to hurry as the time is close to the sunset right now.

I get in the car with him to see the sunset. I watch the sunset with a young man with long hair. He sits next to me and I couldn't even remember his name. I also couldn't remember how long that I have seen the sunset; it's been like 10 years or 20 years? I couldn't recall. Why? As I keep working and working hard and when I finished work, it's already dark outside. I never ever have time to watch the sunset at home. Here, it makes me think about my life back at home. He just sits quietly next to me and doesn't say anything. We sit together until the sun set beyond the horizon, and then he tells me he is hungry now, let's go find something to eat.

Cappadocia, you have to try if you have a chance to go there.

Image: Sunset at Uchisar

He drives me to eat Turkey food; we talk and smile at each other. Time passes pretty fast until late night. He is really cute and sweet. When he releases his long hair, I like it so much. We discuss a lot of things but never ask our names. He reminds me of one of the Thai song called I don't know you, you don't know me.

(Lyrics)

If love happens in the dream

We kiss without knowing each other

Calendar tells Night and Day

As I never wanted to know

But I want you to find me

We get marry without seeing each other

Kiss goodbye to the relationship

Before I let you go away

Without knowing you

When midnight comes, it is time to get back. I feel like I am a fake Cinderella right now. Oh! It seems like a time to say goodbye now. I have to wake up around 5am in the morning to see the balloons at Cappadocia tomorrow and I would not miss it for sure. He tells me he will pick me up at 5am in the front of my hotel. I say no as it would be too early for him and he has work to do tomorrow as well. He looks at me and says “I'll pick you up anyway". And when I get back to the hotel, I fell asleep right away.

Tiddd….Tiddd..Tiddd. The Alarm clock rings. I glance at the clock and it's already 5am in the morning, time to wake up. It's my last morning here in Cappadocia. I will go and see the sunrise and the balloons first. I try to recall what happened yesterday and I think of him. Is it a dream? Not real right? I don't even know he will come and pick me up like he said or not. If he doesn't come, I will go anyway.

At five and a half in the morning, he stands and smiles at the front of the hotel with his car. “See, I told you that I will come and here I am" he said, I am very happy inside. He takes me to the panorama scenic point. The morning weather is fresh and I breathe in and out into my lung. As I watch the sunrise, he puts his arm behind me. We watch the sunrise together quietly.

The sun rose over the horizon, I turn and carefully look at him. I brush his hair that blocks his face, as I ask him, do you remember my name? And he says my name wrong. I just smiles back and look into his eyes and ask his name once again and tells him that I would not forget his name forever. Thank you for taking me to see the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen, Goodbye. I appreciate how you take care of me.

We meet just to be apart. I will keep all the good memories in my heart. I will be happy every time I think of those memories. I fell in love with him, he in this place I mean “ Cappadocia" I love the atmosphere here. I love everything here. I love to travel. Travel gives me a lot of things. It gives me inspiration, encouragement, new ideas, loves, the good feeling. In every journey my Adrenaline is pumping. Goodbye my dear Cappadocia. I hope to see you once again. I will always miss you, my dear Cappadocia.

Cappadocia. Above from the sky, I miss you. I hope to come back here once again.

This is the end of the Cappadocia story. Next chapter is Istanbul. Thank you everyone for reading this review.