Turkey Part III

We went to a Leather shop in Pammukale before leaving the place, where there was a fashion show organized specially for our group. By now we were all kind of getting addicted to 'apple tea' which is served hot in very small cups and tastes very good. so when they offered coffee and other drinks many of us opted for apple tea. We ended up buying a jacket for Tejas and it was bought after a great bargain by hubby dear.
On 27th of of May we started very early in the morning after having breakfast, as we had a long journey ahead. We had some 600 plus kilometers to cover . Our destination was Cappadocia.

Through out the journey I could see vast fields of Poppy flowers. I was told that these were grown with the permission of government for medicinal purpose and every yield has to be accounted. The fields looked enchanting. When I mentioned to my guide that this place looks so serene and lovely that I would like to spend my retirement days here, he laughed and said that the winter will be so severe and the place full of snow that it is very very tough to live here even for youngsters. I remembered my Srinagar days in summer, (long long ago) when the locals were telling me about the severity of winter and how it is tough to cope up. How nature can change the entire place in different seasons can be understood only when we visit other places. We live in tropical places like Southern India and Malaysia where the sights are almost same through out the year and we fail to appreciate the blessings of having a nice outdoor weather through out the year.
We halted for lunch in a place called Caravan Serai. We halted in one of the biggest Caravan Serais. Caravan serais are places where in ancient days the merchants used to take a break in their long journey with their merchandise and also their camels.
This Serai was called the Sultan Caravan Serai and the building was very old and the whole place was kind of maintained as it was in olden times. The food their was excellent.

We proceeded further to a place called Konya on our way to Cappadocia. This is the place of the Sufi saint Rumi and saw the mausoleum of Rumi. This cult had what is called the Darvesh. They are the mystic sufi saints who sing and dance. They are called the swirling dervishes. This is the place where they were trained to become the dervishes and it was a rigorous training. They wear white cloth and a peculiar cap and whirl round non stop for a long time. This was also part of Muslim religion. This dance form is picturised in the movie 'joda akbar' where actor HrithikRoshan has also tried to do this round and round dance form.
This sect was abolished in Turkey by 'Ataturk' in 1922 and now this place is maintained as a tourist attraction.
We reached the lovely place Cappadocia. On our way we could see the extinct volcano 'Hasan'.

This place is full of volcanic ash which erupted millions (or is it thousands I am not sure) of years ago and the ash is very soft but when exposed to the atmosphere it hardens. It could be dug easily and formed into cave dwellings. So we could see these type of dwellings every where in this place.
We checked into the hotel and had dinner and we were taken to the Belly dance show.
This was also held in a dwelling which was cave like structure and the program started with a religious dance of the Sufi culture. It is amazing how they go round and round without getting dizzy. They are trained to do it by keeping one leg steady so that the ear balance is not lost. This is what we saw in the Rumi place as to how these darveshis are trained.
After the darvesh dance group dances by men and women started. The drinks were on the house, but as usual we all had apple tea.
One girl looking very much like our Hindi actor vidya balan danced with a big hat like thing around her waste and was swirling to the music so was the round thing with beautiful design which was shining and twinkling while she danced. It was a wonderful dance.
Later some group dances were performed and some acrobatic dances which were very similar to to our Rajasthani dances.
Again our Vidya Balan came on and started 'the ' belly dance. My God she did so well at one point of time it looked as though her lower part of the body is detached from her upper body as she was moving only the lower part of the body in such rhythmic movements with the flowing music. She later started giving movements (shaking) her shoulders, belly, etc according to the beat of the drum. It was as though her body was beating or producing the sound of the drum. It was an excellent performance. we returned to the hotel at midnight 12 all tired but rich with experience.