Contrary to what many think, Cappadocia (Kapadokya in Turkish) is not a city or town. In fact, it is the name given to a region in central Turkey spanning across five major provinces. If you are planning to visits, some of the towns where you will visit and probably end up staying are Mustafapaşa, Ürgüp and Uçhisar. Larger cities in the region are Aksaray, Kayseri and Nevşehir. As you might already know, Cappadocia brings to mind the images of “Fairy chimneys” and hot air balloons. What are these chimneys exactly? Read on to find out!
Last time, we covered the ancient city of Ephesus and had started on our journey to Pamukkale and then Konya. If you haven’t read it yet, no worries – I’ve provided all the links at the bottom of this post.
Our drive to Pamukkale took almost three hours. Our guide, Abdul told us that there were many thermal springs found in this area and the steam was used to generate electricity – we even saw some of these plants on the way. This region was also famous for its cotton – the cotton grown here is considered among the best in the world, only second to the famous Egyptian cotton. In fact, the name Pamukkale itself means “cotton castle” – but that is mainly attributed to the sight that we were about to see.
Here is a map-view of the journey that we will be covering in today’s post
One morning, my mother called and said they were going through some travel websites and came across an itinerary for Turkey. She wanted me to go through it and suggest if it was worth it. I did some quick research and concluded that it was good to go. Later in the day, Nam and I were discussing it in detail and a question popped into our heads – if the itinerary is good, then why aren’t we going? After all, we hadn’t travelled anywhere in the last 2 years due to Covid (the last trip was Seychelles in 2020). And now, we had baby P as well – he had just turned 1 year old – having the grandparents around would be a good way to test out our first big trip with him. So, the very next day, we called them back and said we’re joining them too! Super excited for Parth’s very first international trip!
