Turkey - Cappadocia itinerary, Day 1 - Zelve Open Air Museum & Fairy Chimneys/Paşabağları Müze ve Örenyeri, Turkey

At Goreme Open Air Museum

After having a phenomenal sojourn in Istanbul, we flew to the historical region of central Turkey - Cappadocia/Kapadokya (in Turkish). It is famous for its unusual & exclusive historical heritage, rock formations & scenic hot air balloon rides. I had kept 2D/2N in Cappadocia. But personally I felt even 5 days is too less to properly explore the whole of Cappadocia. Hence, it is always good to decide which attractions one wants to delve into.

In front of Red Valley, Goreme

Flying over interior Turkey

Notable sights of attraction/activities:

• Goreme Open Air Museum (Northern Cappadocia/Red Tour, MUST visit)
• Zelve Open Air Museum (Northern Cappadocia/Red Tour, MUST visit)
• Fairy Chimneys (Northern Cappadocia/Red Tour, MUST visit)
• Devrent Seyir Terasi (for breathtaking sunsets & overall view of the terrain, Northern Cappadocia/Red Tour)
• Love Valley/Aşıklar Vadisi (Northern Cappadocia/Red Tour)
• Rose Valley/Gül vadisi (Northern Cappadocia)
• Three Beauties/Üç Güzeller (Northern Cappadocia)
• Uçhisar Kalesi/Uçhisar Castle (Northern Cappadocia/Red Tour)
• pottery workshops in Avanos (Red Tour)
• hot air balloon rides
• ATV tours in Rose Valley
• renowned & extensive underground cities of Derinkuyu & Kaymakli (Southern Cappadocia/Green Tour)
• Pigeon Valley (Southern Cappadocia/Green Tour)
• Ihlara Valley (Southern Cappadocia/Green Tour)
• Selime Cathedral (Southern Cappadocia/Green Tour)
• Onyx Museum & Factory (Southern Cappadocia/Green Tour)
• Narlıgöl Krater (Southern Cappadocia/Green Tour)
• Belisırma Vadi Girişi (Southern Cappadocia/Green Tour)

Zelve Open Air Museum

If one visits Fairy Chimneys with ample amount of time, it is not required to spend more time on Love Valley, Rose Valley, Three Beauties, Devrent as the rock formations, terrain, landscape are more or less very similar to one another (we actually skipped these as we took our own sweet time to explore Fairy Chimneys). Cappadocia local tours & travel agencies operate 2 types of tours viz:

1. Red Tour covering the northern locales of Cappadocia
2. Green Tour traversing the southern Cappadocia

Fairy Chimneys

It goes without saying that both the above tours CANNOT be done on the same day and many attractions are not included in the above tours. For example, either Kaymakli or Derinkuyu underground city tours are included in the Red Tour but not BOTH the underground cities. If the stay in Cappadocia is exceeding 3 days, then all the above attractions can be explored with ample time & energy without hurrying.

Solo-trip amidst Coronavirus pandemic to Langkawi - Part 2

Sorry folks for being away a long long time. Was caught up in a lot of things simultaneously. As far as I remember, I had shared only my first day experience of solo-traveling to Langkawi. I had already started planning my second solo travel to Perhentian Islands in my head. But unfortunately too much has happened in the last 2 years, I returned to India, I was subject to prejudice & chauvinism in my previous organization which had taken a serious toll on my mental health. In this age of Gen Z, mental health is of highest magnitude for folks like us who are drowned in deadlines & project deliveries. Anyway, back to my Langkawi trip which I undertook when the whole world was in the middle of a pandemic & I am happy that I took the decision of solo-tripping.

You can read all about my 1st day at Langkawi & how to reach there here: Langkawi Part 1.

On the 2nd day I decided to travel to North, North East & Southern parts of the island. This is the reason I always opt for a self driven car - no dependencies on any third party/ies. My 1st halt was at at a wild beach adjoining the Pantai Pasir beach. I realized why the beach was called "wild" as it is completely secluded and isolated. I didn't see any traveler or tourist come to this beach & I had a wonderful me-time here. The only negative aspect of visiting this beach solo was nobody to take my photos so I had to rely on my selfie-taking skills.

Wild beach

This beach is also a classic small scale example of an estuarine system/depositional environment as one can see the picture on the right (terms which only Geologists can decipher 😛).

Solo-trip amidst Coronavirus pandemic to Langkawi - Part 1

Update: The prices mentioned in my blog are all of 2020. My viewers who are or will be visiting Langkawi AFTER 2020 - the prices are subject to change.

Tried to click a panorama of the jaw-dropping view from the Skybridge

Did the header catch your attention? Of course! That's what it was supposed to do. So we are now in the 9th month of 2020 - a year in which surely I consider myself "fortunate" enough to have witnessed & lived through (till now) the year of the millenium. After relocating to Malaysia with a new job, I was in my own utopian bubble, fantasizing all the beautiful places I would be traveling to slowly. But alas! The Covid-19 or Coronavirus pandemic transmitted all over the world in such an accelerated rate before even the countries could realize how pestilent it is. More than half of the year is almost gone but a successful vaccine is yet to be invented.

En-route Kargil via Zoji-La, J & K, India

After spending a night full of intolerable stomach aches & upsets, all of us except my school buddy; yes, because he had a paneer meal as dinner while the rest of us - the greedy ones, had a chicken meal as our dinner. The ordeal started at around 3 am and continued till 4 o'clock, and we were supposed to leave sharp at 5 am to avoid the traffic that usually occurs at Zoji-La due to wretched road conditions after the thawing of the snow. So after flushing out the disastrous nutrition we had the previous night, we got ready to leave our hotel and commence our next leg of the whole trip - Ladakh. Our driver took us along the precarious winding highway while we enjoyed some truly breathtaking landscapes.

First glimpse of Zoji-La

The view from Zoji-La just took our breath away, the view of Amarnath Yatra base camp at Baltal.

Amarnath Yatra base camp at Baltal

Sonamarg, J & K, India

Eventually, I come to our last leg of "Kashmir" trip. Now now, it doesn't mean that the trip was over. Actually, there are two regions of Jammu and Kashmir, rather two provinces- Kashmir Province and Ladakh Province. We left our hotel at Pahalgam at 3.30 am and waited at the exit point for the next few hours when finally Indian Army allowed all the tourist vehicles to leave Pahalgam at about 6.20 am, after ensuring that the route ahead is absolutely safe. Our driver probably had kept a brick on the accelerator as soon as we left Pahalgam. There was no stopping in between and finally we reached Srinagar at about 8.30-9-ish. We had some rest, a good breakfast and left for Sonamarg at around 10 am with another driver this time.

On our way to Sonamarg along Indus River

My school buddy was a bit shaken after the Pahalgam escapade, my feeling was more of empathy towards the residents of the 3 places we visited. The primary means of income for them is tourism. Without it, how much does the state earn from export business of shawls, carpets, wool etc? The children are always subjected to seeing security personnel patrolling the streets, the by-lanes, shopping centres. One thing is for sure- this will remain an international issue as long as human civilization will thrive in this world. Anyway, too much of philosophy.

Backpacking to Chalal & Kasol-Parvati Valley

 I am damn serious of setting up my travel blog professionally and here comes my scribbles on our recent backpacking trip to Parvati Valley, Himachal Pradesh. Thank God my friend, who was supposed to this trip solo last year, missed it and so we tagged along with him this time. I will give him all the credit for his research and time invested in doing the research. Anyway, he has always been a very serious & studious fellow.So eventually I have determined that I won’t squander money anymore on some weekend getaways near Mumbai when I have more or less explored most of the beaches in Maharashtra (Maharashtra has unclean beaches except Ganpatiphule and Tarkarli), and also I have 2 days off for Diwali so scheduled of going somewhere in Northern India (I have been in a Himalayan hangover ever since we returned from the mind-boggling Kashmir & Ladakh expedition. It was my 1^st visit to any Himalayan region (yes I have never been to Darjeeling or Sikkim despite being a native from Kolkata, West Bengal). Usually the 2 days off for Diwali luckily falls on a Thursday and a Friday every year so if you take 3 days leave you get 9 days off including the previous week Saturday & Sunday.We left on a Friday evening for Delhi on Yuva Express from Bandra Terminus so that we reach Hazrat Nizamuddin (New Delhi) by morning, spend the whole day in Delhi and then leave for Barshaini via Bhuntar, Himachal Pradesh in the evening (at 6.40 pm) from ISBT Kashmere Gate. The programme was more or less this when we departed from Bombay. But after spending the whole night sitting upright on Yuva Express, we were bereft of a sound sleep and our bodies were hungry/thirsty for a good sleep. So I thought of editing the programme a little bit & called up my friend who lives in Kaushambi so that we could get fresh and get ample rest till evening at their place. We reached Hazrat Nizammudin the next morning at approx. 10 am, took a taxi and reached my friend’s place by 11 am. We were dead exhausted, drained off of our enthusiasm and what not. After a good hot bath and sumptuous lunch prepared by the newlywed couple, the irresistibly beguiling & seductive bed was already summoning to me “come to the bed my love, you need this bed, and this bed needs you”. I had a contented sleep; my nerves, my eyes were pacified & ready for the upcoming week of backpacking to Parvati Valley.We left Kaushambi in an Ola (shouldn’t have taken it, Delhi Metro was a far superior option), got stuck in the traffic for nearly half an hour just before ISNT Kashmere Gate (yes, got a glimpse of Delhi traffic too besides Mumbai traffic). We reached ISBT Kashmere Gate pretty much before time. Ours was a semi-deluxe Himachal Pradesh State Transport bus (we were fretting what “semi-deluxe” meant before we actually saw the bus, thanks to our past experience of chair-car seating in the Yuva Express). We didn’t contemplate that we would be in for a pleasant surprise when we boarded the semi-deluxe bus. The seats were quite comfortable and it could be bent backwards during sleeping. The bus was supposed to leave at 6.40 pm but it got late by 10 mins. Finally we hit the road but the bus got gridlocked in another nasty Delhi traffic for about another half an hour. The conductor switched off the lights inside the bus and everybody fell asleep (the seats were super comfy). At about 11.30 pm -12 midnight, the lights were switched on and the bus had halted for dinner. We had a simple Punjabi dinner (chhole bature and lassi) as we didn’t want to upset our bellies so soon. The dinner halt was for a good 40 mins, hence we didn’t have to hurry. After the dinner, the bus driver started his NFS tactics and we shut our eyes trusting our lives with him. My sleep got interrupted due to a steep bend, opened my eyes to see the silhouettes of the Pir-Panjal Himalayan range in the darkness with the Beas River flowing in the gorge along the road. It was quite cold inside the bus in spite of all the windows and the door being closed. I covered myself fully with my newly bought Pashmina shawl (from Kashmir) and fell asleep again only to wake up at about 8.20 am, when we reached Kullu Bus Stand/Depot. Now we could have got down at Bhuntar and boarded the bus for Barshaini from there but we went to Kullu as we wanted to make our return journey a bit more comfortable & also reach Delhi a bit earlier (instead of traveling the whole day on a Saturday and also our train was scheduled to leave on the same day in the evening so it would be an extremely hectic journey all the way from Kullu to Delhi and back to Mumbai). Since it was a Diwali week, online portal was closed for booking tickets on the day of Diwali (Friday) so the conductor suggested to get tickets directly from the Bus Stand, Kullu. But the person sitting at the ticket counter informed one cannot buy tickets in advance, hence we need to buy the ticket on the same day. We were disheartened a bit, nonetheless we boarded a bus till Bhuntar (it’s just half an hour bus journey from Kullu) and reached just in time to get a bus leaving for Barshaini.

Barshaini-Manikaran-Kullu bus route

The bus journey was quite exhilarating while we crossed an iron bridge over the confluence of Beas & Parvati river, took some stimulating sharp bends, waved to the ever-smiling and fulfilled village folks, halted while a flock of slow-moving goats waltzed by giving a damn to their surroundings while the Parvati River is flowing incessantly in the deep ravine on one side of the road. Finally we reached Kasol (mini Israel as many travelers have named this place) at about 11.10-11.30 am (forgot the exact time)

Srinagar, J & K, India

So eventually my most coveted itinerary in the list of travel plans have been effectuated and we arrived at Srinagar via Delhi on 15th July 2017. We boarded the Jet Airways flight from CSIA Terminal 2 and was to have a halt of 40 minutes at Delhi which nightmarish-ly turned into a 2 hour halt as some flight of Jet Airways was delayed at Delhi airport and the blokes in that flight were supposed to get onto our flight (Delhi to Srinagar). There were a few heated discussions with the flight captain, the crew and some other passengers regarding compensation blah blah blah. I won't deny that I was equally annoyed but my % of happiness was more as I would be cut off from my office, corporate politics and their nagging Whatsapp messages. :)

So we were supposed to reach Srinagar at around 12 noon and then our agenda was to have a quick lunch and go for local Srinagar sight seeing. Our guide and driver were there to receive us with a brand new Toyota Innova at Srinagar International Airport and off we went through the narrow yet clean streets of Srinagar manned heavily with army personnel every few meters. Many of all our relatives, acquaintances were skeptical and alarmed when they became of our travel destination owing to the continuous disruptions and brawls. We could sense and see the intensity of animosity and revulsion in the region- wall posters, spray paintings etc. The Kashmiris were looking at us as if we were Jovians. We faced an awful traffic on Abdullah Bridge on the Jhelum River as it is quite narrow. Finally we reached the famed restaurant & had a sumptuous lunch including Kashmiri Wazwan- Tabak Maaz, Gushtaba, Rogan Josh, Sheekh, Korma, Pulao at Mughal Darbar Bakery and Restaurant.

Kashmiri Wazwan

On our way to Nishat Bagh along the Dal Lake, Srinagar, J  K, India

Resonance

After a few fluky escapades during my growing years, I have become very wary of overindulgent camaraderie which further has debilitated my credence and reverence in this “institution” of “friendship”. The miserable aftermath of a degenerate kinship is ineffably perturbing. “Friendship” doesn’t come with a caveat, else mankind would have to be prudent before being sucked into the broiling inferno. The cradle of this feigned affinity was at a party last year, at the place of one of the pretentious menfolk. The night was youthful, and we were unsuspecting juvenile, naïve, impetuous minds ready to be beguiled because the disciplinarians needed an army, ready to be flung against bigger syndicate. Hours, days and months were invested to inveigle us and suddenly we were the vanguard in crusading against the tyranny. We were also the “controversial” avant-garde but it started “winning”  apathetic backlash from the autarch.

The Yearn

It's every geologist's ingenuous wish to visit the natural geological museum i.e the Grand Canyon's in the US. But not many of their's wish is fulfilled. Mine was in extremely close proximity to being fulfilled. I had to attend a training course in Houston and the training included a field visit to Colorado and Utah.We were traveling from Houston, Texas to Grand Junction, Colorado and from Grand Junction to Moab, Utah by car. Our field instructors, thankfully, though it wise to do some sight-seeing on our way to Moab. The 1st stop was at Colorado National Monument (see pic below). The clear color of the blue sky is not at all seen if one stays in over-populated metropolitan cities of India (no harsh feelings but this is the hard fact). We had our wee bit photo-session over here (not many are lucky enough to experience these in one lifetime). Below are some glimpses of the breathtakingly spectacular place where the time comes to a still.

The Arabian calling... Again

Even Goa will start wailing if we did not make a yearly visit here, thanks to our fondness of this stunning place of beach shacks, the sandy breeze, the yellow sands (unlike the black sands of Maharashtra) and also offering booze at extremely affordable and economic price.

Demise.

Don’t misjudge the idiosyncratic subject of this post. It expatiates on the benign relationship which is the pith of the human existence. It didn’t involve any arduous endeavour to sustain for the past 1 year (totally a heuristic opinion). It's funny and doleful at the same time that perspectives change over a period of time, so do the preferences and we struggle to ignore the veritable and pragmatic facts, even if it is in appreciable amounts. One moment you are completely ensorcelled with the company, the consorts you are having but the next moment you are evicted from their cosmos without any caveat. Since Sunday, I have been completely frazzled and perturbed with the present turn of events, establishing the fact emphatically that the ingrained bourgeois-like candour and candidness is always belittled in today’s convoluted, whimsical world.

San Antonio

It so happened one weekend during my sojourn in the US that PBnrg and me had this ebullient urge not to sit at home the whole day but go out somewhere- around Houston or far from Houston. Well, there is a saying "God proposes man disposes", PBnrg proposed a short trip to San Antonio and I disposed.. :) :D

The Carpenters and Lionel Ritchie

Today was among those days when I am feeling extremely down, apparently for no reason (or maybe there IS a reason but as I proclaim to the world that I give a damn, but inside I do feel bad)… Ever since I returned, I don’t know why but I suddenly thought of downloading songs by “The Carpenters” and listening to them… A huge of memories came flooding into my mind without even my wanting it-be it beautiful or bitter memories… The songs made me realize that yes indeed, I have travelled a long path since my school days when if a friend stopped talking to me I would silently go to my room and cry myself hoarse… Listened to “Stuck on you” by Lionel Ritchie and had a flash back of my Class VII days in AG Church.. 

How much I miss those days; when I first started learning slangs, “Bengali khistis”, had “puppy love” or “infatuation” or “crush” or what should I term it now I don’t know, when I was into my teens and entered the adolescent stage, when Mom’s words were like “why the hell is she wasting her time when she knows I’m not listening to her??!!!!”, when everything I did or thought seemed right, when I had so many unfulfilled dreams and the stupidest notions about “love” and “living happily ever after” as was shown in typical Bollywood movies.. It was the time when we were going gaga over Hrithik Roshan as his first movie “Kaho na pyar hai” released and he was looking HAWT….!!!! It was the time when I first started listening to English songs, starting off with “My heart goes sha la la la la” by Vengaboys and Backstreet Boys and Enrique.. Listening to English songs at that time gave you a higher edge than the others… Others looked up to you as if you have become a demi god.. :P :P

It was the time of getting innumerous proposals from the guys of our class and from our seniors… Though I always showed off that I didn’t care, but deep within I was jumping with joy that yes, even I got proposals too… :P :P (Some of the guys are pursuing till this now and flirting as usual..!!! ) As the proposals came, friendships were put at risk when both the boys fell in “love” with the same girl… L L The girl was then at a dilemma whom to keep as “just a friend” and who would her “boyfriend”… Innumerous scandals, “jaundice cases” and what not……

Thanx “Carpenters” and Lionel Ritchie….. You made me nostalgic…. I miss those days…………….

Flashback-I

Yesterday night I dunno why suddenly memories, some very dirty memories flooded my mind, pissing me off for the whole day onwards.... Memories which one would never want to remember, no matter what happens... Memories where your near and dear ones, your blood relations, doubt you and question you about your character.....................

Though I was tried my utmost to enjoy myself in my batchmate’s birthday party, I just found myself all alone even amongst the crowd, seeing  the tensionless ever smiling faces of all others... I felt sorry for myself when she brought to flaunt the gift given to her by her partner........... How I wish if someone showered the same intensity of affection on me......................

Everything’s just imperfect in my life....... Everything........... My life’s all puzzled and messed up big time.... I try not to mess it this time, treading on safe roadways but don’t know why I end up in a dirty messy situation....................................

Nostalgia......

When I started visualizing my life, which is, quite different from mere seeing it, the love songs that constantly played themselves automatically as a childhood subconscious extremity, had quite a ruthless effect on me.

I held the hilt of the sword of my life, but did not notice the bend of it towards the ''trait of fools''- emotions. The river of my emotions , then, was more of a kind of jet- though a path breaking/making mirage- but still, not something on which one or I, in this matter, could count upon.

Do you know what happens when we are moving too swiftly and are about to collide head on- well, for me, I closed my eyes, with my eyes being an unnatural synonym to my ideological and intellectual needs and the spluttering irony being that literally, those were my eyes that were making my way and mind go astray.

''balanced may be the heartbeat, balanced may be the choices,
but the balanced always do trip, when it comes to voices..''
I was an integral part of the balanced youth fraternity, though in quite the same manner as Kashmir is of India, but when it came to the cupid call, I was the predator, though not having the same night spark, so conspicuous to all of the kind.

This made my walls crumble within me and the rebel of rubble caught me napping. I was down the bottomless pit..... No air, no crops, no swords, no rivers...always going down.. But every bottomless treachery has its own depths, so I believe that now for me, I ended up lying in the midway- the point where I could move down no more.

So my emotions, my love and my life are the tripod, usually a crumbly one, but if something is tried to balance over it, well, who the hell knows?? So I do say sometimes-
''Wrong was I in loving him, though it still seems right,
Longing for love, for me, is a never ending fight....''

Father's day...............

19^th June was Father’s Day... Till now, I have always consciously avoided this day or consciously kept myself busy in some or the other day so that the realization of my father’s loss doesn’t seem so overwhelming... Today also I had kept myself pretty busy (doing nothing actually as it’s raining cats and dogs in Ranchi for the past 72 hours), but busy in the sense I woke up in the morning at 11.45 am as it was pretty dark outside due to the clouds, then spent some time whiling away in the balcony listening to music... I had never known it myself the exact date of Father’s Day, or rather never considered important enough to be remembered.. But today, after I logged onto Facebook and the innumerous “Happy “Father’s Day” updates and never-ending sms-es, it reminded me painfully that yes, today is Father’s Day... Yes, the pain of losing a father at 3 years of age, remembering very little about the person who was in your life for such a short span of time, seeing your family struggle all these years through everything, hearing about that person only through others and trying to form a picture regarding how that person might have been when he was alive among them, growing up listening how IDEAL that human being was—an ideal son, an ideal husband, an ideal father (as long as he was with me-no matter whether that was a very short span in my life), continuously seeing your grandmother shedding copious tears whenever she looks at your face because I look like my father(everyone says so...!!!!)-the feeling just became too overwhelming and excruciatingly painful....

I really used feel jealous whenever I  used to see my friends’ fathers coming to drop them off or pick up from school.... And I still do whenever I see a girl being her Daddy’s li’l princess.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I miss you Babi.... I missed you whenever I was awarded for ranking first in class, for being the all-runder in school and you weren’t there like others’ to applaude for me..!!! I miss nagging to you for buying me something that I really like....!!! I missed you whenever other’s fathers came to hug their daughters after every dance function......I miss you when all the families go out enjoying themselves the whole night every Durga Puja, every new year, every Christmas, every Poila Boisakh......

I just miss you.................I miss you very much....................................

My first step.... :) :)

Me and my biral.... :P :P

Euphoria and Lucky Ali....

Today while writing the Geomorphology assignment given by Prof M.K.M in the afternoon, I was listening to the songs of Euphoria... Suddenly a strange feeling of nostalgia swept all over me, reminding me of my AG days when we all were so good friends with no cut-throat competition among us, unlike here in ISM, where we all used to think about how to pull his or her legs, irritate him or her to the fullest, and even if the friend got angry how to pacify him or her again and then............start everything all over again....... :P :P Aaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!! How much I just miss those days, how I wish I just could go back to those days when I had absolutely no tension at all.... No tension about my future, just let the days pass by as they were passing... The song “O sanam” by Lucky Ali gave a slight, but sweet pain in the unseen bottom of my heart which I think, perhaps, no one will able to able fathom...!!! My first love..!!! “Puppy love” as others might say too... I was just so madly, crazily, blindly in “love” with him... Goshhhhh..!!!!!!!! But now those days are nothing but a walk down the memory lane with everyone spread over different lanes.......................

Reminiscing..........

It's been a long time since I had left listening to songs, which I used to listen to during my school days..I don't know why suddenly today after 9-10 years I was frantically searching for Euphoria songs and videos on Youtube.. Got nostalgic, seeing the videos..


There are certain incidents in one's life which even you try your level best to forget, you just can't get over it..Some memories, which leave a scar in your life... So carefree, fun-filled days were those... I really miss them... Why do we need to grow up..??? Isn't there a way to remain immature,childish?? Why does life become so much complex as we come out of our shells???School life was just so much fun, without any ego, jealousy,cut-throat competition.. All we knew was just having fun, saving friends' butt when they are in trouble :P :P , getting in trouble together, standing up and taking the blame yourself and kicking ur friend's butt for saving his neck... :D :D Just missing those days terrible..


It's becoming harder and harder for me to recognize people.. They don't even take time to feign anything.. It pains to see that the world has become so fake...There are no emotions attached, everything's just so superficial....


Don't know whether I am fit enough to secure a place here..I'm still not ready to change myself.... Maybe I've to follow Charles Darwin's "Survival of the fittest" in order to survive...