Aug. 30- We awoke to another beautiful day with brekky on the terrace of our pension. We then headed to what would be a much longer errand than we thought…
We had been a bit disappointed with the balloon ride for several reasons. One, it was overloaded. Even if we had a different sized basket than the 8-person we were promised, we were certain that the balloon boys still stuffed more people than the manual deems safe. In addition, we went on the second ride of the morning only because Ali said it didn’t matter whether you take the first or second. In retrospect, Ali admitted that what we had heard after booking was correct- the early morning ride is much more beautiful & less likely to vary from the normal route. The kicker was after floating down only one of the region's many beautiful valleys, we headed up & north away from all the cool landscape into farmland for the rest of the ride. We noticed we were the only ones going this direction and noticed all the other balloons staying the course thru other valleys and towards our town of Goreme. Remembering the sales pitch we were given spurring us to use THIS company instead of the others, we recalled our tourist agent Ali saying "If you are not 100% satisfied, you get half your money back". Well, we really were disappointed and felt we had a subpar ride...and it was very expensive. So, we went to Hiro Tours to speak with Ali about it.
We explained our issue to Ali, and of course, he suddenly (but not surprisingly) backpedalled his sales pitch to something like "I'm just a travel agent...They won't give me my money back so I can't give you yours....etc...etc." We explained that we, basically, didn't care about that and he shouldn't make promises he couldn't keep. Ali had a valid question as to why we didn’t complain yesterday, to which we responded that we were on another tour (which we booked thru him) all day and didn’t want to discourage our friends Sara & Jamie who hadn’t ballooned yet. This polite yet uncomfortable debate lasted for about an hour and included Ali's younger and useless manager, to no avail. We even got to the point where Jason walked to the Jandarme (military police post) to get them involved. <<In smaller towns, the “tourist police” who handle tourist issues are actually the real police. And in Turkey in small towns, the real police are soldiers.>> Wouldn’t you know it, the Jandarme was empty and locked. So Jason walked back to Hiro to join JJ in continuing the debate. Hiro eventually offered part of the money back, claiming it would come out of Ali’s pocket, which put us more on our pedestal of justice, telling them it was critical to make the balloon company partially responsible. We were now determined to find justice. It was now a matter of principle!
We smartly took the offer of partial refund and walked straight to the main tourist office across the parking lot to work on the rest- to the dismay of Ali & Hiro we might add. There, we wrote a summary of the events, and the youngster manning the place called to the main office in Istanbul, and the Istanbul tourist office had a few (we can only guess) unpleasant phone calls with Ali and his manager. Eventually, the owner of Hiro Tours showed up across the parking lot at Hiro's office to get the lowdown on these foreign troublemakers. At one point, Ali walked into the tourist office and asked for his money back…to which we politely declined. Then he told us he had our receipt (which we had returned for the partial refund) and would just say he simply never met us. We just looked at tourist boy, back at Ali, and laughed in disbelief. This was now getting weird.
After a while the tourist office dude directed us to the Jandarme and said they would work it out. On our way there, while walking across the parking lot, the owner of Hiro approached us and asked to trade our receipt for his money back…to which we politely declined…and started walking faster. After several tries, we finally found someone at the Jandarme. It seems they had been busy cruising Cappadocia for bad guys. We were sat down, offered a cigarette, and asked to give our story to the officer in charge thru another soldier who translated (his name was Ali as well). After a short summary about “Bad Ali” to the officer thru “Good Ali”, it was apparent that the officer really wasn’t in the mood to play referee with some silly tourists and a local. He requested the presence of Bad Ali & Co., so Good Ali rode off in the jeep with the other 2 soldiers to retrieve them.
After the entire group was assembled, the officer heard Ali & Co.’s argument (all in Turkish although we pretty much got their drift- tourist bad, local good), he sent them on their way. The officer told us (thru Good Ali) that unfortunately the balloon company itself was based out of another principality, and out of his jurisdiction. He also told us to not fear Bad Ali & Co (which we truly DID at this point) and to be happy with the refund and have a nice trip. We were satisfied that we did what we felt was most important- teach Ali & Co. a lesson about making false promises to tourists, seemingly a habit they have had for a long time.
We thanked our officer friend, and got a ride from Good Ali and the other soldiers up to our next tourist site- the famous Open Air Museum (OAM), another set of hills with amazing rock cave churches containing beautifully redone frescoes. Good Ali & the boys work security at the OAM and we had a nice chat on our way there. In ancient times, this area had a convent and monastery with many monks & nuns, so there were more than ten small churches at the OAM site due to the large number of worshipers. Another day, another amazing historical site.
After the museum, we walked back to Goreme thru Love Valley, another amazing landscape. Near the beginning of the walk, we met up with Good Ali and another soldier, who showed us the route and the best views. We picked & ate grapes & pears and saw the sunset over Goreme.
That night, we went to “Turkish Night” (cultural show) in the town of Uchisar with Sara & Jamie and Suleyman (our pension owner). We saw many traditional dances of Turkey (due to the mix of so many different cultures throughout their history) and the famous whirling dervishes, which is where a man whirls, or spins, for sometimes hours and supposedly “stands between the material and cosmic worlds”. His dance is part of a sacred ceremony in which the dervish rotates in a precise rhythm. He represents the earth revolving on its axis while orbiting the sun. The purpose of the ritual whirling is for the dervish to empty himself of all distracting thoughts, placing him in trance; released from his body he conquers dizziness. It’s an incredibly mystical dance and was our favorite of the night, except for Jason’s making it to the finals of Belly Dance Fever. Yes, he was recruited along with four other guys to dance with the belly dancer, and represented H-town well. Other highlights was finally tasting the traditional Turkish drink raki, which is like Ouzo but stronger.
We ended the night back in Goreme with S&J at Fat Boys, a small bar in the middle of town, where we had a great time dancing (even a quick break-dancing session with Jamie & Jason), and playing DJ behind the bar.
Aug. 31- Our last day in Cappadocia. We had a nice lunch at the Cappadocia Kebap House and walked Rose Valley. On the way there, we were given a ride by Hassan, a nice man who was driving his horse & buggy to tend to his garden in the valley. We stopped at a few “shops” which were literally caves high in the hills in which the owner carries supplies daily and sells everything from water to tourist trinkets. We had a beautiful walk, saw lots of caves and beautiful scenery, and ended up in the town of Cavusin, where we took the bus back to Goreme. Had dinner at Cap Kebap House again (it was that good) and Jason got his music fix by buying some local tunes. Next, the 12 hour bus ride to Istanbul, which was extremely uneventful- Praise Allah!
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