Floating over Cappadocia

Goreme, Cappadocia, Turkey with the Uchisar rock citadel at the back

Nothing beats a hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia. It’s just magical, but it’ll set your budget back by about the cost of one friggin cross-country flight! If I’m not mistaken, it cost me ...750 friggin RM! For 1 person!


Firing up the balloon


Taking off


Up, up and away


A view from the top




Cappadocia, by hot air balloon




A view of the natural terrain




High over Cappadocia


Yours truly, in a basket filled with Spanish tourists


Landing in a farm

Pottery in a Cave

More from the caves of Cappadocia – pots and ceramics!


Avanos in Cappadocia is famous for its ceramic trade since ancient times. The tourist guide, ...or rather the pottery owner, explained that the clay from the what’s-its-name river flowing through Avanos is exceptionally good for pottery. The wares are all of high quality, and so are the costs!


Justin’s not too impressed, as you can see


More exhibits of Avanos’s wares


Throwing in a picture of a wine cellar... just for the sake of it, what the heck! The winery’s not even near Avanos, but it is in Cappadocia, ...but near Urgup actually

Land of the Fairy Chimneys

Cappadocia (Kapadokya), Turkey

Fairy Chimneys is the name the local Turkish tourist guides use for the natural minaret-like formations of Cappadocia. I dunno who came up with such a creative name, but simpler people (meaning the men, ...like yours truly) would probably have just called this place Land of the Giant Dicks – see for yourself!


The Goreme Open Air Museum (pronounced ge-ray-may), filled with caves churches, used to be a community of Christian monasteries in Roman times

This is a whole new world with caves – cave churches, cave houses, cave hotels complete with cave bathrooms and cave toilets (how do they fit in the sanitary piping and the shit tanks??), cave shops, cave cafeterias... yeah, just name it! We stayed in a cave hotel during our trip, bloody cold (and it was May). Anu didn’t like it much, but what the heck, have to give everything a try huh? Anyway, it’ll all be fine with a few pegs of raki (the local aniseed flavoured liquor)


Another view at Goreme


Guards at Goreme


Hiding in a cave guardhouse – where else could you find a convenient place for the mom to breastfeed the kid? Really nice of the guards to offer tea. Turkey must be one of the most baby-friendly countries in the world... The people there go nuts when they see tiny toddlers!


Cavusin Village (pronounced cha-vu-shin), an abandoned Greek cave village


A souvenir shops amidst the ruins, Cavusin


Fairy Chimneys ‘R’ Us, Cavusin Village


Anu at the ruins, Cavusin


A family photo (with Justin asleep), above the ruins of Cavusin, and after that our camera ran out of batteries... luckily for us, we could charge it in the semi-cave restaurant we stopped for lunch


Pasabag (pronounced pa-sha-ba), means General’s (pasha) Vineyard (ba), as explained by our trusty tourist guide (as far as I remember... this was 2 years ago, ok?)


A hermit’s church in Pasabag


The Rock Citadel of Uchisar


Fairy Chimneys on the road to Urgup, with a snow-capped peak in the background


A poppy field in Cappadocia

Justin Year 2

Our little monster turned 2 recently. He’s smarter now at dismantling / destroying things, he’s smarter at getting what he wants by being really adorable, when he wants to be, kissing us, when he wants to and showing his sad tearful face, if we scold him. Otherwise, nothing much has changed. He has approximately 11 teeth. We force feed him to ensure his growth matches the other kids of his age (and it seems to be working, but we’re reducing his food portions now since our friend advised that we’re feeding him too much). He doesn’t yet know the meaning of fear, meaning that growling dogs in the dark are nothing but an attraction for his curiosity. He knows that falling and getting himself hurt is painful, but that doesn’t stop him from running clumsily on uneven gravel strewn roads, doesn’t stop him from running round and round in circles until he falls over dizzily, and doesn’t stop him from climbing whatever is climbable for his little hands and legs. He can say a few words now like papa, mumma (for mummy), judtin (for justin), ba (for bye), shoe, oben (for open, used for requesting us to open water bottles, and food containers), heyo (for hello), koung-koung (grandfather), ayi (mother, in the local Marathi language), hawa-hawa (from a popular Hindi song), etc.

Here’re some photos of him of the year and before.


Justin, mid-eastern style, 5.5 months old, Istanbul, Turkey


Justin with Turkish travel agent, Istanbul. Justin’s a hit with the local crowd. Somehow or rather, most Turks, if not all, love small babies


With the fairy chimneys, Cappadocia, Turkey


Picking out a ball, slightly more than a year old, Pune Central Shopping Mall


13 months, Kathmandu, Nepal


13.5 months, Mahabaleshwar, Maharashtra, India


Hippie styled baby, Daund


The baby godfather, Scarface, at 19 months, Daund


A picnic in the hills, at our road project stretch, near Ravangaon


Sharing a buffalo, 21 months, Amanora Mall, Pune


Busy on the phone in front of our house, Daund


Botak boy, 21 months old, Phoenix Mall, Pune


Tigger with friend, 22 months


Happy Deepavali!