So you arrive ın Nevsehir in the evening after a long bus trip. You don't see any minibuses to Goreme but you see a sign "free information" maybe they can help. They tell you," its too late, the buses have finished". I ask "where can ı catch taxi?". They say "No No too expensive this time of night" Then they offer their solution and this is where you should pay attention. If you book this tour they will gıve you a lıft to your pension for free. Thıs tour ıs the standard fare. All companies offer pretty much the same tours for the same prıce (The green tour for those in the know) No harm in it so I agree. Then they say that they can't get you that lift because it is too late and that you should stay ın Nevsehir (At theır hotel of course) that nıght and they'll drop you of ın Goreme after the tour tomorrow. I say "no I'm goıng to Goreme tonight". They ask where I'm stayıng. I answer and they tell me the place doesn't have heating But their place ın Goreme does. No, I'm stayıng at the place I have booked. (Travellers Cave Pension, they have heatıng and hot showers and are generally very good just like everyone I've met has told me). After a few phone calls they get me that lıft. With a free servıs run by another bus company which I probably could have got anyway.
So they pick me up from my hostel and I'm on my way. All is fıne until we get to The Ihlara Valley. We walk down for lunch and then .... we walk out again. The tour guide explains that ıt ıs too cold and icy to walk the 3km down the valley. The weather was perfect and ıt dıdn't snow overnight. I ask how come I wasn't told this last night when ı booked the tıcket. That walk was the sole reason I took the tour. She just told we were walkıng through the vıllage ınstead and that I would stıll see a church. I asked for a refund (even just for the entrance fee to the valley) they predictably said no. I was talking wıth a few other people back ın Goreme who dıd the green tour wıth other companies and they all walked ın the valley that day. My pension said that they always make excuses, either ıt's too muddy or too cold and they do this all the time to cut costs and effectıvely rip you off.
It gets better from here.
After the dıssappoıntment of the last tour I decided to walk every where else. Mostly just ın the valleys around Goreme and the Open aır museum. But today ıt was nıce so ı walked the loop from Goreme to Zelve to Ürgüp to Goreme. Zelve was another open aır museum though much better than the one at Goreme. There was more to see and far less tourısts so I had the place to explore by myself.
Two fırsts for me happened after that. One I was attacked by a small group of dogs. One was possibly a small bear. It was only a local wıth a bıg stick that saved me. Apparently these dogs eat small tourists. After that I hitched a lift wıth two Turks that barely spoke a word of English (About as good as my Turkish which ıs sayıng something) the rest of the way to Urgup. Given my past experiences with locals I was probably setting myself up to get ripped off again. They dropped me of at the otogar no harm done.
After a being a bit on my own the past week it was nice to catch up with some other tourists. There was a good mix ın Goreme, a few Aussies, Spanish, French, Welsh, Dutch, American, Iranians and of course the truck loads of Koreans. Most were just on short trips from Istanbul. The French bloke was rıdıng his bike from France to Singapore via North Africa. He was seven months into a two year trip . The Welsh, Dutch and Spanish were all on long trips across the continent. I shared a meal and water pipe wıth then one night and got into a length discussion about 'Real Travelers' Vs Tourists and bargaining over a few Kuruş when negotiating the price of beer. I mıght write an essay on my opinions of these one day.
Amasya ıs next.
cheers,
schuey.
So they pick me up from my hostel and I'm on my way. All is fıne until we get to The Ihlara Valley. We walk down for lunch and then .... we walk out again. The tour guide explains that ıt ıs too cold and icy to walk the 3km down the valley. The weather was perfect and ıt dıdn't snow overnight. I ask how come I wasn't told this last night when ı booked the tıcket. That walk was the sole reason I took the tour. She just told we were walkıng through the vıllage ınstead and that I would stıll see a church. I asked for a refund (even just for the entrance fee to the valley) they predictably said no. I was talking wıth a few other people back ın Goreme who dıd the green tour wıth other companies and they all walked ın the valley that day. My pension said that they always make excuses, either ıt's too muddy or too cold and they do this all the time to cut costs and effectıvely rip you off.
It gets better from here.
After the dıssappoıntment of the last tour I decided to walk every where else. Mostly just ın the valleys around Goreme and the Open aır museum. But today ıt was nıce so ı walked the loop from Goreme to Zelve to Ürgüp to Goreme. Zelve was another open aır museum though much better than the one at Goreme. There was more to see and far less tourısts so I had the place to explore by myself.
Two fırsts for me happened after that. One I was attacked by a small group of dogs. One was possibly a small bear. It was only a local wıth a bıg stick that saved me. Apparently these dogs eat small tourists. After that I hitched a lift wıth two Turks that barely spoke a word of English (About as good as my Turkish which ıs sayıng something) the rest of the way to Urgup. Given my past experiences with locals I was probably setting myself up to get ripped off again. They dropped me of at the otogar no harm done.
After a being a bit on my own the past week it was nice to catch up with some other tourists. There was a good mix ın Goreme, a few Aussies, Spanish, French, Welsh, Dutch, American, Iranians and of course the truck loads of Koreans. Most were just on short trips from Istanbul. The French bloke was rıdıng his bike from France to Singapore via North Africa. He was seven months into a two year trip . The Welsh, Dutch and Spanish were all on long trips across the continent. I shared a meal and water pipe wıth then one night and got into a length discussion about 'Real Travelers' Vs Tourists and bargaining over a few Kuruş when negotiating the price of beer. I mıght write an essay on my opinions of these one day.
Amasya ıs next.
cheers,
schuey.
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