The first item on my agenda today is to visit the
massive Uchisar rock castle, which can pretty much be
seen from anywhere in the main Cappadocia region.  I
get to the dolmus station and am forced to wait 20
minutes before the driver leaves.  The castle is only
a 5 minute drive away, but the inter-town
transportation is rather infrequent, as locals don't
need to travel much.  Tourists mostly take tours
around this region.

The dolmus actually drops me off 1km from the castle,
and I have to walk in.  I take a side street towards
the castle, and I feel like I'm walking through a
farm.  Cows, chickens, and goats abound; farmers are
chopping their firewood, and gourd shells are piled in
the middle of the street.  

Reaching Uchisar castle, I avoid the main entrance for
a while and wander around the large cone "mansions" at
the base of the castle, as well a VERY steep, narrow
path between the two large rock formations that make
up the castle.  I check out the caves, hoping there
might be some intricate interior structures, but
they're usually just simple one-room caves.  Some have
stairs leading to another room, but that's about as
fancy as it gets.  I suppose our ancient ancestors
didn't really have the need for living rooms, skylit
lobbies, and spiral staircases.

As a side note, I don't like the fact that almost all
the caves smell like stale urine, thanks to
inconsiderate visitors... or cheap ones, since it
costs  money to use the washrooms everywhere in
Turkey.

Back on track, I join the tourists at the castle
entrance, make my way to the top of the castle, enjoy
the view, and wait several minutes for a return dolmus
while a nearby store owner tries to persuade me to
enter his onyx shop.

Returning to Goreme, I run into some Kiwi friends from
my yacht trip, and we head back to the Turkish pide
(pizza) place I visited the night before for some good
tucker (as they call it).  

Checking my itinerary, I have many places to visit
that aren't very far but aren't serviced well by local
tranportation.  The dolmus services also end quite
early or randomly from my pointof view.  Although
hesistant to drive the crazy Turkish roads, which
thankfully are better here, I give in and rent a
scooter for $16.  

My first stop is Cavusin, 9km from my base in Goreme. 
Here I find another large rock town, and hike around
it. The paths lead to large openings with sheer drops,
and at one point, one has to traverse across a ledge
on  the face of the structure to continue.  There are
decent hand holds in the rock face, but I guess not
too many people take this precarious route.  Behind
Cavusin lies the entrance to the Rose Valley.  Even
without hiking into it, the views of the valley are
spectacular, and in my opinion, are probably the
easiest accessible "good lookout point" of Cappadocia.

I then scoot over to the Zelve open-air museum,
consisting of three deep valleys that once was a cave
city.  I'm really impressed by Zelve, definitely one
of the top sites of Cappadocia.  There are gaping
cavernous formations and caves carved high into them. 
There are also some old cave churches, long dark
tunnels, and steep stairs.  It's like McHappyLand for
me as I climb, tunnel, and trek around the valleys.  I
know the Goreme open-air museum is visited more
because it's closer, has constructed pathways, and
painted church frescoes, but the Zelve open-air museum
is by far more mind-blowing to look at.

From Cavusin, I take a short ride over to Devrent
Valley, better known as the Valley for the Fairy
Chimneys.  The formations here are particularly
interesting because due to a process known as
differential erosion, the fairy chimneys all have
larger rocks atop and resemble mushrooms.  I enjoy a
bit of serene company with these human-esque
formations, before the silence is broken by a tour
bus. 

Being low tourist season and all, I've actually been
enjoying all these sites by myself today, but now I
see why so many vendors shout out "Korean?" to me. 
The Korean tourists get off en masse, do a drive-by 10
minute photo and video shoot of everything from the
entrance to the valley. They even gather to take
pictures of me on my scooter as I'm leaving, as
they're so impressed with another Oriental braving the
Turkish roads.  Nevertheless, I enjoy their brief
company and chat with some of them, as it's kind of
nice to have busy tourists around after so much
solitude.

So it's been a good day so far, but what about the
usual drama?

Well, on the journey back, my scooter starts wobbling
and I discover that my rear tire has gone flat.  I
have a spare on the vehicle and am ready to change it,
but there are no tools packed in the scooter!  Even
worse, the sun has set and darkness falls almost
immediately.  Fortunately, I realize I'm only 1km from
the Zelve museum.  All the surrounding shops have
closed there and the place seems abandoned.  I reach
the phone, only to discover it's out of order. 
Fortunately, I see a light at the top of a closed
restaurant, and discover the owner to be there
grilling a post-Ramazan adana kebap with a friend.  

Here's where I experience genuine Turkish
friendliness.  Not only do they help call the rental
company to send someone to bail me out, they invite me
to have freshly grilled kebap and ayran with them. 
Afterwards, we they show me to a comfy kilim-lined and
carpeted cave room, where we drink cay, talk (thanks
to my Turkish phrase book!), and play with a couple of
adorable puppies until help arrives.  Funny enough, I
actually consider getting a flat tire "worth it" or
even fortunate, considering the memorable hospitable
events that ensued from it.

Not too long after, I'm back at home base in Goreme,
where the associate ridiculously tries to charge me
for the gas I've used.  I complain, and his boss
offers to let bygones be bygones by letting me go on
the gas charge and giving me a great deal on a better
scooter tomorrow.

I'm pretty hesistant to rent from this company again,
but yeah, I'll need the scooter tomorrow.  I have even
more to cover...