Living under a rock gets a new meaning - Kaymakli and a few more stop

Previous post on this all day tour of Kapadokya is here..

It was very hot outside and thankfully we were visiting the biggest attraction in this area. The underground cave city of Kaymakli. Three floors down are open to visitors, the rest are still being inspected for safety. It goes down more floors.

The locals used to live underground while waring armies would cross the surface, sometimes for months. It was temporary refuge, built with a lot of safety features. You enter it through an un assuming gap in the top of what looks like an animal shelter. They would put the animals there and no one would walk past the dung into this hole.. once in, it opened up to so many chambers. 30,000 people lived here to survive. There were rooms, kitchens, labor delivery places, wine storage, water storage, all cramped for space and not easy to navigate without bumping your head but survival demanded it and they managed it within these confines. There was ventilation and temperatures were controlled. Human ingenuity at its best thousands of years ago!

Again, the pictures and videos do NOT even come close to the experience of walking through these underground dwellings. We are a resilient species, but we are also our worst enemy as a species. No other organism kills more of its own kind like we do.

Here are the photos..

and a video highlights reel..

If you go to Kapadokya (or Cappadocia) please make it a point to visit this cave city!

After the cave city tour, we got to drive a bit and get to Pidgeon valley. The whole place has the birds taking over small caves in the wall faces of the rocks. There was a jewelry store across this stop. They sell a gemstone found only in that area that changes color in sunlight. This is called Zultanite! They also mine Onyx which is local to the region. The jewelry was gorgeous and tasteful. If you take a bunch of ladies with you into a store like that.. be mentally prepared for what is to follow.

After this stop we went to the Uchisar castle, which is now a police lookout point. We can only see it from below. It is yet another cone which has been holed out into a castle! Got some photos from this place including the dunes facing it. We drove back to our hotel to see a gorgeous sunset, said bye to our fellow tourists and tourguide.

The little one was not feeling well. She wanted local cuisine and I wanted Indian food which would be safe. Was also feeling weird what with going in and out of air conditioning, caves etc. So we went to an Indian place in the village. It was a steep walk down. It was good food. Good service. San walked back up with the little one, while Jr. and me went shopping in the village for magnets and a T-shirt.

We were worried about what was to come the next day.

Fall creek state park

The plan for the long weekend was rest rest and more rest, with some yoga thrown in. However, the hiking group decided that the best recovery is to just get back on the trail when I have been declared to be able to breathe again normally.

If the wife says I am hike worthy.. then guess I am..

We left at 7AM to drive to Scotts valley / Felton area to Henry Cowell state park area. There is a Fall creek state park as part of this elaborate complex of parks.

We hiked the big ben tree trail, the lost empire trail and a few other trails. It was interesting. Four plus miles of downhill and an almost non stop climb back up. Not exactly a starter hike for a guy who has been wondering where all oxygen was going after it passed through his nose.

There were Zero benches on this trail. So no bench photos.. I did stop a lot to take pictures..

There was plenty of water in the creek and the waterfalls were amazing!

The trees, the berries, the banana slugs, it was an interesting hike.. and the mosquitos..

standing inside the hollow of a burnt out tree that still stands is an amazing experience. These trees are hundreds of years old!

After the hike we stopped on the way in Felton at Ambrosia to get some Indian buffet.. have not had a buffet lunch in a long time. There was a lot of stuff for non-veg folks. I did not get my money’s worth, but the food was great! The daal and naan were fantastic.

Here is a video highlights reel..

A few things about this hike. It is not 8 miles. It is closer to 10. So don’t believe the comments on websites. The hike is moderately hard at places. It was pleasant and a better me would have had a lot more fun. Finally, there is plenty to see on this trail and it is mostly shaded. No benches but plenty of amazing views and the creeks full of water added vibrant views.

We might visit other trails in this state park area soon!

Cruising the Danube in Budapest

The previous post in this series is here..

Note this was July of 2024! Just getting to blog about it..

We flew from Zadar to Budapest on RyanAir..It was a short and sweet flight. Once at the Budapest Airport we took a Taxi straight to our hotel (The Danubius Astoria in City center) and after checking in, we came out to get another taxi to go to the docks. The check in at the hotel took a few extra minutes as there was a line. We had tickets(thanks to viator) for what we thought was a sunset cruise in the river Danube. Had to race there. So we got an Uber. Note that there is a lot of one way streets in Budapest and it reminded me of Chennai. Crossing the road and getting an Uber in the direction you are going will save you a good 10 minutes and money! We had just started exploring the city and learned this lesson the hard way. Turned out the sun set only after our cruise finished.. Still it was a nice evening spent seeing the city from the river. We would get to see the city the next morning anyways.

Here are the photos from the cruise. 

The viator site made a big deal about this tour coming with a "drink". There was champagne.. but we asked them for juice instead and they were not expecting that! 

it was alternating between capturing things on the side of the river, taking selfies or handing the phone to the couple from UK who shared the table with us to click photos of us.. spent two hours doing that!

We were already craving some Indian food and were told to check out a place by friends. Initially we thought we could walk to the Indian resaurant from the cruise but it was a long walk and we were not sure if we would make it in time. So we got an Uber. 

This restaurant called "Indigo, flavors of India" in Buda area, was really posh and the food and service was just fantastic. 

After we had our fill, we decided to take another Uber back to our hotel. It was time for a hot shower and get some much needed sleep!

Video highlight of the cruise

We did get a good nights rest and the next morning, had to find some breakfast (not included in the hotel) before going on another little adventure.