Cappadocia.......world heritage site.

I'm not going to bore you with a bog standard tourist blog about Cappadocia. All the details are here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappadocia

But in a sentence.....It is a region in Turkey where weird geology and erosion have produced a truly amazing landscape.

It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which usually is the kiss of death for anywhere interesting, as it is guaranteed to be on the itinerary of every tour operator from Tokyo to Toronto, and indeed we did meet some Canadians and Japanese.

I'm not a fan of mainstream tourism, but hats off to the Turks, they have managed to preserve the site and cater for the tourists with a bit of flair and panache.

I've heard horror stories of other equally ranking places, such as Machu Picchu in Peru, where they literally have to quota the tourists in and out, and Angkor Wat in Cambodia, which has developed so chaotically that a whole shanty town has erupted on its outskirts.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find it not a tourist hell hole. Enough said.

So the interesting things I discovered, as well as the usual stuff, was that the local economy used to be based on bird shit. The rock formations are so soft and the indigenous pigeons so numerous, that the locals carved out pigeon lofts in the rock, with traps underneath, so they could scrape out the shit, which is a fantastic fertiliser. Sometimes called Guano......there used to be mountains of it on remote sea islands, all now raped and pillaged by various empires. Bird shit used to be the best natural fertiliser on the planet.

They also carved out dwellings, but there's nothing special about that, people always use whatever is locally available.

Luda was a bit off colour the first day, so I took to the bike, and by accident found that an off road bike is by far and away the best way to experience this region. It is criss crossed by dirt tracks, and although I am not a serious off road biker, I had an absolute ball.

We found a camp site with an amazing view, and for the first time in months, rubbed shoulders with some long term travellers like ourselves, many of them on their way East - Iran, Pakistan and beyond. Brave souls. One Swiss couple had driven all the way to Ankara to apply for visas for onward travel to Iran, Pakistan, and India, only to be told that they can only apply from Switzerland!!

The next day we took a walk down one of the deeply eroded canyons, and in the evening we saw the sky full of hot air balloons. Ballooning is quite an industry here, the conditions and landscape making for a "once in a life-time experience" for the tourists. Unfortunately the sky was cloudy and the photos didn't turn out, but there are lots on the net.

The souvenir shops were full of quality gear, and half decent prices, although we didn't buy much. Then I found a guy in a shop selling Turkish music CD's. I had a really nice experience with him, telling him what I liked, and asking him to compile what he thought I would like, Turkish Style, based on my description.

I now have a collection of contemporary Turkish style music, which fits in quite nicely with my collection.

We drove out of Cappadocia, World Heritage Site, full of tourists and tour companies, and all that goes with it, with a contented smile, and a respectful nod to the Turkish authorities and the locals.