Neil by the bus in the snow
The name of the game today was COLD!!! We awoke to a fresh snowfall – totally unexpected after the glorious windless night the night before. The snow did disappear towards the end of the day, but it remained absolutely bitter for the entire duration of our traipsing around today.
First stop was the underground city of Kaymakli – which was built in the 6th to the 10th centuries. What an amazing place. If the official guide is to be believed, the city was about 8 stories underground (not all of them excavated) and could house several thousand people. Our guide Rashid, indicated that it was more likely that people moved from section to section, and there were only a few hundred people living here at any one time.
Karla in a winery in the underground city
The tunnels were extremely small to get from section to section – certainly not everybody’s cup of tea. But, the half-squat, half-shuffle was worth it to see the rooms that lay beyond the small tunnels. One of them was a winery – so Karla had to stop for a visit…
The snow covered hills, and amazing landscape, made for an interesting bus ride – nobody fell asleep on this trip!!! We stopped at a carpet place, where we were given demonstrations of how the various carpets are made, saw how silk was spun (fascinating) and then moved onto the main hall where we were given a feed and a drink and then explanations of the various carpets in anticipation of purchase. You’ll all be pleased to know that BsKnee didn’t make any investments in this place – but our fellow tour group people certainly made up for us.
Goreme
Göreme is a World Heritage Site – and rightly so. The area is a large monastic settlement occupied from about the 2nd century – and there are some pretty impressive things to see. Most startling was the apple church (about 10th century) – with some intact fresoces painted on plaster. The shame about the whole place is that it is subject to erosion – so will unlikely be here forever. Glad we’ve seen it!!!
Travelling between all the places we visited today, exposed us to the incredible geographical features, such as camel rock, fairy chimneys (one is called the three sisters) and rock formations of various colours. The landscape is truly amazing – and having the extra romanticism of snow around the place certainly added to the experience.
What a disappointment it’s been so cold for you in T. Still, it can only get better (fingers crossed). So please you enjoyed your day today as I was beginning to get the impression you were becoming disappointed with this trip. The Cappodiccia area is certainly unique.
Prices are to increase at Zealandia (Karori Sanctuary) from April 2nd to pay for the new $17m visitors centre. It will cost $18 to see the valley (previously $15) and $28 to see the exhibition and the valley.
ASB employee Stephen Versalko was jailed yesterday for 6 years. He defrauded mainly elderly clients of nearly $18m to fund a nine year blowout of sex, booze and property buying. An overseas client blew the whistle on him when she thought there were similarities to what US fraudster Bernie Madoff had done.
This year the NZ Maori will get to play matches against Ireland (in Rotorua) and England (in Napier).
Weather is fine and sunny (and set to remain that way at least for the next 3 days) for the OZ v NZ test starting at the Basin today.
Will be interesting to see how the Pulse will go against the Tatix in Chch on Monday evening. Yesterday the advert for today’s Friday Sport said ‘From useless to hopeless – can the Pulse do better in season 3.” Fingers crossed they can beat the depleted Tatix. Other NZ games are Mystics v Thundrbirds (Auck, Sat) and Steel v Fever (In’gill, Sun).
Cheers, Jan
Hi Guys!!
Pleased you’re cold as well!!! Made it to Beijing at 5.40am and a balmy -2c! We made it the hotel, checked in and had a shower and food and we where were out touring by 9am. We had a great guide and driver for the day. We went to Tiananmen Square first which was pretty cool and snowing.
Then we headed across the road to the Forbidden City – this place is awesome!!!! The detail in the buildings and the set up of the whole complex is impressive for 1421!
We then headed off to the Great Wall – and a great wall it is!!! So steep in parts – and it was alot colder here than in the city. Pretty impressive. had lunch at the great wall – real chinese food is awesome!!! NZ dumplings just don’t compare…
We had had a conversation in passsing with our tour guide about national drinks and we got talking about tea… so she surprised us by taking to a traditional chinese tea ceremony. This was our favourite part of the day. She took us into the ”real’ beijing, where tourists don’t go – tiny little street with lanterns hanging all the way down the street… so cool. The tea house was old school building with a traditional court yard. We went into a little room and sat a table and got taught how to drink and prepare tea. We got to try 6 different teas and we loved all but one fruity flavour. These were far better quality and cheaper than the flash expensive tea shops in Wellington. So needless to say we bought lots of tea and these really cool teacups with strainers. Since this was not in our tour plan, we were stoked.
We got dropped at the silk Market and the bargaining began. I kept my mouth shut and Brendan did all the talking – he is GOOD!!! Other tourists were impressed with his hagling skills. After and hour or so there, we hit a wall and headed home and slept for 10 hours. About to check out and hit the streets and head to Hong Kong this afternoon… Can’t wait.
Beijing is a really cool city and not what I expected.
Anyway… talk later
Love Me!!