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बुर्ज बिच – इस्तांबूल – टर्की
टर्की मध्ये असंख्य सुंदर सामुद्रि किनारे आहेत. साधारण ०३ महिने इथे उन्हाळा असतो. तेव्हा इथल्या सुंदर बीचेस वर पर्यटकांची गर्दी असते. अश्याच एका बीच वर आम्ही सबंध दिवस मज्जा केली. भरती च्या वेळीस इथे काईट (पतंग) सुर्फिंग चालते. म्हणजेच पतंगीच्या साहाय्याने किनाऱ्यावरच्या लाटण वर भरती च्या वेळेस हा आडवेंतुरे स्पोर्टस चालतो. टर्कीच्या किनारपट्टी वर जास्तीत जास्त उथळ समुद्र आहे त . म्हणजेच जिथे आपण पोहू शकतो आणि मस्त थंड हवा आणि गरम पाण्याची मज्जा घेऊ शकतो. इस्तान्बुल पासून तासाभराच्या पेक्षा कमी अंतरा वर(०४ चाकी वाहनांमधून जाताना)आहे किलियॉस बीच आहे. इथे अनेक बिचेस आहेत कोणत्या ही बिच वर जाऊन तुम्ही दिवस घालवू शकता. काही बिचेस वर एन्ट्री फ्री आहे. तर काही बिचेस वर छोटा मोठा शुल्क आहे. पर्यटन स्थळ असल्या मुळे भाषेचा प्रॉब्लेम सहज सहजी येत नाही. तुम्ही इंग्रजी भाषेचा वापर करू शकता. काही बिचेस वर तुम्ही तुमचा जेवण न्हेऊ शकता किंवा तिथे असेल तेच जेवण विकत घेऊ शकता. टर्कीच्या सगळ्या सणांना ओपन डायनिंग चालू असते व सगळे पेय पाधारत घेऊ शकता. स्वच्छते बाबतीत इथे चांगले नियम आहेत. खाण्या पिण्याचे उरलेले सामान समुद्रात न टाकता ते व्यवस्थित डिस्पोज केले जाते.
मला काही अजुन व्यवस्तीत पोहता येत नाही. पण समुद्र किनाऱ्यावरच्या लाटा नेहमीच आपल्याला खेचून घेत असतात. मी किनाऱ्या वर राहून मस्त लाटांची मज्जा घेतली आणि थरारक काईट सुरफींग बघण्याचा अनुभव घेतला. बुर्ज बिच वर (किलियोस मधील अनेक बिचेस पैकी एक बुर्ज बिच आहे.) काइट बोर्ड सुर्फिंग क्लब सुद्धा आहेत. तिथे तुम्ही जाऊन या अडव्हेंटचरचा आनंद घेऊ शकता. या बीच वर जाण्याचा रस्ता बोआजची (Boğaziçi University, g silent) युनिव्हर्सिटी मधून आहे. सेक्युरिटी असल्या मुळे आम्ही हा बीच निवडला. मी इथे स्थानिक म्हणून भाषा सुद्धा बोलू शकत होती व आम्ही स्वताःचे वाहन घेऊन गेलो होतो. किंवा भारतीय ड्रायविंग लायसेन्स वर तुम्ही कार रेंट करू शकता आणि चालवू शकता. जर तुम्ही टुरीस्ट असाल तर सिटी सेन्टर पासून सरियर च्या दिशेने जाणाऱ्या बस मध्ये आरामात जाऊ शकता. बस मध्ये विचारल्यास ते तुम्हाला कुठे उतरायचे ते सांगतील. त्याबाबतीत टर्किश मंडळी मदत करतात. सुरुवातीला आपल्याला वाटतं की ते आपल्या कडे रागाने वगैरे बघत आहेत. पण त्यांच्या सोबत बोलतांना जाणवत कि ते खूप मदतगार सामान्य लोक आहेत. जिथे बस उतरवेल तिथे तुम्हाला छोटी गाडी मिळेल. माणसी लिरा आकारून पाहिजे त्या बीच वर नेऊन सोडतील. सरियर ला तुम्ही फेरी म्हणजे वपूर (vapur) ने सुद्धा जाऊ शकता. एकच ट्रॅव्हल कार्ड सगळ्या पब्लिक ट्रान्सपोर्ट साठी लागेल. परतण्याच्या वेळा मात्र नक्की करून ठेवा. बस चे वेळापत्रक बघून ठेवा. कारण आम्ही या आदी इथे मत्रिणी मैत्रिणी गेलो होतो. वेळापत्रक बघुनही शेवटची बस चुकली. शेवटची बस नाही चुकवली मग काय मज्जा केली ना ? आम्ही शेवटची बस चुकली. असा म्हंटल्या वर तुम्हाला धावत जाण्याऱ्या ०३ मुली डोळ्या पुढे दिसल्या असतील पण आमची स्थिती त्यात पेक्षा वाईट होती. तसं असतं तर बस चालकाने नक्की बस थांबवली असती. तुम्ही जर मला इंस्टाग्राम 03kanchan वर फॉलो करत असाल तर तुम्हाला हे माहित आहे कि हे मी इथे नेहमी केलं आहे. नवरा गाडी घेऊन परत घ्याला येईल असं काही शक्य नव्हते कारण जरी अंतर, तासा भरापेक्षा कमी असलं तरी संध्याकाळी खूप सारे सिग्नल मुळे ट्रॅफिक कोंडी होते. भाषा येत असल्या मुळे आम्ही एका जोडप्या कडे लिफ्ट मागितली होती. तेव्हा त्यांनी आम्हाला जवळच्या मेट्रो स्थानकावर उतरविण्यास तयार झाले. पॉश गाडी मध्ये वाळू भरले कपडे. तयातून आम्ही परदेशी नागरिक काय विचार करतील, म्हणून कपडे बराच वेळ झटकून वृत्तपत्र अंथरून गाडीत बसलो. पर्यटक असताना काही गोष्टी नेहमी लक्षात ठेवा. धर्म, पॉलिटिक्स, जेन्डर, आवड निवड अश्या अनेक विषयांवर तुमचे जरी ठाम मत असलले तरी परदेशात असताना भाषा नेहमी सौम्य, आदरार्थी आणि त्यापेक्षा ज्यास्त न्यूट्रल असणे गरचेचे आहे . उदाहरणार्त ज्यांनी आम्हाला लिफ्ट दिली होती ते टर्कीश डॉक्टर जोडपे होते. म्हणून त्याना इंग्रजी भाषा येत होती. त्यानीं आम्हाला विचारलं की तुम्हाला भारतीय नागरिक म्हणून टर्की देश कसा वाटला? मला तर हा देश निसर्ग आणि संस्कृतीनने समृद्ध वाटला म्हणून मी तास म्हंटलं. तर आमच्यातला एका मुलीने थेट तिसऱ्या देशाचे नाव घेत म्हंटलं आम्हाला तर तिकडे जायचे आहे. या वाक्यामुळे त्यांचं मन थोडे आमच्या प्रति उडाल्या सारखा झालं. मैत्रिणाला चिमटा काढून गप बसवला आणि आम्ही इथे काय काय मज्जा करतो, कोणत्या लोकल टर्किश गोष्टी आम्हाला खायला आवडतात, कुठे फिरते हे सांगून त्यांना परत पोहचे पर्यंत मन वळवण्याचा प्रयत्न केला. इथे त्यांना कुतूहल असतं एक तर शाकाहारी भारतीयांचे व दुसरे मांसाहारी भारतीयांच्या निवडीचे. त्यामुळे. अश्या सगळ्या संवादामध्ये तुमची बाजू मांडताना ती योग्य रित्या मांडणे फार आवश्यक आहे. स्वतःच्या मायभूमी मध्ये राहत असताना तर आपण खूप मज्जा करतोच पण त्या सिमे बाहेर जेव्हां आपण पडतो तेव्हा आपल्याला विविध प्रकारचे जग अनुभवायला मिळते. कोणत्या प्रश्नावर रिऍक्ट न करता त्याला योग्य प्रकारे समजून घेऊन त्याचे उत्तर दिले तर लोक तुमच्या सोबत चांगल्या प्रकारे मिसळू शकता. कदाचित आमहा तिघीं ची वागणूक हि त्या जोडप्या साठी भारतीय नागरिकांवर मत घडवू शकते.
पूर्वी पार चालत आलेल्या भारतीय नागरीकां बद्दलचे कुतूहल वेगळे आहे. भारतीय नागरिक हा एक सुजाण, सुसंस्कृत, सभ्य आणि जागा पेक्षा ०४ पावलं पुढे असतो. असे परदेशात राहणाऱ्या लोकांना भारतीयां बद्दल नेहमी वाटते. मला लहान असताना नेहमीच वाटायचे कि आपण जे अनुभव घेण्यासाठी परदेशात जातो. तर अशी कोणती गोष्ट आहे जी बघण्या साठी परदेशी पर्यटक भारतात येत असतील? निसर्ग सौन्दर्य तर आहेच पण त्यांच्या कडे असणाऱ्या सुखं सुविधा आपल्या कडे नाहीत. मग नेमका काय बघण्यासाठी किंवा अनुभवण्यासाठी हे पर्यटक आपली कडे येत असतील? याच उत्तर मला भारता बाहेर राहून समझल. कदाचित हा तो अनुभव आहे ज्या शब्दात सांगता येत नाहीत. परदेशी पर्यटकांना भारतात आल्या नंतर बऱ्याच अडचणी असता. ते आपल्या कडे खूप मोठ्या अपेक्षा घेऊन येतात. अशी बरीच परदेशी मंडळी मला भेटली आहेत जे आयुष्यात पैश्यांची विकत घेतायेईल अशी सर्व सुख -सोई, मौज – मज्जा करून झाल्या आहेत. हीच मंडळी नंतर अध्यात्मिक वृद्धी साठी आध्यत्मिक शांती साठी भारताला भेट देतात. काहींना नुसती माहिती असते. ती म्हणजे भारताची विशाल समृद्धी. अश्या वेळीस जेव्हा त्यांच्या देशात ते आपल्याला आपण पर्यटक म्हणून भेटतो तेव्हा त्या सगळ्या गोष्टी आपल्या कडून माहिती करण्याचा प्रयत्न करतात. अश्या वेळी. तुमचा छोटा संवाद त्यांना अखंड भारतभुमीची झलक देणारा असतो. जेव्हा कधी तुम्ही पर्यटनासाठी कुठे हि जाल तेव्हा तुम्हाला हा अनुभव तुमच्या सोबत झाल्येल्या संवादात नक्की येईल.
प्रत्येकाला पर्यटक म्हणून निरनिराळे अनुभव आवडतात. मित्र मैत्रिणीच्या सोबत तर हि मज्जा वेगळीच असते(होताना नाही. होऊन झाल्यावर सांगताना. वर्तमान नाही – भूतकाळात). बस चुकणे , रस्ता हरवणं. पसे संपणे, वस्तू हरवणं, खरचटण, धडपडणं, फुकट मध्ये जेवण किंवा लिफ्ट घेणं हे तर सगळ्यांनाच आवडतेच. त्या जोडप्याला आमच्या मध्ये तो अल्हड पणा तर दिसलाच असेल पण त्या सोबत बिनधास्त मज्जा करणाऱ्या मुली सुद्धा दिसल्या असतील. भारतीय असणं हि आपल्या खांद्यावर एक मोठी जवाबदारी आहे. आपल्यासारखीच आहेत हे भारतीय पण. तरी किती वेगळे आहेत ! त्यातून मराठी म्हणजे विचारूच नका.
इथे बराच काही आहे अनुभवण्या सारखं अप्रतिम सुंदर निसर्ग, विविध खान पान, संस्कृती. एक सांगायचं राहून गेलं समुद्राचं पाणी छान पारदर्शक आहे. तर उंडरवॉटर फोटोग्राफी आणि स्नोर्केल्लिंग चा अनुभव जगा वेगळाच आहे. कधी कधी एखादा जेली फिश सोबर पोहताना दिसेल. इथे समुद्र सफाई सुद्धा चालू असते आणि नागरिक सुद्धा सुजाण आहेत. मास्यांसोबत पोहण्या साठी तुम्हाला स्कुबा डायविंग ची आवशकता नाही लागणार. समुद्र किनाऱ्यावर पोहताना सुद्धा तुम्हाला पारदर्शक पाण्यामध्ये छोटे मोठे मासे किंवा कासव दिसून येतील. खरंच स्वर्गीय आहे हा अनुभव. आयुष्यात एकदातरी नक्की घ्यावा.
टर्कीच्या दक्षिणेकडील किनारपट्टी जितकी अप्रतिम सुंदर आहे तितकीच उत्तरी किनारपट्टी सुद्धा सुंदर आहे. या दोन्ही प्रदेशात म्हणजेच उत्तरे कडे ब्लॅक सी व दक्षिणे कडे भूमध्य समुद्र. या प्रवासाचा अनुभ सुद्धा मी मराठी आणि इंग्रजी मधून वाचकां पर्यंत आणणार आहे. बरेच ब्लॉग इंगागी भाषेत प्रकाशित आहेत. तुम्हाला माझ्या ब्लॉग्स बद्दल काय आवडल? तुम्हाला माझ्या विडोईस मध्ये अजून काय पहायला आवडेल ते मला नक्की कमेंट द्वारे लिहून कळवा.
नवीन ब्लॉग्स च्या अपडेट्स साठी किंवा नवीन ब्लॉगची नविन लिंक मी नेहमी इंस्टाग्राम मध्ये किंवा फेसबुक पेज वर टाकत असते. नक्की वाचा! या अनुभवातले टिपलेले छायाचित्र आणि ध्वनीचित्रण तुम्ही माझ्या युट्यूब चॅनेल वारी The divine Journey! किंवा फेसबुक पेज वारी The divine Journey! यावर पण बघू शकता. काही गमतीदार छायाचित्र माझ्या इंस्टाग्राम 03kanchan वर सुद्धा बघायला मिळतील.
वारी – अनुभव प्रवासाचा आणि प्रवास जीवनाचा !
गणी गोमी
कॅपडॉकिया
प्रिय रसिक वाचक,
आज मला खूप आनंद होत आहे कारण मी माझ्या विविधांगी पर्यटन अनुभवातून जे काही मोलांचे क्षण जमवू शकले ते मी माझ्या पहिल्या मराठी ब्लॉग मधून लिहण्याचा प्रयत्न करत आहे. YouTube Channel जे तुमचे प्रेम भेटले तसेच तुमचे प्रेम या उपक्रमात ही भेटावे अशी माझी प्रामाणिक इच्छा आहे.
मी भेट दिलेल्या नैसर्गिक स्थळाबद्दल विस्तृत अनुभव तुम्हा ते वाचकांपर्यंत पोहोचवण्यासाठी नेहमी प्रमाणे प्राधान्य देत आहे. मी माझ्या अनुभवातून रंगविलेले आभासी दृष्य भविष्यात तुमची तुर्की देशातील कॅपॅडोशिया येथे प्रवासा साठी नक्कीच मदत करेल. मी यात स्थानिक खाद्यभ्रमंती, संस्कृती, परंपरा आणि वारसा नमूद करण्याचा प्रयत्न केला आहे. यात तुर्कीबद्दल एक विशेष गोष्ट नमूद करताना आनंद होतो की कॅलेंडर वर्षात कधीही, कोणत्याही जागी तुम्ही भेट दिली तरी फोटो क्लिक करण्याचा मोह तुम्हांस आवरता येणार नाही. बहुधा तो मग लहरी समुद्र किनारे असेल किंवा तिथे वसलेली समृद्ध खेडी असतील किंवा इवल्याशा डोळ्यांनी जणू आपल्याकडे पाहत असणारी शहरातील घरे असोत आणि हो, तेथील लोकांची नमस्कार करण्याची पद्धत “मेरहेबा असो!” तुमच्या या विलोभनीय स्थळांच्या भेटीमुळे सुंदर अविस्मरणीय आठवणी तुमच्या मनात कायमचे घर करतील. तुमच्या कॅमेरातले टिपलेले क्षण तुम्हाला आयुष्यभर साथ देतील. माझा हा अनुभव इतरांना सांगताना, तो क्षण पुन्हा जगण्याचा मला खूप आनंद होतो.
कॅपॅडोशिया हे फक्त तुर्कीमधले नव्हे तर जागतिक पातळीवर प्रसिद्ध असे पर्यटन स्थळ आहे. तुमच्या आवडीनुसार तुम्ही येथील स्थळांना भेट देऊ शकता. जर तुम्हाला निसर्गातील रम्य दऱ्या आवडत असतील, तर त्या दऱ्या तुमची तिथे आवडीने वाट पाहत आहेत. जर तुम्हाला पुरातत्त्व स्थळात रुची असेल तर हो कॅपॅडोशिया हे उत्खननात सापडलेल्या शहरांसाठी प्रसिद्ध आहे जे युनेस्को वर्ल्ड हेरिटेज स्थळांच्या यादीत नोंदवले आहे. जर तुम्हाला मृत ज्वालामुखी आणि त्यांच्या भूतकाळातील भूगर्भ हालचाली पाहायला आवडेल तर हो तुमच्या इच्छेनुसार पूर्तता करण्यासाठी कॅपॅडोशिया समर्थ आहे. जर विविध वनस्पती, विविध प्राणी पाहणे, नैसर्गिक मौल्यवान रत्ने जमवणे अशी तुमची पाश्र्वभूमी असेल, तर तुम्ही योग्य ठिकाणी आहात. विलक्षण मोहक देखावे, उंच टेकड्या पर्वत रांगा, नद्यांना छेडणाऱ्या दऱ्या आणि नक्कीच याबरोबरच वाहत आलेला त्याचा समृद्ध इतिहास या सगळ्या नैसर्गिक वारश्यासाठी कॅपॅडोशिया सुपरिचीत आहे. या सगळ्या कारणांचा समुच्चय असा की भूगर्भतज्ञ असो, पुरातत्वतज्ञ असो, इतिहासकार असो, निसर्गासाठी हौशी उत्साही असो, छायाचित्रकार असो किंवा पर्यटक, असो या सर्वांचा हा स्वर्ग अनुभवण्यासाठी नक्कीच ते नेहमीच उत्साहाचा भाग असेल.
आमच्या टूर मार्गदर्शकाद्वारे नमूद केल्यानुसार कॅपॅडोशिया हे नाव फार पूर्वीच्या पर्शियन उत्पत्तीवरून काढले गेले असून त्याचा अर्थ कट प तुक्या म्हणजे सुंदर घोड्याची भूमी असा होतो. या क्षेत्राने वेगवेगळ्या काळामध्ये वेगवेगळ्या संस्कृतींचा अनुभव घेतला आहे. मी ऑक्टोबर मध्ये या ठिकाणाला भेट दिली होती. आपण चित्रांमधून पाहू शकता की यात हिरव्या आणि पिवळ्या रंगाच्या दोन्ही छटा आहेत.
स्थान:
भौगोलकदृष्ट्या कॅपॅडोशिया हा मध्य अनाटोलियन प्रदेशातील तीन वेगवेगळ्या प्रांतात वसलेला आहे. बहुंताशी नेवशेहीर प्रांतात, अंशतः कायसेरी प्रांतात आणि अंशतः अक्सारे प्रांतात वसलेला आहे.
पोहोचण्याचे मार्ग:
हे ठिकाण हवाई वाहतूक, रेल्वे वाहतूक आणि रस्ते वाहतुकीच्या वेगवेगळ्या पर्यायांसह अतिशय उत्तम रितीने जोडलेले आहे. आमच्या प्रवासाच्या वेळेची बचत करण्यासाठी आम्ही तुर्की एयरलाईनचे उड्डाण टी.ए.व्हि. इस्तंबूल अतातुर्क विमानतळ पासून नेवशेहीर कापडोक्य विमानतळापर्यंत घेतले. आम्ही सुमारे ६:१५ वाजता सुरुवात केली आणि ७:३५ वाजता प्रस्थान केले. परतीच्या प्रवासासाठी आम्ही तीच एअरलाइन्स आणि विमानतळ घेतले आम्ही १९:३५ वाजता प्रवास सुरू केला आणि २०:४५ वाजता परतलो. कायसेरी येथे एक पर्यायी विमानतळ आहे, जे कॅपॅडोशिया प्रदेशाशी जोडलेले आहे. आम्ही घेतलेला एक Cave Hotel क्षेत्राजवळ सर्वात जवळ आहे. आम्ही मार्गदर्शनासाठी टूर कंपनी भाड्याने घेतल्यामुळे आम्हाला विमानतळ वाहतुकीसाठी पिक आणि ड्रॉपची सुविधा देण्यात आली. साहस किंवा कुतूहल म्हणून लोक इस्तंबूलहून रस्त्याच्या मार्गाने किंवा रोड ट्रीपचा मार्ग पसंद करतात आणि या मार्गात आलेली अनेक ठिकाणेत्याचा डोळ्यांना सुखद वाटणारा प्रवास.
वेळ / हवामान
भेट देण्यासाठी सर्वोत्तम हवामान कोणते आहे याचा विचार करत असल्यास तर काळजी करू नका कारण या ठिकाणी वर्षाच्या कोणत्याही वेळी भेट दिली जाऊ शकते . कारण हा निसर्गनिर्मित असा विलोभनीय देखावा, सेटअप आहे. आपण अॅक्टिविटी नुसार विचार केल्यास, उन्हाळा हा एक उत्तम पर्याय असावा. उन्हाळा म्हणजे मे ते ऑक्टोबर दरम्यान अन्यथा हिवाळ्यामध्ये वातावरण थंडगार असते. आमच्या टूरच्या गटात, काही पर्यटक ज्यांची तुर्कीमार्गे ट्रान्झिट फ्लाइट होती आणि त्यांनी फक्त कॅपॅडोशिया भेटीचा निर्णय घेतला होता. आपण उपलब्ध ऑनलाइन पर्यायांवर तपासणी केल्यावर, या क्षेत्रामध्ये आणि आसपास आपण करू शकता अशा अनेक अॅक्टीविटीज आहेत. त्यापैकी काही उदाहरण म्हणून कॅपॅडोशियाचे Hot air ballon हवाई दृश्य, सुंदर व शांत नदीच्या खोल द-या मधून trekking, घोड्यावरुन फिरणे , ATV चालविणे आणि भूमिगत शहरे आणि बरेच काही तुम्ही पाहू शकता आणि त्याचा आनंद लुटू शकता. आमची भेट शरद ऋतूच्या सुरूवातीस आणि उन्हाळ्याच्या शेवटी होती. आम्ही हिरव्यागार तसेच शरद ऋतूतील तपकिरी रंगाचे सर्व छटा पाहू शकलो. सकाळी आणि संध्याकाळी तापमानात थंडी होती. या बाबतीत मार्गदर्शन करण्यासाठी आपल्या हवामानाचा अंदाज किंवा पूर्वानुमान नेहमीच मदत करू शकते. आमच्या भेटी दरम्यान असलेले वातावरण हे आमच्या दृष्टीने सर्वोत्तम वातावरण होते.
क्षेत्राचा भूवैज्ञानिक सेटअप
मला असे वाटते की मी, भूविज्ञान या विषयामध्ये माझा फील्ड ट्रिप अहवाल लिहित आहे. पण खरे सांगू, या माहितीशिवाय त्यास भौगोलिक पर्यटन Geo Tourism दर्जा देणे शक्य होणार नाही. त्याचा नैसर्गिक सेटअप आहे. फक्त तेथे जाऊन फोटो क्लिक करणे आणि या निसर्गात वेळ घालवणे हाच एकमेव हेतू नाही. इथे लपलेला अभ्यास हा इथे असलेल्या क्रियाशील नैसर्गिक शक्तीची आणि आश्चर्यकारक नैसर्गिक चमत्कार घडवण्याची प्रक्रिया सांगणे महत्त्वाचे आहे! एक सामान्य माणूस ज्याने कधीही भूगर्भशास्त्राचा अभ्यास केला नाही परंतु या ठिकाणी भेट दिली की ही माहिती वाचण्यात आपोआप त्यास रस वाटू लागेल. या दरम्यान मला एक गोष्ट ध्यानात आली की बहुतांश उपलब्ध ब्लॉग किंवा कोणतेही इतर ऑनलाइन स्रोत केवळ मुक्काम, भोजन, संस्कृती, तिचा वारसा आणि अॅक्टिविटीज संबंधित माहिती आपल्याला सहज देतील पण मला खात्री आहे की हे सुंदर भू-पृष्ठ कसे तयार होतात याबद्दल आपण येथे वाचल्यानंतर आपल्याला ही जागा अधिक आकर्षणाचा केंद्रबिंदू वाटेल.
या प्रदेशाचा टेक्टोनिक सेटअप समजून घेण्यासाठी आपल्याकडे प्लेट्सच्या हालचालीवर विस्तृत दृष्टिक्षेप टाकणे आवश्यक आहे. संदर्भ प्रतिमेमध्ये पाहिल्यानुसार (केवळ शिक्षणाचा हेतू) देश तुर्की टक्कर होणार्या प्लेट्सच्या सक्रिय दोषांवर स्थित आहे. भौगोलिक भूतकाळात (कोट्यावधी वर्षांपूर्वी) अरबी प्लेट, यूरेशियन प्लेट आणि अॅनाटोलियन प्लेट्सची टक्कर झाली आहे. कॉन्टिनेंटल प्लेट्सच्या या धक्क्याने सबडक्शन झोन (प्लेट दुसर्या प्लेटच्या खाली सरकते) आणि उन्नत पर्वत (प्लेट इतर प्लेटच्या वर सरकते) आणि दिफॉर्म फोल्ड आणि फॉल्ट स्ट्रक्चर्सला जन्म दिला, ज्यास तुर्की ओलांडून रस्ते वाहतुकीने प्रवास करताना मोठ्या प्रमाणात पाहिले जाऊ शकते. भूमध्य सागरी प्रदेशात प्लेट मार्जिनसह सबडक्शन अजूनही सक्रिय आहे यावरून फॉल्ट झोनसह भूकंपाच्या क्रियांची संख्या आपल्या लक्षात येते.
या ठिकाणी आणि आजूबाजूच्या प्रदेशात आपल्याला विविध ज्वालामुखीचे शंकू दिसू शकतात (लाल वर्तुळात चिन्हांकित केलेली गूगल उपग्रह प्रतिमा पहा). हे या प्रदेशात हद्दपार करणार्या इग्निस क्रियाकलापांचा थेट पुरावा देते. ह्या ज्वालामुखीच्या संकटांना स्ट्रॅट ज्वालामुखी आणि दंड शंकू असे म्हणतात. ज्वालामुखीचा टप्पा ‘विलुप्त ज्वालामुखी’ चा आहे. भौगोलिक भूतकाळात हे ज्वालामुखी ज्वालामुखीची राख करीत आलेले आहेत. या भागाच्या भूगर्भशास्त्रीय स्थापनेच्या पृष्ठभागावर, नरम खडक हे टणक खडकांनी आच्छादलेले आहेत. याचा अर्थ काय? तर केकच्या थरांची कल्पना करा, केकचा नरम थर हा टणक बिस्किटांच्या थराने आच्छादित असतो. भूगर्भीय भूतकाळात (65 दशलक्ष – 2 दशलक्ष वर्षांपूर्वी) अल्पाइन पर्वतीय इमारत प्रक्रियेदरम्यान, खोल विच्छेदन आणि मोठे depression क्षेत्र तयार झाले. या भेगांमुळे तुर्कीच्या या अनाटोलीयन प्रदेशात ज्वालामुखींच्या निर्मितीमध्ये खोल बसलेला मॅग्मा फुटू शकला. माउंट एर्कीस डोंगर हा नामशेष झालेल्या ज्वालामुखींचा एक अवशेष आहे, जो या प्रदेशातील सर्वांत उंच आहे. माउंट हसन डोंगर हा आणखी एक अवशेष असून नामशेष झालेल्या स्ट्रॅट ज्वालामुखीचा आहे जो या प्रदेशातील दुसर्या क्रमांकाचा मानला आहे. अॅकगेल-नेव्हिहिर या प्रदेशातील तिसरा अवशेष असूून नामशेष काल्डेरा ज्वालामुखी पासून निर्माण झाला आहे. ज्वालामुखींच्या या संचातून फुटलेली खडबडीत आकाराची टफेशस मटेरियल किंवा पायरोक्लास्ट आकाराचा हा आकार पूर्वीच्या भूगोल / पृष्ठभागाच्या उदास भागाच्या आसपासच्या भागात जमा झाला. राख किंवा टेफ्रा लेयरची ही ठेव सुमारे 150 मीटर जाडीची असते.
पूर्वीच्या अस्तित्वातील भूगोलाच्या अस्तित्त्वात असलेल्या depression पायरोक्लास्टिक (आगीचे आणि गरम राखेचे बॉम्ब) मटेरियलच्या गाळांच्या साठवणीमुळे जमिनीचे पठार बनलेले आहे. ही अशी रचना आहे जी नंतर कॉम्पॅक्ट झाली. याला आर्गेप फॉर्मेशन असेही नाव दिले गेले आहे. परिसरातील सर्व मानवनिर्मित वैशिष्ट्ये (लेणी / भूमिगत शहरे) या निर्मितीमध्ये कोरलेली आहेत. काही दशलक्ष वर्षांचे अंतर आहे. या कोट्यावधी वर्षांच्या अंतराच्या नंतर, त्याच्या वर बेसलॅटिक रॉक तयार होण्याचे बाह्य थर आहे. वारा, पाऊस, बर्फ आणि इतर हवामान बदलांच्या या संरचनेच्या प्रदर्शनामुळे, दरी कमकुवत क्षेत्रांतून त्याची झीज होते आणि सतत बदलणारे गरम व थंड हवामान बदल यामुळे हा प्रदेश नैसर्गिकदृष्ट्या सध्याच्या वर्तमान स्थलाकृति तयार झाली आहे. सर्वोत्कृष्ट उदाहरण ‘परी चिमणी एक्सपोजर’.
कॅपॅडोसिया फॉर्मेशन्सची अवस्था :सर्व पर्यटक हे परिसरातील हा नैसर्गिक सेटअप पाहण्यासाठी येतात. क्षेत्राच्या ड्रेनेज पॅटर्नचा भाग त्या भौगोलिक घटकांच्या नियंत्रणामुळे होतो. पृष्ठभाग हा कठोर बेसाल्टिक थर निर्मितीसह संरक्षित आहे आणि पाया हा नरम खडकांचा आहे. पृष्ठभागाच्या भेगामधून पाझरत पृष्ठभागावरुन वाहते पाणी किंवा ठिबकत पडलेले पाणी नरम फॉर्मेशन्स मधून खाली वाहते. तळाशी असलेल्या खडकांच्या मऊ थर झिजतो. अखेरीस याने पिनकल्सच्या निर्मितीस स्ट्रक्चर्स तयार होते. बनविलेले पिनकल्स दिसतात आणि रचनांमध्ये चिमणीसारखे दिसतात. ही प्रक्रिया आजही सुरू आहे. एक टप्पा येतो जिथे हे उभे स्टॅक किंवा पिनकल्स कोसळतात. अॅन्थ्रोपोजेनिक (मानवी क्रियाकलापांचा हस्तक्षेप) क्रिया या नैसर्गिक सेटअपला अधिक नुकसान करण्यासाठी कारणीभूत ठरतात.
कॅपॅडोसिया प्रदेश आणि त्याच्या आसपासच्या भागात काही ठिकाणे खालीलप्रमाणे आहेत. प्रवास पर्यटन नियोजन उत्तम प्रकारे होण्यासाठी तुम्ही स्थानिक पर्यटन कंपनी भाड्याने घ्या. ते खूप जास्त शुल्क आकारत नाहीत. ठिकाणाला भेट देण्यापूर्वी काही स्थानिक ज्ञान असणे केव्हाही चांगले.
उचिसर कॅस्टलहे प्रदेशाच्या सर्वात उंच ठिकाणी बांधले गेलेले आहे. तो पूर्णपणे वेगळा किल्ला आहे. येथे कबरी, बोगदे आणि चर्च आहेत. कोणत्याही ऐतिहासिक किल्ल्यात हे सर्व आढळणे फारच कमी शक्यता असते म्हणून जगात हे स्थान खूपच वेगळे असून त्याचे वेगळेपण या स्थानाने जपले आहे.
गोरेमे ओपन एअर संग्रहालय खुले हवाई संग्रहालय हे या भागावरील धर्म, विशेषत: ख्रिश्चन धर्माचा प्रभाव समजून घेण्यासाठी महत्वाचे आहे. अनेक चांगल्या कारणांमुळे हे सर्वात प्रसिद्ध आकर्षण आहे, ऑर्थोडॉक्स मोंकनी इसवी सन ९०० ते १२०० दरम्यान फ्रेस्कोसह अनेक गुहा-चर्च तयार केल्या आहेत. त्यात प्रवेश शुल्क आकारण्यात येते.
चावुसिन एक जुने गाव प्राचीन ग्रीक गाव. चावुसिन हे गोरेमे पासून ४ किलोमीटर अंतरावरचे गाव आहे. हे जुने गाव मोठ्या प्रमाणात निर्जन आहे कारण हा भाग दगडांच्या दरड कोसळीमुळे ग्रासलेले आहे. चावुसिन येथे आपण चर्च ऑफ जॉन द बाप्टिस्टला भेट देऊ शकता जी वास्तू बहुधा ५ व्या – ६ व्या शतकाची आहे. या गावातून रोज व्हॅलीचे दृश्य उत्तम दिसून येते.
पासाबागी (मोंकची व्हॅली)तीन-डोक्यांची फेअरी चिमणी पाहण्यासाठी सर्वोत्तम स्थान. पासबाग म्हणजे पाशाची व्हाइनयार्ड, आसपास अविश्वसनीय नैसर्गिक खडकाच्या स्वरूपाची रचना आहे; एक नेत्रदीपक देखावा!
पॉटरी कला गॅलरीइ.स.पू. २००० मध्ये लोकांना टर्कीची प्रदीर्घ नदी असलेल्या काझलर्मक नदीच्या भोवती लाल चिकणमाती (टेरा रोसा) आणि ज्वालामुखीच्या टेकड्यांमधून पांढरी चिकणमाती (काऊलिन) मिळू शकली. त्यामुळे फिरत्या चाकांवर त्यांच्या हाताने चिकण मातीला आकार देऊन ते चिकणमाती पासुन भांडी आणि जग बनवून आपल्या दैनंदिन जीवनासाठी वापरु शकले.
दर्व्हेन्ट व्हॅली दर्व्हेन्ट मधील अवशेष तीन व्हॅलीमध्ये पसरलेले आहेत, ज्यात मोठ्या प्रमाणात असलेल्या अनेक चिमुकल्यांची घरे फेअरी चिमणी देखील आहेत.
उर्गुप फेअरी चिमणी कॅप्ससह “फेअरी चिमणी” प्रामुख्याने उर्गुपच्या आसपासच्या भागात आढळतात, शंकूच्या आकाराचे शरीर आणि त्याच्या वर एक बोल्डर आहे. शंकू हा टूफा आणि ज्वालामुखीच्या राखातून बनविला गेला आहे, तर कॅप्स ही लाहर किंवा इग्निमब्राइट सारख्या टणक, अधिक प्रतिरोधक खडकाची आहे. फेअरी चिमणी जे उर्गुपचे प्रतीक आहे ज्यास होली स्पिरिट चिमणी असे ही म्हणतात. आई, वडील आणि मुलगा हे फेअरी चिमणीत एकत्र राहतात.
पॅनोरोमा गोरेमे गोरेमेचे विहंगम दृश्य. गोरेमे शहरातील फेअरी चिमणी पाहताना इतिहासाबद्दल तसेच कॅपॅडोसियाची रचना याबद्दल आपल्याला माहिती मिळेल.
डेरिंकुयु भूमिगत शहर सुमारे ४० मिनिटे प्रवासानंतर, डेरिंकुयु अंडरग्राउंड सिटीमध्ये आगमन झाले. हे भूमिगत शहर प्रथम, रोमन लोकांनी संभाव्य अरबी हल्ल्यांविरूद्ध एक निवारा म्हणून वापरले आणि नंतर स्थानिक लोक नैसर्गिक फ्रीज म्हणून वापरू लागले. कॅपॅडोसिया प्रदेशातील सर्वात खोल भूमिगत शहर डेरिंकुयु आहे. शेलच्या आकारात भूगर्भातील घरे असून एकाचवेळी सुमारे २० हजार लोक राहू शकतात
इहलारा व्हॅली इहलारा कॅनियोन हे डेरिंकोय अंडरग्राउंड सिटीपासून ५२ किमी दूर आहे. साधारण ४५ मिनिटांनंतर, आपण इहलारा व्हॅलीच्या प्रवेशद्वाराजवळ पोहोचतो. इलहारा व्हॅलीचा उगम हा माऊंट हसन आणि अक्साराय प्रांतातील माऊंट मेलेंडिझ यांच्या ज्वालामुखीय कृतीमुळे झाला आहे. लाखो वर्षापासून मेलेंडीझ नदीपासून व्हॅली मध्ये खोदकाम होत असून त्या शिवाय थराला भेगा पडून ते खाली पडतात. अखेरीस, १०० मीटर खोल दरी तयार झाली. संपूर्ण व्हॅली ही १४ किमी लांबी ची आहे. पूर्वी सामान्यत: ख्रिस्ती लोक येऊन भिंतींच्या पेंटिंग्जसह घरे आणि चर्च बनवत असत आणि व्हॅलीच्या वेगवेगळ्या भागात ते ग्रेव्ह रूम कोरत असे. आपण दरीच्या सुमारे ३ ते ५ कि.मी. पर्यंत गिर्यारोहण करू शकता. गिर्यारोहण सुमारे एक तास आणि १५ मिनिटे चालेल. मग आपण बेलिसिर्मा गावात पोहचू. येथे छोटी छोटी रेस्टॉरंट्स आहेत जिथे आपण स्थानिक नदीच्या माशांच्या विविधतेसह काही टर्कीश अन्नाचा आनंद घेऊ शकता.
यप्रखिसार पॅनोरोमा यप्रखिसारमध्ये आपल्याला शंकूच्या आकाराच्या फेअरी चिमणीची उत्कृष्ट उदाहरणे दिसतील. हे क्षेत्र स्टार वॉर्स फिल्म सेटसारखेच असल्याने, यप्रखिसारला “स्टार वॉर्स मूव्ही सेट” म्हणून ओळखले जाते.
सेलीम मठपहिल्या दृष्टीक्षेपात मठ वाड्यासारखे दिसते परंतु आश्रयस्थान, चर्च, चॅपल्स, बेडरूम, स्टोरेज आणि मोठे कॅथेड्रल हे आपल्याला मठ असल्याचे सिद्ध करते. आपल्याला कॅपॅडोसियामधील मठांच्या जीवनाबद्दल माहिती मिळेल.
कबुतर व्हॅलीकबूतर व्हॅलीला पोहचल्यावर, कबुतरे आपणास दरीच्या शिखरावर भेटतील. कबूतरे ही नेहमी कॅप्पॅडोसियन लोकांसाठी महत्वाचे असतात. त्यांची अंडी आणि विष्ठा वेगवेगळ्या हेतूंसाठी वापरल्या जातात. या कारणास्तव, स्थानिक लोकांनी दरीच्या उतारावर त्यांच्यासाठी घरे कोरली आहेत. जेव्हा आपण त्यांना पहाल तेव्हा लोक त्यांना “घरे” का म्हणतात हे आपणास दिसेल.
ओनिक्स कारखाना आपण उचिसरमधील ओनिक्स कारखान्यास भेट देऊ शकता. ओनिक्स एक अर्ध मौल्यवान ज्वालामुखीचा दगड semi precious volcanic rock आहे. ज्यामध्ये विविध रंग आहेत आणि त्यामध्ये 3 भिन्न खनिजे आहेत. ज्वालामुखीचा भाग असल्याने कॅपॅडोसियामध्ये विशेषत: हॅबिबकटाय गावच्या भोवती काही ओनिक्स जमा आहेत. कारखान्यात, एक मास्टर आपल्याला ओनिक्स आकार देण्याच्या टप्प्याबद्दल माहिती देईल आणि आपण आकार देणारा शो पहाल.
वास्तविक सहल पहिल्या दिवसासाठी आम्ही दोघांनी जिथं थांबलो होतो तिथे जवळपासच्या ठिकाणांना भेट देणे पसंत केले. इतर कोणत्याही पर्यटकांप्रमाणेच आम्ह आसपासच्या ठिकाणांचा शोध घेतला आणि ओर्ताहिस्सार दरीच्या दृश्याचा आनंद लुटला. दरी आणि ज्वालामुखींचे अतिशय सुंदर दृश्य असलेले हे शांत आणि मूक ठिकाण होते. या गोरेमे ओपन एअर म्युझियमला भेट देण्यासाठी आम्ही नकाशाचा वापर करुन सुमारे ५ कि.मी. अवघड भूप्रदेश पायवाट चाललो . जवळजवळ अर्धा तास चालल्यानंतर आम्ही चर्चच्या काही ओसाड भागात पोहोचलो जे दूर आणि एकाकी बाहेरील भागात होते. मला वाटले की ते स्थान नकाशावर चुकीचे दर्शवले आहे. स्थान दर्शविणारा अॅप चुकीचा होता आणि आम्ही कुठेही उतरलो नाही. हा अनुभव सांगण्यामागील हेतू की कधीही मौल्यवान वस्तू, दागिने किंवा इतर वस्तू बरोबर घेऊन जाऊ नका. तसेच, हे लक्षात ठेवणे आवश्यक आहे की भाषा अज्ञात आहे आणि त्यामुळे पूर्णपणे अनोळखी ठिकाण आम्ही पर्यटक म्हणून चालत होतो. फक्त आम्ही आमच्या परतीच्या चालण्याचा आनंद घेतला आणि हॉटेलमध्ये परतलो. जसे आम्ही प्रवास करण्यासाठी लवकर उठलो होतो आणि तेजस्वी उन्हात दहा कि.मी.च्या अंतरावरुन चालत आम्ही थकलो होतो. आम्ही नुकतेच परतलो आणि जकुझी मध्ये डुंबण्याचा आनंद घेतला. आम्ही जवळच्या रेस्टॉरंट तंदिर कॅफे येथे जेवण केले. टर्किश भोजनाचा आस्वाद घेतला. हॉटेल चा परिसर अत्यंत सुंदर असा होता आणि वातावरण अत्यंत प्रसन्न होते. कॅपॅडोसिया व अनेक ठिकाणं पॉलिटिकल कारणा मुळे फारच कमी पर्यटक आहेत हे पाहून खरोखरच वाईट वाटले. आमच्या गाईडनी या ठिकाणी भेट देणाऱ्या पर्यटकांची अचानक घसरणीचा उल्लेख केला. भू-पर्यटन ब्लॉगबद्दल लिहिणे यामागे एक हेतू असा सुद्धा आहे की ज्यामुळे ही माहिती दिल्यामुळे आयोजक आणि पर्यटक यांच्यात सेतू तयार होऊ शकेल.
आमचा दुसरा दिवस हा पॅकेज गाईडेड टूर होता. आमच्याकडे कॅपॅडोसिया रेड टूर किंवा क्लासिक टूर निवडण्यासाठी दोन पर्याय होते आणि दुसरा एक म्हणजे इहलारा व्हॅली टूर. या दोघांपैकी आम्ही इहलारा व्हॅली टूर निवडला. येथे काही सुंदर क्षण आहेत जे मी तुम्हा सर्वांना इहलारा व्हॅली सहलीमधून शेअर करू इच्छिते. पहाटे आम्ही ड्रीमच्या केव्ह हॉटेलमध्ये बुफे ब्रेकफास्ट केला. जो पुन्हा जो अप्रतिम होता. दिवसाची ही खरोखरच छान सुरुवात होती. मग आमच्या छोट्या ४×४ ने आम्हाला कबूतर व्हॅली क्षेत्रात नेले. आम्ही सर्व इतर टूर सदस्यांसह सामील झालो होतो जे कॅप्पॅडोसिया परिसरातील आणि आसपासच्या वेगवेगळ्या हॉटेलमध्ये राहत होते. कबूतर व्हॅलीचे दृश्य खरोखर सुंदर होतो. आम्ही नदीचा प्रवाह आणि त्या प्रदेशाचा निसर्गरम्य दृश्य पाहू शकत होतो. जर आपण या क्षेत्राच्या भौगोलिक सेटअपचे वर्णन वाचले असेल तर आपल्याला खरोखरच हे दृश्य आवडेल. तेथील भौगोलिक व्यवस्था, तेथील नैसर्गिक सौंदर्य समजून घेण्यासाठी व अनुभवण्यासाठी नॉन – भूगर्भ जाणकरासाठी अगदी सोप्या भाषेत स्पष्ट करण्याचा मी प्रयत्न केला आहे. या कबूतर व्हॅली मध्ये, कबूतरांसाठी नरम भिंतींमध्ये तयार केलेले छोटे कप्पे आपण पाहू शकता. मुळात ते पक्ष्यांच्या मौल्यवान विष्टेसाठी आहेत. आम्हाला या ठिकाणी काही जीवाश्म आणि दुय्यम खनिज संग्रह देखील दिसले. येथे आम्हाला त्यांच्या पायावर पिस असलेल्या कोंबड्या कुटुंबातील एक भिन्न प्रकार देखील दिसला. या प्रकारच्या कोंबड्या फक्त कॅपॅडोसियामध्ये आढळतात. दिसणाऱ्या व्हॅलीचा संपूर्ण भाग आश्चर्यकारक असून तो पांढऱ्या राखे पासून बनलेला आहे. झाडांवर लटकलेला Turkish blue eye आपल्याला दिसेल. मागे विस्तीर्ण मोकळे आकाश आणि छान दरी जे आपल्याला लांब पलीकडे दिसू शकते.
इथून, टूर बसने आम्हाला पुढच्या ठिकाणी म्हणजे आम्हाला भूमिगत डेरेनकियू शहर दाखवायला घेऊन गेले. या भागात जवळपास २०० पेक्षा जास्त भूमिगत शहरे आहेत. हे परिसरातील सर्वात मोठे भूमिगत शहरअसल्याचे म्हटले जाते. आमच्या टूर मार्गदर्शकाद्वारे नमूद केल्याप्रमाणे हे स्थान युनेस्कोच्या UNESCOच्या जागतिक वारसा स्थळांपैकी देखील नोंद आहे. या ठिकाणी जाण्यापूर्वी मी वाचले तेव्हा, बऱ्याच लोकांनी सांगितले होते की त्यांना गुदमरल्यासारखे वगैरे वाटले. पण तसे काहीही नव्हते. आमच्या टूर ग्रुपमध्ये अमेरिकेतून आलेले ज्येष्ठ नागरिक होते. त्यांनी संपूर्ण टूर आरामात केली. भूमिगत शहरांच्या या साइट्स, पुरातत्वशास्त्रज्ञांना आकर्षित करत असतात. हे शहर इतके विकसित झाले आहे की एका वेळी या सेटपमध्ये सुमारे २०,००० लोक राहत होते. त्यात वाईन प्रेस, लाकडी घाणा तेल आणि अस्तबलही होते. शहरे अशा प्रकारे कोरलेली आहेत की ती हवेशीर आहेत आणि ताजी हवा त्यात फिरत रहाते. अशा काही संरचना देखील आहेत ज्या क्रॉस शेपच्या आहेत ज्या म्हणतात की धार्मिक शाळा आणि इतर अभ्यासासाठी चर्च आहेत. नियमित पाणी पुरवठा करण्यासाठी अंतर्गत विहीर बनविल्या आहेत. ज्याचा वापर घरगुती पुरवठ्यासाठी केला जातो. अशा प्रकारे काही आडव्या शाफ्ट कोरल्या गेल्या आहेत की वेगवेगळ्या परिसरातील दोन शहरे (मैलांच्या अंतरावर) या नलिकांद्वारे जोडली गेली आहेत. या शहरांमध्ये अनेक स्तर आहेत. शहर जोडले असल्यास, शंख क्रॉस सेक्शनसारखे दिसते. प्रवेशद्वारांचे रस्ते खूप अरुंद असतात आणि त्यामुळे कधीकधी डोक्याची काळजी घेण्याची आवश्यकता असते. युद्धाच्या काळात किंवा शत्रूंच्या हल्ल्यांच्या वेळी, ही भूमिगत शहरे संपूर्ण गावाला आणि त्यात गुरे, ढोरे, घोडे व कोंबड्यांसारख्या जनावरांनाही लपण्यासाठी एक उत्तम आश्रयस्थान ठरत असत. हल्ल्याच्या वेळी प्रत्येकाने सुटकेचा मार्ग भिंतीमध्ये जातात्यासारखे मोठे जड दगड आणून बसवले आहेत, जेणेकरून दरवाजा आतून बंद होते आणि बाहेरून उघडता येत नाही. हे खडक अजूनही शहरांच्या भिंतींमध्ये सापडतात. ते केवळ आतूनच ऑपरेट केले जाऊ शकतात. म्हणून शत्रू हल्ला करुन किंवा बाहेरून उघडण्याचा प्रयत्न करीत आहे तर तो उघडू शकत नाही. हे खडक खूप जड आहेत. त्या ठिकाणचे वास्तुशास्त्र कसे बनविले गेले आणि बांधले गेले हे पाहणे आश्चर्यकारक आहे. या प्रचंड खडकाला आतून फिरवून आतून दार बंद करावे लागते.
सर्व शहरे नरम (राखे पासून बनले)रचनेत कोरलेली आहेत. असे म्हणतात की क्लॉस्ट्रोफोबिक लोक अशा ठिकाणी प्रवेश करणे टाळू शकतात. मार्गदर्शकांसह किंवा त्याशिवाय प्रवेश करणे आणि त्यातून चालणे खरोखर सोपे आणि आरामदायक आहे. तिथे आजूबाजूला बरेच लोक आहेत आणि सर्व साइटवर मार्गदर्शन चिन्ह उपलब्ध आहेत. तसेच, हे ठिकाण चांगले हवेशीर आणि प्रकाशित आहेत. कृपया माझ्या भेटीचा हंगाम लक्षात घ्या. कृपया लक्षात घ्या की आमच्या गटात आमच्याकडे ज्येष्ठ नागरिक जोडपे होते, जे अमेरिकेचे होते आणि सहजतेने गटासह फिरत होते. माझ्या छायाचित्रांमध्ये पाहिल्याप्रमाणे, विशेषत: निसर्गाच्या भूगर्भशास्त्रज्ञांना आपल्याला काही अनाहूत रॉक फॉर्मेशन्स पहायला मिळतील. आपण विविध प्रकारचे टफ(राख ) पाहू शकता. टफेशस मटेरियलचे खडबडीत आकार आहेत. दोन फॉर्मेशन्समधील संपर्क एक्सप्लोर करता करता मी चक्क हरवून गेले. एक रचना ज्वालामुखीमधून जमा झालेल्या राखेमुळे आणि त्यावर झालेल्या बेसॉल्टिक क्षरणामुळे तयार झाली आहे. या प्रक्रिया घडायला बराच काळ लागतो. हे दोन वेगवेगळे काळ आहेत. राखेपासून बनलेले मऊ खडक कोरण्यास सोपे असतात आणि त्यांची नैसर्गिक झीजही सहज होते. लाखो वर्षांच्या कालावधीनंतर या मऊ खडकांच्या थरांवर बेसॉल्टिक लाव्हा प्रवाहाचा थर तयार होतो. लाखो वर्षांच्या या अंतराचा भूगर्भशास्त्रज्ञांनी सखोल अभ्यास केला आहे. पाऊस, बर्फ, उष्णता आणि धूप यांमुळे राखेचे खडक पृष्ठभागावर येतात, ज्यामुळे एक नवीन पृष्ठभाग तयार होतो. हा तोच थर आहे जिथे आपल्याला दोन वेगवेगळ्या रचना दिसतात. या नैसर्गिक प्रक्रिया आहेत. या प्रक्रिया गेल्या लाखो वर्षांत घडल्या आहेत आणि आपल्या नकळत हळूहळू अजही घडत आहेत.वेगवेगळ्या रचनांच्या ह्या वर्षांच्या अंतराला Unconfirmty म्हणतात. यामुळे भूवैज्ञानिकांना पृथ्वीच्या पृष्ठभागावर घडणाऱ्या प्रक्रियांची कालरेखा शोधण्यास मदत होते, कारण या प्रक्रिया संपूर्ण पृथ्वीवर फारशा सामान्य नसतात.
त्या दौऱ्यातील त्या दिवसाचे आमचे पुढील स्थान म्हणजे इहलारा व्हॅली (Ilhara Valley). हे नदीमध्ये सुमारे १७ कि.मी. कॅनियन (मोठी दरी किंवा खिंड) आहे. व्हॅली ही मेलेन्डीझ (Mendelez) ओढ्यात माउंट हसनजवळ (Mt. Hassan) आहे. माझ्या कॅपॅडोसिया भेटीचा हा सर्वात सुंदर भाग होता. वबसने आम्हाला प्रवेशद्वारापाशी सोडल्यानंतर, दरीत खाली उतरण्यासाठी लाकडी पायऱ्या आहेत. आम्ही सुमारे १०० मीटर खोल असलेल्या प्रवाहाच्या काठावरुन चाललो. हे खूपच सुंदर दृश्य आणि अनुभव होता. आम्ही प्रवाहाच्या सौंदर्याचे अन्वेषण करण्यासाठी सुमारे तासभर चाललो. व्हॅली ही अँडिसिटिक बेसाल्टिक (Andesitic Basaltic) रॉक आहे. वाहत जाणाऱ्या पाण्याचे प्रवाह आणि खाली पडलेले मोठे खडक यावरून प्राचीन काळी ही नदी किती शक्तिशाली असली पाहिजे हे दिसून येते आणि आजही ती आपल्या मार्गातील सर्वात कठीण खडकांमधून वाहत जाते आणि आपल्या मार्गावर त्या कठीण खडकांना आकार देत राहते. दृश्ये श्वास रोखणारी, मोहक व निसर्गरम्य अशी आहेत. हे ब्लॉक्स आकाराने मोठे आहेत. नदीचा प्रवाह अत्यंत शांत आहे. आम्ही नदीकाठी चालत चालत जात असताना काही ठिकाणी राखेचे थर आणि भूमिगत शहरे आढळली. व्हॅलीमध्ये लपण्यासाठी मधाच्या पोळ्यासारख्या खडकांच्या चिरे आहेत आणि त्यामध्ये वस्ती आहे. यात काही प्राचीन पेंटिंग्ज / फ्रेस्को देखील आहेत जी ख्रिश्चन श्रद्धेच्या कथा आहेत. माझ्याकडे या फ्रेस्कोचे अधिक फोटो माझ्या फेसबुक ट्रॅव्हल पेजवर आहेत. या भेटीची अधिक छायाचित्रे पाहण्यासाठी मी या ब्लॉगच्या शेवटी लिंक देईन. या ठिकाणी डेरिंकुय येथून प्रवास करताना आपणास येथे मेसा किंवा टेबल लँडची निर्मिती दिसते. आम्ही प्रवाहाकडे फिरत असताना हे पहाणे आश्चर्यकारक होते की नैसर्गिक ठिकाणी मानवी वास्तव्य आहे. त्यामध्ये स्नॅक्ससाठी एक सुंदर कॅफे होता. हे खरोखरच सुंदर होते की आम्ही त्या घराभोवती बसलो होतो.हे लाकडी कॅफे वाहत्या नदीवर बांधण्यात आले होते. आम्ही वाहत्या पाण्याजवळ बसून तुर्कीश चहाचा आनंद घेत होतो आणि आमच्या आजूबाजूला फिरणारी काही बदकेही आम्हाला दिसली. बहुधा आम्ही त्यांना खाऊ घालावे याची ती वाट पाहत असावीत. लांबच्या थकवणाऱ्या प्रवासानंतर आणि खूप चालल्यानंतर, मला या ठिकाणाहून परतावेसे वाटत नव्हते. शांतपणे वाहणाऱ्या नदीचा आवाज आणि सहलीचे आरामदायक वातावरण, यामुळे मला इथे आणखी काही तास थांबावेसे वाटले. नदीकिनारी जवळपास तासभर चालल्यानंतर आम्हाला एक सुंदर रेस्टॉरंट दिसले. तिथे आमच्यासाठी दुपारचे जेवण तयार होते. ते आमच्या टूरमध्ये समाविष्ट होते. तिथे शाकाहारी आणि मांसाहारी जेवणाचे पर्याय होते. आम्ही स्थानिक नदीतील मासे खाण्याचे ठरवले.
दुपारच्या जेवणाच्या नंतर आम्ही स्लीइम मठात भेट दिली. हे पुन्हा उभे चढण होते आणि तत्सम मानवी घरे होती. आमच्या मार्गदर्शकाने आम्हाला नमूद केले की त्यांनी या ठिकाणी स्टार वार्स चित्रपट बनवायचा होता परंतु काही कारणांमुळे तो पण प्रत्यक्षात चित्रीकरण कधीच झाले नाही. म्हणून त्यांनी या परी-चिमणीसारख्या रचनांचे काही फोटो काढले आणि पार्श्वभूमीवर ग्राफिक वापरला गेला. पुरातन काळात पुरातत्व अभ्यासांनी सांगितल्यानुसार ही जागा ख्रिस्त धार्मिक शाळा असावी. या भागात एक कॅथेड्रल आहे. हे ठिकाण आणखी एक सुंदर निसर्गरम्य दृश्य आहे. हे ठिकाण थोडेसे उंचावर आहे आणि पर्यटकांना पाहण्यासाठी चांगल्या प्रकारे जतन केलेले आहे. निसरड्या सपाट पृष्ठभागावर तुम्हाला थोडे चढावे लागेल.
नंतर आम्ही एका ओनिक्स कारखान्यास भेट दिली. ही एक रत्नाची खाण आहे, ज्यामध्ये हे ओनिक्स रत्नांचे प्रक्रिया युनिट आहे आणि आमच्यासाठी एक लहान शो आयोजित करण्यात आला होता. तिथे दोन वेगवेगळे प्रकाश होते आणि आम्ही पाहिले की खरा ओनेक्स रत्न दोन वेगवेगळ्या प्रकाशात कसे दोन वेगवेगळे रंग दाखवतो.
शेवटच्या दिवशी आम्ही हॉट एअर बलूनचा टूर केला. हा टूर फक्त सकाळी लवकर असतो, कारण त्यात ते तुम्हाला सूर्योदय दाखवतात. जगात अशी अनेक ठिकाणे आहेत जिथे तुम्ही हॉट एअर बलून राईड करू शकता. मी तुम्हाला हे इथेच करण्याची recomend करेन. कारण हे खूप सुरक्षित आहे आणि अनेक वर्षांपासून व्यावसायिकरित्या आयोजित केले जात आहे. या उपक्रमांच्या व्यवस्थापनात सरकारचा सहभाग असतो. तुम्ही कोणत्याही नामांकित टूर कंपनीकडून प्रति व्यक्ती ऑनलाइन नोंदणी करू शकता. ते साधारणपणे तुमच्याकडून युरोमध्ये शुल्क आकारतात. सूर्योदय पाहण्याच्या या संकल्पनेची सर्वात चांगली गोष्ट ही आहे की, यामुळे सर्व पर्यटक कॅपाडोशियनमध्ये रात्री मुक्काम करतात आणि सर्व हॉटेल्सना मोबदला मिळतो. सर्व बलून कंपन्या नियमांचे काटेकोरपणे पालन करतात. दिवसाच्या उत्तरार्धात कोणीही उड्डाण करत नाही. असे बरेच लोक आहेत जे फक्त बलून राईडसाठी येतात. जर तुम्ही लवकर उठणारे असाल तर तुम्ही तुमच्या बॅकग्राउंडमध्ये फुग्याचे फोटो काढू शकता. तुम्ही नमूद केलेल्या ठिकाणांसाठी ते पिक-अप आणि ड्रॉप-ऑफची व्यवस्था करतात. बहुतेक वेळा, तुम्हाला त्या ठिकाणी घेऊन जाण्यासाठी कोणीतरी स्वतः येईल. व्यावसायिक कंपन्या असल्या तरी, तुमच्याशी समन्वय साधणाऱ्या लोकांची घ्या आणि ठेवा नावे ठेवा. बहुतांश संवाद ईमेल आणि व्हॉट्सॲपद्वारे होतो. कोणत्याही परिस्थितीत हवामानाच्या परिस्थितीमुळे सहल रद्द झाल्यास, शासकीय कायद्यानुसार तुम्हाला तुमचे पैसे पूर्णपणे परत मिळतील. पण कृपया ही गोष्ट लेखी स्वरूपात घ्या. सकाळी त्यांनी सांगितलेल्या वेळेवर तयार रहा. सोबत जास्त सामान आणण्याची गरज नाही. तुम्ही फक्त काही सुके खाद्यपदार्थ, तुमचा कॅमेरा आणि इतर सामान घेऊ शकता. सकाळी त्यांना घाई असते, त्यामुळे ते तुम्हाला हॉटेलमधून घेऊन एका ठरलेल्या ठिकाणी सोडतील. ते सकाळी असेम्ब्ली पॉईंटवर फक्त चहा, कॉफी आणि बिस्किट देतात. आम्हाला तेही मिळालं नाही, कारण आम्हाला घ्यायला आलेली व्यक्ती खूप उशिरा आली. त्यामुळे त्यांनी आम्हाला थेट टेक-ऑफ पॉईंटवर नेले. ही संपूर्ण प्रक्रिया पाहणे खूपच रोमांचक आहे. तिथे अनेक फुगे गरम हवेने फुगवले जात आहेत. तुम्ही पाहू शकता. बाहेर अजूनही अंधार असल्यामुळे इथे फोटो आणि व्हिडिओ काढणे अवघड आहे. तुम्ही ज्या basket बसता ती बरीच मोठी असते आणि वाहनांना hooked असते. जशी basket उभी होते, तसे ते तुम्हाला आत जायला सांगतात. प्रत्येक बलून पायलटसह अंदाजे २१ लोकांचे वजन वाहून नेऊ शकतो. ते तुम्हाला उड्डाणादरम्यान काय करावे आणि काय करू नये याबद्दल सूचना देतील. तुम्ही किती उंचीवर उड्डाण करता? आणि लँडिंग करताना तुम्ही स्वतःला कसे स्थित केले पाहिजे? ते तुम्हाला सर्व सूचना देतील. तुमच्याकडे कॅमेरा असल्यास, तो दोरीने बांधलेला असल्याची खात्री करा, कारण तो पडल्यास तुम्ही तो गमावून बसाल. शेवटी, त्यांच्याकडे एक ओव्हरहेड रेकॉर्डिंग करणारा गो-प्रो कॅमेरा असतो. ते तुम्हाला तुमच्या फ्लाईट रेकॉर्डिंगसाठी पैसे देण्यास सांगतील. पैसे देऊन खरेदी करायची की नाही हे तुमच्यावर अवलंबून आहे. त्यासाठी रोख रक्कम लागेल. आता माझ्या वाचकांसाठी एक बोनस टीप. ते जी किंमत मागतील, त्यावर तुम्ही बरीच वाटाघाटी करू शकता. तुम्हाला ते नको आहे हे दाखवून द्या आणि सर्व पर्यटकांसमोर वाटाघाटी करू नका. स्वतंत्रपणे वाटाघाटी करा. कारण त्यात त्यांचे काहीही नुकसान होणार नाही. तसेही, ते कॅमेरा पुसून त्याचा पुन्हा वापर करतील, त्यामुळे तुम्हाला खर्च कमी करण्याची चांगली संधी आहे.
आता येतो खरा अनुभव. जसा फुगा वर जाऊ लागतो, तसे ते हुक सोडतात आणि गरम हवेच्या फुग्याला उडू देतात. हा एक खूपच जादुई अनुभव असतो. यात अजिबात भीती वाटत नाही. कारण तुम्ही सरळ खाली पाहत नाही आहात. कॅपाडोशियाची रचना पाहणे हे अत्यंत सुंदर आहे. तुमच्यासोबतच त्याच वेळी अनेक हॉट एअर बलूनही उड्डाण घेत असतात. मी माझ्या संपूर्ण उड्डाणाचा अनुभव रेकॉर्ड केला आहे. मी माझ्या यूट्यूब चॅनलची लिंक शेअर करेन. कृपया तो अनुभव पहा आणि माझ्या चॅनलला नक्की सबस्क्राईब करा व व्हिडिओला लाईक करा. तुम्ही फक्त व्हिडिओ पाहिला नाही, तर तुम्हाला जर हे प्रत्यक्ष पाहण्याची किंवा अनुभवण्याची संधी मिळाली, तर कृपया नक्की जा. हा आयुष्यात एकदाच मिळणारा अनुभव घेतलाच पाहिजे. जोपर्यंत तुम्ही एका विशिष्ट उंचीवर पोहोचत नाही, तोपर्यंत सूर्य उगवत असतो आणि तुम्हाला सूर्योदय बघायला मिळतो. हा आयुष्यातील सर्वोत्तम सुखानुभव आहे! जेव्हा आम्ही गेलो तेव्हा खूप थंडी होती, असं वाटत होतं की सगळं काही मंद गतीने फिरत आहे आणि सगळे फुगे हवेत स्थिर आहेत. त्यामध्ये, जेव्हा सूर्योदय होतो, तेव्हा एक खूप आश्वासक आणि सकारात्मक ऊर्जा येते. तुम्ही Capadoccia foramtions वरून उडताना निसर्ग निर्मिती कल्पनेपलीकडची अत्यंत सुंदर दृश्य पाहून तुम्ही थक्क होता. पायलटने cवर उत्तम नियंत्रण ठेवले आहे, बलूनची उंचीही व्यवस्थित नियंत्रित असते. हा जवळपास एक तासाचा प्रवास आहे. पायलट हळूहळू बलून घेऊन निर्धारित नियुक्त क्षेत्रतात ते घेऊन जातात. ते खाली उतरण्यासाठी आणि पॅराशूट घेण्यासाठी कसे तयार होतात हे पाहणे हा एक खूप रोमांचक अनुभव असतो. इतरांसाठी ते मैदानावर उतरले आणि आमच्यासाठी त्यांनी थेट ट्रेलरवर उतरून आम्हाला नेले. फुगा जड, भरलेला आणि एकाच दिशेने वेगाने जात असल्यामुळे, त्याला खाली उतरवताना त्यांना अत्यंत कठीण त्यांना अत्यंत सावध आणि दक्ष राहण्याची गरज असते. ते त्याला हळू आणि अलगदपणे खाली उतरवतात. बलून उतरल्यावर ते कंपनीच्या नावाचे प्रमाणपत्र आणि पिण्यासाठी शॅम्पेन देतात.
एक गोष्ट मी करायला कधीच विसरत नाही. व्हिडिओ रेकॉर्ड करत असतानाही, मी सगळं काही माझ्या डोळ्यांनी बघत असते आणि त्याचा प्रत्यक्ष अनुभव घेत असतो. कधीकधी रेकॉर्डिंग किंवा फोटो काढण्याच्या घाईगडबडीत, श्वास घ्यायला आणि या सुंदर जगाचा स्वतःच्या डोळ्यांनी आनंद घ्यायलाच विसरून गेल्यासारखं वाटतं.
माझ्या प्रवासावरील माझा ब्लॉग तुम्हाला आवडला का? कृपया माझ्या लेखावर एक comment आणि लाईक करा आणि निसर्गाबद्दल वाचायला आवडणाऱ्या व्यक्तीसोबत तो शेअर करा. तुमच्या काही सूचना असल्यास किंवा माझ्या वेबसाइटवर लेख किंवा ब्लॉग लिहिण्याची तुमची इच्छा असल्यास, कृपया माझ्या प्रोफाइलवर commnet करा. मी तुमच्याशी संपर्क साधेन. तुम्हाला तुमच्या उत्पादनांची आणि सेवांची जाहिरात करायची असली तरीही कृपया संपर्क साधा. आमचे वाचक केवळ (organic) आहेत.
हा लेख मूळ इंग्रजीमध्ये लिहिलेला आहे.
निखिल शेलार ने ब्लॉगचे भाषांतर केले आहे.
‘वारी : अनुभव प्रवासाचा प्रवास जीवनाचा !’.
Preparation for International Travel
Traveling internationally is an exciting adventure filled with the promise of new experiences, cultures, and landscapes. However, to ensure that your trip is enjoyable and stress-free, thorough preparation is essential. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of everything you need to know and do before embarking on an international journey, specifically tailored for Indian travelers.
1. Research Your Destination
Before booking your flight, it’s crucial to research your destination thoroughly. Understanding the cultural norms, language, local laws, and travel advisories can make a significant difference in your travel experience.
Cultural Norms and Etiquette
Each country has its unique customs and traditions. For example, in Japan, it is customary to bow when greeting someone, while in many Middle Eastern countries, showing the soles of your feet is considered disrespectful. Learning these nuances can help you avoid unintentional faux pas and show respect to the local culture.
Language
While English is widely spoken in many parts of the world, it’s helpful to learn a few basic phrases in the local language. Phrases like “hello,” “thank you,” and “excuse me” can go a long way in establishing goodwill with locals.
Local Laws and Safety
Familiarize yourself with the local laws and any travel advisories issued by the Indian government. Some countries have strict regulations on medications, dress codes, and behavior in public spaces. Knowing these laws can help you avoid legal issues and ensure your safety.
2. Passports and Visas
Passport
Ensure your passport is up-to-date and valid for at least six months beyond your planned return date. Many countries require this validity period, and airlines may deny boarding if your passport does not meet these requirements.
Visa Requirements
Research the visa requirements for your destination country. Some countries offer visa-free entry or visas on arrival, while others require you to obtain a visa in advance. The application process can take several weeks, so it’s essential to start early. Websites like VFS Global can provide detailed information on visa requirements and processes for various countries.
Additional Documentation
Some countries require additional documentation, such as proof of onward travel, sufficient funds, or vaccination records. Make sure to have all necessary documents ready before you travel.
3. Health and Vaccinations
Vaccinations
Check the vaccination requirements and recommendations for your destination. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) provide up-to-date information on required and recommended vaccinations for travelers. The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare also provides guidelines on vaccinations needed for travel.
Health Insurance
Verify whether your health insurance covers international travel. If not, consider purchasing travel insurance that includes health coverage. This can protect you from high medical costs in case of illness or injury abroad.
Medication
If you take prescription medication, ensure you have enough to last the duration of your trip, plus a few extra days in case of delays. Carry a copy of your prescriptions and a letter from your doctor explaining your medical needs, especially if you are traveling with controlled substances.
4. Financial Preparation
Currency Exchange
Research the local currency and exchange rates. It’s a good idea to have some local currency on hand when you arrive for expenses like transportation and meals. While many places accept credit cards, having cash is essential in areas where card payments are not common. You can exchange currency at authorized forex dealers like Thomas Cook, or use services like BookMyForex for better rates.
Notify Your Bank
Inform your bank and credit card companies about your travel plans. This helps prevent your cards from being flagged for suspicious activity, which could result in them being temporarily frozen.
Budgeting
Create a budget for your trip, accounting for accommodation, meals, transportation, activities, and souvenirs. Having a clear budget helps you manage your finances and avoid overspending.
5. Travel Insurance
Travel insurance is highly recommended for international travel. It can cover a range of issues, including trip cancellations, lost luggage, medical emergencies, and more. When purchasing travel insurance, make sure to:
Understand What is Covered
Read the policy carefully to understand what is and isn’t covered. Standard policies typically cover medical emergencies, trip cancellations, and lost or stolen belongings. If you plan to engage in high-risk activities such as scuba diving or skiing, ensure these are included in your coverage.
Compare Plans
Shop around and compare different travel insurance plans to find one that best suits your needs and budget. Websites like PolicyBazaar and Coverfox allow you to compare policies from multiple providers.
6. Booking Flights and Accommodation
Flights
Book your flights well in advance to get the best deals. Use flight comparison websites like Skyscanner, Google Flights, or Kayak to find the most cost-effective options. Consider factors such as layover times, flight duration, and airline reputation when making your decision. Airlines such as Air India, Vistara, and Indigo offer international routes and often have competitive prices.
Accommodation
Research different accommodation options based on your budget and preferences. Websites like Booking.com, Airbnb, and MakeMyTrip offer a wide range of choices, from luxury hotels to budget hostels and vacation rentals. Read reviews and check the location to ensure it suits your travel plans.
Transportation
Consider how you will get around your destination. Research local public transportation options, car rental services, and rideshare apps available in the area. In some cities, purchasing a transportation pass can be more cost-effective and convenient than buying individual tickets.
7. Packing Smartly
Essentials
Make a checklist of essential items you need to pack, such as your passport, visa, travel insurance documents, and any necessary medications. Other important items include:
- Travel-sized toiletries
- Comfortable clothing and shoes
- Chargers and adapters for your electronic devices (Indian plugs are type C, D, and M; check the plug types used in your destination)
- Copies of important documents (passport, visa, travel insurance)
- A travel guidebook or map
Packing Light
Try to pack light to make your travel experience more manageable. Overpacking can lead to unnecessary stress and extra baggage fees. Here are some tips to help you pack efficiently:
Packing Tips
- Layering: Pack clothing that can be layered. This allows you to adapt to varying weather conditions without needing to bring too many items.
- Versatile Clothing: Choose versatile pieces that can be mixed and matched to create different outfits. Neutral colors are often the best choice for this.
- Packing Cubes: Use packing cubes to organize your belongings. They can help you maximize space and keep your luggage neat.
- Minimal Toiletries: Bring travel-sized toiletries and remember that many accommodations provide basic toiletries. You can always buy more at your destination if needed.
- Limit Shoes: Shoes are often the bulkiest items in your suitcase. Limit yourself to a couple of pairs that are comfortable and suitable for various activities.
- Carry-On Essentials: Pack essential items and a change of clothes in your carry-on in case your checked luggage is delayed or lost.
8. Technology and Connectivity
Stay Connected
Staying connected while abroad is crucial for both convenience and safety. Here’s how to ensure you can stay in touch:
- International Roaming Plans: Check with your mobile provider about international roaming plans. These can be expensive, but they offer the convenience of using your existing phone number. Providers like Airtel, Jio, and Vodafone offer international roaming packs.
- Local SIM Cards: Purchasing a local SIM card upon arrival can be a cost-effective way to access data and make calls.
- Portable Wi-Fi Devices: Consider renting a portable Wi-Fi device if you need reliable internet access for multiple devices.
Essential Apps
Download essential travel apps before your trip. Some recommendations include:
- Maps: Google Maps or Maps.me for navigation.
- Translation: Google Translate for language assistance.
- Currency Conversion: XE Currency for real-time exchange rates.
- Travel Guides: TripAdvisor or Lonely Planet for tips on attractions, restaurants, and accommodations.
- Transportation: Uber, Lyft, or local public transit apps.
9. Safety Precautions
Personal Safety
Your safety should always be a top priority when traveling internationally. Follow these tips to stay safe:
- Stay Aware: Be aware of your surroundings and avoid risky areas, especially at night.
- Secure Your Belongings: Use anti-theft bags and keep valuables like passports and money in secure places.
- Emergency Contacts: Keep a list of emergency contacts, including local emergency numbers, your country’s embassy or consulate, and contacts back home.
Health Safety
- Hydration and Food Safety: Drink bottled water and be cautious about street food to avoid foodborne illnesses.
- Medical Kit: Carry a basic medical kit with band-aids, antiseptics, pain relievers, and any other medications you might need.
10. Cultural Sensitivity and Respect
Respect Local Customs
Showing respect for local customs and traditions is crucial. Here are a few tips:
- Dress Appropriately: In many cultures, dressing modestly is a sign of respect. Research dress codes for religious sites and public places.
- Photography Etiquette: Always ask for permission before taking photos of people, especially in cultural or religious settings.
- Behavior: Be mindful of local norms regarding public behavior. For example, tipping practices, table manners, and public displays of affection can vary widely.
Engage with Locals
Engaging with locals can enrich your travel experience. Be open, ask questions, and show interest in learning about their way of life. This fosters positive interactions and creates lasting memories.
Earthquake and its measures! Depreme
Hi all,
I am Mrs. Kanchan Vikram – Zemse. I am a Geologist. I would like to tell you some facts of Earthquake.
I have picked stuff from internet to make you understand (layman language) how does it occurs and most importantly how to be safe. This presentation is just for education and understanding purpose.
Make sure that your kids also read it.
I have tried to prepare this presentation in most simplified ways and with images. which will help you to understand certain facts.
No matter whatever preparations we do, it is really difficult, if we all are in different places during the disaster. First thing we lose is connectivity.
How do we connect when there is no mobile/cell phones, no internet, children are away someone is travelling and we don’t get anything to respond?
Even to tell I am safe!
This actually creates a panic situation.
Its better that everyone knows some measures to rescue yourself in safer place till situation becomes normal.
What is Earthquake?
A sudden violent shaking of the ground, typically causing great destruction, as a result of movements within the earth’s crust or volcanic action
How does earthquake occur?
Earthquakes are usually caused when rock underground suddenly breaks along a fault. This sudden release of energy causes the seismic waves that make the ground shake. When two blocks of rock or two plates are rubbing against each other, they stick a little. They don’t just slide smoothly; the rocks catch create friction between their movements.
- This includes explanations to be prepared for extreme situations.
- Unlike other natural hazards, earthquake can be predicted with respect to monitoring seismic activities but it cannot give the exact location and extent of losses that can occur.
- Some information may appear more, but it is all linked.
- Here, I am producing some general information which you can always keep into mind.
- Hope this information will be useful for you!
What is Earthquake?
A sudden violent shaking of the ground, typically causing great destruction, as a result of movements within the earth’s crust or volcanic action
How does earthquake occur?
Earthquakes are usually caused when rock underground suddenly breaks along a fault. This sudden release of energy causes the seismic waves that make the ground shake. When two blocks of rock or two plates are rubbing against each other, they stick a little. They don’t just slide smoothly; the rocks catch create friction between their movements.
What is fault? Fault is a weak plane along which either sides of the plane move in different directions
Fault can vary in size
Can Earthquakes be predicted?
Earthquake prone zones can be demarcated. Magnitude, extent of losses or destruction, date and time will not be predicted exactly.
Plates word referred to is for Tectonic plate.
In lay man language, Earth surface is continuously moving. These movements are occurring since millions of year since the formation of earth. Different location experience different movements with respect to speed, direction and density.
Some example videos. Simple explanation of plate tectonics
Plates movements through millions of years.
Future movements of plate
Tectonic setup and movement map of Turkey found on internet.
Seismic activity prone area map found on internet.
Based on the several studies on plate tectonics, hazard zoning map is created.
So by now you must have understood what is earthquake and what are the areas which it can show major impacts.
Predicting and preparing for earthquakes
Earthquakes are not as easy to predict as volcanic eruptions. However, there are still some ways of monitoring the chances of an earthquake:
Laser beams can be used to detect plate movement.
A seismometer is used to pick up the vibrations in the Earth’s crust. An increase in vibrations may indicate a possible earthquake.
Radon gas escapes from cracks in the Earth’s crust. Levels of radon gas can be monitored – a sudden increase may suggest an earthquake.
Many of the prediction techniques used to monitor earthquakes are not 100 per cent reliable. Planning and preparing for an earthquake is therefore very important.
People living in earthquake zones need to know what they should do in the event of a quake. Training people may involve holding earthquake drills and educating people via TV or radio.
Above mentioned are some technical aspects.
First aid kit and emergency materials
People may put together emergency kits and store them in their homes. An emergency kit may include first-aid items, blankets and tinned food, wooden staffs.
Other items in bag with torch, backup money as you are not going to get ATM machines working, socks, gloves, whistle, tissue paper roll, basic baby necessities, sanitary napkins and emergency medicines.
What all should first aid kit consist of?
Material, minimum for 5-10 members with red cross mark on it,
Pocket mask,
Bandage,
Cotton bundle,
Plastic tweezers,
Disposable gloves,
Pair of scissors,
Anti-septic cream (like soframycin),
Anti -septic liquid (like Dettol),
Tablets for fever, cold and pain killer,
Torch.
Earthquakes are caused by the release of built-up pressure inside the Earth’s crust. An earthquake’s power is measured on the Richter scale using an instrument called a ‘seismometer’.
The effects of an earthquake can be devastating – they can destroy settlements, change landscapes, and cause many deaths.
Causes
An earthquake is the shaking and vibration of the Earth’s crust due to movement of the Earth’s plates (plate tectonics). Earthquakes can happen along any type of plate boundary.
Earthquakes occur when tension is released from inside the crust. Plates do not always move smoothly alongside each other and sometimes get stuck. When this happens pressure builds up. When this pressure is eventually released, an earthquake tends to occur.
The point inside the crust where the pressure is released is called the focus. The point on the Earth’s surface above the focus is called the epicentre.
Earthquake energy is released in seismic waves. These waves spread out from the focus. The waves are felt most strongly at the epicentre, becoming less strong as they travel further away. The most severe damage caused by an earthquake will happen close to the epicentre.
Measurement of Earthquake
The power of an earthquake is measured using a seismometer. A seismometer detects the vibrations caused by an earthquake. It plots these vibrations on a seismograph.
The strength, or magnitude, of an earthquake is measured using the Richter scale. The Richter scale is numbered 0-10.
Earthquakes can destroy settlements and kill many people. Aftershocks can cause even more damage to an area. It is possible to classify the impacts of an earthquake, by taking the following factors into account:
short-term (immediate) impacts
long-term impacts
social impacts (the impact on people)
economic impacts (the impact on the wealth of an area)
environmental impacts (the impact on the landscape)
Factors affecting the impact of an earthquake
Effects are often classified as primary and secondary impacts. Primary effects occur as a direct result of the ground shaking, eg buildings collapsing. Secondary effects occur as a result of the primary effects, eg tsunamis or fires due to ruptured gas mains.
Distance from the epicentre – the effects of an earthquake are more severe at its centre.
The higher on the Richter scale, the more severe the earthquake is.
Population density (rural or urban area). The more densely populated an area, the more likely there are to be deaths and casualties.
Communication – accessibility for rescue teams.
Time of day influences whether people are in their homes, at work or travelling. A severe earthquake at rush hour in a densely populated urban area could have devastating effects.
The time of year and climate will influence survival rates and the rate at which disease can spread.
Communication systems may be underdeveloped, so the population may not be well educated about what to do in the event of an earthquake.
Homes and other buildings may suffer serious damage when a disaster occurs.
Buildings collapsing can cause high death tolls.
Evacuation and other emergency plans can be difficult to put into action due to limited funds and resources.
Clearing up can be difficult. There may not be enough money to rebuild homes quickly and safely. Many people could be forced to live in emergency housing or refugee camps.
You need to register your information at refugee camps, as you will not be able to visit your residence.
Best stuff to read on
http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/earthquake2.htm
Even after several studies and information we need to be prepared for natural hazards in order to overcome losses. All losses can be recovered, but life cannot be brought back.
How to prepare yourself for such instances?
What Should I Do Before, During, And After An Earthquake?
What to Do Before an Earthquake?
Make sure you have a fire extinguisher, first aid kit, a battery-powered radio, a flashlight, and extra batteries at home.
Learn first aid.
Learn how to turn off the gas, water, and electricity.
Make up a plan of where to meet your family after an earthquake.
Don’t leave heavy objects on shelves (they’ll fall during a quake).
Anchor heavy furniture, cupboards, and appliances to the walls or floor.
Learn the earthquake plan at your school or workplace.
What to Do During an Earthquake?
Stay calm! If you’re indoors, stay inside. If you’re outside, stay outside.
If you’re indoors, stand against a wall near the centre of the building, stand in a doorway, or crawl under heavy furniture (a desk or table). Stay away from windows and outside doors.
If you’re outdoors, stay in the open away from power lines or anything that might fall. Stay away from buildings (stuff might fall off the building or the building could fall on you).
Don’t use matches, candles, or any flame. Broken gas lines and fire don’t mix.
If you’re in a car, stop the car and stay inside the car until the earthquake stops.
Don’t use elevators (they’ll probably get stuck anyway).
What to Do After an Earthquake?
Check yourself and others for injuries. Provide first aid for anyone who needs it.
Check water, gas, and electric lines for damage. If any are damaged, shut off the valves. Check for the smell of gas. If you smell it, open all the windows and doors, leave immediately, and report it to the authorities (use someone else’s phone).
Turn on the radio. Don’t use the phone unless it’s an emergency.
Stay out of damaged buildings.
Be careful around broken glass and debris. Wear boots or sturdy shoes to keep from cutting your feet.
Be careful of chimneys (they may fall on you).
Stay away from beaches. Tsunamis and seiches sometimes hit after the ground has stopped shaking.
Stay away from damaged areas.
If you’re at school or work, follow the emergency plan or the instructions of the person in charge.
Expect aftershocks.
Similar more information.
http://tremor.nmt.edu/faq/prepare.html
http://www.fema.gov/earthquake-safety-home
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/earthquake-safety-tips/
Personal observation and opinion:
Refer to a map of hazard prone area on internet.
Now a day’s every country hazard zoning map is available on internet, which a lay man can refer and understand.
Find out, if the place you are located comes under red zone?
If you area falls under such an area, you need to be prepared and well equipped.
Family should have an action plan along with other families.
Keep a track of whereabouts of all the family members.
Keep some signalling method in case if the mobile and internet facility is not available.
Prepare a bag pack with all the items which comes immediately into your mind.
Try to contact common place and keep a written message.
As the tremors are felt, we cannot guess the strength of earthquake immediately.
Sometimes there may be minor shocks first followed by major shocks or vice a versa.
Stay away from tall buildings and objects.
Stay away from electrical lights cables as they may swing anywhere once broken.
Stay away as far as away from sea side
http://phukettsunami.blogspot.com.tr/2012/04/how-did-entire-island-survive-tsunami.html
http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/LEEPERFY/
If the epicentre or fault movement is inside sea, there is displacement of huge water column above it.
It appears an unusual low tide…. where before Tsunami…huge volume of water is displaced. This gives some time for people to run towards hilly area where the amount of water which has retreated is going to come back with a huge wave.
A water retreat back than usual low tide level and comes with a wave with more crest height.
It’s like; if you have to take a long leap you go back few steps and try to run fast and propel yourself.
Series of some videos for Tsunami….though topic is on earthquake….things are connected…..
Sometimes animal show unusual behavioural pattern.
Dogs keep howling, nocturnal animals living in burrows are seen coming out of burrows in day time. I have seen cats behaving unusual. I have friends who feel uneasy throughout phase.
In one of the video links, a man who has gone for scuba diving mentions that (also we can see in a video) that there are absolutely no fishes.
This is probably some animals can detect seismic activities/seismic waves.
Even we feel some uneasiness
If you are living in a hilly area, it is quite probable for a landslide to occur. You need to evacuate the place before even warnings come to you.
This is because slight movement underground may cause slopes unstable, they may lose existing centre of gravity. This also cannot be predicted.
Back to earthquake…
Keep some symbol/sign ready for rescue camp, which says to your family that you are alive.
Make sure that before running in panic….it’s just matter of few seconds to close gas sources and electricity supply which will help rescue team to reach you or others who are trapped in.
On small tremors felt…communicate with your all the people…not for panicking but to know what’s going on?
Refer for radio transmission and television for warning messages.
Earthquake will happen for just few seconds or a minute max. You will get less time to feel, understand think and act.
Don’t imagine that you can leave the place and fly immediately to safe place; you will not get that much time.
In this situation just relax your mind and try to link and think.
Prioritise your movements.
First thing is to move to a safer place with kids, old people, pets and disabled.
Rescue all the members to safe place. If all the family members are in different places keep some assembly area or a common meeting point, which according to you will be safe considering the situation.
Practically you will not have time to run to school or office place to rescue your family members, But you can have a escape point for.
Injured persons needs to get first aid
What comes next is mitigation process.
http://nidm.gov.in/easindia2014/err/pdf/earthquake/Prev_mitigation_measures.pdf
Once the earthquake phases have passed away it’s the scene of loot. Even if you are prepared with your bag packs you will have danger from other survivors hunting for money, food and medicine.
After all its survival of the fittest/smartest!!!
You are still not safe. That’s the reason you should have a group of people and not only your family.
If all this while you are in good condition try to look around and evaluate damage. Very few minds are active in this state. Rest all go to panic mode seeing damage and losses. Rescue team may take time to reach every individual.
Do not enter partially damaged structures to rescue immediately, chances of loose material to collapse.
If there is lots of dust in air, it is important to tie a wet kerchief around your nose.
There is possibility of spreading epidemic if the dead bodies are lying around the scene. It takes long time effort to clear and reach to every member trapped under debris.
Dealing with panic attacks. It is the toughest part which takes long time to heal.
Capable persons can make team and plan to put some efforts together at war level.
Rescue operation takes time due to loss in connectivity; you must prepare yourself at least for 4-5 days for immediate help till you are rescued.
This is all possible when it occurs during day time. If it occurs while we all are sleeping, it will be more difficult as we get very less time to understand something is happening around us and we need to act on it, immediately.
We cannot predict what is going to happen in next moment.
Nothing is in our control.
We can just try to be prepared for what’s coming next.
Awareness to an individual can’t help. Each and every person should be aware about the same.
Natural hazard will not see religion, race, cast, gender, age or status. Nor it’s going to give time to think. It will sweep everything in seconds.
- Not panicking and acting wisely can help us and others.
- Thanks for reading.
If you’ve some valuable information please post it in comments so it might help others to learn from your experience.
Turkey Tourism Everything in one page!
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Paris – Luxembourg
Namaste,
Yes, finally I am writing about my one more exciting trip!
I visited a Modern art museum in Luxembourg city center. Trust me this was my first experience to visit an exclusive modern art museum. Later in my immediate next travel I visited another modern art museum. Seriously, either you need to have basic understanding and liking of art. Else please do not visit such places. It feels like insulting the artists. This was huge museum with entry fees of 5 euros. Some of the arts were amazing. Now with the explosion of world of graphics art we really fail to connect as we don’t understand how and what was the artist thinking when they could create such a marvelous piece of art. How their minds and thoughts traveled in the time and create something beautiful. That is beyond understanding of common people. I felt other than curators I was only one who was observing the museum very keenly as there were not many people inside. What I felt was less of art pieces were displayed in huge space. I have pictures of few art pieces that I liked and have posted on my Facebook page “Vari- The divine Journey” which are open for public to view. As I was admiring all the artworks and watching everything carefully, I forgot I am on this HIHO bus. The last time for this bus was 18:00 hours. I exited museum at around 17:47 hours. I was confused whether the bus is going to come or not. I was in the middle of no where. I will share you a small video of this place it was absolutely empty place where no one would pass by. Luckily after long wait around 18:10 a bus cam and I stopped all stupid calculation in my mind to reach my hotel room. I had taken international roaming in my mobile which the guy mentioned me that it will give me 60 minutes talk time. Post returning he said no its only messaging service. He cheated me with wrong information. Who uses messaging service SMS at the time of emergency and lost? Even if I use the SMS service to send emergency message, no one is going to check that message. Somehow I was using free Wi-Fi and registering with creating fake ids and messaging my relatives that I am not yet lost! Mostly the HIHO bus should have had Wi-Fi service but it was not working. Some how I finished my day here. In the end I walked 19k footsteps. No wonder I was singing I don’t have legs…this is my song when I walk a lot. A terrible long walk! I did not have lunch, I had some snack bars and dry fruits in my bag and water bottle. I had started my day around 10:00 in the morning.
This was a quick trip to Schengen countries and officially my 4th country to travel. I had two full days to explore Luxembourg as a solo traveler. Here you can visit this country on quick trip. It is pretty expensive country, it is know for all wealthy people staying here. The infrastructure looked really posh, well maintained neat and clean. Most of the people live in the neighboring countries like France, Belgium and Germany borders connecting with Luxembourg travel here, daily for work. While looking at boards I felt it was written in German or Dutch language along with French. Out of which I read none. It was local Luxemburgish language but most of the places, shops, restaurants, and other places people speak good English. My visit was during end of the May 2019, bit cold bit warm. It was perfect spring time. I would recommend you, if you are visiting European countries then best time is Spring or Autumn season. All the pictures will be beautiful and have different shades in pictures. Summer in European countries is becoming really hot. I got the perfect timing which you can see is very evident from my photos and videos those will be coming soon. There is a HIHO(hop in hop off bus) that is now a days available in all the touristic places around the world. This bus keeps circling in the same route. It covers all the points that are in the city and with some historical importance and so on. This bus ride is roughly 1 hour to 45 minutes. Once you have bought a ticket just for this HIHO bus sit and listen to the commentary which you can listen with the earphones provided and select language out of 15 languages. The information commentary of the spots. This is my first solo trip done internationally. At places I really felt myself acting dumb and lost. Once you finish a loop and you are at the same starting point you can continue the ride and now decide at which point to get down and what all to do. Supposed you want to visit 2 museums and a park on the way. Get down at one spot see the museum or park come back to same point where bus dropped you. Get in to the HIHO bus and get down to the next location of your wish. Like this you can finish all the stops on this route. The ticket of bus journey is either valid for 1 day or may be more as per mentioned with respect to the cost paid. So in this entire one day you can keep getting on and of the bus and cover all the locations. Mostly entrance fees at museum or park is not covered in this cost. Unless mentioned in the package that you have taken.
From here next day I had no plan nothing. I just checked for some natural museum and started walking along the path which I connected from hotel mobile. Just for your information. If you give point A and point B and start routing when you had internet service. Later you just need to use GPS ON in your mobile. It shows where you are and all without internet. Just some extra knowledge, Do not close the map window in mobile in case if you are not having internet service available you can just minimise it or say switch between apps. All you need to do is switch OFF GPS from icons. This I learnt during my Geology field work days, why GPS drains out your mobile battery as it is not connecting to any local tower and feeding you live location of your device, but it is directly giving you real time data connecting with satellite. Mostly it connects to multiple satellite, if it is giving you accurate data. SO you can just click on icon wait to fetch your location and then continue. Keep an optional power bank ready with you just in case if your mobile battery drains. You have an option of downloading local map offline but yet to explore that trick. It needs space on your device though. It is interesting trick, if you know and mess when you climb steep slope for 20 minutes and then you realize you took a wrong turn. So, I walked and walked and walked! My legs were already in bad state. I was really feeling bored to walk alone , but the views along the bridge were enchanting. Another mistake I did was I did not empty my device to click pictures and was running short of space in three mobiles. I hope all my readers are learning from my blogs or my mistakes, some tricks and tips for solo travel. As I was walking I came across a beautiful valley and the views were really breathtaking. You can definitely se those in my videos. Please follow me on Instagram. I will update you if and when my videos are posted. On the way to museum I found this toy train kind of stuff. As I was walking along the uphill, I could see the meal railings here, it had locks tied on it. Mostly metallic ones. I remember my husband wanted to see this locks on one bridge in Paris, named Pont des Arts. The concept is a couple puts or ties the lock on the bridge railing and throw its key in water body near by. So, you remain locked together for life time. There is also name of a couple mentioned on these lock. I have made a video of beautiful locks but it is in Luxembourg. The entire hill has this locks on it and slowly it will be having more and more. If you take a walk you would remember my blog and definitely see these locks all over it. I was thinking is this going to be OK to spend money or euros in this toy train or just waste of money. Somehow I made up my mind as my legs were totally gone. I took this train ride. Trust me over HIHO bus I would recommend you to take this train ride. It takes you through beautiful locations goes down the valley slowly and then shows you some beautiful views. If you still do not trust me. Here is my video on YouTube.
I never thought this historic places can be so well maintained and such beautiful paths and amazing parks and greenery. Some how I like places devoid of too many tourists. This is not a toy train but it is good for all age groups. It has a multiple language commentary for which they provide you ear phones.
Later when the train finished the loop I walked again to search the natural museum. Finally I could find it. It is beautifully located on river banks. A very peaceful setup. There is a glass door at the entrance which I tried to push/ pull or slide and knock to open. I was upset if the museum is closed today. I saw working hours and just while I was about to return I managed to some how open the heavy door and make innocent face like Mr. Bean. He was fiction’s character and I am its real version. Some how this museum was also empty with only 2 ladies around and curators. I really loved this museum. It shows life and its evolution from fossils to all animals real but stuffed one. It has so many things at display. If you are nature lover you must visit this place. The museum is located in an amazing beautiful setup of nature. Its located in urbanised beautiful valley. It has all different stuffed animals at display. Lots of fossils. Semi precious stones. Display of volcanoes. Good collection of fish fossils from the valley. Some video visuals. Lots of birds and insects from large to tiny varieties. Can have some written information in English along with French. Entry fees is 5€ in may 2019. Museum is closed on Monday. Nice display of biotic and abiotic world. The display is of 3 floors building. 3 floor has amazing interactive creative display. It talks about our senses. Also how animal interaction works. It smells ancient wood there. Lighting highlights only on display so taking pictures is bit tricky. I like to see museum when it is empty. Which I was lucky here. Peaceful time to see all the displays. I have clicked lots of photos here. You can see them on my Facebook travel page of Geo-Tourism Vari The Divine Journey. All nature enthusiasts must visit. You will love to see this place. There is a cafeteria at ground floor entrance. With by the riverside peaceful view and not to miss amazing display of a plant and its flying pollen. There is lift. Rest room good for kids. Also one more thing. There is a nice information on sleep and dreams on last floor. Person like me spent 3 hours to see it. Could have gone more slow and admired nature at its best evolution traces. Later I finished museum and just walked uphill. Had a lentil soup, got fresh then ate a lots of food and was dead tired for that day.
Next day was my yet another new day. I was going to travel in a double decked European fast train TVG in first class boggy from Luxembourg to Paris. This was my first trip to France, till now I have just seen it in Hollywood movies and hear that this is very beautiful place. Thanks to my husband! There was all new mess on our way to the train. Post hotel checkout a taxi came to pick and the driver was a lady in mid 50s. I had not bought much bags just one sag and one cabin bag. The lady quickly came and loaded my bag in the taxi. I was impressed as she was no where hesitant to pick baggage for being women. We had kept print out of the train station or Gare. So that there should not be any mistake in the name of place. As per guided we started to walking to enter the train there were roughly 20 minutes left. As we were informed, train comes only few minutes before the boarding time near platform. This was terminal station. Since we had reservation we were cool till now. Later we were informed after inquiry take a bus to go some xyz station your train will be going form that place. Oh my goodness! We were now trying to reconfirm and check if the information is correct or what is happening. Some how we went to information desk. He wrote a bus number and station name and said your train is going to be on that station. We started asking where to take bus ticket he just said go there. We got into bus and some how we reached to station just 5 minutes let for train to leave. We rushed and then got the platform where the train was yet to come. The display said Gare de l’Est coming on the same platform. The train with display Gare de l’Est finally arrived on the platform. We went inside. There is special place to stow your bags. We settled in excitement which lasted for next few minutes. We were only 2 sitting in the train now with some train staff around. I was still not realizing this fact. I was just happy. Now the train will move. Then someone mentioned that this is not right train. Get down. We felt totally lost now on what is happening today. All the passages were stranded on platform with all the bags. The empty train then had gone and then came our train. SO, finally we went and sat on our place. It was so exciting to travel with this TVG fast train. Like any other tourist, I clicked some nice pictures inside. Seat in front of us was empty. An elderly couple came and shifted their seat with us. Entire journey we saw green pastures around the track. Weather was beautiful. Entire train is air conditioned. A TC comes and check all the tickets. There was a pantry boggy inside this train. I was excited to explore what all I can have to eat here. Just some tea, coffee with cold drinks and cookies, biscuits and chips. Here I remembered Chef Gordon Ramsey’s episode on YouTube. He was travelling in India and he took an opportunity to cook in Indian railways. Here he appreciated the food that is available on board in Indian railways . Freshly cooked and served in huge quantity and made in difficult conditions. I just bought some hot chocolate and homemade cookies. Just my Indian apatite needs warm food in bulk quantity always.
Here comes the next drama. I was now in my 5th country, France! I was so excited and happy. We had booked a hotel Holiday Inn, just near the station as all the touristic places are in this area. We reached at reception counter and I realized something. I had forgotten my sag in train which was kept up. In excitement to reach Paris I just forgot it. Now the entire universe started revolving in front of both our eyes. I made a quick decision. I said I am going back to station, if the train is still on platform I would have chance to find my bag, I will return here at hotel. I had my passport in it and 3 mobile devices with some euros. Some how I ran like I have to win gold medal in Olympics. The station was exactly like CST station in Mumbai. I did not know which platform our train came. I went to gate station master who asked me what happened? I said with my dumb face, I forgot my bag with passport in it in the train. He allowed me to check and go inside where all the passengers were exiting. I tried to ask few people but they avoided talking to me and walked off. Some where I found Indian family and asked them do you know the train that came from Luxembourg to Paris? I checked it and that was not my train. I went back to station master, he asked me which train I came from I mentioned Luxembourg. Since the station had changed I did not remember the name of starting station. He then went through a print copy and asked what time did your train arrive? Again dumb face said 10 minutes ago. I had no mobile phone to check time. He showed me the copy and I could spot the name of train station that we came from. Finally I found the train. Luckily it was still on the same platform. As I was running the cleaning people looked at me and asked are you looking for bag (in French which I don’t know)? I remembered my bogie number and we went and my bag was at same place where I had kept it, untouched! Everything inside my bag. I realized the moment was different. This was the moment where my mind was with joy with all the people around me. This was my connection to experience French people. I showed my bag to station master. He was happy to see me happy. This was also moment where I remembered Morgan Freeman’s expression, he do not act, he has real expressions to play. I would like my readers to tell me in comments, just in case you are in such a scenario where you have lost your passport currency and credit card, what steps you will do? It was Thursday. SO you have 2 working days for making new passport application. I had photograph of my passport in my mobile but not of Schengen visa. Here I do not speak local language as well. All your suggestions would be helpful for other readers to remember steps when caught in such a situation.
Now comes exploring Paris! It is one of the crowded touristic place. Same day we had food and then planned to visit Louvre Museum. We had booked our tickets online. I am still wondering with this online reservation availability there were people waiting outside with kids and full family to buy tickets. In most of the blogs or review about places, they mentioned about this long waiting ques and tour companies that take you to see the museum without being stranded in que. No body is going to pay surprise visit to the museum. Those who have not gone to this museum and are planning to visit, let me tell you few facts. You can book your personal ticket online. You can keep the e-copy handy in your device. The museum is huge like a university building. If you are big fan of visiting museums, plan and go. Entire one day will be less to see the museum properly. You need to walk a lot. If you are tired there are huge stairs where you can sit for while. 80 to 90 % of crowd is pulled by only Mona Lisa painting. I had it, as one of the reason to visit and see what Leonardo da Vinci was fine finishing it for 14 years. With several stories of this Mona Lisa painting one it was stolen and brought back, not found for 2 years and then after returning back to museum, painting attracted more and more visitors. At the same time there are certain stories as Leonardo da Vinci who has painted this art work was missing for 4 years and post returning he kept working on this trader’s wife’s painting for 14 years. As it is said that he went into Time Travel in those four years and and coded some secrets in his few of the paintings after returning. While other reason to visit this museum was seeing Egyptian antiquities. If you have visited any of the Indian temples during any festival. It is same experience in the chamber where The Mona Lisa is hanging. The huge hall is fully crowded. You have to move ahead in a crowd, take a darshan then quick selfie and move out from rush. Feel happy I have a proof of me seeing the painting. Beyond the barricade the painting is kept so far that we can’t even see it properly. Also I have a picture in my Facebook page Vari The Divine Journey. In this you can see. The space for actual frame is bigger than what existing painting is. So I really feel actual Mona Lisa is hanging somewhere else. Why would the wall where once upon a time Mona Lisa was hanging, before even it was stolen will be so big? Have a look at the picture and do let me know what do you feel about my observation?
There is building map with colors and numbers guiding you which artifact is kept in which place. It was nice admiring all the place. As you enter the museum from pyramidal structure, there is washroom and information desk available. We started to see from the archeological section. SO as we walked we realized there is no signs of Mona Lisa as we completed almost 40 % of the museum. As the building is huge and has multiple floors. It is difficult to find we are on which floor. It was a puzzle and treasure hunt we too a picture of map and traced out The Mona Lisa painting hall. Post finishing our museum visit we wished to have some food and exit. SO finding that restaurant exit was also a treasure hunt kind of a work. Post having snacks we saw some Hop-In-Hop-Off(HIHO) bus here. As we were tired we skipped this bus. There are many of these buses that take you circle the city. Then we headed to Eiffel Tower. We were walking. In Paris you will find lots of this App scooters and bicycles, that you can pay online and use it. It is really convenient and a cost effective option. In Paris everything is in nearby areas, but you really have to walk a lot. This was my 3rd consecutive day to walk. We already finished 17k footsteps. Then we visited Eiffel tower premises. While walking on the way we had planned to walk from the bridge named Pont des Art. This is bridge I just near to the Louvre museum. For its locks all over it. To our surprise when we reached here all the locks are removed. Except for the few remaining here and there. This tradition is hazardous for bridge and hence in 2014, they removed all the locks and put glass railings instead. Now anyone who is traveling to these places knows where to find railings of bridge with locks. Then we took a baggie and reached Eiffel tower. It says X amount to reach Eiffel tower in the print. The moment you reach, you find it written X amount per person. After all it is Paris, everyone here is smart and knows Paris is expensive place. SO to make money you will be tricked.
As we reached nearing to Eiffel tower it was looking enormously big and beautiful. Magnificent piece of steel art work. Heavily crowded. You can stand in a queue and take tickets to take a Otis lift and ride up to see views of Parisian beauty. We just admired the beauty from ground. There are also steps that go till top and of course come down! If you are sitting on the lawns beside and clicking pictures you have lots of champagne or beer sellers, souvenir sellers who are trying to sell all the stuff. As mentioned you need to be really careful about your stuff. People like me they even forget bags and go while still in a moment. The places was heavily crowded. I am not comfortable with so much of crowd around. You have family crowd with children. You have couple doing all non sense stuff in public areas and most of the people are like us. Trying to click nice pictures with Eiffel tower backdrop. You can actually sit on the lawn and admire the huge Eiffel tower and also the boom of social media either to virtually Check In “I am at Eiffel Tower” Feeling blessed, Feeling happy, Feeling excited and make some trick photography to go viral. It worth watching. This places is full of tourists. After relaxing for a while we then walked on the other side of river towards National Marine Museum. You can click more better pictures on the way going in this direction. Which you can see on my Facebook page “Vari The divine Journey” or Instagram #03kanchan.
In Paris there are lot and lots of things to do and explore. You can just try and find on internet and you will see lots of places that you can visit. Museums, parks, zoo and many more things. One funny thing is I always think why do Indian tourists try to find Indian restaurants wherever they go. As an Indian we always cook Indian food at home. SO, why do we need to eat Indian food when we step out of our comfort zone? As tourist we need to eat local food that country has. I believe food is the only thing that connects you with its culture. You get to know or learn more about any places and its culture with the food. Why not when it is French food! We did try different typical French restaurants and also Macrons! It was fun doing this. One more thing past 5 years I am living out of India. I am living in Turkey. Unlike other parts of world like UK, US, European country or any Asian country as well , in Turkey there is no Indian grocery store. In Turkey you have Indian restaurants but they make and sell only north Indian food. It has same one gravy and different foods made out of that same gravy. Which is not even authentic north Indian food. As a food lover, we were informed that there are south Indian restaurants here. SO we definitely took this opportunity and behaved like an Indian tourist and ate Masala dosa, Uthappam, Idly of course with smabar and chutney with it. We also found typical south Indian Filter Coffee, it is served in typical dabra. Two metallic bowls locked in each other and Once you open it you mix the coffee forming foam out of it and have it. I always enjoy tea or coffee while eating my breakfast or meal. Not after finishing meal. In south Indian restaurant you do not ask for filter coffee you need to say Filter Kapi. To my surprise, they were selling Indian jasmine garland, that we traditionally put in our hair. I am from Maharashtra whose capital is Mumbai but most of the Indian women have this tradition of wearing flower garland in hair. I just love the jasmine fragrance and to wear flower garland. My husband just got me this mogra gajra. It was cherry on the cake for the day. Visit all the beautiful places from your wish list and have heavenly food and get a flower garland for yourself. I kept this garland preserved with me in through my journey with me and also got it home. Even though the flowers in the garland gets dried the fragrance still remains. As we walked back to our hotel along with lots of Indian restaurants we saw lots and lots of Indian grocery stores, Indian hair cutting salons with Indian film industry actors posters, boutique shops selling Indian wedding costumes for both bride and groom, jewellery shops and also god idols of copper, bronze with all puja material for sale which was very surprising for me. Entire long stretch of the road was like a Indian street. In some corner we also saw this yellow vest crowd. I remember our first plan that we made to visit Paris was the exact day this protest started. SO, we had to cancel our visit and did take a trip to some other location. I was really surprised to see lots of Indian tourists in my entire Paris trip.
That’s all from my this trip. Hope you enjoyed reading my blog. Please do read other blogs from other trips and some different topic category as well. At the same time do not forget to view my photos that are already posted on the Instagram and Facebook. Soon I will post some nice informative and comedy fun videos of my travel. See you again in next Travel Blog or Vlog. Till then Sayonara!
Bodrum
Namaste,
All my reader friends. I wish you all are doing well! Here is a quick blog of my Bodrum visit. As you all know very well Bodrum is one of the Turkey’s hot destination for holidays. Almost all the Turkish people living in big cities have a second home in Bodrum. Summer time Istanbul is empty with locals and full with Tourists from all around the globe. Let me tell you this one thing entire southern coast of Turkey is amazingly beautiful. There are lots of holiday options that you may like to choose. Either book a hotel along the coast by the seas and just relax or take a boat/gullet trip or get on to a luxurious cruise and cover beautiful destinations. All the places you go you will get to see blue Mediterranean coast.
Why Turkey?
Compared to other European destinations Turkey is really a cost effective destination and is worth its beauty spending your holiday in exploring Turkish history, culture, food and of course beautiful places which are well connected around.
Today with the help of multiple resources our life is much better with all the facilities and choices to make. To travel you can take flight from Istanbul with multiple options like Anadolu Jet Atlas Global Pegasus Turkish Airlines and many more. Either you can choose cheapest rate or fastest journey or a luxurious journey as per your choices. You also have a cheapest choices over taking a public road transportation Obilet Bus app and site or may be if you are found of driving long destinations, rent a car and drive yourself through all the beautiful corners of Turkey. Only thing is use multiple map options and verify if the destination in Map is showing correct location. On the way fuel and maintenance options. As few of my friends used to rented a car and drove in alternate turns and share the cost of fuel on the way. Most of the times these rented car used to get some technical maintenance issues. Make sure you are aware of this aspect to fix some basic problems yourself if stuck in middle of no were! At the same time you have multiple options to stay in an Air Bnb Pansion hotel, Couch surfing from 2 star to 5 star hotels to stay. All you need is just to make a plan, fix a budget, fix your travel dates, bring your friends who like to go with you on holiday and just pack your bag and step out.
If you makeup a plan much earlier then life is lot more easy for you. You may get to book hotels in cheaper rates get flight tickets on cheaper rate and mostly everything will be available. During the holiday season everything is pretty expensive. Ordinary holes will ask you for 5 star hotel rates where you would not have any option than booking it. At the same time if you are making pre bookings all you need to do is get a room specifications mentioned e-mail with number of people what all is included and everything about your stay with proper dates mentioned on it. Some of the hotels they do make some errors where you my end up having problem. Now a days hotel make bookings on just your credit card details. Also if you have booked hotel in foreign currency make sure to fix the exchange rate and the cost to pay at the time of your stay. Most of the hotels they provide lavish breakfast, lunch and dinner with all inclusive packages. If you do not get such hotels no need to worry about this as there are lots of restaurants and cafes that operated in almost all the areas and provide good food through. For those who are vegetarian and are looking for understanding on what to eat and what not to eat. Soon I will be posting a detailed blog as well as a small video for education to give information. In short, you have lots of variety of options on food to choose so you have absolutely no need to worry about this.
My holiday was just a relaxing holiday with a short escape from Istanbul city. We stayed at Le Blanche Island Bodrum Website of hotel we stayed. which is a lavish hotel to stay. We had booked a pick and drop facility form airport. We got a nice Mercedes Vito van that was very cozy and luxurious too. Bodrum is full of hotels of your choice. Mostly people stay in the area near marina but there are lot more other areas in the Bodrum which are calm quite and secluded. This entire hotel is a huge island which has all its facilities and self sufficient. You don out need to go out for anything. As you enter the hotel it has huge lobby that gives you a touch of turquoise and blend of elegance. This hotel has seven different restaurants which keeps your taste buds and stomach busy and happy switching between times. There are four and half outdoor swimming pools which is my favorite part and one indoor pool. You can literally play in any of the pool. The landscape is well designed in such a way that with the back drop of seas you have blue pools to enjoy. They have well maintained lawn tennis court, table tennis disco hall for entertainment in the evening. Thought the day after breakfast there are continuous activities that keep you busy every time. Starts with some Yoga session. There is entertainment team that keeps you engaging in all the activities like water volley ball, pétanque game, also some surf board games to be played in swimming pool which is fun to be part of it. I used to swim, eat and take a nice sleep besides the pool or beach, which is best part of the holiday. Once you get bored with this activity then you are actually refreshed to do more. There is a full perimeter walk on the entire island which is best in early morning. You need to be careful as all the flowering plants are full of honey bees. I felt really happy in filming them and had best time. During month of May Turkey is still bit cold. If you want the early summer holiday before crowd starts gathering take a holiday break before summer starts or after summer is ending around November. Food and drinks served were pretty good. hotel staff is always around you and they take good care of premises. Around every premises there is a washroom and changing room. You can sped good vacation in this type of hotels. The one best part was giant slides on the pool that was thrill and good exercise to climb and slide into water. I am still scared to do that.
Bodrum holiday is not a activity holiday. It is just to eat, drink, swim sleep and make new friends and get refreshed from your routine activities. Soon I am planning a holiday which will be updated in fresh new blog. If you liked my blog, do let me know. If you have any suggestion questions or any feedback please feel free to write to me. I will be more than happy if my information is helpful in some way or the other.
Follow me on Instagram #03kanchan and Facebook page “Vari-The Divine Journey” to be updated on when I will be adding more photos and videos of my visit.
My this trip was combined with Pamukkale trip. So first we visited Pamukkale and then planned to rest in Bodrum. Stay tuned to my blog posts updates. With my research on my travel trips, I got to visit yet another Pamukkale exposure which is same terraces but underground. To know about it keep reading all my blogs.
The Basque Country – Bilbao(Spain), San Sebastian(Spain), Biarritz(France)
Namaste,
Just few weeks ago I was fortunate to visit my 6th country, Spain. In weather report I always see a sun shine in this entire country when rest of them are in minus during the winters. The vibe that Spanish territory has is different from other parts of European nations. In my career as a G.I.S. professional, I had done lots of road mapping around western European regions so I always used to be surprised with Spain. The navigation system is densely populated in places like Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona yet highly organised. I was truly impressed then. It was just with the available toposheets and google data. Now I was visiting this country. I was really excited about visiting Spain. Me and my husband like to travel, but we prefer to visit less crowded places around so we made a plan to visit northern region of Spain. Also, weather should be pleasant, so not much difficulty in outdoor visits. We stayed for 4 days in Bilbao. We took a direct flight from Istanbul, new airport to Bilbao. Here we had booked day trips to visit regions around. We stayed at Mercure Bilbao Jardines de Albia hotel.
Tourism industry is really good here. We had planned 2 days local trip on Viator.com. I have done one trip few years back from this site. First one was visiting The Basque country region and other was to winery. Since we were living in the area in the city centre we did Guggenheim Museum Bilbao on our own. The day we landed we just picked up a taxi and went to our hotel. We had some snacks – food and got some rest. Later we planned to visit the Guggenheim Museum. We just used map and walked. The museum was crowded but we could easily buy the entry tickets. In the pictures on the social media you will find these few things. A giant spider along the river side, colorful Tulips, A bridge, A dog with flowers and metal ball stacked of course the metallic exposure of the museum itself. The Museum is shaped out of titanium metal sheets. All these exhibits mentioned are outside the museum, can be viewed while walking around the museum premises, except Tulips. It is a fine art museum and is very large. I would recommend to visit this museum only if you have understanding and liking for art. Else you may not really like it. As I mentioned in my previous blog of Luxembourg – Paris that with the boom in graphics designing, connecting to the exhibits placed in art museum is very difficult. The exhibit which I liked most was huge sheets of curved steel. The moment I saw first sight or few of them I mentioned my husband, it appears like projections system that we used in mapping industry. Just to understand in a lay man language shape of earth is irregular curved sphere. To create a map from 3-dimensional structure to 2-dimensional map you need to project the curved surface on the planar objects. This helps to spread curved objects surface on a flat surface. More simpler explanation would be, you have full map drawn on a globe, now to make a 2D planar map of it, you will cut the globe in certain places that it remains properly placed with respect to latitude and longitude lines, where all the calculations and directions of travel matches while using any two points on your map. SO, the cuts are very important without your map getting distorted or without any ambiguity. If you find this topic is interesting you can see some YouTube videos on this topic to have a cleared idea. Later as we were moving in between these metal sheets I read the spatial arrangements. SO, I was right on the concept on which the artist was playing with the curved surfaces and arrangements. I have more pictures from the museum exhibits You may like to take a look on my Facebook page “Vari – The divine journey”. There were some of the exhibits which I really wondered as what was the purpose of exhibits and so on. There is a café inside where you get some basic snacks and soft and hard drinks.
As we lived here I was finding it as a culture shock as there were lots of café or pubs which had little snacks and drinks. The people were sitting with kids, family and friends in it. Water was expensive than hard drinks. Almost every street people were sitting with beer mugs. Very less restaurants with proper food but there several Michelin-Starred restaurants in Bilbao. Here I have one confession to make but it has a reason to it. I searched for Indian food restaurant here in Bilbao. I always wonder why would an Indian who eats Indian food at home would go for a tour and search for Indian food. The reason was, food in cafes that we ate was not sufficient for my appetites. So, we did search and visit an Indian restaurant here in Bilbao. The food was not really great also it was not an authentic India restaurant. It’s a common thing that most of the restaurants in Europe are mostly North Indian food, out of which few are just named as Indian food restaurants but they belong to our neighboring countries. Also, sometimes the chefs are not Indian. That was not a great decision as we cannot eat hot, spicy, gravy food. Besides, later we did find some good restaurants, which served freshly cooked nice food. For me I always want warm food. I cannot eat assembled sandwich or a sandwich from fridge. I need it to be grilled. Even not a big fan of cold sweet dishes. Very rarely I eat ice cream. I am still wondering how people can drink cold water or other beverages. I need to eat good portion of meal in my breakfast, lunch and dinner. I do not keep munching things in rest of the empty hours. This food topic is just to understand the food and type of place that I visit must match my requirement. I have reviewed few places in my TripAdvisor which I really found good places here to eat. Good portion – warm – fresh. In future I may add links to those places in my blog.
As we did this day with walk, we were bit exhausted we walked really for long distances. There are few nicer restaurants in the Bilbao city center area which are pretty good, so I would recommend by any means either you go there early in the evening or book your table. As the restaurants get really full in the night time. We saw many of the people had to return as the tables were pre booked. Luckily, we always went there on time. First day our legs were totally gone. I have motioned this in my other blogs as well. Mostly to visit European countries, make a habit to walk a lot. You will find lots interesting things on each lane to see and admire. You will really walk for almost 20k footsteps a day. SO, before you plan for European holiday, make yourself prepared for long walks also if you are visiting during summer, it is really very hot. They call it Indian summer! Bilbao is place of rich people. You can easily see stretch limo while you are walking around the city. What I could see was there was more tourists in elderly ages between 50s to 60s. Also, the city had a greater number of elderly local population who were managing the kids of the family. Cost of living is bit higher. All the transactions that you do are in euros.
Next two days we did a buffet breakfast at hotel. There were really very less options to eat, but could manage with cornflakes, bread options, eggs, Spanish omelette, fruits, fruit juice and some salad options. it was 13 euro per person. Since we had to step out pretty early, we managed with in-house hotel breakfast. Our day trip booked on Viator was 171.10 USD for 2 people. They pick you from a nearby center location and drop you at your hotel. The van is nice and there is a multilingual guide. The fun part is until the day of travel you do not know who is coming to pick you, car number, driver’s number or even guide’s number and so on, there is simple confirmation on your communication e-mail. Where they keep connecting with you. Also, they ask you for name of hotel you are staying, if you have not given this information earlier over the e-mail conversation. In our trip to Catania in Italy, we booked a trip on Viator.com it was same method, we did not know anyone from the tour company till they arrive to pick us at Sheraton hotel that time. Not even any phone number other than some helpline numbers. So now we can trust the trips on the site. Timings are better matched, vehicle is neat and clean with air conditioning, wearing seat belt for all the passengers is compulsory. As they take you to all the points and ask you to return at the point at given time which is well followed. We had co passengers in the trip who had booked the same trip form the hotel they were staying. The cost was also roughly same.
Our first trip was to the Basque country. In our online itinerary it was mentioned to carry a passport. I am such a dumb person. I was discussing with my husband that I will not carry a passport, I have a photo copy of it. Luckily, I carried it after my husband insisted me to carry it. Our visit was on following places Biarritz, Saint Jean de Luz, Hondarribia and San Sebastian. The bus moved while picking up all the people on the tour from different pickup points or hotels. The Basque country language, Euskara is the oldest know language of Europe. Few of the places are in French territory and few of Basque regions lie in Spanish territory. First location that we had to visit of the day was Biarritz. We traveled in the mini bus and as we crossed the border, we were stopped by French border police. All our passports were checked. Luckily, I carried my passport and not the photo copy.
Don’t make the mistake of saying you’re going out for tapas while in the Basque Country – they do pintxos instead. Pintxos are essentially small pieces of bread topped with a variety of ingredients, though some don’t come with bread at all. Pintxos differ from tapas in that they are smaller, are not served on a sharing plate and are eaten by just one person in a few mouthfuls. They are also laid out along the bar and you can help yourself to what you like, as opposed to ordering from a menu. Each pintxo will have a stick through the middle holding it together. Make sure to keep these sticks on your plate so that at the end of your meal, the person tending the bar can count them up and give you your bill. We traveled to a sea side area. This was amazingly beautiful place. We both just loved the beauty of this place. If you see this place in my photos and videos you will realise that you have seen this French beauty in lots of Hollywood movies. Right from old classic movies to latest movies. There are huge vertical cliffs and shore with gushing waves. This place is visited by most of the surfers around the world. The waves here go really high. Before I would discuss more about this place anybody who want to associate this place with any history or Hollywood stories, I would mention this is a Geo-tourism site. There are inclined beds where you can see sea arches, staffs, cliffs and beautiful exposures in this entire area. There is a hill top where you can go up hill with funicular or by your vehicle and see the entire beaches and sea stretching to long horizons. The rock formations are metamorphosed bedding planes those are inclined and uplifted in one direction. At places you can see igneous intrusions as well. Along with sea, all you see is photos with inclined rocks behind. Today it may be a highly visited touristic spot but it is only attracted by its natural beauty. Whatever you might want to associate with it, for me it is one of the naturally beautiful place, located in France. We walked along the coast and I really felt that we could have been given more time to spend on this place to explore or play in the beautiful beach. The place was pretty crowded here but yet it carried a class with it. I have small videos which I am editing to post it and create a YouTube channel “Vari-The divine journey”. It will have the same name as my Facebook page, so to keep updated follow me on Instagram #03kanchan to stay updated and connected with me.
Our next stop for the day was, Saint-Jean-De-Luz this location is also in the French territory. This is an old fisherman’s town located on the river banks of the Nivelle river that opens in the sea along the Bay of Biscay. All the houses here are still the old-style houses that you can see in my photos or videos. There is an old Saint-Jean-Baptise church where King Louis XIV got married. The place is open for tourists to visit. On the day we visited there was some street carnival which we got to see and enjoy. This place is known for its Foie gras – made out of duck liver. We bought some Foie gras. We were given roughly 45 minutes to take a walk-in alley, or watch the church or play around the sea beach, which was really beautiful. I must admit the French coast line is really very beautiful than I imagined watching movies, photos or seen in travel videos and classier. Post this we were supposed to go back to other locations in Spanish territory. I was wondering why was our guide rushing us at different locations and not allowing us to spend more time here. Here most of the places people managed some English. As it was very hot climate, we were thinking whether to have ice-cream or not, but eventually we had the ice-cream. From here we headed back to the border and were back in to Spain. If you are a nature lover or a Geologists, please do not miss to see out all the amazing folded rocks along the road cuttings during the journey. At places I could see Chevron folds in older sedimentary rocks as well. I just missed that spot to take pictures. There are amazing phases of different folding’s through the journey.
As we headed towards our next location, Hondarribia in Spain. By the time we reached here it was almost lunch time and we all were very hungry. Here our guide mentioned us that everything in France was very expensive so many people turn to Spanish regions for food and other activities. So now I realised why were we rushed. Our first half was supposed to be finished in France so that we go to less expensive places and enjoy the food. The Ice-Cream was bit expensive, but never had a thought in my mind that we were saving our money on the tour. I love to find a cost-effective option, always! Hondarribia, is yet another fisherman’s village mostly converted to a tourist’s town now. You can find lots of cafes and pubs around the street. The normal food at these busy cafes was pretty expensive as well. The sea food was really amazing, we really loved it! The day was growing very hot, hotter and hottest! Looking at the menu I thought even the Spanish places in this region were expensive too!
Our final destination for the day was San Sebastian. Here we were allowed to spent time at Motoras Isla Santa Clara. It was beautiful sea side place. Bit crowded at this time of day around 17:00 hours. You have lots of regular options to eat and also some castles to roam around. We just spent time in walking around and seeing the place and clicking pictures with green backgrounds. With this we ended our tour for the day and were driven back to our respective hotels.
Next day we had a tour to Vitoria and wine region of La Rioja. We had bit bigger bus today. Few of the people were repeat same from our previous day’s trip. The guide Stephen was also same. This day we started our visit with the Vitoria Gasteiz. This place has some historical importance. We were dropped by our bus at Cathedral Santa Maria de Vitoria. From outside it looks like Fort, from inside it is a Cathedral. This was supposed to be very big monument, similar to Notre Dame cathedral in Amsterdam. This Santa Maria cathedral was built 100 years after Notre Dame cathedral. Santa Maria cathedral was never completed due to lack of funds. At the moment there is lots of construction work going on at the structure. Later we walked to the main monument of this Capital of Basque country. In the square of Plaza de la Virgen Blanca there is a war memorial built in the center named La Batalla de Vitoria. This is an important part of history where Spanish people connect with this war memorial with pride. Later we were given 20 minutes to explore the place. As I am not much interested in historical parts, I went to click pictures. Once we were done with this place, we were now going to visit the winery.
Cost of this tour was 170 USD for two people. Same facilities, pickup from center location, drop at hotel. Air-conditioned minibus with driver and guide. Here the cost included entry for the winery and two wine tasting. We visited winery at La Guardia. Here on the way we saw, grapes plantation through the drive. There are lots of wineries in this region. The place where we visited was Pureta de San Juan Church. It as big castle now it is open for tourists to visit, it has municipal swimming pools, to sports center, hospital, tower-fortress, to star Michelin restaurants, tourist information center, lots of souvenir shops and a winery at the basement. This place was nice and not too crowded. Here there was an exhibition in the central region where they were selling lots of vines, cheese and lots of stuff in this region. You can get tourist map from the tourist information center and visit the place at is bit confusing and too many internal lanes to keep you puzzled. Visiting winery was fun, but our tour guide just left us and said another guide will take you in. At the same time, we waited for around about 40 – 50 minutes in sun just kept seeing group of tourists coming out of the door. So, finally we inquired and made our group enter. Here they showed us a huge cubical chamber like well but lined walls and in square/rectangular shape. Here they pour or dump all the grapes de skinned black grapes for red wine. The people crush them with their feet. The grapes are covered and kept for few weeks. Later when it gets naturally fermented (along with wine yeast). The grapes start releasing its juices that is collected from lower vents/pipes. This is actually wine, this is bit young wine. which has less alcohol content in it and bit sweet in taste. As they keep grapes for more days the juices released are more acidic and more bitter with more alcohol content in it. There is next a cellulose filtration process done on the extracted juices and stored in wooden barrels in the dark basements. These barrels are mostly made of Oak tree wood. The barrels are sampled and filled in to 5 different bottles and are sent for quality testing to different labs. Out of this one bottle sample is kept in case of any other requirement of samples. For us there was arrangement of wine glasses made here in the basement. First glass was for young wine, it was less bitter and comparatively less deep red in colour. The second glass was of old wine. Here we were asked to do gargle with the wine before gulping or swallowing it also the glass as we turned, we were trying to take the aroma of it. The old wine must give you a feel of layer inside mouth and also give little bitter feel in the end of the tongue. Hope I have remembered the correct process. More than anything I was worried that we are having it empty stomach. I just pulled out some nuts from my bag. This came very handy option. If you are visiting winery you can keep pieces of cheese and some nuts in your bag. I am a typical person who considers all possible ways of troubles on the journey and preparatory measures or precautionary measures everything will be available in my bag. Once I finished my college, I kept my geometry box properly managed. People were surprised when I give them things from my geometry box. Now, I feel uncomfortable to not have geometry box in my bag. In makeup pouch and geometry box. I will always choose geometry box.
Post winery we had our lunch. Here all the restaurants are having Spanish menu. So, you can always order for known options and give a trial of single portion. Since the place was crowded, we made quick picks in the menu and gave the order and also ensured that count was known correct by the Garson. We had a lady on the same tour from China. She was giving us company for lunch. Her sister was working in Bilbao. She had an online boyfriend from the same area since past years. So, she was on visit to her sister and boyfriend. As they were working, she asked hotel to make her a custom tour to spend here day. Luckily our orders came on time and we had nice fish meal. We finished with the day and were dropped back to hotel.
I really wished to visit Zumia region. Which is little away from the Bilbao region. It had half day tours on Viator.com but the pick-up and drop were not feasible. So, this is in my Wishlist’s to visit next. I definitely have reasons to visit Spain again. If you want to do tour in Bilbao you also have train options from Madrid. As Madrid will be having most of the international connecting flights. You can check available number of days for holiday and plan Madrid have less crowded yet beautiful regions, you may visit Bilbao and surroundings.
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Fethiye To Olympous Gullet Cruise – South Turkey- Mediterranean Sea
Namaste,
One of the beautiful journey that I experienced! You want to experience a beautiful holiday then you can read this travel blog and prepare your itinerary. When I was planning I wished if I would have know those things. So I will ensure to add all the essential points of the trip. Along with the beauty of Turkish southern coast.
Best season: May to October – Summer is the best season but just before peak summer catches it is best as you are on the sea side. I highly recommend this for those who want to experience the coment shower. I was not surprised, I was shocked to see shower of coments. In the night when you are under the open sky and floating on the water, just lie down and do star gazing. There is amazing display of open sky for you! If you are more crazy like me, do not miss the open sky viewed above Mediterranean sea at 03:00 am in the morning. I will share a picture that I have clicked.
How to reach?
There are various trips that takes you from 4 days to 12 days around the Turkish southern coast. Since I live in Turkey, Istanbul. We took a flight from Istanbul Ataturk Airport to Dalaman airport. Roughly 8 hours 49 minutes by road. We hired a Mercedes van from Airport to Fethiye harbor roughly 40 minutes drive. There are non stop buses from Airport to various locations around the region. These buses are very convenient with all your baggage and air conditioned. The cost must be roughly 15 Turkish Lira per personbit should be very convenient. Cost may change subject to your visit to the place.
Things to do:
Activity wise it is a holiday so you don’t have to do any thing. As my album on Facebook page “Vari The divine journey” I mentioned it is Eat, sleep, swim then again Eat, sleep, swim. What more you want.? There is no Wi-Fi so take pictures and videos as much you like and post it on social media one you are back from holiday. Have patience! Local mobile internet does work but not so great. Since I was with my husband I just informed my parents on both sides that we are on holiday with not much of connectivity. So next 4 days I did not use my devices for connecting.
For more pictures of my travel visit this link
Swimming, walking little trekking in some hilly terrain you may need sports shoes. At some places the boat stops near islands for you to go and do some window shopping or view sunset from some point and stuff like that. So they take you from in a small buggy boat or speed boat and then drop you at the other end. So you may need optional foot wear that gets wet in water during transitions. Also bags that you carry must be small sags. Your hands must be free. As you climb metallic steps from one boat to other where your boats are still rocking below your leg on water. So no hand bags hanging on shoulder.
Expectations Vs Reality:
If you think this is a luxurious cruise or you are looking for luxurious cruise then this is not what you are looking for. This boats have roughly 21 people staying on board with one navigator and one captain who is also a part time chef. I did not see any safety issues in this. Rooms are very small cabins, bathrooms are really smaller than you could imagine. There are toilets in side your room. They advise you in the beginning of the journey as do not flush any papers or other stuff as the ship is carrying a small tank. You have nice bed for sleeping but we choose not to sleep inside the rooms as almost 18 people out of 21 people were sleeping on the deck. For me I cannot stand the diesel smell. Yet another reason to watch stars. There are shades created on the deck as early morning you will be completely wet due to dew drops. Blankets were not so pretty. SO, I layered it with my bedsheet below it. So if my husband reads my blog, then he will remember why I got such a huge bag. Still in next travel he will say “I don’t know what you carry in that big bag for 4 days?” Every day you need only swim suit. Minimum 3 swimsuits will be good. Some could manage with one. Its tremendous hot during day time since the ship is moving you won’t feel it. Entire boat is wooden deck. They have life jackets, flippers of different sizes, some snorkeling kits. Many people bought their own snorkeling kits. Now a days decathlon has good snorkeling kit options with reasonable cost. You can do little bit of practice on how to use it before visiting. Snorkeling you should not miss as in expectation vs reality you may not have hundreds of luxurious options on the boat but while swimming you may be fortunate to swim in crystal clear waters with some turtles around. It is such a beautiful experience to be with nature interacting with you. Firstly water here is very salty as the place where you enter in water is not at the edge of the coast. You are in the middle of the sea. You are jumping into water, yes you read it correct, you can jump into waters. You can see my video of this visit for all the fun. Here chances of you drowning are very less as due to salt water you get tremendous buoyancy. Middle of the day water is nice warm. Morning and evening you can feel currents of mix water of cold and hot waters. Most funny part. I was the only one person who do not know swimming and even I entered the water. Of course wearing life jacket, swim glasses hair cap, extra floats around me and people holding my hand.
Luckily all the people were so nice and kind. There was a group of American people, Group of Italian people and a adventurous German lady. American people (middle aged) were cool and nice they were enjoying holidays as like we did. Italian group were all senior citizen group who were actually a group of friends from school. I was stunned to see the amount of enjoyment this group did. The concept was amazing that at this age they were all meeting and having fun together.
The adventurous German lady was amazing, her husband had come to drop her on the boat at Fethiye harbor with one huge bag. She did not talk much. She must be in late 50s. She had here own snorkeling kit and flippers. She used to jump in water and go to swim in far off distances. No one from the group had done that and that too alone. She would finish her swim and nicely return. Occasionally she used to sit with me and chit chat. I never understood what she was telling. Just one story that she saw shark in water and wanted me to believe her. There is a warm water spray as you come out of swimming from sea you can just take a shower. There was no concept of taking bath. Rooms were only used as changing room. and keeping bags. There is no locker system. Food is not very lavish food. It is simple Turkish, breakfast. Meals at lunch and dinner were also pasta or kofte simple food with fruits. Vegetarian people might find bit difficult. I always keep dry fruit, biscuits, laddu snacks and all. You can buy water, beer, cold drinks that is available on the ship/boat. Tea time you get tea coffee biscuits you have to be ready at the time of common meals in the dinning area at the bell. Me and my husband liked the food that we got on board. Some times there small boats where local Turkish people come in small motor boats with Ice-Cream and Gözleme. It is like stuffed paratha. We tried the one with banana and Nutella. It was such a fun to experience all this while staying on board on little boats. Everything on boat was well managed and on time.
Ours was not only boat taking this journey bur there were also many other boats with similar set of tourists. This we realized as in the evening when we docked the region had many such boats in the surrounding. Along private beauties, Yacht! You can hire this kind of private Yacht with families and good facilities on board from TV and nice deck behind to swim. Really luxurious ones. Docking is really fun to watch. Small boats take a string/chain from the backside of the boat and tie the boat to the rocky coast and anchor is released and boat is reversed. It take several permutations and combinations attempt to get it right. Our captain was really talented. A private Yacht people were not able to fix anchor. He dived and swam to the Yacht and help them dock the Yacht. So in expectations vs reality we saw a Jack Sparrow in reality. I am still confused on why this trip is Fethiye to Olympos. As the Sailing gets over at Demre hourbor. From there a bus takes you to Olympos which is one and half hour away by road. I would next time like to visit Olympos. It appears to be really beautiful place. The drive by the coast from Demre harbor to Olympos was amazingly beautiful journey. From Olympos we hired a combined transfer to Anatalya airport which was nearest, to return Istanbul.
Fun facts:
After 4 long days you feel bored to do only set of same activities. You feel completely rejuvenated after 4 days as you left all your sets of work and thoughts at home. Now I am just craving to have such a holiday again every summer.
A lady on our boat who was American lived in Pune and could talk to me in Marathi!
Most important part is try and open any packets, bottles inside your bags and throw it in the dust bin. Do not let any of the garbage that you created go to waters. Also do not try to feed fishes or turtles or birds with bread and leftover seeds or food. Ecosystem can manage its own food cycle they do not need food from us.
As we reached to the Fethiye harbor our boat was getting ready to leave the coast. We were called at 10:00am and we left at around 01:00 pm they kept saying us that they were waiting for someone to reach. Which no one turned. For this we jad taken really early morning flight to reach by 10:00am. Also, if you are writing to these companies they will ask you for number of people and booked flight tickets. One of the company whom I was discussing with had actually mentioned me that there is no vacant set now to book on the dates I was looking. This was after they made us book air tickets. So, you need to be careful and clear on the communicating with this people. Luckily I found other gullet cruise that sailed out on same dates and we were saved.
Finally our ship or boat sailed at 01 O’clock in mid afternoon. We had an option to sit in A.C. office of company but we took a walk outside and explored the marina or harbor.
Once the boat sailed in waters of Mediterranean sea it was better breezy. We were bit hungry and dehydrated. We opened our dry fruits packet. At the same time you have to go to deck to catch hold of nice beds for yourself. Rooms are allotted by captain with basic do’s and don’ts instructions. I have a small video of how are the rooms here which you can see soon.
Here we had a first lunch on the deck. This is a common big table. Which is nice setup. Crew works really hard with all the faculties.
As you relax for a while post lunch. You will reach to some designated locations where you begin with jumping into water. Me and my husband took some time to get acclimatized to the environment, change in food. It was very hot. We just watched all happy souls swimming and enjoying the beginning of the holiday. So post all others swam we moved and our boat was docked with other boats in some silent area where you could just hear some insects sound. You are near coast but little inside water. There are several similar boats decked around in the surrounding. Here it starts beautiful evening where there is vast sea below and open sky above with nice cool breeze. Post a hot sunny tiring dehydrating day you will enjoy the pleasant night under stars cover. Still you can feel your boats on small water movements.
We had amazing dinner of first night. Till now we had plans to sleep inside room but then we moved on the deck. This was really amazing so I got all the sleeping material on deck. Most of us did sleep on the deck. There is a shade under which you can sleep. Initially you feel bit hot. Later it is bit cold and pleasant. You need to sleep under shade portion as the morning dew is like rain. Morning we got up first and slowly everybody got up. I some how used to finish my sleep at 03:30 am I just would take a walk on the sides go sit and watch water. Morning has amazing magical feel. You can watch fishes where lights are falling on water. Its real peaceful, connection with nature. Where there is perfectly no disturbance. Mobile networks were also bad so not much of vibrations in air. Only you can hear some snoring people. I was prepared with Odomos mosquito replant cream if there are mosquitos, since we were little in the middle of wanted and not connected with land. We did not get mosquito problem sleeping in open space. In the morning all were wandering around dinning table. Mornings you really feel very hungry. We had nice spread of Turkish breakfast. After some time may be 30 to 40 minutes later people would start jumping in the water. It was cold for me. I would prefer only afternoons to get in water but it was fun watching all of them playing in water. As everyone returned on the deck ship would move for next location. The journey continues. As the day starts it starts becoming more hot again then we stopped on next location for sight seeing. They used to drop us either in first half or in second half. There were several locations that were covered during this visit. One of the few mentions is Oludeniz, Butter fly Valley, Kas Sunken city,Kekova city. In Kas sea becomes more beautiful more transparent water, turtles everywhere , you can go on hill and have views of distant horizons. There are many ruins on these islands. At some places there is entrance fees or if you have a museum card then you need not pay entrance. To know more about museum card soon I will be posting a video and blog. That suggests you local transportation that you can do without any tour guide or tour operator. Hope that is helpful piece of information.
On Kas island one of the lady bought nice carpet for 500 USD. There are lots of restaurants. If you need to buy any snacks you can get refill from here. It is fun with adventure, to walk down the steel ladder and get into little motor boat or a buggy. That drops you at Island to explore, eat and shop. Again once you are back on boat you can jump into water. There are ropes tied on the boat with clips. As if you need to switch between two swim suits you can keep one for drying along with all other clothes. At Oludeninz you can hire a paragliding activity either you can tell your ship captain or company to hire one for you or you can easily search it on Instagram or other social media sites very easily. The thing is you can bargain for the pictures the click for you. Here beach is very nice for swimming. We walked really inside the valley to see butterflies but could spot only few of them. The best season to spot butterflies is spring mostly in the peak of spring somewhere around month of May. Depending upon number of days and route you will get to see all nice locations.
The journey continues with eat, sleep, swim again eat, sleep and swim and so on. This is one of the crazy holidays to be on. I really did not bother 4 days for my hair as I have long hair, swimming is good but I cannot shampoo my hair always to remove salt from hair. Just enjoy the vitamin Sea! Entire day Mediterranean sea shows ice different shades of blue. How beautiful is the sunset, equally beautiful are starry nights and magical mornings. All you need to enjoy the vastness of that space where you feel yourself a speck which will come and go one day! In between is the journey of life to take all the experiences of life.
Those who have motion sickness or sea sickness, they stay at Oludeniz and area around may be in a pansiyon or something like that and then take day tours along the different Islands. At a halt near Kas in the night our captain informed us that in the night a boat comes and takes you to a disco inside a cave or a hill. There you can eat, during and all he mentioned. All the ladies were ready by 08:30pm to go for this disc they kept asking our captain please call we need to go! We all went to sleep around 10:00pm those who were already into pajamas. As it is so peaceful you don’t stay awake for longer naturally. In the morning at breakfast table the ladies mentioned the pickup boat came at around 01:00am. When I got up around 3 the ladies were gone to this disc. Hope they had a great party that they were looking for.
After the Sunken city, there is a pirates cave, according to me a cavity in rock formation like sea arch. Where they take you near to the entrance and see how big the cave is. In early days they mentioned pirates used to hide here for attacking goods carrying ships or boats. Now it his only spot for tourist boats to pay a visit. Mostly in entire Turkey yo see inclined beddings those are metamorphosed due to which you get some amazing landscape views. This is continuation for movement with Alpine belt of mountain formation. Also we see uneven surface exposures and mostly slate formation in certain areas and intrusions of igneous basalt rock overlying.
Soon I will be posting pictures on Facebook, and nice glimpse in videos on YouTube from all the fun that we did on the Gullet cruise.
Hope you would like to read my blog, watch my photos and videos. Stay connected and updated with The Vari! The divine journey.
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