Long-Haul Turkish Bus
Experience...
May 2-3, 2006
While the thought of an eleven hour overnight bus ride sounds…uh…a bit painful, it proved to be anything but…
We boarded our bus in Denizli (the town outside of Pamukkale) at 9pm and off we went to the Cappadocia (pronounced ‘Cap-uh-
doke-ee-uh’) region. As the bus left the station, a man walked through the aisles putting rosewater on our hands (I guess this is
a local thing). Then he was back pouring water for us. Then back again pouring either tea or coffee for us. And never fear…he
was back yet again to pass out snacks to us. This was better than a United domestic flight!
Rosewater, water and tea/coffee were offered several times throughout the bus ride; however, we quickly learned that it’s best
to not take advantage of every opportunity as the bus only stopped every few hours for bathroom breaks.
On a sidenote…there was some drama that ensued on Break Stop #3 due to a situation that happened on Break Stop #2.
Somebody went onto a bus at B.S. #2 and stole a girl’s wallet. This was not on our bus so we had no idea about this. Then at B.S.
#3, a van sped up to the stop. About seven Turkish officials had seized the thief back at B.S. #2 and had come to give the girl her
wallet back. While they were out of the van, the officials punched the thief and then rushed him to some unseen area. A Turkish
guy who spoke English was called off of our bus to do all of the translating between the girl and the officials. While the Turkish
guy would now have to catch the next bus, we were off on our way to Cappadocia.
As the sun was rising, we awakened to a completely different landscape than what we had left ten hours prior. There was fog
slowly lifting which gave way to the amazing formations for which Cappadocia is best known. On the sides of the road were hot-
air balloons that had just landed from their morning flights. In just a couple hours we were about to go out and explore this
region…