A Day in Pamukkale

Assalamualaikum, readers! You're reading another post about my journey around Turkey. This time, we have arrived at Pamukkale and slept for only one night.

As the sun rises the next morning, a handful of hot air balloons dotted the sky viewed from our hotel room window. The colourful designs were amazing and we all enjoyed the sight! My father took pictures of it while he walked back from the mosque, and even after we got ready for the hotel breakfast buffet (at the floor just above us), there were still a few floating in the sky. Since the hotel was open air, we took photos on the stairs while the last hot air balloons passed.

After a week of eating instant noodles, nasi impit or fried rice for breakfast, the variety of taste of the hotel breakfast was refreshing. It surprised me that there was no simit but I still had  delighting breakfast. We also found  few fellow Malaysians and discussed our travels.

After breakfast, we started packing to leave for our next destination, Cappadocia. Before that, I did mention we were planning to visit the Cotton Castle and Hierapolis, but when Yusuf persisted on going on a hot air balloon, there was a change of plans. The hotel receptionist arranged our balloon trip and we waited for about 15 minutes warming up near the heater and drinking some tea.

Soon, a van picked us up from the hotel and brought us to a clearing where there were around 20 other people. There were also workers in charge of inflating the hot air balloon and piloting it. One of the staff told us that there are usually 24 people in one basket, but our trip only had 20 people. Before boarding into the basket, we took videos of the inflation of the hot air balloon. I don't know how long it took, maybe almost half an hour? And after that, the real action begins..

We lined up to get into the basket, the balloon floating above. It was so huge when seen this close. The basket only had two square holes to for feet to climb in and out so we struggled a bit to get in. Plus, we had to squeeze into a sub-basket that already had two people. The basket was divided into five parts, I think. The pilot was in the middle, controlling the ropes and burners. The first time he blasted the burner, I was very shocked. Facing the fire felt really hot so every time he did that, i had to turn away.

Before taking off, the pilot informed us of the emergency landing position. Yusuf was the youngest aboard and couldn't reach the rim of the basket, so he only looked out through the holes at the side where we put our feet to climb in just before. We were all pretty nervous to take flight, especially since this wasn't in our initial plan. We only wanted to watch the balloons, not ride in one.

We recited a few doa's first as the pilot blew the burners. Slowly, we felt the basket leave the ground. We were flying! At first the hot air balloon was so low. We floated toward the Cotton Castle; we were so close to the surface. The Cotton Castle looked wonderful, but I think it would look better in warmer seasons - the water seems to have dried out. Nonetheless we took pictures, careful not to move a muscle when one of us holds a phone. One wrong move can give huge consequences.

As we rose higher, my dad got shiftier while my mom got more comfortable. Yusuf just kept watching from his little window, awed by the view below. I also leaned over. I wasn't really concerned about the height, I just didn't like the sudden bursts of the burners. I could see the whole town from up there, patches of agriculture, and even Hierapolis. At one point the pilot announced that we were 750 meters from the ground, then we rose higher to 1 kilometre, and finally our highest point was 1.3 kilometres off the ground. When we reached that height, we started to descend.

This time my mother felt uneasy and my dad relaxed. As we got lower, cars stopped below us to take pictures of this massive hot air balloon above them. We waved at their cameras as if we were celebrities. When we reached a clearing, we really thought we were going to disembark. We were up in the air for an hour, but it really didn't feel like it. However, the wind had other plans for us. We ended up missing the landing point and had to ascend a bit and find somewhere else.

This repeated for a few more times - finding a clearing to land but being brought away by the wind. Finally, we landed right on the truck that carried the basket before. The truck was moving too! We landed a bit crooked, but we made it on land without having to get into the emergency landing position. But before climbing out, the staff that came with the truck deflated the balloon first, pulling it away from us so it wouldn't land on us.

At last, we got out of the basket safe and sound. They were stil deflating the balloon as the other staff prepared glasses of sparkling apple for us. They said it was tradition every time a hot air balloon lands. We had a glass each. Later, a huge van came to take all of us back to where we came from. After getting back to our hotel, we walked down the street in search for a place to have lunch. After that trip to the sky, we were all famished. The restaurant we went to had a smaller portion than usual, but it was still delicious.

Before going anywhere, we walked across the street to the Cotton Castle. We didn't go in, though. We only took pictures outside, where a pond sat with ducks swimming in it. It also had. A good view of the Cotton Castle from outside. We didn't really need to go in.

Once we were done, we got into the car and were ready for an 8-hour drive to Cappadocia. It was already around 2pm then and we hadn't prayed yet. We reached a mosque at 5pm, but it was locked! Somehow it's closed? So we had no choice but to take our ablution at the toilet there and pray in the car. It was freezing and the water had no heating too, so all my limbs were numb! Thank goodness we prayed in the car and before sunset too.

After that Yusuf and I fell asleep. At one point, it was snowing outside. Around 10pm, we finally arrived at our hotel in Cappadocia.

That's all for today. Stay tuned for tomorrow' post! Assalamualaikum!