By V.K. Gauba
After COVID, people all over the world were fed up with life indoor and outdoor life was reduced to almost a naught. The urge to start stepping out was not the only driving force; rather, the organizers in the Forum for Welfare of Senior Citizens and more so, the membership particularly the ladies were so much eager to travel in a group that it took the form of planning a group travel to Turkey.
We were a group of 34 people – all senior citizens – eight men and 26 ladies, two of them aged over 85 years constituting the group. They packed up and reached the Delhi airport on the 6th November‘22 and came back on the 13th November ’22. Quite a few more senior citizens wanted to join but could not be accommodated as somehow they did not decide well in time and the group would have become bulging and unmanageable with the inclusion of any more people.
Tickets were arranged through Indigo Airlines. We stayed at Istanbul and Cappadocia in Turkey. Besides city tours, jaunts to nearby places could enable the group to see more of the country. Turkey, we can say firmly about the places we visited, is a very clean country with no plastic waste or litter. Surroundings inside or outside the towns are so well-kept and beautified that one envies their environment. I can even say that this Country is even one point ahead of Switzerland in the matter of cleanliness.
A minus point about Turkey is that most of the population does not understand English, a language having too much importance if a Country wants more & more revenue from international tourism. In addition, many people there are found to be impolite. We experienced a feeling of not being treated well by the staff at the airports and other places. At a point, when I was on the road and was looking for a public toilet, I, in a very polite and cultured manner, asked a young Turkish person the way to the nearest public toilet. He did not even stop and did not bother to help. Even the local tour manager was found to be unhelpful on a couple of occasions.
As in the case of our own country, Turkey is fortunate that Nature has been very kind to that nation. Our Group visited Ozkonak Underground City at Cappadocia, where people with heart and breathing problems are not advised to enter. While the rest of the people went inside, those having some problem sat outside the entrance to the U.G. City and basked in good sunshine.
There was a cruise for about 30 minutes but we felt cheated by inclusion of that event. The tour included Love Valley, Dervent Valley and Three Beauties. The visit to a place, where there were natural conical formations in the valley said to be formed by volcanic eruptions many years back, was a feast for the eyes. In these formations, one could see the shapes of many animals such as a camel, a monkey, a lion and even a couple doing a ballroom dance. Such was the beauty of those formations.
The itinerary also included visit to many a famous mosques. However, the visit to Avanos Village Pottery workshop was most memorable. It was a beauty to watch artisans doing very fine pottery painting with their hands and creating so many outstanding pieces of hand-made pottery that one wished to possess all of those. One day, a visit to Pierre Loti Hills by cable car was included but the group came back disappointed because there was a big crowd at the ticket counter. The Travel Agent told us that visit to a night Belly Dance Show was optional but in spite of high priced ticket to be bought in US dollar, all our team members opted for it. A dance item by a lone belly dancer, who pulled out a few men from the spectators to join, was the master piece. Unlike in India, there one has to shell out money for many services and products. A boiled egg at the breakfast would be included in the in the hotel stay but you have to pay extra if you want to have omelette or fried egg.
We were lucky that in spite of many aged persons travelling, no one had any physical problems during the trip. Many a time, we had to walk up the hill for taking food. At the end, it was a memorable trip but the call of our own country was louder and blissful.
