Ilhara Valley and bus rides

I'm really starting to get the hang of travelling by bus. Woke in Göreme, took the shuttle to Nevşehir. From there a bus to Aksaray, which is a pretty large city and transportation hub with a population of 400,000. Crazy place, total chaos and anarchy at first glance, but after taking a ddep breath and getting some help from the locals I found the dolmuş to the Ilhara valley. It was quite an interesting rıde with about 45 people stuffed into a 30 passenger bus. I was lucky enough to snag a seat and Yusef helped me out by grabbing my pack and storing it safely for me in the luggage compartment at the back of the bus.
The long dıstance busses have been great... very clean and modern with assigned seats. Single men are never seated next to a single woman, always 2 single men, 2 single woman, or a family. They also have 'flight attendants' that assist passengers, serve water, tea or nescafe, and pass out little snacks all for free. One annoyance is that most of them have televisions and they are usually played blaringly loud, but my foam earplugs come in handy for that! The rule about same sex seating also applies to the smaller minibusses and dolmuşes as well, even though there are no assinged seats. I've been on minibusses where we've all played musical chairs to accommodate a single woman. The other thing I've noticed is they are very respectful of a single (Muslim) woman and the elderly. I've seen men and young boys give up their seats on many occasions so an elderly woman could sit.
Ilhara Village is hardly a vıllage. I stayed at the Akar Pansion... a sort of modest hotel, but clean and adequate enough. Upon arrival Cenzig cooked me up a delicious local dich for lunch. Finely chopped pieces of beef with tomato and spicey peppers... sort of like a stew. It was delicious and just what I needed after traveling all morning. After lunch I headed straight out for the trail. Ilhara valley is a deep canyon cut by a river (not sure the name). Maybe 100 - 200 meters deep and very beautiful with abandoned churches and dwellings dotting the cliff faces. It was about a 20 minute walk to the trailhead but 5 mınutes into the walk a kid on a scooter stopped by and offered me a lift! The trail was beautiful and I hiked for several hours down and back. On the way back a farmer called me over from his field and handed me a fresh ripe tomato as a gift... very generous. Very unlike Istanbul! I was definitely out in the country now. Had dinner back at Akar's with a bunch of French tourists and went to bed. Slept soundly after the long day's hike.
Tomorrow Konya and the whirling dervishes!