5/2015 - PAMUKKALE & HIEROPOLIS

1 – 3 June 2015

PAMUKKALE & HIERAPOLIS

WESTERN ANATOLIA

Getting the train from Selcuk to Denizli was an easy comfy trip with great scenery along the way. A quick change at Dinizli to get a Dolmus (local transport) up to Pamukkale, home to Turkey’s calcite travertine pools beneath an ancient ruins of Hierapolis (190 BC), a roman spa city and curative centre.

I’m staying at the Artemis Yoruk Hotel which is a little down at heel, but after a rev up at breakfast the next day, staff run about the rest of the day sprucing it up for a small tour group arrival. It did amuse us to see them clean up the grounds and really that evening when the tourists arrived, it all looked very nice around the once sad pool. Some of the tour group I expressed some surprise that the hotel was rated 4 star in their itinerary  ;-)

Pamukkale is certainly a local tourist favourite and the lake fed by the travertine waters provide hours of people watching opportunities the first evening we are there. 

 

Next day I get a dolmuş direct to the top gate of the Hierapolis site, which continues onto the Travertine complex. From there I plan to walk down through the travertines back into town and save myself a 2km uphill hike. It’s a lovely sunny day and the Hierapolis site was a very peaceful site with the Necropolis chock full of sarcophagus, a great theatre and great views of the surrounding mountains up north – is that snow I spy from afar? Hoping that will all be melted by the time get there in a few months’ time. The ruins are many but easy to walk around – a theatre, an agora (market street), arches and entry gates.

 

Then there are heaps of paragliders jumping off the 500m mountain behind and taking in great views of the countryside as they ride the thermals & soar over the ruins & terraces. Occasionally they land within the ruins and security staff are on hand to ensure they don’t hang about without buying a ticket and hustle them off site.

Pamukkale always looked so lovely in older tourist promotions. But the reality now is a little different. The main calcium travertines are off limits to bathing and wallowing, although this doesn’t seem to stop some tourists from clambering over for photos, only to be wearily hauled back by security staff. 

The few travertine pools looked fab in the sunshine although hard to photograph and there is ample opportunity to get my feet wet on the walk downhill and feel the soggy calcium which is surprising slippery. Being bright white & reflecting the sun, just like snow makes the cool water very inviting to stay a while to dangle your toes before the long walk downhill. It was also lovely watching large groups & families having so much fun here. But I remain a little suspicious of the overall health of the travertines – I think it may take a long time for them to recover from the previous tourist abuse, but at least there a few intact terraces and that’s another tick off on my bucket list.

3 June 2015

KUŞADASI

Easy trip back in reverse with a train back to Selçuk then dolmuş on to Kuşadasi to find a cheap pension UP another bl**dy hill. And on the way, trying to communicate to a partially deaf travelling partner who keeps traipsing off in the wrong direction all became quite frustrating this afternoon. Staying at the Ozhan Pansiyon, simple & clean albeit with an elusive breakfast but they did have the most amazing 3d business cards! Kuşadasi is a very popular package tour/resort town and a regular stop for the cruise ships so the town is geared up for every nationality & their shopping preferences. If you’re American, you want summer sportswear and brand name shoes, if you’re Russian, you must want leather & fur coats and doesn’t everyone want expensive brands of jewellery? But we have come to Kuşadasi as a jumping off point to enter into Greece, via some of the Greek islands so nothing of interest for us, other than getting booked onto the 9am ferry tomorrow. But there is a locked castle that gets lit up at night.

My original plans always included visiting Rhodes but as it’s only an hour ferry boat trip to Samos Island in the Aegean Sea from here, it seems too easy pop over and have a look at Greece. So with a lot of internet research and map checking we think we have a vague itinerary planned, that includes to the famed Santorini and Rhodes islands on a timeline that should give us a month before returning to Turkey further east along the coast. We also have our fingers crossed that we might be ahead of the popular summer tourist season by month or so which may ease our hip pockets a little as we anticipate a cost hike from Turkish prices. Of course, there is already a lot of news about Greece not making their next repayment to the EU and beginning negotiations so we will be watching online news closely and keeping a pocket full of Euros, jic those banks suddenly close and leave us stranded.