we arrived at the otogar in Denizli in the early morning hours.
we had heard about the warnings of getting off the bus and being shuffled by strange men into a dolmus with the promise of getting you to Pamukkale, only to be brought to a hotel where you're expected to stay.
we did our best to avoid these men, but Hassan's cousin found us.
we immediately tried to resist and told him we knew where we were going, but even when we made our way to the dolmus, he stayed with us, talking to us...and we liked him and his crooked, tea & cigarette-stained teeth.
he promised he would not make us do anything we didn't want, but would we consider staying at his cousin's place? turns out he was talking about the exact pension we were heading to, so he gave Hassan a call and set us up.
it was kinda rainy...we were actually quite grateful.
when we got off the dolmus on a corner in the middle of nowhere, Hassan was there to pick us up.
Hassan and his wife run a wonderful and cheap pension within walking distance of the travertines.
and his wife makes wonderfully delicious home cooked food.
after showering, resting in their cushy lounge for a bit having çay and talking to some Russians, Hassan gave us a lift to the base of the travertines on the other side of the mountains, effectively avoiding the tour buses and masses of people that have much too delicate feet to climb up.
barefoot climb up the travertines
calcium travertines
Pamukkale means Cotton Castle...the calcium oxide-rich waters flowing down the mountain left deposits of white travertines over the years.
it is really quite a beautiful site, despite all the locals repeatedly saying "it's not what it used to be".
they say that the travertines, which were once bathing pools with a lot more water, have been drying up since the '70s when there was a huge tourist boom to the area and they say that the ultra-lux hotels that once graced the top of the mountain, on the site of old Hierapolis (Holy/Sacred City), depleted all the resources.
the hotels on top of the mountain have been destroyed since then, but the controversy now is that all the hotels in the town below have natural-water swimming pools that are pulling water from somewhere...
many of the ruins of Hierapolis are amazingly intact, especially the grand theatre which rivals Rome's colliseum in the sheer fact that all the seats are there, and open to sitting and lounging and exploring (and exercising...can you say steep?)
...in Rome's defense, this theatre has been partially restored because of numerous earthquakes, but the seating is all original.
25 YTL for one swim in the modern pool filled with ancient ruins
Hierapolis was built partly because of the existence of the travertines...the baths were actually the first part of the city to be built (still in use, but well above our daily budget to actually swim in) and Hierapolis came to exist as a luxury resort town for Romans.
the necropolis, running along both sides of a 2 km stretch of road is the largest ancient graveyard in the area...
and the main road into the city is a magnificent stretch of well-preserved gigantic columns built around 81-96 AD.
most intriguing tidbit: on the way up through the ruins towards the theatre there is a small cave (now just a hole barely big enough to peer through into deep cavernous depths) with a sign that reads "tehlikelidir-zehirli gaz" (dangerous - poisonous gas)...you can hear the gas bubbling inside and legend has it that animals used to be thrown in...i can't remember what for...but it's still deadly poisonous.
stuffed grape leaves for picnic lunch at Hierapolis
we wandered around for a good 5 hours in what was our first day of blistering Turkish sun (not to be our last)...if it weren't for the heat, we probably could have explored longer.
we descended back into town and treated ourselves to well-deserved (and extraordinarily tasty) popsicles mixed with pistachio ice cream.
i (sub-consciously?) chose the more phallic of the two
we wandered in and out of the streets of this small resort town and found Kayas wine bar where we relaxed with some local wine...
back at Hotel Dort Mevsim, Hassan's wife, who had told us when we were leaving earlier in the day not to eat out anywhere as she was making dinner, cooked up a wonderful fresh whole trout for me, and lamb for bob.
delicious pamukkale trout
Hassan had friends over that evening, and even before dark, they had already polished off a bottle of raki (we were quickly coming to realize how liberal Turkish Muslims are...)
between some weird time gap and idle chatter with others on the patio, we ended up being introduced to (free) raki with an Aussie and New Zealander (who were later to fight like crazy almost to the point of intervention by bob, Hassan and Hassan's cousin)...
lesson learned: raki is generally cut with water to lessen the hangover...and obviously to prevent beating up your girlfriend, as evidenced by the New Zealander drinking it clear (straight). thankfully bob got this lesson before hand from Ilhami, with whom we stayed when we got to Cappadocia and with whom we had an intense raki-soaked conversation about Islam...he offered to introduce bob to Muslim prayer when we got to Göreme...
if you're ever in Cappadocia, stay here.
if you're ever in Pamukkale, stay here.
Hassan's shirt:
(front) "no money, no honey"
(back) "no funny, no wife"
random shots from a day in Pamukkale:
travertine frog
juxtaposed in a travertine waterfall
No comments:
Post a Comment