Day 5
The hotel didn’t have a great rating on Trip Advisor, but there were comments about great view. Our room overlooked the pool, so I went around asking the hotel staff, most of whom didn’t understand English. The girl at the reception seemed to, and after listening to me patiently and giving me a knowing smile, she said, “you go for tour, you get great view”! I learned later that the balconies on the upper floor got this view. We checked out after a bland breakfast in what seemed like a hall converted into a restaurant, and waited at the reception for our guide. They played The Beatles’ “Real Love”, I hadn’t heard it in a long time! 😀
Our guide Ali soon appeared,a jovial character, who later claimed he had been speaking English only for the last 3 years and had learned the language from movies and music. There were six of us in the mini van and we proceeded to the hot springs. Ali explained that most of the large hotels were located nearer to the springs and the houses and hotels in that area had two pipes – one being dedicated to the spring water. Apparently, Nicholas Cage had visited during the shoot of Ghost Rider 2 and so had Salman and Katrina, though he claimed the movie to be Ajab Prem ki Gazab Kahani. Hmm. The springs had a lot of iron, causing their red colour and a taste of blood. They were supposed to cure skin ailments. Bathing, not drinking.
From there, we moved to Hierapolis, “Holy City”, so named because people believed the water was holy and cured skin diseases. A WC at the entrance had a ‘Ancient Pool’ signage near it, and the L was covered. 😀 The first section we saw was the Necropolis – burial grounds – and there were different kinds of graves. Multi-storeyed, family graves, sarcophagi and ones with curses built in to thwart grave robbers. We saw a sculpture of Medusa and learned the origins of the evil eye that was common in Greece and Turkey. Ali said that it had to be gifted ( a self serving rumour started by sellers, he added) and it absorbed negative energy until it broke!
Meanwhile, in an era before toilets and bathrooms existed inside houses, it all happened in public spaces meant for the purpose. Men sat side by side as they finished their ‘business’, and talked of health, and erm, business. Behind such a space was an agora – market. I also learnt that was how the word agoraphobia originated. The place was full of flowers, Ali said our timing was right since in a few days, they’d wilt. Indeed, the place was already blazing hot!
An hour and a half of walk later, we reached the main attraction, the calcium travertines that gave Pamukkale its name “Cotton Castle”. A Turkish security guy we met there chanted the Gayatri Mantra fluently, and asked us for help in pronouncing a couple of Hindi alphabets. He had them all written down. I wanted to ask him how and why he got it, but didn’t want to hold up the rest of the group. The place, meanwhile, is postcard material! There is also an amphitheatre a few minutes of walk away, but we skipped since we were visiting Ephesus the next day. Before walking into the deposits, we checked out the Ancient Baths and some super ice cream in the complex. Thanks to the city making a lot of money in its early days courtesy cock fighting, that bird is the city’s symbol. Also, the city sent a representative to the World Crowing Championship, and it won. A record time of 47 seconds. We saw one practising in the adoring presence of a few hens. We then removed our shoes and slowly walked through the calcium deposits and pools to the main road. This was a pretty unique sight and experience – you would easily mistake it for snow.
Lunch was the standard lentil soup and salad, followed by aubergine, which I ignored until I learned of the mince stuffing within! We then had the combination SRK did in Ra.One – spaghetti and yogurt! We had an Irish guy and a Chinese girl for company, and we discussed computers and the data science course they were taking. After lunch, we boarded the Metro Tours van to Kusadasi. Met three other Indians when the bus stopped for a break – one guy who was taking a sabbatical and traveling from Washington DC, and the other a Mumbai couple. They got down at Selçuk and we reached our destination in about 3.5 hours. The Palm Hotel was pretty much on the promenade and beach, a very short walk away.
We quickly showered and got out so we could catch the sunset, and locate a restaurant called Ferah, which had good reviews. A wonderful walk along the promenade did happen, and we watched the sun go down slowly. We couldn’t find the restaurant, but got a fantastic Aegean sunset view from a fancy mall. We then got into a seaside restaurant – Guverte – to watch the cityscape and have some Turkish food, but turned out they only had seafood. But they were really sweet people, and so we got ourselves some Raki, Cider and mussels. The view was superb. The Raki was a version of Greece’ Ouzo, anise flavoured and strong!
A very helpful gentleman whom we had met while getting into the restaurant (he worked there, and said he thought D was Iranian and I was erm, un-placeable) gave us directions to a Turkish cuisine outlet nearby. We walked slowly, bought trinkets, and saw the hand freeing doves- a city landmark. The restaurant that was recommended was full so we kept walking and found a food court near our hotel. At Loft, we were sold a pot kebab by a complete salesman. 🙂 Beer and cocktails later, we were stuffed. This dinner totally made up for the lack of solid dining thus far in the tour!
