Pamukkale

In hindsight, I should have allocated more time for Turkey because there was a lot of back-to-back travel across great distances. After a full day in Göreme, I headed for an overnight bus journey to Pamukkale. It is 616km from Göreme to Pamukkale equating to an 11 hour bus journey. Yikes. After my very uncomfortable 9 hour journey I had in the USA, I am generally very hesitant about long distance bus travel. Although it is convenient and cheap, being unable to sleep and then having a full day ahead is a horrible experience. However, there weren't any other options and I tried to convince myself that it wouldn't be too bad.

As mentioned previously, travel between cities in Turkey is predominately served by coaches. From memory, although it was possible to purchase tickets online from some of the bus companies, simply turning up at the counter would usually suffice. That being said, it is best to buy the tickets as soon as possible. The first two bus companies that I went to were sold out of the tickets to Pamukkale. There was a brief moment of panic at the prospect of being stranded in Göreme however luckily the third counter had tickets to sell. In fact, they were reselling tickets from the second company I had tried to buy a ticket from originally.

My seat was in the very back row which wasn't too bad except for the fact that the ground was soaked. This resulted in my socks to be wet and I curled up in foetal position for the entire journey. Thankfully, I slept for almost the entire bus journey and it was a lot more comfortable than my experience on Megabus! The only thing that is somewhat annoying with bus travel in Turkey is that the toilet breaks are quite long - 30 minutes - and is more of a smoke break than anything, and there are toilet breaks every 2.5 hours. Close to Pamukkale, the coach stopped and the people heading there got into a small van. Luckily I had a travelling partner with me otherwise I would have missed that stop since I was fast asleep. In my stupor, I almost tripped on the way off the coach and left my hair clip on the handrest. It was a little dodgy if I have to admit. The coach had stopped at the side of a highway and half a dozen people got off the coach and into a small van. The van took us to the bus company's main office (this was around 7-something am) and we all awkwardly sat inside. No one said anything so I wasn't really sure what was happening and ended up grabbing some things to freshen up. As confirmed from my previous research, the bus company was more than happy to let us leave our bags there. However, the bags left unattended in the front of the store and not locked in a room or even behind a counter. The weather was quite dreary and was drizzling, however it was slowly clearing up.





Pamukkale is a UNESCO site and it means "cotton castle" in Turkish. It was absolutely stunning to see the contrast of the white travertines against the flat fields and snow capped mountains in the distance. To protect the travertines, you have to remove your shoes and walk barefoot up to the top. Before my trip, I was worried that since it was winter it would be quite cold. That was partially correct. Although the water from the hotsprings which run down the travertines are quite warm (naturally), by the time they reach the bottom the water is quite cold. For 1/2 of the ascent, my poor poor feet were in pain. The ground was so cold that my feet became slightly numb. However as they were slightly numb, it meant that I began to feel every single ridge on the ground and excentuated the pain. Every now and then, I would intentionally walk into the cold water to soothe the prickling sensation. It was a little overcast so the true whiteness of Pamukkale wasn't completely evident. The further up I walked, the warmer the water became (which my aching feet were grateful for). Since I had entered the travertines shortly after opening, there were only 2 other people and it was very peaceful.


The painful ridges.





At the top of the travertines is the ancient Roman city of Hierapolis. Hierapolis was one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire and was originally a spa town but later became important for the healing properties from the thermal springs. By the time I reached the top, the clouds had cleared and it was a beautiful sunny day. I enjoyed walking through the ruins of Hierapolis a lot more than I thought and I would definitely recommend that people allocate enough time to walk through some areas. The area is massive and the view is also stunning. I can't really imagine how incredible it would have been back in Hierapolis' prime. There were a lot of strays on the path up (they didn't have to pay an entrance fee!) and I gained three new buddies who didn't leave me alone for most of the time that I was exploring Hierapolis.













By the time I headed back to walk down, the tour buses had arrived and the top of the travertines was filled with tourists. As the tour buses dropped them off at the top, everyone was within 100m from the top of the pools. It was a little jarring as I had walked up with hardly anyone around to seeing so many people being ... frankly stupid. A major gripe of mine is when people don't listen to rules and have no respect for the site that they are visiting. Some people blatantly ignored the path just so they could take their photo. The path is there for a) safety and b) preservation of the natural site. As the skies had cleared, the white travertines were blinding. I had forgotten to bring my sunglasses much to my dismay.





Pamukkale and Hierapolis were amazing and I would highly recommend. It is incredible to think that the travertines are a natural phenomenon.

Now in hindsight, I realise that every time I travelled within Turkey, it was fraught with transportation issues. The ticket that I had purchased to Izmir was problematic as the bus company's internet was down and therefore for some reason our tickets had to be refunded. What happened was that I caught a small van to Denizli (the closest big city) which was an experience in itself. From Denizili, there was the option of catching the train to Izmir which at the time I thought would be a nice experience. Boy was I wrong. What people said was correct; buses are the way to go. The train was so slow and it took 5 hours to reach Izmir (bus would have been 3.5 hours). The following day was the journey to Istanbul and once again, the day was rife with transport issues. Oh Turkey.