A.B. Away: Pamukkale, Turkey

(John) To see the Travetines at Pamukkale the advice is, as it always seems to be when you visit a major tourist attraction, go early to miss the crowds. We woke to clouds after a night of absolutely torrential rain that had started in the early evening with an impressive thunderstorm. The storm lasted hours and led to a power cut across the whole village for over half an hour. We managed to get out of the hostel door by 9.00am and took the very short walk to the entrance gate. We could see a few people walking around on the white hill but felt we might have missed the crowds and thought that the weather may keep them away. On the edge of the Travetines, which are calcified rocks that look just like a glacier we took off our sandals as requested and walked out onto the surface. It was wet and rough like very smooth sandpaper with tiny ridges. Because of the rain the night before the hill side was awash. All the pools were full and spilling over, the channels cut to guide the water were filled with fast moving lukewarm water that felt great on our feet. We were instantly enthralled. The pools were a gorgeous colour of blue and on the bottom white mud oozed around our toes. We figured out that we had come at the site from the bottom and most people come by tour bus and start at the top and work there way down to where we started. It became apparent that the weather had not deterred too many folk. We took lots of pictures and made fun of all the Russians that were fast appearing coming down the hill towards us. They just love to take posed pictures of each other. They really work it in front of the camera. Some had skimpy swim suits on under bathrobes. As we walked up the water got gradually warmer. At the top we reluctantly put our sandals back on to explore the other facet of the Travetines site which is the ancient Roman ruins of Hierapolis. This was fascinating. There was a large area of tombs, a collection of Roman buildings and a huge, well preserved amphitheatre. Unfortunately it started to pour with rain as we got to the amphitheatre and we did not get to hang out there for long. Instead we hurried down to check out the Museum and the Antique Pool that advertized the opportunity to swim among the ruins. We could have gone for a dip if we had come prepared with swimming suits and the willingness to pay 25 TL each. We settled for a cup of tea and gawking at other happy looking people wallowing among ancient ruins in steamy hot pools. By then we were getting pretty cold, especially our wet sandalled feet, so were happy to step back onto the travetines and warm up our feet and head back to the hostel. The travetines were quite spectacular, we had a lot of fun despite the lousy weather. It looked cold but felt warm and our feet were squeaky clean with not a trace of hard skin at the end of the day.

Our hostel in Pamukkale is well worth a mention. It was called Mustafa's and we liked it a lot because we started to feel the love that had been sorely lacking from the hostel in Selçuk. When we arrived, the hostel guy met the bus and offered us rooms for 20 TL each. We knew the internet price for a dorm bed of 11 TL and asked if he could match that and he did with a smile. We were shown to a pretty nice room, 4 comfortable beds and an attached bathroom with hot shower. It wasn't the Hilton, it wasn't even as nice as one of those scummy motels that we usually stay at in Saskatchewan on the way to Canmore, but for the equivalent of about 30 CAD (19 GBP) a night, we were pretty happy with it. But more than that, the hotel staff treated us well. They wanted us to enjoy our stay in Pamukkale, they greeted us warmly and were enthusiastic about their jobs. The hostel had a restaurant that served decent food at reasonable prices with a 10% discount to guests. So while it wasn't the cheapest food in the village, it was fun to eat there. We also got free WI-Fi that even worked in our room most of the time and there was a laundry service. To cap it off the hostel owners had a stake in the Metro bus office in the village and were offering discounts to hostel guests. We got tickets to Istanbul for a lot less than we had expected to pay. The hostel was far from perfect. A lot of the time the two guys running the hostel were scrambling. They worked 16 hour days operating the hostel, and a tour company and had clearly drafted some backpackers to assist them. Our laundry was still a bit wet when we got it back after 48 hours and we needed to tell them what we had ordered at the restaurant so that we could pay. For our last bill I just told the guy what I thought I owed and he was pretty grateful that he did not have to figure it all out, he just took it on faith and then knocked off the10%. We enjoyed the hostel simply because they knew exactly what their customers needed and did their best to offer just that, at rock bottom prices with a generous attitude and big warm smiles.