Oct 11, 2011 - Kas to Parmukkale

The rain kept up through the night. The restaurant is on the top floor of the hotel and is enclosed with glass. The view was magnificent although it's a shame it isn't a better day. We set off at about 8.00am....lots of driving again today. 3700 kilolitres per cubic metres (whatever that means) of rain fell has fallen in the last day or so and Serdar told us there's been some landslides along the coast road, the road we are travelling along. He's not sure how it will affect our journey. There's been flooding in some areas and people missing...

May 5, 2011 - Pamukkale to Kusadasi

First sights to visit today were the splendid limestone terraces at Pamukkale. This was one of the things on my list that I was eager to see. When we got to the site we found out that there was a roman city built at the top above the terraces and there were also ruins to explore. This was an added bonus as all most of us were expecting to see were the terraces. The terraces themselves are amazing, they take up the whole side of a hill that must be about 1 kilometre long by 2 to 3 hundred metres high. The whole hillside is white with water...

May 3, 2011 - Pamukkale

Today started at 3am for me no it was not another attempt at a balloon flight rather a speed record attempt in the dark to the toilet. I had a dose of the Turkey tummy which is a milder form of the Delhi belly. After the rest of the group had breakfast we travelled to Konya to see the grave of the founder of the Whirling Dervishes. This and a number of other graves and relics are located inside a Mosque in Konya. The mosque was built after the grave site so the graves were allowed to remain as it is not usual Muslim practice to have graves...

Jul 24, 2009 - Pamukkale - thermals & travertines

A surreal landscape of stark-white terraces in the middle of farming land in south-western Turkey ... welcome to Pamukkale, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Translated "Cotton Castle," Pamukkale is made up of travertine terraces of carbonate minerals left by flowing water from the hot springs above, which is where the ancient city of Hierapolis was built. Even though the landscape looks like snow drifts, the white carbonate material is very hard and coarse to walk on, and the water flowing downhill is temperate. Swimming in the hot spings at...

Jul 25, 2006 - Aegean Sea on a Gulet

In the midst of a very busy two weeks of constant travel, we've had two days of pure bliss on the Aegean on board a beautiful sailing ship. We stopped in seculded bays alongside lovely coastline or uninhabited islands with amazing yachts as our neigbors. From there, all you have to do is jump into the warm blue and tourquoise waters for some swimming, snokeling, or cayaking. Our crew has taken good care of us with wonderful meals and plenty of cool libations. The first night, we anchored near a hillside that was sprinkled with rock tombs...

Jul 10, 2006 - A visit to the Cotton Castle (Pamukkale, Turkey)

Pamukkale is famous for the Hierapolis ruins that sit atop a mountain of white mineral deposits that makes the small hill in the hot, arid interior of Turkey appear to be covered with snow & ice all year around. Hence its name, Pamukkale (translated meaning "The Cotton Castle") Spring water cascades down over the mineral deposits giving them a glacier-like sheen. Pamukkale is extremely popular with Russian tourists who arrive by the bus load and hop from mineral pool to mineral pool. Dressed in neon pink, green and orange bathing suits the...

Jun 7, 2006 - Pamukkale, chegamos tarde!

Levamos 3 horas para chegar em Pamukkale de mini ônibus, é como eles chaman as vans por aqui. Saímos de Kusadasi apenas eu, Saulo, dois motoristas e um turco, achando super estranho estar só nos dois num ônibus de linha normal. Perguntei para o motorista se ìamos só nós, mas ele não falava uma palavra em inglês. Até a próxima cidade, Selcuk, os 3 tentavam falar com o Saulo em turco, não paravam 1 minuto, o Saulo fazia que não com a cabeça, dizia em inglês que não falava turco, mas eles insistiam e falavam alto, davam risada...nessa altura...

May 4, 2006 - Pamukalle

A 4 hour bus ride through mundane terrain to reach Turkey's most visited UNESCO Heritage listed site. Calcium rıch spring water forms limestone covered pools, where european tourists can take a day from the beach to bathe and beach themselves of the side of one. Unfortunately many of the naturally formed pools have dısappeared due to the Turks diverting too much water too them to satısfy the tourists and there are now only concrete pools where you can paddle around. There are some more ruins at this site - a hıerapolıs used as a curing...

Apr 23, 2006 - Ephesus

This morning it began to rain, but it didn't put us off visiting one of the most beautiful ancient cities in the world. The city has been excavated for more than one hundred years; the extensive remains are predominantly from the later Roman period. We spent a couple of hours in the rain just looking at it. The Theater is one of the most impressive buildings in Ephesus. It was originally a 3C BC Hellenistic theater which was later restored,adapted and expanded in the 1C AD by the Romans until it reached its present seating capacity of...

Feb 23, 2006 - Ne Mutlu Türküm Diyene

dear nader, my conceırge has just ınformed me the ınternet ıs on the house tonıght! so ı'll try & make good use. ı'm ın pamakkule. everyone, really everyone, has seen ımages of the calcıum travertınes that exıst above the vıllage, so ı'll spare you the photos, for now. beıng wınter (but ıt's sunny & about 20 celıus), there are no tourısts around, except for some korean's & an older gent, from NDG! the vıllage has a populatıon of about 2,500, so about the sıze of vıllage d'ormstown, where ı had the mısfortune of spendıng some of my formatıve...

Oct 27, 2005 - Pamukkale

Pamukkale offered little aside from their Travertines and ancient Greek/Roman ruins. While these sights were very cool, the village itself had very little to offer. That being said, there appeared to be quite a bit of construction going on to build up the village in preparation for a tourism boom that would result from the corporate money being pumped into the area (the ruins and travertines are considered a world heritage site) to create a beautiful and huge outdoor spa.

Aug 16, 2005 - pamukkale

well ıf ıt wasnt for the pools here there would b no reason to vısıt the ruıns of hıerapolıs!! they r lıterally pıles of broken rock. the theatre ıs ın tact but thats bout ıt. the calcıum pools wernt all that great ether.there ıs a walk wqay up to the top over the pools. however the real pools r roped off and the walkway ıs lıned wıth obvıous ımıtatıon concret pools ın stead. the town whıch has thousands of tourısts has no atm ın ıt (well one but ıts at the top of the travantıne pools whıch costs u money to get 2) and ıs oddly really...