Pamukkale and Hierapolis

 

This is a long overdue post but I guess that means it's been an awesome summer! In my last few days in Bodrum I jumped on a bus and headed to some of the tourists sites I'd been asked about all summer. Being me, I didn't do any research beforehand and went to Pamukkale over Ephesus (the more popular ancient city near) on the advice of friends. Very glad I did!

 

There is this ridiculously random site in Turkey in the Denizili Province called Pamukkale or 'Cotton Castle' when translated. By random I mean, in the middle of rolling dust and scrub covered hills is a white 'castle' of limestone terraces and hot spring water, topped with the ancient city of Hierapolis. I booked through the hotel and was picked up at the very early hour of 6am for a lift into Bodrum to the coaches which were taking approximately 100 Russian, French, Italian and English tourists to the site. A four hour bus ride with a brief stop for breakfast was made easier by the fact that I am small and can sleep anywhere. Apparently there was a presentation and talk about the area on the way, but I missed it.

 

 

 

Once the bus parked up at the top of the hill after a four hour drive I immediately disentangled myself from the group of tourists I'd arrived with and set off straight for the ruins of the city. Pamukkale was heaving with half-naked tourists (hilarious to watch) and the ruins were wonderfully hot and desolate, but peaceful. I actually ended up writing blog notes sitting on a umpteen thousand year old piece of marble that had fallen by the Necropolis road, pleasantly sunning myself while these awesome lizards baked on the tombstones and the call to prayer echoed around the valley below. Pretty special, especially as there was no one around except the lizards and hundreds of butterflies, birds and bees.

 

 

Anyway! The city is of Greco-Roman and Byzantine eras, rebuilt and expanded at different stages after various earthquakes. Famed for the sacred hot spring waters that flow through and believed to have healing powers, and the city worshipped the God Apollo, and Pluto (of the underworld, probably because of the natural gases that rose up around the city.) Some of the ruins of the Temple of Apollo have had a giant natural swimming pool form over them, and for the bargain price of 30TL you can swim with other tourists in a surreal moment where ancient, natural beauty meets heaving commercialism.

 

 

I spent a fair amount of time giggling at the mud because I'm awesome like that, but it had dried to this awesome crackle effect that had curled up like clay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So pretty! You can only walk in certain places, and no shoes allowed so that the white calcium carbonate doesn't get muddied or damaged.

 

I paid 70TL for the daily excursion - they are advertised all over Bodrum and it was the cheapest and easiest way to get to Pamukkale but probably not the most efficient. If there are a group of you it'd be good to just hire a car and go because the excursion includes a particularly terrible example of 'traditional Turkish cuisine' (read extremely bad buffet Turkish cuisine) and a stop at a leather factory on the way home - which with the four hour ride each way made for a very long day.

 

I also caught the ferry over to Datca - absolutely beautiful but I forgot my camera. It felt very different to Bodrum and as soon as you get off the ferry you feel a million miles away from the crowds of Bodrum. I wandered through Knidos, another ancient city which was actually spectacularly placed (kinda felt like I was in lord of the Rings oddly.) Don't miss your ferry though! Because it only runs twice a day - once in the morning and once at night (and you'll have to stay the night like I did...)

 

 

 

I didn't really see as much as I liked of Bodrum - in summer it was a bit hard to handle because of the crowds and I was working but one day on our day off Elena and I stumbled upon one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - the Mausoleum of Halicarnasuss - the first mausoleum ever built. There isn't much left on the site since the British took away anything of significance to the British Museum, and the Knights Templar dismantled it in the first place to fortify the nearby St Peters Castle circa 1400AD

 

 

 

 

There's also this huge amphitheatre at the top of the hill overlooking Bodrum - it's still used today for concerts and plays! The view is wonderful - you can see St Peter's Castle in the background next to the harbour. Elena and I wandered through the back streets until we got to the water and then spent a merry afternoon in wandering around the castle. My favourite part was the glass exhibition showcasing all these very fragile and beautiful glass artifacts found in the various shipwrecks around the area.

 

 

 

 

And then of course we went to our favourite Bodrum fish restaurant - Trata - next to the fishmarket where you choose your fish, pay the monger then have the restaurant cook it up for a 5TL fee. Don't forget to choose some mezzes! We usually end up with cheese stuffed mushrooms, seaweed, smoke aubergine and peppers, and a yoghurt based dish of some sort. And fava of course! And later headed in to the Bodrum shops to try and haggle for the massively overpriced but awesome selection of fake handbags. I got a travel wallet and big leather tote and can now pretend I can afford real Hermes. (Though having arrived in Istanbul and now living in Istinye I've suddenly realised how many Turkish women can and do buy real Prada, Chanel, Gucci and Hermes.)

 

Anyway! How was that for a brain download. I'll try get you an update on Istanbul when I get a moment.

 

x

 

 

I’m in love with Nepal all over again.

Trekking was AMAZING.

I realised I’ve run out of words to describe Nepal.

Breath-taking, stunning, spectacular, awe inspiring, fantastic, beautiful, wondrous…

I went with Kinnari on a organised trek for 5 days to Poon Hill at 3219m. We made it in 4 days, and went paragliding and stayed an extra night in Pokhara.

I almost died the first day (as you all should know, I am slightly adverse to exercise.) We walked in VERY hot weather, uphill for 5 hours, and then an extra hour to make it to the top of the steepest hill I’ve ever climbed. BUT IT WAS WORTH IT.

This was our morning cup of tea view from Ulleri -

We stayed in tea houses the whole way round, and this one was empty and had the best hot shower ever, and the cutest little family running it.

We got up early the next day and watched all the other trekkers who had stayed at the more touristy spot at the bottom of the hill struggle past. Then we set off up the hill, packs and all, and I discovered that there is a reason I lived in Wellington for 4 years – it was all building up to be able to climb massive hills for hours.

We walked through tiny little villages, and past farms and waterfalls. I took over 300 photos (managed to cull out about 100), I’ve managed to put them all online! It took all day to load them, but worth a wee look!

The second night we stayed in Gorepani, and got up at 5 to walk up to Poon Hill for the sunrise. It was beautiful, but crowded. There were about 150 people at the top of this blimmin hill. I hadn’t realised there were so many trekkers in the area!

  

These are the Annapurna ranges, in the most popular trekking area in Nepal. To be honest, I loved the trekking but I think if I did it again I would definitely do something a little less popular. I think I met about 10 New Zealanders over the 4 days!

The scenery is absolutely stunning, and the pictures don’t do it justice. On the third night we stayed in Tadapani, met some Americans and Australians and drank an Everest beer or two (which wiped everyone out, from the altitude I guess!) We trekked through the most gorgeous little village the next morning, and forest which was exactly like New Zealand and Taranaki bush. I got very nostalgic :)

It was lovely being away from Kathmandu and the dust, pollution, rubbish, crazy drivers and general chaos. Pokhara is great, I’d’ve liked to stay longer but Kinnari had to get back on Monday for her flight Tuesday morning back to the States. Maybe another time!

   

Above right: masala tea at 6am in Ulleri watching the sunrise

 

Kinnari and I at Poon Hill, very very cold.

        

Fishtail mountain on the right, millet seed drying in the sun on the left.

    

Full photo album here!

The final day was 8 hours walking downhill, and was the hardest exercise I’ve ever done. My knees and feet were killing me, as well as my calves, and then I rolled my ankle and had to carry on walking for 4 hours. We got back to Pokhara at about 7pm, I had a hot bath in the dirtiest little bathroom yet, and we had dinner at a great little Korean restaurant on the lakeside. It had New Zealand beef on the menu! (Beef not buff.) We went to bed early, got up for a great breakfast of banana pancakes, good coffee and fresh orange juice at a place called The Wooden Coffee House, a cafe run by SEWA, a Nepali-Dutch not-for-profit organisation that aims to keep families together by providing education and training for mothers of street children, and projects that provide income for them so kids can be kept in the home. They work from the street level up – find the kids, look after them while they get the mothers on their feet and slowly get them back into the family, while helping support with education and health.

We went boating on Phewa lake after that, which was great, saw tonnes of fish and also how dirty the water was, and we cracked ourselves up laughing at our guide who  was scared of the water but had a terrible ego and would take his life jacket off every time another boat came past and people were looking.

We went to Devis Fall for a look too, but I didn’t have my camera at either the lake or waterfall, so when I hear from Kinnari, will get one or two photos up! Also some from paragliding, which was FANTASTIC.  We followed eagles around, and there were about 25 paragliders in the air at the same time, and the sky was beautifully clear so we could see the ranges. I wasn’t scared at all, it was very relaxing, very easy, and made me want to learn how to do it myself. And bring on skydiving!!!

The big thing about the whole trip was that it was organised by a trekking company. I would never do it like this again. In terms of ease, it was great, and we had nothing to think about, but in terms of wanting to do our own thing, or making changes to our plans, it was not really a go-er. Our guide wasn’t great to start off with, and was very demanding. I don’t think this is typical, as the other guides of people we met while trekking seemed great, told them lots about the area and had good communication skills, as well as not needing attention all the time and knew when to leave their clients alone. Our guide had the habit of talking about how he wanted a foreigner (i.e. me or Kinnari) to pay for him to go overseas, wanting a photo to be taken of him at every stopping point and of walking half a metre behind you step for step, even when walking up and down hill. He tried to hit on Kinnari and by the end of the trek his English had degenerated so badly that we barely understood what he wanted us to do, our information about the area was limited to the name of the village plus a noun such as ‘mountain’, and we were instead ordered to ‘come’ every 3 or 4 minutes. This of course made these two strong willed gals VERY obstinate. Much to our relief he seemed to finally get that we didn’t want to be keeping him entertained, nor would we be bossed around, and left us alone. Not without many uncomfortable and awkward moments for a day.

I think for a small trek like this one, a guide isn’t necessary. It was convenient for getting food ordered and bedding for the cots, but he really didn’t go beyond that. Having a guide who doesn’t really like his job, and wants to be an actor, may have been our downfall, and having a guide that has a lot to tell you about the area, or if you were going off the beaten track and doing a trek which is quite challenging, it would be great.

We flew back to Kathmandu to avoid the 7 hours micro-bus ride we had endured on the way to Pokhara and met a nice Irish guy at the airport. We shared a taxi to Thamel and went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant called La Dolce Vita  which was FANTASTIC. Because I got to eat bruschetta and bacon and parmesan and pasta and drink wine, and then have tiramisu, and feel thoroughly sick. It was Kinnari’s last night so her orphanage guy Rajendra came for dinner too which was great, and then he went home and we went to a bar called Reggae Bar and listened to the live band (actually pretty good!) and met up with some New Zealanders (suprise suprise) and other volunteers from Nepal Volunteer something or other. Had a great night, stayed in Thamel at a hostel with two of my new friends then hung out all the next day before returning home to find a new girl at the orphanage! She is English, and lovely, and staying for a week after having trekked Everest.

Anyway, got to get up early, we’re visiting the montesorri in the morning, and then have a big job of cleaning out the room for the library!

Lots of love to you all

x