I was up by 6am. I had to hike out of the valley of Kabak and find a way back to Fethiye. I did not have time for breakfast. The caretaker of my lodging said that there was a bus that departs from the top of the valley at 8am. The next one after that did not leave until 1pm so I wanted to make sure I caught the 1st one. I was out by the road at 7am. It was a cold morning. I waited about 45 minutes with some school children before the van arrived. We made our way back along the same route that I arrived and eventually I boarded a bus for Denizali.
I now had 5 hours to sit and try to relax, but unfortunately that is impossible on a Turkish bus. People will yell for 20 minutes to no one in particular, then someone responds and it creates a whole new level of annoyance. I am sure their yelling is very social, but it seems as if one person is boasting and standing on a soap box, and then the next has their turn at the lecture circuit. Each time one cries out you pray that no one responds. You look at them as if they have a Bluetooth headseat, “Who the hell is he talking to?” It probably goes something like this, “I have a beautiful goat! Have you gotten a chance to see my goat? I love my goat! Have I mentioned how great my goat is?”
I felt bad for this guy. I noticed he had on a Ed Hardy cap. I did not have the heart to tell hime that this trend died out a couple years ago
As mentioned before we stop for anything and everything. Below is a favorite shot where we decided to stop and drink tea for a half hour. I just sit on a bench because if I stray too far they will surely disappear.
I was amazed thinking at this point that I had seen no police cars on the road. It was not 30 seconds later that we were pulled over and the driver’s papers examined. All seemed to be in order and we continued on for a few miles before randomly stopping in some town where I wolfed down 5 or 6 bananas.
When I made it to Denizali I had a hell of a time finding a bus to continue on to Pamukkale, my destination for the night. Eventually I got there and dropped my crap off in the first hostel I could find.
I was here to see the famous site of Pamukkale. It is a network of hot springs and travertines, terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water. Water that emerges from the spring is transported 320 metres to the head of the travertine terraces and deposits calcium carbonate. When the water, supersaturated with calcium carbonate, reaches the surface, carbon dioxide degasses from it, and calcium carbonate is deposited. The depositing continues until the carbon dioxide in the water balances the carbon dioxide in the air. Calcium carbonate is deposited by the water as a soft jelly, but this eventually hardens into travertine.
I work in postop cardiac unit of the hospital. We deal with heart valves a great deal and much of the problems stems for build up of calcium. Just looking at this mammoth hunk of calcium makes me appreciate how it can foul up the delicate cardiovascular system.
I had to take my shoes off to walk on the Heritage site as they were doing their best to preserve what was left after years of ignorance and neglect.
Getting near the top, where another set of ruins lies, I ran into the crowds. I can only imagine what this place is like on weekends in the summer.
Below is a pretty funny tourist pitch. People sit on a carpet with a green screen behind them and video tape as the carpet spins. Then that video is superimposed onto a scenic background as seen on the smaller TVs so that it looks like they are on a magic carpet ride. Hmm, maybe I should have used that Steppenwolf song as my blog title. Anyway I could not quite figure out how, but I thought it would be great if I could photobomb their DVD and emerge from behind them on the carpet wearing some sort of burka and then recede back below without them seeing until they are watching at home.
I really love how they rebuild these amphitheaters using only the traditional tools the ancients used
Here is the line of tour buses waiting for their Japanese customers to shimmy down the white slopes like penguins.
I did not do much exploring that night as there really was not much to see in this town.
Until Tomorrow
Darren
