pamukkale
12 september
post by scott
Both of us have distinct memories of the Sunshine Kebab stores in Bundaberg. At this point we had never met, but separately we would sit there (Allana at the city store, me at the sugarland branch) as teenagers, chowing down on a kebab (chicken with the lot was the way to go) and look wistfully at the posters of exotic Turkey which plastered the walls. The ones that stands out in both of our memories are (1) Cappadocias fairy chimneys, and (2) the calcite shelves (or “cotton castles”) of Pamukkale. Just thinking about it I can still smell the freshly chopped tabouli, taste the soft wrap - like a steamrolled cloud, and feel the hot grease dripping through the foil packet onto my shirt… Who would have thought that a little over ten years later we would be engaged and visiting these glamorous faraway places! We arrived in Pamukkale in the late afternoon, exhausted from all the recent bus trips. We found the nearest hotel, smashed a few Efes and crashed for the night. After a solid twelve hours we were ready to fulfil a childhood dream and see the awesome place on the kebab shop wall. The hills around Pamukkale are bright white, but it’s not snow. Mineral rich water flows from the mountains above and deposits the white calcium across the lower hills, creating remarkable pools, precipitous stalectites, as well as fluffy walls and mounds. It is a remarkable phenomenon, only one of two places in the world that it happens (The other is in Oaxaca, Mexico!), but as we overheard another rather nonplussed tourist put it – “at the end of the day it’s just warm water with calcium in it”.
Surprisingly the water is still flowing down the hills, depositing more calcium all the time, and in some places diverted to make nice (but artificial) pools. We donned sunglasses to combat the intense glare and strolled up through the pools and waterfalls up to the top of the hill where there is a big touristy establishment with restaurants and bars surrounding a large natural pool. Here you could easily be fooled into thinking you were at a hospital - between “Doctor Fish” (fish that nibble the dead skin off your feet), and the arsenic enriched “thermal water” you can cure everything from diabetes to a ‘disabled kidney’. I thought I would give it a go by spraying the magic water on my psoriasis ridden scalp and straight away Allana informed me that it was all better!! We had a little taste just to try what the believers were putting in their water bottles and there were so many heavy metals in this water that it made your tongue tingle like it was carbonated. Must be good for you!
Further up on the plains there are ruins of the ancient city Hierapolis. These guys really knew how to choose a nice location! Here is a picture of Hierapolis – I can’t say much more about it because instead of going into the museum we took our chances with the beer and pools.
On the way back down we continued with the health kick by rubbing the calcium mud all over ourselves. Not sure what this is supposed to do but we felt pretty damn good afterwards!
This guy was the cook at our little hotel and he had some sweet tricks for making pizza or pide dough. For the pizza he would spin it in like a basketball on his hand (like the regular dough spin) but for the elongated pide he would flip it over and around his hand. It was pretty awesome. Happy and full of pide we got back on the bus for our next stop Bodrum.