We left the hotel at noon today as our destination is just over 200 km to Pamukale. The route through the mountain was not too busy. Some stretch of the motorway is 4 lane highways so overtaking is not a problem. Throughout our travel in Turkey we saw so many roadside stalls selling fruits and vegetables. So far we have seen melons (watermelon, winter melon, honeydew melon), apricots (fresh and dried), peaches, apples, lemons, giant (really) cabbages and the last one bananas. We were tempted to stop at one of these stalls but what do we do with these fruits. Rudy and Jamaliah are the only one eating them and we can only eat so much.
Today we experienced our first heavy downpour (rain) since we left Oman. We had had a few drops twice before this but nothing worth mentioning. Today rain only lasted ½ hour. Just enough to clean the sand and dust of the car. We haven’t really washed the car since Oman, though it was hosed down by the staff at Hotel Lale Saray in Uchisar. I guessed they did not like a dirty car.
Pamukale.
Very impressive, glittering white ledges (travertines, they called it. I call it hill) with pools that you can swim in. Since we did not know about this beforehand we were not prepared. We did not bring our swimming gear with us. Which is a pity as it was a very warm and humid day, though with very threatening black clouds hanging overhead. On reaching the top of the hill, we then explored the ruins of Roman city, Hierapolis, an ancient spa resort. The ruins consist of a theatre, a colonnaded street, public toilet and a vast necropolis (burial ground) spread over a wide area.
The rain never came, which disappoint the boys. They were really looking forward to some rain after these heat waves. We did have very strong wind and some lightning in the horizon.
We didn’t really want to stay at touristy Pamukale, so we decided to drive a little bit out of town before looking for a hotel. We found this hotel just outside Pamukale, with a swimming pool and a not too expensive room that include dinner and breakfast. We thought we will probably be the only people staying here. Wrong. After we had checked in, three small buses full of tourists arrived. The swimming pool was suddenly busy. During dinner we were entertained by a Belly Dancer (probably arranged by the tour agent). Exciting for Rudy and Jamaliah but not for the boys. They disappeared quickly to their room.
Rudy Welling's Travels 