Have any of you ever heard of Pamukkale? Well neither had I until very recently. We took a quick ferry ride from Kos to Bodrum where we caught a bus to the small town of Pamukkale. The town is famous for the beautiful white cliffs that formed natural baths from the water running down the calcified cliffs. The day we arrived we didn't have much time so we walked around the outside of the park and took some pictures. The white cliffs looked magnificent as the sun set. When we got back to our hotel we swam in their pool which is filled with the Pamukkale water. The owner of the hotel kindly brought us some delicious lemonade while we were swimming and it was very good. When you backpack on a budget drinking anything other than water, beer and wine is a luxury.
The next morning we took the quick walk to the bottom of Pamukkale and began our ascent up the white cliffs. The water was slowly running down the mountain and we had to take our shoes off so the white cliffs would stay white. The water was quite warm and many of the man-made pools were open. These pools were not the original attraction to Pamukkale. When people finally discovered the small town it created a huge spike in tourism which meant that many people decided to open hotels at the bottom of the mountain. The problem with that is all of the hotels had pools and pools need water to be effective. Of course they were taking the water from the cliffs and the pools ran dry. Then UNESCO stepped in and made it a world heritage site. They forced many of the hotels to shut down in order to bring some of the water back to the cliffs. There is now enough water to fill the man made pools and apparently in the winter many of the original pools fill up.
When we got to the top of the mountain we explored the ancient town of Hierapolis and found a few more baths that weren't littered with tourists. I hate tourists. They ruin all the pictures I want to take. After the semi-private pools we made our way to the top of the mountain and had a great view of the area. There were many people parachuting off of the top of the mountain and it looked fun but in order to prolong the lives of our mothers we decided not to try it. However, we did try a really cool ancient pool. It was a natural pool that had ancient Roman ruins. We were swimming with Roman pillars and marble stones that had been used thousands of years ago. It was very cool! After our day of lounging in ancient pools we caught a bus to Istanbul. Another overnight bus but it went so much better than previous busses. They served juice (a luxury), water, ice cream and snacks. They also had wifi so I was able to watch a bit of the US Open at 4am. Anyways, this post is already pretty long so I will write another one about Istanbul ASAP.
The next morning we took the quick walk to the bottom of Pamukkale and began our ascent up the white cliffs. The water was slowly running down the mountain and we had to take our shoes off so the white cliffs would stay white. The water was quite warm and many of the man-made pools were open. These pools were not the original attraction to Pamukkale. When people finally discovered the small town it created a huge spike in tourism which meant that many people decided to open hotels at the bottom of the mountain. The problem with that is all of the hotels had pools and pools need water to be effective. Of course they were taking the water from the cliffs and the pools ran dry. Then UNESCO stepped in and made it a world heritage site. They forced many of the hotels to shut down in order to bring some of the water back to the cliffs. There is now enough water to fill the man made pools and apparently in the winter many of the original pools fill up.
When we got to the top of the mountain we explored the ancient town of Hierapolis and found a few more baths that weren't littered with tourists. I hate tourists. They ruin all the pictures I want to take. After the semi-private pools we made our way to the top of the mountain and had a great view of the area. There were many people parachuting off of the top of the mountain and it looked fun but in order to prolong the lives of our mothers we decided not to try it. However, we did try a really cool ancient pool. It was a natural pool that had ancient Roman ruins. We were swimming with Roman pillars and marble stones that had been used thousands of years ago. It was very cool! After our day of lounging in ancient pools we caught a bus to Istanbul. Another overnight bus but it went so much better than previous busses. They served juice (a luxury), water, ice cream and snacks. They also had wifi so I was able to watch a bit of the US Open at 4am. Anyways, this post is already pretty long so I will write another one about Istanbul ASAP.