Trek The Unknown

Image via WikipediaAt Every evening in Kusadasi we went out of our hotel to down town. Down town is full of bars, restaurants and coffee shops. Also, there are many tour Agencies which open until late, so It’s possible to order a trip for the next day.

One of the sites that looked beautiful on the photos was Pamuckale. My girl friend also heard that it’s suppose to be a great place to visit. So, instead of paying to a tour company we started to search on how to get there by buses.

It turned out that the site is 3 hours ride away from Kusadasi. We had to go to the central but station (The local name is “Garaj”) , don’t get confused with the mini bus station, it’s a different place.

We used a bus company called KamilKoc. They have a bus going to Denizli, which is a nearby town to Pamuckale) at 9:30 AM. It took us 3-3.5 hours to get there. The ride cost 20 Turkish lira per person.
Ask to get of at the Garaj in Denizli. From there we took a mini bus for 2 Turkish lira to Pamuckale.
After 20-30 minutes ride the bus drops you in the center of Pamuckale village. The village is right under the site which well seen from the village.

All you left with is walking to the terrace (entrance: 10 lira) for a few minutes.
It’s a beautiful site which really doesn’t exist anywhere in the world (as far as people told us).
You walk up the terrace and you have pools of water mixed with lime. People go in the water and it’s really nice. Don’t worry,the maximum depth is 10-15 inch.

Pamuckale also has a big Archeological site, but after seeing Ephsus on the day before, we decided we we will skip the archaeological part of the day. We think it’s a different entrance fee from going into the lime pools.

After we walked all around we went to a few of the pools that were allowed to swim at. No shoes are allowed when you step in the lime area.

The last bus leaving Denizli back to Kusadasi is at 18:00 ( 6:00 PM). We took a different company than the one on the way to Denizli. The company called “Pamuckale”,just like the site. the ride to Kusadasi costs 23 Lira and it even took less than 3 hours ride.

A few words about Denizli. We had a little time going around there. We never read of Denizli or tried to find out what’s to do there since we really didn’t have time. But, Denizli looked to us as an ordinary local city with no tourists. near the Garaj there are many restaurant serving local non toursty food and not expensive. Also If you need a bank or ATM machine there are a bunch around.

Concluding our day, we think that on a short vacation like we had, it wouldn’t be worth going all the way to there just for this. We had a 4 night vacation so this takes the whole day. If you have time It’s worth taking your time and going there as part of a whole longer trip. You can even stay a night or two at pamuckale village.

Our 2nd day in Kusadasi was very exciting. We heard about a local village called SIRINCE (pronounced: shiringe) which is very picturesque.

In order to get the “full” local experience and adventure we used the local transportation. a dolmush is running from Kusadasi to Selcuk (pronounced: selchuk) and it’s written on the front part of the dolmush vehicles. It’s a pretty short ride of around 25 minutes and costs 4 Turkish lira, which is about 2 Euro per person. You get off in selcuk at the last stop (you’ll see many dolmushes around) and then take another Dolmush going to SIRINCE, This ride is also not too long and costs 2.5 Turkish lira.

The Village itself is one of kusadasi tourist attraction and therefore it’s main strrets a re also very touristy like with stores and coffee shops. We decided to wonder around the village and get to it’s upper part where no tourists are preset.

A local woman who spoke no English grabbed us in one off the allies and took us in her house. It was a single room house and very modest. She gave us some Apricots and then suggested some of the crafts she makes for sale. We didn’t really want to buy anything, but she was very nice and we felt somewhat uncomfortable, not to mention that what we bought was really low priced. so, we decided it’s worthwhile buying.

later on we walked around some more and reached a church. This church has a good view point over the whole village.

Our next stop was Ephesus. We saw the entrance to the site right before selcuk. It’s situated on the road between Kusadasi and Selcuk. Ephesus ( Or efes, as the locals says) is really close to selcuk, just a few minutes ride with a local Dolmush.

Ephsus is a Greek archiological site. It’s well preserved and beautiful. Entrance fee for the site is 10 Turkish lira per person. vocal earphones guide is availble for rent also.

The site is huge and has a few attractions that worth seeing. there is a big Amphitheater, A magnificant wall of an ancient library. One of the most beautiful ones is the rich houses terrace. It’s partly rebuild with the help of the Austrain Government and has additional entrance fee (10 Lira). It’s worth that cost!

Since it’s a big site it’s recommneded for a 2-3 hour visit. The place doesn’t have much shade so it’s good to prepare for that. Take a lot of water, sunscreen and hats.

In order to leave you need to walk to the main road. It’s 10-15 minutes walk. From there you take a Dolmush back to Kusadasi. We decided to try and hitch hike. well…It worked! a car stopped with 2 nice girls and their mother. They were on vacation too and were locals from Ankara. They didn’t only take us to the main road but all the way to Kusadasi. They had a vacation house there. We exchanged phone numbers in order to meet later on.

on the whole we think it’s defently possible going to Sirince and Ephsus on the same day. They are pretty close and both are beautiful place. We even had time at the end of the day jump into to swimming pool.

hey,
After not traveling for more than 6 monthes I decided to have a short vacation in Turkey in a place called Kusadasi (pronounced: Kushadasi).

Kusadasi is a a touristy town full of hotels and resorts. It’s located in western turkey on the Aegaen sea shore, 45 minutes driving south of Izmir. The town is set on a beautiful bay and it’s well known site is the pigeon island. Kusadasi is also very close to the Greek Island, Samos and it’s a nice excrusion to do for a day, although we preferred staying on Turkish land.

We arrived there last Sunday at noon. We spent our 1st afternoon there walking around the place and got to know it. Since my girlfriend and I are not really big fans of staying at the beach or the hotels swimming pool all day long, we decided we want to visit some more exciting places.
So we had great plans for the next 3-4 coming days.

Various touring agencies sell tours to places around Kusadasi, But we decided we want to do the things by ourselves, which is much more cheaper and fun. The whole area has great public transportation using Dolmushes. Dolmush is a kind of an 10-12 seat car which goes around like a bus line. they stop everywhere you like on the road and pick you up wherever you are, although some of the line have set stops as well.

We started the day at around 8:15 in the morning walking from Ghyaru. remember that we are way up over the valley at that day so there are magnificent views from the top.

Walking starts with a few short climbs and there are a few great view points along the way. Suddenly on the way we saw some vultures ( I’m not an ornithologist, but it looks like it :)). So for the 1st time I had a good excuse to use my 75-300 mm lens I carried with me the whole time.

On the way it’s possible to see Homde airport ( If we were walking the straight easier way the previous day we would have walked through Homde). If you are too tired or can’t get used to the heights, one of your options is taking a flight from Homde to Pokhara, but you might have to wait a few days for a flight and an available seat.

We had the chance to see a small airplane landing and taking off, it’s weird to look down on it, instead of looking up to the sky!

The next village coming up is Nagwal. There are many alleys in that village so you have to ask people which is the right way to cross it.

After Nagwal the trail goes down , back to the valley. Then it’s an easy 2 hour straight walk to Manang. On the way there is another small village called Braga ( or Braka) so don’t get too excited that you arrived to Mananag, it’s another half and hour walk….

We reached Manang pretty late, at 14:30. Our porters mentioned it would take only 4-5 hours to walk until Manang, but the girl in our group got hurt in her foot, so we had to find a horse for her that would take her to Mananag. All this waiting and logistics took quite a while.

All along the trail and especially at this part of the trail there are many people renting horses or yaks ( which are more expensive) in order to carry tiered or hurt trekkers.

This was the end of that day. There is a clinic at Manang that is there for a reason, but it deserves a special post.

That would be my next one.

We started our day on a microbus going from Kathmandu to Besisahar (300 Rupee). We’ve been told that if you take a bus it cost less but takes an extra 1-2 hours. we decided to pay the extra. We left at around 6:30 in the morning and arrived at around 13:30. From Besisahar it’s possible to save a few hours of walking and take another bus to a village named Bhulbhule. The ride goes through another village named Khudi. Since there were no seats inside to bus, we were sent straight to the roof. Hey, it’s Nepal!

Here are the friends I was traveling with on the roof. It’s very amusing at the beginning but then your a*s really hurts. It’s not really a road but more close to a VERY bumpy trail.

This bus costs 50 Rupees (no discount If you had a roof ride!). When walking there aren’t too many ups and downs so the hight of Besisahar and Bhulbhule is around the same and walking isn’t hard. Distance is 9 KM. We’ve been told it would have taken us 3 hours to walk, It took around half of the time to drive.

We ended the day in a guest house in Bhulbhule. It’s a nice village which is built on to sides of the river, and a bridge over troubled water is hanged over it. We were very excited, to begin our journey the day afterwards.