Day 3 - Going to Pamukkale

We wake up feeling like we've been crushed between a taxi that was free-rolling down a hill and a stationary car.....wait.....Bad Memories. The morning started with breakfast where everything tasted like Carpet. We check out of our hotel room and leave the most of our baggage with the hotel. We managed to pack all the crap we don't need into a spare suitcase, and we drag it over to Sude Konak where bellboy was on duty and would look after it for us. We decide to head to Erboy, which was across the road, to check if they are overbooked for the period that we will be back in Istabul, and if they are, we want to make alternative arrangements NOW. The Erboy bitch was on duty and ensured us that everything will be fine (Yeah right), and told us to leave any luggage we have with them. Somehow, she managed to see us drag our luggage into Sude Konak across the road and she was NOT happy. I think she may somehow try to screw up our booking now that she knows we're bunking with the competitors...

We make our way to what we think is the "New Grand Bazaar". We have mainly been focusing our attention on the Old Grand Bazaar where they sell all the belly dancing costumes, tea sets, jewellery, carpets etc etc. The New Grand Bazaar, should hopefully have all the fashion items on discount. We catch a tram to the New Grand Bazaar call "Laleli" and hit the first store we see. Now this bit gets a bit hazy. Everything was happening in Turkish, and all I remember was grabbing clothes off the rack and trying to rummage through their stocks for other sizes whilst the sales assistant gave me dirty looks. For some reason she was not happy in doing business with us. We manage to grab a few shirts for Moishii who went into their "change room", which was a storeroom at the back of the shop with no lights. After alot of fuss, we finally pay and get out of there. We start hitting all the other fashion shops to try and get Moishii a new pair of Jeans. All the stores we walk into refused to serve us and most of them started talking gibberish to us. And by Gibberish, I mean any language but English and Turkish. We somehow find our way back onto the main street only to realise that the entire "New Grand Bazaar" is a Russian wholesale district IN TURKEY! I asked Moishii why was the first store not a whole sale place when he replied that the told the woman that he was going to buy ALOT for his "store". No wonder she gave me the dirties when I tried to get the clothes in other sizes....

Feeling unsatisfied, we throw ourselves back into the Old Grand Bazaar and start hitting the shops. We stop by a "Pide" place near the entrance for lunch. Now most of you would've seen a Pide before, even at the local food court. It basically looks like 1/3 of the SBS logo and is a turkish pizza. Our "Pide" turned out to be a pizza. An undercooked pizza as well. If there was an Italian in the house, there will be HELL to pay for serving us that "Pizza". Meanwhile, we amuse ourselves by watching these 2 honkie chicks trying to figure out what the hell was going on with their order. Don't ask us why we were obsessed with those 2. We don't even understand.....

We make our way back to our hotel and wait in the lobby for our hotel transfer. Yes. The transfer guy is picking us up. Bellboy walks into the lobby and plonks himself down next to us and starts smoking cigerettes like they were free viagra. Thats the thing about Turkey, you can smoke anywhere, anytime, as much as you want since they are only $2 a packet. We practically choke to death when transfer guy arrives. We grab our bags and hop into the van. For some reason, Bellboy jumps in with us. This is where it all goes downhill.....literally. The next 30mins of my life, was one of longest and most terrifying moments I have ever gone through. Anyone ever watch "The Pacifier"? Where Vin Diesel is trying to get the kids to school on time and the girl throws herself onto the ground the minute the car stops and screams "LAND!!!". It was very similar to what I went through.....only we were tailgating other cars at 120km/hr on a freeway, cutting across three lanes without indicators and cutting back again without indicators WHILST HE WAS ON THE PHONE!! The Transfer guy managed to create a 4th lane out of a 3 land freeway....we managed to get wedged inbetween a truck and a taxi and had to slam on the break in the last minute before we get crushed, we almost knocked a guy off his motorcycle during this as we had to swerve into the next lane to avoid another accident. The best bit? We have most of this on tape.....although I am still too traumatised to watch it. We somehow manage to get to the airport in one piece, when the Transfer guy takes the wrong exit trying to take us to the International Airport. He slams on the brakes almost causing an accident, then REVERSES 50m+ DOWN A FREAKIN FREEWAY!!!! I throw myself out of the van shaking and hyperventilating. I was practically close to tears because of the number of close calls we had. Bellboy practically wets himself because he was sitting in the front seat! Of course he deserved everything he got. Transfer guy is Bellboy's friend. And the reason he was driving like a maniac is because he's obsessed with the Grand Prix (Which was held a few days before I arrived) and that he wanted to scare the crap out of Bellboy. Had he not gotten into the van, he would've driven like any other normal person!! I grab my luggage and start running towards the terminal whilst screaming "NO TRANSFER!! TAXI!!".

We get into the Terminal where we drop our bags and have a group hug and have a good cry after that near death experience. It was more than we can handle after the taxi rolling down a hill incident that we went through the night before. We quickly find a gate to check into, got through security and hit the first cafe we could find. "KOKPIT". I knew nothing good would come out of a place called KOKPIT. We ended up paying $15 for 2 cans of lemon tea and a slice of dried up cake. After feeling like we've been royally screwed by the KOKPIT, we decide to wait at our gate before we do anymore damage. We plonk ourselves down at the nearest seat and try to take in everything that has happened so far. We sit there for about 45mins when I suddenly had a flashback from our last trip. We were sitting at the Istanbul International Airport waiting for our flight to Athens when suddenly our gate changes and another flight will be leaving from our gate instead. With this horrible feeling in my gut, I run to the nearest display monitor only to find out that our gate has changed! They didn't even bother announcing it! We grab our bags and run for the gate thinking they may change the boarding time as well. We get down to our new gate to find it chockablock full of people. There is not a single airport staff in sight. Not even security. We have no idea if we were even at the right gate. The announcer comes over the PA, but the crackling was so bad, we couldn't tell if she was speaking English or Turkish. We wait around for another 30mins, checking the indicator board every 5 minutes. Finally a woman comes through to help us board the bus that will take us to our plane.

It was at this moment that I saw HER. This woman sat next to me on the bus and spent the entire time staring at my chest and giving me dirty looks every 5 seconds. Understandably she was one to cover herself up from head to toe, but I still didn't expect the type of death look she gave me. The only thing I could do? Shove infront of her and get onto the plane first only to find out that we have "First class seats". By first class seats, I mean we got the first row on the plane with plenty of leg room. Not that we get any special service except for a curtain to seperate us from the rest. We land after an hour and make a run for the baggage claim. We grab our bags and try to find the Information Desk. You know, before going on the holiday, I got really excited and did alot of research. Including on how to get from the Airport to Pamukkale. The information I found said that the easiest and cheapest way will be to catch the Turkish Airline shuttle bus to Denizli Town, and from town, catch a Taxi to your hotel for about $17. The information desk was closed. The only thing we could do, was either go with the information I found on the net, or catch a cab. We walk out of the airport only to be attacked by a Taxi driver who was yelling something about taking us there for $50. Without even listening to what he was saying, we head to the nearest bus and paid $11 each to get on.

The bus driver was going to take us to Denizli town and we can cab it from there. Or so we thought.....he reckons that it would be easier and closer to drop us off at Pamukkale Road and we can catch a cab and save some money. Half way there on the bus, I suddenly occurred to me what he said. He's going to drop us off at Pamukkale Road. Does that mean he's going to stop in the middle of nowhere and tell us to get off as opposed to taking us to a TOWN? We decided that if its going to be in the middle of a road, we're going to refuse to get off. 20mins later, the bus driver stops in the middle of a freeway intersection and tell us to get off. Totally disregarding the conversation and decision we made, we get off the bus, grab our luggage and thank the bus driver. The bus pulls away, and suddenly we find ourselves with two massive suitcases, standing in the middle of a freeway at 9pm at night. What. The. Fark!?

We grab our suitcase and drag it down the hill on an unpaved road where my wheels practically fall off. (See picture below) We spot a security both in the distance and head towards the light. There is a guy standing in the middle of the road trying to direct traffic. We ask him where can we grab a cab to Pamukkale. His response? You can't get a cab to Pamukkale from where we are. There are no cabs driving in this direction. We would be lucky to even spot a cab driving anywhere near here. Can anyone say Screwed? We try calling the hotel to see if they can pick us up or tell us the easiest way to get there. There is no response. The security guard calls the local taxi company and the response that we get? Its $50 to the hotel. What happened to the $17 fare? Do we even have a choice? 20mins later, the taxi driver (Who we suspect is the security guard's friend) pulls up and we hop in. The meter reads $16 before we even get into the cab. By the time we get to the hotel, the meter is reading $40 but we're charged $50 because it was an "agreed rate". We just don't care anymore. Our cheap $20 transfer turned into a $72 nightmare.

My suitcase after being dragged through the roads of Hell.

We get to the hotel reception and check in, the local bellhop took our luggage and showed us the way to our room. Now this hotel is HUGE. I mean HUGE. Its about 2-3 blocks wide. And guess what? We got the very last room in the furthest corner to the hotel. We walked past about 100 rooms to get to our room. By this time, we're tired, starving and ready to kill anyone who gets into our way. We dump everything and grab our wallets to head to the restaurant. A menu is posted at the entrance, and a decent main meal costs about $15. We decide to get the cheapest thing on the menu and end it. We walk in only to find that the restaurant is a massive buffet hall. The waiter comes over to try and seat us and we find out that dinner is included with our booking. We practically throw ourselves at the buffet and start loading our plates with everything on offer. To a bystander, it looks like we haven't eaten in a week the way we demolished the food! We cleared our plate within 10mins and headed back out for seconds. This is when I spot the desert bar. After spending $72 on our transfer, we kick into budget saving mode. I walk up to the desert bar, and grab enough fruit to feed 5 people. Slowly, the fruit disappeared one by one into our bags. My bag turned into a fruit salad bowl by the time we were finished. I was just lucky that the strap didn't break when we tried to make a get away back into our room.

Feeling satisfied after our meal, we decide to make the most of whats left of the night. We change into our swimmers and head out to the thermal pool. Now let me give you a quick history on Pamukkale. Pamukkale is basically a snow white cliff formed by cascading pools of calcium rich thermal water. This water is so rich in minerals, that it is supposed to heal things from diabetes to heart disease. Because of the health qualities of the water, alot of hotels were built close to the pools and redirected the water to the hotel for the enjoyment of their guests. This then caused some of the pools to dry up or the water to turn into a disgusting colour and therefore ruining the snow white appearance of Pamukkale. Most of the hotels were torn down in order to preserve the place, and the hotel we were staying are one of the few around that area that still has access to the thermal water.

We head towards to pool and bar area to find two pools. One is a brightly lit chlorine pool with the beautiful deck chairs near the bar with a huge group of people in it. The other is the thermal pool that has absolutely no lighting what so ever and had a total of 5 people in the pool. The only thing lighting the pool is the few lights that light up the paths and the moonlight. Considering the trouble we had to get to Pamukkale, we HAD to get into the thermal pool. This is when we realise why there was no one in the pool. Because of calcium and minerals in the water, there was a build up of calcium on the pool floor which made it extremely slippery. Ontop of that, because it was "thermal water", things tend to breed in that type of environment. Like scum....I'm just glad it was night time and there was no lighting, otherwise there was no way in hell I would get into that pool. You would be wading through the pool when something brushes past your leg or your arm. I pray that its leaves and grass....

Luckily, at this time, the night time entertainment starts which helps to distract us from the life in the pool. A male bellydancer. Thats right! MALE bellydancer! Now I've never seen one before so this was going to be interesting. I spend the next 10mins gawking at him and his abs. No guy should be allowed to move like that. It defies all laws of nature! Everything was going well until I realise that the scarf around his neck is actually a python which he proceeded to swing around his head like a lasso! That is more than I can handle in one night. We quickly jump out of the pool and make a run for our room. Our bed awaits.