Turkiye Day 4 - Pamukkale Archaeological Site, Denizli

Assalamualaikum. Marhaba.

Previous entry (here).

Selesa gila bergolek beramah mesra sama katil, after almost 11 hours tidur duduk. Kalau ikut hati memang lagi best sambung tidur tapi sudah datang jauh-jauh kan, ndak kan meroyan layan ngantuk. Malam baru pulun tidur.

Sebelum keluar bilik, sempat jumpa Ahjumma house keeping complained pasal bidet toilet yang rosak. Mengucap panjang Ahjumma bila dia tengok bidet yang rosak tu. Siap minta maaf banyak kali. Erk, terkedu kejap depan toilet bila she continuously uttered "Masya Allah, Allahu Akbar!". Suddenly terbit rasa guilty dalam diri. Apakah?

Settled masalah toilet, on the way down to the lobby I told the Ahjumma I will be leaving for Selcuk early the next morning. My plan was to leave for Denizli Otogar & I will hop on a bus to Selcuk. Pastu Ahjumma buat muka comel, mata bersinar suara excited. With very limited English, sungguh-sungguh Ahjumma tarik tangan aku sambil cakap "U buy bus ticket from here!" Gitu! Turned out bangunan sebelah hotel tu adalah company bas Pamukkale Turizm. Ada bas departed from Pamukkale direct pi Selcuk. Ndak payah mau transit pi Denizli Otogar bagai. Alhamdulillah, Allah permudahkan. Tesekkur ederim, Ahjumma.

Lepas sudah secure seat dalam bas, marilah kita teruskan dengan highlight plan of the day. Dari hotel walkertapaki in less than 2 minutes to reach the ticket booth.

7 April 2015
Pamukkale, Denizli

"Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish is a natural site in Denizli Province in southwestern Turkey. It is recognized as a World Heritage Site together with Hierapolis in 1988.The city contains hot springs and travertines, terraces of carbonate minerals left by the flowing water. It is located in the River Menderes valley; which has a temperate climate for most of the year." -wiki-

# Entrance to the archaeological site is TL 25. 

# Lepas dapat tiket, bertabahlah kena menapak sampai nun di hujung sana. 

# A park at the bottom of Pamukkale

# Pokok tandus di dataran putih.

# Sila gigih climbed sampai atas.

# Saujana mata memandang. 

On the way up tu memang silau sesilaunya. Reflection of the sunlight on the white limestone is definitely no joke! I had to put on my sunglasses. Alasan baik untuk mem-vogue-kan diri katanye. But seriously, boleh berpinar kepala when surrounded with white landscape. Memang cotton castle sungguh!

# One of the many pools of Pamukkale.

# Take five kejap. Ndak larat kalau daki non stop. Lepak di 'longkang' belah kanan tu sambil main tadpoles. Mampu main anak katak di negara orang? 

# My brunch. 

Unfortunately, that is the ONLY sandwich available at the cafe up there. Sandwich sedap semua sudah disapu orang. Pasrahlah demi perut lapar. Siapa suruh bijak bestari kasi tinggal segala simit di bilik. Terimalah vege+cheese sandwich. Gigit pepper adalah amazingly sedap di kala lapar. Habis mencekik, lets start exploring. I have decided to spend the whole day up here so tiadalah kejadian rushing. Lagipun bukan ada apa mau dibuat sangat di pekan Pamukkale tu.

# Di kejauhan, the Hierapolis site. 

Mampukah si Err menapak sampai di situ? Challenge of the day! Rasa macam mau terburai isi sandwich upon seeing those ruins from afar. Terus bersoal-jawab sama hati. Minda masuk campur juga. When it comes to decision making, hati & minda perlu bekerjasama. 

# Close up. 

# Some of the pools that has dried up. 

# See that terraces? That's where I had my brunch. Jauh juga kan aku sudah atur langkah. And yes, that's also the route that I walked upon just to reach Pamukkale from the town.

# Walau panas mentari mengigit kulit, I thanked Allah for the cool breeze. 

# Travertine yang sudah kering dari kejauhan. I wasn't strong enough to walk to get there. 

# Alhamdulillah. Up till now, whenever I look at the photos I took here...I still feel it's like a dream. 

# The pools.

# Terraces of the travertines. 

# Overlooking the town from up above. I sat here for almost an hour. Sambil layan drama dalam diri. 

# More & more people coming towards the late evening. To catch sunset, perhaps? 

Initially I intended to leave the site during sunset but decided to go down when the weather suddenly turned gloomy. Mendung kalu, confirm lah sunset pun ke laut.

# On the way down. Matahari macam chipsmore, kejap ada kejap tiada. 

Unlike pagi tu, kali ni memang ndak ramai yang mandi manda di kolam ni. Maybe yang datang ramai-ramai tadi tu dalam tour group. Haruslah diorang akan spend masa berendam di kolam hotspring. Lepas jadi badak berendam baru layan sunset. Yang tu aku ndak masuk sebab berbayar. Sekian. 

# Muka hangus! Sampai bilik, nangis tengok beza warna muka sama tangan. Lagi nangis bila cuci muka, rasa pedih tiada ampun. 

# This is how the ground looks like. Take extra precaution climbing the limestone especially during descending. Kalau jatuh, memang goodbye.

So adakah si Err explore Hierapolis ruins? Haruslah jejak wei! Sudah naik bas berjam lamanya, rugi besarlah kalau aku lepas peluang. Yes? Tapi yang tu aku cerita next entry. Saja mau kasi asing dua tempat ni.

TIPS: As to protect the carbonate minerals, u have to walk barefoot all the way up. Hence, bring along a plastic bag to store your shoes/slippers. Thanks Merengmate for the tips. I tapau-ed the plastic given to put my boots when visiting Blue Mosque the other day. Just like she did!

eryantierdabdulkarim