Pamukkale and Ephesus

We touched down in Izmir and went to the train station to get on the late afternoon train to Denizli (the closest major city to the Pamukkale thermal springs). The train actually was scheduled to take quite a bit longer than the bus, but it was a little cheaper. Additionally, pre-arranged hotel transport from Denizli to Pamukkale was $10, but hiring a cab was only $5, so we opted for that route. While this doesn’t seem like a huge difference for the convenience of it - when we make these choices repeatedly over a year it adds up to a dinner every other day, or an extra experience we otherwise wouldn’t have in our budget. So while it, indeed, took 2x as long to get there, we still did it comfortably and in time for dinner (with a much-to-friendly restaurant owner hovering over our table much of the meal). We only had one full day in Pamukkale so we kept the streak of 5:30 am wake-ups going and headed up to the famous cotton castle and thermal pools for sunrise. We set our expectations for this very low as we had been told the geo-thermal activity in the area has dwindled significantly in recent years. While we found this to be true, we also spent a good portion of the day exploring the area and found that they regulate water to fill different areas of the pools at different times of the day, still affording a beautiful and picturesque landscape, as well as warm pools to sit in.

When we went up in the morning (so worth it, as there were very few other people in the complex), we could both feel the lack of sleep getting to us and were both VERY crabby. While these moments aren’t frequent, they do happen and we’ve both recognized when we need to take a step back and relax a bit. Also, probably due to lack of sleep, we left our camera...but, lucky for us, a security guard had picked it up and we were able to get it back! So we also continued the recent-few-day tradition of taking a mid-morning nap and felt much more refreshed as we headed up to explore the Heiropolis ruins in the afternoon through sunset. We were surprised at how few areas were roped off, as you could pretty much climb on any marble, walk into tombs, and lean against pillars. At sunrise there were hardly any people but by afternoon it felt much fuller. Multiple tour busses pulled in and we found different groups as we bounced from the tombs, to the theater, to the bath ruins and eventually over to a man made pool in the same location as a pool that Cleopatra "supposedly" swam in! We had some coffee and ice cream before finally taking a dip in the pools. While certain areas of water flow were warm, most was at a lukewarm temperature. It may not be the glory that it once was, but we had a lot of fun talking about and imagining what it looked like in its prime - a wealthy ancient city with cascading white thermal pools overlooking the valley below, and decided if we lived 1000 years ago this might have been the spot. We watched the sun go down and eventually walked to a food truck dinner. We ordered the sandwich there, Kokorec, which is a typical food around many parts of Turkey. It consists of chopped and grilled goat "innards" often roasted inside of sheep intestines. It was actually one of the best meals we’d had in days! (Note that the very touristy towns of Goreme and Pamukkale really lacked in quality of food and restaurants, despite costing much more than those in Istanbul. We love Turkish food but we were underwhelmed in both of these places).

Finally feeling a bit caught up on sleep, we went to bed early for another early morning. 7 am felt like sleeping in after the previous 5 VERY early mornings, but we ate a once again too large breakfast before catching the train to Selçuk, the town we’d be staying in as we explored the ruins of Ephesus. We were able to check in early and decided to walk the couple miles out to the ruins. We walked through peach fields almost the entire way and busted out our handy Rick Steves' audio tour as we walked through Ephesus. We were in awe, especially after we were so impressed with Heiropolis the day before, but these ruins blew those out of the water. The city of Ephesus was once one of the largest and grandest cities in the Roman empire (some say only second to the city of Rome itself). The ruins are very much still intact, and you can actually stroll down the same major streets, with original marble, as those from centuries ago. The ruins contain multiple churches, complete bath complexes, terrace housing structures from the cities old elite class, the world's largest ancient open air theater, an AMAZING leftover façade from the city's world famous ancient library, and much more. And as of this writing it's only been 15% excavated! It's safe to say we had great photo opportunities while learning a ton (seriously, download the Rick Steves audio app for your next Europe trip).

We ended up staying at Ephesus for a few hours, and eventually took the walking trail back into town where we had to figure out transportation the following morning to the airport. Again - private transfers were offered for $45 per person for the hour long ride, but we were opting for public transportation to keep it cheap. As we walked onto the Main Street a shop keeper asked what we were looking for. We told him we were checking the bus station for transportation in the morning and ushered us in. He mentioned he has Air BNBs so he always helps his guests and would be happy to help us. He showed us bus and train schedules, where they pick up, and also mentioned a shuttle that would take us each for $4.25 each. He made a phone call and before we knew it we had our transportation set up from a stranger on the street! The pickup time he arranged was again, much closer to flight time than we like to arrive but he assured us it was plenty of time.

We thanked Ali multiple times and he invited us to stay for tea (as mentioned in previous blog, this is a cultural gesture to welcome friends and converse). We obliged and found ourselves learning a lot about Ali, his life, and even his ex-girlfriend who brought him goat cheese earlier in the day (when they were still dating, he had gifted her a goat. I told Kyle to add that to my Christmas list). We laughed and truly enjoyed our time with Ali and before we knew it he was passing around a bottle of wine. We made our way to dinner afterwards to a place he recommended and he said after dinner feel free to swing back by and have some beers. Again, we obliged bringing back beer only to find Ali’s shop open, but empty. With many shops in Turkey, there are always neighboring shops and they seem to do a very good job of watching out for one another shops and contacting the owner if they aren’t there. The neighboring shop keeper told us Ali was across the street (at the restaurant he referred us to) so we headed over there. He was having a lively chat and wine with two women from Ireland (Stella and Linda), whom we quickly joined. The restaurant owner brought us some glasses and told us we were fine to drink the beer we had brought in - no problem! We had yet another night of making new friends in Turkey, learning more about the history, politics, Ali, and answers to many of the questions we had complied (for example, in Istanbul all of the rug stores emphasized their family was Kurdish and we couldn’t figure out why - Ali explained the Kurdish women are famous for their exquisite rugs, more well known than Turkish rugs). Finally nearing midnight and with yet another early morning, we said goodbye to our new friends. We woke up to early breakfast and headed down to our pickup spot (luckily no one running late this time but STILL cutting it closer than we usually like to be) and arrived at the airport to check into our flight back to Istanbul.

Now, onto attempting to leave Turkey and get into Southeast Asia:

While airports are a given part of traveling, with COVID they never seem to get less stressful. Once we arrived in Istanbul, we were going to check with our airline about COVID tests. As we were flying to Thailand, they only require a vaccine and a PCR test upon arrival at the airport. However, we had a layover in Khazakstan, who DOES require USA citizens to have a negative PCR test before entry. Sometimes with just a layover, you don’t have to meet the country’s entry requirements so long as you stay in the airport. Unfortunately, no one was at their office and we obviously can’t make international calls so we erred on the side of caution and got tests in case. This was a good decision in the end because we did need them, however we run into a LOT of these variables as there’s no concrete information on layovers specifically on what you need AND the entry requirements country by country change so often.

After testing, we decided to try and ship a few items home as there was a post office in the airport. We planned to find one in the city, but were pleasantly surprised we could do it there. Walking up to the window, the gentleman very clearly did not want to help us and tried to dismiss us right away. He finally gave us postcard stamps after emphasizing how expensive they were thinking it would deter us from buying them. We showed the guy the rest of our stuff and he begrudgingly said he didn’t have a box that would fit it. We pushily asked what size of box he DID have so we could at least send a few items home. He huffily showed us (it was actually the perfect size for what we were trying to ship!) so we agreed to pay the $1 for the box and started filling it. At this point, he told us we are not allowed to send souvenirs home, only clothing. So, we pulled out any souvenirs and just left shoes and clothes. He told Kyle he would have to come through the side door with the box as he couldn’t leave so Kyle hopped in and weighed the bag, at which point he told us it would cost $130 to ship. Dumbfounded, we quickly decided shipping $40 worth of stuff home was NOT worth $130 and said no. He tried to tell us the transaction was complete and that we couldn’t take it back at which point Kyle started arguing with him. Eventually, we ended up with our belongings back, the box in his possession, and no transaction done. We still found some luggage lockers and headed back into Istanbul for a few hours before our flight. We used the public shuttle busses and went back to the bazaar, Galata bridge, Karakoy for soup, and finally to Taksim square to catch our bus back.

At check in, they asked for our negative tests as well as other documentation for Thailand. In the case of Thailand - you need to have a PCR test schedule at the airport on arrival, a Thaipass (online form you apply for and receive a QR code), medical insurance with proof of up to $50,000 COVID coverage, a SHA+ hotel reservation (basically government approved quarantine/sanitization hotels that are WAY more expensive) and secure transportation booked (you can not use public transportation and have to stay on specific routes to get to your lodging). Fun, right?

Fortunately, we had all of our i’s dotted and t’s crossed so we were on our way! Our first flight to Khazakstan was only 5.5 hours (we weren’t sure if it would be longer or if we’d have to go around Russian airspace given the current situation) but we then had a 16 hour layover in the Khazakstan airport before our flight to Phuket. We debated going to explore the city but neither of us slept on the first flight so we thought we’d take a nap first and then decide. 6 hours later we woke up! Unfortunately the airport offered no WiFi so we were unsure what public transport options were available, where exactly we were trying to go, and whether it’d be stressful trying to make it back in time so we opted to stay at the airport and catch up on blogging, clearing storage space on phones, having a few beers and playing cards. Before we knew it, our next flight was boarding and we were off to Thailand.

Additional Turkey notes:

• Turkey was another country where we worked really hard on learning 10-12 key phrases in the local language. It made for a much better experience, and we even attempted (though rarely succeeded) in full exchanges in Turkish at shops and restaurants.

• Istanbul has a booming medical tourism business for cosmetic nose surgery and hair replacement. There are people everywhere walking around with their noses taped over or guys with headbands holding bandages to the back of their head (where their hair follicles were removed to put elsewhere on their heads).

• It is a big thing in Turkish culture to share tables and benches, so expect to have others join you when you are enjoying a meal or relaxing sit somewhere in public (this doesn't really happen at normal restaurants though)

Levi's shirt count: 413