Kervansaray Hotel & Pension Pamukkale

... park paths. <br><br>Taste the sticky sweet baklava, or thick, syrupy, nutty, fruity Turkish delight, harbouring hints of spice that tickle the nostrils, tantalise the tongue.<br><br>It is impossible not to hear the muezzins, calling, calling, calling, calling, calling the people to prayer five times a day. <br><br>How loud can the muezzin call? The answer mirrors the Philippine riddle of how many passengers can fit into a taxi. As loud as they can; one more.<br><br>How much can ...

... in Marmaris after dropping Jon off at the airport. She stayed with a Turkish masseuse who had a fat cat and an album of photos of his fat cat. He made her drink apple tea all day long and gave her a free massage.<br><br>On the day we spent by the pool, two strange things happened. 1) A man carried in his naked newly circumsized son to ask for monetary donations to buy the kid ice cream. We don't know if this is normal practice, or something strange going on. 2) The owner of ...

... which is owned by Turks: they don&#8217;t over chlorinate the water. They put in just enough. I have to say, the more I travel, the more I get annoyed by the concept of American &#8220;overdoing it.&#8221; There&#8217;s so much chlorine in some American pools I&#8217;ve swum in, particularly in gyms, that you would go blind before you ever got any kind of infection.<br><br>The next day, we hit the road again and headed for Aphrodias in Kusadashi. I heart ruins.<br><br>&#12288;

In Pamukale today, which means "cotton castle", or somesuch. Here, there is a natural mineral spring that comes out of the hill. It contains calcium bicarbonate, which solidifies into calcium that looks like cotton candy. There are also all thse pale blue pools everywhere. It's a surreal landscape, and pretty awesome! You're not allowed to wear shoes ...

... dancing show After dinner only a handful of us decided to check out the free belly dancing show at the hotel, and we didn't regret our decision. The girl had amazing talent moving her stomach in so many ways to such quick rhythms. She called Blaine and I up on stage and, needless to say, I was absolutely terrible imitating her dance moves. And after the show, she was replaced by Turkish disco!

... more about the ruins later. Hugs and Love, Dana and Trevor OK we're back! Where were we??? ......the ruins at Pamukkale... We spent a good hour and a half putzing through the ruins in addition to wandering through the tavertine pools. The ruins were good to see as well - although we were far more blown away by the white covered slopes and pools that led us up to the ruins. The real beautiful part was that the sun was setting as we were walking through ...

... his very amateur comedic imitations of the various tourists who visit Pamukkale. He was quite funny, but it got rather old pretty fast. Luckily he spent most of the evening with a group of Koreans also spending NYE in his restaurant. The four of us barely stayed awake until midnight, but we toasted the new year and then immediately went to bed to wake up for early buses to our various destinations the next morning.

... noticed the little catholic girl crossing herself in the front row. So at this point I feel that I should interject a small anecdote about language and communication here. First, we have been getting along just fine in English. Most everyone that we deal with in hotels, tours, restaurants speaks English just fine. Even on the street when you are talking with the locals, who you wouldn't expect to have great English skills, they are able to communicate enough. However, one of ...

... truly grandiose!! Chris is most impressed at how these massive buildings were put together - particularly with the huge blocks of cut stone fitted perfectly together, even forming the gigantic arches that still stand to day. (He also thinks ancient Greek and Roman cities must have been filled with the sound of chipping rocks - day and night, for hundreds of years......) A few more hours driving through more mountains (some of the mountain passes are pretty dramatic!) and ...