East meets west part 4

We were dropped of at this deserted Cafe and then onwards to KAS

KAS is a small Sea side town Know as a cheap diving destination .I was a dive virgin so liked to give it a shot. It was only costing us about £60 for 2 dives !!!!!!.Ms J had a licence to suba dive

Stayed at a nice relatively cheap place called Ates Pension at http://www.atespension.com/ I would recommend this place as its really cheap and good location.The people who run this place are really nice and helpful.

The family tried to constantly sell us good food and i am glad we had one which was good.

Next day went in to Barakuda Diving centre

http://www.barakuda-kas.de/

I would suggest this diving centre becs the instructors were lovely to get on with and made it a lot more easier than i taught it was.Just jumped in after M with a bit of apprension but once i was in or should i say under i saw a whole new world different sizes and colors of fish to all wierd creatures. The instructor told me to look UP at one point and i wouldnt forget the sight i saw (a bit like the first kiss ;))when i look up 100s of fishes just circling above me, It was strange yet fasinating when u get on the otherside or should i say underside :) .

Ms J was a licence holder so her dive was longer . All of us got out and we were told to come back afternoon another dive around the ruins and stuff .Got back to the Hostel tiredddddddd from the two dives

Decided to have a fancy meal with the wine and stuff so there you are spending some of our last days doing a bit of splashing!!! .I am glad we did it becs we all got to know each other better

Next day after a bit of Hiking and seeing the Arena and what not we buggered off to the hostel and picked that bag and off we went Were ??

Our next destination was Pamukalle which was not so straight forward to get to. A change in Fethiye and then to Denzli and the last bus to Pamukalle

Fethiye (cant say for sure) once we were in Fethiye we worked out we would just be there in time to catch the last bus to Denzli from Denzli we had to catch the last bus to Pamukalee ,The problem was as we arrived in Denzli we made a mad dash pulled but the bus pulled out of the station(tought we lost it for a moment) .Turkey being turkey and we still paying for the Bus ticket at this point (What is with me and Just in time arrival i dont get it. 3 weeks ago 4 trains in europe all caught within 3 mins before departure running panting and more running to the ticket counter ...... well more of it later :)).

Coming back to the story a bloke had stopped the bus just outside the station and we all ran to the bus to get on to it and off we go ..... well i wish Air travel was so simple. Onwards to a picturious mountainious route were we where the only tourist .Kind of nice to just look at them .This mountainious region has great the weather and was like in any hill resort in the Himachal Pradesh in India . Finally in Pamukkale

We stayed in

AllgauAllgau Tree Houses - Rooms in Pamukkale, Turkey
Hasan Tahsin Cad, No 19,

Well superb hostel very friendly people 5/5

Pamukalee and Miss J

East meets west - Part 3

On the bus and about 12 hrs later woke up dazed to find the bus stopped in the middle of nowhere .They took away all our passports and after 30 mins came back with them, god knows what they were looking for .I must say the Varan buses are very comfortable and relatively cheap theY compete with cheap airlines so they have onboard meals and drinks etc .Very luxurious and very nice

Another 2 hours later reached Anatalya the southern part of turkey .Nice sea side city but it was only a stop over for us, had to catch another bus to reach Olympus .

We took this opportunity to visit the city quickly took a bus to the city centre and walked around a bit then it was time to catch another bus to get back to the main bus station called OTOGAR (main bus terminal) .We had no clue how to reach there so asked some locals and caught the random bus .Turns out that bus stops outside the station which we failed to identify so a bus full of local screamed OTOGAR at us when it reached there !!!!!!

Caught another local bus or a mini van which dropped us of to an unknown destination outside a tea shop .After waiting around for a bit another bus picked us up and dropped off to Turkmans hostel .We didnt know anything about it but yes dropped off and nice hostel to stay in i think we paid about £7 a night including dinner and breakfast .Heres the details

http://www.olymposturkmentreehouses.com/

Would happily suggest this hostel as its excellent value for money and the food was awesome. Well we were constantly worrying wht meat was served to us at these rates ????

Well once we were allotted out room we hit the road .A 15 min walk in the ruins to reach the beach which was pristine and nice .The water was blue and there were hardly people around look below for the Photo .Lots of Photo ops and Mountain climbing later Made our way back becs it was getting dark .

Beach in olympus

After dark was another story :)

We decide to see the eternal fire at Chimera close to Olympus .All we were give was a torch and told we would be taken there .Stopped over at a small shop bought some bottles of wine and off we went .What they didn't tell us was it was about at least what felt like a 3Km uphill walk to reach the Eternal fire .

It was literally pitch dark and we didn't know where and what we were stepping on , Got to see a strange new world when its absolute black as we walked along only one thing remained in our mind the fire and the fear of the Unknown - we didn't even think about the latter.

Reached this place let me tell you this is one of the places out of your child horror story book .Its in the middle of nowhere and u suddenly see a mountain with fire holes in it .Legend has it that a dragon was killed or buried here which still oozes fire. Its a strange gas released which catches fire when it comes in contact with air. It was very strange and unique to watch .Skulked around for a bit and then picked a nice spot and the wine bottles opened and so did our heads .Just looked up to see all the stars that just was there to be seen .

Chimera olympus

Strange what modern civilization can do for you now we could quiet easily work out how constellations came in how to track stars and stuff.well we knew the answers now strange also is when people ask you what do you remember in this trip , for me it was just lying on the rocks looking at the sky full of stars each brighter than the other and just occasionally sipping some wine and talking to friends .

Its just these simple things we miss in this modern world which make these special moments in this trip its not Blue mosque or Tajmahal or a Jazzy looking building in La defence its Nature bare simple Nature!!!

It didn't cost us a thing apart from getting there and we didn't even pay the entrance fee .

Well got back from this a bit tired as the wine veiled away and straight to bed for me .But Ms J and M where thinking about a bath .I was not bothered for a moment , according to their reports i was asleep and snoring in a couple of mins .Poor guys they were subjected to this music for about 10 mins before I apparently switched it off :)

Sorry!!!

Next day was for lazing around the beach and swim and better still jumping of the cliff the water was cold and crystal clear the sand warm on a sunny day with no one of the beach what do you do u swim and jump of the cliff:~).

Cliffs Olympus Jump from the Cliffs

After this and some more Ruins hunting later we debated a bit about staying here for a while or going to KAS our next destination it was a pretty difficult choice but we made it Now onwards to KAS.

East meets west - Istanbul

Well i have written a new blog as the last one was Solo and from now on it will be in a group .

A group i mean our closely knit group + our Turkish friend in Istanbul and just the Indo french group the rest of the trip.

Set again to the Blue mosque but with the group this time and went straight to the prayer hall were only the locals were allowed but the guard mistook me for a local!!!!. onwards to Hya sofia , Underground Cistern and then Galata tower.Here my friend tried to flog me off as a local and got the local ticket with is cheaper but the guard at the lift had a bit more intelligence .He was able to spot that i was only speaking English and then told me off !!!!

Hya Sofia - Photo by Ms J

Next day

Then onwards to Taksim square and looked around lots and lots of walking basically .So we were both tired and looking for a drink .Stopped in a cafe to have EFES a Turkish based Pilsner which was decent and cheap .

It was time now to organise our onward travel .We had to book our onward travel to Anatalya.Our expert D s suggestion was to take Varan coach since they are nice and luxurious and it was about 15 or 12 hrs journey . Went into a Internet cafe to do the booking here we faced a very daunting problem .First we were all tired with all the walking around next the bloody website was having problems after having taken the pain of writing all the details required for booking !!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Bugger the bus was leaving in about 5 hrs and we didn't even have a ticket in hand !!!!

But D called them up to confirm it was their problem . So we both headed to Taksim again and booked the ticket and boarded the bus .It was now time to say good bye to Mr D who was a great help here with out him we would have missed out on a lot of local stuff like the fish sandwich !! or the nuts or travelling in the tram with his FOB.

Sadly i would take this opportunity to apologise to his flatmates for not cooking Chicken curry that i promised .Well next time