Day IV- decision making

At some point we realise that 2 days in Selcuk is one day too many. There’s Ephesus, and then there’s nothing much else in Selcuk proper. So that’s why people use it as a base to see things around, as far as 3-4 hours away. One of these is Pamukkale. White, strange, famous, much talked of and postcards-everywhere Pamukkale, with its white rocks and spa like calcium-laden natural waters used to heal the body since the Greeks figured it out. That’s what we will do, we decide.

Till we figure the costs. It is about Euro100 for the two of us for the whole day-trip, and thats way too expensive. An extended period of deliberation happens, where fundamental philosophies clash with pocket practicalities. We are never (never say never, but still, this is pretty much never) going to be in Selcuk again, a few hours from the place that heralds ‘tourism’ in Turkey in most any brochures you’d care to glance at. Money comes, money goes. Travel now, save later. Borrow now, travel now, repay later. What's a little more debt compared to seeing a unique part of the world you are so close to? The clichés are endless. The bank account is not. I must wrench my heart away from Pamukkale, while D is more ok with the whole thing.
“Sorry, ___, we won’t be taking your tour”
“We also won’t buy our tickets to Fethiye from you, because you’re charging us 4-5 liras as commission for two tickets that we can walk out of your hotel and across the empty and cold area outside and buy from the bus company”
“We are also a wee bit disappointed by your place, so we will not give you the India cushion covers we got as possible gifts”
“We are returning to our room to prepare our devious bottle of coke and go buy our tickets”

Tessekur ederim, anyway.

Day IV- a long walk

Lunch was enough to set us off, and since we could not see any mini-buses or anything else to take us back, we started walking toward the highway, deciding to take in the remnants of some ruins that fell outside the site area, and then see the Grotto of the Seven Sleepers before heading back to town. As it turned out, the remnants struggled to be even that, and were at a distance from the road, and barricaded. We marched on, insistently making our way around the hill toward the Grotto, though we hardly even knew what it was. After walking for more than a while, and past several bends in the road that we resolved would be our last, we finally stopped. There was the odd taxi going past us, so surely there must have been something to see somewhere up ahead, but we’d be damned if we were going to keep walking indefinitely, with no end in sight nor idea of what it was we were going towards.
So it was like this. We had walked right by the hill, and were parallel to the highway that went back to Selcuk, except the prospect of walking back all the way to the turn in the road and then going toward the highway was not a particularly enticing one. So in some sense of misguided- and frankly, minimal- adventure, we decided to walk across the field that separated our road and the Highway. Since there was an inviting path (above) just where we had stopped, it seemed to make complete sense. We walked on it, past orange trees and bushes, with grey clouds and silence accompanying us. After a few minutes, we passed a little outhouse. Tied to poles there were a handful of dogs. Angry, wild-looking inhospitable dogs that bared their fangs and barked and pulled at their chains to get a go at us. We quickened our step-though at first D was quite enamoured by them. “One gets free, D” I said, “and we’ve had it”. To date, she insists I over reacted. I insist I had vivid images of dogs canines sinking into vulnerable parts of my body, and merely reacted accordingly.
After that, we cut through bushes and bramble and reached the main road, and walked on the nicely laid-out avenue named for Dr Sabri Yayla (who thought laying out the tress lining it many years ago), stopping along the way to see the pathetic and depressing remains of one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World- The Artemis Temple, that has but a pillar to show for its original 128, and finally reaching dull ol' Selcuk town where- horror of horrors!-a decision awaited us.

turkey trip musings

But the trip was not only about lunches, dinners and tourist Sight 1,2,3 (or ‘locations’, as we could not help calling them). It is a satisfying but easy thing to fall into- a chronological blow by blow account. But there are other things one thinks about, looks back on, and will write about. Probably after the ‘days’ are over... or maybe in between.

I suppose this is just to say one fully intends to, and will, write on whatever comes to one’s mind- which may or may not always fit in with the day by day accounts.

Day IV- lunch

Lunch was not particularly significant except it was the only reason we left the site at Ephesus. If we could have eaten something, anything within the site itself, we would have, and remained at the Grand Theatre till sundown. But our stomach grumbled, and rumbled, and we walked out eventually just past 3pm, and past this absurd sign.
Across from which we settled down and hungrily ate gozleme, which we had not tried before. They were moderately satisfying but nothing spectacular. Thin and crepe like-and stuffed with meat or cheese- they were drier version of kathi rolls back in India, except there was no tangy green chutney with them, only ketchup and mayonnaise.

Day IV- the Grand Theatre

What was, without any doubt at all, the most moving time of our day at Ephesus, was the time we spent toward the end. Some tourists/groups enter from the side we exited, and so come upon the great construction pretty much as the first thing in Ephesus. Maybe that leaves them sufficiently awestruck for the rest of the tour, or maybe it renders everything that follows less impressive, or both. We entered from the north end, and so, through statues and pillars and temples and inscriptions and stunning restorations, came to the very end.
The Grand Theatre took us like a sandstorm would a desert nomad. It entered our view, then our thought and made its way inevitably but movingly, to our emotions. It might just be rock and rock, but in it lies the ambitious grandeur of people who did not know the M of machines, but for whom the S of spectacular was all too frequent. In it lies the capacity to hold 25,000 people who could behold a spectacle and hear people talk far below with no electronics. In it lies the wonder of today, at the amazement of the past. In it lies the ability, at the very least, to make two people want to sit there for the longest time and just look at it.

(there's D!)

And then , weeks later still say very little but smile inwardly when they see photographs of themselves at it.

Day IV- Efes

We’re in a small run-down red car that serves as the shuttle from Jimmy’s Place. It’s a free shuttle, and it’s a shuttle to go to the one place that justifies the existence of Selcuk town on the tourist map.

Ephesus.
The site for Roman ruins is one of the largest in the world. And why not- Ephesus, or Efes, has been around since around 5-600BC, seeing people and civilisations come and go.
Its cold here as well. Not as cold as Istanbul, but not as sunny as our last day there either. We make our way past the YTL15 tickets booth and milling guided groups, into the site. On our left is an imposing but inviting hill, one of many that from one side of this ancient city. Ahead us the land stretches out for a bit before disappearing behind the curve of the smaller hill on the right. There is enough about the history of Ephesus that can be read, the stories behind the ruins, the imagination they provoke.
But what is ours entirely to absorb is the place, and being there by ourselves. Don’t mistake me, for all of the 5-and a bit hours we spend there, we are surrounded by tourists. Mostly large groups, being herded by guides who any or all of loud, interesting, showy and hurried. We are on our own pace, though- innumerable groups start after us, pass us by and disappear towards the other end, while we linger here and there, explore some rocks and sit on others, take photographs or just stand around, trying to take it all in. That the sun comes out soon after we enter and stays with us for the day is a blessing we are truly grateful for- suddenly everything looks richer.

I am surprised at how I have little to say about Ephesus now. Unless you are a history buff, you are not going to see it from an entirely historical perspective. Most likely you will enjoy the walk; be awed by the incomprehensible age of the things around you, by unfathomable and countless stories hidden in writings and rocks alike, by beautiful and imposing structures, by the desire to build them- of a kind that will never come back.

One has done no justice to this with words, so maybe you could go check out the photos, they might do a tad better.

Day IV- arrival

D does not sleep too well, but thanks to her shoulder and lap I don’t do too badly. We wake to faint morning light and a bus that has stopped for coffee and breakfast. It is just past 7am, and we try to call Jimmy’s Place again. This is where we are to stay, and we have not gotten through to them since Istanbul. Now we get through, but we might as well have not- the chap at the other end has absolutely no idea what we are saying. We get the café owner to help us, but he is not too good with English himself, so it’s a bit of a disaster. We shrug our shoulders and get back into the bus. Instead of 30-45 minutes, we arrive in just about 15 minutes. The bus is going to carry on, so we are the only two to alight on a deserted strip of road in the blandness that is Selcuk town.

Moahammed spots us and asks us if we have a place to stay. Then, he is trying to sell us the very place we are already booked in! So soon, after a walk of under 5 minutes we have made our way through the deserted otogar, the deserted marketplace behind it to a relatively quiet and dead hotel- this is Jimmy’s Place. The chap at the reception nods- this is who he just incomprehensibly spoke to a while ago. Soon we are in our room, hurrying to bathe and get ready so we can catch breakfast before the free shuttle which leaves about 9.30.

Day III- 5,4...3 degrees?

One tram ride, quite a bit of walking and a metro ride later, we are at The Otogar, which is as sprawling as it supposed to be. There are over 100 offices here, companies running buses to pretty much anywhere in Turkey, and to parts of Europe. It would be great, wouldn’t it, to buy a ticket for Prague or Greece or something from here? I suppose so, but at the moment we are clutching our jackets and making our way to the large and brightly lit office of the Metro company, where- yet again- almost no English at all leaves both of us fairly unsure as to what to do with our bags. Finally I check them in, smiling back at the man who asks and is pleased to hear “India”. That’s great buddy, but what’s happening to my bags? Nothing, it would seem. They lie right there and we are asked to move on.
Dinner is at a totally random lokantasi across from the main Otogar, and consists of bread, mixed vegetables and meatballs with lots of Oil. In fact, it is the oil fest season, we are told, and this place is not a lokantasi but an oilkantasi.
Or something.
The bus is pretty comfortable, and are served coffee and cake(!)- believe me, that is something unheard of in India. It is cold outside, and I love that. D doesn’t so much, so she stays in when we make a stop on the Asian side of Istanbul. I get off, with a dozen others who are reaching for their cigarette packs, and the biting cold hits me hard. When we return we are to learn that this day was probably the coldest of our stay- about 9-10 degrees in Istanbul.

Some fitful dozing later, we wake to realise we have stopped. The bus is not moving, but we are. Lo and behold, we are on a ferry! We had no idea this was part of the journey, so the novelty of it is interesting, as is the hot cup of cay we share above on the deck. Outside the sitting area, it is much, much colder. We somehow brave a photograph where we both look as if it is our very brains that are freezing, then D goes back inside while I, inexplicably, stay outside to click photos of water below us, rushing by in the darkness. There is a biting wind and my sweatshirt and jacket combination is woefully inadequate, but there is something about it that I am enjoying. I go back just as my digits threaten to fall off.