Pamukkale

Which means cotton castle in English is a rather small town doable by feet.

It's just a short drive from Karahayit, a place famous with the cotton textile, although I didn't see any sign of it when I was there.

Anyway, we arrived at about half past eight in the morning at Hotel Pamukkale.

The downside about overnight bus ride is that you usually arrived tired and all, so we spent a good time basking in the air conditioned room before we comb the small town.

Hotel Pamukkale and we got lucky too, with the room, which is directly in front of the pool.

We opted for tour, which really, is unnecessary.

The travertines and Roman ruins only require dollops of sunblock, your background reading of the place and almos a day.

But we got lucky with our fellow travellers that were in the tour.

Since others were still not ready, we went to the red spring with an American family, which turned out injected the gregarious air the whole length of the tour.

Red springs is just so-so.

People goes there to dip in the mineral rich water, slather their body with the mud or just for plain sightseeing.

It's a small place with small springs so I was being pessimistic.

From my scan of the water, there seemed to be countless tiny nematode like thingy in the water.

It can be plain flora, but it can also be fauna.

Susan said maybe it's a good idea to stay out of it, and took out her feet from the water.hehehee.

Now that all were ready, we found ourselves at the entrance to Hierapolis, the ruins of the Roman city.

Now let me brief you about we.

Emre is our tour guide.

Susan, an ex bilogy teacher

Susan's mommy, which I think is in her 70's

Susan's husband, who's suffering from early phase of Parkinson's.

Then a couple from Denizli who has never been to Pamukkale before!

A couple from Denmark, the husband is a journalist.

Toddler Leyla, her mom and her grandma, Turkish in origin but are staying in OZ.

Leyla didn't cry even a bit and everybody was impressed that she can stay, crankyless in her stroller under the real scorching sun.

Note, if you are visiting Hierapolis and the travertines in summer, you better pack your sunblock and bottles of water.

Hierapolis was so beautiful and I think it's good that we went with the tour since we hav no interest to do some background reading.

Susan, who has been to Ephesus before coming to Pamukkale did the most of the questioning. And I'm going to say it again, that we were really lucky to be in this tour.

Susan's mom had a completely different view ~ "She (Susan) will never stop talking"

And since Hierapolis is rather big, and the pace is quite slow, she filled me in with the story of her family and her wrinkle free years.

It's rather good to know about others adventure and view of the world. By others, I mean, people whom you meet on the road, which you stumble across them only once.

S0 let's see what we have in Hierapolis

Emre and the drawing+map depicting Hierapolis in its prime

Necropolis ~ city of the dead. In front of the tomb made or upper rank family

Tomb for gladiators. The vase is like a medal, given to the winner, which is used to store olive oil, which was a prized commodity in their time. The gladiator's trident. and their shield embossed with flower.

- to be continued-

Tudung

Kelmarin ke pasar Pulau Tikus. Tujuan membeli bunga kekwa dan mata kucing.

Nampak tudung. Material dia net. Besar. Muat nak tutup makanan.

Tudung saji dibeli dengan harga RM6 tanpa tawar menawar.

Abah kata wajib tawar menawar baru boleh selamatkan RM2. Abah kata lepas beg plastik berisi tudung saji tu dah ada kat tangan.

Takpalah, it's never too late to learn.

Sebenarnya bukan nak cakap pasal tudung saji.

Tapi nak cakap pasal tudung yang orang perempuan pakai kat kepala.

Zaman sekolah kurang berkemampuan.

Pakai tudung yang sama untuk kelas dan riadah.

Juga kurang pengetahuan.

Pakai tudung bawal yang see through.

Zaman pre-uni, pakai tudung mak cik bagi.

Besar, dan kain yang sopan~tak nampak batang leher lagi dah.

Zaman universiti pun masih pakai tudung yang sama. Selesa.

Kadang-kadang pakai pashmina.

Tengok orang pakai selendang, oh rasa nak pakai.

Tapi sebab sedar diri dan sudah ukur tudung di badan sendiri, shawl yang selalu diulang pakai hanyalah 2 shawl percuma dan 2 shawl bukan percuma.

Tahun ni pulang lagi bercuti di Malaysia.

Sebab Pulau Pinang boleh dikatakan ada segalanya, harapan di hati agar dapat cari tudung krim yang besar macam tudung bawal biasa tapi tak la senipis kulit bwang macam tudung bawal biasa.

Tiada. Zilch. Nada. None.

Semua jenis tudung ada.

Bawal tambak, bawal hitam, bawal putih. Siap ada bunga dengan manik terlekat sana sini.

Ada jugak manik bersinar bak cahaya dari baju Ramlah Ram masa anugerah juara lagu 1988.

Selain tu ada pelbagai tudung yang menepati semua kriteria kecuali kriteria tudung krim kosong tidak bercorak.

Paling banyak tudung yang pakai kena ikat sanggul tinggi-tinggi, tak pun tudung yang orang pinkan di belakang tengkuk untuk dapatkan efek kawan-kawan Maria dalam The Sound of Music.

Dalam semua tudung-tudung yang ada, awat la tudung yang paling simple tak dak.

Macam mana nak zuhud ni?

The Boat Ride

I've rode in sampan on a number of occassions when we decided to spend the day at Monkey beach.

I've written down in my character building booklet that going out to the sea with my late Tok Ndak is one of my life ambitions (unfortunately, I'll never fulfill this ambition)

When mak and abah announced that we are heading to Pulau Tuba to visit PC Amir who's recuperating from quite a bad traffic accident, I anticipated the boat ride.

The next time I know it, I was squeezed in the boat with the whole family among the locals and, a motorcycle.

Yes, a motorcycle.

If the Czech can ride this with a perambulator, Malaysian can ride a sampan-like boat with a motorcycle.

Why not? =p

I've always love nature, which explains why I rarely choose city as a travel destination.

So, there I was, quite happy to sweat in the boat among the locals, especially his time the travel companions are my family themselves.

I was taking in the green water, craning my neck the whole time to look at the scenery and *don't tell my mak* enjoying the splashes.

I was filled with emotion.

I guess for someone like me, no matter how far I go, it's always rejuvenating to be reunited with the element that I really love, the sea, the coastal sea.

I was pondering over that thought when the engine died. In the middle of the sea, near the rocks which have their heads covered in trees I have no idea what their names are.

We ran out of fuel.

And if we really do, we might as well throw the fishing line into the water while we wait for another boat to pass by.

I gained a knowledge, that fishes are aplenty near rocks.

Sorry, my long awaited jackfruit has finally arrived. I have to go.

And the engine, it roared again after they filled it with fuel *of course they will always have some as spare on the boat*