Pamukkale

July 2006 - Pamukkale is hundreds of kilometes inland from Kusadasi but so famous that we were very keen to see it anyway. The nearest big town is Denizli which is also home to one of Turkey's top 4 football teams (Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas are the other 3), so we made our way there and hopped on a bus up to Pamukkale itself.

Pamukkale is an amazing landscape that looks like it should be in the arctic - drifts and terraces of pure white calcium, which oozes out of the mountainside, foams up and solidifies leaving these weird cascades. Most of Pamukkale is off-limits now because we keep wearing it down but there's a section you can walk on and bathe in - the pools are filled with this thick mineral goop which is very good for you, apparently. Or you can go down the hill and bathe in thick mineral goop in one of the spa hotels but you have to pay extra for that and it's not as picturesque.

One top tip: if you get the bus back from Pamukkale to Denizli, it goes back in a big loop that can take well over an hour, especially if your bus driver crawls along at walking pace and gets stopped by the police on the way.