Somebody posted about this a couple of weeks back but I can't find the post, I thought it would be beneficial as a stand alone post anyway so here goes.

We set off from the villa at 10.30 (original plan was to do Pammukale first then continue on to Ephusus the next day) after about 20 minutes it was clear our hire car had problems i.e. needing 1st gear to get up hills that it should have breezed up. Incidentally the car only had 17k on it so was new. After weighing up the pros and cons of turning back and the company not having a replacement we decided to continue. At around 12 we stopped to get something to eat. We pulled into a little roadside restaurant with huge natural springs coming out of the ground, people were using them to wash their cars! It was clearly a very 'Turkish' place as when we asked for a menu the guy just said "lamb kebab" When it came it was pieces of lamb with rice and peas and was gorgeous, they obviously saw an opportunity to fleece the tourists though as it was the most expensive meal we had all week and there was only 2 of us eating compared to the normal 3, anyway I digress.

Wee continued on towards Pammukale (remember that's where we were going first) when my mate reading the map we'd just bought (not at the start of the journey, oh no that would be far too sensible) realised that Ephusus and Pammukale were nowhere near as close as we'd been lead to believe and we were on completely the wrong road so we were now heading towards Ephusus!

After a couple more stops for fuel (the car was drinking it due to it's problem) we arrived at Sulcuk (sp?) the main town near Ephusus. Ephusus itself is very well signposted, the signs lead you to the bottom carpark where a man wandered over to tell us that we were better starting at the top and walking down as it was on a hill. He said they did free rides (yeah, course you do) up to the top where we could then walk down and get in our car to leave without having to walk up then walk down or vice versa. I muttered to my mates that there was no way the lift was going to be free when he came out and said that a condition of the ride was we had to stop at a leather factory before continuing on. I wasn't keen but my mates were ok with it so off we went. As soon as we got into the leather factory (more a large shop) a sales guy latched on to my friend, I've mastered the art of not looking directly at anything in these places so they never know what I want if anything! She'd seen a jacket she liked but it was too tight, first the guy said it was the largest size that had, then that it would stretch! Then he could stretch it for her. He wasn't giving up without a sale. After around 20 minutes of my mate saying if it was a larger size she's but it, it turned out that the other one on the shelf that he's insisted was smaller was actually larger so after her hubby knocking him down 100 lira on the price the deal was done and they whisked us off to the top Ephusus gate straight away. Interestingly, there was a family group sat on the steps outside the shop who'd clearly not bought anything, looking very pissed off as they were clearly in no rush to take them anywhere.

By this time it was 4pm, not the best time of day to be visiting as it was mid 40's but it was quiet! The place is absolutely stunning and some of the ruins are in remarkably good states of preservation. It's nothing like visiting an ancient site in the uK where it's very much look but don't touch, here you can go in pretty much anywhere and climb on anything. There are various parts undergoing restoration that you either can't go in or have to pay extra for but I don't have a problem with that, if you're paying to preserve something like this I don't mind. I could happily have spent all day there had it not been so hot but I still managed to take 50 odd photos.

After we left we drove to Kussadisi (sp) not before the guy who'd originally arranged our (lift) came over to compliment my mate on his bartering skills and give us directions! We booked into a hotel on the beach front, I can't remember the name but it was a 4 star and very nice inside. After that we hit the town, we found a nice restaurant had a fantastic meal, drank so much Efes they started giving us free rounds (don't think they'd seen anyone drink so much of it and still be upright) then went to bed.

Next day it was off to Pammukale, similar journey time to Ephesus, around 4 hours but with an increasingly sick little car that lorries were now overtaking! When we got there it to had a bottom and top car park where they told us we couldn't drive to the top (I spose we need a lift eh?) we took the English line of thought of bollox to you and drove up anyway to find a car park full, funny that.

It was very hot again and very crowded so we headed straight for Cleopatras pool. This too was very crowded and we initially baulked at the extra 20 lira to go in especially as it is nowhere near as clean as the guide books make it out to be. In the end it was anything to get out of the heat so in we went. It was like swimming in a very hot bath (with roman columns in) we were happily swimming round seeing how deep it was etc when my mate realised he had the car key in his pocket, this after our friends who look after the villa had told us only the day before about the guy they'd hired a car too and who'd gone in the sea with the key resulting in a new key being needed to the tune of £200. As if the car wasn't sick enough without a waterlooged key (electronic transponder built into the key hence the worry) We decided to have a beer and leave the key in the sun to dry out, the bar owner came over and asked what we were doing so when we explained he took the key and put in on top of something hot in his hut. Anyway when we got to the car it started so all was well.

We left Pammukale around 5.30 and got back to the villa at 8.45 coming across one of the scariest roads I've ever been on. We must have driven round 200+ hairpin bends with shear drops on them with melting tarmac if there was a road surface at all.

All in all a great couple of days and much better than sitting round a pool getting burnt, I'd highly recommend it to anyone, the drive is easy even with a sick car, just make sure you get a map at the start!

Apologies for any spelling mistakes but I've only been back a few hours.