Day 258: Pamukkale travertines

Maybe you’ve seen pictures of the Pamukkale travertines, the beautiful aqua blue water against the white mineral deposits that used to be something of the face of tourism in Turkey. I did, and being in Turkey, wanted to see them. It’s a bit of an illusion at first when you take off your shoes to walk up the sparkling white slope to the pool. You expect it to be slippery or cold even, but it’s neither. It’s rough (almost like walking on pumice stone and in some places it’s cool due to water or shade, yet in others it’s warm due to the sun sparkling over its surface or warmer spring water running over it. It’s breathtaking walking up and nothing like I’ve ever done before.

And then, as you near the top and it’s more crowded thanks to the tour buses who have deposited their groups in between Hierapolis and the travertines for their convenience. Women and men of all shapes and sizes perfect their modeling portfolios against the glistening white background. Everyone gets into the pools, standing or submerging themselves in the spring water, some smothering the chalky mineral deposits on their bodies for fun or with expectations that it will improve their health. Children have a field day. It’s equally fun participating as it is watching everyone else enjoy the natural wonder.

Once you are at the top, you can see more clearly the dried up travertines. Apparently, Pamukkale used to be a thriving town and tourism destination, until the government intervened. This is where it becomes unclear (at least to me). After Pamukkale was declared a World Heritage Site in 1988, the government removed the road leading up to the natural springs and built artificial pools for tourists to get into. Shoes were prohibited (and still are today) when walking on the slope. That part is easy to digest. What is not easy to digest is how nearly all of the natural pools of water have dried up. Completely.

It’s still stunning, but it just seems a little shady. The water is still coming from somewhere, but it’s being directed to other pools of water- not the natural pools of water. And if this picture was just taken within the past five years, what exactly is the government doing with the water flow, and why? Do they plan on letting the water flow back into the dried up pools? It’s a shame, really. Because once you see the vast amount of dried up pools, it takes away from the beauty of it all. And you don’t know whether or not you’re to blame being a tourist walking through the springs. Which again, takes away from the experience. At least it did for me, wondering if I was part of the problem or not…

I couldn’t help but think of the terraced rice paddies in Vietnam when I was photographing these terraced hot springs. I also could not stop photographing them either- obviously. Just scroll through if they don’t mesmerize you the same way they did me.

Hopefully, and I’m sure, at least I want to be sure that the government knows what they are doing and this is all just temporary. Maybe in a few years the springs will be back in all their glory and I can visit and recount the days when the springs were all dried up.

Day 109: Hampi, Virupaksha Temple

Hampi was not on our list of places to see in India. And then not one, nor two, but three different people (or sets of people) said it was their favorite place in all of India (or at least of all of where they visited). We shaved a day off of Mumbai and a couple off of Goa to squeeze it in. I’m so glad we did. The town is tiny, less than ten roads that go around or form a humble dirt grid of guesthouses and restaurants. The town is somewhat smack in the middle of the ancient capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. So all around these little dirt roads are huge boulders, a beautiful river, and ancient ruins.

The empire was created in 1336 by two brothers whose main goal was to protect the area from Islamic invasions. For nearly 300 years, the kingdom of Vijayanagara prospered and ruled over the majority of the southern peninsula. Andrew bought a book on Hampi from a small business owner (he was 13. maybe. I enjoyed his small business owner sales pitch immensely) and we read up on the empire’s rise and fall and tried to figure out which ruin was which during our visit.

Our first stop was the Virupaksha Temple right outside of Hampi proper. Virupaksha is a temple dedicated to Shiva and is considered the holiest temple in and around Hampi.

We walked through, past monkeys, into underground chambers, and even a tiny dark room that had a built-in pinhole like camera where the temple appeared on the back wall upside down. And then, on our way out, it was time for our latest impromptu photo shoot.

I’m not sure why, but I’ve seen this with others, where an Indian baby is pushed into the arms of a Western tourist and the baby is so confused and scared that he or she starts crying and the tourist is embarrassed… I knew the drill. That baby wasn’t having any of it, so I just laughed and insisted it was ok that I didn’t hold her for a group picture.

I fired off a few frames of this beautiful mother and daughter. After, as usual, when I went to show her the screen, a million little fingers started pushing buttons and I couldn’t figure out what setting was changed when I could only see one of the frames I shot of her. It was stuck on a rather unflattering ‘talking’ kind of shot. You know, where someone’s mouth is open weird and it just looks silly. She was a little embarrassed, laughing it off, but when I finally figured out the changed settings and uploaded the images, I was delighted to have gotten this image! If only I could have tracked her down again to show it to her so she would be delighted as well!

One of the boys kept asking for ‘photo’ which was confusing until I realized he really wanted to take a photo himself. He was delighted when I handed over my DSLR (making sure the strap was around his neck of course) and let him take a few shots.

By this point, there was quite the crowd of amused parents and Indian tourists watching the photo shoot. Many of them laughed at the excitement (Obviously these pictures are only some of the many that were taken inside the temple walls) and warmly smiled back at me when we finally tore ourselves away and walked out. Interacting with India when it clearly does not involve an exchange of money is an entirely different ballgame. A ballgame I want to play everyday. If only…

As you can imagine, I needed a little bit of an Indian pick-me-up and Hampi was already proving to be a necessary spoonful of sugar.