Even with Turkey's efficient and extensive bus services we managed to miss the last bus from Marmaris to Bodrum (another seaside town further northwest) and had to spend a fourth night in Marmaris. The next morning we woke bright and early and ended up catching one of the multitude of minibuses that operate adjacent to the major bus companies.

Honestly, the transportation system in Turkey is one of the best I have seen (yes, even Germany would have a tough time beating it). The bus companies are located right next to each other offering great deals because they're all competing with each other and service on the buses is better than on many airlines. There are men in bow ties who take your ticket and then offer you tea, coffee, cakes and sodas the entire journey. And the insides of the buses are kept almost as clean as the outsides, which are scrubbed every few hours on long journeys by men at gas stations.

These 20-minute breaks also allow the driver to take a tea, or 'cay' break. Supplementing these 'long-distance' buses are minibuses, which are not quite as comfortable; there are no bow-tied men offering refreshments and they only leave once they are filled. But, they will go to the same destinations more frequently.

Back to the travel itinerary. We managed to get to Bodrum in about three-and-a-half hours (a short bus ride for Turkey). We found the owner of our youth hostel working the kebab joint at the bus station! Only too happy to have guests, he offered us apple cay while we waited for his brother to give us a lift (he couldn't leave his kebabs). That is just how Turkey works random and very hospitable.

Bodrum is a beautiful town that boasts a castle, sugar-cubed houses, a beach, very chic shops and a crazy nightlife with a nightclub that claims to be the loudest in the Mediterranean when it's in season. It is the destination of choice for Turks with money and a need for sun and sea during the summer months. Again, we just missed the season but we enjoyed being able to sit right on the beach sipping cay and watching the local restaurateur go spearfishing for dinner in the foreground of the Castle of St. Peter.

Unfortunately, the castle was closed the day we got there so after wandering around town and along the docks, and watching fishermen repair their nets, we decided to trek to the Myndos Gate about a kilometre or so outside of town. It's all that remains of the seven-kilometre wall that was built around Bodrum in the fourth century BC, probably by King Mausolus. With little else to see or do in Bodrum we searched for a restaurant for dinner. We managed to find one of the worst, with a birthday party consisting of guests who believed themselves to be the next Tarkan (a famous Turkish singer on par perhaps with Collie Buddz).

We survived the awful dinner with some headaches and woke the next morning to head to the castle before we caught our bus to our next destination Pamukkale. For some reason, while food is generally cheap, as is transportation, sites in Turkey are incredibly expensive. To enter the castle cost us each almost 15 TLR or about $10 which just about broke our budget. It was almost worth it. On display are a multitude of wrecks and their treasures found just off Bodrum, the chapel and a dungeon which had been sealed by the Turks to stop the imprisonment of their fellow men by the Knights Hospitaller. These knights were based on the island of Rhodes but during the 14th century captured Bodrum during a brief decline in the Ottoman Empire and built the castle that still stands very much intact.

Turkey's history is one of turnover, filled with changes in power from Alexander the Great to the Romans, the Byzantines to the Ottoman Empire to the modern state, which Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is credited with forming. Now, Turkey is a modern secular state thanks to the reforms handed down by Ataturk including banning polygamy and the fez a hat worn by men during the Ottoman Empire Islam losing its status as the state religion, and the Arabic alphabet changing to a modified Latin one. Everywhere you turn in Turkey now, you will see his image in statues, on buildings and posters, private homes and restaurants, so don't even think about uttering a bad word about the man.

Ataturk died in 1938, but politics and elections seem to still play a very central role in every town in Turkey including Bodrum. Here, streets were blocked off for everything from speeches to dancing. Food was served for supporters on almost every corner and flags for different political parties were strung from building to building while cars drove around blaring support songs for various parties. This goes on for weeks in every Turkish town during the election (yeah we didn't make it for the high summer season but we had all the politics we could handle!) which is important because every Turkish citizen is required to vote. If they don't, they face penalties and possible fines for not making it to the polls.

After negotiating Bodrum's electioneering we managed to make the 3 p.m. bus inland to Pamukkale or 'Cotton Castle', which boasts amazing travertine pools that cover an entire hillside in white (picture an inside out Crystal Caves). To get there it was a good five hours to a town called Denizli before changing to another minibus for the village which survives solely off tourism. Of course while we were making the bus change a teenager spotted us for tourist suckers and tried to convince me I had to go to a certain hotel. I humoured him for a short while, a very short while, and then boarded our minibus. My travel buddy however, decided to make a friend listening to his iPod and joking with the kid. All fun until we got to Pamukkale and the kid told the bus driver to drop us off at his buddy's hostel.

After being offered a ridiculous price, we continued walking with my travel buddy's new friend in tow. Eventually I clued in while my travel buddy to continued to chat with the kid. He was going to take credit for bringing us wherever we ended up and we would have to pay his commission. Well I certainly was not having any of it so I very firmly told him thank you and goodbye. That turned him on his heels and we managed to find a great hostel with a fantastic lounge area that was still serving food and was five minutes from the tourist sites.

The next morning we had all the intentions of waking up early to see the calcium-covered hill as the sun rose, but let's be honest, after the long bus ride which no matter how many teas they serve you is exhausting as bus drivers take corners like Formula One drivers and you bounce along the mountainous roads of Turkey there was no way I was getting up. So at the more reasonable hour of 10 a.m. we approached the calcium cliff. It was formed when warm mineral water cascaded over the cliff edge, cooling and leaving calcium that naturally built pools, shelves and stalactites. Romans also enjoyed the area, building a spa town (Hieropolis) above the travertine hills to take advantage of the water's 'curative powers'.

What looked like soft clay however, ended up being quite painful on the feet. Talk about exfoliating the soles! You can't walk up the hill without taking off your shoes so it's a bit of a prickly process. Unfortunately, it seems that there is some sort of drainage system preventing water from flowing down much of the hill so there is no longer water in the naturally formed pools. A far cry from the image of these pristine white pools that adorn postcards and posters all over Turkey, which is really too bad. Still, an interesting site.

After hobbling our way to the top of the hill we wandered among the ruins of Hieropolis in search of the modern mineral water bath they have created imagine a swimming pool with ancient ruins placed in it. I wondered if Disneyland was involved to try and extricate 20 TLR per person for a dip! With a lot of algae floating around we decided $15 each for a dip probably would not be that curative.

So we decided to stumble around ancient Hieropolis. Founded in 190 B.C., the former Roman spa town is still very intact and offers an impressive theatre and a good wander through the hills. Of course I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the ancient toilets (nothing like potty humour).

To get back to our hostel, however, required more sole exfoliation down the travertine pools so we could get a postcard and some snacks before boarding our bus for our next destination, Selcuk, to see the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus.