Back on the road again today. We had bought breakfast from the local
supermarket the night before and had to be at the bus stop just before
09:00 to catch the dolmuş back to Denizli.
As we left the hotel, hot air balloons were already floating over the
travertine terraces of Pamukkale, enjoying the morning sunshine.
We reached Denizli Otogari quickly enough and were heading for the
area where the coaches had parked when we arrived a few days ago when a
man asked where we were heading. When we told him Fethiye, he pointed us
to a small office in the opposite direction. We thanked him and headed
to the small office. In the office, several men were sitting and talking
in Turkish. Nobody spoke any English. I presented my ticket to a man
sitting at the counter, and he studied it for a moment before writing
out a new ticket and handing it to me, pointing to a row of buses parked
at the front of the office.
It felt suspicious. We thought we had mastered the buses in Turkey,
but we had this ‘new’ scenario to deal with, and it seemed odd. We left
the office and showed our new ticket to various drivers standing in
front of the buses outside. We quickly identified the correct bus and
established that we had just enough time to find the toilets and get a
cup of tea before the departure time.
The bus left on time, we were on it, and there were no issues at all
on the three and half hour journey to Fethiye.