Its getting harder and harder for me to wake up each morning from staying up till 2 o'clock blogging every night, but I'm glad that I'm doing it because I've already forgotten what we did on the first couple days of the trip...feels like we've been here for weeks already. The AC didn't work worth a flip in our hotel room last night; Heather didn't notice it, but I was sweating like a w**** in church all night. I had to finally open the balcony to let in the outside air because it was colder than what was coming out of the vent (told the front desk about it this morning and they said they would look into it, and I believe them, this really was a great hotel).

Lessons from Turkey for the day:
-Turks don't speak to you in Turkish, they all start with hello in English (even if that is the only word they know) so we never get to practice our Turkish which consists of hello and thank you right now. The Thai's would always try to teach you a word, and switch to English to fill in the missing parts.
-Dolmus are extremely slow. They have a practice of honking every 5 seconds whether they have a reason to or not. They often drive with the doors open. The drivers are typically on their cell phone 90% of the entire drive, usually with no more than 15 second phone calls at a time.
-Any man in Turkey that speaks good English and is not a front desk worker at a hotel is probably a carpet salesman, including your hotel front desk worker!
-There must be a Turkish price and a foreigner price for carpets. We looked at some tonight and the cheapest small one (3'x5') was $650 TL...got back to the hotel and they have like 8 on the floor in the sitting room that are identical copies; there is no way they paid more than $650 for all 8!
-Seems like all Turkish business men are trying to cheat the government, they all want payment in cash so they don't have to pay taxes, and they are not afraid to tell you that is the reason.

Breakfast at Harman Hotel was great. They had cereal and milk plus scrambled eggs and an omelet station. Both Heather and I were thrilled. We were perplexed by "white coffee"...haven't figured out what it tasted like or what it was made from, but it didn't resemble any coffee I have ever tasted, I'll have to ask the staff when we stay there again later this week.

We checked out and left our bags with the front desk, then caught the dolmus towards Olu Deniz. Its $1.50 TL to Fethiye Center per person, then another $4.50 TL from the Center to Olu Deniz beach. Plan for no less than 30 mins for the total trip, but better to plan for an hour. Get a window seat, its hot inside and usually jam packed with people. Best seat in the house is the front seat, but be careful, the drivers tend to be pretty ripe.

Sooooo glad I didn't pick a hotel in the center of town or even worse, in Olu Deniz. The area is like "little Britian"...there are more British citizens in Olu Deniz than Turks! And its been completely turned into a tourist trap including an open air bazaar modeled on Istanbul...and selling the same fake purses and belts, and cheap clothing. There will be no chance for any authentic handicrafts here, but holy crap, the beach and the water make up for what they've lost in authenticity. The water is a shade of bule I've never seen before! Check out some of my aerial shots to get an idea (photos just don't do it justice).

We arrived at Olu Deniz, glad to be free of the stinky dolmus driver and immediately set out to check out the paragliding companies. The first one immediatly said no way to Heather flying, the second one said "sure, no problem"
...ok...one yes, one no...let's get a 3rd opinion...
"How pregnant?", "4 months", "Maybe no, maybe not so safe for baby".
Ok, well that settled it, Heather had to stay on the ground, but I went back to the first place because they were the most impressive in their explanation of the procedures and seemed to have their stuff together the most. I mean, who wants to jump off a mountain with a guy that can't speak more than 10 words of English? In all honesty though, she could have done it with no problem...unless she was like the Russian guy that flew with our group that didn't speak a single word of English (and non of the pilots spoke Russian)...at takeoff this guy ran like 2 steps and then sat down (you should run about 5 steps in the air after your feet have left the ground to make sure you aren't going to have a 2nd bounce, so this guy's ass dragged the ground on takeoff and then he didn't put his feet down at the landing so he landed on his ass, dragged about 5' across the pavement and wiped out 10 or so flowers in the landscaping (I took off after him and landed before him because we did tricks on the way down and came down a lot faster than most people do). Jason (White) you have to try this sport man, its right up your alley.

After landing, the pilot shows you the pictures and video he takes during the flight, and although it was $50 USD for the DVD, it was worth it, see the photos below. Total trip including the drive up the mountain is about 1.5 hours (usually 30 mins fly time but for me it was only about 20 because of the tricks).

Time to chill on the beach. The water is beautiful and refreshingly cool after the hot, sweaty paragliding flight. The beach itself is covered with lounge chairs, umbrellas, and Brits. I really don't have anything against Brits, for the most part they are quite enjoyable to talk to. Heather made friends with the couple sitting next to us while I was flying. Interesting to note, some women go topless at this beach, its somewhat shocking after coming for Istanbul yesterday and seeing women in burkas, but like I said, Olu Deniz is more British than Turkish so I guess it fits. The beach is also not sand, it is a pebble beach, and even though the rocks are round and flat, they are quite painful to walk on. Flip flops or watershoes are a must.

(collected our first water bottle of sand from Turkey today to add to our collection of world beaches at home)

The dolmus ride back took almost a hour and a half. Our rental car company was waiting at the hotel so we loaded up and took off to Denizli after haggling with the rental guy over cash or credit. The GPS and the internet maps I had printed said the drive was right at 4 hours...we made it in less than 2.5. If you went the speed limit (70 or 90 km) on the main roads, then yes it would take that long, but I was doing 140 and getting passed by locals like I was standing still! 

Driving tips in Turkey:
-the suggested driving times are rubbish, cut them in half
-drive like a bat out of hell
-the rules of the road are really more like suggestions than rules
-the middle lane is for passing going both directions regardless of which side the strips are on
-honk often
-flash your lights often

The roads are in excellent shape and have great signage (thus far), if you come from a city where you are used to driving in traffic or on major freeways; i.e. Houston, you will easily handle the roads in Turkey (Istanbul excluded). We stopped along the way and bought some chips and cookies, I think that was the highlight of Heather's day.

Arrived in Pamukkale (pam-uck-al-lay) at 8pm to check into Venus Hotel. What a great little place. Don't be intimidated by the road that leads to it, this is the best hotel we've been to on this trip so far. The entire place is well detailed with authentic Turkish decorations throughout, the rooms are great, the outside dining area and inside sitting areas are fantastically planned. (there is a bit of a cow manure type smell in the air outside permiating from the properties next door but it is not overpowering and kind of adds a little authenticity to the whole scene, even Heather wasn't offended by the smell with her more sensitive sense of smell). The bed even has a sheet, blanket, and comforter to sleep under. The AC actually works in this room!

Went for dinner at the Hal-Tur Hotel, which has tables around the pool that have a perfect view of Paumukkale at night, which is lite up in 3 or 4 different colors. It was quite romantic and affordable to boot ($34 TL for dinner for 2 including an appetizer). We felt a little cheated by not having any apple tea while we let the owner of the hotel show us his carpets...it was a lot of fun though, just out of our price range ($400 USD for a basic wool/wool carpet 3'x5' and increasing in price from there).