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Travel: Selcuk & Ephesus

Friday 20 May 2011
Due to time constraint, we decided to take a flight rather than subjecting ourselves through a 700km drive between Uchisar and Selcuk. Internal flights are surprisingly cheap, just a tad more than train and easily more affordable than hiring a car for the duration of the drive. In our case, 2 kids and an adult that suffers from extreme motion sickness, frankly, it wasn't an option we would even explore. I'd used Sun Express and Pegasus airlines which for the price we'd paid, was tremendous value for money. They were efficient, professional and okay, I have to admit, really rough with their customers' luggage but that was the fault of the airport baggage handlers.

I chose Selcuk as our base as it's a mere 2km from Ephesus. It's approximately an hour's drive from Izmir, the closest airport. If you're not traveling with kids, I would recommend getting shuttle buses to Selcuk from Izmir as car rental is quite expensive in Turkey. We stayed at Hotel Bella which actually provided transfers to and from Ephesus. They're happy to take their guests to the location anytime and when you're done with Ephesus, all you have to do is walk to their designated pick up point, a stall that sells souvenirs and tell the owner to call the hotel for you. Very efficient indeed.


stork1
Selcuk is a small and friendly town. I didn't see a lot of tourists there at all. However, what we did see a lot of are storks with nests built on top of pillars or lamp posts.




Lil Bro was excited about seeing the Temple of Artemis as it was once deemed as one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world.  We went round and round the area until finally admitted defeat and asked a local. The friendly guy extended his middle finger and said, it looks like this and is right behind you. We just cracked up and were in hysterics. Don't mind us. We're easily amused :)  There's only one single pillar left standing complete with a stork. The Turks are justifiably bitter about having their important archeological treasures being carted off mostly to the British Museum. A number of the excavated sites that I'd been to were personally funded by wealthy foreigners so in some ways, it's also the case of finders keepers.



Ephesus or otherwise known as Efes in Turkey was an important city in its heyday. The entire restoration which was quite feat considering that they had to put together hundreds of thousands of pieces like a jigsaw puzzle back again, only took them a mere 4 years (according to the signboard at the site). I couldn't help compare this to the snail speed restoration at the Acropolis which after 15 years looked exactly as it was along with the rusty scaffolding when I first visited it in my 20s. It was also noted in the Book of Ephesians in the bible.


ephesus6
The massive library



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ephesus - st john disciple

The tomb of St John, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus who honored his promise to the Lord and brought Mary with him to Ephesus.



ephesus - portrait

Before my mother admonishes me for not including photos of her darling grand-daughter, here it is.


agora
The Agora. To my horror, Lil Bro thought it would be fun to film himself sprinting down the stone paved road. I would've expected the two little rascals to do something like this, not a man in his 30s. *sigh*


 genuine fake watches
A shop outside the main entrance of Ephesus selling Genuine Fake watches from Cartier, Breitling, Chanel, Tag Heuer etc. Yes, just in case their customers don't know, these watches are genuinely fake with a certificate to prove that yes, they are GUARANTEED fake.

5 comments:

  1. Your DD is so cute!

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  2. Amazing trip. one of the places I must visit. I have to plan my next Turkey trip soon!!! I love looking at your pictures!

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  3. Thanks, DA!

    Lily, so kind of you to say so. I'm glad you like the photos. I'm hoping to make a second trip o Turkey sometime next year. I think you'll love it as much as I have

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  4. omg hilarious - what if the watches are REAL? Do I get my money back?? Haha :)

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  5. Katherine, should the unfortunate happens (i.e. you get an authentic Cartier), the first course of action is ask for a refund. Failing that, I suggest you take them to Small Claims court. If either action cease to get a response, flog the real stuff on eBay and get a fake :P

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