Bear Trakker: Day 23: Ankara to Bursa

With no plans for any more site seeing in Ankara, leaving early the following morning was the plan. After breakfast at the hotel, which was almost as slow as the dinner service the previous night, we were on our way a little later than planned at about 10am. The traffic situation leaving Ankara was similar to that arriving, in each case I think we must have missed the peak hour. Within 30 or 40 minutes we were on the outskirts and heading along a lesser highway toward Bursa.

Wanting to get to Bursa so that we could have a look around and enjoy the spa offerings of the hotel we planned to stay at we completed the drive nearly nonstop, stopping only for fuel. It was about 400 km from hotel to hotel, and it took a little over 5 hours to complete. Along the highway outside the major centres we passed a few small towns in the process of being bypassed, and endless fields of cropping with and without irrigation.

For most of the journey the highway was of reasonable quality, allowing us to travel quickly despite not really understanding what the speed limit was. A few wood ducks en route provided good cover whilst sitting at 130 kph, one of which suffered the consequence we were trying to avoid when pulled over at a speed trap near to one of the smaller towns. Whilst the Turks seemed to be brilliant at building roads, signage was proving not to be their forte.

It was apparent since arriving in Turkey that the people here have a strong pride in their nation. Businesses, private homes and government facilities are adorned with numerous and large Turkish flags, and there are huge monuments to Turkish people and achievements scattered seemingly in all towns and cities. Travelling along the highway was no different, with several enormous flags and monuments seen in passing.

Big flags

Big statues

Finding the hotel in Bursa proved a little more tricky than planned. The GPS co-ordinates provided by Booking.com were well off the mark, and amidst a few games of charades with some local people, we were able to decipher how to find what we were looking for. Arriving, the front of the hotel seemed to live up to the advertising hype, with valet parking and white gloved bellhops attending to us.

The place that we were staying was called the Kervansaray Termal, a luxury hotel built upon a natural hot mineral spring. This wasn't originally the intended place of stay, but after changing our planned dates due to the need to detour via Ankara, the price of the original place had skyrocketed from 80 to 220 euro per night, and this seemed the next best option at a more reasonable price. If all was as advertised, we would be able to experience a traditional Turkish bath (hammam) and swim in this 'more healthy than usual' water.

After checking in, we went for a walk around the hotel to check out what was available. The decided order was a swim in the the thermal spa water pool first, then the Turkish bath followed by a massage before getting some dinner. The swim was nice, even though it seemed no different to any other swimming pool. The best part was that Gerle made some good progress in her swimming lessons. It was a bit strange toward the end of our swim with a group of women arriving completely veiled only to sit in the heat and watch their husbands and children swim in the cool water; they must have felt jealous of Gerle who without religious restriction was free to disrobe and enjoy the water.

After the swim, it was off to the Turkish bath. Neither of us having done this before, we were a bit shy at first. After asking a few basic questions on how it all worked and what we should do, I was reasonably confident with what the process would be - though Gerle was shuffled off to the women's area and didn't receive nearly as much assistance. Her experience was quite different to mine; surrounded by women almost completely covered in traditional dress (swimwear styled) whilst trying to bathe, she was wearing her bikini. The men inside were more normal. Some wore swimming shorts, as did I, and some simply a towel. Needless to say, I think I was made to feel a little more welcome than Gerle... at least I wasn't being looked at by everyone inside all at once.

The Turkish bath itself was a pretty good experience for me. Starting out, you needed to 'shower' yourself with a ladle from one of the many faucet and basins with hot and cold water running into them (also creating the sauna like atmosphere). Once this was done, there was large hot water bath that was to be shared by the residents, with some varying temperature smaller baths around the outside. Some of these were piping hot, and none were cooler than the main bath which was probably about 40 degrees Celsisus. Sitting inside, it was quite relaxing, though would have been better to have done with company as most of the other guests were.

After 20 minutes or so, without much to do, I wandered over to the massage area where I was greeted by a man who spoke pretty good English and seemed to have a good sense of humour. After a bit of a chat, and him knowing that I hadn't experienced the Turkish hammam before, it was down to business. First was a scrub; basically getting soaped up and then rubbed down with a rough cloth to exfoliate the skin. After this was the massage.

Told to lie face down on a round stone table in the middle of the room, though hesitant it seemed legit. Shortly thereafter the guy was jamming his elbow between my shoulder blades and spinal vertebrae, seemingly enjoying my grimacing. Not usually a fan of any kind of massage, I tried to relax as best I could, but also couldn't ignore the fact that more often than not my feeling was that of pain and not pleasure. After 10 minutes of this, it was over. A few others had gathered in the room, I'm not sure whether it was to be entrained by me, or wait for their turn...

In the end, it was a good experience. After returning to the main pool and then some of the hotter ones for another 20 minutes or so, the body and mind did feel good. I wasn't in need for any further massage, so I returned to the room whilst Gerle enjoyed a Thai style full body massage.

By the time Gerle was done with her massage, and we had showered and readied for dinner, it was about 9.30pm and we were hungry. There were several restaurants in the hotel, but with a roof top terrace available the top floor restaurant appealed most. Heading up, were were at first wondering if it were still open as there were no customers, but there was a maitre de who assured us that they were still open. It was actually a little windy causing a chill outside, so we decided to sit inside. The inside, when sitting alone, seemed almost cavernous.

Empty restaurants are never a good sign, and we should have chosen elsewhere, but hungry we persevered. The hotel had not seemed particularly full, and even with the spa experience seemed overpriced and a little run down, so it wasn't too surprising that many of the items on the menu were unavailable. In the end, we just accepted two recommendations, which for all we knew may have been on the only dishes on offer. What came out was pretty ordinary, and definitely small. We were both still hungry after dinner.

Figuring it was a our own silly fault for choosing to eat there, and not checking out at least what the other hotel restaurants had or going down the street, we returned to the room and fell asleep exhausted. Perhaps the travel was now starting to catch up on us in terms of weariness.