TUESDAY OCT 6 2015 LANGAR TO PTUP DAY 7
Ptup is such a small village that it doesn't show up on the map. As a lot of us are tracing our route on the map so we had to have Slava or Jamshed find it for us and then trace out the road and such. We’d never figure it out otherwise.
In our room last night, New York had set her cell phone as an alarm but she forgot to change the time so it went off an hour early. Mine did too but as hers went off first, I was able to stop mine from making noise. I got up at 7;15 as there are noises outside and then it is quiet. I went out to look and everyone is gone – really everyone! The only ones here are me and New York. Not sure how our other roommates got out of the room without making much noise
. Slava is still in the building but he has no idea where everyone has gone. A rather spooky bit. So I went back, informed New York that I was going out too, packed my bags and took them out then walked down the road. I met Jamshed, Canada and London and Wales all coming back from a walk. I joined them and Jamshed was sure he knew a way to the river but we couldn’t get there from the direction we were coming so we went back to breakfast.
Room breakup last night was a room with Mauritius, new York and me. A room with Aussie couple by themselves and everyone else was in the living/dining room on mattresses. Hence the one of two kittens was able to get onto the beds and poop.
I knew that the walk up to the petroglyphs would be a bit too much for my knee plus it would take me too long so I just walked down the hill a bit to the river which was rushing over rocks and a small dam and quite a lovely spot. Jamshed told me there was a cemetery further up the hill. Since I’ve seen them here I have been interested in visiting one but it’s not on the schedule and he won’t stop because he says he hates them, they scare him. I’d like to go but right across the bridge over the river, the way gets rather steep right away so I pass
. Also, we’re still over 10K feet and I’m struggling a bit with the altitude. Others are as well now, even the ones who scoffed at the idea of taking Diamox. Several people have now started taking Diamox for the duration of our high altitude and I suspect that several of the ones who aren’t in rooms with us at night are also taking the drugs.
The Tajikistan Petroglyphs from the internet. We visited the Wakhan ones close to Langar: ""”Petroglyphs
Although there are petroglyphs in more than 50 locations throughout Gorno-Badakhshan, the two most interesting sites are in Akjilga in Murghab district (at 3,800m) and Langar in the Wakhan (Ishkashim district). There are other important groups in the valley above Vibist and near Chartem in Shughnan (approx. 40km and 70km respectively from Khorog on the Pamir Highway); and in Namadgut in the Wakhan.
V.A. Ranov dated the petroglyphs at the Akjilga site from the end of the second millennium BC to the beginning of the first millennium BC (Scythian-Sarmatian).' The most complex depict chariots with human figures, horses and yaks; others show archers (see reproduction of a petroglyph at Akjilga to right)
.
The Akjilga site in Murghab district was discovered by the geologist V.P. Bulin in 1971 near Bazardara, a silver mine worked in the early middle ages. There is also an old mining site at Akjilga, dating from the Iron Age (2nd millennium BC). The old workings in Bazardara have recently been reopened for possible future mining activity and measures have been taken by META/ACTED to protect the whole site.
In the area around the village of Langar at the junction of the Pamir and Wakhan rivers at the upper end of the Tajik Wakhan there are some 6,000 petroglyphs. The most frequent subject is the ibex (Capra sibirica). It is very difficult to date the ibex petroglyphs, since the style of the Stone Age examples has been copied in subsequent representations. Other petroglyphs represent riders on horseback, hunters with bows (sometimes with what appear to be guns) and running men. A much later group depicts Islamic motifs or religious texts or poems in Arabic/Farsi script - clearly post 8th century when Islam was introduced in the region.
Normally the patina' method is used to date petroglyphs, by which the surface of the engraved lines is examined for iron and manganese traces, although these can also be affected by the location of the petroglyph and the angle of its exposure to the sun
. The oldest are those where the colour of the lines is almost identical to that of the rock. The tradition is continuous and man has made engraved figures on rocks in the Pamirs probably until the beginning of the 20th century. Today, unfortunately, graffiti prevail.
In the 1970's, about 150 locations of petroglyphs, differing by their number of images and their level of study, were registered in Tajikistan (Ranov 1976).
First knowledge about Tajikistan rock art, in the vicinity of Kalai-Panj village (Pamir), was published in 1879 by the British Captain Henry Trotter (Trotter 1879). A famous work by the Danish explorer O. Olufsen, who visited the Pamirs in 1896-1899 and described drawings on rocks near the village of Langarkisht, came out in 1904 (Olufsen 1904: 193-196). Later, information on Tajikistan rock art was published by Bobrinksiy A.-A. (1908), Korzhenevskiy N.-A., and Ratzek V.-I. (Ratzek 1944).
The first serious but mostly tentative publications of Tajikistan petroglyphs appeared in the second half of the 1940's, after mere references in the works of travelers or specialists in other areas. They are credited to Dalskiy A.-N., Madji A.-E., Mandelstam A.-M., Bernshtam A.-N., Ranov V.-A., Zhukov V.-A., Gurskiy A.-V., Agahanyats O-.E., Panfilov O.-V
. and others. They provided not only descriptions of rock art locations, but they also tried to date the art, counted the images and photographed them. A series of publications specifically dedicated to Pamir rock art sites, such as Langar and Shakhty, came out in the 1960's.
Three concentrations of rock art sites in Tajikistan are grouped according to their landscape and geographical location: Eastern and Western (Badakhshan) Pamir; Hissar Alai; Western Fergana (Mounts Kurama and Mogoltau) (Bubnova, 2008).”””
I go back to the car to read and wait. At some point, I have to use the toilet. There is a small path around an old caravan type of trailer and I ask Slava if I can go there but he says no. It was a public thoroughfare walkway as it led to a house that was above us which we walked up to and Slava knocked on the door. No one answered so we continued to the end of the house and he showed me where their outside pit toilet was and I used it. As I came out, I see that they keep their chickens on the roof along with a lot of hay. Their clothes were on a clothesline as well. Love clothesline photos.
The group finally starts coming back and soon everyone is back except Walking Aussie who is missing
. We let Jamshed go back up the trail to find her. She had taken a wrong turn and didn’t realize it until she got to the end of the path which was blocked and had to turn around and retrace her steps which finally led her to the bridge over the water which is where Jams found her as he was coming back down the path from walking back up to the petroglyphs.
While we are waiting, Mauritius is busy looking behind fences and through gates that are open and finds a family behind a gate where two women are busy sifting chaff out of wheat the old fashioned way by hand and a screen in a wooden frame. They don’t seem to mind that we all troop in to take photos. I also point out the pit toilet to the ladies who need it.
Back in the cars, we haven’t driven far when the lead van with Slava pulls over and everyone gets out and starts walking through the fields. Those of us in Anatoly’s car pull up behind but by the time we park, the group is halfway across a field and no one is around to tell us what is happening. We ask Slava if it is the hot springs and he says yes. Well, obviously he hadn’t a clue what we asked. We scurry around and get our towels and start walking across the field to join the group. When we get halfway there, we see that they are climbing another hill
. It is a rather steep hill and some of the ladies are having a hard time getting up the hill. I think it’s not worth the climb for the hot springs so I watch and take some photos and then start back to the car. Female Aussie couple has decided it also isn’t worth the walk so she waits with me.
A young man/boy (maybe 14 or so) comes over to talk to us and offered to sell me some rubies and stones which he said his dad goes into the mountains to get. I knew it was pretty much a con but I looked at what he had and he had a nice couple of rocks, some of which seemed to be amber. I bought a “ruby” and a piece of amber for 30 som (about $2-3) but Jams said later I should have only paid maybe 2 som. I had bargained him down from 60 som. But also later at Jams place to buy stones, there weren’t any great prices either.
We find out while we are watching that the place up on the hill is actually the Buddhist stupa and not the hot springs! Would have been good to know because I might have tried walking up there had I known that. Here’s from the internet on the Vrang village Buddhist monastery: “”Just a stone's throw away from Yamchun fortress in Vrang village was discovered a huge site of public worship now identified as Buddhist monastery
. Nearby are the remnants of stupa built in accordance with local traditions and dated to VI-VII cc. At the top of the stupa rests a stone which if you ask anyone from the village about they'll tell you almost immediately that it has the footprint of Buddha on the stone.
The complex was surrounded with adobe brick wall fortified with watchtowers and included a temple, residential buildings constructed along the inner side of the walls and 11 caves used as monks cells, cut out on the slope of the terrace. Across the temple, on the other side of the river, there are the remnants of the other 60 caves-cells. It is now known that the residential section of the monastery used to be on the opposite bank of Pyanj.
Near the Buddhist complex there is Vrang fortress, which controlled the road from Shugnan direction. "Tibetian forts" mentioned in Hudud Al-Alam of 982 and written by unknown Persian writer was probably Vrang fort, while temples of idolaters "vahne" were allocated on the place of Buddhist complex, built not far from Yamchun fort.
Probably the same temple was mentioned by Syuan Tsan a Chinese traveler, who noted that the temple had stone Buddha statue with complicated construction over its head
. The monastery location was probably chosen because of powerful mineral monk caves near the vrang Buddhist stupa
hot spring which had curative affect. The spring exists in our days and known as Chashma-i-Djamchin and attracts many locals all-round the year””
We head on into Ptup and have lunch at our homestay. This house has a nice garden and a flush toilet and a shower with a large tub to stand in to wash. Lovely. The dining room has several platforms in it and the kitchen is accessed from behind a screen that leads into the host and hostesses part of the house.
We got to the homestay early enough that we can go to the fortress and the hot springs today. It is a windy narrow drive (gosh, like we haven’t had those already) so the program notes say we won’t do it in the late afternoon because it’s dangerous. We got there in plenty of time but by the time we left the hot springs, it was getting dark.
We are at Yamchun fortress. According to the Tajikistan tourist site on line: “”Also known as Zamr-i-Atash-Parast or Kafir-Qala, Yamchun fortress is probably the most impressive and eldest monument in Wakhan built on the top of the cliff overlooking the valley. It is thought to have been a greatest defense fortification in the ancient Wakhan. The fortress dated to 3-1 century BC and had thick stone walls and round watchtowers. According to local legend the fortress was built by kings-
brothers Qakhkaha and Zangibor
. The fort played a key role on the great Silk Road leading from Pamir to Bactria, India, Iran and back controlling the traffic, cargo and security in the region.
The fort is triangular in shape and divided into 3 sections. The first section includes citadel with bastion and barracks. This section was surrounded by wall and strengthens with round towers. Two other sections are open grounds for combat operations. Every ground was surrounded by thick stone walls and fortified by 36 towers. The outside walls are 2 meters wide while inner walls are 50-60 cm wide. Garm Chashma hot spring near Khorog
The towers were built in chess order and with small negative angle to improve visibility at fortress basement. Gun slots exist both in outside and inside walls which is supposed to increase defense capability. The building materials must have been delivered from remote locations, since metamorphic rock, granite and slate rocks, biotite pieces and other forms of mica are not found in close neighborhood.””
I had foolishly not brought my walking stick with me because I’m pretty sure I could have gotten to this fortress but without the stick, didn’t want to risk twisting my knee
. Still, the views from the outside were rather impressive. Most of our group went except female Aussie couple who wasn’t that jazzed about the climbing either plus she said she’d have photos and videos from her hubby going. Another group came along and visited too while we were there. It must have been rather big because when our group started back, they stood at the edge of the fortress and waved their arms for photos and they were very tiny in the photos. Further away than it looked.
From the fort, we continued climbing up to the hamman, or Bibi Fatima hot springs. It is named after Prophet Mohammed’s sister and local women believe they can increase their fertility here. London is the only woman in the group who is probably still of child bearing years so most of us weren’t concerned with this.
From where we parked the cars, it was still a walk up a short hill and then down several flights of stairs to reach the door to the springs. The Norwegians helped build this from what Jamshed told us. There was a rushing river/stream running through the building and they had built heaters/pipes to heat the water and run it into the hamman. We had to wait a few minutes to get it as it is a not a large bathing area and it was full when we got there
. Finally, several women left and we were told to go in. It is a nude bathing area and there are lockers to put your clothes and such. We all got nude and walked down the stairs to get in the hot water which was quite hot to step into it – probably about 40 - 43C or 104 - 110F but you got used to it pretty fast. It wasn’t mineral water, just heated spring water.
We were in the bath with 3 local women, two of which had young boys with them as well. I expect the boys were 4 or 5. Not the best age to be naked in a bath with them but local customs so we had to make do with it. One of the locals panicked for me when she saw that I was wearing a watch but it was a dive watch so ok to be in the water. I went over to the stream coming out of the pipes and stood under it to get my hair wet as well and give it a rinse. One of the locals took her son over there to do the same and he hated it. The other boy put up a fuss and managed to avoid it. We’re finally done after about 15 or 20 minutes and we all go back up the stairs to get dressed and they let in some other local women to take our places.
Of course, since the hamman was downhill, that meant a climb back uphill to get to the cars which had me sweating and ready for another bath
! None of the men partook of the hamman – weren’t interested which is probably good since they had to wait for the ladies to finish.
On our way back down the hill to our homestay, we passed a family cutting wheat by hand in their field. We all stopped and trooped over to take photos. Several of our group tried their hands at cutting the wheat which was done with a short curved knife – very sharp. Then the woman would tie it into a small bundle. Later, they would gather the bundles together and stand in a group. It took all of our members a very long time to cut a very short amount. This amused the farmers quite a lot so good times all around.
A nice dinner and I was able to sit on the edge of the platform to eat. When dinner was cleared up, the blankets and mattresses came out for the beds. It wasn’t that cold but many wanted two blankets just in case.
Ptup is such a small village that it doesn't show up on the map. As a lot of us are tracing our route on the map so we had to have Slava or Jamshed find it for us and then trace out the road and such. We’d never figure it out otherwise.
In our room last night, New York had set her cell phone as an alarm but she forgot to change the time so it went off an hour early. Mine did too but as hers went off first, I was able to stop mine from making noise. I got up at 7;15 as there are noises outside and then it is quiet. I went out to look and everyone is gone – really everyone! The only ones here are me and New York. Not sure how our other roommates got out of the room without making much noise
. Slava is still in the building but he has no idea where everyone has gone. A rather spooky bit. So I went back, informed New York that I was going out too, packed my bags and took them out then walked down the road. I met Jamshed, Canada and London and Wales all coming back from a walk. I joined them and Jamshed was sure he knew a way to the river but we couldn’t get there from the direction we were coming so we went back to breakfast.
Room breakup last night was a room with Mauritius, new York and me. A room with Aussie couple by themselves and everyone else was in the living/dining room on mattresses. Hence the one of two kittens was able to get onto the beds and poop.
I knew that the walk up to the petroglyphs would be a bit too much for my knee plus it would take me too long so I just walked down the hill a bit to the river which was rushing over rocks and a small dam and quite a lovely spot. Jamshed told me there was a cemetery further up the hill. Since I’ve seen them here I have been interested in visiting one but it’s not on the schedule and he won’t stop because he says he hates them, they scare him. I’d like to go but right across the bridge over the river, the way gets rather steep right away so I pass
. Also, we’re still over 10K feet and I’m struggling a bit with the altitude. Others are as well now, even the ones who scoffed at the idea of taking Diamox. Several people have now started taking Diamox for the duration of our high altitude and I suspect that several of the ones who aren’t in rooms with us at night are also taking the drugs.
The Tajikistan Petroglyphs from the internet. We visited the Wakhan ones close to Langar: ""”Petroglyphs
Although there are petroglyphs in more than 50 locations throughout Gorno-Badakhshan, the two most interesting sites are in Akjilga in Murghab district (at 3,800m) and Langar in the Wakhan (Ishkashim district). There are other important groups in the valley above Vibist and near Chartem in Shughnan (approx. 40km and 70km respectively from Khorog on the Pamir Highway); and in Namadgut in the Wakhan.
V.A. Ranov dated the petroglyphs at the Akjilga site from the end of the second millennium BC to the beginning of the first millennium BC (Scythian-Sarmatian).' The most complex depict chariots with human figures, horses and yaks; others show archers (see reproduction of a petroglyph at Akjilga to right)
.
The Akjilga site in Murghab district was discovered by the geologist V.P. Bulin in 1971 near Bazardara, a silver mine worked in the early middle ages. There is also an old mining site at Akjilga, dating from the Iron Age (2nd millennium BC). The old workings in Bazardara have recently been reopened for possible future mining activity and measures have been taken by META/ACTED to protect the whole site.
In the area around the village of Langar at the junction of the Pamir and Wakhan rivers at the upper end of the Tajik Wakhan there are some 6,000 petroglyphs. The most frequent subject is the ibex (Capra sibirica). It is very difficult to date the ibex petroglyphs, since the style of the Stone Age examples has been copied in subsequent representations. Other petroglyphs represent riders on horseback, hunters with bows (sometimes with what appear to be guns) and running men. A much later group depicts Islamic motifs or religious texts or poems in Arabic/Farsi script - clearly post 8th century when Islam was introduced in the region.
Normally the patina' method is used to date petroglyphs, by which the surface of the engraved lines is examined for iron and manganese traces, although these can also be affected by the location of the petroglyph and the angle of its exposure to the sun
. The oldest are those where the colour of the lines is almost identical to that of the rock. The tradition is continuous and man has made engraved figures on rocks in the Pamirs probably until the beginning of the 20th century. Today, unfortunately, graffiti prevail.
In the 1970's, about 150 locations of petroglyphs, differing by their number of images and their level of study, were registered in Tajikistan (Ranov 1976).
First knowledge about Tajikistan rock art, in the vicinity of Kalai-Panj village (Pamir), was published in 1879 by the British Captain Henry Trotter (Trotter 1879). A famous work by the Danish explorer O. Olufsen, who visited the Pamirs in 1896-1899 and described drawings on rocks near the village of Langarkisht, came out in 1904 (Olufsen 1904: 193-196). Later, information on Tajikistan rock art was published by Bobrinksiy A.-A. (1908), Korzhenevskiy N.-A., and Ratzek V.-I. (Ratzek 1944).
The first serious but mostly tentative publications of Tajikistan petroglyphs appeared in the second half of the 1940's, after mere references in the works of travelers or specialists in other areas. They are credited to Dalskiy A.-N., Madji A.-E., Mandelstam A.-M., Bernshtam A.-N., Ranov V.-A., Zhukov V.-A., Gurskiy A.-V., Agahanyats O-.E., Panfilov O.-V
. and others. They provided not only descriptions of rock art locations, but they also tried to date the art, counted the images and photographed them. A series of publications specifically dedicated to Pamir rock art sites, such as Langar and Shakhty, came out in the 1960's.
Three concentrations of rock art sites in Tajikistan are grouped according to their landscape and geographical location: Eastern and Western (Badakhshan) Pamir; Hissar Alai; Western Fergana (Mounts Kurama and Mogoltau) (Bubnova, 2008).”””
I go back to the car to read and wait. At some point, I have to use the toilet. There is a small path around an old caravan type of trailer and I ask Slava if I can go there but he says no. It was a public thoroughfare walkway as it led to a house that was above us which we walked up to and Slava knocked on the door. No one answered so we continued to the end of the house and he showed me where their outside pit toilet was and I used it. As I came out, I see that they keep their chickens on the roof along with a lot of hay. Their clothes were on a clothesline as well. Love clothesline photos.
The group finally starts coming back and soon everyone is back except Walking Aussie who is missing
. We let Jamshed go back up the trail to find her. She had taken a wrong turn and didn’t realize it until she got to the end of the path which was blocked and had to turn around and retrace her steps which finally led her to the bridge over the water which is where Jams found her as he was coming back down the path from walking back up to the petroglyphs.
While we are waiting, Mauritius is busy looking behind fences and through gates that are open and finds a family behind a gate where two women are busy sifting chaff out of wheat the old fashioned way by hand and a screen in a wooden frame. They don’t seem to mind that we all troop in to take photos. I also point out the pit toilet to the ladies who need it.
Back in the cars, we haven’t driven far when the lead van with Slava pulls over and everyone gets out and starts walking through the fields. Those of us in Anatoly’s car pull up behind but by the time we park, the group is halfway across a field and no one is around to tell us what is happening. We ask Slava if it is the hot springs and he says yes. Well, obviously he hadn’t a clue what we asked. We scurry around and get our towels and start walking across the field to join the group. When we get halfway there, we see that they are climbing another hill
. It is a rather steep hill and some of the ladies are having a hard time getting up the hill. I think it’s not worth the climb for the hot springs so I watch and take some photos and then start back to the car. Female Aussie couple has decided it also isn’t worth the walk so she waits with me.
A young man/boy (maybe 14 or so) comes over to talk to us and offered to sell me some rubies and stones which he said his dad goes into the mountains to get. I knew it was pretty much a con but I looked at what he had and he had a nice couple of rocks, some of which seemed to be amber. I bought a “ruby” and a piece of amber for 30 som (about $2-3) but Jams said later I should have only paid maybe 2 som. I had bargained him down from 60 som. But also later at Jams place to buy stones, there weren’t any great prices either.
We find out while we are watching that the place up on the hill is actually the Buddhist stupa and not the hot springs! Would have been good to know because I might have tried walking up there had I known that. Here’s from the internet on the Vrang village Buddhist monastery: “”Just a stone's throw away from Yamchun fortress in Vrang village was discovered a huge site of public worship now identified as Buddhist monastery
. Nearby are the remnants of stupa built in accordance with local traditions and dated to VI-VII cc. At the top of the stupa rests a stone which if you ask anyone from the village about they'll tell you almost immediately that it has the footprint of Buddha on the stone.
The complex was surrounded with adobe brick wall fortified with watchtowers and included a temple, residential buildings constructed along the inner side of the walls and 11 caves used as monks cells, cut out on the slope of the terrace. Across the temple, on the other side of the river, there are the remnants of the other 60 caves-cells. It is now known that the residential section of the monastery used to be on the opposite bank of Pyanj.
Near the Buddhist complex there is Vrang fortress, which controlled the road from Shugnan direction. "Tibetian forts" mentioned in Hudud Al-Alam of 982 and written by unknown Persian writer was probably Vrang fort, while temples of idolaters "vahne" were allocated on the place of Buddhist complex, built not far from Yamchun fort.
Probably the same temple was mentioned by Syuan Tsan a Chinese traveler, who noted that the temple had stone Buddha statue with complicated construction over its head
. The monastery location was probably chosen because of powerful mineral monk caves near the vrang Buddhist stupa
hot spring which had curative affect. The spring exists in our days and known as Chashma-i-Djamchin and attracts many locals all-round the year””
We head on into Ptup and have lunch at our homestay. This house has a nice garden and a flush toilet and a shower with a large tub to stand in to wash. Lovely. The dining room has several platforms in it and the kitchen is accessed from behind a screen that leads into the host and hostesses part of the house.
We got to the homestay early enough that we can go to the fortress and the hot springs today. It is a windy narrow drive (gosh, like we haven’t had those already) so the program notes say we won’t do it in the late afternoon because it’s dangerous. We got there in plenty of time but by the time we left the hot springs, it was getting dark.
We are at Yamchun fortress. According to the Tajikistan tourist site on line: “”Also known as Zamr-i-Atash-Parast or Kafir-Qala, Yamchun fortress is probably the most impressive and eldest monument in Wakhan built on the top of the cliff overlooking the valley. It is thought to have been a greatest defense fortification in the ancient Wakhan. The fortress dated to 3-1 century BC and had thick stone walls and round watchtowers. According to local legend the fortress was built by kings-
brothers Qakhkaha and Zangibor
. The fort played a key role on the great Silk Road leading from Pamir to Bactria, India, Iran and back controlling the traffic, cargo and security in the region.
The fort is triangular in shape and divided into 3 sections. The first section includes citadel with bastion and barracks. This section was surrounded by wall and strengthens with round towers. Two other sections are open grounds for combat operations. Every ground was surrounded by thick stone walls and fortified by 36 towers. The outside walls are 2 meters wide while inner walls are 50-60 cm wide. Garm Chashma hot spring near Khorog
The towers were built in chess order and with small negative angle to improve visibility at fortress basement. Gun slots exist both in outside and inside walls which is supposed to increase defense capability. The building materials must have been delivered from remote locations, since metamorphic rock, granite and slate rocks, biotite pieces and other forms of mica are not found in close neighborhood.””
I had foolishly not brought my walking stick with me because I’m pretty sure I could have gotten to this fortress but without the stick, didn’t want to risk twisting my knee
. Still, the views from the outside were rather impressive. Most of our group went except female Aussie couple who wasn’t that jazzed about the climbing either plus she said she’d have photos and videos from her hubby going. Another group came along and visited too while we were there. It must have been rather big because when our group started back, they stood at the edge of the fortress and waved their arms for photos and they were very tiny in the photos. Further away than it looked.
From the fort, we continued climbing up to the hamman, or Bibi Fatima hot springs. It is named after Prophet Mohammed’s sister and local women believe they can increase their fertility here. London is the only woman in the group who is probably still of child bearing years so most of us weren’t concerned with this.
From where we parked the cars, it was still a walk up a short hill and then down several flights of stairs to reach the door to the springs. The Norwegians helped build this from what Jamshed told us. There was a rushing river/stream running through the building and they had built heaters/pipes to heat the water and run it into the hamman. We had to wait a few minutes to get it as it is a not a large bathing area and it was full when we got there
. Finally, several women left and we were told to go in. It is a nude bathing area and there are lockers to put your clothes and such. We all got nude and walked down the stairs to get in the hot water which was quite hot to step into it – probably about 40 - 43C or 104 - 110F but you got used to it pretty fast. It wasn’t mineral water, just heated spring water.
We were in the bath with 3 local women, two of which had young boys with them as well. I expect the boys were 4 or 5. Not the best age to be naked in a bath with them but local customs so we had to make do with it. One of the locals panicked for me when she saw that I was wearing a watch but it was a dive watch so ok to be in the water. I went over to the stream coming out of the pipes and stood under it to get my hair wet as well and give it a rinse. One of the locals took her son over there to do the same and he hated it. The other boy put up a fuss and managed to avoid it. We’re finally done after about 15 or 20 minutes and we all go back up the stairs to get dressed and they let in some other local women to take our places.
Of course, since the hamman was downhill, that meant a climb back uphill to get to the cars which had me sweating and ready for another bath
! None of the men partook of the hamman – weren’t interested which is probably good since they had to wait for the ladies to finish.
On our way back down the hill to our homestay, we passed a family cutting wheat by hand in their field. We all stopped and trooped over to take photos. Several of our group tried their hands at cutting the wheat which was done with a short curved knife – very sharp. Then the woman would tie it into a small bundle. Later, they would gather the bundles together and stand in a group. It took all of our members a very long time to cut a very short amount. This amused the farmers quite a lot so good times all around.
A nice dinner and I was able to sit on the edge of the platform to eat. When dinner was cleared up, the blankets and mattresses came out for the beds. It wasn’t that cold but many wanted two blankets just in case.
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