I have been somewhat disappointed by the lack of Silk Road influences left in Istanbul especially given its importance for trade being at the corssroads between East and West. Mostly the city's museums concentrate on the Ottoman empire and the various Sultans who have lived in Istanbul. Of course it is unlikely anyway that the Silk Road would have left more than a handful of sights since few would have survived the 800 years since its heyday. But still I would have thought that such a diverse city would have had more to show. Of course there is still much to show for its trading prowess and the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market that still survive today testify this.

I made my way to the Archeological museum full of anticipation that this would indeed hold the key to Istanbul's Silk Road heritage. Sadly it did not quite satisfy me, with interesting but irrelevant exhibits about pre=historic times and Troy. But after an hour or so of sifting through largely unlabelled pottery, glassware and weaponry it all became a bit "same same but different".

Since I knew that the overnight bus to Selcuk would not be much fun, I decided to treat myself to a truly Turkish experience - the Turkish bath. For about 20 quid you can have the works which basically means you strip down to just wearing a piece of cloth (or pestemal) and you are then left to lie on a hot marble slab and allowed to sweat for about half an hour. Of course the baths were seperated which left me sitting with a lot of fat and sweaty Turkish men mingled with a few tourists. Next an attendant came and informed me it was time for my soapy wash, but not before ensuring that he'd informed me that he would make it extra good if I tipped him extra well. I tried to explain that you tip if you feel the service has been excellent without being asked but he didnt understand. I didnt try and bother explain that if he hadn't asked it would probably have been bigger.

Still he got on with the job. First he used what could only be described as a scourer disguised as a glove, to scrape all the dead skin from my body - and by god there was a lot of it that came off leaving me feeling pretty raw. Then he washed me with soap while giving a pretty rough massage - at times I could feel my bones almost grinding on the surface. By this stage however I was feeling pretty relaxed and then he led me to have an oil massage with a very sweaty attendant next door.

Feeling completely relaxed I made my way back to the hotel and had a beer on the way. With a couple of people at the hotel and Ozzie who runs it, we sat on the roof terrace and had supper. Feeling ready I headed off to catch my bus to Selcuk. And so, along with half of South Korea's non-English speaking population, I sat for about 10 hours next to a mumblig Turk on his way to Iraq for business. Needless to say I didn't get an awful lot of sleep!