36:55.8 N   38:10.1 E   Aspendos Ruins

 

Monday 6/6/11

The week of sailing was Fantastic.  The coast of this part of Turkey is a paradise with endless nooks and crannies to explore.  We had great company for the week with Neil and Clare and all the other lovely people, English and Turkish, that we met.  Detailed sailing chart to follow.

 

We went back to our old campsite at Hisaronu on the Datca peninsula,  and were greeted like old friends by our Turkish German Gastarbeiter neighbour.  Our tent is pitched in exactly the same spot as before but the tent city around us has grown a bit. We went to investigate the “Marmaris Resort” in the evening just up the road, a very fancy hotel complex.  We ordered red wine & cappucino and were not allowed to pay for it!! I think it must be one of those all inclusive places.  It was full of Russians and we obviously looked like we belonged.  They all had shirts on so we know they were not English.  If it hadn’t been for the fact that mozzies and sandflies were dining out on Sandy’s feet (not mine!) we would have gone back the next night for dinner.

 

Tue 7/6/11

A whole day in Marmaris, getting the car fixed.  It was actually quite okay.  We went back to the same money changer as 2 weeeks ago and were AGAIN given our money TL 100 down.  This time Sandy checked it in the shop.  They have a very clever way of counting it out so that some gets counted twice!

 

But our theory that 98 per cent of people are good still holds.  The guy who fixed the car charged us about a quarter of what it would have been in UK and was smiley and quick too.

 

We  returned to the Miami Cafe to say goodbye to Om Bashir, our Turkish teacher/restauranteur.  We met lovely people from ?Wigan in his cafe and his wife and kids, he has lots of regular customers, quite a few of whom have moved permanently to Marmaris from Northern England.

 

Wed 8/6/11

Up early this morning to drive east.  Tonight we are in Aspendos in Western Anatolia.  Tomorrow hopefully we’re going to look at the Aspendos ruins and go to opera in the Amplitheatre.  We are staying at the Vadi Hotel.  It’s pretty dysfunctional and lacking in atmosphere.  We could have had skin peeling but declined.  But I spent a lovely afternoon waiting for the washing to be done (once I found their washing machine)and chatting to the owners.  The masseur is Alexander, he wanders around bare chested in a pair of rupert bear pants.  There are 3 ladies, all scantily clad.  The 2 young ones are Nadia and Anastasia from Russia.  We all sat together outside in the shade, i painted, they all smoked and talked on mobiles, and we had a Russo/anglo/german/turkish conversation about not much at all.