Wed 8 June 2011

 

We came to Belcik, the village next door to the ancient site of Aspendos, so that we could visit the site early in the morning.  We stayed in the Vadi Hotel, very interesting.  The room was really dusty and there was no key to the verandah door although we were given several to try.  The owner’s nickname is Alexander Assos.  There was a lady called Belji and 2 large Russian girls called Nadia and Tatyana, wearing very skimpy clothing (unusual for Turkey).  The hotel was very DIY.  The cleaning woman was “off today because her husband died tomorrow” (from what we can see she will have a great deal of work to do on her return), and  “If we are not here in the morning just help yourselves to breakfast”.

 

The people were actually very hospitable.  I spent the afternoon sitting outside with them, painting, and eating their oranges and sunflower seeds and drinking cay.  We had a conversation in Russo/anglo/turko/german while waiting for our washing to be done in the washing machine I found.  The Vadi Hotel has several massage rooms with lurid, sexy pictures on the walls, a turkish bath, sauna and skin peeling room.  We were offered the opportunity to try skin peeling but politely declined.

 

We went out to eat and when we returned, our hosts were outside waiting for us, and said “we are going now, here are the keys” and proceeded to show us the cctv, the aircon and where to leave the key under the plant pot.  The man in the suit climbed out of our bedroom window to turn the aircon on, then they all left us – alone with the lurid pictures and the dust!  At around 1am Sandy heard a sound, we got up and saw 2 chaps hanging around in the pitch dark just outside the hotel door, they were visible when they dragged on their cigarettes.  We decided to leave, went out, locked up and drove half a mile down the road and slept (a bit) in the car. 

 

When we got back (6am) the 2 chaps were still there, sleeping on the ground outside the hotel.  I hadn’t been too suspicious, but sandy pointed out they had not registered us nor taken a passport (obligatory in Turkey).  They took our money but gave no receipt.  We didnt actually know if THEY were supposed to be there!  So if the hotel had burned down, we could have found ourselves having a horrible Ukraine moment!  We will never know whether our worries had any substance.   We waved goodbye to the 2 rough sleepers, locked up and left the key under the pot as instructed.  We hadn’t bothered with breakfast.  Their bread was mouldy and we couldn’t find any cups.