Friday, October 22, 2004
Eine Kleine Mega Awesome Boat Cruise
I'm in Fethiye. Tonight I sleep on a boat for free, because tomorrow we leave on a four day cruise to Olympos! Sweet!
To continue where my last post left off...
We finally caught a taxi to the bus station in Kusidasi, then a coach to Denizli, then a minibus to Pamukkale, which I have already talked about. Then, caught a Domus (bus) to Denizli again, and from there to Marmaris.
Marmaris: Mehmet gave us a free day trip on his boat. There were only fourteen other people on a vessel that can hold 150 people in peak season, so we had plenty of space to sunbathe. We also had lunch, bottles of water and icecreams, all for free, when the other passengers had payed 16 euros. The next day Mehmet organised a good deal with another company to go out for a day to get covered in mud and paddle in sulphur, which was cool, but nowhere near as much fun as the day on Mehmet's boat. On our last night there, he invited us for tea (as in the beverage) with his family at their winter apartment. It was SO much fun, his wife brought out plates of yummy desserts for each of us, and when I said, "wow, this is good!" she went out and brought back another huge dish piled high with all the kinds of desserts in excessive quantity. Chai (Turkish tea) is good. Mehmet's son has been learning English at school for the past two years (he's twelve) and he's really good! His accent is awesome and he's really keen to learn. He taught us the Turkish alphabet, and we learned a couple of phrases like goodnight and... something else that I've forgotten. The daughter went to bed not too long after we arrived. Man, it makes such a difference knowing people here!
From Marmaris we caught another bus to Fethiye (I hope you're all following this on your massive maps of Europe) where we planned to catch a boat cruise as soon as possible. The lowest price we had seen was 90 British pounds (they're always advertised in pounds, for some reason), but the guy at the pension where we stayed runs his own boat, and offered us the same deal - boat, four meals a day, water sports (skiing, snorkelling, the whole shebang), for three nights and four days, for 70 pounds. That's about one hundred and ninety two million Turkish lira. So we're doing that. It's pricy, but I can afford it after the general cheapness of Turkey. This is such a cool place.
Minor drama: I left my money belt with my passport and over 1000 euros in the hotel (under the mattress) in Pamukkale. I discovered this upon arrival in Marmaris, when I wanted to change some money. I phoned the hotel as soon as I could, and they couldn't find it, but said they would ask the cleaning lady (sinking feeling). It turned up, and they offered to send it on the next coach with one of the bus drivers. So, the next day I turned up at the bus station, asked about my belt, and noone knew what I was talking about. Luckily, Mehmet was with me, and he talked to them and offered to come back later to see if it had turned up. The next afternoon, Mehmet came to meet us at our hotel, and presented me with my belt, minus only sixty euros!!! So, a lesson learnt, and a small loss compared to what could have happened. Phew! Do not hide your valuables in silly places and then forget about them!
Minor drama 2: After swimming in Kusidasi and several times on boats in Marmaris, I was having troubles with my ears. They were blocked and sore. Actually, I first had problems on Mykonos, where I went to the free doctor and got some ear drops. They were working ok at softening the wax, but it was still sitting in my ears. So, on our second night in Marmaris, I was lying in bed unable to sleep because my ear was hurting SO much! So I got up and walked down to the 24 hour doctor. He wanted to charge me 50 pounds (**!!!**) but I must have looked pretty taken aback, because he said, "How much do you pay in your country?" I said, around 40 dollars. Unfortunately, he automatically assumed I meant American dollars, and charged me 60 million Turkish lira, which is actually about 60 NZ dollars. Still significantly less than 50 pounds! He gave me a shot in the bum for pain killing (a novel, but not soon to be repeated, experience) and said to come back tomorrow to have my ears flushed out. Which I did, and MAN you should have seen how much goop came out! It was nice and soft from all the drops, and it came out really easily, but who would have thought you could fit that much stuff inside your head? I felt really dizzy and nauseous immediately afterwards, but soon got over it, and since then things have been mint! I can swim and dive to my heart's content. Today I swam down and touched our boat's anchor (oh, yeah, we got another free day trip today for staying at this pension, and it was a good'un)! I was also the only person to climb from shore to boat on the guy rope, which is cool (hard as nails)!!!
Oh, Mum and Ali, I can't use my Yabba card to phone you from Turkey because there's no number. I checked on the internet, and Turkey's just not on the list.
So, that pretty much brings us up to date. At Olympos we are going to stay in tree houses, and in Capadoccia we hope to stay in a cave house! In Ankara we will stay with Bilgehan's family, and in Istanbul we will catch up with his Aunty. So cool! So juicy sweeeeeeet!
Oh, and I ate my first whole fish today, and it was good! Also, in Turkey there are places where you can get a whole baby salmon for lunch for six NZ dollars. This place is amazing!
Ok, keep safe, y'all.
To continue where my last post left off...
We finally caught a taxi to the bus station in Kusidasi, then a coach to Denizli, then a minibus to Pamukkale, which I have already talked about. Then, caught a Domus (bus) to Denizli again, and from there to Marmaris.
Marmaris: Mehmet gave us a free day trip on his boat. There were only fourteen other people on a vessel that can hold 150 people in peak season, so we had plenty of space to sunbathe. We also had lunch, bottles of water and icecreams, all for free, when the other passengers had payed 16 euros. The next day Mehmet organised a good deal with another company to go out for a day to get covered in mud and paddle in sulphur, which was cool, but nowhere near as much fun as the day on Mehmet's boat. On our last night there, he invited us for tea (as in the beverage) with his family at their winter apartment. It was SO much fun, his wife brought out plates of yummy desserts for each of us, and when I said, "wow, this is good!" she went out and brought back another huge dish piled high with all the kinds of desserts in excessive quantity. Chai (Turkish tea) is good. Mehmet's son has been learning English at school for the past two years (he's twelve) and he's really good! His accent is awesome and he's really keen to learn. He taught us the Turkish alphabet, and we learned a couple of phrases like goodnight and... something else that I've forgotten. The daughter went to bed not too long after we arrived. Man, it makes such a difference knowing people here!
From Marmaris we caught another bus to Fethiye (I hope you're all following this on your massive maps of Europe) where we planned to catch a boat cruise as soon as possible. The lowest price we had seen was 90 British pounds (they're always advertised in pounds, for some reason), but the guy at the pension where we stayed runs his own boat, and offered us the same deal - boat, four meals a day, water sports (skiing, snorkelling, the whole shebang), for three nights and four days, for 70 pounds. That's about one hundred and ninety two million Turkish lira. So we're doing that. It's pricy, but I can afford it after the general cheapness of Turkey. This is such a cool place.
Minor drama: I left my money belt with my passport and over 1000 euros in the hotel (under the mattress) in Pamukkale. I discovered this upon arrival in Marmaris, when I wanted to change some money. I phoned the hotel as soon as I could, and they couldn't find it, but said they would ask the cleaning lady (sinking feeling). It turned up, and they offered to send it on the next coach with one of the bus drivers. So, the next day I turned up at the bus station, asked about my belt, and noone knew what I was talking about. Luckily, Mehmet was with me, and he talked to them and offered to come back later to see if it had turned up. The next afternoon, Mehmet came to meet us at our hotel, and presented me with my belt, minus only sixty euros!!! So, a lesson learnt, and a small loss compared to what could have happened. Phew! Do not hide your valuables in silly places and then forget about them!
Minor drama 2: After swimming in Kusidasi and several times on boats in Marmaris, I was having troubles with my ears. They were blocked and sore. Actually, I first had problems on Mykonos, where I went to the free doctor and got some ear drops. They were working ok at softening the wax, but it was still sitting in my ears. So, on our second night in Marmaris, I was lying in bed unable to sleep because my ear was hurting SO much! So I got up and walked down to the 24 hour doctor. He wanted to charge me 50 pounds (**!!!**) but I must have looked pretty taken aback, because he said, "How much do you pay in your country?" I said, around 40 dollars. Unfortunately, he automatically assumed I meant American dollars, and charged me 60 million Turkish lira, which is actually about 60 NZ dollars. Still significantly less than 50 pounds! He gave me a shot in the bum for pain killing (a novel, but not soon to be repeated, experience) and said to come back tomorrow to have my ears flushed out. Which I did, and MAN you should have seen how much goop came out! It was nice and soft from all the drops, and it came out really easily, but who would have thought you could fit that much stuff inside your head? I felt really dizzy and nauseous immediately afterwards, but soon got over it, and since then things have been mint! I can swim and dive to my heart's content. Today I swam down and touched our boat's anchor (oh, yeah, we got another free day trip today for staying at this pension, and it was a good'un)! I was also the only person to climb from shore to boat on the guy rope, which is cool (hard as nails)!!!
Oh, Mum and Ali, I can't use my Yabba card to phone you from Turkey because there's no number. I checked on the internet, and Turkey's just not on the list.
So, that pretty much brings us up to date. At Olympos we are going to stay in tree houses, and in Capadoccia we hope to stay in a cave house! In Ankara we will stay with Bilgehan's family, and in Istanbul we will catch up with his Aunty. So cool! So juicy sweeeeeeet!
Oh, and I ate my first whole fish today, and it was good! Also, in Turkey there are places where you can get a whole baby salmon for lunch for six NZ dollars. This place is amazing!
Ok, keep safe, y'all.
# posted by Doug @ 18:13 
