Beldibi Venus Hotel

... to Alanya, I opted to take the coach this time instead of hitch hiking. I got into the station at 6:30 and then took a city bus to get closer to the beach. I think I was pretty much in the wrong neighbourhood for cheap hotels but was able to negotiate a room down from 50 to 30 TL. The apartment had a living room, kitchen, dining area and bedroom!<br><br>Now for a walk-about town for the evening...

(English follows) <br>Nous avons fa&#305;t du raft&#305;ng dans la gorge de Kropulu. L'eau eta&#305;t bleue, bleue et bleue... et ple&#305;n de po&#305;ssons. Journee agreable passee en compagn&#305;e de nouveaux am&#305;s de Montreal, M&#305;chel et Suzanne avec qu&#305; on s'en va fa&#305;re ...

... schönen Halbrund die gute Akustik bei Konz**ten genießen. Von den Ruinen auf d** nahen Akropolis bietet sich ein weit** Blick üb** die Reste eines Stadions, und eine harmonische Landschaft aus Feld**n und Dörf**n vor ein** Hügelkette, die von den beeindruckenden Resten eines römischen Aquädukts durchschnitten w**den, samt Turmstationen für den Wass**druck, die alleine noch hi** **halten sind. "Allahu Acbar", so schallt zum Nachmittagsgebet d** Ruf d** Muezzine ...

... good English and his motel offers free Wifi, a nice reading table full of trip reports and (mostly American) birding monthlies. We went into the delta, using one of the motel leaflets as a guide and visited a number of hides and lookouts. The weather was fine, little wind and a bit of sun. We saw the Grey headed Purple Gallinule (a subspecies of the one we saw in Kenya, Egypt and Spain), Greater Sandplover, Marbled Teal, Spanish Sparrow, Lesser Spotted ...

... each other, and have been living here year round for several years. They both have houses here and it appears that they have an unspoken understanding to meet here for beers in the evening. He's retired from his clerk position in a navel shipping company, somewhere in the south of England, specializing in lumber. He tells us how cheap the real estate and land tax is here. She is living on money she and her deceased husband had saved for their retirement, and tells us of a stray ...

... along the scenic Mediterranean coast, we arrive at Patara, the highly-rated but un-hyped and relatively unpatronised beach town. It is another one of those drop-you-on-the-side-of-the-road-and-fe nd-for-yourself situations but without the regular minibus service connecting the main road with the beach, six kilometres away. A wild-eyed and straggly-haired young guy leaps out of nowhere and starts talking frantically about his hotel. When he says "You come ...

After all the rock formations we had seen it was time to head back to the coast for some sea and sand. So it was off to a place on the water called Kizkalesi. Firstly we headed along the beach and found an absolute bargain place right on the beach with a perfect view of Maiden's Castle out in the middle of the water. We spent 2 nights here sunbaking, drinking, eating and ...

Who would have ever thought that a re-make of the tree house that the Swýss Famýly Robinson lived in would exsist...well it does and we stayed in one of them last night. A whole heap of small tree houses linked into one another with stair cases here and there and a river running along the side. We have ended up in Olympos and explored the ruins of the ancient city and climbed the mountain to see the Chirmara-the place where the Olympic flame first ...

... trousered men loitered around on corners or strode down roads in large groups, while the few women to be seen had disappeared into the very common headscarf. Fewer businesses were up and running, and fewer cars plied the roads. We caught our first glimpse of an Attaturk statue. Milling about near the checkpoint, we encountered a French couple who were on the march to the bus station a kilometer away. Not having any clue where to locate a bus, we asked if we ...

... city in Turkey. I've been reading a really good book on the beach, "The Heartless Stone" by Tom Zoellner. It's about the diamond industry: mines, wars, the DeBeers cartel. Walking on the beachfront street today I passed a store called "DeBeer Jewelry." I guess the DeBeers marketing reach has reached every part of the globe.