Rixos Hotel Beldibi

(English follows)
Nous avons faıt du raftıng dans la gorge de Kropulu. L'eau etaıt bleue, bleue et bleue... et pleın de poıssons. Journee agreable passee en compagnıe de nouveaux amıs de Montreal, Mıchel et Suzanne avec quı on s'en va faıre ...

... mit üb**dimensioni**ten 'Developments' auf staubigen Feld**n, viele davon noch im Bau. Wie mag es hi** im Somm** zugehen, wenn all diese Kapazitäten genutzt w**den, in sengend** Hitze? In Alanya finden wir mit ei***** Mühe und d** Hilfe eines freundlichen Hoteli**s mit Int**netanschluss uns** Pauschalhotel in einem hässlichen Neubauvorort südlich d** Innenstadt. Alles ordentlich, ab** irgendwie billig und ein wenighässlich hi**. Für drei Nächte wird es gehen.

... among others). According to our guide book Silifke is also known for the fact that Frederick Barbarossa died there. He drowned in the Goksu river while leading his troops on the third Crusade. Robert's history teacher at high school always told that he was thrown from his horse and fell into one of his sharp "tools of the trade", drowning is less glamorous for a warlord isn't it? Apart from birds and beautiful medieval castles, the Eastern ...

... 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 ...

... hours of the night. We've been doing most of our long distance travel overnight to save on accommodation costs and we are getting much better at sleeping on the bus. Devoted readers will recall our complaints about the overnight buses in Australia but we are getting much more used to them and an Australian Greyhound would feel like absolute luxury now. Our sleeping abilities are sorely tested here on Turkish night buses, particularly by the loud action movies ...

... were huge drops on these narrow parts where they had piled up sand to do the road at a later date. Damo's expert driving got us through and once we arrived in Alanya it was off for some drinks (only 2 each as $8 for a beer) before crashing at 2am. As it is really just a drinking place we didn't take any photos of Alanya. Alanya is a haven for Germans and Scandinavians ...

... We were able to even toast marshmallows over the flames. Everyone was jealous of our marshmallows as you can't get them in Turkey....our guide got them in Greece on her way. We have travelled down along a small section of the west coast before heading inland to a place called Pamukkale. An area of salt pools with thermal water running through them. After driving down to Oludeniz where we camped for 2 nights straight after a huge downpour where our ...

... pictures of people killed in the fighting. Nevertheless, they waved us out of south Cyprus with little more than a flick of the finger, after which we trudged through a narrow no man's land to the north Cyprus immigration control kiosk, where we received Turkish Cyprus stamps on separate pieces of paper (we hear Greece does not always accept people whose passports bear testimony to their time in North Cyprus). After being stamped in, we took a look around ...

... 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.

... hotel were in Dutch only, but all of the workers spoke English as well. Alanya seems like the northern European version of Cancun...there are tourists here from many European counties and it has a very spring break-like atmosphere. We arrived to our apartment, the Cleo South Princess...it is sparse, but sufficient. The food here is really good so far, and it is nice to be somewhere that has a currency weaker than the dollar for a change. We are going out tonight after a much-needed nap.