Day 1 - Blue Cruise
Trip Start
Apr 21, 2008
1
126
225
Trip End
Apr 20, 2009
Fethiye,
Turkey
Sunday, August 24, 2008
When I got to the office, I saw 4 couples and 1 single girl. I didnt like what I was seeing. I felt duped. I was told I wouldnt be with couples and here I was standing in a room with 4 of them. I didnt say anything right away. I first went to the bank machine to take out some money. When I returned, the 4 couples were gone. They were put on a separate boat. I was happy about that. That left me and the single girl. I went over to introduce myself. I found out her name was Sarah. Sarah was a 22 yr old girl from SF who was on a 7 month trip. Shortly after we introduced ourselves, a lady sitting behind the desk said we should go outside to meet the 5 other people who would join us. Outside, we met the rest of the gang from our boat cruise. They were 5 girls from Hong Kong and they were young so that was good. They were all travelling together and were on a short holiday in Turkey. Unfortunately it didnt seem like the spoke much English so it looked like Sarah and I would be limited to each other for conversation over the next 4 days.
One thing I was upset about was that the guy from V-Go, Ned, that I bought the ticket from said I would be on a 10 person boat and that I got the last spot. He was obviously lying as there were only 7 of us. I hate it when people lie. I knew it was a pressure tactic to get me to book right away.
When we got to our boat, the girls from Hong Kong werereally disappointed. Their travel agent told them that they would be on a much bigger boat and that they would have air conditioning in their room. This wasnt the case. I felt bad for them because the trip didnt even start and they were already disappointed. A few phone calls were made to their travel agent but nothing could be done. They were "stuck" on this boat. After a short delay, we ended leaving the port at 11:30 am.
As soon as we took off, I went to the front of the boat. I really liked being there as we sailed straight ahead. It is one of the best feelings of freedom one can have - sailing into the open sea. I especially enjoyed having the front of the boat to myself. Everyone else was lying down in the middle of the boat. Poor Sarah was sick and was just sleeping. It was nice just watching and listening to the water splash from underneath the boat. I probably watched and listened to this for about half an hour, never realizing that this was a great thing to do while on a boat. Normally I just look out into the sea or at the nearby islands. This was better. Call me crazy.
We stopped at a few places. I was the only one on the boat that went out for a swim. Sarah was still sick and most of the Hong Kong (HK) girls didnt swim. The others werent comfortable swimming in deep water. I had that part of the sea to myself. I enjoyed it. One thing that I thought was funny was when I dove into the water, the 5 HK girls al stared at me like I had some super natural power. They all looked at me in pure amazement. They couldnt get their eyes off me while I was swimming. I decided to showboat a bit and make myself float which they also liked seeing.
My favorite stop of the day was Butterfly Valley. What an amazing place. The beach was in between these 2 rocky mountains. When the boat stopped, I jumped into the water and swam to the shore to check it out. It was funny as there were probably 3 other boats like ours in the water and no one else was getting into the water. I noticed some people from the other boats looking at me as if they were thinking "Why didnt I think of that?". And slowly others jumped into the water as well.
From a distance, all you could see where multi colored tents across the beach. There were no hotels or guesthouses. When I got to the shore, I took a walk around. It was great. All you saw were people just chilling out and enjoying the peace. The only noise came from the people jumping out of their boats so they could swim to the shore. The scene reminded me of the move "The Beach". It felt like these people set up their own community on the beach and have been their for ages. I walked behind the row of tents and noticed about a dozen wooden bungalows. They were tiny. Not much bigger than the tents I saw on the beach. A mild storm could eaily blow these bungalows apart. Regardless, I thought they were great. These were the islands "5 star" accomodations (for only 35 liras a night including breakfast and supper - what a deal!). I started a conversation with a young Turkish guy as I wanted to know more about the island. He gave me some details. He siad the few tourists that came here were mainly Turks. Not many foreigners came here. Perfect, I thought. He encouraged that I check out the lounge area. So I did. It was quite amazing. The lounge area was pretty big. Enough to fit about 30 picnic tables and several hammocks. I walked around and many guys looked like Turkish Rastafarians. People were just smoking, drinking, and reading. They were pretty much just chilling out waiting patiently for the day to go by. As the guy said, there werent many foreigners. I only heard english spoken by 2 other people. Everyone else was speaking Turkish. It was such a great place. It was Turkey's permanent woodstock. It felt like a place the some of the young Turks escaped to. I wish I knew about this place earlier. It would have been a lot better to hang out here instead of Bodrum. This was my kind of place. The perfect escape. The guy working on my boat said if I liked this place, I would like Olympos - the town where we would end our trip at. That gave me something to look forward to.
At the end of the day, we stopped at St Nicholas Island. We had a nice fish dinner and just chatted amongst ourselves. I was proactive in trying to get the HK girls involved. They seemed a bit shy. I think my effort was worth it as they did open up a lot more as the night came to an end.
All of us went to bed at 1130 pm. None of us slept in our rooms. Instead, we all slept on the deck. Best bed I have had all trip.
Dino Vagabond.
