Fethiye Hotels
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Fethiye Fish Markets and Efes to the eyeballs
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Enjoyed a fine breakfast this morning with fiery haired Susie and her partner Peter the Romanian fisherman, a good value middleaged couple that i met at the hostel last night. The morning in Pamukkale was ultra brief, as our host Hassan shipped us up to the main drag at around 10am, where we then caught a Dolmus (minibus) to the larger city of Denizli. From Denizli, the plan of attack was to jump aboard another dolmus and travel south for three hours to the portside harbour town of Fethiye, which, from all accounts was a lovely spot to check out. The Denizli bus station was typically bustling, and i quickly found myself acquainted with a very excitable Korean by the name of Kelly, who entertained me greatly on the bus ride to Fethiye. Through mountainous, winding roads, each corner yielded sight after amazing sight, impressing the pants off excitable Kelly, who clapped everything the whole way there in typical Korean fashion. We were let off at a totally random no horse town at one point. and copped many a gaze from lethargic locals, who probably weren`t privy to too many random Aussie and Korean duos rocking up in the middle of their afternoon. We loafed around the strange town looking like lost sheep, and thankfully kept on truckin not long after.
Abot an hour later, our bus arrived in the scenic portside town of Fethiye, admittedly a fairly touristy spot, but a significant change of pace from Selcuk and Pamukkale. A couple of days ago, under the all wise, all-knowing Ali Baba, i booked a spot on one of Fethiye`s famous blue voyages - a four day boat cruise from along the glorious meditterranean coast from Fethiye to the treehouse laden commune of Olympos, four days of chilling, eating, drinking and sailing around like would-be pirates. I say, what more could a man ask for? İ was sold from word go.
Conveniently, it seemed that Kelly the Korean had booked for the same cruise, and had found a great looking hostel that was run by the same company, so i followed her to the V-GO Hostel, the nicest and plushest digs i`d so far encountered in Turkey, with an awesome downstairs pool and bar area. Talked jive wýth staff fellas Ohal and ibrahim over a chunky pint of Efes Pilsener, and the bar area began to crowd up with the predominantly Australian and American hostel inhabitants. On my own, i jumped in and got chatting to everyone, and the conversation and beers began to flow very freely. There was the brothers from Bowral, Justin and Nathan, who`d been to Syria and Jordan with Brett and Catrina. There was Chris and Amy, two Sydneysiders living and working in London with their mates Dave and Michelle. There was Ryan and Katie from the US (who coincidentally booked exactly the same flight out of İstanbul to where im headed after Turkey), as well as jive ass New Yowkers Mike and Fink. Though Fink was his surname, Fink actually looked like what a fink would probably look like. İn no time, this group of totally random travellers knew each other pretty well, and we all his the local fish market and restaurant spot hwere we bought up big on fresh seafood and sat down whilst Turkish blokes cooked it up for us. The service was unusually flaccid for Turkey`s standards (is flaccid the right word? Probably not, actually), but we coninued to drink, share stories, have many a laugh and enjoy each others company. İ felt fairly homesick upon arrival to the hostel, but one the ice was broken and i came out of my shell, all was well again. Solo travel is good like that, it really does force you to break the ice, and once you do, you really get the ball rolling. (jeez Cam how many cliches do you want to ram home in a single breath?)
Though the service left a little to be desired, the meal rocked, and i was intrigued by the Aussie`s accounts of theit travels in the Middle East, and about how highly reccomended places such as even İran were. Now that would be a trip to write home about. İ just don`t think i have the sufficient balls required to venture to the axis of evil on my own just yet. Maybe one day. We frequented the `Car Cemetary Bar` post-meal, a tourist laden nightspot that served entire beer taps to tables instead of individual drinks. İ was thoroughly impressed and dumbfounded as to how such an innovation was nowhere present back home in Oz. No night in Turkey is complete without the presence of a Nargile water pipe, and after the multitude of beer taps, the Nargile got a real workout from our collection of lungs. İ met another group of Aussies at an adjacent table, all of which were on the same cruise tomorrow, sisters Ivy and Meg, and Shannon from Sydney. We also came across a leather-tanned, middle aged rat man who possessed and uncany resemblance to Rod Stewart, which he seemed to relish in, as he flaunted his skills on the dance floor, belting out the words to `İf you want my body` in an unbuttoned sailor shirt.
İ was absolutely rapped with how the night turned out, it really couldn`t have been any better, and i was chomping at the bit to set sail on this marvellous cruise tomorrow morning.
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| 54. | Fethiye Fish Markets and Efes to the eyeballs - Fethiye, Turkey Jun 04, 2006 |
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