POOR MANS ORIENT EXPRESS: BODRUM

BODRUM PENINSULA

Oct 15-22

I honestly thought the report for this week would be "we rented a nice little village cottage with a sea view and just drank wine and read books". That did not happen.

The cottage, though lovely, overlooked the major highway and the village was behind it. Not exactly what I envisioned. We cancelled that. Fortunately, Frank, a Italian from the Bronx, had another offer. Next to his house, way up on top of the hill was another apartment, so we went for that.

Frank is an old SouthEast Asia hand and he and I were in the same areas at the same time, but we never knew each other. He is a regular ex-pat, 65+, 41 year old wife, and 9 month old daughter. He left us to go to Istanbul to get his daughter registered at the U.S. Embassy and we had the place to ourselves. We did have to share it with 2 dogs and the caretakers family. Not a big problem. We thought.

Then one of the dogs started to bark. I don't mean," I see something I will bark at", type bark. I mean this damn dog barked for 5 hours straight the second night without stopping. It had started the first night and got progressively worse. We sent a message to Frank- it was either us or the dog.

While awaiting a reply I went shopping for a new home. There were a lot of hotel deals that were much cheaper than where we were. Blogay, General Manager, of the 5 star Delta Resort really wanted us to stay at his resort. Americans never come here and he had spent 15 years on Captiva Island in Florida. The whole management staff came out to get us to stay. They close for the season on Thursday but would let us stay until our flight on Saturday. It was a great place with a great price right on the water . I think he would have even let us stay for free if we wanted it. Sadly, Frank shipped the barking dog off to the vet and we had no excuse to leave his apartment on the hill, for the nice view of the ocean, for the luxury resort with a balcony right on the water.

Remember the car problems? Well, after driving over god forsaken roads not much wider than the car with no guard rails and 2000 foot drop offs, the left front tire got a little low on air. We pulled into the gas station and the attendants rushed over and put air in all the tires. I know they put in the proper amount as they have these huge gauges that show the psi in inches and mb. As I backed the car up there was a huge bang. Everyone came running over to see what happened. The rim on the front tire actually split off and the tire popped.

I thought this would be a real problem with the rental car company. The main office for the company was just 10 km from where we were and we drove to the office and they gave us new car. The company owner said in 25 years of owning the rental company he had never seen that happen. Fortunately I was holding Vicki's hands or she would have cold cocked him. All she could see was that dam thing blowing out on one of those roads.

The car story does not end there. That afternoon we were back because of a low tire. "No problem, just needs air". Two days later we were back again and I said "fix it our I will make you drink plain tea and eat with your left hand." In less than 20 minutes the valve stem was replaced and away we went.

Bodrum city, we were actually on a hill over Yalikavak, is a mid-sized town of of 30,000 that swells to over 100,000 during the summer. The ever dreaded cruise ship was in, so it seemed like there were a 100,000 people in town but parking was easy and in Europe that is a plus.

I am not the only one that can't spell.

I did not want a coffee cup but the young sales lady talked me into it.

No, the picture is not of the boys, but the windmills on top of the hill.

We were contemplating coming home on a cruise ship. We found a 15 day transatlantic trip for $499. That does not include the $11 a day "tip" that is added to your bill automatically. Anyway, I had blown out my best pair of cheap trousers and needed more. So we stopped in the bazaar and bought some "Hugo Boss" or so the packaging and label said. Why do I think Hugo Boss has never made a size 6X in his life! Anyway they fit, I got to negotiate and now I am "stylin'".

Again we met and talked to a lot of people. The restaurants in Yalikavak were empty and the owners would sit and chat with us. Cumbali owner, Gurkan Gumus, and I bonded as he is a Che Guevara fan also. He told us next year he was going to have Che tattooed on his heart. "But what about your girlfriend?" I asked. "Girlfriends are nice and I love them but they come and go, Che Guevara is in my heart forever."

Tameros owner, Tamer Sagisman, sat and drank Raki with us after dinner as we were his only customers of the evening. We talked about everything from cats to politics, "our president has been in too long" he said. "Ten years. He is a DH. You know what is DH? Excuse me lady, but a d..k head." Most of the restaurant and hotel owners in the tourist areas say the Turkish tourist is the worst to deal with. He talked a lot about the Russians and told several stories. "These are the most no class people I see. You try to give them good service and anticipate what they want, but they have no class!! so you cannot. They start with desert and whiskey and then want a pizza but I don't even have pizza on the menu, but I go next door and get pizza and then they want this and that and they may order from the menu, but maybe not. Yes, I make money from them but at what cost? They come in the busy season and while I take care of their no class the other customers suffer." We hear this same story all over Europe

Tamor is tending these kittens that showed up and paying out of his own pocket to have them fixed. I would have stayed and drank Raki a little longer but I was afraid Vicki would come home with one.

The boat races, as highlighted in another entry, were the big hit of the week.

We, of course, had to see OS. Here in Bodrum is one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. The tomb/Mausoleum built hundreds of years BC. Like a lot of things in this part of the world, you really have to go to London to see the real stuff.