Well, thats our holiday come and gone. No sooner do you arrive then a week goes like Usain Bolt doing the 100 metres.
We went to Turkey for the first time. The Hotel was very nice (Club Orka Hisararnu), and the resort was too.
On our very first night there was a BBQ and floor show. It was very good indeed, with many amazing dancers. One chap, built like a snake, did a belly dancing type act, and ended by inviting female members of the audience to copy his moves.
Charlotte and senior management seemed to suddenly need to go to the loo! On their return, he had dragged eight girls/ladies onto the dance floor, and they eyed him warily as he started to encourage them to imitate him.
It was hilarious, and no doubt aided by my second brandy, I laughed away, very glad that it wasnt me. He was, shall we say, incredibly bendy! He started off simply, and after about 10 minutes moved onto increasingly complicated contortions where the victims had to wiggle their top half one way, and their hips the other.
Hats off to the ladies, they did very well.
There were a few downers. We had a storm for a couple of days, and it was pretty violent. Branches and bits of debris were in the pools, and it also meant we lost hot water for awhile.
I remember booking this Hotel in case this happened (end of October after all), because it also had an INDOOR pool. So no problem then.
However, on dipping our toes into the water, it was absolutely freezing! In fact colder than the 2 outdoor pools, as the sun got nowhere near it. Daughter Charlotte bravely crept in , and being daddy I was encouraged to dive in.
Brrrr! I think I broke the record for being in and then out. Not enjoyable at all.
I went to see the Manager, and asked what was the point of an indoor pool that wasnt heated? But he wasnt very helpful, and after watching his shoulders shrug for the sixth time, I gave up.
We also had the pleasure of listening to the local Mullah calling the faithful to prayer four times a day. This was very interesting, but of course these days it involves loudspeakers. So, the first night, senior and junior management were peeping out the curtains at 5 in the morning wondering what on earth was going on.
I slept on apparently.
The sun did shine the fourth day though, and we were able to lie around the pool reading, and swim every half hour or so. The best bit, that Charlotte loved, was the water slide.
It was a good one, with a few twists and a very fast end bit where you plunged into the water at speed. Of course this meant that I was encouraged to go as fast as I could, frequently pushed down by Charlotte, who thought it very funny to turn me into a human torpedo.
Great fun!
We did enjoy some good local and international food, and spent half a day at a port called Fethiye. Sitting at the harbour with a coffee, we saw various boats offering to take you round the ’12 Islands’. In the end we didnt bother, but saw a particular boat, mooring after been out on the trip.
It wasnt a big boat, and because there were bigger boats either side, we could only see the stern where people gingerly disembarked. We watched a dozen or so get off, then some more, and then even more. It was like that old comedy film where a taxi pulls up and a never ending stream of people get out!
It was unbelievable. Still more were getting off, and I couldnt resist walking along the harbour a bit to examine this miraculous boat. There was just one deck, simply a seating area in the middle and around the sides. So, as there was a queue waiting to board, we watched it fill up to see the miracle happen again.
Sardines werent in it! Dozens of folk were prodded into every nook and cranny, until even by Turkish standards the captain thought they were full. It was a similar attitude in the bars at night when the temperature dropped. The owners simply lit huge braziers dotted randomly around the bar, and chucked huge logs in. Elf n Safety hasnt reached Turkey yet!
A final point. Are you into Sci Fi novels? In my research on how to write a novel , Stephen Baxter, an established world renowned Sci Fi author gave a talk near my home in Northumberland, as he lives nearby.
He is a very interesting chap, and I can recommend his books if you like the genre. His latest book Ark is just out – see him at
Meanwhile, my novel progresses.
