In search of internet access

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The weather is even worse today. It rained heavily overnight and it was still overcast and drizzly this morning. We even had a couple of rolls of thunder!! I wonder what it's like in Melbourne? Over breakfast Kath and Albert told us that this is the worst weather they have ever encountered in Turkey and they have been to Turkey in April and October when it could be expected to be cool and a bit wet. Unfortunately our visit has coincided with an unseasonal cool, wet spell in May. The forecast seems to be improving from Sunday onwards. Fingers crossed.

After breakfast we took the Kindle to the lobby and managed to log onto the Amazon store to download Fifty Shades Darker. At least the Amazon store is not blocked like the travel blog site!!

With more trashy reading material secured, we headed off to catch the bus to Bodrum in search of a cafe or restaurant with wi-fi access where we could update the travel blog. In Bodrum we strolled through the shops and then headed off around the harbour in the opposite direction from the castle. Bernie had in mind to walk to the Tiger Tower to take a photo back over the harbour to Bodrum Castle.

Once we passed the marina we had to start heading up hill on Safak Road. Halfway up the hill we found ourselves walking past a secure military zone complete with razor wire fence and an armed soldier standing guard. We slunk past trying not to make eye contact with the soldier with the sub-machine gun. It wouldn't do to unwittingly offend a man with a gun!

At the corner of the military compound we turned down a side street to see if it would lead us to the Tiger Tower. Just as we were thinking that it looked like the Tiger Tower was actually inside the military zone, a man outside his house confirmed that we were heading towards a restricted area. Oops! We asked him if there was any access to the Tiger Tower and he told us that if we wanted views back over the harbour and Bodrum Castle that we should head up to the windmills.

With our directions from a helpful local (who has visited Australia) we headed back to Osman Nuri Bilgin Street and turned left for a steepish climb up to the ridge on which the old windmills are situated. As we reached the top of the hill, it started to rain ... again. It was quite bleak actually up on top of the hill with the wind blowing a gale and the rain falling!! So glad we decided to bring the Gore-Tex raincoats with us to Turkey.

The windmills are situated on the ridge between Bardakçi Bay and Gümbet Bay so we thought that we might as well walk down into Gümbet rather than walk back the way we had come. Down in Gümbet we started searching for somewhere to have some lunch with wi-fi access. We walked down to the beach only to find that most of the sea front is monopolized by yet another resort hotel and you can only gain access if you are wearing the right coloured plastic bracelet that identifies you as a guest of the hotel.

Eventually we walked past a place that was touting for lunch-time business. First we were invited by a man lounging in a chair out the front to take a photo of a man hard at work!! We had a bit of a laugh with him and then he started trying to get us to come in to eat. Still wanting to update our travel blog at some stage today, we asked if his restaurant (the Daisy Restaurant at the Nagi Beach Hotel) had wi-fi. When he said yes, we said OK - show us a table!!

We had thought that we would eat something Turkish, maybe pancakes again or perhaps a pide, but we ended up ordering BLTs!! At least we didn't resort to Starbucks or McDonalds. We were starting to wonder if the wi-fi access was a ruse, but while our food was being prepared the password was given to us so that we could logon. Yay, success ... travel blog brought up-to-date over lunch!! And lunch was pretty cheap. It only cost us 39 Turkish Lira for two BLTs, two beers, one water and one cappuccino. That converts to about AUS$21. We left a reasonable tip because the internet access was quick, the food was good and the loos were five star.

After lunch we walked back to the main street in search of a minibus to take us back to Bodrum. We didn't fancy walking back over the ridge to Bodrum - we thought one way was enough exercise for today. We didn't know where the bus station was in Gümbet, but people seem to just hail the busses from the roadside so we thought that we would try that and ... it worked! The bus system seems pretty relaxed here.

As we neared the bus station back in Bodrum we noticed the fresh produce market still seemed to be operating even though it was mid-afternoon. We went to the auto teller and withdrew some Turkish Lira to replace what we had spent in Gümbet and then wandered into the market. It was surprising how much produce was still available so late in the day. Bernie took a photo of some hanging chillies and spices so the merchant started giving us samples to sniff and taste. Eventually he guilted us into buying some lavender so that we could walk away with our photo of his stall with a clear conscience!!

Having filled in a rather gloomy day pretty successfully we caught the bus back to Torba. Back at the resort we popped into the Photoshop to check out the photos that the resort photographers took of us on Wednesday night. On Wednesday, the photographers bailed us up on the way to the restaurant for dinner and posed us for a few 'romantic holiday' styled shots!!

Bernie still had his camera bag on his back so the photographers wanted to check his gear out. He only had a 40D so he was a bit jealous of Bernie's 7D which he offered to buy ... and then he wanted to buy Bernie's hand strap from him because he was quite keen on that!! Apparently camera gear is quite hard to get in Turkey and very expensive. Anyway after all the discussion about their cameras and gear we ordered one print. Of course they played up how disappointed they were that we were only going to order one!!

Tonight we dined at Al Pato Pequeno, the a la carte Mexican restaurant. The menu was fairly limited and different from what we would expect at home, but the food was very nice and we enjoyed it while being serenaded by a 'Mexican' singer/guitarist. For a while it seemed that we may have been in the Greek restaurant as they had quite a few breakages while we were there. First an empty bottle was knocked off the bar and then a plate was dropped as it was being taken back to the kitchen!!

Bernie is on fire with the card playing. He won Jo and then he cleaned up at 31s.

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