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Published: July 28th 2013
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Not known what I was quite going to I tried to dress to travel to Turkey in a conservative, verging on middle aged soccer mum outfit that I was sure that even by Turkish terms would not draw attention. I'd heard that you shouldn't wear "beachwear" outside of the resorts.....well, boarding the plan at London Stanstead I started to think maybe I was boarding a plane to Ibiza....nope, white british 40+ women in their white sneakers, 3/4 pant and loose fitting top were boarding too (Bodrum is nearly another British holiday colony) must be the right plane. Counting the four hours to landing, it was exciting to look down below as we flew over the ditch, across Belgium, the Alps and some other random countries (I need to get better at geography) heading into the darkness ahead as Turkey is two hours behind the UK.
On arriving at Bodrum I was surprised that instead of the donkey transfer I was expecting, a modern coach awaited us to take us across the runway to the rather posh looking airport, complete with shiny lights and lots of glass. The air was warm, but not in a wall of heat kinda way -
Turkey is (thankfully) not that humid..otherwise I would have shrivelled up and died by the end of the Holiday. After a slight misunderstanding (me being a bit over cautious with the random dodgy looking guy with numerous signs held up, none of which were our transfer company sign by the way, who actually ended up being the guy to point us towards our transfer coach), the ever vigilant Vaughn left me waiting outside the coach with the bus driver who spoke limited English to go to the loo....took me a bit to figure that I didn't have to wait awkwardly outside the coach....seems they drive on the right side of the road here so the coach door is on the left!
One by one the rest of our transfer group arrived clad in various amount of clothing, showing various amount of body parts, in various amounts of disarray.....seems my conservative, soccer mum approach was not required - my everyday beach clothing would have made me look like a nun next to this lot. I couldn't help but think, no wonder why muslim men look at western women the way they do, if this is what they think is the
norm. I'm not saying this gives any excuse for disrespect, but I could certainly see what image we as western women were portraying if this is what they see every day coming into their country. My first experience of this attitude was when a man on the bus asked the bus driver for a bottle of water, happy smiling bus driver "no problem" goes to cooler passes water to man (meanwhile two english girls, in various states, ask for the same)....bus driver walks right passed, seemingly ignoring them and sits back down to drive away....lady behind him gets his attention to request on behalf of the girls and is greeted with a surly look as his returns to the cooler, passes the water, hastily takes the money and storms back to his seat. I decided I wasn't thirsty...a group of men walk onto the bus, back to helpful bus driver again....hmmm
Bodrum itself was about 20 mins from the airport, dropping people off as we went to various hotels the city was alot more modern than I expected, but also was interspersed with old run down buildings that probably needed a bulldozer. We passed through Bodrum over the hill to Gumbet which apparently is party central - by this time it was 1.30am and the place was crazy, people everywhere - the girls surrounding us gradually disembarked, open vodka bottle in hand, ready to get going and it was at this point that I thought, I'm glad I did my research and opted for Bitez.....call me a nana but I just can't do the all nighter thing anymore.
Over the next hill (not that I could tell) we wound down tiny streets that I wouldn't even think of taking a bus down (not that I drive one) to Bitez the next seaside village around the coast from Bodrum (about 20mins away). Now I had braced myself for the smallest room, with a very small single bed only, dirty little hovel of a place based on some of the Studio reviews on Trip Advisor for our hotel, but oh how I was wrong! Summer Garden Apartments were awesome! Beautiful reception, marble floors, very clean and shiny, nice guy at the reception (who incidentally thought that Vaughn was the decision maker in this relationship..ha!). The pool area is amazing, with clean spacious pool area, heaps of sun beds, private bar and all of the buildings covered in beautiful vines, leafy and bright coloured plants. We were shown to our room by some random guy (not sure if we were meant to tip him) and I was pleasantly surprised to find our room was very spacious with not one but two single beds, a bathroom and fully equipped kitchen. We had a private balcony, with seaviews one way and overlooking the pool the other way...not bad for £200 for 7 nights incl flights! The only thing was the wall of heat that I was waiting for met us as soon as we opened the door to the room....me being the pessimist, decided that this was a ploy to make us purchase airconditioning for £5 per day! (I swear that price went up when we went back to ask how much the air con was) and being the stubborn, winning person I am decided that we would try to suffer one night in the heat, opening up all the windows to see if this helped....it doesn't, but I am proud to say we still have £35 in our pocket that we wouldn't have if we gave in!
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