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Published: July 28th 2013
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Deep in sleep my dream turned into some weird wailing noise. As I groggily woke up looking around the unfamiliar room I was quickly reminded where I was and that this was indeed a muslim country - the azan (call to prayer) is recited over LOUD speakers from the Mosque 5 times a day. I swear this was at about 5am in the morning, but I think it was more likely to be 7ish? The timing of the azan depends on the sunrise and sunset and geographical location to Mecca. All of the mosques (and there are alot of them) call the azan from the minaret (tower) of the mosque so you hear this everywhere you go. I must admit, waking up to this the first time gave me a really airy feeling when you realise just how strong the islamic faith is here (even if this is regarded as a secular country). It was very strange being in a place where my ways were very "different".
With no pre conceived plan we set out in the morning to look around the Bitez area in the daylight - we got as far as the resort reception before being politely targeted
by a very tanned well built man (like someone from the cover of mens health magazine - Turkish edition) who was on a mission to convince us that the first thing we should do is have a turkish bath before gaining the perfect holiday tan (which is yet to happen for me). Sitting us down with his laminated flip chart book he explained, using many hand gestures, about a turkish bath and how luxuerious this is and how it would be an experience to remember for a lifetime. He sold me at the bubble massage, so after checking that it wasn't just going to be me in a room alone with two random turkish men we signed up for our experience of a lifetime, paying a deposit before heading out to the Bitez beach.
Exiting the resort, we must have looked VERY "fresh off the boat", I'll admit I am pasty white at the best of times, but put me next to people who were formally european now looking like a charred piece of BBQ meat I was looking almost transparent. Whether or not it was the glow radiating around me as soon as we started to wall down
The Lemon Tree!
One of the best in Bitez! the walkway to the main beach area we were instantly accosted by men outside the first bar and restuarant when I made the fatal mistake of looking at the sign out the front showing pictures of Cuban night, turkish night, african night and all sort of other "nights" promised to be entertaining and a good night out. Taking our first flyer and a few polite words later we moved on about 5 metres before being intercepted by another man with flyers promising free drinks...politely taking more flyers and feeling quite welcomed to this area we came to the waterfront, boarded by sun beds and people of various shades of pink, red and brown basking in the sun. White, block shaped buildings lined the hills surrounding the bay, looking very much the picture of a Mediterranean holiday destination.
We walked along the esplanade towards the main beach and village area - restaurants and bars on the right, and expansive collection of sunbeds (that were not incidentally the heated infra-red sunbeds I thought people meant before getting here...blonde moment) , sun umbrellas, brightly coloured cushions and palm trees on the right lining the shore and quickly learned that this was like
Free cocktail for me!
I'm a cheap freebie cocktail girl - iced tea suits me fine... walking the gauntlet. Every restaurant had a friendly representative ready with flyers offering us "english breakfast", "yes please, yes please", "sit on our sunbeds".....at this point it was 10am, the equivalent of 8am in the UK and about 38 degrees Celsius.....I'm not sure about other travelling ex pats, but I did not feel like oily and hot bacon and eggs on toast with a side of tomatoes, baked beans and yorkshire pudding. Taking their flyers we laughed and politely rejected their invitations, before moving on to the next person, promising "free drinks". One guy outside one of the numerous beach shops, selling everything from sunscreen and jimmy choo beach bags laughed at us and said " did you arrive last night?", "yes...how did you know" we replied. "because you're actually taking the flyers and reading them and not throwing them out"....he had a point! I must admit the attention we were receiving was kinda fun and the people all seems very friendly, but it was funny to see that all the brown people walking around us were happily walking down the same pathway without any attention at all! I started to wonder what shade of brown we needed to be
before we could walk down here in peace?
Being the researcher I am, I knew that there would be a few travel agent shops along the esplanade and had been advised to shop around to get the best price on day tours. We came across the first one, that was manned by a lovely english lady called Samantha. As Vaughn was getting into the swing of rejecting all those who tried to sell us something I intercepted his "no thank you..." with a yes we would like to look into tours. I knew that we should visit Ephesus, Dalyan and Kos while were were there and was pleased to see these were cheaper than expected. After taking a pamphlet with the prices handwritten in, Samantha explained that if we booked the Dalyan tour we could receive a free turkish bath!....my mind instantly thought back to 30 minutes ago when we had booked and paid a decent deposit for a turkish bath at the resort....seems the turkish are quite tactical in their approach to selling - get you before you leave the resort and see what else is on offer...rookie mistake!
We moved on down the beach, taking more
"The Tower"
aka the Minaret of the Mosque to educated people... flyers, accepting that being the first day we were fresh meat and came across another travel booth. We were somehow ushered into the shop and promptly sat at a desk while the turkish man, who was very helpful and friendly, showed us his flyer (with exactly the same tours on offer) - coincidently these were at a cheaper price due to the recent political riots which had, apparently, put off people from visiting the area so things were quieter than normal - seems we timed this well!
We next came across "The Lemon Tree", a restaurant which had received rave reviews, so decided this would be our choice for brunch! Ironically there was no "hassler" outside this restaurant, obviously it's reputation precedes it. We were not disappointed,beautiful fresh veges and chicken wrapped in a fresh soft wrap. The service was excellent and very attentive. Following our meal we were offered free cocktails - the young guy serving us stopped for a chat, asked where we were from - "Lord of the Rings" he said.....ah well at least we are known for something! Apart from the constant people trying to get you to eat in their restaurants, Bitez had a
really chilled feel, people just cruising around, sunbathing, chatting, wandering. It was nice and felt like a true holiday destination without all the hustle and bustle. Looking out of the bay you could see other islands - one being the Greek Island Kos which we wanted to visit later. People were swimming and floating around on lilos with a book in what seemed a very shallow bay. Sail boats were anchored out a bit further and speed boats were out in the distance dragging unsuspecting people on donuts around, but surprisingly you couldn't hear them. Bitez really has a great beachy soundtrack with perfect chilled music playing in the background, only interrupted by the occasional azan when the music is turned off in respect.
Heading back to the resort I noticed a huge pointed tower with a bright blue glass tip...naive as I am I took photos of the "tower" not realising at the time, that this was the minaret of the mosque, and the tower was not on it's own it was attached to the main mosque building...no wonder the azan was so loud here, it was literally in the middle of everything - a constant reminder that you were indeed in a different country and not in kansas anymore dorothy...
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