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Published: July 28th 2013
Bodrum is THE place many British choose to spend summer holiday's year after year. I can see some sense in this - there is guaranteed proper sun, a beach, a cheap economy and nice places to stay. I, however am glad that I put a bit of research into our trip and chose to stay in Bitez which is about 20 mins around the coast.
After wandering around in Bitez, we flagged down a dolmus (turkish bus, more like a minivan) on the street - when I say flagged down I swear the Turkish people have a 6th sense about us, the driver of the dolmus pretty much spotted us, honked his horn and we jumped in...hoping this wasn't some random guy with a van picking up unsuspecting tourists.
Soon after jumping on board we came to a stop - some strong turkish language was spoken between a coach driver and our driver as the coach blocked the entire corner of the road, very quickly this turned into a good old fashioned turkish traffic jam with cars, vans, people, bikes and scooters trying to overtake the next person, squeezing into what ever gap they could find...I found this hilarious,
but the dutch lady in front of us got rather flustered and within about 30 seconds of having to wait was ready to haul her family off the dolmus if it didn't improve quick smart....ah the uptight...
Heading into Bodrum gave us a better insight into the area during the day - there was such a mixture of old and new. Like a country that was trying to modernise itself, but had not quite caught up with the generations before. There were new buildings being built everywhere, most in the same white, block, square style but I am yet to see a builder...perhaps they work at night? So you might have a new build with it's wires and plumbing and concrete all coming together, but then right next door is a decrepit building, very similar in design, but much older in disrepair...with people either living in this or abandoned. This pattern was seen everywhere you went whether it be in the city centre or in the rural outskirts - not to put turkish builders down, but the level of workmanship left a bit to be desired, even in the "nice" areas....gardens are not a typical hobby I'm guessing, as
many of the houses, although some modern, were surrounded in weeds and rock and clay. Although not true in some areas, it was common to see alot of rubbish littered around the area, regardless of a nice area or not - it was like the rich and the poor were in it together, I found it hard to define possible "suburbs"...perhaps I shouldn't?
After a rather "interesting" dolmus ride into the Bodrum bus depot we paid our 3 Lira and set off in search of the markets that were scheduled to take place. I had, for some reason, thought that the markets would be outside along a street, however this market was held in a large building, randomly plonked in the middle of the city next to the bus depot - I followed the people and the turkish rugs ahead.
Entering the market I was instantly called out to again and again and again...I knew to expect this and knew how to ignore it, but one particular guy at the entrance kept on calling me, very persistently even as I walked away further and further. I began to think perhaps I had dropped something and he was just
being helpful, perhaps I shouldn't generalise. Vaughn said no, you are fine, he just wants to sell you something, but again and again he called, over the crowds of people (at this point I was at least 20 metres away) so I asked Vaughn to check what he wanted....seems he just wanted to sell me something. I soon learnt that it was my blonde hair that was attracting the attention so Vaughn came up with a plan. He spotted another blondy in a short dress walking around so we casually followed her - she got the attention, I slipped by - this worked wonderfully!...until we lost her. Going into the markets I was very aware that we would need to barter to get "best price for you" and had to be willing to walk away so we tried our skill at this at a stall selling "genuine" Ralph Lauren and Hugo Boss polo shirts " good deal for you my friend".... after a bit of to and fro we managed to purchase two polos for 60 TL - about £20 (this started at 120 TL) I have no idea if this was a bargain or not, but the polos are
fine so I suppose it depends on how you look at it. Walking around I learnt to keep my eyes ahead, using my peripheral vision to look at the clothing...you do not stop in fear of getting hassled. We came up with a plan to talk to each other, while looking over each others shoulders at the merchandise, spotting what we wanted, at what price - you have to be tatical about these things. The other thing we learnt was that the stall owners have VERY good hearing. If you accidentally slip that you need to look for a hat under your breath - low and behold you have a hat put in front of you. We have come to the conclusion that we are not very good at the bartering game - we ended up at a stall with "genuine" prada, diesel and every other brand leather belts (proven to us by the repetitive burning of the belt with a lighter to show it doesn't melt) - the shop person lured us in there with a promise of "no hassle"....after which he continued to hassle us pulling out belts that were apparently suitable for Vaughn and even cutting one
to fit right before our eyes without us saying a word!...needless to say this trick worked well, we felt guilty enough to purchase not one but three belts! One trick I noticed they used was bartering for the price, apparently agreeing to our price, putting the merchandise in a bag, giving this to you and then on handing over the money, saying "oh no, I said x amount not this" (usually about 5TL more that you thought you had agreed) so you avoid an argument by just paying the extra 5TL that you know you say...A favourite line they love to us is "oh you are robbing me, but I do this special deal for you" after which you see the same thing at another store for half the price....you live and learn. The market was interesting, but not quite the collection of stalls I was hoping for. To be honest Camden Market in London, probably has more variety and stuff that I would buy. The whole market could have been condensed into about 6 stalls as most places sold exactly the same stuff.
Getting a little bit exhausted from "playing the game" we headed towards the main centre
of Bodrum in search of food. We sat down at a small cafe under a canopy with sprinklers! Lunch is always a good opportunity to people watch and Bodrum certainly had a variety of people - call me old fashioned, but once again I was amazed at the lack of clothing in this area. Bodrum is apparently where many wealthy turkish people come for their holidays so it was very much an eclectic mix of cultures from all around the world....excluding asia which was interesting.
Following the crowded main street we turned off towards the Bodrum Marina where many beautiful old ships were moored, the Marina was quite pleasant to walk down, much less people, cafes overlooking the bay, jewellery and painting stalls dotted about. It was hear that we found the entrance to the Museum of Underwater Archaeology which is housed in the Bodrum Castle of the Knights of St John. There were many stairs! We spent about 2 hours in the Castle which was huge! This wasn't the type of castle where everything was indoors, this was more a fortress made up of different components which formed a maze within the castle walls. The Castle was originally
built on an island just off the mainland thousands of years ago, but this is now a peninsula. When you climb up and look out to sea the walls fall down hundreds of meters below you - I took note of the non PC, health and safety here - you could go anywhere including quite precarious places where the H & S police would normally have barriers everywhere - I didn't hear of anyone falling from the castle walls on the day we visited; isn't this amazing when all the people have is commonsense!
Within the castle walls are five towers - English Tower (The Lion Tower), the French Tower (The Embroidery Tower), The Italian Tower (The Releif Tower), The German Tower (The Strong Tower)and the Spanish Tower (The Snake Tower). Each of the Towers has been reconstructed, but you can still see the coats of arms carved into the stonework. The castle has seen many battles between Christians and Muslims and has been used as a prison - you could go down into the dungeons which was rather gruesome. We looked into the English Tower which was done up like a banquet hall with a huge table in
the middle. Old armour, swords and weapons were on display as well as two large stuffed lions heads above two throne like chairs. On the walls above it was interesting to see a set of African buck skulls and horns, which could only have come from Africa - displaying the vast journeys the Knights did on their crusades.
The display for the Museum of Underwater Archaeology was amazing to see. Different artefacts were displayed around different parts of the Castle - all found in ancient shipwrecks in the surrounding Mediterranean Sea The area was a busy merchant area where many would come to trade, so much of the exhibition displayed amphoras which are clay vessels which used to carry goods such as wine, olive oil, olives, grains, almonds and other staples. Another interesting exhibition was Glasswreck Hall, where various types of glassware was displayed that was found in a wreak believed to have originated from the Syrian Coast around 1025 AD. It was really interesting to see the advanced design of the glassware with the patterns and etchings for everyday use. All around the Castle there were amazing views out to sea, and overlooking the bays to different areas
of Bodrum which was all amazing to view.
After a few hours in the Castle it was time to replace the water supply so we headed back out into Bodrum walking up the busy streets. Where the main shopping district is, the streets are quite narrow, but this makes walking through this quite fun, like you know you are in another part of the world. We briefly came across the Bodrum beach area, packed with sunbeds, but not too crowded. Bodrum is not known for it's beach, but this was nicer than I expected.
Seeing what we came to see, we headed back to Bitez on the Dolmus for another interesting ride home - believe me I would NOT attempt to drive in Turkey! Two lanes, become 5 lanes, right lanes become left, I have no idea how to navigate on Turkish logic!
Back to quieter Bitez we had an ok dinner at a restaurant who's owner seemed desperate to get us in there, unfortunately I was not too sure about the content of the chicken...
Later on in the evening we found a wicked place that had huge cushions covering the ground and backing up
to palm trees, with hammocks and swing chairs creating a colourful private lounging area beside the seashore. We ordered the traditional turkish dessert petite dish to share which was beautifully presented and made up of a selection of delicious bite size turkish treats, all of which we struggled to see as it was dark with only the moon and some fairy lights providing light. I think the Turkish really like their sugar, as all the deserts, while delicious, were sickly sweet with ALOT of sugar! Something I haven't mentioned is the amount of street cats and dogs loitering around the area. Some of the dogs are huge!, but unfortunately covered in mange. None are really skinny and all seem very friendly. They wander around amongst the crowds, most know how to sit and lie down on command I presume because random people have taught them along the way. Both the cats and the dogs line up beside your table if you are sitting on the outside of the restaurant by the pathway looking at you for food. Most of the time the waiters will usher them away, but they are never cruel to them and the dogs and cats seems
to know to move on quietly. When we were lying down with our dessert on the cushions, one of the street cats came over to us spotting our food. Vaughn starts to give it a rub behind the ears and next thing you know it is sitting on his chest purring away....vaughn was just saying how cute it was and I was just about to take a photo of the bonding moment when it suddenly turned around and gently bit vaughn on the hand before promptly running off....seems he was over being petted.
Heading back to the resort we stopped into a shop where I ended up buying three pairs of earrings from a lovely helpful guy....see it works if you don't hassle too much! The earrings are made and handpainted by a local guy who is obviously very talented. Back a the resort we sat down at the pool area and were treated to a show of acrobats and contortionist chinese girls! Oh my, I had to close my eyes for some of what they were doing, it was like a full on circus act with massive human pyramids and a boy jumping off someones shoulders (three people
high) onto another tower of people and these chinese girls contorting their bodies into seemingly impossible positions -great free entertainment!
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