Turkey Tour 2010 Blog 2

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Saturday 9th October, the Day of the Dummies. For some reason today we encountered a lot of statues/dummies. First of all we went to the Kaleici Museum in the Old City which is in a beautifully restored family house and features several recreations of the preparations for a marriage. The mannequins are dressed in traditional costumes which are very colourful and elegant. Afterwards we headed down to the harbour for lunch where I spotted the coolest surfboard ever, equipped with an armchair and pannier; which I would like to think also doubled as an ice box.
Then we went for a walk along the clifftop park to the east of the Old City, passing further statues of musicians which lined one of the main roads. More statues were found outside one of the cultural centres: this time they were golden statues of beautiful women dressed in ancient, Greek type, robes and holding an orange. These statues were to promote the Antalya Film Festival which is being held now; with the top award being the Golden Orange (not as strange as it might appear as Antalya is known as the orange capital of Turkey). Finally on the way back to the hotel we came across a group of frog statues in a small park which provided an irresistible photo opportunity.
The next day, Sunday 11th October, we headed west for Kas using the excellent local bus service. The straight line distance between the two places is less than 60 miles but by road the distance is closer to 120 miles and took 4 hours including stops. However, the bus was very comfortable and the scenery spectacular so the trip was no hardship. We had reserved a deluxe room in the Otel Medusa overlooking the picturesque harbour at Kas (pronounced Cash). The hotel is excellent, the only drawback being that it's on a steep hillside and there are nearly 60 steps to climb before you get to the lobby. Luckily our room is on the first floor so there is only one more flight of stairs..........all good exercise. After we had settled in we took a stroll round the town to reaquaint ourselves with this lovely little place; and were pleased to find that very little has changed. Then dinner at the hotel and so to bed.

Monday 12th October. We hired a car to go to a place called Ucagiz (pronounced Oochiz) in order to get close to a beautiful village called Simena that we had visited by boat in 2008 and which is not accessible by car. After a scenic drive through the mountains behind Kas we headed for the coast and Ucagiz. We had a very pleasant lunch at the little harbour, along with a dozen military types with lots of gold braid and a very formal "pecking order" i.e. juniors at the end of the table and seniors in the middle, with the juniors only speaking when spoken to by a senior officer (all very familiar to those of us with a background in military or corporate life). It turned out that the head of the Turkish Coast Guard was on a visit to the area and the lunch was in his honour. I didn't see anyone pay the bill afterwards but the restaurant owner was given a plaque and keyring which he showed to afterwards: inscribed, in English, "Combined Coast Guard Command".
After an excellent fish lunch we asked for directions to Simena and were told that there is a track suitable for cars, if driven slowly and carefully, that gets within 500 meters of the village, so we followed the track and sure enough the road ended just down the hill from Simena. The path to the village was over solid rock that had been largely worn smooth by generations of villagers. The village is overlooked by a castle from where there are spectacular views over the bay between Simena and Kekova Island, where there's a "sunken city": actually the foundations of several houses which had slipped below the sea following a series of earthquakes in the area. Then back to the car and Ucagiz and on to Kas. For dinner we went to a traditional Turkish restaurant and had a delicious and inexpensive meal. Afterwards we went to Smileys, a bar on the harbour where I was a regular in 2002 on The Big Drive Home. We were welcomed effusively by one of the staff who showed a 2500 year cistern below the establishment, and still in perfect condition. The staff member asked where we were from and managed to produce a Welsh flag. All very impressive, though not nearly as impressive as the bill which, for three drinks, was more expensive than the dinner. No wonder it's called Smileys as Smiley must be laughing all the way to the bank. And so to bed.

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Photos

Kaleici Museum
Diaorma of a wedding preparation. Set in a magnificently restored late 19th century merchant's house with the mannequins wearing traditional dress.

Surfing for dummies
You've heard of armchair critics: explorers, mountaineers etc Now here's the equipment for the armchair surfer dude.

Dummies seranading Jane
Found in a park in downtown Antalya

Heading west out of Antalya
Main road into/out of town with modern apartment blocks crowned with solar water heaters: a very common sight.

Welcome to Kumluca, tomato capital of the world.
The roundabout at the entrance of the town is festooned with a giant tomato plant; in homage to the mainstay of the local economy.

Demre covered in plastic sheeting.
The town itself, home of Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus), can just about be made out sticking out from the centre of the surrounding plastic sheeting covered greenhouses used for growing tomatoes.

Saint Nicholas aka Santa Claus, aka Noel Baba in Demre
The original statue, of a rotund Santa Claus type dressed in a red suit with white fur trimming, has been replaced by this more lifelike version. But it doesn't have same the Ho! Ho! Ho! factor as the original.

Kas
Kas Bay with the Greek island of Meis in the background

Ucagiz
Stepping off point for Simena and the sunken city of Kekova

Simena Castle and village
No road to this place. Access by sea or by foot only.

Path to Simena
Solid rock worn smooth by generations of foot traffic

Simena: burial at sea
But not what the family had intended. This sarcophagus was originally on dry land but the land subsided after the earthquakes which created the "sunken city".

Comments

[Darren]

Awesome!
Man, love the frogs and scenery! Looks like another awesome Jenks trip for sure!! Enjoy it.

[Dave Akers]

MORE OF JANE
and some more scintillating prose, Anthony, if you will. Thanks both for thinking of me -- I do recall with pleasure your kindness and thoughtfulness during our stay in Wales -- I wish I had read up on the Roman camps and barracks beforeI came -- I would have been a right pest if I had. Maine is showing its very best weather here in Indian Summer. I am beginning to prepare for my trip to Arizona, getting the VW Bus ready, storage for the Spitfire, the latter running with smooth power and perkiness in its natural habitate here on the coast. Cheers!! Dave Akers

[anonymous]

Your new drinking buddies are better-looking than your Griffin crowd. C

[TravellingJenks]

Agreed
And not only that, they were better conversationalists too.