Saturday 21 July 2007 - Fehmican, Gokce and myself head for Marmaris which involves a 5.00hr flight from Ataturk Airport to Dalman. I took my first Havaş from Dalman airport to Marmaris. We were the only 3 on board and I can't remember anything because I woke up in Marmaris. It seemed it was a smooth and comfortable 23,00 YTL per head ride. During the day I walked along Marmaris water front with Gokce. Not impressed and the evening proved just as disappointing. The natural location is wonderful, but the mixture of tourists and corresponding local nose for a piece of the business, endless offers of English breakfast at 5YTL were given a side berth.
Sunday 22 July 2007 - Turkish elections. AKP walked it as I expected. CHP blew it and MHP did OK. Additional independents make up the seats.Monday 23 July 2007 - Having experienced the Marmaris sea-front both during the day and night, it was a relief to hire a boat and go out into the bay for the afternoon. Captain Imdat and his family cordially obliged.
Fehmi makes space on the table for the camera while mum gives Turku of spot of Kuafor treatment.
I give my skinny white bod a taste of sunshine and sea water. Absolutely fabulous. I needed this.
Gokce rescued this fellow from the water.
Fehmican and myself being daft while the captain's son probably thinks - right bunch here.
Captain Imdat. He ran a smooth and friendly ship and cooked up fish for lunch. Can't be bad eh!
The delightful Turku. She talked to me on camera and really showed how even more child like my Turkish is than hers. We did have a funky dance together on deck too though and Fehmi filmed it.
Back at dock, Fehmi finds a mountain bike or what ever you call it and he and Gokce spend the next half an hour completely enthralled in this bicycling pleasure. This shot of Gokce's hair in mid air was very happy making for Fehmi...
....and he was even more pleased with this one.Tuesday 24 July 2007 - Having had a splendid afternoon out on the water yesterday, we hit dry land again, with a bit of a thud.
We set off around Marmaris town centre. Stopped by a statue of Ataturk where fountaining waters periodically erupt, then headed for the castle where display information mentioned Knights around the Templar period and how they were at odds with the Ottoman Sultan and all kinds of.... However, my spoken Turkish was dire. I just couldn't hear nor talk adequate Turkish.
Nevermind, returned to base, collected Mrs. Gozum (translates as Mrs. "my eye") and went to find Cleopatra's Island. Well, first their was more complaining about how "çok sicak - so hot" it was and even the neighbours came round to join in the complaining about how hot it was. Even my limited Turkish could understand these sentiments. I went to bed and listened to teachers on my mp3 headphone machine until Gokce collected me to leave.
Rules and regulations - don't do anything to or on Cleopatra's beach; I wondered if the warning sign above says don't look at it; it was about removing the sand from the beach, sitting on the beach or laying on the beach all of which are forbidden. What's the point of having a beach? I never think about taking away sand from a beach - but, because they had kindly put a sign up about it, a challenge was almost being inferred. So, we stole loads of Cleo's sand and I'll keep it in little jars titles Cleo's Sand, very valuable... Not really.
Off the team trundles to Cleopatra's theatre where she originally wrote Romeo & Juliet before leaving it to generations who later ended up living in Stratford, Brittania.
I was in a really obstrofocus mood by now and cynical about cynicism. Fehmi said "Turkce soyle Ned" as he pointed the camera at me to which I eventually flipped with a barrage of abuse in Turkish about not wanting to speak bloody Turkish, English or any other f------ language so f--- off and leave me be. Fehmi said "Ned, you just spoke fluent Turkish!"
The water was fantastic, the sand was glorious to touch underfoot and we had about 15 minutes to enjoy before the last boat left the island.
The Gozums aboard boat.
The glorious waters I was longing to jump into, but the boat was not ours to command.
Back at base, another Gozum get together with sax, guitar and drum. Excellent fun and excellent food - home made kofte, salad and the rest.Wednesday 25 July 2007 - I returned to Istanbul and although my hosts had been quite wonderful, I was looking forward to home sweet home and a rest from the road.
Turkish airlines sandwich and cake. It was actually quite fresh and the bread reasonably bread like.
In small writing it states "Our meals do not contain pork products." Something about this annoyed me; the pettiness of what we do and what we don't do and how everybody else should respect what we do and don't do. Maybe I was just tired, but I couldn't help thinking of home made roast pork!
Saturday 28 July 2007 - Attended a boat party this evening with Fehmican's band Gevende performing live on deck. We filmed night footage on board, but then I was trapped. The boat went all the way out to Buyukada (Big Island), the band did not play until at least a couple of hours into the evening and even after 2 sets I still had not heard their one excellent catchy tune which is featured on the Learning Turkish teaser film. I ended up being so bored and tired I went below deck and found a bed. Practise Turkish? I was woken about 3am as the boat arrived at Kabatas and spent the next couple of days in bed with the flu.
People appear to have no concept of entertainment - this was not a party, it was torture. The stage was perfectly set for a wonderful night - the band should have come on, blasted out one hot set including their one catchy tune and returned everyone to shore by midnight. I find this sloppy organisation infuriating. The talent is there, but the planning and organisation appalling. These young trendy people should take a few tips from Tayyip and his cronies. At least the AKP know how to organise themselves and realise the goal.
Go to 01.08.2007 Moo Gaz
