World Turkey Marmaris

Christine & Rick - Adventures in “Pretirement”

Marmaris Oct 5, 2008

A whirlwind 24 or so hours. We left Göçek intent on the beach but instead found some thermal and mud baths and spent a fun few hours plastered in dirt and soaking in hot pools. What an experience! On the way there the winding roads were littered with rocks and small boulders. When you see a falling rock sign in Turkey, you take the warning seriously! It had rained briefly the night before and I guess the rain had loosened the rocks and they were scattered all over the road. We drove very slowly! Following the bathing and on the way to finding a campsite we came across what appeared to be a marching band performing at the side of the highway at an entrance to a sports park/ranch. We stopped (along with a bunch of other cars) to listen to the music and noticed a small boy and girl were part of the band. A man started talking to us and pointed out that the boy was his son and the music was all part of his son's 'celebration of manhood'. We are talking about a 6 year old kid!!! The guy told us that he was Dutch and he had married a Turkish woman. Her father was financing the celebration, a Turkish tradition, which apparently cost about 25,000 Euro and included the marching band, followed by dinner and dancing at the ranch for about 600 guests. Apparently attaining manhood includes starting school. To celebrate starting school in Canada we buy our kids a new lunch box and maybe a new knapsack. In Turkey they throw huge parties. It was really interesting. Then the police showed up and told all the gawkers to get off the highway because we were impeding the flow of traffic. Our trusty camping book (and a recommendation from a fellow camper) indicated that there was a secluded campground, Camping Bonçuk, that we must try. Directions were sketchy but Rick insisted on finding it. We drove through some very rough terrain for 2 or 3 km and after almost driving off a cliff several times I insisted we turn back because we were moving further and further from civilization. We did turn back and eventually found the campground (paradise) about 10 km away. It is in a secluded bay and we are the only campers there. Lovely!!! The owner's nephew and a friend are staying in one of the camp's few motel rooms but we pretty much have the place to ourselves. The campground manager speaks very little English but has been very gracious. This morning he delivered two glasses of hot milk to us. I'm not a fan of hot milk but it was delicious. Then on our way into town I noticed the cow out behind the manager's house. I now realize that he may have been trying to tell me that he had just milked the cow and apparently I have just had my first taste of unpasteurized milk! We are now at an Internet cafe in Marmaris in a mall. This is our first mall. Internet cafes in Turkey come in all shapes and sizes. When I frequent an Internet cafe I am usually the only female in a room filled with 13 year old boys playing video games. And I would guess that the majority of those 13 year old boys have not yet been introduced to deodorant. Hope things are well at home!

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