I am still on holiday you know. Showing my friend around the sights of Istanbul.
Well anyway here goes.
It took me 10 hours to drive down from Istanbul and wasnt sure which turn off to take after Soke so I took the first one. Wont forget the brick road going through Akkoy (or will my cars suspension) and then the round about by Didim Belediye. Went straight on at the hospital instead of turning right and ended up lost. Anyway asked around and found the main street in the end and finally got to the Yasmin appartments at 2am.
Great appartment and quickly went about getting a sleep after that drive but had to have a beer or 2 first.
Got up in the morning and went for a walk down to the main town.
First grumble: Several restaurants was pricing their menu's in sterling! Not much help to those of us that dont understand how much sterling is and had to use a calculator to work out how much it was in Turkish. I can understand why they do this to make it easier for British tourists but it aint much help to Irish or american tourists or Turks holidaying there.
second grumble every other shop seemed to be an estate agent, even restaurants where at it!!
Found somewhere that did turkish breakfast (english not for me) and the owner was from the same district of where I live in Istanbul. Then we went down to some square which was full of giant size TV's showing live football. I saw the name dolphin a lot so I guess that was dolphin square. Noticed it was a bitch to try and change dollars and gave a real appalling rate (sterlin rate not very good either, at least 5 points less then Istanbul).
we found the beach front and it was crowded. didnt bother with the beach so went back to the appartment and got into the pool.
went back down that night and found the BNB and had a wee chat with the main man himself. Had a beer and then my wife and friend came and after waiting 10 mins to get served we decided to leave and went some where else instead.
next day we went to Efes. they tried to charge me the tourist rate for entry the cheeky bleepards but got that sorted out after a few mins arguing.
next day we went to the beach and found it to be a wee bit on the dirty side (fag butts galore) but I guess it was the end of the season so what can you do. was surrounded by Turks and hardly any Brits which surprised me but not as surprised by the man who tried to grab my arm to look at my watch and I gave him a mouthful in Turkish.
Water was great and very calm.
Went to Bodrum that night for a nightout.
Next day we stayed at the pool all day and chatted a bit with other residents at the Yasmin apparts and also the caretakers there. That night we went to the pingo bar that Duke (AA forum) told me about where they had 2 for 1 during happy hour. Man was I so there. Duke was on the next table to me but I was looking for someone bald as a coot from his avatars and didnt expect him to have a full head of hair.
Bar played good music and a good time was had by all and then went out for something to eat (cig kofte = raw kofte) and went to another bar which I dont remember the name to.
After I had found that stretch of bars behind the boat yard I liked the place a lot more and even went into the Turku bar which my wife had to drag me back out of.
My thoughts of the place: too many emlaks, everything priced in pounds and the lack of asphalt on some roads but good night life without the hooligan feel. very friendly locals aswell as tourists and the biggest plus....only 2.5 lira for a big beer!!
Wife and I already have decided to go back next year and we also found it a good central place to go and visit other places like Bodrum and Efes aswell as other places that we could have gone to but I couldnt be arsed.
Yasmin apts are great, spacious, clean with great residents. what more can I say?