120407: Bodrum

Today is supposed to be my mum’s birthday. And here I am in Bodrum. Sorry, mum, happy birthday and I promised goodies for you when I return.

It is today that I start to realize my travelmates are people who laze in bed. 1 alarm went off, another alarm went off, and they alternate. And none of them wanna wake up. I woke up instead. Only to realize my alarm was tuned to the wrong time. Hell.

Anyway, after last night’s drinks, I’m surprised that I’m feeling alright today. Cool. Breakfast at Hotel Kalendar was great. Traditional Turkish breakfast, on the terrace. A boiled duck egg, sliced cucumbers (Kiat’s nemesis), chopped tomatoes, cheese, butter, jam and loads of soft white bread. Not to mention nice fragrant Turkish coffee. Heavenly. And we met Kathy at breakfast. Sat with her, and had a great chat. Woot.

Today’s plans are the whole of Bodrum. No joke. It’s more like a port town than a city. Yeah. And we decided to go by the scenic windmill route that was recommended.

Erm, I think I can’t describe the scenery too well with English, or even Singlish for the matter. I’ve decided to include a poetry that I wrote on the plane back to London describing my feelings up the windmill hill.

漫步 轻盈
哼着谣曲
背靠绿油山坡
穿梭白锡屋寝
心中少了一份忧

艳阳 微风
飘着发丝
聆听绿蓝大海
遥望白云晴天
心中多了份安逸

携手相伴 写意同游
如此梦幻
如此真实
站在悬崖上
沉浸于鸟语花香中
天堂与否 毫无意义
此刻 此景 此真
天下绝妙享受

OK, it’s heavenly. Terrific weather, sunny and clear. Terrific landscape, mountains, marina, the seas and white houses. Terrific people, Jo and Kiat. In mandarin, it’s 天时、地利、仁和。 I’ve got nothing more to say. You just gotta check out my pictures. I’m so amazed by the view that there’s no words to describe. Or maybe no end to the words to describe.

Walking down to the marina, we holanded. Not entirely Kiat’s fault, though we kept teasing him about it. Ok actually more like I kept teasing him about it. Sorry brother. And the marina is luxuriously heavenly as well. All the yachts that are berthed there, hmmm, I just wish they could be mine. If only I had a few millions to spare. I’ll have a holiday every year in Bodrum, setting out to Greek islands on these yachts. But that’s a daydream. And along the way, we passed by schools dismissing their students, a traffic police vehicle lifting away a parked car and all sorts of funny things. Haha. Nice town life. And this time round, I holanded the entrance to the Bodrum castle. Insisting that it doesn’t make sense for entrance to castle to be facing the seas since most invasions happen to be from the seas, it appears that Bodrum doesn’t follow the logic. And we walked a big round to learn that lesson. Ouch.

Bodrum castle doesn’t seem to have a student rate for entry. But we kept showing them our ISIC and showed that we do not speak their language. And I think out of convenience, they waved us through. Haha. Saved 10 YTL each. That’s like the cost of our ISIC cards. And to tell the truth, the castle is disappointing. Nothing much. But the fun doesn’t come from the castle itself. It happens that there are free roaming peacocks in the castle. And Jo doesn’t seem to realize that. While pointing to a stationary one, she mentioned that it looks like real. And to her amazement, it moved. And she squealed like a peacock. Eh, maybe not like a peacock. But it was so funny the Bodrum castle became memorable for the little joke. And from then on, we started training her to differentiate between living and non-living. Was that supposed to be a Primary 3 science topic?

For lunch, we went to a little shop along the roadside. It looks like those mixed vegetable rice stalls that we get in Singapore. But here, they offer each dish as a main, not a side. Jo got her favourite eggplant (aubergine as they call it in Turkey), I got my chicken and cheese which tasted like cheese pudding and chicken and Kiat got his rolled doner. Not bad, and there were free tea. Woot. Starting to love Turkey more and more.

After lunch, we proceed to the food market beside the bus station (otogar in Turk). The food market happens to open only on Thursday and Friday, so we are quite lucky. Kiat bought some nuts for post-lunch desserts, and he got overpriced for some mixed nuts. Haha. Typical foreigner whacking technique. Beyond the market, we started walking to the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Actually, the Mausoleum was the prime reason that I came to Bodrum for. And we are supposed to pay 5 YTL for entry again. We tried flashing ISICs again, and after something like 5 minutes, he waved us in again. Woot. Free entry. Though not everyday Sunday, time seems to have stopped for us.

The mausoleum itself is long gone, only bits and pieces left. And Jo wasn’t really sure how it is a wonder. Lucky there was a room to show that size with modeling. And as expected from what I’ve seen in the British Museum, it is enormous. Enormous for the size of a building that people could have built eons ago. It took them decades to finish it. And much less effort than that for invaders to level it. Haiz. What a waste. And within the compound of the mausoleum, we started discussing about the wonders, and of course the Great Pyramid. Brother, don’t forget we have an agreed trip to Egypt.

There wasn’t really much in the mausoleum to look, and it’s actually more like a pilgrimage for me. Haha. The afternoon was spent walking up to the ancient roman theatre in Bodrum, which we did not go in because of the busy road separating us and the theatre. And the last bit was a unanimously agreed tea session at the bay. In case you are not aware, the Turks serve fabulous tea. I order a sage tea, which taste a bit like ginger with some herbs. I can’t remember what Jo ordered, but Kiat got himself a Turkish coffee which looks more like a Expresso shot. And we ate simit and acma (pronounced ar-ch-ma). After the 1st round of tea, we ordered a second round. This time round it’s lime tea, sage tea for Jo, and Kiat’s favourite orange tea which tasted too much like fanta. Haha.

Before dinner, we lazed on the bayshore. Watching sunset. For the 1st time in my life, I watched a full sunset. A whole 3 minutes of it. Fabulous waters, fabulous beach, fabulous hilly lands and fabulous mates. What else can I ask for? This is supposed to be a romantic moment, so those people out there who’s looking for a romantic place to spend their honeymoon, Bodrum is the place.

We scouted around for a good seafood dinner. And we found some cheap and fresh sea bass and sea bream. Never since leaving Singapore do we have had fresh fish for dinner. Grilled. Taste so much like home, yet taste like a paradise away from home. Ok, this is getting too emo.

We went back to the dessert pastry shop yesterday for desserts. Try something new and everything is cheap. Woot. Along the way, we also catered for a bottle of Yeni Raki. Ha. Tonight’s raki night. Bridge, Indian poker and raki. It’s gonna be fun.