It’s Kos day. A day for the Greek island. Actually, we were very lucky. Kos ferries leave for Kos on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and we happened to arrive in Bodrum on Wednesday evenings, planning for a Kos trip on Friday. And today’s weather is terrific. Murti sent us to the harbour for our ferry, with a few other people. Sunny clear sky with a mind full of fun. It’s time to set off.
The sea on the way to Kos was so calm. So calm you wouldn’t believe it’s a sea. Hardly any waves, hardly turbulence. Like the trip was made for us to enjoy. Woot.
But the queue to clear customs is mad. Long queue, long time to wait. But the highlight of the queue is a joke. A lady, standing beside the queue, actually noticed that Jo tried to sidestep a mat fully filled with water. She went up to Jo, and told her that she is required to step on the mat for security purposes. The water from the mat would then be used to imprint her footsteps for ‘further identification’. Ha. And Jo fell for it. Stunned and puzzled, Jo looked at her and then stepped on it. Only to see the smile of the lady’s face and still puzzle over why the lady is smiling. Unable to bottle it up any longer, I told Jo about the woman’s trick. And she finally realized her foolishness. Haha. What a joke.
Out of the port, we walked alongside the castle walls. After Bodrum castle, which was such a fluke, Kos castle no longer seem attractive. Anyway, we were hungry. It’s lunch time. But being curious about the Plane Tree of Hippocrates, I walked towards that direction and the 2 of them followed. Finally found it. A super big tree by imaginative sizes, but what’s left of it is just the outer layer. The internals are gone. Hollow out. And yet it’s still living. Shoots are still sprouting in the spring. Woooo. Suddenly, an old man came up to us. Introducing himself as the official guide, he started telling us about the tree and the surrounding areas. Thanks to his poor enunciation of English and a tendency to stutter, we couldn’t make much out of his stories. Finally, we had him to help us take a picture and then told him we need to be on our way for lunch. And he recommended Goodys. Great.
Lunched. Fed. Watered. Now we still need a map and a tourist information centre. In desperation, we almost entered the police station to ask for directions to a bicycle rental shop. What a laugh. Tried our luck at a local tour agency. And bingo. They gave us a map, and showed us the directions to the rental shop. Following the directions, we finally reached there. But they refused to rent to us. For god knows what reason. We started to wander aimlessly around till we realize there’s the advertisement of a bicycle rental shop on the map! Wow, where have our eyes been looking? And there evidently aren’t any babes on Kos. Haiz. The surprise was, the rent is super duper cheap. Even cheaper than in Singapore. 3 euros for a day. That’s like 6 SGD for 24 hours. In Singapore, 24 hour rental costs 5 times as much. Ouch. And we started our way up the mountains. After wasting so much time, we have approximately 1 hour to ascend before we need to descend for our ferry. Haiz.
One thing we realize: Greek villagers like to rear goats. There’re occasional cows and bulls and giant wolf-like dogs (we almost couldn’t tell the difference), but majority are goats. They even keep goat kids as pets. Goodness. So throughout our biking trip up the slope, we could hear all the ba-ba of the goats. Initially, we keep holanding. There were too many small roads leading up to houses and such. Finally, we managed to find a way up out of tar roads onto gravel roads. And the scenery starts becoming amazing. And the higher we climb, the more we are mesmerized by the landscape. Oh my goodness. But we did finally reach a point where we think we could just sit and watch the lands below us and wait for the sky to drop.
The backtracking of our routes were so much easier and effortless thanks to the slope. Just that I pity the bicycles’ tyres and brakes. Good luck to the retailer. And we had ice cream in the nice sunny weather of Greece. Mediterranean climate sure has its loveliness compared to gloomy London or fiery Singapore. Ok, London isn’t gloomy now anymore but still, I love the Aegean weather.
Back in Bodrum, our dinner is at a restaurant right beside the sea. Our table is in fact on the pebbled beach of Bodrum bay. And the sun sets while we wait for our food. After 2 days of beautiful and romantic sunset, I can finally understand why Bodrum is called Bedroom of the Mediterranean. You can really fall in love pretty easily in the atmosphere, relaxed, peaceful. There is this legend of Bodrum where you’ll find love easily in the town, and the love is lost as easily when you leave it. And it has a special name: Bodrum love, haha. I think I fell in love with the town, and up to now the love is still there in me. Woot.
Oh ya, before I end my log for today, let me just iterate that liquor in Bodrum is dirt cheap. You hear me? Dirt CHEAP. I had a litre of Absolut Peach Vodka for 10 euros in a duty free shop on my way out of customs. And Kiat bought Baileys for 14 Euros. 1 litre. No prize guessing what happened that night. I was somewhat drunk for the 1st time in my life, feasting on vodka and baileys shots. Ha. Bad boy. =p
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