. . . . By the way, my article on the Bodrum Peninsula
ran in the Moscow Times last Saturday. I'm attaching a copy
of it. As you'll see, I direct readers to your web site.
Hope you guys are doing well, that the sun shines, the
breeze whistles and that business is booming.
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT TO THE MOSCOW TIMES
Tourism in Turkey has gone on vacation. Scanty bookings
and overeager carpet salesmen indicate that potential
visitors are being deterred by threats from the separatist
Kurdistan Workers Party, the drama of the recent trial of
Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan and the general
sense that in Turkey, political turmoil prevails above
culture, sun and sea.
Not so. In fact, now is a perfect time for Turkish
travel, because prices are low, crowds are small and, as
revealed in a recent trip to the heart of the former Ottoman
Empire, Turkey still plays host in splendid Mediterranean
style. Its inhabitants are warm and upstanding and its
streets feel instantly like your own. Never having been to
Turkey before, I was quite surprised by the depth of its
Westernization, symbolized by the ubiquitous image of Kemal
Attaturk. This early 20th century reformer, who began by
outlawing the fez, succeeded in transforming Turkey into the
most modern and secular of Islamic nations, where the
melodic ring of prayer call mingles with the din of commerce
and city life.
For the traveler in search of a tan and a little rest,
with a dose of adventure and history, it is well worth
heading to the southern Turkish coast, where the Bodrum
Peninsula lies opposite the Greek island of Kos. Rising like
an amphitheater above the bay, the town of Bodrum, formerly
called Halikarnassos and founded circa 1100 B.C. by Dorian
Greeks, has undergone many incarnations that have taken it
from Greek, Persian, Alexandrian, Roman, Byzantine, and
Ottoman domination, to its current phase as a French Riveraesque
resort town on the Aegean Sea. Once the proud home town of
Herodotus, the proverbial Father of History, Bodrum is now a
thriving tourist hub that gains its popular status from
several converging features. It houses a marina of wooden
yachts that face off every October in a regatta called the
Bodrum Cup. At the tip of its bay sits Bodrum Kalesi, a
gigantic Medieval fortress that once lodged the
international order of the Knights Hospitalliers of St.
John. Farther up in its winding streets are the remains of
the original Mausoleum, built in posthumous homage by the
wife and sister of Persian King Mausolos.
And at night, Bodrum offers a raucous and
celibacy-defying club scene, marked most visibly by two
leggy girls who glide daily along the harbor in the back of
an open truck, brandishing their behinds to the pulse of
disco pop to advertise Ladies Night at the Halikarnassos
Nightclub. With Bodrum as its node and link to the rest of
Turkey, the Bodrum Peninsula hosts a lush variety of
different towns and environments, ranging from the
picturesque and quiet harbor of Gumusluk and the lazy local
swing of Turgut Reis, to a string of pre-fab tourist
villages and the rocking, neon zoo of Gumbet. When choosing
a place to stay, it makes sense to consider the desired
ratio of activity to rest.
As a general rule, the towns closest to Bodrum, starting
with Gumbet and Bitez, will deliver night-time action, rows
of restaurants, crowded beaches and a lively scene. Bitez, a
windsurfing mecca, boasts a nice if slightly cluttered beach
lined with rambunctious restaurants.
Yalikavak, a smaller and less developed version of
Bodrum, retains its ancient village flavor with curving
alleys, first-class harbor-side restaurants, daily boat
charters and crowded outdoor cafes where local men play
mahjong over glasses of Turkey's excellent Efes beer.
Heading outward from Bodrum, you find quieter areas where
there is little to do but read, relax, sip wine in pleasant
and inexpensive water-side restaurants, and venture past
ancient walls and grazing cows to snorkel in secluded coves.
Gumusluk, where I stayed, is an enclosed bay, ringed in a
sparkling blue haze of small islands. One of these, Rabbit
Island, can be reached by foot by passing through a fish
restaurant and walking along a rocky stretch of knee-deep
water. Nearby, Feridun Boruk, the old and kindly local scuba
master who rents snorkel gear for a song, will point out the
neighboring sites of the ancient civilization of Myndos,
which are now entirely undersea and reputed to be older than
Odysseus himself.
At Turkish seaside restaurants, it is customary to walk
over to the ice-box and point out the fish you desire, as
you survey its eye for freshness and have it priced by
weight. Dinner usually starts with mezes, tasty cold
pre-cooked appetizers, also identified by pointing. Yakamoz
Restaurant was a great favorite for its brimming atmosphere,
late hours and gregarious waiters. You learn quickly in
Turkey to be cautious with compliments, as the owner will
invariably be compelled to give you the thing you praise. We
had to protest vehemently and apologetically to prevent our
waiter from giving away the phrasebook he used to be able to
chat with us during our meals. Though there is an
inexpensive hotel in Gumusluk right on the water, we enjoyed
staying in an apartment overlooking the sea, just a short
walk up the gentle hills.
In the last decade, there has been a flurry of
development throughout Turkey and, thus, an abundance of
vacation homes and apartments available for short-term
rental.
Aegean Tours, a tourist agency that
markets over the Internet at http://www.aegean.com.tr,
offers various types of accommodations according to specific
budgets, as well as boat charters and scuba rental. It is
run by a nice couple, a Scottish expat and a Bodrum native,
who proved to be gracious and knowledgeable hosts.
As a handsome perk, Turkey also delivers an impressive
amount of Greece. Just an hour-long ferry ride away from
Bodrum lies the whitewashed and far more touristy island of
Kos. Inland, about three hours driving, stretches a chain of
archeological sites dating from Greek Ionian and Roman
times, Euromos, Priene, Ephesus, Aphrodisias. Along with
Troy, which is farther north, one of the most famous of
these sites is Ephesus, a sprawling marble metropolis that
once sat on a harbor that has long since filled with silt.
With an amphitheater that can seat over a half-million
people and an agora to rival America's greatest shopping
malls, it stirs the imagination to muse on times when Rome
was just a distant rumor and the Apostle Paul a voice in the
dark.
Upon return to the Bodrum peninsula, the lights of disco
row reach out in greeting with waving halogen beams that
follow you down the winding road. Under the incandescent
glow of Yalikavak’s minarets, the night rocks, the fish
sizzles and white wine flows, fresh from a bountiful
harvest. As you order, the Aegean sea laps at your side in a
cool siren song of seduction. You raise your glass to the
night. You'll always have Yalikavak.
