Great Turkish trip. Part 2. Side
Part 1. Alanya
Part 2. Side <------
Part 3. Antalya
Part 4. Oludeniz
Part 5. Cappadocia
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Our next pompous-sounding resort was an hour's taxi ride away. The taxi driver agreed to take us from the hotel to the hotel for 200 lire ($27). But somehow he suspiciously agreed to this and said with a grin: “Yeah, I’ll take you for 200 lire, of course. ” I practiced unilateral trading everywhere in Turkey. This is when you name your price and do not change it at all during the auction. You know, quite an effective method. I still don’t understand why the official taxi driver agreed to take me for such a low price according to their tariffs. A car with another grinning taxi driver arrived at the hotel for us, 20 minutes late. He immediately turned on the meter. But with a sly face he said, yes, yes, we will get there for 200 lire. We will also make a stop along the way so that I can withdraw money. A little more than an hour later we arrived at the hotel, on the counter there was an amount already twice the agreed amount. We gave him 200 lire, he thanked us with the same smirk, good-naturedly wished us a good day and left. Dasha and I looked at each other and did not understand what the catch was.
We came to the reception to check out. The manager asked for our travel voucher. We explained that we had come to them without a tour. He was surprised. Then he cut off our bracelets from the previous hotel and put on new ones. We have had an interesting experience. Moreover, for the manager it seems the same. I was culturally shocked by the fact that here all the staff wear masks, they measure the temperature, in the restaurant there are disposable cups and other antiviral chips. I already thought that such unsanitary conditions as in the last hotel would be throughout the country. In short, in the previous hotel everything was exactly the opposite of how it should have been in connection with the epidemic. Misha also fell in love with this hotel, here they cooked donuts with jam for an afternoon snack. We settled into the room, immediately checking the Wi-Fi for work. Internet is stable, phew. We begin to explore new territory.
First of all, we tested the pool, it is spacious here, with two simple slides. Although these hills are enough to make everything fun. Misha even made a Turkish friend here. As he explained to us, they communicated with him in English. Oh, how, the child turns out to already communicate in English, although rather primitive words are taught at school. And even in one of the following hotels, Misha told me that he answered the boy about the temperature of the water in the pool. Moreover, this boy also asked me about the water in the pool, that is, Misha still understands the Turkish-English language correctly.
In a couple of hours the heat will subside and it will be possible to move to the sea. Side is one of the expensive resorts, it seems like everything should be luxury and, probably, there is some special sea here. We lived approximately on the fifth line, so we had to walk a little to the sea. But if we count by open hotels, then our line was the first. Every time we had a walk-excursion to closed hotels. We even went inside one, the atmosphere was ominous, semi-darkness and a strange rustling comes from afar. The sea here turned out to be really special in beauty. If in Alanya swimming in the sea is comparable to swimming in liquid sapphires, then in Side there was “Evpatoria-78”. True, there were several advantages. The water temperature was like a duvet. Floating in the water, you feel like in a royal bed with a bunch of soft pillows and a large blanket.
The second plus is that we are here for a week, and then we will go further to the beautiful seas. The disadvantages include the ugly color of the sand, which muddies the water, mixed with sharp stones and biting fish. We walked along the promenade all the way to Side, and I would not say that the color of the water somehow changed from hotel to hotel. In general, sea lovers need to choose more beautiful resorts in Turkey. But the embankment here looks really cool. Immediately there was a desire to run back to the hotel, change clothes and go on a long journey to the old city. Misha decided to skip this hike and stay with a laptop in the room. It took about an hour to walk along the embankment, and as a reward, at the end of the route, tourists are waiting for the standard beautiful old city. It's full of interesting, small restaurants intertwined with themed souvenir shops and quaint ruins. I especially liked the place where the raging night sea is illuminated with bright colors.
What a beauty. Even yesterday, I thought that Alanya was already much better, and here is such a beautiful Side. We even lay on the grass, relaxed by the raging night sea. Or maybe I look at all these cities through rose-colored glasses, because I love Turkey very much? But no, judging by the atmosphere that tourists create, the muffled music that plays in the garden restaurant, where the trees are hung with colorful lanterns, everyone likes here!
I don't know how to advise Turkey now. There is a beautiful beach in Alanya, but here is such a town? How to choose right here? Everything is so good, but one problem - I'm starting to feel bad again. Great fatigue in the body. There is definitely no temperature, since we have already been checked several times at the hotel today. I do not want to dramatize the story, but there is a slight dry cough. True, most often it manifests itself after wearing a mask. So, let's go to the hotel to rest.
During the time we were in the city, Misha lost internet in his room. He, not knowing what to do, decided to go to the reception, as it was scary to sit in the room without a laptop. When he came to the reception, the workers immediately approached him and asked where his parents were. Misha, whom I teach critical thinking so as not to fall for scammers and other ill-wishers, suspected that these might be Turkish bandits. Our child decided in no case to give out that his parents went for a walk in Side and said that he didn’t know where his parents were at all, and in addition he began to cough and began to tell the manager something about his throat. When we arrived, Misha was already the star of the reception. The manager cautiously asked what the child was sick with and why he said that he had problems with his throat. We told Misha that if there are problems with the Internet, he can watch cartoons. And praised for ingenuity, contact the reception, if you do not know what to do. I checked myself with a pyrometer, no temperature. This is good. Morning. I wake up fresh again, but now Misha wakes up with a fever. So what to do? Logically, you need to go to the reception and report the problem. You definitely can’t hide this.
The manager, after listening carefully to our problem, grabbed a pyrometer and ran to our room. The screen showed 37.5, Dasha and I have 36.0. Then he cautiously measured his temperature - it also shows 36.0. He even exhaled. I was afraid that now special forces from doctors would break into the windows. A man in a calm voice told us a Turkish secret how to treat an alarming symptom during a pandemic. So write it down. We take a towel, wet it with cold water, apply it to the forehead, and then come to measure the temperature. This should help, if it doesn't help, we'll look into it. So, how do we go to eat? Or bring food to your room? The manager said that we can safely move around the hotel.
I imagined a different development of events after contacting the reception. But it was beyond my imagination. At that moment, a cleaning lady came into the room, saw that everyone was intensively checking each other with a pyrometer and stated that, if necessary, she could not bother us with cleaning at all, and left. But, unfortunately, in such situations, cleaning the room is important, and they clean it really well. We didn’t put a towel on our head, but in just a couple of hours the temperature itself disappeared. We go to the dining room. The manager is already at the ready with a pyrometer. Points at Misha, 36.5. He looked at us victoriously, saying that you see what miracles Turkish medicine does! Now you can continue to enjoy the journey.
Since we decided to ground ourselves in Turkey, for complete comfort I definitely lacked a table for a laptop. And then working from bed is not always convenient. I said it out loud, and apparently it was on that day that I was bitten in the sea not by a simple fish, but by a goldfish! When we went to the supermarket, the first thing we saw was the sale of laptop tables for 20 lira (less than three dollars). That's it, the wish came true. How are we going to transport it around Turkey now? And so that the table would not be bored traveling by itself, we bought him a friend - an air mattress. They were also supposed to be accompanied by a large water pistol, but it broke from the first shot, and we handed it back. I liked the return of goods in a Turkish supermarket. All employees speak only Turkish, so communication was reduced to zero. I give her a gun, she gives me a price, I give her a check with this price, she gives me a questioning look, I give her a second slipper check, she gives me money. I've never had such fast returns. Maybe because I came up with a gun? )
Our next morning was special. We rented our own boat in the old town with the captain for one hour.
The captain seemed to be superfluous, since Misha quickly mastered the basics of navigation and deftly controlled the two-deck boat. At some point it seemed to me that we were going to demolish the lighthouse, but the captain, apparently not having seen anything like that, calmly showed Misha that we urgently needed to turn around.
Having your own boat is a lot of fun, this cruise is completely ours, stopping at the sea to jump into the water, everything for us, Turkey, we love you!! ! And in general, any memory that we will stay in Turkey for more than one week immediately multiplied our mood several times.
This thought pleasantly did not go out of my head during the trip. And such uncertainty, how will it develop further? What will be the views and amenities? And I didn’t even believe that we would be able to carry out the planned route. After all, at any moment we can be closed in the region or even worse in the hotel, although this is also a kind of adventure.
Our boat
The time has come to decide on the vacation, which will begin in a week and a half. There was an idea to capture Pammukale and live there for a couple of days, but it complicated our measured route a little. In Istanbul with its restrictions, it is better not to fly yet. But the decision came by itself. About a month ago, while sitting in Kyiv, I sang about the fact that I was tormented by strong nostalgia for that warm trip to Cappadocia. And he said that it would be great to return there and live there. I just dreamed about it. So the choice is obvious. But it would be necessary to dilute the beauty of Cappadocia with some super-beautiful resort in Turkey. Here Oludeniz suggested itself. More recently, he beckoned me with his photos in a Turkish Facebook group. Then, Masha sent me a link from work about the beauties of Turkey and the surroundings of Fethiye just appeared there, and Dasha also googled that there is one of the most beautiful beaches. Here is our itinerary for the holidays. And on the way we will capture Antalya, as we also love it very much.
But in this ideal plan there was one snag, in Cappadocia until October the flights of balloons were banned. And without balloons, do we also love this beautiful region? But balloons are only a part of all the beauty, of course, an important part, but the valleys and the atmosphere... In general, there is no problem, we fly to Cappadocia, regardless of the presence of balloons in it. Apparently, this decision melted the heart of Turkey so much that five days before our visit, the ban will be lifted and Cappadocia will sparkle with all colors! In the meantime, we continue to enjoy the all-inclusive and Turkish sweets.
Remember I told you about the ear curse that overtook me in Alanya? Now it has fallen upon Dasha. But so far, local medicine and advice from the Internet seem to be coping. In general, there are moments during a long journey that need to be addressed. Well, at least the sound in the laptop miraculously repaired itself. There was another interesting task during the purchase of air tickets within the country. At one of the ticket booking steps, a Turkish banner “hayat eve sigar” was lit up. I have an association in my head that this is an advertisement for expensive cigars that are somehow connected with the Hyatt chain hotel.
But some of this banner was stubborn. Let's google. Google has already issued entire forums with a discussion of the topic “Flights within Turkey without a HES code are prohibited. ” How is that? What for? Why are they banned? They seem to have flown. As a result, a certain personal HES code can be obtained with a Turkish SIM card by sending an SMS to a specific number. HES codes were introduced by the Turkish Ministry of Health to track people who move within the country during the epidemic. Luckily for foreign travelers flying with Pegasus, no HES code is needed. It's gone. Okay, at least I googled what the warning banner was. And suddenly it would be mandatory. Later I even specifically checked that when buying tickets, if you indicate that you are local, you will need to enter your HES code. In general, instead of cigars in Hyatt, it was necessary to deal with the rules of the local Ministry of Health. In any case, this belongs to the list of pleasant troubles for the sake of a great trip. But no matter what problems you have to deal with, their sunsets quickly wave over the sea.
And there is no such feeling in my head “Where would you like to fly? ”. We have already arrived, we are already here, leading a measured lifestyle. Moving once a week fit very well into our rhythm. When you fly to Asia for a long trip, then in a few weeks you start to feel tired, and you also want to eat your own food. In this travel format, everything is the other way around, Turkish food simply cannot get bored, and instead of being tired, you are more and more charged with optimism and positive. This afternoon we will already be moving further, so in the morning we need to have time to do something interesting. We decided to go to the nearby town of Manavgat to see the waterfall.
Manavgat
We came to the stop, the minibus drove past us and did not stop. This is weird. But a local resident immediately stopped behind the minibus and told us to jump into his car and not take a steam bath. He said this in Turkish by the way. When asked where he would take us and for how much, he waved it off, saying just let's go! Let's go! The man ended up taking us straight to the waterfall, we didn't even have to change to a second bus. This getting there turned out to be much easier and faster than we planned) We offered the driver 30 lira ($ 4), he gladly took it. Here you go, everyone is happy. There was no one else at the waterfall so early, except for the cashier. For some reason, there is a paid waterfall. The waterfall, of course, is not bad, but why it is paid is another question.
We wanted adventures and discoveries of something new. We left the paid territory and went around, it was necessary to find out if it was possible to get to the waterfall as a savage, so to speak. It turned out you can, but the waterfall will turn its back on you. But now we have already accurately looked at it from all sides and studied in detail the island adjacent to it and the thickets.
Since we still had plenty of time, we went for a walk around Manavgat itself. The city, like all previous Turkish cities, did not disappoint. We got off at the river. Immediately showered offers from the captains of small ships to go on a mini-cruise. We have never had such a mini-cruise. We sailed about 50 meters on the boat, then the boat stopped, and the captain said that he would go to breakfast with other captains and only then continue. We said goodbye to him. Let's not tear him away from breakfast, otherwise he will choke if he is in a hurry. Let's go for a walk along the river with a marvelous and beautiful color of water.
Apparently, when there is a river with shady trees in a summer city, it is always beautiful and cozy. Well, why did we discover this city only on the last day of our stay in this region? We put this city on a note for the future. By the way, the future has come pretty soon.
In order to go to Antalya, we had to come here to the bus station. So we visited this city for the second time on the same day. Unfortunately, Side turned out to be such a prestigious area that it was a dull number to negotiate with taxi drivers for a long trip and a sane price. The bus dropped us off in a vacant lot under the scorching sun, the driver pointed where to go with his finger, a bus to Antalya would intercept us there. An interesting fact is that the scorching sun at its zenith already felt completely normal. Although two weeks ago I would not have survived such a heat. Now we were faced with the task of how to survive the public bus, in which we need to travel a little more than an hour. Fortunately, all the locals were wearing masks and no one even coughed, as is customary here in public transport.
The road was not difficult, when the mask is on the face, and the ears are plugged with headphones, you can even direct the air conditioner at yourself without fear that it will blow. It was more difficult just to get from Antalya to the Hurma region, which is one of the most distant. The right decision would be to take a taxi, but for some reason we are not looking for easy ways. Apparently, after an hour in the mask, the mind does not work so clearly. An hour later we got to our apartments. By the way, the Antalya card is no longer needed, buses read the passes from bank cards or phones.
