Top 5 Things To Do: Ölüdeniz

ÖLÜDENIZ, TURKEY. JUNE 2013.

Here are my recommendations of things to do when holidaying in Ölüdeniz. By no means is it an exhaustive list as I was only there a week but here goes:

1. Dalyan Boat Trip

By far the highlight of my holiday. The river cruise includes a trip to a mud bath, turtle spotting, visiting Lycian tombs and a stop on the beach. You can read more about my experience here. It’s an excellent day out and most companies will pick you up and drop you off at your hotel at the end of the day. As with all these trips, do NOT book through your hotel as they will charge a lot more and take a large cut of commission. I went with a company called Pegas (I booked all my trips through Pegas in order to get the biggest discount possible!) and it cost 30TL, around £10 which includes lunch and the entrance to the mud baths.

2. 6 Island Boat Trip

This is another all-day excursion starting from Ölüdeniz Beach. The boat, complete with shady tables on the lower level and places to sunbathe on the top deck also had a water slide which snaked from the top deck, through the boat to the bottom. It stops at 6 places (hence the name) including Cold Water Springs (read: icy), Butterfly Valley (wouldn’t recommend paying to enter as I only saw one butterfly and you can stay on the beach for free) and Byzantine ruins on St Nicholas Island. The 15 TL (£5) also includes lunch of breaded chicken or fish with spicy cous cous, salad and bread which is really tasty.

Here are a few photos from the trip:

First stop: fresh water caves

Butterfly(-less) Valley

Lunch time

St Nicholas Island

3. Eat at the Sultan Ahmet

My favourite restaurant of the trip, I ate here twice in seven days. Not only for the spectacle that I described in an earlier post but the extremely high standard of food and service. Friendly waiters, excellent food, what more could you want?! Starter-wise I would definitely recommend garlic prawns but if you’re a calamari fan, maybe avoid it as for me it disappointed in comparison with previous experiences.

4. Paragliding

As mentioned in my previous post, paragliding is, in my opinion, the best way to view Ölüdeniz.

However, the reason it isn’t higher in my list is because of the mixed feelings of myself and my boyfriend. Despite both going with the same company at the same time our experiences couldn’t have been more different. My tandem partner was very patient (he had to be with my nerves at the top!) and chatted amicably throughout the flight. My boyfriend’s partner, however, was extremely rude and aggressive, telling him off for putting his hand in the wrong place and not chatting at all. My instructor allowed me to take the reigns and direct the parachute for a small time whereas my boyfriend was never even asked. And the worst part was that my boyfriend and I did not fly at the same time. The company told us we could fly together which we were really looking forward to yet the grumpy instructor rushed my boyfriend out of the minibus and off the mountain without stopping for a second.

I would definitely recommend going paragliding as the flight was enjoyable and exhilarating but I would NOT recommend flying with Pegas. Shop around and look for a high quality company (as safety is much more important than saving a pound here or there, companies in general charge between £50-£70) Sky Sports was our other option to fly with and I definitely would consider these more strongly if I returned. A must-do nevertheless.

5. Sunset Cruise

My choice of activity for my final evening, it is a lovely excursion. Setting off at 18:30 and returning at 23:00, I boarded the same boat that sailed on the 6 Island boat trip. The views of the sunset over the sea were beautiful, much more so than from the beach. Definitely take a camera as if not the photographer on-board will definitely swoop on you as a prospective customer! The boat stops and allows people to take a dip yet again and the water is lovely and warm despite the fading light. It is a much more calming swimming experience although the waterslide is open if you fancy it.

After a swim and with the sun fast disappearing, we are once again served and option of chicken or fish for dinner before disembarking onto a small beach where a mixture of chart hits and traditional Turkish music were played, all under the light of a fire. Belly-dancing is the order of the day but that soon descends into general dancing, or relaxing on stools if rhythm is not your forte. After this stop we were taken back to shore.

The trip usually costs 15TL (£5) but as a loyal customer to Pegas, I managed to wangle it for free. Bartering is definitely the order of the day!

Here are a few snaps from the evening:

As the sun begins to set

Swimming time

Stunning views

Beach Fire

Turkey from the air

ÖLÜDENIZ, TURKEY. JUNE 2013.

Ölüdeniz is well known for paragliding and the majority of photos you see on postcards or in advertising for the resort are taken from the air. Despite my fear of heights I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to see this stunning view for myself. On my final full day in Turkey I ascended the 1950m in a minibus that was falling apart (literally, the door flew open during the drive but they continued regardless) only to throw myself off at the top, strapped to a man I’d said no more than 20 words to. I must be mad.

But the photos turned out well, here’s a small selection.

The view from the rickety bus

Take off!

Despite my initial nerves and jelly legs it was rather exhilarating and surprisingly quite relaxing once airborne. And the view was spectacular.

I now can’t wait to find somewhere else to spread my wings!

Robes, Fire and a Sword: Not your usual restaurant experience

ÖLÜDENIZ, TURKEY. JUNE 2013.

Choosing where to eat when on holiday in Turkey is not the easiest task in the world. Waiters appear from every restaurant calling you over, wanting you to try their traditional dish, their ‘best food’. After settling down at the end of a busy street in a restaurant named Sultan Ahmet, I thought it best to ask the advice of the waiter before scouring the menu for something that sounds appetising. He recommended a traditional dish for two called an Anfora Desti Kebab, a tomato-based stew of beef or chicken or both (my boyfriend and I went for both) cooked in a clay pot.

After thoroughly enjoying my starter of prawns in an absolutely divine creamy garlic sauce, I was eagerly anticipating the next course. However the atmospheric music was suddenly replaced by a loud, more upbeat Turkish song. Not knowing what was going on, I looked around to see a man emerging from the kitchen dressed in a purple velvet robe with a large velvet turban to match, carrying a flaming plate. All the waiters began to clap, as well as many of the other diners as this flaming plate was paraded through the restaurant. I was slightly confused but enjoying this shift in atmosphere and passers-by started gathering outside, trying to see what was going on.

Imagine the shock when the waiter stopped at my table! He placed the burning plate on a small side table next to us. In the centre was the clay pot. After a few minutes the music stopped, then the flame died and then the next surprise was in store. A sword was produced from somewhere in the restaurant. Not a knife or a dummy sword, an actual sword complete with intricately decorated sheath. I had no idea what was happening. The sword was unsheathed (in a rather dramatic manner, I must say) before the waiter swung it back and… stopped just before hitting the pot. I had visions of the contents of the pot flying across the restaurant but thankfully the spectacle stopped there. The waiter then began tapping the clay pot gently around the top to loosen the clay before pulling the top off like a lid. He then spooned out any small pieces of clay that had dropped into the stew before serving it to us. When watching this dish being served to other customers after ours, some weren’t so lucky and instead of a clean cut lid being formed by the sword tapping, the entire top of the pot collapsed into some unsuspecting stews, causing much more trouble for the waiter spooning out the clay.

The food itself was gorgeous. The meat was cooked tenderly and the sauce was full of flavour and spice, but not so much that it was overpowering. It was served with rice and salad which complemented the food but didn’t take over or fill you with unnecessary stodge. The waiter came and dished up the rest of the stew once we’d finished our first portion and I was very content and full after I’d devoured it all. At less than 100TL for two courses for two (around £30) it was also extremely good value. If I returned to Ölüdeniz I would undoubtedly return here for another meal. The atmosphere, service and spectacle they put on are all fantastic but these things are nothing if the food doesn’t deliver, and deliver it did.

Turtles in Turkey

DALYAN, TURKEY. JUNE 2013.

I have just returned from a week’s holiday to Ölüdeniz in Turkey. It was my first time in the country and I wanted to experience as much of the (admittedly very touristy) area as possible. I am going to split my trip into several posts over the next few days as there are so many things I want to talk about. This post is going to concentrate on a full-day excursion I took to the town of Dalyan, around an hour’s drive from Ölüdeniz.

Meaning “fishing weir” in Turkish, Dalyan is very popular for its boat trips and this was my chosen method of transport. I boarded the river boat at Dalyan and the tour began. I had booked my tour in Ölüdeniz with a company called Pegas, and the whole day cost the equivalent of £11, exceptionally good value when you discover what that price included. The boat was fairly small, with around 20 people on it including the captain, whose wife was also on-board selling fresh orange juice, snacks and the like. We travelled down the river with beautiful views of the mountains and cutting our way between masses of reeds, the location for riverbank scenes in the 1951 film The African Queen.

After a short ride we disembarked at our first stop – the Dalyan mud-baths. Here we were told to leave our bags and shoes on the boat and make our way towards the baths, which supposedly held healing qualities. Healing or not, the mud-bath was one of the strangest consistencies I have ever submerged myself in. The top layer was very runny but as I stepped into the bath, my legs sunk into a squelchy, squashy base of, well, mud. It was very bizarre yet strangely enjoyable. We soon realised, however, the true reason we had to leave our belongings on the boat. The photographer from the boat soon started gathering people to capture this moment and would undoubtedly try to sell them for extortionate prices later in the trip. My boyfriend and I realised this and quickly dashed back to the boat to collect our camera so we could avoid paying for something we could do perfectly well on our own (even if it meant the camera turned a strange brownish colour as a consequence). Thankfully we did capture some good shots so all is not lost!

   

After a quick dip to clean off the mud, we re-joined the boat and continued our cruise along the river. Our next stop was lunch, a large buffet in an equally large school-dining-hall-like room. This (as well as the entrance to the mud-baths) was included in the £11 fee. After lunch we cruised a little longer, stopping in front of some Lycian tombs which were carved into the cliff side. Our guide told us a little bit of the history. The tombs date from the fourth century BC and the largest most visible tombs were those of royalty or extremely wealthy citizens of Lycia, a civilization that existed under Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman rule over the centuries. A large hill opposite the tombs was the former site of the civilization but, as our guide explained, an earthquake caused much of the infrastructure to collapse and it was not rediscovered until the mid-19th century.

This very brief history lesson was followed by a trip to Iztuzu Beach, or Turtle Beach as it is often known due to its site as a turtle nesting ground. This award-winning beach (The Times’s Best Open Space Europe in 2008 and Zoover’s Best Beach Destination of Europe 2011) is very popular for swimming and sunbathing (both activities I very much partook in) while at night is the location for turtles to lay their eggs. Before reaching the beach we met a fishing boat who tossed crabs into the sea and we were lucky enough to actually see some of these turtles as they came up to feed. I was quite surprised at how large the turtles were, never having seen one previously.

Once on the beach (which came with a 3TL fee, around £1) the beautiful soft sand was a lovely change from the pebble beach at Ölüdeniz. The hour and a half we stopped there disappeared far too quickly and before we knew it, it was back onto the boat to be taken back to Dalyan before catching the minibus back to Ölüdeniz.

This was my favourite excursion of the holiday and very good value if booked through a company once there, NOT through a travel operator or hotel who charge more than double on some occasions. I would also recommend taking food and drink (and a camera!) as the low price for the trip is a sharp contrast to the high cost refreshments and photographs that are offered once on-board.

Twitter: @fgormley29

Tian Tian and Yang Guang

EDINBURGH, UK. JUNE 2013.

After much anticipation and excitement I spent three days in Edinburgh last month. I enjoyed two sun-filled days exploring the Old Town and New Town, visiting the castle (which was nice but at £16 entrance is quite expensive for a student!) and walking up to Arthur’s Seat, the main peak of a group of hills in Holyrood Park, where a breath-taking view of Edinburgh lies below. Although I had visited Edinburgh before, there was one attraction which I had never visited and the main reason for me choosing to take a trip to the city: the zoo.

Edinburgh Zoo is Scotland’s second most popular paid-for tourist attraction in Scotland (after the expensive Edinburgh Castle) and was the first zoo in the world to house and breed penguins. It is also now the only UK home for koala bears and, more famously, giant pandas. There are two giant pandas in Edinburgh: Tian Tian (rough translation ‘sweet sweet’ or ‘sweetie’) and Yang Guang (translates to ‘sunshine’). When booking tickets to enter the zoo, you have to book a panda viewing time slot in order to visit them. My slot was at 14:30 so I had plenty of time before this to explore the rest of the zoo. Unfortunately the koala enclosure was closed when I visited but there were plenty of other impressive animals: lions, tigers, chimpanzees, rhinos, zebras… My favourites (excluding the pandas) had to be the penguins though. Due to its incredible history of housing the first penguins outside the South Atlantic in 1913, Edinburgh Zoo has become well-known for its penguins who live at ‘Penguin Rock’, a large pool containing 1.2million litres of water. I arrived at ‘Penguin Rock’ for the penguin talk and show and was extremely surprised and pleased to witness the ‘penguin parade’, where ten of the birds were escorted out of their enclosure and did a catwalk-esque walk through the crowds, as you can see in my photo.

After watching the penguin parade, it was time to visit Tian Tian and Yang Guang. As an avid panda fan (they’re so cute, how can anybody not be?) I was one of the first in the queue for my time slot and after a short wait was escorted into the panda viewing area where both bears were fast asleep inside. I have to admit, although they were incredibly cute and cuddly, I was slightly disappointed that they were asleep as I had had visions of them roaming around outside, mainly fuelled by many hours procrastinating on panda cam on the zoo’s website. But as if sensing my disappointment, the male Yang Guang woke up and made the tiresome 3 steps to reach his mountain of bamboo. In case you don’t know, pandas spent up to 16 hours a day sleeping and the rest of it is spent eating bamboo (sleep/eat ratio similar to that of a student, if you replace the bamboo with supernoodles). Yang Guang must have been feeling particularly active on this day, however, as he then ventured outside where he found himself another stack of bamboo and laid down to enjoy it. The whole time Tian Tian, the smaller female panda, remained inside fast asleep.

Unfortunately my time in the panda viewing area was soon up and we were led out. I can understand why the viewing slots are necessary now as I would have happily have stayed there for hours watching the pandas roam around but I suppose in the interest of fairness I had to move along. The animals were so large and cute they almost didn’t look real and if I’m ever in Scotland again, I will definitely be paying them another visit.