We visited BODRUM TURKEY was it really worth it? The TRUTH
Lets run away ! Really not what I expected! Would I live in Turkey? Oh my god! Look at this ! We're Marianne and Chris and we've been traveling full-time since May 2018. Whilst attempting to drive around the world in Trudy our home on wheels this happened ... The coronavirus is the biggest threat this country has faced for decades. As borders closed around us, we decided to wait it out in Turkey until we were able to continue our adventure East. Before we start today's video we want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! We want to thank you all for your support this year, yes we do! A little bit crazy, it's still a little bit crazy! Chris has got his balls but they do light up, oh hello! there a little bit of light on the occasion. I think the battery's low already! Uh it's a couple of days before Christmas, when we're filming this, we hope you all have a good time.
We know it's a difficult situation out there in the World, yeah this is our last video before Christmas so we thought we'd take this opportunity to say Merry Christmas, try and have a good one, it's tough we know but we're sending lots of love from Turkey aren't we. Exactly just make the best of it, have a couple of mince pies, a few glasses of wine, watch something good on the tv, that's what we plan to do. We have no idea where we are going to be on Christmas day! That's a whole another story for a future video, which you'll have to look forward to.
It's a good one! Oh yeah thanks to Sue for sending me a Christmas tree that's amazing, that's about as big as we can get in Trudy, and to let you all know we're going to be doing a live chat on the 27th of December at 17.00 p.m UK time yep that's 20.00 p.m Turkey time. We'd like to share festive period with you, hear what you've been up to and just hang out and share some Christmas cheer with you all. 27th of December! Have a fab Christmas! yeah and let's start the video .... bye for now ! This isn't our normal place to work ...
You'll notice that we're not in Trudy, we we woke up near near the town of Bodrum in our parking spot and the weather on Friday was so terrible, it was raining so we said look we'll we won't film over the weekend, we'll stop and we will come into a campsite for the curfew and then we'll film again next week. So we found this really cool little campsite here at the end of the Bodrum peninsula, in fact i'm just writing the newsletter about the experience, I do a weekly newsletter and I've just written that this is probably my favourite place, not necessarily Chris's because there's chickens, I absolutely love them! yeah we'll go and have a walk around you, You see! the cockeral on cue! did you hear the cockeral? The gentleman that owns the campsite just gave us some chestnuts that he roasted on his campfire last night so that's lovely. Please introduce the dog this is the campsite dog and he's gorgeous look at that face, he is so lovely! So currently at the moment the campsite is pretty well closed, they let us stay here for the weekend and there's one other couple in the caravan.
Normally this area would be filled with tents, you've got views over the hills at the back here, lovely blue sky they've got all these mandarins here growing on the trees look they've got this lovely little orchard here. And they said we can just help ourselves to as many mandarins as we want, just come and pick them how lovely is that! So one of the things we take advantage of in campsites is getting the washing done i just love the decor of the shower block, little toilets here which are really lovely in this little porta-cabin, a couple of toilets there for all of you caravaners, you'll appreciate the fact that you have a proper toilet and a shower where you can have more than just a wash, you can have a proper shower, so in this little porta-cabin here they've got a couple of showers which is great and i had one last night, nice hot water and a good power. There's a little kitchen area here with a sink and a cooker, fridge if we want it. We do the cooking in Trudy because we're used to it, but it was it's handy coming to, it's easier to do the washing up in a bigger sink than Trudys sink, and then here they got all these funky lights hanging across the grass area here and normally there'd be other tables and chairs and things sat out here but it's really peaceful, isn't it? It's lovely here, there's more more fruit trees down here and then there's chickens! they offered us, we got some fresh eggs yesterday! and they've got this wonderful naughty huge cockerel which which launched at Marianne to protect his hens when she went up to say hi yesterday! So this is where we've been parked up under the olive trees here, one other caravan.
What we got? We're looking at the viewing point you know, is this the paradise one? yeah, no, it's the viewing point over Rabbit island, Rabbit island yeah, does the water go up and down? or is it about the same thing? its okay, shorts shorts are swimming, we got water shoes. We've been invited to go and pick some mandarins to take home with us as well. The guys here are just picking the mandarins on the trees, loads and loads and loads! Look at all these mandarins, Well what a fabulous time we've been having, we've had a lovely little look around the campsite to show you. But if you're in the area you should really pop in to Bodrum Masali Camping, you will get a fantastic welcome and these are our hosts! So definitely come on down, meet the family and become part of Bodrum Masali Camping family!! So we've arrived in the town of Yalikavak, i think that is pronounced correctly? We thought we would show you a bit of the Bodrum Peninsula because we've heard there's so much more to Bodrum than just the city. So we've headed up to Yalikavak which is on the
North Western corner of the Peninsula and it started raining, so we're just going to shelter under here for a couple of minutes. I can see blue sky in the distance, our timing is bad today the forecast is actually terrible this afternoon. So we got up early and drove up here hoping that we can film this morning. With the weekend curfews obviously we can't film at weekends, so we're trying to cram in all of the filming and everything during the week.
And it's a real pain when the weather forecast doesn't want to play ball, it doesn't rain that often here in Turkey here, We haven't had very many rainy days at all we haven't we haven't, What a beautiful peninsula though, it's stunning isn't it ? Even in the rain! Yeah it looks good doesn't it, even in the rain it's looking pretty beautiful. So we just ordered some takeout breakfast from the cafe behind me, because we just thought we'd have a quick snack in Trudy just wait it out for the sun to break through, and it's looking pretty hopeful, fingers crossed!! So we'll just give it another half hour, this is brightening up so fingers fingers crossed for that one and we get to have some nice breakfast while we're waiting. What did we order? we ordered Ayvalik toast for those of you that saw the video when we were in Ayvalik toast is really good! We've come back into Trudy Ayvalik toast time! How's it looking? it's looking good, it's looking good! Oh yeah i don't know if it's as good, i've got to be honest, no but it still looks nice, still looks nice! Mmm crunchy! Okay so we've had our breakfast, the rain has stopped, so we're going to go and have a little walk around the harbour and marina of this town. This particular town we were told has a really famous marina for yachts and boats.
We were actually approached by a gentleman called Captain Mehmet and he has some villa and a boat that does charters and he said "is there anything you need? can i can i give you an apartment? if you need help we are here" So nice, that's so lovely, Thank you so much Captain Mehmet. Got a funny little statue here, not sure what that's all about looks like a soldier actually with his wife maybe? So we tried to google translate the sign about the statue behind us and we get the gist that it's some kind of love story. About running away together, there you go! Oh you want to run away? let's go! They've got this dry dock area here and we just saw they brought one of these yachts in for dry docking. And the water, the whole coast here is just, look how clear it is! Apparently the guys at the campsite said, that you can actually swim in Bodrum even this time of year, but they recommended that we do it sort of between noon and 2 p.m when the sun is out so it's warmer and there's no wind, because i think it would be a bit cold wouldn't it. Do it! should we do it?
Maybe we're going to try and go and do it in Rabbit Island aren't we? We're going to try and cross the water there, we will get our knees in. So this town here in Bodrum is one of the more affluent areas, you can see by the boats and the signs here, just the adverts here kind of give that real luxury beach town kind of vibe. And there's lots of real estate companies, so these ones are all land for sale, they're not in British pounds a lot of the ones we've seen have been in in pound sterling haven't they, because the British come in. I'm thinking the peninsula, maybe this is more where Turkish tourism is happening, I know in the Centre of Bodrum, we've been told that it is absolutely flooded with British people and British apartments, but this I don't know is this where the Turkish or where the Brits come? I don't know. It's got a very nice public toilet too! Look, posh toilets! Poshest toilets I've seen! It's very nice isn't it? Okay Christmas is here! That's the first Christmas tree, it's funny because we're, what are we? the 7th of December and normally back home the Christmas stuff is up way earlier than this.
I'm going to order some. i just love filming days because we just get to overeat i love filming days too! The town has definitely got an up market vibe isn't it, we've just walked through into this shopping centre by the marina and we actually got asked us for our HES Code, Yeah anyone traveling in Turkey, you have to have an HES Code during the pandemic. Wow this looks beautiful look at that! Wow wow and wow! We said that at the same time! Wow! we couldn't film after the we went to the cash point because the security guard told us there was no filming in the marina. But all i can say is wow, it is immaculate, nice gardens, sculptures, beautiful walkways obviously lots of very expensive boats, boutique shops, cafes. It's like high end! In fact i said to Chris as we were walking around, if anyone's had the privilege of walking in Monaco through all the yachts there, the super yachts there, yeah it's the same it is beautiful immensely up market.
I wasn't expecting it, you walked through that little shopping centre which I thought was a shopping centre and we came out in the marina. Yeah wow, I would like to add that you know the walkways, you know when you paint your garage floor with like that grey shiny paint, oh yeah the walkways were immaculate! There you go, you can see it, you can see it through the hedge, it's immaculately clean, that's uh you know like the kind of walkways, but they're all swept and mopped and absolutely immaculate! You can see some of the shops and boutiques through the through the fence here look, you know that gives you that gives you an idea of what it looked like you know looking through. I feel like we are looking at celebrity homes! Yeah I suppose it's for the security of the boats and things, they don't want people just going in and filming, so sorry we couldn't share that with you, but if you do come to this town I would definitely recommend having a walk around there, maybe a coffee or something, because it's beautiful. Yeah there's lots of car parks, Otoparks down here so parking isn't a problem and the town is overlooked by these hills with the wind turbines. Really not what I expected from the Bodrum peninsula, it just shows you, you know you hear people talking about going on holiday to Bodrum and you know going on a party boat, getting cheap beer and enjoying themselves. Wow there's so much more to it than you think.
So that gives you an idea of what it looked like in the marina, lots of people have said to us "would you live in Turkey?" So we went past one of the estate agents, so I thought i would check out the prices. A two-bedroom duplex villa with a swimming pool in this area €350,000 euros - it's expensive this area, is obviously very exclusive! So yeah, would I live in Turkey? yeah, but I probably wouldn't live anywhere, because I live in Trudy, she has wheels and she moves! But it is a lovely exclusive area. We've jumped back into Trudy and we are going to head down the coastline at the end of the Bodrum peninsula here.
We're going to go and try and find Rabbit Island, the weather is holding up, fingers crossed it stays nice for another couple of hours. It's a really pretty winding road, steep corners aren't there Marianne? almost! Ha Ha Wonderful views down over the sea. It's not what I expected at all! Very ... it's got a real mediterranean feel, wouldn't you say? maybe like Italy or somewhere, yeah it really does, quite often some of these built up areas are very box-like buildings, all the same, all the way up, just literally yeah loads of villas exactly the same, just covering the landscape. But these are all individual,
quite quirky, in different colours and different tones, very pretty, yes lovely. We've arrived in the town of Gumusluk, and apparently there is a little island here called Rabbit island that you can walk out to. We've got our shorts on and our water shoes and a waterproof bag but apparently it's not very deep but we'll see, it's an experience and one that I think we should do! It's going to be cold, cold! I can see the sea, most people have got jumpers on, shorts and lovely blue shoes Marianne! Thank you, Hey that looks nice doesn't it, lovely! That's like an upside down cheesecake, we could maybe get one on the way home, oh wow look at that! This is a lovely little town this has got a bit of a Caribbean feel? doesn't it feel a bit like Caribbean, island style! it feels a bit like island style. Apparently it's this way, which is logical because it's towards the water. I don't know that you can walk across, in the summer this place would be packed! We say it all the time but there's all these restaurants and places down here and this is one of the main attractions outside of Bodrum city on the peninsula, so apparently, look, there's the island, and you could just walk across, i'm not convinced! I'm not sure at all! Is that possible? it looks deep! We're not convinced, so we're going to go and ask somebody, well they put fencing there's a fence around the island so i'm not sure whether it's okay to walk across so we'll go and ask somebody um but we're all geared up for it oh So it's not possible, so let's just go back and we'll show you.
Oh i'm going to put my feet in the water, now it's called rabbit island because there are rabbits on the island, they're still there to this day. They've been there for centuries, there's also a wonderful hill here which you can climb and get an aerial view over Rabbit island. Marianne's going in the water anyway! why not, it's freezing! it's freezing! Too deep it would probably go up to about there should we see if we could climb the hill? i know that it's an excuse to come back, there you go. I don't know whether it's closed because it's low season or whether it's because it's covid days, do let us know.
I think it's probably low season, it's actually cold feel my legs, i'm in the water love, oh yeah, but it's very pretty look, look at this little harbour here with the tree, Some more boats moored up there, and then looking across to some more islands here. Okay we've gone back to Trudy got changed, put our long trousers and shoes on and we're going to try and walk to the top of the hill for an aerial view of the island. There is a very large amount of very beautiful dogs here, in this area and they've all got like these big like bulldoggy heads, look at them, they're lovely reminds me of a dog that we had many years ago. A big rescue dog, a boxer cross staffy called Bella. We're just walking along the seafront here, how lovely are these little houses here.
Look at that, wouldn't that be a great little holiday home, looking over that. Yes and we're trying to go up there, so we're thinking we can walk round this way, so we're going to give it a bash. so this gentleman's just leading us around we should have kept our waterproof shoes on, oh my god. So we're just walking up from the town up here and uh the guys that we met that are showing us the way are coming with us Wow how pleased are we that we've walked to the end of this peninsula, look at that view! We've literally walked round there's the flag we're on the opposite side of this little peninsula here and you you just get these breathtaking views. If you do come here literally just follow the water round there's quite a clear pathway that takes you all the way around.
Stop catch your breath, and take in the view, it's beautiful, it's amazing. It's getting a little bit steep just at the end here, When we were at Bodrum Masali camping Hacer was saying to me that when you get up to the top of the hill you can pick tea, it's sage! This is it, you can put it with hot boiling water and it makes a really good tea to settle your tummy, hanks Hacer! Yeah it's growing everywhere and it smells beautiful, sage and onion stuffing. That's exactly what it smells like. We made it to the top, the flag is there and let's see, we should get a nice aerial view of Rabbit island and the town below.
So that's the town we walked around and then we walked around the bay. It's very windy, it's always very windy, when we come to these lovely places. Wow look at it, but how amazing is that view. From up here it's actually easier to see rabbit island where it's been closed off and you can actually see where we were hoping to walk across, but they put barriers just at one end to stop you being able to get onto the island, it's obviously an out of season thing. So we couldn't resist coming and stopping to get some ice cream on the way, because it looks so good! Can I have the caramel and the Nutella, maybe that's a big pot of ice cream! I can handle it! Oh that's really lovely, all right how good does that look? caramella That's really good, i'm a happy man! I think we deserve this treat, we've done a lot of walking, i think it would be rude not to. To we've jumped back in Trudy and we're now going to head back towards Bodrum city to the little wild camping spot that we found last time, so we're in a good position walking distance to go and explore Bodrum city tomorrow or Wednesday subject to the weather.
I think we were very lucky with that weather because now we've come over the hill it's black! Hey what do you think? yeah the sky has gone really dark and menacing, I think there might be a storm coming looking at that, you come to Bodrum I would definitely say it's well worth exploring and getting out and about if you can. My new friend, it's not just me that gets love from the animals this dog has literally pounced on Chris, what are you doing? I think you should always support your local economy, eat cake! It's recording, oh okay. Baby is Santa Claus going to be able to find us because we haven't got a chimney? hey that's a good point isn't it? Cut! Oh hang on a minute, how is Father Christmas going to find us? we haven't got a chimney! That is a good point, I'll open the window, if I open the roof Santa can still come in! Oh you're still there! It's the end of the show, I've got to get this open so Santa can come in tonight, we hope you've enjoyed this edition and we hope that you can see us on the 27th for the live chat, thanks to everyone for your support and we will see you next time, don't forget to subscribe!
2020-12-24 17:45
