I have lived my whole life in tourist destinations, from beautiful Pembrokeshire to the Costa Del Sol, from the Mayan Riviera to the Turkish Aegean, and I am lucky to have lived like that and it isn’t that I take the places I have lived for granted but it often takes guests to make you realise how much fun living somewhere like this is.
The other week we had my daughter and her boyfriend staying, they aren’t Turkey virgins, they’ve been here a lot but each time they come we do the tourist thing and we often end up doing stuff we wouldn’t do normally because life gets in the way.
On the first day we took them for their first Turkish Bath at Ada Saray Haman in Kusadasi. As they relaxed on the warm marble of the central slab an elderly Turkish gentleman, his withered loins covered by a flimsy pair of swimming shorts, was dealt with first. After being briskly scrubbed and adroitly manoeuvred around the slab in a pile of foam he was sluiced off with icy water that made him yelp and mutter. So they had some idea of what to expect when it was their turn.
Nigel, Naomi’s boyfriend took it all with his usual aplomb only crying like a girl when they tried to give him a pedicure – he has some sort of foot phobia, which is probably better than a foot fetish, but still odd. Being a mechanic by trade Nigel produced a gratifying amount of dirty skin and ended up the cleanest he has been in eight years. He stayed clean for exactly three hours as when we returned home my sick car was delivered by the recovery driver and Nigel happily plunged his hands into the engine and got oily to the shoulders!
Naomi was dealt with last, but that’s hardly surprising, they were probably drawing lots in the ante chamber to see who got to scrub her. She loved the pedicure and the scrub but was less keen on the short massage at the end. All in all the outing was deemed great fun, mainly for the opportunity to pour lots of cold water on each other!
For the next week we played tourist. We drank Starbucks at the port and watched the cruise liners. We shopped for clothes at Mudo in Scala Nova, a shop that Naomi adores for its preppy style. We window shopped around the jewellers and carpet shops in the old town before strolling along the sea front towards Bird Island.
We had a beautiful dinner at Be Bop at the marina and a fun fish and chip supper at The Salt Box and we pigged out on the first of the season’s water melons which are sweet right down to the rind – you need a swim after eating them because you get covered in the juice.
We went to Adaland Aquapark for the first time ever and had the whole place pretty much to ourselves. We played on the beach at Yoncakoy and Pamucak, lazed beside the pool, shopped for bargains in Selcuk market and watched a fabulous sunset from the terrace of a friend’s house in Kusadasi.
I think it was everything a holiday is meant to be, including too short!
Hopefully this year they can come again in a couple of months, particularly as Naomi needs to see her dentist – it’s a bit mad having your dentist 2000 miles away but it’s the best service we can get for her. So with good luck and a fair wind we can do it all again in October.
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- Heading out for dinner
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- A near deserted Adaland waterpark
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- means no queues for the slides!
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- Playing on the beach at Pamucak
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- Naomi appreciating the rose I left in her room!
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- Shadow enjoying the whole family being back together
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- Kusadasi in May
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- An amazing sunset to end the week
It certainly seems like you have had a wonderful week being a tourist. I’m sure it will have done you the world of good too. I haven’t been here long enough to have got used to the beautiful blue skies and gorgeous views…but I’m looking forward to my first visitors so I can see it all again with their eyes too.
Ax
Sounds like you had a ball. Naomi looks lovely with a wonderful smile and Nigel doesn’t look half bad either! Oh, to be young again. The early summer rush is beginning at the end of this week with Liam’s brother for a couples of days, followed by an old friend of his, followed by an old friend of mine. The visitor treadmill will see us exhausted with our livers in terminal decline! Jack xx
They had so much fun, and it went too quickly. I’ll tell her you liked her smile, I’ve just had her vetto every photo I took of her because she hates her smile! We’ve got a couple of days off now then the next guests arrive and when they leave we have a day or two before we’re full again until end of June. Look after yourselves and watch your livers! K xxxx
Ooh, jealous! I wish I could go to Adaland early – or late – in the season too! I *still* have never been to a Turkish bath! Is there a place in Kusadasi you’d recommend?
I use the Ada Saray Hamman which is just on the outskirts of Kusadasi on the road to Kustur beach. It’s easy to find, it’s clean and bright and airy and the staff are nice. There is also the Kaleici bath in the old town, more atmospheric, lots of old wood and stuff but I like it less. Adaland I have mixed feelings about, the slides are fun but I feel really uncomfortable about a business linked to dolphins in captivity. That said it is very clean and well maintained, the staff are lovely and they have lifeguards everywhere which is good. I’m writing a review of the place at the moment, it’s on my to do list, I should get round to finishing it soon. K xxxx