A time to slap

Here comes Christmas, sneaking up on us again.  I thought I was so well-prepared this year.  I bought some new Christmas decorations last January when we went to Budapest – the capital of Christmas decorations.  I bought the main presents for the boys in Canada, as well as lots of little stocking fillers, and advent calendars in London on the way back.  I even had crackers and things left from last year.  But suddenly there are only 2 days left and I have to do wrapping, marzipan and ice two cakes, make stock for gravy (Jamie Oliver has a lot to answer for)…..and I just had a message from Kaan’s school to say they have picked tomorrow for a parents meeting.  They always do this – tell you the day before, as though none of the mothers have jobs or anything else to do – and then they really shame you if you don’t go to them.

I do notice that most of this running round, stressing and icing cakes at 3am is done by mums.  Most of the men I know look very smug and say they are nearly ready – when all they’ve actually done is buy three presents, helped fix the Christmas tree lights and got through the firm’s Christmas drinks!

baubles from Budapest - the one on the left is a blown egg-shell

The other evening, for the first time EVER, I watched ‘It’s a wonderful life’.  It is always listed as the best Christmas film ever – and though it’s pretty corny I did like the discussion going on in heaven and Clarence the (rather bumbling) angel, and I love those wobbly old movie sets!  The boys just couldn’t believe I wanted to watch a film that was SO old.

Here is another story that amused me when I read it this week.  It is quite seasonal as it concerns St Nicholas, aka Santa Claus, who was born at Patara and became Bishop of Myra, not very far from here.  By the way, Cem once rued the fact that while Finland makes a lot of money from the Santa business, his real home was virtually unknown.  Since then, Myra has become a popular place for ‘pilgrimages’, mainly with Russians (St Nicholas is apparently ‘big’ in the Orthodox church); last summer when I drove through Demre (the modern town on the site) I hardly recognized it.

Holly getting ready for Christmas

Anyway, this story concerns Nicholas’ supposed attendance at the First Nicean Ecumenical Council in 325AD.  This was a sort of conference, organized by the Emperor Constantine in Iznik near Constantinople.  Over 300 bishops attended from all over the Christian world to discuss some of the finer points of Christian belief, particularly whether Jesus was equal in status to God.  Nicholas, who believed he was, got so angry with Arius, who believed he wasn’t, that he is said to have slapped him!

For this very unbishoply behaviour, Nicholas had his bishop’s clothes taken from him and was put in jail pending a decision as to his fate.  However, in the night Jesus and Mary came and gave him a copy of the Gospel and a stole so that in the morning he was found to be dressed once more as a bishop.  When Constantine heard, he was so impressed by the miracle that Nicholas was released.

By the way, though his bones were taken from the church in Myra to Italy, his FIRST tomb is thought to have been on Gemiler Island – the small island between Fethiye and Oludeniz.  There was a monastery on this island so maybe he died while visiting there?  Not sure of the details (Japanese archaeologists were excavating there for a few years but I haven’t seen much sign recently) but that is why it is often called St Nicholas Island.

Hope he brings you what you want – and not a slap – this Christmas!

Two very cute Santas - who will kill me for putting this on!

Changes to Calis

As there is a ban on most building work here in the summer, as soon as the season ends work starts everywhere.  Some of it is small-scale – people having their rooves fixed, hotels doing repairs and renovations – but there is also new building going on.  I have noticed several plots where new villa or apartment complexes have been started.

Barut Sensatori 'swim-up'

But there is a bigger change going on in Calis.  This summer saw the opening of our first five-star hotel, Barut Sensatori.  I stayed at a Barut Hotel in Antalya a couple of years ago and it was beautiful and stylish and though not as large, I’m sure the Barut in Calis is equally impressive. However, as it is situated in ‘Koca Calis’ (way along the beach), it isn’t visible from the main beach and its guests do not really visit the centre of the resort.  The hotel provides a boat service so they can go to Fethiye to shop or have lunch (though as they all stay ‘all-inclusive’ many won’t even do this) but they are unlikely to walk 3km or so along the dusty track back to Calis centre.

The hotel that is being built this winter will have a much greater effect on the resort.  A rapidly-expanding, local company called Liberty Hotels bought the old Seketur Hotel and the empty plot behind it.  These are situated mid-way along the sea-front and now that they have demolished the hotel and cleared most of the plot it is obvious what an enormous project it is.

part of the plot of the new Liberty Hotel

Thanks to new building restrictions the hotel can be only two stories high (so I am told).  But they will still have by far the biggest property in the resort, with several hundred beds.  Their guests will use the main beach and will be able to visit the shops and restaurants right outside the gate.  Liberty Hotels has also bought Letoon Hotel (at the end of the beach, close to the minibus stop) and have a third project planned for Koca Calis.  That is a lot of new five-star, all-inclusive beds! 

I know we can’t stop change and I always assure people that most of the changes I have seen here in 23 years have been positive.  I know too that there are benefits to this development:  I am sure the Liberty Group will keep the beach clean - at least the part of the beach immediately in front of the hotel; their guests are bound to spend some money in local businesses – we might even get more stylish souvenir and clothes shops like those in Paspatur (the Old Town in Fethiye).

However I hope that the character of Calis is not affected.  It has always been a laid-back place, where most of the hotels are small, family-run affairs and to which people return year-after-year for the warm welcome and relaxed atmosphere.  It is not a party resort (like Marmaris and Hisaronu), it is not a showy resort (like Bodrum and Oludeniz).  There is nothing wrong with these, if that is what you aim to be, but it has never been what Calis is about.  As a large proportion of our guests are Calis regulars who like it as it is, I hope that these developments do not destroy what people have always appreciated about it.

Here are some definitely positive developments…..

1.       The sea front between Fethiye and Calis, the last part of which should be completed this winter;  coming home one last afternoon I was amazed at the number of people out walking, running, fishing, taking selfies and generally enjoying the promenade (and the lovely weather)

2.      (for those of us who live here) the Christmas Fair – last Sunday – was as good as ever with over 100 stalls selling crafts, food and everything Christmas….

I finally bought a new angel – hand-made felt – though I still cannot bear to retire my 50+ year old angel so they are doing a joint job; you can never have too many angels!

Agencies - again!!

Here is an example of the way the travel companies treat small hotels.  We made a contract for next summer with AGENCY no. 1 (let’s not mention names) in the middle of October.  For the past few years they have ‘summoned’ us to their office to do the deed; this year they asked us to e-mail prices for next summer.  I sent through the prices we had already signed with another company, higher in every month than last year’s prices but with a peak rate (for just 6 weeks from mid-July through to the end of August) of only £30 for an apartment.  Probably because for the last few years we have agreed to very small increases in mid-summer and kept rates the same for low season, he was surprised and rang Cem to ask if we were making improvements to the hotel. Cem pointed out that we have already done quite a lot over the last two years WITHOUT noticeably increasing prices and eventually he sent the contract through for us to sign.

So imagine my surprise when I went to check their site the other day and read “We are no longer selling under this name” – or words to that effect.  Nobody had told us and when we called the agency who represent them here, they acted as though nobody had told them either.  They promised they would look into it and call back.  As they didn’t, I e-mailed asking whether we are still working together or not and have been sent a mail saying they will be in touch ‘shortly’ – which in Turkey could mean anything really.  So, after 6 years of working together, that’s how much they value our association.

very unusual - fog in Fethiye!

Meanwhile the Agency no. 2 – a new one for us – are not exactly excelling themselves.  The sales manager said he was choosing a small group of hotels from Calis and we would be the only apartment in our category.  However, when I went on to check their site, I found more than 30 hotels listed for Calis, some of which I know they can’t possibly be working with because they have been closed for more than a year (one was even knocked down last month; it has – after I pointed this out – been taken off the site!)  Amongst those 30 hotels was Poppy featured?..No!  I e-mailed to ask what was going on and was told that they had only got our contract late in October – despite the fact that we signed it in the middle of September.  Then someone e-mailed me to say we were now on the system.  I went on to see and found that you could indeed find Poppy apartments – if you did a search for Poppy apartments.  We still do not appear on the list of hotels for Calis, meaning basically that people who already know about us can find us on the site – but nobody else!

another amazing Calis sunset

Finally, we Agency no. 3 are once again behind with payments.  They have so far only paid for  May and June’s guests.  When I e-mailed last week asking for a date for the next payment I got the standard response saying they are checking my invoice – presumable July’s invoice which they have now had for 4 months.  I am actually beginning to worry that we might not get this money.  We took two hits a few years ago when first Vision Holidays and then Goldtrail went bankrupt and we really struggled for a bit.

At the end of the season I was feeling hopeful for next year, with the new contract and the number of happy guests we had this summer who said they will be back.  Now with these problems, combined with the political situation all over Europe and the Middle East, I could get quite depressed.  However I am trying to stay positive!  In that spirit, please check out our new web site at www.poppyapartments.com and here is a gorgeous video promoting Turkey.  It starts and finishes at the top of Babadag Mountain.  It would have been nice to have a few shots of Fethiye – maybe Paspator (the Old Town) or the harbour front – but you will see Oludeniz, Saklikent, Patara beach and Kas, as well as some beautiful bays that could be anywhere along the coast…

STOP PRESS:  OMG!  The Thomas Cook site has ‘morphed’ into Booking.com.  I have no idea what is going on and can’t decide if it is a good thing or not.  We are on there as we were already working with Booking.com  Watch this space….!