I was sad but not surprised
to read last week that people are being encouraged to lie about being ill while
on holiday. Apparently a British tour
operator, suspicious of the rise in claims for holiday sickness, sent investigators
who posed as a family on holiday. They
were approached by a representative of a company that specialises in holiday
compensation claims who suggested that photographs of a packet of Immodium were
all it would take to get them a big pay-out.
While I have sympathy for
anybody who is ill on holiday, this culture of compensation for every little problem
has gone crazy. Most holiday illnesses,
in my experience, are caused by change in diet or too much sun (and sangria!)
rather than ‘food poisoning’ and are nobody’s fault. The fact that there are companies that exist purely to
handle these complaints is revealing.
The other thing that people
may not realise when they make a complaint is that they are not only hitting a
large tour operator; those companies contact the hotel who then has to prove
that the complaint is unfounded – or forfeit payment for the guest. At Poppy, we haven’t had people complaining
of illness but we have had guests requesting compensation. Amongst the ‘horrors’ they mentioned were
leaves on the balcony (it was Autumn), lime scale in the kettle (I do actually
de-scale them but it only takes a few boils for it to be white again) and the
neighbour’s dog barking. Thankfully,
none of these claims were successful!
So, let’s talk about nicer
things. Here are some more things that
are amazing about Turkey. They may not appeal
to you personally but this type of site has created a whole branch of tourism –
religious holidays – which Turkey is still behind in. I have read that 60% of the places mentioned
in the bible are located in Turkey, which sounds a little hard to prove to me
BUT the following are certainly available for visiting...
St Peter’s Church near
Antakya (south east Turkey), hollowed out of a cave on the spot where St Peter preached
the Gospel;, said to be the first church of Christianity.
The Church of St Nicholas in
Demre (100km along the coast from Fethiye), the burial place of St Nicholas who
was Bishop here (then named Myra). This is
already popular with Orthodox Christians for whom he has special significance
and it is on the list to become a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The House of the Virgin Mary (near
Ephesus) where it is said she lived her last years after coming here with the
Apostle John. The Roman Catholic Church has never verified the
authenticity of the house but it has never denied it either and since 1896
there have been many papal visits (the last in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI).
Saint Paul, one of the most
important figures in early Christianity, was born in Tarsus (southern Turkey)
and his journeys to spread the word took him to many places in Turkey, some of
which still have churches dedicated to him.
He was so successful, and Christianity took such a strong hold in
Anatolia that the Emperor Constantine founded the capital of his new Christian Empire here – at Constantinople. Istanbul still offers many religious sites –
including the incredible Aya Sofia (Hagia Sophia) which was the largest cathedral in the world for almost a thousand years from its completion in 537AD. How amazing is that?!
