When is a contract not a contract?...

It’s been a while since I posted a blog. Been busy tidying up the hotel for the winter and even doing some gardening. The weather has been fantastic – chilly at night but beautifully bright and sunny in the day. I wish it could last all winter but people are starting to talk of water shortages and the farmers are starting to complain and I think we are forecast some rain this week.


Now I’d like to update you on our relationship with THE AGENCY. We have a contract with two British holiday companies. We signed a contract with one of them in July, since when they have been slowly but steadily sending bookings through. That’s not the one I want to tell you about!

The other company, as I have reported in this blog, first sent a very young guy who wasn’t authorised to make any major changes and went scuttling off when I gave him the prices for next year. We then had several wasted journeys to their office in Fethiye for ‘appointments’ that they had made and then forgotten (or couldn’t be bothered to stick around for).

Finally, a more senior guy came to the hotel. I gave him the rates I had agreed with the other company, he adjusted the details slightly – pushing low season prices down significantly but keeping the peak season price the same and we signed a contract. Finally, I thought!

But two weeks later I got an e-mail saying this contract could not be activated because their sales price was higher than the other company. When I looked at the two prices for a week’s stay at Poppy at different times through the season it became obvious why – their mark-up is consistently higher and sometimes double that of the other company.

They say they want ‘parity’ – for which read LOWER rates but firstly, I don’t see why we should treat them differently and secondly, we discussed all this already. Currently, after several more e-mails, we haven’t managed to make a new contract. To be honest, as we start the annual winter battle for payment, I am losing the will to sign. So far we have been paid for just over half this summer’s guests. And I doubt that we will manage to get much more until next spring.

And this, by the way, is a company that just had to ask lenders to come up with a rescue package.


Çalış Christmas Fair

Yesterday was the Christmas fair in Çalış. Unlike last year, the weather was glorious and it was packed with both stalls and customers. It has become a great institution here where the Christmas celebrations are few and far between, all thanks to a hard-working group of people who put it together.



mulled wine - yummy!



Sacrifices

Last week was Kurban Bayramı (Eid al-Adha), the sacrifice festival in the Muslim world.  The festival sounds a bit gruesome, and it did use to be characterized by lots of sheep appearing in people’s gardens in the weeks before the festival to be replaced by a lot of bloody carcasses as the butchers worked their way round on the first morning of the holiday.  Luckily this happens a lot less now; partly maybe because the price of an animal is so high that many people can no longer afford it, but also because there are now designated areas for the slaughter, as well as less hands-on ways of doing it.  You can now, for example, send a text message to the Red Crescent (like the Red Cross), who will deduct the money from your account, have an animal ‘done’ at the abattoir in your name, distribute most of the meat and send you a ‘taster’!

This is the point of the sacrifice – which by the way commemorates Abraham’s readiness to obey God by sacrificing his son İsmail - not to have a big barbecue with your friends, but to give the meat away.  Officially you can consume up to a third of the animal, a third can be given to family and friends but at least a third must be given to those in need.  This year the Red Crescent sent the meat to the earthquake victims in Van.

This festival is also the time that Muslims make the pilgrimage to Mecca.  The ‘duties’ they perform there, which might seem a bit strange if you have heard any of them (throwing stones is one of them) also represent the story of Abraham’s obedience to God.  The stone throwing, for example, recalls how he chased away the devil who was trying to tempt him to disobey.

For us, it is a time to visit family and friends.  Everyone gets dressed up and the kids are given sweets and money.  We always have breakfast with Cem’s mum (after he and the boys have been to the mosque), and visit some of this relatives.  That’s about the extent of our celebration – by the evening we were in the bar at the hotel, having some drinks with some friends!

Murat fishing

 On the second day we went out on the boat for the afternoon.  The weather was lovely.  The holiday lasts for four days, and the kids were off school until the Thursday, but two days was enough for me.  I am not good at sitting around all day drinking tea and gossiping…even after all this time in Turkey!

Emre fishing

The season ends

The summer season is over and the beach front in Çalış is quiet, the sunbeds stacked up and many of the restaurants closed.  Though the last holiday-makers have left Poppy (and the pool is beginning to take on a green tinge) there is still plenty of activity.  Kenny is here for another two weeks, and a few people have moved in for the winter.  We also had a couple of guests at the weekend so I suddenly found myself cooking for 10 and more again.  Cem did the honours on Saturday night, making meat and peas (doesn’t sound good in English but everyone assures me it’s delicious).

The end of the season brings mixed feelings.  Many people are looking forward to having a rest and I have to confess I enjoyed a long lie-in on Tuesday morning.  Some are worried that there is not so much to do in winter; I saw an English guy who lives here the other day and he said he is bored already.  For others, the hard part of winter is the fact that they are not earning any money and have to make what they have earned over the summer last the next 6 months!

Last week Ölüdeniz held its annual air festival.  Thousands of paragliders come to compete in the competition and many more come to give displays of all things aeronautical.  We went down there on Saturday and watched a lot of paragliders, some freefallers (who launched with the paragliders from the mountain then baled out), a display of microlight flying and – the best – a hot air balloon.  I have wanted to go up in one since I was a child watching them fly over our house.  This one was tethered and only went up 15 or 20m but that was a start.  I didn’t realise how close the burner is to the basket – making it pretty hot in there.  I would still like to have a proper flight, preferably in Cappadocia (the region of Turkey with the weird ‘fairy chimneys’) where the conditions are perfect for it and the landscape worth seeing.

Monday was Halloween…there were a few parties going on in the bars frequented by expats.  I remember when Emre was small and I dressed him up and made a pumpkin lantern and everybody thought I was nuts!  Even Kaan is too big to dress up properly now – though he did wear one of his scary masks.  We also made a good jack o’lantern - and delicious pumpkin soup with the bits we scraped out.....

Van Earthquake

I’m sure you have all read about the latest earthquake in Turkey. It struck last Sunday in the region of Van on the east side of Turkey. It measured 7.2 and was at a relatively shallow depth of 20km, meaning it caused a huge amount of damage.


Today the death toll stands at over 500 and over 1000 injured, while thousands of buildings have been destroyed and tens of thousands left homeless.

But it is the individual stories in the news that bring tears to my eyes. Although most of them are sad, there are also some amazing stories, like that of the two week old (premature) baby who survived for 3 days in her mother’s arms. Squashed into a small space and holding her daughter to keep her warm, this mother fed her until her milk dried up and then used her own saliva to keep her from dehydrating – a mother’s protective instinct. The baby is doing very well and both will make a full recovery, though who knows what psychological effects this woman will suffer.


Baby Azra

 Another one who will wonder if she is lucky or unlucky is the teacher who was stuck for 8 hours in the rubble of the 1999 İzmit earthquake. In Turkey, government employees are often sent to the eastern regions to work and this lady was sent to Van. She was caught again in this earthquake, again trapped under the rubble but again pulled out alive, this time after a day or so.

And then there are the tragic stories of the mother (also a teacher), found dead with her 8-month old son in her arms and buried with him. And the little boy waiting every day by the remains of an apartment block, hoping they will find his mother alive.

I can’t imagine what it feels like to be trapped under steel and concrete for hours, let alone days. Although I have felt lesser earthquakes here, I can’t imagine what it feels like to be in a building that is shaking so much you can’t find your way to the stairs, or make your way down them. I can’t imagine what it feels like to lose everything you own in a few seconds or worse, to be waiting and hoping your family will be pulled out alive.

The rescue operation and aid operations are continuing and also contains good and bad stories. When I watched the people in İstanbul rushing to donate blankets, beds, clothes and other necessities I thought how relatively little many of these people have but how willing they are to donate it to those less fortunate. But one of the army vehicles carrying aid in the area was attacked by terrorists which is disgusting.

I’m off home now to sort out some things for the aid operation. If you would like to help these people, you can log on to www.redcross.org.uk where these is a Turkish Earthquake Appeal.

The end is near

The weather has reminded us that we are nearing the end of the season by pouring with rain for three days.  It started on Sunday with threatening black clouds all day.  It didn’t really get going until the evening, about 7 o’clock, when it rained and blew such a gale that the rain was coming down sideways, pushing its way under doors.  Monday and Tuesday were pretty miserable but by Wednesday it was clearing up and now it’s beautiful and bright again, a bit over 20 degrees.

Last Saturday I had my first trip on the boat, Suntrap, and my last swim of the year.  We went out with the boys and a friend in the afternoon, swimming and fishing just off Red Island where they caught a couple of good-sized ‘palamut’ (mackerel), then going into Aquarium Bay where we moored up for a while.  As we came back in to Fethiye it was getting dark and it was so cosy on the boat with the lights on and the lights shining across from the town.  Next summer I think people will really enjoy going out for days – and even staying overnight in quiet bays- especially after Cem has made the improvements he is planning to the boat.

I have started giving more lessons and am taking on new students for the winter.  Murat laughed the other day when he listened to me give the same lesson to three different sets of students in one day.  Actually, I still enjoy it and am happy with the course and the material I have put together over the last few years.  The two sets of new students who have started in the last few weeks say they are already feeling more confident than they were with the lessons they have tried before – which is a good sign.

We have also finally had success in making a contract with Hotels4u for next year.  After calling us to the office TWICE and not being there, the contracts manager (very apologetic) came to the hotel and made a contract which gets rid of some of the things we were not happy about – particularly the early booking discount.

The hotel is very quiet now, with just a couple of rooms in (and Kenny) and three more arrivals.  I have been busy sorting out the photos from this summer (what a job!) and thought I would put on some of the prize ones….

Frank and Andy

2 angels?

Grant's birthday

Jan's birthday - the gang on the balcony

Murat, Nilgün & co ready for the foam party

Happy Birthday 'slim-ed'!

Another 50th!

So...we had a party to celebrate Paul’s fiftieth birthday last week and it turned out that two other guests had birthdays that day!  It was a great night, with belly dancer and the fire show again.  Cem was manning the barbecue as usual, I was in the kitchen and Murat and the boys in the bar.  Thankfully, all our friends turn up when they can to help – namely Durmus, who is nearly a permanent fixture here, Hakan the boat captain (more about that later) and our friendly taxi driver Veli (known to some as ‘deli Veli’ or ‘mad Veli’), who came along to have a drink with Cem but got stuck in carrying plates and serving drinks!

Here are Verena and Paul cutting their cakes...pity you can't see the pictures on them but they were good ones!

 The Peeters family from Netherlands, who have been staying with us for many years, left this week after a busy holiday including jeep safari, boat trip, diving and more. From this weekend, for the first time since early June, the hotel is down to half occupancy and most of the guests are relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous weather (sunny and warm but not scorching).  However, rather unusually, we also have three rooms of lads who are here to party.  One of them had a bad start to his holiday when the police brought him back on his first night (after rescuing him from wherever he had passed out) and his girlfriend ‘attacked’ him on their second night here.  Anyway they have calmed down a bit and the only problem is that they tend to be a bit loud in the early hours when the rest of the hotel is sleeping.

We have a boat!  Cem has taken over ownership of a 12m wooden boat set up for day trips.  He assures me it will pay for itself next year, but at the moment he is busy planning all the improvements he wants to make to it.  It has two cabins, a sundeck and a ‘fly deck’ on the top and is licensed to take up to 12 people on day trips.  It is a nice boat, though I have yet to go out on it.  Kaan has taken to spending his lunchtimes on it (when it is not out on a trip), ‘hanging out’ with the captain!

And finally, Cem and I were hopping mad yesterday with hotels4u and the agency that represent them here.  They called on Tuesday morning and asked us to go to their offices to make next year’s contract.  We agreed to go there at 1 – and duly turned up at that time to be told they were waiting for the contract manager to come from Bodrum.  We made a new time of 3 and went into Fethiye to have some lunch, during which they called to say it would be better if we made a new appointment for yesterday (Wednesday).  We dashed there yesterday at the arranged time of 1 (between my 12o’clock and 2 o’clock lessons), only to be looked at as if we were mad and told the team were visiting hotels in Ovacık.

To me, this shows either a complete lack of respect for us or total incompetency on their part.  I am still deciding which, and waiting to see if they come to the hotel as we have refused to go there again!

Kalkan and around

I got back last night from a couple of days in Kalkan.  My sister and brother-in-law have had a two-week holiday there and I went to visit them and have a little break.

Kalkan is a very pretty town about an hour’s drive from Fethiye.  It is on the coast and built on the side of a mountain so the view when you come over the last hill is really spectacular.  The view from their hotel – situated quite high up the slope – was also breath-taking.

a pool with a view

 The town itself is clustered around the harbour, but there has been lots of building in the last few years so there are many villas spread over the hill.  They are not all attractive and in some ways it would be nice if it could have remained how it was but nothing can spoil the quaintness of the centre of the town with its old houses crowded onto steep streets and the stunning blue of the bay, interrupted by a couple of islands.

There are many lovely restaurants there and the nicest places to eat are on some of the roof terraces so you make the most of the views.  While the menus are a bit more varied and adventurous than most of the restaurants in Çalış, prices are also significantly higher.  Even the shops cater for bigger spenders.  There is a bag shop selling very exact copies of designer bags which they have made by a factory in İstanbul – the average price being about 300TL.  The copy watches are indistinguishable from the real Breitlings and Vacheron Constantin and while the prices are a fraction of the cost of the real ones, there is nothing for a tenner!

I drove to Kalkan on Friday and Kaan came on the bus on Saturday.  Having spent two days lying around and eating a lot (sticky toffee pudding was the highlight for me!) we went off exploring yesterday.  Demre is a town about 70km east of Kalkan.  The drive itself is lovely as the road follows the coast much of the way.

Lycian tombs at Myra

 In Demre, we headed for the Lycian remains of Myra.  This is currently being excavated by a team from Akdeniz University, but the Lycian rock tombs and the large Roman theatre are worth seeing.  In the town itself, there is the church of St Nicholas where his remains were held (he was bishop of the town in the fourth century) until the chaos at the time the Ottomans took over enabled ‘pirates’ from Italy to steal them and take them back to Bari in Italy.

It is still a site for pilgrimages – mainly by Russians (I guess because he is the patron saint of Russia) – and it was quite busy but the frescoes inside are lovely.  Outside, this is Kaan adding to a mosaic that is being done by visiting children to raise money for ongoing renovations to the church.