Dust and more dust

So..another holiday company bites the dust.  Aegean flights and Holidays4u went into administration yesterday causing more grief to people who had booked holidays with them, as well as hoteliers and many others who will lose money owed to them.  Thankfully, this time, we are not one of those as we didn’t work with them, though funnily enough their local agent has been asking us for prices for 2012 for a couple of weeks and I finally got round to e-mailing them yesterday!  Guess we won’t now be working together.

Some of the news makes me cross though, even if it doesn’t affect us directly.  The Daily Mail says: ‘in the past there have been problems with foreign hotels following the collapse of British travel companies. Some have expected customers to pay again for fear they will not get the money owed to them by the travel company.’  The truth is that we are advised to ask for payment which guests can reclaim in the UK, whereas there is NO organization guaranteeing our money and in most cases we DON’T get paid. 

When Goldtrail went bankrupt last year they owed us £2500 for guests who had stayed up to that point.  We didn’t actually ask anybody to pay extra for their rooms as they were all due to leave within a couple of days anyway.  So far, despite filling in several forms and sending copies of all the bookings I have received nothing.  The last letter I got from the administrators said they don’t know how much, if anything, we will get or when it might be paid!

We also have had no money for this year's guests from Hotels4u (different from Holidays4u).  They are part of Thomas Cook so I hope there is no chance of them going bust, and I think the problem is again with the local agent who gets paid from the UK and then uses our money for as long as they can get away with it.  Seeing as we are now half way through the season, I think it is about time they handed some over.

On a brighter note, it was Emre’s birthday on Tuesday.  I can’t believe he is sixteen, though he works hard every day on his teenage attitude!  Here he is with his cake in the shape of a laptop which was his present (at least half of it was, the other half he had saved).  

The boys also had a lovely time yesterday doing a quad bike safari.  A friend of mine bought it as a treat for them and it looks like a great trip, especially for teenagers (though Cem and Murat also seemed to enjoy it).  They went up into the forest beyond Poppy and rode through streams and up slopes and even went into an old chromium ore mine, which I have never seen.  They came back tired and VERY dusty – reminded me of the old days when Cem was doing jeep safari...  

Two great nights

I had a lovely weekend. On Friday night we had a barbecue at Poppy to which about about 35 people came.  Our lovely friends Marja and Saadettin and their son Sami, who live in Finland, are over for a holiday and they came along.  After everyone had eaten, it turned into a bit of a disco with 70’s and 80’s music (played by DJ Cem…did you know he really used to be a DJ, both on the local radio and at the local disco?!)

We all ‘let our hair down’ and had a good bop, even Libby who is four, seen here dancing with her mum.

Do you know this man??*

On Saturday night, we had been invited to a wedding.  I have been in e-mail contact with Pınar since last year when I started sending articles to Todays Zaman, one of the English language newspapers in Turkey, as she edits the expat page.  Her brother was getting married and it was a really international wedding as he has lived in Canada, the States and now lives in Austria.  Although I felt as though I knew them both from e-mails, I was really looking forward to meeting them properly.

The wedding was on a boat and we boarded in Fethiye at about 7 o’clock.  A bit later, the boat set off and we travelled round to one of the bays, where the bride and groom boarded from a small boat.  Their friends had organized some lovely surprises for them, including dance routines and a video where they asked each of the guests to record a message for them.  We also let off about 30 Chinese lanterns and some of our guests, who were eating on the beach at Çalış, saw the lanterns going up!

It was a lovely night and we really enjoyed meeting them and sharing their special occasion.  We wish Yılmaz and Bahanur all the best or, as they say in Turkish, ‘bir yastıkta kocasınlar’…..‘may they grow old on one pillow’!

The restaurants in Çalış are having very mixed reviews this year.  Some that have always been reliable, have been disappointing and in one amazing case, a group of five arriving at a restaurant they had thought they would try for the first time, were met by a waiter who sighed and looked as if it would be such hard work to find a table for them that they changed their minds and went elsewhere!  Yet many restaurant owners are complaining that business is poor?!

We have a private boat trip going out from Poppy tomorrow which is always fun…and I get another day off.  Hooray!

A week of surprises

It’s summer, we are full, it’s 40 degrees or so during the day and I seem to have spent the last week sorting out problems.  Most of these are the result of errors in agency bookings.  It is, of course, easy these days to book your holiday from home and since computers are pretty reliable, people think once they have made the booking and got a confirmation, everything will be fine. What often happens is that they are booking through an internet site, who pass it on to the travel agent, who pass it to their representative out here, who send it on to us….several steps where mistakes can be made.

We already had the guests last month whose booking got through to me for one day later than their actual arrival.  When we tried to contact the company they had actually booked through, we found it had already gone out of business!

We have had another couple of rooms arriving the night before we were expecting them but that has been their own mistake in booking; some people don’t realize that if they are arriving at, say 2am on 10^th, it counts as the night of the 9^th.  This would be easily sorted if the websites just explained it on the page where people choose the dates for their accommodation.  This isn't just a problem at Poppy but is happening all over the place and can result in guests having to wait 12 hours for their room.

Another problem we had this week was a very nice family who arrived on Friday – as expected – but had actually booked two rooms, though we only got a reservation for one.  We didn’t have a room free at Poppy until Thursday so the agency offered them a couple of options (moving to Hisarönü, moving to a hotel).  In the end, they decided to stay here in the one apartment and they were lucky as a second one unexpectedly became free yesterday.

Transfers have also been rather stressful.  Last week, when the bus was 40 minutes late to collect some guests for their return journey, I called the emergency number to check it was on its way and got shouted at by a very unhelpful guy.  Other guests had had their flight changed and the transfer company hadn’t been informed; luckily we realized this in advance or they could have missed their flight.  And another minibus arrived with four seats free when there were five people waiting to leave!  The driver shrugged his shoulders and asked a lady to sit on her husband’s lap, which she did, but I was not impressed.

Altogether, I have started waking up in the night wondering what problems will be awaiting me in the morning.  On the bright side, we have a lot of our regular guests in over the next few weeks so I KNOW there will not be any problems with their bookings!

 Had a good Turkish night on Sunday with live music and belly dancer.  Here are a couple of pix….

Beaches and boat trips

We had a lovely time at the surf cafe. We were only down there for a couple of hours but it was buzzing the whole time with windsurfers, kite surfers and people taking out small sail boats.  Those Çalış winds really ARE good for something!

I took a whole day off in the week and went on a boat trip with Kenny.  Those of you who know Poppy know that Kenny is part of the establishment; for anyone returning here, one of the first questions is ‘is Kenny still here?’ – a bit unnecessary as he has been here from May to mid-November for the last seven years (maybe eight – we can neither of us remember!)  Also, the apartment we call number 6 is popularly known as ‘next to Kenny’, popularly being the correct term as I am also frequently asked ‘can we have the apartment next to Kenny?’.

Kaan and Kenny on Oasis boat

So how does our Kenny – known as Celal Amca (uncle Jelal) to locals – spend his time here?  Again, those of you have been before will know that he spends at least 3 days a week on a boat trip.  He always goes with the same boat – Oasis – which is never too crowded and where they always look after him well.  He goes on the twelve islands trip twice a week, where he does a lot of swimming and ‘fish-watching’; and Göcek trip on Sunday when he also gets the chance to do a bit of shopping in Göcek market, as well as checking out the yachts in the marina.

Every day is different on the boat and on Wednesday when we went the excitement was one of the boys catching a couple of squid and an octopus (which they put back).  I swam a couple of times, but also enjoyed lazing around reading my book, while Kaan (11 years old) and Kenny (70 and a bit years old) entertained each other.

Kenny and Kaan 'fish watching'

On the days when he doesn’t take to the sea, Kenny mostly just takes it easy, goes for strolls about and catches up on his ‘housework’.  He knows plenty of people around, including all our regular guests, so he is never short of people to socialize with if he wants to.  And when he doesn’t feel like it, he has everything he needs in his room, including television (!) to watch English football and some films on.

His sister and family come out to visit in May and September and he returns reluctantly to the UK in November to see his doctor and have his check-ups; but what a great way to spend your retirement… who wouldn’t choose Çalış over Bradford!

Battering winds and the coming storm

We have just about recovered from last weekend.  The group of students (from Pakistan) and the hen weekend girls kept us on our toes and ate us out of nearly everything in the kitchen!   The desserts particularly went down a treat and after they left on Sunday I had to go home to make more brownie, cheesecake and apple pie.  With my little helper Kaan of course, who loves doing things in the kitchen.

a few of the students trying our hat collection

The weather has actually been wonderful, relatively cool for this time of year.  The breeze is so pleasant that it feels several degrees cooler than it actually is; a couple of guests have been caught out, especially at the beach, getting burned because they didn’t notice how strong the sun was.  Anyone who has visited Çalış knows that we usually enjoy the breeze; it keeps us cool on even the hottest days of summer (much more comfortable than Fethiye or Ölüdeniz) and has made Çalış popular for windsurfing, even enabling it to host the Turkey kite-surf championships a couple of years ago. 

Yet one of the big travel guides used to describe Çalış as a stretch of sand and shingle beach ‘battered by winds’.  Why they want to make one of our selling points sound like a disadvantage I can’t imagine.  We might not fit their idea of homely pensions in rustic Turkish villages, but they could at least mention how popular Çalış is with families and older couples who are looking for a laid-back resort with beautiful scenery, stunning sunsets and a bit of Turkish flavour.

The hotel has been quieter this week, a short lull before the storm. We took the opportunity to empty and refill the pool on Sunday/Monday.  We do this once or twice over the summer as even with our best care, there is a point at which it is better to empty it, scrub it down and start afresh.  The only trouble is that the new water is always freezing when it first goes in.  Here is Emre ‘braving’ it while the pool was filling.  Doesn’t take long at this time of year to heat up though and at least it stops it getting too hot as some of the pools around do.

 Kaan and I went horse riding again. And today we are off to the beach – for the first time this year.  Going to go along to the surf café actually so we can enjoy watching some of the surfers being ‘battered by the wind’!

Where's Basil?

What a week!  It started very well with a party last Saturday for Jan’s birthday.  The funny thing was that there were TWO other guests in the hotel with birthdays the same day so lots of celebrating and lots of birthday cake.  Here is Jan cutting hers. 

The fireworks were Cem’s idea.  I am a bit paranoid about fireworks and was worried we would set fire to the bar roof.  They were fine though and looked very nice.  We also sent up a Chinese lantern which took a while to get going but then floated off well.  Last year, Cem got obsessed with making Chinese Lanterns from bin bags, straws and birthday cake candles.  Some of them flew very well, some of them not so well – at which point Emre would be sent off on his bike to follow it and make sure it didn’t set fire to anything.

Jan, Graham and ‘the gang’ left last night.  Sorry to see them go but I know they’ll be back – this year if Jan has her way!

School finished here last week so Turkish families have started arriving on holiday.  We have had a couple of rooms in this week, though we have also had to turn some away as we had no availability for last night.

And when I say no availability – even the new roof suite was booked, which meant we spent a lot of this week trying to get it finished!  It looks great now, a few finishing touches still to be made but with the bed arriving at about 2pm yesterday and the carpenter still fitting the door at 6pm we were lucky the guests didn’t get here until 2am.

I had actually been dreading yesterday all week.  I knew it would be a frantic day as we had four rooms of British guests arriving and a group of 28 students from İstanbul.  But I could never have imagined quite how crazy it would be.

First, three of the four agency rooms arrived a night early – having made their booking from the 24^th, not thinking that 2am on 24^th counts as the night of the 23^rd!  With a bit of switching of rooms, we were able to take them early.  Wouldn’t have wanted to disappoint them as they are here for just three days on a hen weekend!  Here they are ready to go out last night; needless-to-say they caused quite a stir round Çalış.

So, that was the start of the day.  Mid-morning Kaan called me in one of his little panics, to say there was water pouring out of a pipe in the boiler room. It took a while to locate the pipe and close the valve.  Then we had to wait for the plumber.  In the afternoon, one of the main fuses blew so there was no electricity to SOME parts of the hotel and we were waiting for the electrician.  And finally the carpenter’s circular saw broke down.

It all got fixed, and the guests all arrived (some earlier than planned, and some much later!)  But felt a little like Fawlty Towers round here for a while!

Fleeing voters and flying Turks

We had elections here on Sunday but not the result we would have liked. Note I don’t say ‘the result we hoped for’ because there wasn’t much chance of it happening, but still…The party that has been in power since 2002 won again with close to 50% of the vote. Muğla (our region) is one of only seven in the country where the opposition CHP (Republican People’s Party) won.


The winning party, called the ‘Justice and Development Party’, are politically centre-right and have, admittedly, had a positive effect on the economy. However, though they claim not to be a religious party, many of their members were previously members of an Islamist party and a lot of people are afraid they will undermine the secular nature of Turkish society.

This is why issues such as the wearing of headscarves by students and government workers, to many foreigners a seemingly harmless topic, become the subject of such passion here. One of the latest topics to cause uproar is the plan for censorship of the internet. I am obviously concerned about this too though I don’t know how extensive it will be; what I do know is that it will cause a lot of discussion, protests and demonstrations.

Election day itself is quite a social event here. It is always on a Sunday as schools (and teachers) are used for the elections. I sat outside in the car while Cem’s cousin and a couple of others went in to vote (I was voting at a different place) and watched the people arrive in cars, on scooters, bicycles and on foot, hanging around to chat to friends. There was also some drama as the police had decided it would be a good time to ‘catch up with’ people on their wanted list (we’re not talking bank robbers and murderers, more people with unpaid debts or bounced cheques). We saw one man beat a hasty retreat when he found his name was on the list and one of Cem’s friends was not so lucky and spent the night in the cells.

The good news this week is that we got paid the early booking money. Don’t know whether our threats to head office had any effect but at least it came through.

Better than that, all the guests seem delighted with the newly-decorated apartments. We had a lovely couple staying last week who were booked in for last year – until Goldtrail went bust. They made it to Poppy this year and enjoyed their stay. At the moment we have two ladies, one of whom teaches swimming and says she has seen many, many pools but never one as clean as ours!

We have also had a family from South Africa staying – possibly our furthest-travelled guests. They came partly for the Enduro World Championship leg which was held here last Friday and Saturday. Emre was on duty as a marshal, entrusted with retying the plastic tape when they broke it (often) and waving a flag to attract someone when there was an accident (thankfully not so often). The winners came from Spain, Italy and Finland, with France also doing well but our South African guests, one of whom is a competitor himself, said the overall standard was very high.

There was also a performance by the ‘flying Turk’ (not Cem after a night on the vodka!) The ramps were set up in the marketplace for him to do his acrobatics. See the video below – but don’t try this at home!