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.

Back to school

Hooray!  Like mothers everywhere I have finally breathed a sigh of relief as the children went back to school yesterday.  Not that they really require much entertaining any more…Emre has been officially working in the hotel and Kaan has spent most of his time here enjoying the constant stream of friends and the pool.

For the boys, Poppy is home – the one place they have known all their lives.  Sometimes we have lived in, sometimes (as now) out; when they were younger I didn’t spend so much time here and we would mainly visit to use the pool – even renting the hotel to somebody else to run for two years.  But it has always been here and their childhood memories will focus around it.

Emre playing in the pool

They have both had accidents here, Emre falling and splitting his chin (first stitches – more traumatic for me than for him) and Kaan burning his hand on a motorbike exhaust, treading on glass (just last month).  I knew Emre could swim when, not far off his third birthday, he fell in the pool and by the time I raced over was keeping himself up and heading for the edge.  Kaan learned to swim in Poppy pool and though he was initially rather reluctant, once he got the hang of it he was like a little dolphin, spiralling as he swam down to the bottom to pick up coins we threw in for him.

Kaan and his friend (watching the belly dancer!)

 Through Poppy, they meet knew people all the time and – one of the things I enjoy about the hotel – a whole range of people that it might be hard to come across in a normal life.  This has also definitely helped with their English as they have listened to many different people and many different accents, rather than just me and the few English friends I have here.  In these days of facebook, of course it is easier to keep in touch with these people and I often see that the boys are exchanging messages with guests old and new.

 But it isn’t all play…Emre has worked the last two years during his summer holiday and even Kaan is willing to lend a hand when needed.  We had one complaint on trip advisor this year from guests that they were ‘met by the owner’s son’ (only heard about this as I got so obsessed with trip advisor last year that I haven’t let myself look at it at all this year!).  Now personally I don’t see the problem with this; he’s sixteen years old not six, he wasn’t wearing his pyjamas and he’s quite polite and helpful (as apparently another guest pointed out on the site – thankyou for that!)  My mother ran a business while I was growing up and I helped out from a young age – willingly as I earned money, but also with a sense of pride.  I think it teaches them responsibility, as well as a whole range of skills (from cooking to pool cleaning) which are bound to be useful to them one day.

And there are also perks of the job.  They get to go horse riding, diving, on boat trips and to the Turkish bath with guests.  So even if I have been pretty busy this summer and not had time to take them away as I usually do, they haven’t really had a bad summer.

Kaan diving

 Cem and I actually started in the hotel business running Camelia Apartments in 1996 especially because it would allow us to be together – and with Emre who turned one that summer – more than if he took job and I was at home.  And at Poppy that is still true, even if I am a bit relieved now to have a few hours peace while they are at school!

Great balls of fire!

Just when you think life can’t get any more hectic, it does!

Yılmaz has finished work now so I am now chief cook and bottle washer, as well as all the other jobs I do.  The cooking doesn’t bother me, actually I quite enjoy it, but it means I am in from 8am until about 10 or 11 at night which is a long day.  Thank goodness we have mostly repeat guests in who are understanding if things take a little longer.  Not all though…we had some new arrivals in who complained that they went to reception and there was nobody there to help them.  Unfortunately we are not a big enough business to have somebody sat on reception all day, but as all the other guests agreed, it isn’t hard to spot one of us running round in the kitchen or bar and ask for help.

I did have a couple of days off while friends Grant and Dawn were here.  We had one lovely day in Kalkan and Patara beach (18km of sand, great waves), and another day we went to Günlüklü beach and Göcek.  Günlüklü is named for the trees that grow there, one of the few places in the world where they grow naturally.  They are called ‘liquid amber’ trees because of the amber sap they produce which is highly valued in the cosmetics and perfume industry.  They also have very pretty bright green leaves and provide great shade and the beach has been tidied up a lot and is a lovely spot now.

Cem in his usual place

 The hotel is still full, but now the children have gone back it is noticeably quieter.  Until the evening that is when, especially with Frank around, the bar is quite lively.  We upset the neighbours the other night and have promised to be more careful about the noise levels.  It isn’t the music, so much as the laughter which at least means people are having a good time.  Will have to make sure they do it inside the bar with the doors shut after midnight though!

 

Had a great ‘Turkish night’ last week.  We ordered a belly dancer as usual and she was pretty good, though that was partly because she had plenty of enthusiastic guests to work with.  But she also brought along an added extra (her other half I think) in the form of our barman of several years ago who goes by the name of Sylvester (can’t even remember his real name) and is now doing fire shows.  Now I have to confess that I was very dubious about letting him lose in the bar with lighted missiles, remembering him as quite keen but a bit of a twit and having visions of him hurling his ‘flaming balls’ into the audience, if not setting fire to the bar roof.  However I had to eat my words when he put on the best fire show I have EVER seen.  He was truly amazing and finished up doing somersaults, still swinging his fire balls.  Needless-to-say, guests who had come along were suitable impressed and those who hadn’t because they thought it would be just another belly dancing show were disappointed.

Just goes to show, you never know what will happen at Poppy!  It’s nearly 9am now, and I wonder what today will bring…

Holidays and children

Still busy here, which is why it has taken me so long to get round to writing again.  This week is the holiday celebrating the end of Ramazan, the month of fasting, so there are lots of Turkish people on holiday.  We had several rooms of guests, some friends and family booked in, but we have had to turn away plenty more who didn’t make a reservation. 

Yesterday, Cem took the boys and some of the visitors to the mosque early in the morning (I say early, but actually they were the naughty ones who skidded in just as the prayers were starting!)  Then we all went to breakfast at his mum’s house.  Traditionally, the younger people visit their elders on the first day of bayram (holiday), drinking tea and eating far too much baklava and chocolate.  When the kids were little I used to dread it as by the end of the day they were completely hyperactive, if not being sick!

I had another day off last week when I went diving with Kaan.  I am not exactly a reluctant diver – when I do it I really enjoy it – but I find I have to make the effort to go (not to mention finding some of the ‘diving types’ tedious to say the least!)  Kaan had done his first dive ever the week before and was so keen that he wanted to do his PADI Open Water course.  He did two dives with his instructor, completing exercises like removing his mask underwater.  

I dived with beginners, going to a few metres in the morning and about 10 metres on the afternoon dive.  As usual, I loved that feeling of being free under the water and was amazed by the beautiful colours of the fish.  Still, the effort of getting all that gear on and off means I probably won’t go again for another couple of years!  Kaan on the other hand, passed his course and is now a qualified diver and is going again on Friday.

Both the boys are having a ball at the moment, spending their days with the kids in the hotel who have melded into a really great gang, age range from about three to about sixteen and a mixture of English, Turkish and one half Ukrainian (our friends’ son).  Here are some pictures of them all messing around in the pool.  We are kept busy serving burgers, chips, pancakes with ice cream and brownies; it’s noisy and you hardly dare walk past the pool for fear of getting splashed (if not pushed in); and Emre quite often has several assistants (‘Emre’s Angels’) in the bar.  But I’ll miss it when the schools go back!

Today is Murat’s birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MURAT!  He doesn’t want a fuss to be made.  Ha!...he should know us better than that!