Marmaris

And this is what it is all about!

Marmaris bay

We flew from Istanbul to Dalaman -- the nearest airport to Marmaris.  Bill had arranged a car and driver to collect us at the Dalaman airport and deliver us to the apartment we had rented for one month at Sun Apart.  The transport ship was supposed to arrive around 5 May but the ETA changed to 29 April.  That allows us a bit more time to get the haul-out done.

View of apt pool & bar from our patio

The apartment is very basic, but kind of large.  We have 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1 living room with 2 sofas, a small eating space, a very basic kitchen with a 2-burner hot plate and a dorm fridge, and 2 patios.  The kitchen comes equipped with a toaster and an electric hot-water carafe for making instant coffee or tea.  This apartment is a 3rd floor walk-up.  It is really basic, but it serves our needs and is a reasonable price.  We plan to stay here while BeBe is hauled out.  Hopefully, the haul-out will be completed before our apartment rental period is up in mid-May.

The mountains surrounding Marmaris are striking.  This is a beautiful place and it is easy to see how cruisers get sucked into staying in Turkey for years.


One day we stopped for a Doner Kebab at a small place in the Covered Bazaar.  The owner was a hoot!  He had a really long knife that he sharpened between every slicing of the vertically skewered meat.  He was really putting on a performance for us.  He told us he wants to be as good looking as Tom Cruise.  Where did that come from? 

We have thoroughly walked this town of 28,000 people -- with hotel beds for over 100,000.  This is a big tourist destination, especially for people from England.  There are very inexpensive flights and hotel packages from Manchester to Marmaris.

We have figured out the Dolmus bus system -- at least to those areas we need to visit.  We took the Dolmus out to Yacht Marine to visit fellow Houstonians and fellow Amel owners, Jan and Craig on S/V LONE STAR.  Jan and Craig have a newer model Amel 54.  It is quite an upgrade from our Amel Super Maramu 2000.  But I love our boat and have no desire for an Amel 54.  We returned a couple of nights later and enjoyed a delicious dinner aboard LONE STAR.  We were glad to have the opportunity to cross paths with Jan and Craig; we were afraid they would have already left Marmaris before we arrived.  They are headed to the Caribbean in this year's ARC in late November.  In fact, they departed Marmaris within just a few days after our arrival to begin working their way westward through the Med.  We wish them fair winds.

The city of Marmaris recently completed completed renovating the promenade along the seaside.  It is gorgeous!!!

The entire area along the water along the area known as Old Town has been re-done.

All the restaurants and businesses were forced by the city to move back to their original property line.  These establishments had encroached farther and farther to get closer to the water, making the promenade narrower and narrower.  People tell us that it looked old, dirty and congested.

Today it is as nice as one could imagine.  This is the way every seaside city should be.

BTW, I went to a local hair salon for a cut and brown low-lights.  I confirmed 3 times that I wanted brown low-lights.  They never showed me a swatch color selection for the shade of brown to use.  So I was worried about what color they were actually using.  When the foils were removed and my hair shampooed then I saw the mirror and quietly gasped.  My hair is now blonde.  I have never wanted to be a blonde.  This is going to look ridiculous as it grows out until it is long enough to chop it all off.

It hasn't all been sunny days and blue skies since we arrived in Marmaris.  Some days have been quite cold -- at least to those of us more acclimated to equatorial temperatures.  For the first week in the apartment we did not know that the air-conditioner was also reverse cycle heat.  Bill finally convinced me that it was and he rented the remote control from the apartment office -- at 4 pounds per day.  Prices in this part of town are quoted in British pounds because 99% of their tourists come from England.