Ruins, Beaches, Religion and Techno

We really liked Istanbul, but it was time to leave as the one week we stayed could have easily turned into two, and we still had so much of Turkey to see.  So we took the ferry across the sea of Marmara to Bandirma, and from there we caught a train to Selcuk.  If you’re into Christian history, Selcuk provides some interesting sites.  The Basilica of St John, just 5 minutes from the heart of town is the supposed resting place of St John the Evangelist.  There is also a house where the Virgin Mary lived towards the end of her life.  We didn’t visit the Virgin Mary site but the Basilica was pretty interesting.  There were a few American Christian tour groups there but the site is quite large so it wasn’t that busy.  The main reason people come to Selcuk though is to see Ephesus, the best preserved Roman city in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Ephesus is pretty large, with the entrance and the exit approximately 3 kms apart.  We, unfortunately, went at the wrong time.  3 cruise ships were in town that day, and we entered Ephesus when the cruisers did.  As you can see in the picture above, there were so many people that you couldn’t even move.  Definitely frustrating, it made it impossible to enjoy the ruins.  So Di and I found a little sanctuary in the shade behind the Library of Celsus (the 2 story building at the centre-left of the picture) and waited there until the crowds dissipated.  2 hours later, we pretty much had Ephesus to ourselves.  The ruins are pretty cool, but I think we’ve become ‘Roman ruins snobs’ because the ones in Libya were a lot more impressive to us.  All the other tourists found it amazing though, and I’m sure we would have as well if we hadn’t been to so many other ruins in the past 2 months.

After a couple days in Selcuk, we decided to pick a town on the Aegean Sea to chill at for a few days.  After reading the books we picked Bodrum since it seemed to be the prettiest and a little more laid-back than the other ones on the coast.  The cities’ laws restrict building height, which leaves the town looking pretty picturesque as all the structures are white and uniform.  The bay Bodrum is situated around is truly gorgeous as well.  However, the positives for us ended there as we were looking for a nice, peaceful place.  We got something entirely different instead.  We should have known when there were signs for “Halikarnas – The Best night club in the World” posted all over town.  The club boasts a capacity of 5000, so not exactly the kind of place you’d typically find in a quiet beach town. A lot of the restaurants were blaring techno, and on the main drag the shop-keepers, most wearing fake Ed hardy shirts, were frankly annoying (and that amazingly had nothing to do with the fake or the Ed hardy!).  I hate when you have to walk the long way home because you want to avoid the guys you passed by earlier, but we had to do that here a few times.  You have to be in the right mind set to enjoy a place like this, and we just wanted to relax and enjoy the ocean.  Techno is not conducive to that for me.

We did have a good conversation with the owner of a sandwich shop where we had lunch.  He had been living in Bodrum since 1981, and as we were the only ones in his place he chatted with us about the changes tourism has brought.  At the end of the conversation Di asked him if he thought the changes were good or bad, and after a bit of hesitation he said bad.  He understands it has brought more money, and he gets to meet people from all over, but apart from that he feels there have only been negatives.  He misses the strong community of the quiet, safe, friendly fishing village it once was.  So afterwards Di and I tried to compile a list of idyllic beach towns we’ve been to in the past 2 years that haven’t been too affected by tourism yet and we’ll check back on this list in 10 years (if we can remember).  Here it is: Playa Guiones in Costa Rica, Mui Ne in Vietnam, The Gili islands in Bali, and El Nido Town, Palawan in the Phillipines.

Anyways, since Bodrum is supposed to be the most laid-back of the Aegean beach towns we’ve decided to not go to any others.  It’s low season right now but high season will be starting soon (in a couple weeks), so we can only expect places to get even busier.  Because of that we’ve decided to change our itinerary.  We’re actually pretty excited about it, and we’ll tell you about how it went in a few days.