SIDE

Those that remember I had stopped to sightsee Side on the way to Manavgat. I knew that what Haydar bey showed us was no where near what Side had to offer. The guy didn't take us to the ancient city of Side. He basically gave us a quick run down of the new developments of Side and that was it.



After chatting with Osman amca (Tugcens ensite) we set out to explore SIDE - The ancient city. After a short drive we arrived to Side and hola here were all the ruins. This was christmas at once for me as it meant alot of photo opportunities. I love my stones and my broken stones more.



There's alot of history hidden in the ancient city involving alot of empires and of course Alexander the Great. Before the Roman empire the city was destructed by the Rhodian fleet and its use as a base by the Cilician pirates, who converted Side into the largest slave market in the whole region! I know sounds like a page out of HI!



However the Romans sent some people over to clear the pirates from the sea, burning hundreds of their vessels in the process. Yes there's alot of blood splatted in Side. Once the Romans cleared the pirates out of the way the golden age of the city began with the construction of new defence walls to provide for the protection of a population which had now spread out beyond the old walls.



The city was practically rebuilt, with new constuctions including the largest theatre in the region with the capacity of 18 000.



Now at Side you will see the ancient street and the entrances to the shops. The building now used as a musuem situated on the left of the road leading to the theatre. Photos of ancient ruins below:



The famous theatre in Side - Inside view:

As you walk past rows of touristic hotels, restuarants and bars you will start seeing the water. Beach view in the ancient city:

Following the water you will come to the area containing temples of Athena and Apollo. Yes I know it looks like temples from Athens! I've been told these temples used to serve as lighthouses with fire burning on their walls. Pictures of the temples below:

I was lucky enough to see the temples of Athena & Apollo in 2004 in my Turkey tour. However I quite enjoyed seeing them again and to know they are still standing here after 3 years. With the tour we only saw the temples so this time around it's been great that we got to explore the ancient city and to walk inside the famous theatre.

Passing the temple and continuing towards the right you will hit the habour with amazing views:

I must admit I've become a huge fan of Side now that I have explored it. I've heard alot in regards to Side having a fantastic night life as well. I know that alot of Turkish local singers such as Sibel Can & Ebru Gundres have weekly concerts here as well.

Those that get a chance should check Side out. I highly recommend that you spent the few dollars and enter the theatre. It is definately worth while seeing. Apparently they use the theatre now for concerts as well. I think a night concert in there would be great.

Now it's time for boot camp...

MANAVGAT

I've been complaining about the heat here non stop. Well the other day it reached 52 degrees here. We thought we were about to die due to the heat. It just made you so tired that you didn't want to leave the house. You just put the air con on and become lazy and more lazy...

Well that only lasted for a short time. Because of the heat everyone is using air con which increases the usuage of electricity, hence power cuts. Electricity gets cut here several times a day. It gets pretty annoying at times. The other day I was on the internet blogging and chatting when we lost electricity.

So the same thing happen, the electricity got cut around 3pm. It was way too hot to sit in the apartment so we decided to hit the beach. We jumped into the car like no tomorrow and drove to Ince Kum. Which is located on the road leading to Alanya.

It was the perfect weather to jump into the water. The best part of Ince kum beach was that it was all sand. You could walk half way into the beach and it would only come up to your hips.

As in most places in Europe you have to pay to sit at the beach. It's a way of them maintaining the beach or lack of service on the beach. I think we paid $5 per person to obtain a beach chair and umbrella. The minute the beach entrance fuss was over we all ran in for a swim.

Below picture of Ince Kum beach:

The heat is continuing and we are running out of cool places to hide ourselves in. Once again we lost electricity today at 2pm. We decided since we went to the beach yesterday that we would head over to Manavgat Selalesi (Manavgat Waterwalls). Apparently the weather gets really cool here.

We arrived to start taking happy snaps before finding room to sit. Below picture is of Manavgat Waterfalls:

NV totally out of it due to the heat posing for a photo below:

Once the whole photo shoot was over we found the nearest cafe to sit down in. Plus the fact that I have been going on about having gozleme here. In 2004 we came to Manavgat Selalesi with ETS tour. We only got to spend like 10 minutes here. In that time my brother caused a huge fuss when he ordered a gozleme when we were all back on the bus. He declared he wasn't coming onto the bus until he got his gozleme. The tour leaders threatened to leave when half the bus stormed off declaring they weren't leaving without my brother. Man I was happy to leave him there since he didn't order me one haha

Anyway back to the story we sat down and ordered gozleme. Once again to my disappointment the gozleme wasn't that nice. To add to that was when we found out that each gozleme was $5 Turkish Liras and tea was $4 Turkish Liras. The most you generally pay for gozleme in Turkey is $2 Turkish Liras and cay is $1 Turkish Liras. We were pretty disgusted with this. I had a good mind to throw the gozleme back up to avoid payment.

Following that rip off, we headed to a supermarket to get some ingredients to make borek back at the apartment. While in Manavgat City centre we decided to stop at one of the cafes located on the top of a hill with a mock up of the waterfalls.

A view of the mock up waterfalls in Manavgat:

The view from the top of the cafe in Manavgat:

We arrived back at the apartment at 10pm to realise there was no electricity. It didn't come back on until 11pm. That's 8hours of no electricity!

DAMLATAS MAGARASI- ALANYA

Today's excursion was to Damlatas Cavern located in Alanya. Damlatas is found at the begining of the road leading up to the castle near Cleopatra Beach.

The minute you enter the caves you are immediately impressed by the extraordinary colours and play of light produced to impress the viewer.

Photo's below show Damlatas Cave -

It has apparently been stated by experts that the humid atomosphere within the cave is extremely efficacious in the treatment of asthma. It is even noted that you need to enter the cave a number of times a year to sit in there for 4 hours straight to fix any asthma problems.

Apparently people rock up with newspapers and just sit there for hours. Now if I had the time I would seriously consider this as I'm an asthmatic.

We were asked to leave as they were closing at 7:30pm. Actually they were closed when we arrived but after much begging and using Australia has my backbone the guy allowed us in.

Walking out of the cave, if you look up you see the famous Alanya Castle on top of the hill. I have no idea how to get there but It's possible.

A few steps away from Damlatas is the famous Cleopatra Beach.

Now there's a story behind Cleopatra and I am not really sure of it. It's something to do with a queen jumping from the castle into the beach. If anyone knows please contact me immediately. I'm curious to know!

DIM CAYI - ALANYA

Today's excursion was to Dim Cayi Pinarbasi. Dim Cayi is approx 15km from Anlanya. Dim Cayi is a massive picnik area where the river meets the Taurus mountains. It's the perfect place to sit back and relax while wining and dining either in a tree house or the tables on the edge of the water.

This place is massive and estimated to service over 1 500 people. Apparently weekends here are jam packed. It's very difficult to find a spot to sit.

Dim Cayi is also split into levels. We stopped at one of the lower levels to take some random shots before settling down at one of the levels. The first pic below is of the lower level at Dim Cayi:

The pictures below are taken on the level we sat at:

It wasn't long before I climbed on top of a tree house for some happy snaps:

We decided to go hiking around the place to take some happy snaps:


It wasn't long before NV had to sit to catch his breath. Mind you the views are amazing.

Coming back from the hike I was ready to join the guys for a swim.

Those interested can check out the website - www.dimcayipinarbasi.com

PERGE - SIDE - CENGERKOY

We decided to go see Tugcen's parents in Manavgat after many communication breakdowns. Once again Haydar bey came into the picture. We were going to catch a bus from Antalya to Manavgat which was an hour away. Some one quoted me $20 per person for the bus trip. This seemed quite expensive for a one hour trip.


Haydar bey then made an offer I couldn't refuse. He would take us by cab by stopping at the small villiages along the way. This was too tempting that we signed up to the offer.

So Haydar bey rocks up to pick us up. We start the drive towards Manavgat and stop at the ancient city of Perge. I have always wanted to see Perge. Those that know me would know I'm a real sucker for stones hehe


Perge is approx 15 kms from Antalya city center. I have been told that Perge was, for reasons of defence, situated at some distance from the sea on a flat topped hill.



The first building one encountering the city is the theatre. Directly opposite the theatre, on the right hand side of the road, lies the stadium. The stage building, which collapsed as a result of earthquakes, is adorned with a frieze of Bacchus aka god of wine and the theatre.



Some Perge pictures below:

Of course Perge wouldn't be the same without the famous middle aged woman trying to sell you something. Some how we managed to get caught up with one of them selling us beads. Before you know it another one appears from out of no where.

Now it's a challenge who you buy it from. Of course their punch line being "Let me feed my kids". They try and hit you where it hurts in order for you to hand over the money. Hence we fell for it and brought a few beads. It's apart of Turkey you need to get caught up in situations like this. It makes you realise how good we have it back at home in Sydney.

Back into the cab and our next stop was SIDE.

Side is a smaller town. I have been told that Side has been swallowed up almost by the modern holiday resorts leaving very little of the archaeogical site. The ruins are still however the best part of Side.

I don't think Haydar bey knew Side that well. We got a quick tour of the tiny shopping villiage before he mentioned that the beach was close to us. He wasn't going to show us the beach but we insisted that we get a quick glance of it.

Haydar bey turned into a street when security started screaming and running after us. I had no idea what was happening. For a split second I panicked. It was a private entrance apparently. He made Haydar bey reverse back out and gave him directions to the beach.

After much fuss we arrived at Side beach. Not quite sure what it is called but it looked pretty packed and popular.

Picture of Side beach below:

Next stop was Manavgat bus station where we would be greeted by Tugcen's parents. Those that don't know Tugcen's parents used to be our neighbours back in Sydney. They had moved to Ankara Turkey a year ago. They have a holiday house in Manavgat. The suburb is actually called Cengerkoy which is a 15 minute drive out of Manavgat towards Anlanya.

After a quick reunion at the bus stop we jumped back into the cars and headed off to their apartment. It's called Notaler Sitesi. It's a massive apartment complex with it's own security, pool and tunnel to the beach across the road.

The pool area was my favourite:

It's the ideal holiday place. You even have a small grocey store inside. So you can purchase your daily needs and not worry about stepping foot outside.

We decided to go for a walk to the beach. The beach is located opposite the apartment complex. However because there is massive freeway in between them the council has built an underground tunnel from the apartment complex to the beach to make it easier for the locals.

We arrived at the beach just in time to take a few snap shots of our Sydney reunion:

Picture above - Danyal Amca, NV & Gulay Teyze

The sun was about to set so it was perfect timing on my behalf:

Pictures above - Cengerkoy beach

ANTALYA MERKEZ VE DENTIST

I went back to Antalya Merkez (City Center) today to continue my sightseeing and of course do a bit of shopping. Antalya tends to have really nice clothes and to my luck its cheaper than Istanbul.

What I really like about the clothes in Antalya is that they are unique and different to anything you would find in Istanbul. The only problem and my biggest problem since arriving in Antalya is the heat! It's so hot that trying on clothes right now is a major effort.

I walked into a jeans store to find the only pair of jeans I like to be real tight on me. Oh yeah I forgot to mention I've put on a few kilos here and there. Anyway the sales assistant who I'm positive was gay and some how ended up tricking me into giving him my number. The deal was he was going to bring the jeans I tried on in a bigger size. Anyway I ended up buying two shirts and walked out to view the huge fuss near the water fountain. For a minute I was very tempted to throw myself into as well.

Since I was here I figured I should take a few more shots of the clock tower and the mosque as below:

Below picture is of a random shop in Kale Ici:

The below pictures is of Meltem Camii (Mosque) located in the heart of Antalya:

Following the exciting day at the city center I had an appointment with the dentist. Last time I went to a dentist was back in Sydney. Those that know me would know that I hate the dentist. I hate the fact I have to open my mouth and let a total stranger stick their fingers in. It totally freaks me out.

I had a bad experience back in Sydney with my dentist. I arrived for a cleaning and he was totally packed out. So he totally rushed the entire process and I was in serious pain with blood splatted everywhere. Since then I havent had the courage to go get my teeth cleaned.

I figured I had to overcome my fear. I arrived to a dentist in the back streets of Antalya. The minute I arrived to the office I was packing it. It was an apartment block. I figured how good can she be if she has her office in an apartment block. But then again you will find the best shops and services in the weirest places in Turkey.

So I pressed on the buzzer and they buzzed me up. I walked inside the apartment block to notice that dirty apartment smell that some of the apartments in Turkey have. I don't know what it is but my cousins apartment in Istanbul has that smell as well.

I walked up 3 flights of stairs to find the office. Once inside the office I noticed how clean and neatly everything was set out. In fact the minute you walk into the office they ask you to wear plastic bags around your shoes. This is to stop the street dirt entering the office.

I sat down until I was called, totally freaking out. Finally I was escorted to the dentist chair. Here I am lying on the dentist chair thinking should I run for it. A middle aged woman, neatly dressed in her white dentist coat introduces herself to me and asks me to open my mouth so she can examine it.

Once the examination is over she starts the cleaning process. To my suprise she is actually good. She didn't rush the process and cleaned quite slowly to allow me to settle my nerves. I walked out feeling great and with cleaned teeth.

That night we decided to walk across to the beach for dinner. There are several kiosks along the beach walk with tables and chairs outside and of course music pumping. We picked a random kiosk to sit at and ordered food. The view from our table:

While eating our dinner the dog that was sitting at the next table decided to harrass us. He was so cute and looking into our eyes that we gave in and fed him. The owner was laughing that the dog ate majority of our food.

The next day we went to the beach across the road as it was boiling hot. However we found it really hard to swim in their due to the rocks. Apparently you need to buy special thongs to wear at Konyaalti Beach.

So plan b was to hit our apartment pool for the day!