Neighbours

Twenty three years ago, we decided that a life without neighbours was for us. Not that we had particularly bad neighbours but one was partial to DIY at six in the morning, the other wasn't keen on our dog and after 10 years watching Bodrum town change from a small fishing village to an international  holiday resort, we wanted a bit of peace.  This is probably the most hypocritical sentiment I have ever written as we were more responsible than most for making Bodrum crowded. As travel agents we hosted journalists from The Telegraph, New York Times, Times, Daily Mail and Observer and even made a  programme with the fledgling TVAM thus ensuring everyone found out  how unspoilt and beautiful our part of the world was and thereby  encouraged the World and his wife to visit. Our escape plan was reliant of finding a quiet plot and building a house. But, despite being very busy looking after an ever increasing number of new visitors, we weren't particularly flush with cash, so most of the pieces of land we looked at on the Bodrum peninsula were out of our price range.  Which is rather a long winded explanation of how we ended up 36 kms from Bodrum, next to a forest on the outskirts of a  small village.  In retrospect, our lack of funds was a saving grace. All of the places we would have chosen, had we been affluent, are now built up and busy, where as our  couple of acres is unchanged. Well almost!  We've been neighbourless since we moved in in 1992 up to this year when the plot in front of us was put  up for sale and a small weekend retreat has gone up.  It's only just visible from the terrace and the building work hasn't disturbed us at all, so I don't think we'll be bothered if the new occupants decide to do DIY at 6 am. 

Over the past couple of decades I haven't paid much attention to the property market in the area but I was chuffed to be included in a list of 10 useful blogs by www.propertyturkey.com and clicked on the link to have a look at the houses for sale.  There are some amazing  residences with 7 figure prices to match, but also flats with sea views for 5 figure sums.  I am returning the compliment by putting their link here for those of you who like to dream of a palace (or place) by the sea.