Paradise hasn't been paved, it's been landscaped.

Indoor swimming pool at Mandarin Oriental

Friday saw me digging out a dress and trying to remember how to put on tights for the annual Ladies' Lunch. A great time was had by all 37 attendees and as usual, the mix of new and old faces made for great conversation. "I can't believe you've lived here all this time and we've never bumped into each other" or "So you are the "insert name" who "insert another name" met in "insert place".... you get the idea.  Numbers were down on past years due to the December rather than November date and the controversial choice of venue - The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Göltürkbükü.

Simple but well-executed lunch - sea bass and spinach

You'll find this hotel in Cennet Koyu - Paradise Bay, a beautiful inlet on the Bodrum peninsula, favourite mooring spot for day-tour boats and a local picnic area, a bay which we had all assumed to be protected as a designated area of natural beauty. Many friends witnessing the destruction/construction underway vowed never to return.  The international price of a simple lunch put off several others.   Nosy by nature, I was keen to have a look around. My monthly budget wouldn't even cover one night at list price so this would be the only time I would be crossing their threshold.  

I left the hotel with the impression that very well-off folk must get fed up with seeing bamboo sticks in vases, rolled towels, flowers heads without their stalks and their own reflection in the floor.  The staff were very friendly and attentive but the building sterile and characterless, the only clues to the country we were in were the books about Turkey on a wall and newspapers on a table. It is a shame that luxury these days is defined by a lack of warm ambience and a denial or manipulation of everything natural.

Hamam with a view

Cennet (Paradise) Bay

Regimented landscaping

 To mis-quote Joni Mitchell "They turfed Paradise and put in
some garden pots"

Lunching with Ladies 2013
Ladies's lunch 2012

Bodrum Fridays

Looking back over the last few months' posts, a stranger to Bodrum would assume that apart from walking, there wasn't much to do in South West Turkey in the winter. Here is a quick round up in an attempt to correct  this misleading impression.

Four Fridays ago, I was at the Ramada Resort Hotel in Gümbet for the annual Ladies' Lunch. Initiated  in the year 2000 by Jane Baxter Gerçeksöz and Priscilla Windsor-Brown, this event gives women on the peninsula a chance to get together at the end of the season and either see old friends or meet new ones. (A double barrelled surname is not a prerequisite). Their aim is for everyone to go away having made one new acquaintance. It started the year I left Bodrum so as this was my first time, I made sure I met several new faces to make up for the years I couldn't attend. 

Three Fridays ago, I was at Muğla University's new Fine Arts Faculty on the Bodrum Peninsula, attending an archaeological lecture  by Mr Aykut Özet entitled "The Seven Gods of Bodrum". The first of a series of talks organised by H3A, the Bodrum equivalent of the University of the Third Age. Click on the link to get an idea of the range of activities available through this group.

Two Fridays ago, I was back at the Ramada Resort Spa. The entrance ticket to the Ladies lunch included a free day's use of the hotel spa. We had the pool, steam room, Turkish bath and sauna to ourselves. There is also a very up-market gym, which I didn't try out as I was too busy flopping about in the warm pool.

Last Friday, I started the day having my back massaged by Tülay at Zen Natural Therapies, thanks to winning a free treatment in the ticket tombola  at the Ladies' Lunch ( that really was 50TL well spent) and the afternoon to the university again for a talk on the development of the Ottoman empire. I could have gone to the monthly Internations drinks party in the evening, but this county mouse had had enough activity by then.


(Tulay doesn't have a web page but is an expert in Reiki Healing, Reflexology and aromatherapy massage. Her number is 0533 713 44 73)