The Turkey Diaries: Day 6 - Saturday 19th September 2009

We decide to spend today in Icmeler again and do some more exploring. We walk up what I call 'Icmeler main street'...

...to see the old village area which is quite a distance from the beach area where we are based (or at least in this heat it feels like a long distance!) There are lots of apartments, supermarkets and restaurants, but we don't make it as far as the real old village which must still be quite far away and it’s too hot to walk any further. At one point I could hardly breathe and it felt as if the heat was choking, it was like a mixture of heat and fumes even though there were no cars around.

On our way back we discovered this nice little square.

We have something traditional and Turkish at lunchtime - yes it's kebab time again folks!!!

After lunch we do more exploring around the back streets and do more shopping. We then walk up as far as the end of the promenade where you get a full view of Icmeler promenade on the left, and Marmaris coastline on the right. It’s amazing that you can see the two places at once, and all the mountains all around. It’s just breathtaking. Here is Icmeler beach from the other end of the promenade:

And here is the view across from Icmeler Beach to Marmaris straight ahead in the distance:

We stop off at a cafe which has the radio on (Power Turk, which is the best radio station here) pumping out high-energy Turkish pop tunes. Most of the cafes/bars here have the radio on and we really enjoy it of course, of course you’d avoid it if you’re stuck on a hot Saturday afternoon in the Pig & Whistle etc, watching wall to wall English football on Sky TV. Which a lot of people here are doing. Why do people bother going abroad when they want everything to be the same as at home? Some pubs are even advertising tonight’s big event - X Factor at 9.00 pm!

Faithful travelling companion decides to go for another Turkish shave, and all the resulting facial carnage (!) whilst I stay back at the hotel and go for a swim. It's been nice to swim again on this holiday. Where I live it is only about a 10 minute walk from the local baths, so I should have no excuse, but you know what they say - the spirit is willing, but....

Dinner tonight at a posh, traditional Turkish restaurant, which involves chicken and expensive wine....and faithful travelling companion gets stuck into the baklava once again. Which is a good excuse for another photograph of baklava, in my never ending food-photography attempts to get onto Blogs of Note!

If you've had enough of quiet and refined dinners then there's the reassuring same old-same old sounds drifting out of the bars along the canal....yes it's "Country Roads", "Who the **** is Alice", and good old Lady GaGa complete with "Poker Face". Pitbull! The Black Eyed Peas! Tarkan! And....the "Cha Cha Slide" which worryingly I remember all the lyrics to but I'm a bit rusty on the moves. And good news girls, the 'eye candy' here never disappoints...! You don't have to look too far as there are lots of lovely waiters everywhere. I am sooooo loving Icmeler (for a number of reasons, but that's another one!!)