Having driven from Afrodisias back to the same hostel in Selcuk the previous night, a sleep in was definitely on the cards. Again, a breakfast full of muesli, yoghurt and fruit was a great way to start the day (odd that for once I look forward to breakfast as the highlight of a hostel). Today we were making use of the car, visiting small, hard to reach places along the way, ultimately ending up in Bodrum for the night
Having stayed mostly at hostels, we tried looking on booking.com and came across a hotel for 60 lira; 2/3rds the price of most of our accommodation previously – Budget bonus !!
Off down the road we headed toward the town of Soke; which apart from 2km of massive outlet stores on the outskirts of town, you would happily take the by-pass around it to avoid the industrialised, not-quite-finished look of many inland Turkish towns.
Trying to spot a deal, we tried on a few things, mostly to find that the quality was not that great despite the price reductions. I managed to grab a belt (had wanted one since Morocco), so I was happy. It took a while for the shop attendants to work out the personal space bubble around us – the closer you get, the less I buy . After only an hour, our shopping bubble had burst and we headed out of town towards the Dilek (also called Millie) National Park on the adjacent peninsula.
It’s a pine forested area with many small peaks, gorges and beautiful beaches. Choosing the beach option we headed for the farthest away beach in a hope that it wasn’t invaded by tourist hordes. We initially found an amazing spot only to be eaten alive by Mosquitos, so further up in the next beach we managed to have our picnic lunch and have a fantastic swim in the Mediterranean – like a salty puddle, but still cool and refreshing.

Off on the road again we head towards Bodrum. Once a place for exiled Turks from Istanbul, it now is a Mecca for Russian and British package tours; ready for the sun, sand and sunburn. The white washed houses and masses of apartment blocks are pretty impressive next to the blue water, however it has the romantic charm of two 14 yr olds on a date at chipmunks playland.
A bonus though was an incredibly cheap hotel, booked last minute on the Internet. We decided to romance it up a notch, by having a seafood dinner at one of the many restaurants overlooking the bay – our weekly food reward !
On the way home protests were in full swing in town, but consisted only of about 200 people chanting in the square with horns sounding in support. No police at all were around. It’s hard to appreciate what’s happening in Istanbul, but in southern Turkey it seems relatively benign.