Friday we took an all day blue cruise in a traditional Turkish Gulet. We took off around 10:30 am and the agenda was to sail to 4 or 5 different spots where we could jump in and enjoy the beautiful blue water. It was the most consistently beautiful blue color I have seen. The Caribbean, and other places have crystal clear water in patches, but this water was both clear (in terms of visibility), and this beautiful turquoise blue.
We lounged around on the boat, which held about 35 people without feeling crowded. We alternated between sunbathing on one of the upper decks, and chilling at the table set up inside. It was nice to just soak up the sun and relax with no agenda.
The only downsides were that the water was pretty cold – very cold actually. When it got nice and hot, it was great to go barrelling off the deck, hurling into the icy water, but when the sun went away, it got cold too quickly. That was the time we spent soaking up the sun like lizards. The 2nd downside was the cruise was a little long. After a while, it became the same old thing. We didn’t come back to the dock until about 5:30 pm. We were talking to one of the “kaptans” and he told us that there were 45 gulets in the harbor that all did these day cruises, and they weren’t enough to cater to the demand. They all sailed full most days.
When we did come back, we took the rest of the evening to relax and rest up for another big night in Bodrum. We took a water taxi into the city center at around 10:30 for a late dinner and chose an Italian restaurant that was actually surprisingly good. From there we took a walk down the beach side until we got a stretch of bars that looked lively. They were playing the requisite cheezy music, but they all had these annoying guys running around blowing whistles at the crowd trying to get us to come into their club instead of the neighboring one. These annoyances had names – whistlerooeys. What did they think we were – sheep?
Then we heard whistles beckoning us from The Red Lion, and since it was lady’s night which meant half-priced drinks for the honeys, we decided to venture inside. The music was good, but the scene reminded me a lot of Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt. A lot of local Turkish heros hitting on a lot of European Pupooses. Pupoose [prn. Pu-poooose] n. A hefty single European woman who comes to foreign lands to feast on the local men. Pupoose was in season at the Red Lion. We also ran into a group of 3 british asian girls who were partying it up. One of the girls, the slasian – (as in ’slutty asian’), ended up leaving her friends when they went up to the bar to get drinks. We were outside at one of the terrace tables, and we see the slasian get on the back of a hero’s scooter, and they went racing off through an alley. About 10 minutes later her 2 friends, the clasians (as in ‘c**k blocking asians’) came out and started looking for her. The clasians start asking some of the local heros where the slasian went, and all the guys knew the hero she left with and watched it happen, and they just stand around shrugging their shoulders like they didn’t know. It was a little creepy – like a Natalie Holloway redux. So we asked the clasians if they were looking for the slasian, and they were like – yeah, do you know where she went. We told them they left with the hero, and they were so confused. They started looking around then they asked us – well, should we wait for her here? Do you think she’ll come back? How the hell should we know – do we look like the slasiany type? We bounce.
We decided it was time to move to the next spot. We had planned on hitting one of Bodrum’s 2 big clubs. One was Club Catamaran, a floating ship that hosts several hundred people. You get there by waiting at a particular dock, and a speed boat makes pick ups / drop offs every 10 minutes or so. It wasn’t all that exciting though because it wasn’t all that busy, most of the 6 rooms were hosting techno-ish parties, and it was $40 cover charges. The second option was Halikarnassas, said to be the second largest club in the world. We walked by and the music sucked, and it didn’t look all that busy (we were a few days ahead of peak tourist season), and the $40 cover wasn’t all that exciting.
So we headed back to the Red Lion area. We get about 2 feet when the whistlerooeys herd us into the next bar like sheep. Deja Vu, and it really was Deja Vu – just like Red Lion. Great music again though. We danced like monkeys. And look who it is – the clasians. Still no sign of the slasian though. Oh, and a couple of Nepalese. Oh, make that Slepalese…The music was so good that I almost broke my cardinal rule, and Got Jiggy Wit It, but luckily Nads saved me from myself and the clutch of Big Willy, and we retired outside for some refreshments and relaxation.
After we got tired of the club scene, we just started strolling down the boardwalk area again. Hey – its the slasian. Being melasians (meddling asians), we stopped her and told her the clasians were looking for her. She didn’t seem to sussed over it, so we moved on.
Our night wound down around 3:30 am again, with a water taxi transport back to our dock. Tomorrow is our last full day in Turkistan, and includes our flight back to Istanbul after an afternoon of souvenir shopping in Bodrum.
