Shocked by Turkey

[Petronella]

OK, we've only been in Turkey for three years but the place you describe is not really the place we frequent. Yes, the Turks will get the best price they can whenever they can but is that really any different from anywhere else? Boy, they work hard too compared with workers in 'a neighbouring country'.

But this is a Liveaboard Forum so I assume most of you, like us, have plenty of time but limited financial resources. The secret we find is to live more like the locals do which is what we want to do anyway. Don't hire a car go by dolmus, don't buy in the marina supermarkets wait til market day and buy whatever fresh local produce is in season this week, don't eat meat everyday - if you really need that pork and all that alcohol wait until you go to Greece and stock up there, do your own maintenance during the winter and make friends with the yard staff, and of course learn just that little bit more Turkish and use it wherever you can (they will laugh with you, knock 30% off the price and you'll have another friend for life).

As an example two weeks ago we were in Didim to see friends who are in the marina (45 euros or so a night for a 12m boat). The first night we ate with our friends in the marina restaurant. I can't remember the exact cost but say 100TL for two people. So, say 200TL (about £75) for the night. Pretty expensive I agree.

The next night we were anchored just outside the marina (0TL), we got the dolmus into Didim (4TL I think for the two of us), we had a (admittedly very cheap, but excellent) pide, salad and four fizzy waters in a backstreet whilst waiting for the end of ramadan gun to go off by the big mosque (10TL in total) and then returned to the anchorage by dolmus (4TL). A great night in real Turkey including accommodation for 18TL (about £7) for two people. That doesn't sound too outrageous to me. The difference in the two approaches? Something more than a factor of 10...and the second way is really fun!

This, for me, is what cruising in foreign counties is all about. We'll be leaving Turkey next year and will miss all our friends both western and Turkish just as we missed the Greek people when we left there. Next stop will likely be the Caribbean. Will we eat gozleme and kofte in St Lucia? No, we'll eat whatever we find the locals eat and we'll continue to fix everything we can ourselves. As our friend says "every day's a learning day" and we just love it.

 

[ytd]

I think Turkey is still cheap but only if you ask the price before you buy or sit down and then are prepared to walk away from ridiculous prices. It's amazing the number of times the price drops 30% as you walk away. It's annoying but it's one of the hidden costs of a no fixed price system. Drinks are where the Turks seem to lose the plot. On a recent charter I asked the price of the house red having seen it in the store next door to the restaurant for 5TL. 50TL I was told. OK we won't bother with wine and the waiter looks crestfallen. He comes back 2 minutes later having found a special bottle for 25TL. No thanks, water will do. He comes back 2 minutes later with another bottle for 15TL. OK we take that one. He makes 200% profit and we get some wine. But does anyone ever pay 50TL? And at some restaurants in istanbul we were quoted 100TL for very ordinary turkish wine. Those nights you don't drink. But it does take the edge off the evening to think you might be ripped off. And at the monopoly Fetihye bay restaurants ask the price before agreeing to dine there. If it's too expensive just have a beer and then eat on board. They owner won't like it but at 7pm he's not going to get another yacht to use his lazyline. When we looked like we might not eat there, suddenly there was free wine or raki offerred.

 

[OldBawley]

Eleven winters I lived in the Fethiye Göcek bays. The people living there during winter al knew me by name. Only three liveaboard yachts. Three weird old men. Me and a Swiss guy liked walking, I knew the area better than most locals. The imam and Achim ware the only ones knowing the forests better than Gerard and me. Sailed every two weeks to the farmers market in Fethiye, came back the day after. Exiting sailing in winter.
I can repair mechanical and electrical stuff, so the locals came to me, asked to repair their gear. I laid fishing nets, ( Just 50 meters ) caught lots of calamari, octopus and Barracuda with other fishing techniques.
Did some “ Hunting “ to, Nobody knew. Learned a lot of an even weirder French sailor who had made those bays his “Home” for more than 35 years.
Made my own lures, the restaurant winter guards always asked me to make those lures for them. After all those years, the farmers and fishermen saw me as a friend I think.
Btw, those fishermen loved big joints. I once was high just from them smoking that stuff sitting in the little doghouse of there boat nexst to me.

During our talks and chay breaks I tried to make them understand that cutting the forest would end there little paradise. Had to be careful, those people have never heard of environmental awareness, see the forest as theirs. It is state owned land but some of the locals are born there and have a permit to grow olives.
In winter, chainsaw howling is the prevailing sound once you left the villages behind you. Some men cut the smaller pine trees and prune the wild olive trees. The women did all the other work. All other vegetation goes down and is burned. Cleaned to cultivate olives.
The wood is hidden, and in summer season they go and collect one boatload after an other.
In 2002 the old small Göcek coastguard boat visited the bays. Lots of machine gun soldiers on board, and some inspectors from the forest ( Orman ) ministry. I thought they came to inspect the forest.
They all had some chay at the restaurant and went home. The restaurant owner told me they just came to collect bakshish.
In the 11 years I wintered there, half of the pine trees ware gone. Saw a retarded midget cut a 80 year old healthy pine tree just to show off his new chainsaw. They don´t even burn that wood, logs are to heavy. Prefer arm thick pine.
The goats are even worse. They eat all pine seedlings. For every tree going down there will never grow a new one. Goats and drought.
I loved the place, in winter and spring it was paradise. We moved on, I cherish the thousands of pictures and voice recordings I made. Still can hear Memet laugh, Mohamer shout, the Imam sing and the “ Tunk tunk “ of there boat engines.
In 2004 we spend less than 4000 €. We eat better than most, are both hobby cooks. We have a wood burning stove and had then discovered Turkish earth ware cooking. Best there is.
Those days are over. Laying fishing nets now ? Forget it, always some jealous guy with a phone around.

 

[akyaka]

Ah those halcyon days of cruising the Gulf of Gokova with rarely another boat in sight and ghosting into Bodrum harbour on a moonlit night and anchoring underneath the castle and rowing ashore . Mind could be hairy at times with the gun boats from Greece and Turkey following each other along the "demarcation line" and whoa betide if you transgressed and were caught .As you say Old Bawley those days are gone , the forests have regrown as they always do and people are now creating there own but different memories within different restrictions.

 

[Capt-jacko]

Turkey has become some what Pricey,over the past 3 years my marina fee has gone from £3980-- 2010 to £7400 --2013 per year plus,extra for,Blue,card and pump out costs,residency permit,agents fees for transit log and the fuel, its gone too far out of reach and for us we will be leaving Turkey at the end of our contract.Also the resent unrest and the way protester were treated was unsettling .