Day 11 - Fethiye
I made a brief road friend today at about the half way point, an Austrian biking solo to New Zealand. He was fully loaded down with four large packs and a handlebar bag, and was planning on biking across the Iranian desert in August. I'm happy with my reduced setup of two large paniers in the back, I've refined my packing list since my first couple of trips and feel like I have everything I would need for both short and long trips.
With all of his weight, we didn't ride together for very long.
Fethiye is kind of like the Ft. Lauderdale of Turkey. English people and Turkish people alike come to retire near the beach. Our couchsurfing host was one such retiree who was nice enough to open his home to us. He didn't speak English very well but we hung out in town before heading back to the beach side where his apartment was.
With our host, Hasan, in Fethiye.
Ok but full disclosure, it could have fine smoother. It was hard to convince him or get him to understand that we were tired and prefered to rest before going for a walk. But he took rest to mean a break for hot tea. We offered to cook for him and we went to a market to get salad ingredients and some other vegetables to cook with rice. He said it was ok to cook in his home but then he wanted to take us to a restaurant. Once we got home he said it was too late to take a shower due to his neighbors (but relented eventually). He didn't have any plates or silverware and a single gas hot plate. But we managed and the food actually turned out great.
We slept very comfortably on the chair cushions he laid out on the floor.
N.b I wasn't going to write up the experience but someone had mentioned to me that it was very culturally Turkish to say that something was ready and available, even if it is not necessarily the case. This happened to us another time in Küçükkuyu where we went to a restaurant that looked pretty closed. When we asked if they had food, a man replied that they did, then promptly sent his son to a store to go shopping for our order. The meal was great, so everything pretty much works out in the end even if it takes longer.
Bike traffic in Fethiye, that's a fishing net.
With all of his weight, we didn't ride together for very long.
Fethiye is kind of like the Ft. Lauderdale of Turkey. English people and Turkish people alike come to retire near the beach. Our couchsurfing host was one such retiree who was nice enough to open his home to us. He didn't speak English very well but we hung out in town before heading back to the beach side where his apartment was.
With our host, Hasan, in Fethiye.
Ok but full disclosure, it could have fine smoother. It was hard to convince him or get him to understand that we were tired and prefered to rest before going for a walk. But he took rest to mean a break for hot tea. We offered to cook for him and we went to a market to get salad ingredients and some other vegetables to cook with rice. He said it was ok to cook in his home but then he wanted to take us to a restaurant. Once we got home he said it was too late to take a shower due to his neighbors (but relented eventually). He didn't have any plates or silverware and a single gas hot plate. But we managed and the food actually turned out great.
We slept very comfortably on the chair cushions he laid out on the floor.
N.b I wasn't going to write up the experience but someone had mentioned to me that it was very culturally Turkish to say that something was ready and available, even if it is not necessarily the case. This happened to us another time in Küçükkuyu where we went to a restaurant that looked pretty closed. When we asked if they had food, a man replied that they did, then promptly sent his son to a store to go shopping for our order. The meal was great, so everything pretty much works out in the end even if it takes longer.
Bike traffic in Fethiye, that's a fishing net.
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