Monday, June 1, 2009

Kas

I took the bus to Kas, which is kind of a long trip from Selcuk (that's why I spent the extra day in Selcuk, because I couldn't quite bring myself to spend another 7 hours on the bus after just getting in).

The bus was smaller than the one I took to Cappadocia from Ankara, but also less full, so it was more comfortable in the end. I had to take one bus to Fethiye, then change for another one to Kas; it was supposed to be about five hours to Fethiye and then another two-plus hours to Kas. It ended up taking even longer, though - our bus needed maintenance halfway through our journey so we had to sit around at a highway rest area for an hour and a half. Fortunately there were some companionable people on the bus - a Canadian family with two tween/teen kids who had been travelling for almost a year and were getting ready to go home, and a nice English couple. So we hung out and got to know each other a bit, though I've now forgotten all of their names. Alas. Here's the rest stop:

Bus 1 003

Anyway, the bus change went smoothly, and I decided to just walk to my hotel from the bus station because it seemed pretty close, and I only got a little bit lost, and the hotel was lovely, with a beautiful terrace and excellent breakfasts and BBQ dinners. I really love Turkish food. So simple, and so tasty. And the vegetables are so good - so fresh and delicious! The tomatoes in Turkey have me really excited for July and August in New England. Tomato time! I don't seem to have any photos of the hotel or the hotel terrace, which is too bad because it was a lovely place and I hung out there a lot; met some nice people there, too, not least the hotel staff who were all 100% charming.

My first day in Kas I went for a walk to Liman Agzi, which is a beach that's only accessible by water or by walking. I had a little guidebook to show me the way but it was actually very well waymarked because this is a very popular hike. On my way there I got invited in for tea by a woman who then asked me to ask my family to help support her mentally disabled son, and gave me gifts to encourage me to do so. Which was kind of uncomfortable and embarassing, but oh well! She was very nice.

Anyhow, the beach was beautiful:

Kas 1 108

And then on the hike back you pass some Lycian tombs:

Kas 1 111

Kas 1 120

The Lycians were a mysterious people who lived in the southeastern part of Turkey and buried people in these cliff tombs, dug into cliff faces with sort of shelves for the bodies to lay on. They also built sarcophagi once the cliff tomb fad passed, and these are all over the place in this part of Turkey. I went on a kayak trip and saw some in the water:

Kas 2 197

The kayak trip was great. First we went to a nice little beach for swimming:

Kas 2 170

Then we went on to paddle near the sunken city of Kekova, a Lycian city that got dumped into the ocean by an earthquake hundreds and hundreds of years ago. I don't have any pictures from when we're paddling because I'm scared to get my camera wet.

I spent four days and five nights in Kas; I think one of those days I just kind of pootled around, shopped for souvenirs, went to see the Antiphellos ruins (a Greek amphitheater right around the corner from my hotel):

Kas plus 152

I went for another hike on my last full day in Kas, which was a bit disastrous - I tried to follow another hike from the same book as the first one, but the land seemed to bear no relationship to the directions in the book. So, like an idiot, rather than just turn around and go back, I decided to try and cut across to another path that I knew was probably not far away. It wasn't all that far away, but I ended up hacking my way through pricker bushes and scrambling down rocks, and scratched up my arms and ripped a hole in my trousers. I had my mobile phone and a whistle and things like that if I had really been seriously lost, but it was stupid to put myself in that situation in the first place and I'm embarassed that I did it - you would think I would have learned something in Girl Scouts, backpacking class, etc., but apparently not. But no harm done, except to the trousers. When I did eventually rejoin the path, I followed it back to Liman Agzi, and this time I took the taxi boat back (even though it was an exorbitant 10 TL!).

Next post: My precipitous departure from Kas!

1 comment: