Ghost Towns and Beautiful Beaches: Southwestern Coast of Turkey

The harbor in Fethiye

For our few remaining days in Turkey, we decided to take our time and relish in the beautiful southwestern coast.  We arrived via bus in the coastal bay town of Fethiye and took advantage of the bus company’s free shuttle service to an area near our hotel, which was a bit out of town.  After scaling the small, but super steep sidewalk to our street, we found Ferah Pension.  We could tell right away that it was a great find as the place oozed with hospitality and homely comfort (something that we are beginning to appreciate more and more as our time on the road extends.)

Matt relaxing in Ferah Pension

There were couches with extra cushions, lots of artwork (by Ferah, of Ferah Pension herself), calm lighting, a rainforest of greenery and the constant sound of running water produced by the numerous fountains.  And there were three very friendly cats, always a plus in my book.  The rooms were small, but the A/C was functioning perfectly (a nice relief from the omnipresent coastal heat) and the breakfast was superb (are you sensing a theme here about the breakfasts in Turkey?).  =)

Great fruit in one of Fethiye's markets

We didn’t have any specific plans, so we spent the remainder of the day enjoying cool drinks and wandering around town.  It felt great to be back by the sea again.  After an early supper, we grabbed a chilled white wine and headed back to our oasis.  We passed the rest of the evening reclined in comfy chairs, Matt working on the computer and me reading an English-language paper and working through a sudoku puzzle.  It was fantastic.  

The ghost town of Kayakoy

In the morning we headed out for a wander around town and ended up on a bus to a neighboring village we had read briefly about called Kayaköy.  This ghost town is said to be the inspiration for the fictional village featured in the wonderful book Birds without Wings by Louis de Bernières.  Coincidentally, I had chosen this book as my "book set in Turkey to read while I was in Turkey," and Matt discovered its connection to our current location during a quick Google search. 

View from the highest chapel in Kayakoy

Kayaköy has an interesting recent history as it was a thriving community until 1923 when all of the Greek inhabitants of the village were relocated to Greece (as part of a forced population exchange) after the Turkish war for independence, which ultimately lead to the demise of the village.  The whole area is now considered a museum, one that you are free to meander about it in.  It was a beautiful, but eerie place, especially given the history.  Unfortunately, both of the churches were closed for restoration, so we were relegated to peeking through the gates.  However, there was so much else to see.  

We could still make out patches of the vibrant blue paint that used to coast almost all of the buildings.  Atop the hill, there was another small chapel that Matt climbed up to, affording him an even better view of the sea just beyond.  There were lizards (surely glad to now have the place to themselves), overgrown flowering shrubs, and occasional remnants of frescos and mosaics.  It was amazing to see the shell that the town had become in just under 100 years through these puzzle pieces of the past.  After wandering back in time for a few hours under the blazing sun, we caught the local bus back to Fethiye.

Beautiful blue remaining on some of Kayakoy's walls

Patara beach from the eastern cliffs

It was then onward to another coastal town called Patara.  Our original plans for the area included a long day hike on the Lycian Way, however the trailhead turned out to be somewhat hard to find and the sun was scorching, so we surrendered and hit the magnificent 12 km of pristine (and almost deserted) beach instead.  Our huge 3 week trek in Nepal loomed on the horizon, so we thought we would take the opportunity to enjoy sea level while we could.

Up on the eastern cliffs at Patara bech

The Patara beach is a sea turtle hatching location, so you are restricted to just the area by the shore for walking in order not to disturb the eggs in the sand further inland.  We walked for a good kilometer along the beach, past the umbrellas, chairs and the like until we had the place to ourselves.  The mountains were in the background with cliffs flanking the beach in either direction.  It was a perfect day for the beach, indeed.  After cooling off in the water (for my fellow seatern colleagues, it was reminiscent of the Outer Banks, NC, and I thought of all of you!), we wandered up the eastern cliffs and were treated to some incredible views and the start of an amazing sunset.  We found ourselves wandering back along the road to the village of Patara as darkness fell, a perfect way to end a beach day.
  

The next day we spent exploring the excellent Patara ruins, complete with amphitheatre and partially intact "main street."  The ruins, like those of Hierapolis in Pamukkale, were incredibly extensive.  There is still much excavation work to be done, and several sections were roped off to visitors.  We were again treated to a fantastic sunset, and retired early that evening to be up early for a 5 hour bus ride to Antalya.

Umbrellas over our seafood joint in Antalya

There are two ways to get from Fethiye to Antalya – the fast and convenient way, and the way we took (i.e. the coastal road.)  We knew that by going to Patara, we were likely committing ourselves to a 5-6 hour onward bus (van?) ride in order to get to Antalya, where we had secured a cheap flight back to Istanbul (thus avoiding what would have surely been a fairly miserable 16-20 hour journey).  And we were right.  It took about 6 hours, in a large "minivan" that had 18 actual seats (at one point I counted 25 of us in there) without air conditioning along a blazing hot, slow, and windy coastal road.  At least there were opportunities for pit stops, as we stopped every 5 to 50 minutes to pick up and drop off passengers.  It was certainly another interesting experience.

Nonetheless, we arrived in Antalya with ourselves and our luggage intact, and quickly figured out the tram system into old town, where our hotel was located.  We treated ourselves to some seafood and flat-screen TV that evening, unsure as to what our next destination would truly bring us.  We also sprung for a taxi ride to the airport in the morning, as a 36 hour travel day awaited us given our multiple long layovers first in Istanbul, then in Dubai, before arriving in Kathmandu.

Just before hopping in a taxi to head from Turkey to Nepal via Dubai!

I fear that our time in Turkey was too brief, and that there was much that we missed, but we had a date to keep with the highest mountains in the world.  The monsoon was declared "over" only a week prior, and we had a narrow weather window to hit – we wanted to arrive early both to avoid the crowds and the inevitable brutal winter that could start as early as November.  Nepal and arguably it’s most famous landmark, Mount Everest, were next 0n our list of objectives, and we had no intention of keeping either of them waiting.

Click below for more of Southwestern Turkey!