a few bad things......and then some good.

[paulo]

our icmeler holiday was great once again, however, there were a few things that werent so good.
First thing was at the market, im not gonna whine about it being expensive this year as i dont think it was that much more expensive than before but what got to me was the amount of people offering me hashish and cocaine, they would start with "English tobacco, golden virginia?" I would respond in Turkish by saying, no thank you and then I was offered drugs, never seen this before but the barman at our apartments was telling us how more gangsters were getting a hold in Icmeler and the drugs trade was booming there. He also to ld us that a lot of the jewe llers in the main square had closed because they refused to pay money to said gangsters.

My next thing is Club Pleasure - or as it came to be known by us - Club Terror.
Walking pasrt with my mate we were asked kindly by the greeter to come in and enjoy a nice larger efes for 5tl and some music, being after midnight and there not much by way of music elsewhere we decided to try it out, first thing that hit us as we walked down the stairs was the smell, it really did stink. Then we got loads of bad looks from all the guys in there, its not like we were attracting attention either. Anyways we went to the bar and ordered the efes and were given the smallest bottles ever and made to pay 7tl each, obvioulsy we thought to hell with this when we can get a large efes for 4tl at the apartments of free from our fridges and decided to leave after finishing our drinks, when we got to the top of the stairs to exit one of the bouncers heard us talking and asked me where I was from, I said "I am Scottish, are you Turkish?" He replied "No I am Kurdish you sheep sh*****g b*****d"
Now this guy was off it, his eyes were bulging out his head giving me the idea he was on steroids and probably prone to a bout of roid rage so I tried to make light of the situation and replied "Im from edinburgh, we dont s**g sheep, thats pe ople from Aberdeen" he then promptly said "no, you are sheep sh****r, your mother is a pig!"
Now by this point in normal land I would have decked him and heeled it out there before he got up, this bloke was being proper insulting and making his intention to fight me very clear. After deciding the cards were stacked very much in his favour and having his mates (5 of them) sur round us we decided discresion was the better half of valour and started to walk away, he then decided to bait us but bringing our sexuality in to question (we were both in Icmeler with our wifes and kids, we were having a lads night out) so we had to keep looking opver our shoulders the whole way up the road half expecting top become the subject of a beating from this guy who I am sure was covering for his own fondness for sheep or perhaps goats.
I have met many kurds in the past and have always found them mannerful and very very polite so i am in no way having a dig at the kurds, i just want to point out that this guy was a top ring piece and thoughs of waiting for the market to open so i could buy one of those stun guns were floating about but quickly put to bed.

My only other grumble is with the majestic, we entered the restaurant at 8pm with a 7 year old and a 5 month old, waited 15 minutes before drink order was tken and 25 before a food order was taken, normally I wouldnty have minded but it wasnt that busty and having previously owned a popular and very busy restaurant in Edinburgh i am totally aware of how the food industry works.
So anyway, orders were placed for food, we then waited 45 minutes for the food and were then told by way of apology that the chefs were arguing in the kitchen, I know how things get in that env iroment and was assured that the kitchen situation was sorted and tucked into my food.
Food wasnt that bad either, so after we decided to have a dessert, placed the order and then had a wait of 35 minutes, by this point Id asked to see the manager to ask what was going on as there was only about 10 tables and at tops 25 people in the restaurant, the manager ( I fogot his name) came over to the table and explained that there was a problem with the kitchebn and I explained that i had owned a successfull restaurant where this kind of service would have been unacceptable, he asked me what I would do in his possition and I told him it would never have gotten to that point as i ran a tight ship, he then said Ok please follow me, I stood up and followed him going though doors having growing visions of waking up in an Istabul side street minus my kidneys but fortunately was taken to the kitchen (whish was very very clean i must add!) to see the goings on for myself.
So the owned said to me what would you do in my place, i said id sack him him and him, he told me they were family member and therefore he couldnt sack them which was fair enough so i told him he needed to tell them that business time was for work and after was time for personaly differences, this actually seemed to do the trick.
After that the manager gave us our desserts and drinks fior free and offered my son marriage to his daughter which gave us a giggle, funny thing too was that he told us he was going to take over club terror too.
Last but not least, I go to Turkey, in the summer and come home with a stinking cold!! how does that happen then? Im guessing im not the only one as others on the plane were sniffing, spluttering and coughing through the flight, im sure everyone on the flight will now be sharing that cold with us all. I did make sure it was only a cold and not something like lizard flu or something rediculous first.

Dalaman airport, why do you have all those expensive scanners if you re going to let us through and on the plane with the massive bottle of water we had forgotten was undwer our babies buggy?, luckily we found it before boarding and gave it to one of the women with the rubbish trollies that take the place of bins.
The obvious Dalaman MacDonalds bit, 30 quid for 2 quarter pounder with cheese meals and a happy meal!!!! Im still waiting on the sucky sucky I thought I was gona get with the meal!!!! Didnt mind paying as we were really hungry though and dint want to eat frojm the awful shack our transfer driver stopped at.


So theres my bad point rant done with, obviously the good things will take up less space but thats cos I wont go into that much detail on everything.
We met Faysal the owner and manager of Amigos Paradise in our apartment pool, top bloke and he said come to amigos for food and drinks so we did and we were glad we did, actually we ate therer a further 3 times over our stay, Faysal is a top bloke, our 5 month old started to cruy as we were eating and he came over and took him round the restaurant for a little walk leaving us free to eat rather than have to calm him down, he done a great job too and had the wee fella asleep pretty quickly.
So in short - Amigos = great food and god copmpany with very friendly staff who make you feel like theyve been waitin gon you personally all day, a great feeling.
Also ate at Charlies Bar and glad we did, the best sauce on a steak i have ever had and as mentioned I| used to own a restaurant, charlie himself is a true gent and a great story teller, made me giggle.
The guys at Mad hackers barbers across from de ja vu provided many laughs, I now work as a music teacher and took my own guitar away and had fun jamming with them and generally having a top laugh, even sharing some really expensive and very strong whisky with them just to see their faces when they tasted it hahahahah, great bunch of lands who contributed to making this holiday in icmeler the best yet.
Finding IRN BRU for sale almost everywhere made it for me, Its my favouruite drink as Im not normally all that big on alcohol so I was chuffed to see it all over this year.
Michael (Ishmail) and his tea shop (which has actually moved to just across the street and down from the kingsland) was once again as filled with laughter, we took his kids sweets from scotland for bayram and that made them very happy, michael responded to this as an excuse for a massive tea party. what ever yo do please at least go see him as he is a great man.

I have no complaint about the prices and didnt findf it as costly as people make out, global prices are rising and the Turkish people need to make a living to so i dont understand there people who expect a pint for 1tl or 10 t shirts for £10.
Where else in the world can you go for sun, cheap beer and food, friendliness (with the exception of club terror) and lots of bargains on clothes?
On the subject of clothes get along to metropole clothing, they actually sell factory secons of many top labels, i know my clothes well and they did have a few inevitable fakes but id say 95% of the jeans were genuine, dieslel, dolce & gabana etc etc so get along there.

Sorry for the length this has grown to, i thinbk ill sign off it and add to other better stablished threads.

Only got back this morning and been missing icmeler since i boarded the transfer bus. Ill be back soon, maybe even in a few weeks if I can swing time off school for my oldest!