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We've seen many of the world's scenic coasts--a few
more to go--and they are all spectacular in their own ways--
but Turkey's Mediterranean coast rivals the best of them
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Sea camel
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Nearby islands, many of them
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The clarity of the water is exceptional
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The great Kaputas chasm, right on the road--
only a few feet wide, a couple hundred high
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Issues in this small isolated beach
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Actually, animals on the road are pretty unusual for Turkey,
but the bridge here framed such an exceptional shot, I had to
do it
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Turkey has some 70 million citizens and some 150 million
restaurant/cafe/snack bar seats; they line the roads, they
are at every intersection, every rest area...
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Here's a pastry shop on wheels, baklava and all those other
good things; yes, we did; how can you not support this
kind of entrepreneurship?
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We have been astonished at the number and variety of gas
stations in Turkey; most of the traffic is commercial, trucks,
buses, maxitaxis (dolmus), relatively few private automobiles
in sight; diesel is running well over $8 a gallon, and gasoline
way more than that; yet there appear to be thousands of gas
stations, nearly all of them quite new and quite nice, nearly
all with little markets or cafes; all of them offer you free tea
or coffee as well as trinkets with larger purchases; and--this
seems to be the major competing point--all of them offer free
car or truck washing facilities; Turks are fastidious, not to
say obsessive, about keeping their cars and trucks clean; we
once watched a young man take 20 minutes to rinse, lather,
wash, scrub, rinse, and rinse again, his motor scooter; we
should have videotaped it; anyhow, under this kind of social
pressure, we have now ourselves washed the Grey Wanderer
more times in Turkey than in all other countries combined;
free
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And then there are Turkish drivers (very nearly without
exception, males), who are on the whole quite good, if not,
um, linear, if you get my "drift"
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