Quiet Day

Wednesday 3rd October

After the tiring journey here and a bit of rushing about and getting our bearings in the last few days, it was inevitable that we would have a non-event day and so it proved to be today.

In the morning, we mooched around the hotel pool and read our books, we idled in the library and checked our emails and played a bit of pool and we had a simple salad lunch at the bar. In the afternoon we went down to the Beach Club and mooched about on the beach and read our books and had a swim and fell asleep.

It was the first day that we had seen any cloud and in the evening it started to build into a more angry looking and meaningful mass. Some thunder rebounded around the mountainsides and far off lightning high up in the clouds continued to briefly light the horizon, but in the end we only had a brief and light shower to contend with at ground level.

We ate in the separate Nar restaurant, where a Turkish tasting menu was being prepared for a fixed number of guests. The idea was to introduce Turkish cuisine from all areas of the country.

We expected a Turkish themed night with the room dressed in traditional Turkish manner with carpets and cushions and lamps and music. We arrived to find a sort of open barn with a harsh tile floor and plastic canopy sides, lights on full beam and a distinct lack of atmosphere. We persuaded them to turn down the lights, which were fortunately controlled by a dimmer switch, and to light the candles on each table and someone put a wailing Turk on the music system. It was better, but it could have been so, so much better.

The food was very good and well cooked and we had the accompanying wine that was recommended. It was hard to tell, though, what was local produce and what was from further afield as it all seemed to be along the same theme as everything we had eaten so far on this trip – and a lack of any notes or information on the menu didn’t help either. Likewise more information on the wine and its origin would have been good but maybe we are an exception in wanting to know all this and most people aren’t really concerned.

At the end of the dinner, we chatted briefly with some new guests, who had just arrived from 4 days in Istanbul. They were an elderly couple and she turned out to be a reviewer with ‘House and Garden’ magazine. After, we retired to the bar for a Turkish coffee and almond liqueur, but we were tired and the company was annoying, so we took our drinks with us to bed.

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candidate no 6: Peter Andre and Jordan
Bizarrely misplaced Antipodean couple. Both shiny and glossy in that Southern Hemisphere kind of a way - both crashingly dull and misinformed and very very loud. Way too over-friendly and opinionated for most of the Middle England lot here - they just stand and look dazed and out-gunned as the antips bang on about the beauty of life and second time relationships.
verdict: CHAFF - should have stayed in Marmaris NB - he is actually called Peter, astonishingly