Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
Calis Beach Forum => Calis Beach Questions and Information => Topic started by: OldSerkul1Girl on January 14, 2019, 21:25:54 PM
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Hello CBF Forum :)
I used to post on here a bit what must be about 12 years ago (can't believe its been that long!) For anyone who might remember my name is Karen and I married Mehmet (then owner of Serkul One with his brothers Adem and Harry), in 2006. He moved to Manchester to live with me that year and has been here ever since. We've got 3 kids who are growing up fast and Mehmet now has his own restaurant in Urmston, Greater Manchester. We try to get back to Calis at least once a year, I still love the place :)
Anyway, that was just so you know I am not some weirdo stranger asking for information :D I was wondering if there was anyone on the forum who has been coming to Calis since the very beginning, i.e. from when it was just starting out as a tourist resort. I am writing a novel and am keen to find out roughly when Calis or Fethiye became known as tourist destinations, and when people started to fly into Dalaman. I know it opened in 1981 but am not clear on if there were incoming flights from the UK then or if this wasn't until later. The book isn't about Calis as such, its a novel and not a travel guide, I just need a bit of background, so I can get the dates and context right. Any info on what it was like and the first few hotels would be also of great use.
Mehmet said it all started in 1990 but I am not convinced people weren't coming before this. I think this is just when he got to an age to notice the tourists and be more involved in that way of life.
If anyone can give me any info at all that would be great. I've been googling but its not very forthcoming and I thought it might be better to try to get the people who really know!
Feel free to move this post if its in the wrong place
Tesekkur ederim : )
Karen
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What's the name of Mehmet's restaurant ? I get up around Urmston sometimes and I'm always on the lookout for a good Turkish restaurant.
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laffa, jukebox and cavfan (all late of this parish) spring readily to mind. I think they first visited in 1989.
They don't post on here very often these days but are contactable on facebook.
Good luck with the book.
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Sorry I cant help you with the information you need Karen, but what a lovely post to hear about the past and present, I'm sure someone will be able to help you. Good luck with the novel and let us know when we can read it.
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Hi there we first visited calis in 1986 we found it by accident we were staying at the lykia hotel in fethiye and asked a taxi driver to take us to a beach hence we found calis the same taxi took us to olu as well and there was almost nothing there sowe kept returning to calis .we have been visiting since 1986 and know and have known many people in that time we will be back again in august and always look forward to our return
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We have been going to Calis for around 27 years now and have seen many changes. The few restaurants on the prom were three or four steps under the prom level,there were no sunbeds on the beach unless supplied by the restaurants,the beach in places was infested with very large ants who knew how to bite. I think it was the first year that we could fly to Dalaman airport from Glasgow. Previous flights to Turkey were to Izmir or Bodrum. The first hotel we stayed in was The Gul (Rose Beach, Rosary Beach)why we came back to Calis after a week in that place I do not know. We then stayed in the Sekatur twice then the Malhun twice then several other places until we Found the jewel in the crown THE FIESTA I have forgotten how many great holidays we had there. But it is no more. My memory is not what it used to me but I may be able to answer the odd question.
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Hi ally b do you remember the black cadilacs with the police in cruising the beach road chasingvthe kids selling drinks and cakes we used to sit and watch the antics all day long and every now and tthen the sellers would come and hide by your sunbed or should i say wooden rack so the police wouldnt get them .
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What's the name of Mehmet's restaurant ? I get up around Urmston sometimes and I'm always on the lookout for a good Turkish restaurant.
Its called the 'Station Bar and Grill' KKOB, although you probably wont believe that it isn't actually a Turkish restaurant :o :o
The link is below (hope its ok to add)- it's great for steaks, burgers, sunday roasts etc and the sea bass is lovely. If you are ever around that way do pop in and see him, he would love to opportunity to chat about home for a bit!
https://www.stationbargrill.co.uk/
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laffa, jukebox and cavfan (all late of this parish) spring readily to mind. I think they first visited in 1989.
They don't post on here very often these days but are contactable on facebook.
Good luck with the book.
Thank you! As I don't know their real names they may be tricky to track down on facebook, if anyone is in contact with them via email/facebook etc could you maybe ask them to drop me a quick mail at kkaragoz@outlook365.com if they would be happy for me to pick their brains?
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We have been going to Calis for around 27 years now and have seen many changes. The few restaurants on the prom were three or four steps under the prom level,there were no sunbeds on the beach unless supplied by the restaurants,the beach in places was infested with very large ants who knew how to bite. I think it was the first year that we could fly to Dalaman airport from Glasgow. Previous flights to Turkey were to Izmir or Bodrum. The first hotel we stayed in was The Gul (Rose Beach, Rosary Beach)why we came back to Calis after a week in that place I do not know. We then stayed in the Sekatur twice then the Malhun twice then several other places until we Found the jewel in the crown THE FIESTA I have forgotten how many great holidays we had there. But it is no more. My memory is not what it used to me but I may be able to answer the odd question.
This is great info, thank you very much :) My husband mentioned the Malhun but couldn;t remember any of the others that were there really early on. Whereabouts was the Fiesta located?
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Hi ally b do you remember the black cadilacs with the police in cruising the beach road chasing the kids selling drinks and cakes we used to sit and watch the antics all day long and every now and tthen the sellers would come and hide by your sunbed or should i say wooden rack so the police wouldnt get them .
I love this :) Little anecdotes like this are brilliant. I might use this for a bit of background in the book. I am pretty sure my husband would have tried to do something like this at that age ;)
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Who remembers the policeman stood on a soap box, directing the traffic where the old Dolphin roundabout was/is ;D ;D
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The wooden ‘Wendy House’ police post at the bridge opposite the water taxi station.
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Old Calis Bridge
(http://www.calisvilla.co.uk/image_2.jpg)
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We had a friend who was on the first charter flight to Dalaman, I thought she said it was 1986 but according to Wikipedia Dalaman was only upgraded from an 'aerodrome' to an 'airport' in 1989, so maybe it was then.
They had a civic reception at Dalaman to welcome the new tourists
(https://i.postimg.cc/KK6Pr2pQ/P4230016.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/KK6Pr2pQ)
(https://i.postimg.cc/5XHpwnN4/P4230019.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/5XHpwnN4)
She said they stayed at the Ece Saray, but I'm not sure if I recognise it
(https://i.postimg.cc/PCkN4qdC/P4230015.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/PCkN4qdC)
The beach at Olu Deniz was slightly different in those days
(https://i.postimg.cc/c6wScBCc/P4230012.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/c6wScBCc)
But the sights of Fethiye were just as interesting
(https://i.postimg.cc/1fzZZhMv/P4230013.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/1fzZZhMv)
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Great post gyr - thanks for sharing. :)
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What great posts! We've only been coming to Calis since 2002 so don't remember most of these. It's lovely to hear about and see people's memories from before then.
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Going back even further, to the late 1950s (no not me) - here is a story I posted years ago about the early days of tourism locally - hope you enjoy it as I did:
I was visiting my dear friend Birol, and a gentleman of some years was there, telling stories in Turkish that were obviously being enjoyed very much by the gents around the table. They later translated his "Turkish Tales" to me.
This gentleman was instrumental in setting up the first ever tourism/promotion company for Fethiye, way back in 1959.
The idea was met with some suspicion at first, people really couldn't grasp what he was trying to do, and why he would be doing it at all. He recalled that once people started to visit the area, and spending their money in town, they were very much won over.
He travelled to one of the biggest tour operators in Germany, armed with everything one might need - information, photographs, leaflets etc. - and spoke warmly of Fethiye, its history, beaches, beauty. The tour operators were obviously quite taken by his presentation, they thought it sounded like the sort of place Germans would like to visit and experience.
"How many hotels are there in Fethiye?"
"None"
"How close is it to the airport?"
"There is no airport"
Somewhat downtrodden but refusing to be beaten, he decided to travel to Rhodes to look for tourists. A boat was put on, and the first trip was very popular.
A coach took the visitors to Olu Deniz beach in the morning, where the Greek visitors enjoyed a cool drink under parasols. The beach at Calis was the next port of call for the afternoon.
The key to the success of the day was in the timing. The coach took a "scenic route" from Olu Deniz to Calis Beach, allowing just enough time to load all the parasols onto a truck, fly down to Calis and put them up again.
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Brilliant! ;D
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I remember the aerodrome and then being very impressed with the new airport, must have been around 1989. Ecesaray was created from the old Likya hotel, they had a disco in a small separate building there. Pizza 74 was on the corner of Paspatur where the small general store is situated opposite Tunc leather.
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Oh those PINK seats
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I'm loving this topic! Keep the stories coming :)
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OldSerckul1Girl, The Fiesta Hotel was down a small street on the left about 100yds from the Dolphin roundabout going away from the sea.I was amused in these days at Dr. Gerald with his massage kiosk on the beach with people queuing up for their massage. While the massage was going on Gerald would whistle and warble like a bird,and every now and then he would stop and ask you " GOOT " (good). Outside the Han restaurant there was a large fibreglass orange and one of the staff sat inside selling fresh orange, goodness knows what the heat was like inside in the summer. Morris who had the Post office restaurant at the bridge drove about in a large pink american car trying to attract the young ladies. One of restaurants at the dolphin roundabout had a large pond type thing and you could pick which fish you wanted for tea. (never had the heart to do that) Irish Lizzie had a garden shed along by the Letoon on the prom with plastic tables and chairs where she would sell drink. She liked a drink herself did Lizzie and as the night wore on the air would at times turn blue. The Nil and Orient restaurants always had a lamb on the spit and the cooking smells were great. That is making me hungry, Lunch Time.
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First time we came was about 1986.we stayed in the yacht hotel.no wardrobes just string across the room to hang clothes.
Hole in the floor for a toilet.
When we asked if there was a safe deposit box we were taken into the office and shown a big 4 foot by 3 foot safe.Everybody put there money and valuables in together.
Talk about trusting people.
First night we went for a meal there wasnt a menu.we got through to them that we would have chicken,chips and salad.
Out came the chicken and when we had finished out came the salad and when we had finished that out came the chips.
We went to the beach near the mutlu in calis and there was a makeshift bar.i had an efes that i took to the beach.when i went for the next one he said he was going home so when i asked him about my next beer he said to help myself and leave the money on the side.
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Our first time in Turkey was in Kusadasi and the first restaurant we went to for a meal I had a kebab and Mrs B ordered chicken and chips. The salad came on a plate on its own followed 20 mins later by a whole roasted chicken on a plate and another 20 mins later came the chips.There were so many weird things happened to us in Turkey, but I wouldn't swap it for the world.
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Hi ally b we were great friends with lizzy and saw her through good and bad times i remember playing guitar in her bar one night and a famous turkish star onur raken excuse any spelling mistakes turnred up and we jammed together and the place was rammed my face book picture is of me and him pkaying i think it was 1990 ,we still meet up with lizzies former partner ilhan bozkurt every year and again we play guitar and saz together ,lizzie returned home to have a baby and we have lost touch over the years ,on the beach road was a couple of hotels and a night the beach road was choca block with little stalls set up by the families ,this lasted a few years until one year we were staying at the bahar apartmnt on the front and due to pressuefrom the hotels and shops the police turned up at teatime with big lorries and took all of the families goods ,it was not a pretty sight all we could do was to protest ,only to be told oits for your own good ,this was a big turning point for calis , the black police cadilacs were put away as they were to easy for the kids on the beach to spot ,then the police took to mopeds chasing the traders allong the beach, a sight i havnt seen for along while on calis is the locals digging a hole in the sand and burying themselves in the heat of the day ,all you could see was their heads sticking out of the sand,i remember geraldo the massage man he came to us on the beach to tell us princess diana had died , also the very dangerous parasending from the beach that left holidaymakers hovering over the power lines on the front because the speed boat was not powerfull enough to pull people in when it got windy i know i was one of them ,must have been to much effes thats all for now cheers
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I flew into Dalaman in August 1988 for my first holiday to Turkey ( I don't recall it being an Aerodrome) and stayed in Marmaris so cant give you any info on Calis sorry.
I can recall it being the hottest I have ever experienced ( of coarse I may just of got used to it now) but I remember many locals died that summer due to the heat.
There was very little choice of menus and like other have said chicken (very small portion) chips and salad, meatballs were the only other choice I think.
We ate at little wooden tables lined up on the beach itself.
in those days you would be eating in a street restraunt when the trucks would come around at night to empty the sesspit tanks the smell was as you can imagine!! that's when the waiters would squirt the lemon cologne into your hands to sniff as a distraction.
We did a boat trip to from Marmaris to Dalyan that year involving the same tours in Dalyan as it still does .
We also did a day trip to Rhodes so that was operating then too.
I didnt return to Turkey for another 10 yrs or so when I did return it was to the fethiye area and have fallen in love with it like everyone else.
That holiday was the longest I have spent in Marmaris, I returned again about 20 yrs later (stayed over night in Ichmeler) wasnt impressed with that either and last year we ended up there again by taking the wrong turning to Akyaka, stayed half an hour and that was too long!!
Good luck with the book.
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I don't look on here very often these days but as I'm flying out on Wednesday I thought I'd just have a nosey and came across your post!. (You're probably on your sequel by now!) Anyway I've let Cavfan (my sister), Jukebox (brother-in-law) know about it as I'm sure they'll have some very interesting facts to tell you.
My memory for dates is never very good but I came for the first time in my mid 20's to stay with my mum and dad who, by that time, had been staying at the Mutlu for a number of years and loved it so much I decided to join them. I've been going back at least once a year since then, so just shy of 30 years. At that time there was nothing beyond the Mutlu except a walk until you fell off the end! In the other direction what is now Hamsi bar was a hut with 2 plastic tables and one umbrella. The Eroz on the corner had a bar that you went down steps to, no street level restaurant and it was clad in wood which made it feel like a sauna if you were sat having a drink. The "prom" was not paved, it was rubble so your choice of footwear had to be sensible or you risked a broken ankle or broken shoes! Over the bridge was mostly wasteland except for, on the right - "The Post Office" - the only place to really call itself a "bar" in the evenings that stayed open very late and where many of the most well know Calis guys started out as very young men working behind the bar. Mosquito city with not much in the way of "infection control" - but some of the best nights and best laughs I've had over the years with family and friends. It was never quite the same when it went across the road to where B52 is now!
The "Sunday Market" was on the old football pitch in the village and you could walk from Calis to get to it without passing a building of note - wide open spaces.
There was the odd restaurant on the front leading to Coca Calis - The Orient - Mr Mehmet had been there years already, The Rubber tree (I think) - next door to what was George's Steak house and a couple of others but beyond the Letoon there was nothing much. Lizzies or Busy Lizzies was further down as was a restaurant called the Albatros which you could be taken to in a horse and cart (think the horse was older than I am now!).
I hope you have found all the information you need from all your sources but if you need any additional ramblings, let me know. (Plus let us know when your book is published!)
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I was searching for something else and stumbled upon this topic. Since we are all in reminiscing mood over the Dolphin Roundabout, I thought I’d bump it back up to the top.