Thanks for your welcome, Tribalelder . . . In the three or four years I had spent living in Fethiye the scams and the ripoffs of almost all and sundry involved in handling your money began to outweigh the many delights of the people - including some of the money handlers, even - and the place, so at the first opportunity on appearing to complete my business there, I left to throw myself back at the mercy of their UK equivalents. At least there is more legislation here to protect us from the almost ad hoc law that appears to prevail down there sometimes . . .
Without risking naming names or being libellous, the business practices of some of the estate agents there were criminal, and nearly left my ex-partner and I seriously out of pocket, i.e. dead broke. Let me just say that some of the agents who had origins in the UK were just as duplicitous or more so than some of their local colleagues, and I must add that all that I have heard of Mr. Scunner indicates that he is a very good deed indeed in that very naughty world of Turkish real estate. Where a lot of the others are concerned, I must say I begin to wonder what the world's oldest profession truly is.
I would like to make a posting or two soon enquiring what the general opinion down there is amongst you people on the firing line about what is happening and expected to happen where property is concerned in the overall Fethiye/Calis area in these recessionary/depressionary times as I still have some I would like to dispose of.
I would also like to enquire about how expensive people are beginning to find there and elsewhere in Turkey now, and how it compares with Spain say, for value for the expat and tourist pound.
However I would not wish to end on a sour and money oriented note here, and I must say I greatly valued all that I learned from living among Muslim and Turkish people about how some of the other half live, and how enthralling I found most of their culture and history in so far as I explored those areas in the time I was there. I miss being amongst the Turks very much and I have great respect for them and their gentle, sensible ways in general, those who aren't lusting after all of their visitors' gold that is.
I noticed posts on CBF in the last six months, say, on Cappadocia, and all I can say is if you want to get a sense of the near - Asian past and see landscapes where you can envisage the hordes of the Khan storming in on horseback from further - Asia, and actually enter the underground multiple level cities that the locals took refuge in from them and other invaders, you must go there.
Konya also, the Sufi Vatican, is worth a day or two where you can see in the Mevlana shrine a casket in a glass case said to contain a hair of the Prophet's moustache and surrounded by suitably awe-struck pilgrims from all over Turkey and no doubt elsewhere too, like myself. The city itself is mostly like a medieval one in appearance and bustling trade and craft activity still, with the internal combustion engine and the modern commercial centre almost the only things that connect it with the present. Nose around and you'll get your Efes, etc., and some very good food and good hospitality also.
Not far from Konya there is a town I forget the name of where you can find authentic Sufi dancing underway one or two nights a week in a wonderfully preserved Caravanserai. There are great Greek, Lycian and Roman classical sites in Turkey and within easy reach of Fethiye - Xanthos, Tlos, etc - which should not be missed and which will expand the pleasures of your time in Turkey and your appreciation of the country, but Capadocia holds other things again which you won't have to sleep to dream about for the rest of your life.
A minor thing that bugged me about Turkey was the quality - and increasing cost each few months - of the wine. However if the Cappadocian grape in its varieties was more available than it is, it would see off all the opposition that I was aware of anyway. Gima in Fethiye - Carrefours now? - used to have it, so any of you li'l ol' winedrinkers around who hanker after the West Med wine should search it out pronto if you haven't been so alerted already.
Forgive me rambling so much for openers: I'll be terse in future.
Cheers
Fethiye Expat (Repatted)
