27
Jun
2017
By Calvin at 11:26 GMT, 6 years ago
I’ve just come back to the website after some considerable time away and so thank you to the people who have emailed me asking if I was OK, or simply missing in inaction.
The truth is that I was in Devon for almost three weeks in May and June, decorating my Mum’s house and then, after a rather rushed and busy week doing all the things I should have done at home in those three weeks, I finally got away to Kalkan on the Turkish SW Mediterranean coast for a two-week holiday.
Kalkan was originally an old Greek harbour town (with many of the old (listed) Greek houses still standing). It’s a relatively quiet place when compared to the nearby towns of KaÅŸ and Fethiye and in my opinion a rather beautiful and romantic place and a gastronomic pleasure with something like 50 roof-top terrace restaurants and another 100 ground floor establishments within the centre of town. Steep and narrow ‘cobbled’ streets (most of which are not accessible by vehicles) and its masses of bougainvillea are features of this picturesque town leading down to a wonderful harbour where you’ll find some of the best daily boat excursions in the region. For an average price of £25 -£30 per person, which includes freshly cooked food and your beer and wine, you can spend 8 hours sailing from island to island and swimming in the clear blue sea. Lovely!
For those of you worried about terrorism (and with the recent tragedies in the UK there are lots of people who are naturally worried) then I would suggest that Kalkan is a pretty safe bet and certainly no worse than London. It’s hundreds of miles from the usual targeted cities in Turkey (a 9 hour drive to Istanbul) and is certainly not a crowded place; something that definitely attracts the current terrorist actions. It’s a crying shame then that the UK tourist has been so put off from travelling to this part of Turkey. UK citizens make up over 90% of the tourists in Kalkan, but this year and last the numbers of travellers are down by as much as 50%. One can’t help but feel sorry for the local people there who have definitely suffered as a result of the terrorism scare.
The problem with terrorism is that it does exactly what the word suggests. It terrorizes us into thinking that certain places are unsafe. It puts us off from travelling; not just to foreign countries, but also into our own city centres and this is in spite of our own government and security services’ advice about being aware but ‘carrying on’ with our daily lives. The reality is that a lot of us do alter our plans and choose not to go to certain destinations, often because these dreadful terrorist actions make us think in an illogical way.
There’s nothing I can do about it, of course, other than to advise you to always read our own government’s travel advice when you’re planning a trip. All countries have their problems, including the UK and so you might also want to read through my guidance page Safer Travel Abroad.
Lots of you will be going on holiday now and I wish you all a fabulous and safe trip.
