Turkije

Wow.

I recently returned from 5 days of heaven at the Macakizi Hotel, Bodrum, Turkey.

The catalyst of the trip was the lovely Neeza to celebrate her birthday. What better excuse is there to get some sun and time with friends? And sunny it was. Not a cloud in the sky. And we were helpless to do anything but spend our days lounging, swimming, eating, and drinking.

Here are some snippets from the trip:

Nothing like packing for a trip and finding your Amsterdam>Turkey flight stub from a couple years ago tucked away in a pocket. The old, and then new :)

Macakizi Hotel

The best place on earth. Beautiful. Crystal clear water. Delicious food. Great water-front lounging. And of course, endless people-watching. 

(You can click on any of these collage images to see them larger).

A couple videos of the place: 

The food was great. We started everyday with an amazing buffet spread accompanied by a view of the water. Mid-day we would move from our lounge chairs to a table for some calamari salad, or something of equal deliciousness. For dinner, we spent a couple in the city of Bodrum, and had an amazing birthday dinner at the hotel. We ate a lot of fish on this trip. A lot. I ate my first eye.

 Sunset photo shoot with the birthday girl:

 Not SUV's...but just Land Rovers:

 Where we found ourselves shortly after arriving to the hotel:

 Ignasi and Pierre choosing our fish we would be feasting on:

 Massive brand new sailboat in the bay. Later meet the owner. He's a Macakizi regular:

 New shades:

 Neeza examining our options from a spread of 4 menus:

Lunchtime:

 Lunch a different day:

 Travel partner, Ignasi:

Afternoon view:

 Cigarette packaging. You won't have babies. You won't have a love life. You'll have tubes coming out of your face. Sorry, what brand did you say you wanted?

 Boat Day

The 6 of us splurged on a boat ride to carry us around all day Saturday. The captain took us to a few different places for swimming. He also spent some time in the water himself, harpooning our lunch. He only managed to catch 2 fish, but he had a back-up supply in the cooler. Our lunch was amazing. The fish were so good. And many of the fruits/veggies were from his garden. Just amazing.

After lunch, while cruising to our next destination, we spot an ice cream boat zipping by. So, we of course hail the thing down and get ourselves some icy treats.

 The boat was beautiful. The water was beautiful. The sunset was beautiful.

 Some video's from the ride:

 It was a fantastic trip. Many thanks to the company of my multi-national family:

The Iranian, Malaysian, French, Spanish, 'merican, and English

Often repeated quote of the trip: "This Sucks!"