Day 27 - Pamukkale to Fethiye

We had enjoyed our two nights in Pamukkale so it as with some sadness that we hit the road for Fethiye today. Pamukkale is definitely worth a return visit sometime. The journey to Fethiye was uneventful and relatively short and saw us arriving around lunchtime after driving through some very beautiful mountain ranges. After consulting our pre-downloaded map of Fethiye we finally found our hotel, Hotel Letoon. This was after first detouring to see Oludeniz which is a beachside township close to Fethiye and had been under consideration back in Australia as a place to find accommodation until we saw the prices and decided to give it a miss. Given the large number of tourists and the distinctly English flavour to it I don't think we missed anything - who wants to come to Turkey only to find themselves in an outpost of England anyway? As it was our hotel fitted that description exactly as did surrounding hostelries and eating establishments - quite a shock initially to encounter loads of overweight, aging and seemingly all smoking, English tourists - aaargh. In time we got used to it but the initial memory lingers. Our hotel turned out to be a simple affair comprising a collection of bungalows with a restaurant/bar complex at the front and a largish swimming pool. It's other main attraction was it's absolute waterfront location - walk out the front entrance and simply wander down the beachfront promenade. Nearby were quite a few restaurants and further towards town there were also small retail outlets. We decided to drive into town to scout out the surrounds so that tomorrow we might take a twelve islands cruise which are advertised everywhere here. When we hit town we simply kept going as the traffic was unbearable. I spotted a sign pointing to KayaKoy which I'd read about and so we headed for this abandoned former Greek village located some 8 kms from Fethiye. This was quite an eerie place, to walk through a village that would have been teeming with life in the early 20th century. The residents were repatriated to Greece in 1923 as a result of a population exchange between the Greek and Turkish governments. We left the ghost town after first enjoying cay at a small tea-house near the road and then headed back to our hotel deciding to simply try our luck as to the cruise tomorrow. Dinner was at a nearby restaurant, the hotel restaurant not seeming quite up to a decent evening meal. Our waiter, Medo, proved to be an entertaining chap who was working as a waiter while waiting a further 8 months for an entrance exam to a course come round again - he failed the first time apparently. Turned in after dinner in our somewhat simple accommodation without even a tv or bar fridge - not that it mattered as we were too tired to stay up anyways.