Turgut Carpet Showroom and Views of Marmaris

  We are enjoying lazy time for now, just taking the motorbike and exploring down the road or going to town for short rides and a few chores.  And checking the Red Sox scores first thing in the morning isn’t so awful anymore.  Go Sox.  Randal’s brother-in-law Ken and a favorite person of mine, is an Oriole fan but I’m totally cut-throat when it comes to baseball so I’m having to cheer for the Sox beating the Orioles.  But I can cheer for Alabama football!  Roll Tide Roll !!! 

Ru

DoraMac

Turgut Carpet Showroom

clip_image001

Sultan Carpet : Handmade old carpets and kilims and souvenirs

clip_image002

We were told the showroom had just opened and they were still spiffing up the complex. ( I wish they’d left the stone unpainted though I once bought a house with painted bricks so who am I to talk.)

clip_image003

Looking at carpets can make your head spin!

I’m still waiting for one to call my name. The problem will be finding one that calls Ruth and Randal at the same time.

clip_image004

We read an article in National Geographic Traveler about a man who used his search for a rug as a reason to explore Turkey and that’s what we will also do. Not that the friendly Turks, beautiful scenery, historic sites, and the great food aren’t reasons enough.

clip_image005

I quite liked this one and think it would lovely in our boat; but we have lots of looking to do and it didn’t shout our names…not quite.

clip_image006

“The assistant” brought me a small cup of Turkish coffee that I drank because drinking tea or coffee is part of the process of carpet shopping. The coffee is quite thick and the bottom of my cup was filled with sludge that maybe I should have swished around while I was drinking it.

clip_image007

(Hasan) Adnan DEMIR and Randal exchanging business cards.

I made the mistake of telling Hasan that some of the Turkish “tribal” patterns reminded me of Native American Indian patterns. It strikes me as very interesting but he thought I was saying the Turks were copying Indian patterns and didn’t take it as “a compliment.” So from now on I won’t point that out to anyone other than other North Americans. We actually experienced the same thing in Tibet where the patterns also reminded us of Native American Indians. It actually puts us off because we’re looking for a “stereotypical Turkish rug” pattern though the more we learn, we may change of mind(s.)

On our way back to Marmaris we decided to stop at Marti Marina in Hisaronu Bay about 25 kilometers from Marmaris (15 miles and about 25 minutes by car according to their brochure but not according to our motorbike speed.) We are looking for other marinas for our travels. It looks just like our marina only smaller, much, much smaller which is fine. We walked around a bit and then used their WC. Every WC (toilet) around the world offers its own challenges, instructions, identification signs and Marti was no different.

clip_image008

Some WC images can actually be a bit ambiguous but not this one.

clip_image009clip_image010clip_image011

Instructions posted in the ladies….some of the most elaborate I’ve seen anywhere.

Then it was back on the bike. As we got close to Marmaris I tried to take some shots looking down on Marmaris from the mountain. My next camera will have a wide angle…and a zoom and a zoom wide angle if that exists.

clip_image012

You can see how the road curves around the mountain and was great fun on a motorbike. Our friends Bud and Anita from Passage rented a small Fiat and made the trip around the coast going south east and said the roads were spectacular even in the rain. We obviously wouldn’t enjoy a rain ride no matter how lovely.

clip_image013

We pulled into this overlook and spied the two chairs. Wonder what their story is.

clip_image014

A “sort of” aerial view of Marmaris with our marina visible in the distance about 8 miles from where I am taking the photo. The marina is that white which looks to be connecting the mountains on either side of the photo. Not sure of the population, maybe about 28,000 locals though during tourist seasons it swells to either 75,000 or 350,000 depending on the website you choose to believe. And which sign. The sign on the road coming to the marina says 26,000 and the one you read leaving the marina says 30,000.

http://www.maremlak.com/marmaris_tr.php has good info and photos of Marmaris