We said goodbye to izmir. A vibrant city that we didn’t have much time to explore. It has a long history of civilisation that molded izmir into what it is today. It also looked beaten up with dark alleys and run-down buildings. People sleeping by the street and dirty children running after us begging for one lira. Old cities often carry these diseases- poverty, homelessness and street children. But we will leave izmir with its colors and characters ; today we headed south to another coastal city— Bodrum.
The bus (I mean minibus) came and by 11:30 am ready to go. So if you book a seat in a bus slide the chart till the end so you know it is the long one or short. We didn’t realise it was a short minibus and assumed the regular bus. So here we are travelling in a minibus for the next three hours.
The town was more like a luxurious getaway place for the rich and famous. The majestic hotels emerged from the cliffs overseeing the blue lagoons. The yachts, big and small, harboured below at the edge of the water.
I felt, for a moment, like some old dude seeking for fun and pleasure—- just like one of them— the summer tourists. But in reality , I am a musafir kelana, seeking solace in the soundlessness of nature.
The hotel, the streets and the restaurants were packed with western tourists getting the best of Turkish delights. The place looked more like Miami rather than a remote town on the edge of Mediterranean Sea.
By Maghrib I escaped into the mosque that was located nearby the marina. As if running away from the disgusting crowd outside into a safe haven in the mosque. It was a different world and my soul rested in peace for a brief moment. The imam recited beautifully and the tilawah after the prayers was so mesmerising. Maybe that part would be my most memorable experience in this trip.
In the morning took a walkabout in this resort town. The streets were quiet only some big dogs kept barking at us to chase us away. The weather was nice and we had a couple of hours to kill before breakfast.
Breakfast was splendid attended by the awesome boys. Are they similar to “ wildanun mukholladun …. luklu’ an manthuuro “ ? Maybe I was a bit too much but they were nice. Hahaha.. I had started,though ,to get bored with Turkish breakfast. A lot of egg dishes, cheese and veggies. My morning crave is more to kickstart the dull morning rather than to experiment with new tastes. All in all this hotel got five stars from me.
He helped us with the bags for our next journey. Sunday was very helpful, thank you bro. The trip to Pamukkale would take about 6 hours. I was looking forward so that’s a good thing. So far so good. Alhamdulillah.
