Goodbye Kalkan, hello Fish Bowl

[tonybee]

Our 5th visit to Kalkan; and still as beautiful as the Kalkan we fell in love with a few years ago.  However this year we saw the emergance of the fish bowl,  with many of the harbour front bars offering which in most holiday resorts is a cheap way of getting 18-30`s off their faces ..... Of course in Kalkan it is a slightly more expensive experience.

 We didn`t happen to see any one actually drinking from one, but I can only imagine that the bars are expecting the children and  grandchildren - along with thier friends, -   of the many people from the UK that fell in love with the un-spoilt beauty of Kalkan, and decided to buy up holiday homes here.

KInd of ironic ?

Anyway, look on the bright side, forget Efes and Angora, you`ll soon ba able to order a Blow Job or a Tit Shaker for your after dinner cocktails.  Appaently very nice drinks.


Linkback: https://www.enjoykalkan.com/forum/index.php?topic=11206.0

[Agent Ottoman]

  Oh no! What with this and lasers in the sky anyone would think they'd ended up in the wrong place?! Agents we need to stage an intervention!!!!

[Babs]

I have to say that I saw fishbowls advertised outside a bar (the name of which I can't remember) last year! Lets not panic......my daughter loves a cocktail and I'm sure has partaken of a fishbowl or two and this year she and three friends all 21 are going to Kalkan.....she sort of grew up there holiday-wise, she would much rather go there than an 18 to 30 place. She loves Kalkan for most of the same reasons we do.....good food, lovely scenery, friendly people etc......but yes she is 21 and loves sex on the beach.....it's a cocktail!! So maybe we shouldn't panic too much yet.....mind you I'd get rid of the lasers!! 

[jg64]

There are many people on this forum who would see Kalkan turn into a Turkish Magaluf.....and to be perfectly honest, they're winning the battle. From restaurants that cater for Little Brits, Karaoke and Western music bars, to ignorant Turks who wrongly believe the holidaymaker wants this kind of trash, we now see hunger appear in their eyes and with that - the inexorable slide into mass tourism mode that will, inevitably and quickly, spell the death knell for Kalkan and all the peace, quiet, tranquility and Turkish heaven it once stood for.

Those people have metaphorical 'blood on their hands' as their indefatigable drive to westernise, Spanish'ise and Marmarmis'ise Kalkan is systematically dismantling, year by year, season by season, that which has made the place such a draw and so special to the refined tourist with taste.

People on this forum, too many in my mind, are too quick to judge and disparage those who want to keep Kalkan special as charlatans when it is they who, along with profit hungry Turks, are transforming the vista of Kalkan into something more akin to what happened to Benites in Corfu in the mid 80s - where Tavernas and Sirtaki was replaced by plaice and chips and hoardes of slags wearing tight flourescent dresses getting bladdered on numerous cocktails drunk from oversized glasses and gutters full of vomit.

Kalkan hasn't quite reached that echelon yet, but with the advent of Indian restaurants, western music bars, laser lights and happy hour cocktails served in goldfish bowls, it is at the start of a journey - one which will increase in pace as word spreads to the masses back here in the UK looking for that kind of holiday who will come here in their tens, then hundreds then thousands, until each cobbled lane and beautiful Bouganvillia-clad building bears witness to the fall of something beautiful into something tragic. Where the genuine warmth and friendliness of the indigenous Turk transmogrifies into a profit-driven business unit hell bent on extracting every last Kuru out of visiting tourists with what they believe they want - what they have shown they have started to desire, a Little England on sea, a Turkish version of Spain and all that went wrong with that country when the Brits over-ran it.

Ultimately, the Turks will both win and lose - lose the clientele they once respected and who deeply respected them but win with the profit that inevitably comes from the faceless ascent of mass tourism. A town where places like The Merkez Cafe will one day be bought out by the likes of Pizza Hut and the sound of amusement arcade machines and Anglicised accents calling "Two fat ladies......88' is only dulled by the thudding cacophony of competing clubs and bars full of inebriated British youth.

For those who would castigate these words for being too pessimistic and derisory of them as people who should be "free to do what we want on holiday" I would simply say this: that with respect, you and your type are part of the problem and the cause, not the cure not what will slow the pace of change, only hasten it.

Kalkan is on the cusp of something terrible. My prediction is that within ten years, very few of those who are attracted to come here and who love it so much now will have given up and moved on from a love lost to the thrust of mass tourism. That isn't so much sad as tragic.

Now let's see if this forum is a real democracy and not only allows this post to be shown to those who truly love Kalkan for all that it was and is, not what they would want it to become - but also but those who would rather people like me go away. We won't!

[Bob & Jayne]

Sounds like Bazza's back in disguise! 
B

[brian j p]

Personally speaking, as a “SUN” reading slum council estate beer swigging handkerchief on head laser loving McDonalds burger eater with several ASBO  against my name   , I am not sure what all the fuss is about    ha ha

[onelove]

Hi jg64,

I have to say i agree with a fair bit of what you say, but, for the life of me I can't even start to understand what your problem is with Indian cuisine 

[brian j p]

Must admit,the Indian restaurant  is  definitely on our list of places to visit in Sept/Oct when we return , minus my handkerchief hat of course!

[Helshe]

I also agree with a lot of what you say JG64. It will be a real shame if Kalkan loses it's charm. A few changes are fine as long as they are sensitive and in keeping with what we all love about the place. If things didn't change, we may get bored with the same thing every time we were there. I hope it doesn't get spoiled by misguided business ideas.

[Lizilu20]

Ooh, harsh words JG64, however I do agree with your principles. As a family, it costs us a small fortune to visit Kalkan but we are prepared to save our hard earned cash, to holiday in such a beautiful place. If Kalkan does change into a copy of marmaris, then we would just have to find somewhere else that hasn't been ruined by the wrong type of mass tourism. It would break our hearts though.
I'm sure that the majority of us on here love Kalkan just as it is and would do anything to help to stop Kalkan becoming like Blackpool.
I just can't understand why you think that this will happen? We all come to Kalkan because we love it the way it is. Why would anyone on this forum want to change it for the worse?

[Chris S]

I agree entirely jg64.

[MartynE]

Doomed... we are all doomed.

*Yawn*

Heard it all before... but thanks for your sterling, singlehanded efforts to defend innocent Kalkan from the rampaging hordes, Baz...I  mean jg64.... it's really appreciated.

Personally, I have had lots of conversations with people on this forum and haven't yet found one who wants to turn Kalkan into another Magaluf - but obviously you, with your super journalistic investigative skills, have uncovered some undercover agents (posing as genuine Kalkan lovers but secretly hellbent on destroying Kalkan's magic).

Well done! Kalkan lovers can sleep peacefully now, secure in the knowledge that you are right back on our side and defending us (as long as we don't try and sleep anywhere near Mojito or Chocolate, obviously).

[Chris S]

'Many a true word is spoken in jest'

[JenJen]

I don't think Kalkan will ever turn into a Marmaris style resort. Fishbowls have been advertised for years but I've never actually seen anyone order one. Kalkan is way too small to ever be able to offer the variety of nightlife 18-30s type holidaymakers want. 10 years ago, I was going to Tenerife, Faliraki, Gumbet etc and the reasons I went there were the clubs and the long, sandy beaches. Kalkan's lack of a decent beach, lengthy airport transfer time and upmarket accommodation are the things that help keep it special. Kalkan might get a bit livelier in the summer months but I can't see it ever becoming another Kavos or Laganas.

[jg64]

Martyn E

For your information,  I am not this Baz person whoever his - but your reply says an awful lot about the type of person you are. No valid, mature or reasoned argument, just a puerile personal attack - just the kind of apathetic response from the type of person who my post mentions is part of the problem.

If you have nothing positive or constructive to say or cannot stick to the post topic, please don't waste your time replying to my posts. They do you a disservice and say much more about you than they do myself.

[kalkan4eva]

Funny jg64.....on another thread you posted that you thought One Sheet was Bazza
One Sheet had posted a particularly inflammatory piece and you likened it to a Bazza post so you can't now claim to not know who he is.....
Makes me think more than ever that you are Bazza ......the vitriolic reply to Martyn E is trademark.
I have no desire to be influenced by someone who writes for Woman's Own.....sorry! Have you tried posting on Trip Advisor, you'd fit right in there.

[jg64]

Is no-one capable of sticking to the post thread which in this case is the changing face of Kalkan and goldfish bowl cocktails being served in Kalkan bringing the area down?

[Babs]

My point jg64 is don't assume that those who wish to drink hideous cocktails out of fishbowls are the scum of the earth! If my daughter and her friends wanted a rowdy Marmaris type of holiday they would go to Marmaris.....instead they are going to Kalkan a place my daughter loves and has being going to for about 9 years. As I said she loves the people, food, scenery, and yes.....peace and quiet! But she also likes a cocktail or two. Yes I admit Kalkan is changing but I don't think we need to panic too much yet.........

[brian j p]

Fully agree with Babs, who is spot on.  I have three daughters  all  in their 20s+ ,  and they love kalkan for what it is,  but they also like to have the odd night where they let their hair down and have some fun , enjoying cocktail nights  , drinking out of a cocktail  bowl is not going to threaten what we all love about Kalkan. I do not even think  the odd laser beam will threaten kalkan, be really cool if they could shine it out and light up the  islands!

[jg64]

Hey, here's a novel idea. Why not try drinking cocktails from cocktail glasses and keeping goldfish in shiny round bowls!