Kalkan Turkey Forum - EnjoyKalkan.com
Kalkan Discussion => Holiday Reports and Reviews => Topic started by: janeb on September 23, 2015, 04:36:32 PM
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Well the build-up has started, the count down into single figures and the beautification process about to start! What we women have to do to look and feel at our best, especially as we get older – or is that just me? My OH just has to remember to pack the wash things (forgotten in the past) his swimming shorts (forgotten in the past) and his contact lens – guess what? Yes forgotten in the past!
So … clothes checked for ready to wear ability, lashes tomorrow, pedicure on Friday and hair and manicure on Saturday. Family lunch for 29 on Sunday (don’t worry I’m not cooking!) before which I’ll need to check the OH’s packing. After lunch we’ll set off for our airport hotel; managed to bag a bargain Premier Inn room 20 minutes away from the airport for £39.
Flight out at a respectable time on Monday, which just happens to be my birthday. My way of thinking is that as I can’t really celebrate on the day (we’ll gloss over the overnight stay, the Aspire plus lounge and a few drinks on the plane – as Chris_S would say “hydration is important”) the entire week should be spent celebrating my birthday – yay!! :laugh:
We usually head to Bread and More when we get to Kalkan, which should be about 23:30, depending on whether we get an aspiring F1 driver or one a little more sedate!
We’ve pre-booked Olive Garden for our meal on the Tuesday and Mussaka for the Thursday, other than that the plan is to try some new places. Thank you to everyone for the many and varied reports on lots of other great restaurants it’s given us lots of ideas.
By the way did I tell you I love chips!! Doesn’t everyone? I try not to indulge at home, but when in Kalkan, well, just keep those chips and of course the rosé coming. Almost started a post that asked Kalkanites for their opinions on where the best chips can be found, will have to do some research, but any suggestions welcome of course.
Hoping that the weather cheers up; looking forward to some of that, normally, glorious Kalkan sunshine.
Will attempt some reports when we arrive.
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Cafe Vita...best chips ever!
Looking forward to your birthday week, janeb. Just follow Lizilu's lead 8) 8)
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Mmm chips in Kalkan. It's worth a holiday just to indulge in chips!
My vote went for...wait for it...MARINA! I can't believe that they were better than vitas but to my taste buds they were. Crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside, just perfect.
Hope I don't lead you astray Janeb - but when in Kalkan... ;) ;D
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I'd have to say Mussakka for chips. Large portion and very tasty. Hope that you have a lovely and relaxing extended birthday.
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I don't think I've ever had real chips in Kalkan.......just the sort of fries you might have on the side, say at a beach club, clearly I'm missing a trick! Have a lovely holiday Jane and enjoy all those birthday celebrations......best place to celebrate a birthday!
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hello janeb, we fly out on Sunday afternoon for 15 nights and are also hoping for improved weather. I have looked at the forecasts and it seems promising (the trick is to check all sites and stop when you find a decent forecast!)
We should arrive in Kalkan at about 10pm and would normally go to the Merkez for the first Efes and a snack but will have to look elsewhere so may now try Bread and More having seen your post.
Happy holidays!
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A snack I loved in Bread & Mores is their jacket potato with meted cheese topped with crispy bacon...yummy.
Have a great time and enjoyr your birthday. I always celebrate mine in alternatif.
BarbH
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Have a great birthday and a wonderful holiday . Enjoy the chip hunting!
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:) Thanks everyone, I'll keep you posted and let you know all about the birthday fun.
:laugh: Trotter, I'm like you, I look at all the weather reports until I see one I like too! Enjoy Bread and More, we've always enjoyed our late supper there, hope you do too. Might try the jacket potato - sounds yummy.
Will definitely take up the chip challenge, someone has to do it. Lol!
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I'm looking forward to reading your reports and comparing notes. Keep on with the lists, they are the key to everything in my world!
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I agree Marina for chips! :)
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Loads of good chips in Kalkan. Is it the potato type or the sunflower oil (I think) they cook them in, that makes them so?
Actually, the most impressive chips we had this year were at Moonlight Pansiyon.
Now I've said that, they'll probably be McCain oven chips by now....
Looking forward to your reports, but who's got the baton, now? ???
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I love " the world famous " chips at Café Vita.........at least that is what Mustafa,the owner calls them..........they are very yummie.
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Oh janeb the build up to holidays is fab isn't it. Family meal for 29 sounds great, and I bet you are glad that you aren't cooking! Hope you have a wonderful time and get to celebrate your birthday in style! Re CHIPS, well yes definitely Marina, although Adem's Restaurant on the Kas Road are fab, along with Cafe Vita, and Moussaka, but also we had a meal up at Lavanta (burger and chips) all home cooked and both were wonderful!
Enjoy :D :D :D :D
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Best chips I've ever had in Kalkan were at Cafe Ev - with a sublime Tuna Cheese Melt Panini.
I'm on countdown too - flying out on Monday for a few weeks, but have been a bit over-zealous in my running down of fridge stocks. I'm down to some Laughing Cow cheese triangles, half a bag of kale, a can of Strongbow and a jar of mint sauce. :-\
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Sounds like a chippy tea for you then! Have a great stay.
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Christina......it's sounds as though you have the perfect ingredients for Ainsley Harriett's show... 'Ready Steady Cook'.
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Hi janeb, hope you are having a good flight and looking forward to your reports. No pressure ;D
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Day 1
Started brilliantly. Walked into the VIP lounge at Bristol. Ordered a glass of Prosecco for me and a G&T for Richard, would madam prefer a glass of champagne? Let me think about that one! Yes please; a previous visitor had ordered a bottle had one glass and left the rest, it would be silly to waste it!!
It was a fairly uneventful flight with Thomson, had a grumpy flight attendant who had obviously got out of bed on the wrong side that morning. Other than almost having our cheese toasties thrown at us all went well and we landed only 10 minutes late. We sped through passport control and then waited and waited for our luggage. Carousel 1 started and stopped, then started and stopped another 1/2 dozen times, then some kind soul uttered the words 'the luggage is now coming on carousel 2' and like lemmings we all moved seamlessly to that carousel, well apart from a few wiser souls who sensibly edged their bets by hovering in the middle. Yep you guessed it, the cases then started to be discharged from the original turntable. A little light relief that made us frustrated travellers smile. Reunited with our cases we left the terminal, the warmth of the evening sun was wonderful, that together with the scents that seem, to me, be unique to Turkey welcomed us back.
Transfer found, we set off through Dalaman, and soon joined the D400. Some gentle dozing followed and before we knew it, the poly tunnels came into sight, not long now...The gentle climb up towards that long anticipated bend in the road that offers up that amazing view of Kalkan, the lights twinkling their welcome. Yes we're here.
We get dropped off at the hotel, and what a welcome we received. The friends we've made over the years were there to welcome us home. Our room had been upgraded, from the basic room I'd originally booked to one of their best, we now had a room with its own private pool. Thank you Sema. The room had been decorated with flowers, the towels sculpted into swans, and a large bowl of fruit and a bottle of wine had been left for us alongside birthday posters and wishes for a happy stay. Too tired to walk up to Bread and More we headed to the hotel bar for a catchup with our friend Mendares and a nightcap to bring to a close a perfect day
Day 2
Weather amazing, very hot, no plans other than to relax and enjoy the sunshine. After a delicious breakfast we settled down on the most comfortable sun beds ever! Just perfect for some gentle snoozing and reading. Not forgetting that hydration is important we did top ourselves up with, wait for it .... WATER, well until lunchtime anyway. After the largest glass of rose with lunch, I'm convinced it was almost half a bottle of wine in one glass, the afternoon drifted along beautifully in a wine induced haze, we moved sun beds and adjourned to those by our own pool it was great.
Didn't have our usual early evening G&T thought we ought to be sensible (why?) and pace ourselves, lots of places to visit tonight. Suitably suited and booted we head off into town, just a short walk along the Kalamar Road we stopped to have chat with Mr Happy who looks very well and is recovering at a pace now, he hopes to be on top form after resting further over the winter. We walk on past Mini Bar, promising Gorkan that we'll stop on the way back, and head for the first stop of every holiday, yep, it's Moonlight. We
catch up on the news of the summer, the impact of the difficulties in Syria and the stomach problems have all combined to have impacted badly on business, it's been such a difficult year for everyone.
Even though the hotel is full the town feels very quiet but we're assured that business in September has been good. From Moonlight we move onto the Fountain Bar, a couple of Mojitos later we say goodnight to Yasim and head for dinner in the Olive Garden, I pre booked this from home so our table was perfectly positioned at the front. Food was amazing, we both had the Lamb Stew, not quite as good as the Goat version but delicious none the less. Finished the meal with, yet another drink, this time in Botanik. Now it's time for some shopping, first Oscars for a watch, 5 minutes later a lovely new 'Rolex" is on a wrist, rose gold earrings are in the bag, next stop BSG, one mulberry bag and a cover for my iPhone purchased, all birthday gifts, feeling very pleased we then finally head back to our Oasis, but not forgetting our promise to have a drink with Gorkan. Smiling very broadly by now we start the short walk back, then toot toot and it's Can, he was the owner of Coriander, until things went badly wrong, but has now opened a new bar/restaurant called LaPazz just off the roundabout. With promises to visit we eventually make it back to the hotel.
Hope I haven't bored you all. Having problems posting. I hope you get just the one report and not several.
It's the start of day 3, the sun is shining and all is well in paradise. Will post again tomorrow.
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Day 3
Weather lovely, some afternoon clouds but no sign of the expected rain shower. Very humid in the evening definitely no need for a jacket. Today was spent largely in the horizontal position just occasionally sitting up for the necessary glass of Rose and for lunch by the pool. Richard headed off for a game of backgammon with Mendares which turned into a large glass of Efes and a chat with other guests. A couple had gone on the Kaya BBQ and had a great time despite a shower of rain at one point.
After exchanging lots of happy memories of previous visits to Kalkan we set off along the lovely flower decked avenue that runs parallel to the Kalamar road. Stopping to say hello to Yassar at Yeni Korsan. We had a lovely holiday there a couple of years ago and try to drop by and see Yassar and sample his delicious homemade lemonade and mint drink whenever we're in Kalkan. His eldest son had started school for the first time that day which was lovely to hear, he'd been a toddler running around when we last saw him. With promises to come back for lunch the next day and see the work Yassar had done to improve the bathrooms in the apartments over the winter we headed off to Doy Doy for dinner, we slipped past Mini Bar and Moonlight and made our way to see Burak at Black and Gold, he's working so hard to make his fledgling business a success and it's definitely paying off.
Chips, chips and more chips! So tonight we began our research on where the best chips can be found. We didn't bother with chips last night in the Olive Garden, last year's experience of them had been disappointing. So how would Doy Doy's stack up? Well, good but not brilliant, frozen not handcut, they will have to try better. However our steak with Roquefort was amazing. After dinner we stopped off in Botanik and finally enjoyed a drink with Can in his new restaurant LaPlazz.
I know we're supposed to be trying new places but isn't happening so far! Tomorrow will see us heading to Mussaka, purely for chip research of course.
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Janeb, thank you so much for posting, and you are absolutely not boring us with our posts, thoroughly enjoyed reading them. Please keep posting and do keep up with your chip research! :D :D :D
Jayne
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Yes, I agree wholeheartedly with Jayne. I'm really enjoying getting into the Kalkan zone in my mind and I'm walking down that road with you in my dreams.
Where are you staying? Apologies if you've already mentioned the hotel's name. Now I'm 50 my memory is not like it was ;D
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Too full this morning to bother with breakfast we enjoyed a lovely cup of tea whilst soaking up the view from our terrace. I never tire of watching the boats leave for the day.
Slightly overcast this morning with a shower of rain forecast but happily the clouds dispersed and the sun shone in all its glory. The temperature in as been in the high 20's and even at night doesn't seem to drop by much, no need of any of the 4 shrugs or either of the 2 jackets bought 'just in case'.
We seem to have established a pattern of laying by the main pool in the morning and moving back to our terrace in the afternoon. The water temperature of our pool is marginally warmer and once in is lovely just a little bracing at first.
We stolled down to Yeni Korsan at lunch and admired the beautifully appointed bathrooms Yassar had worked so hard to refurbish over the winter months. We enjoyed a glass of lemonade and a toastie before heading back for more rest, hydration and relaxation.
Mussaka was our choice for this evening, the chips were amazing. Top of the class so far. They were a perfect partner for my Mussaka and Richard's steak, Richard seems to be conducting his own research on the best Roquefort steak, with Mussaka's coming out on top so far.
Some drama tonight. The couple on a table close to us weren't having such good time, she was complaining that her main course was too salty, by the way this was after she had added salt! She wasn't a happy bunny, and made her displeasure felt to the waiter. He was very charming and expressed his dismay and asked if he could get her something else, but no, that wasn't good enough, he presented the bill and told the couple that he had taken the cost of the dish off the bill and offered her a pudding and a complimentary drink of her choice, but, you've guessed it. That wasn't good enough either. Fortunately at that point she very dramatically stormed off with a very sheepish and embarrassed husband following soon after. Mehmet told us that they had been coming to the restaurant for many years and despite not pre booking were very annoyed that they didn't get a table at the front and had felt that they should have been given preference over those of us who had booked in advance. Oh dear, but it was an interesting little melodrama.
A drink in the Moonlight bar followed, where leaving Richard enjoying his Efes I popped into Yarden for some much needed research. It's our Ruby wedding next year and I had thought that a bigger diamond for my engagement ring would be nice. Crikey I'll need to re think that plan, the one I admired thinking maybe it would be £600 or £700 turned out to be £13,000!!!
Chip research is definitely cheaper! Lizilu w're staying at the Oasis.
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It never ceases to amaze me, the number of diners who liberally coat their food with salt before they've tasted it.
It seems to be their assumption that it will be under-seasoned. Personally, I've never added salt to a meal - ever - in a restaurant. Pepper maybe, which leads me to wonder why Italian restaurants always have gargantuan phallic pepper mills >:D
As for the other behaviour, I suspect that once she'd started on a course of action, it escalated due to adrenalin, and she wasn't going to back down. A 'keep digging' scenario?
Anyway, if I'd booked, and someone, even a regular, strolled in and took priority by reasons of familiarity, I'd be the one who would flounce off!...
As for diamonds, remember that jewellers generally inflate the price by 60% for tourists. You need the Turkish rate, some 40% less....at least! Tried over the road? :angel:
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Me thinks I'll need to shop around, someone suggested the jewellers under Sofra so I might give that one a whirl.
So little to post about, it's so gloriously hot, had hoped for sunshine but didn't expected temperatures similar to when we came in July. All plans of going out for lunchtime walks have come to nothing. We simply move from our terrace and seek some much needed shade by the pool bar, switch on the kindles and order our lunchtime libation, rose and soda for me and an Efes for Richard. Wonderful.
Chip research going well, that evening we ate in Trio, we haven't been there for several years. We ordered their hand cut chips to accompany our main, the chips were very nice, not quite as good as Mussaka but still delicious, I had the wild boar and RW had the lamb with walnuts and pomegranate, both meals were amazing. Our drinking stops tonight were Foutain and Mini Bar followed by a night cap back at the hotel. Where conversations flowed along with the wine and beer about restaurants visited, fun had on boat trips and a couples enjoyable experience eating at Adam's restaurant.
The following day was even lazier, how that could be possible I'm not sure! Blisteringly hot again, the day followed the same pattern as all the others. We lead such busy lives at home, the opportunity to just chill out and relax is one not to be missed. That evening saw us eating in the hotel, we have always had the most amazing food here over many previous visits, this time it was a good meal but fell a little short of previous experiences. Frozen chips too. :( Walked down to Moonlight after eating and watched the first half of the rugby, I'm not a sport fan but I was hoping for a win. Oh dear, enough said I think.
Now on our final day. Off to Gourmet tonight our first time there, lots of recommendations from fellow guests so hopefully it will be good. Might have time for a final post tomorrow. If not I hope my feeble attempts have kept Kalkan alive for those reading this blog.
Thank you so much to those of you who have posted over the summer, I've enjoyed each and every holiday report. it's certainly kept me going when the challenges of work get you down. Count down now for next May!
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Fab reports, janeb...just caught up with them and really enjoyed reading what you've been up to. Where we stay in Kalkan overlooks the top terrace at Oasis and we hardly ever see people there, so its good to hear its a well patronised hotel.
Hope you enjoy Gourmet tonight :)
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Was yesterday really your last day :o
Oh no - I will miss your fab reports and thank you so much for taking the time to post. The Oasis looks lovely (I've googled it) and we may try a meal there in April if it's open. Hope you had a fantastic last day and I wish you a safe journey home. :)