Bodrum, Turkey (June 2, 2006) -- How's this for an American nightmare?
You board a plane headed for a strange location you have never heard of when you realize that the majority of the passengers on your flight are Muslim -- some even dressed up in
all that apparel!
Then you realize that the pilots are probably Muslims too!
And, as if this isn't enough, there are no drinks with alcohol served on domestic flights in Turkey. The horror.
Thanks to be Allah, though, I made it here to Bodrum, once a quaint little fishing village before becoming a kind of Key West for Turkey.
I didn't know what I was in for when I suggested this this trip earlier in the week to a property developer source over lunch at the Four Seasons Istanbul (currently a posh hotel that was formerly the prison featured in the movie 'Midnight Express').
But I knew Bodrum must be all right when I told the head clerk at my hotel that I was checking out early to make the trip here.
'Ah, Bodrum,' he said while giving his pants that two-handed tug upwards as men are likely to do when recalling younger days. He then told me about some disco that can hold 2,000 people. So a Club Laveala on the Mediterrean, eh? I think I'll pass.
So I arrived here this evening with a female property developer named Fatos (pronounced Fatosh who was born in Turkey but grew up in Canada before returning).
We rented a car, but she didn't want to drive. So now I'm driving around a strange land at night with some strange women in a place where the laws of driving are optional.
Luckily, I have found that when driving in a strange land, as with journalism in a strange land, you have to remember the basics and not get too overwhelmed by your surroundings, or by the fact that you don't know what most of the signs mean.
Ignorance in motion, baby. That's me.
Take care,
Brett
