The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
The Road to Kalkan

Today we press south to Kalkan, just above Kas on the map. This is about the point where we switch from being on the Aegean coast to being on the Mediterranean coast. Our first stop (other than for gas) was Dalaman to swap rental cars.

I realize that seems like a strange thing to do -- and it was a first for me, too -- but there is a sly logic behind it. Car rental prices from the large chains are very high. The small regional companies are much more reasonable, but in that regionalism comes a problem. We flew into Izmir and will be flying back to Istanbul from Antalya. The car company we rented from in Izmir had a 150 euro drop charge to turn in the car in Antalya but none if we left it in Dalaman.

The second car rental company could give us a car in Dalaman with no drop charge for Antalya but they did not have an office in Izmir. So by using both of them, I saved the 150 euros on the rental charge ... and I am always up for saving money, particularly when gas is US$9.95 a gallon!

Which brings me to the subject of gasoline. One of the quirks of these smaller companies seems to be that rather than giving you the car with a full tank and asking you to bring it back that way, they give you the car with an empty gas tank and you can bring it back empty. This means to keep from giving them many gallons of very expensive gas at the end of the trip, you should be running on fumes when you drop the car off ... very scary any time but all the more so in a strange country.

We arrived in Dalaman about an hour before we were scheduled to do the car swap, so once we found the rental agency office, we thought we would get a bite to eat while we had the time. We only seem to be going out for one meal a day so far. Our lunch spot in Dalaman was determined as much by where we could keep a close eye on the car than anything else, but this little kebap (kabob) place seemed pleasant enough. I notice that, absent a specific recommendation, we seem to select our dining spots by their external appearance. Might be worth taking a critical look at the curb appeal of YOUR restaurant1!

The meze and the bottled water was included in the menu price (I think!), but even if it wasn't, I rather liked the feeling of an unexpected gift. While the break in Turkey has been excellent, we preferred the grilled flatbread that came with the meze. It was different and a little less filling. We split a vegetarial pizza and one of the kebaps, which came out more like a long, thin hamburger. More research is definitely needed!

Kalkan was originally a small fishing village that has been discovered by tourists and grown. I don't know yet if that has spoiled the place -- we'll get out and about tomorrow -- but the view from our apartment is certainly easy on the eyes. The apartment is small and reasonably comfortable with a killer view ... but mainly from the small balcony. The way the place is designed, you really can't sit inside and see the water. Who came up with THAT plan?

There are two pools, an easy walk down the hill into the upper town (not quite so easy walking back up!) and a great place to lie in the sun, read a book and just relax. Alas, Margene is not a lie-in-the-sun sort of person so I suspect our pool time will be minimal. The vacationing Brits seem to live beside the pool, though. The weather has been quite nice -- mid-70s with a slight breeze. Rumor is that it will get to 95 by Sunday. Ouch! If that happens, it could be a good day for an (air-conditioned) road trip ... or maybe I will spend it in the pool!

[Itinerary Page]

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