Oceanic Musings

As promised last time, Ostin (he insists I spell it this way) and I headed out to the remote beach community of Kabak. It's what I pictured Olympos to be like before I got there... very remote and very quiet, save for the thump of hippie drums at night. Well, this place is all that though it's still a little early in the season and there aren't many people here. I see that as a plus. I guess that I wanted to have some languid quiet to go to after the boat trip.

Honestly, on the boat things were a bit much for me. I feel like an old man saying this, but things were just a little too loud and I didn't feel comfortable having animated discussions about Will Ferrel, Lonely Island, and drinking games. Is this what maturity is like? Not likely. Nah, I just like smaller groups where one can stay on one subject for a longer period of time and I don't have to interject comments with lightning speed. Actually when I hung out with most of the people one on one I liked them all mostly but together it was too much.

Today I'm relaxing at my hostel that overlooks the beach from a few hundred yards back and I can't hear anything but the crashing waves and the hum of a refrigerator. A mild breeze keeps me cool and disturbs the tiny ants crawling on the table and sometimes between the keys on my netbook. I can smell pine and olive trees and can taste the salt on the air. There are no cars here and I feel pretty great about that too.

My Argentine friend Ostin is keeping me company today, but he's in a bit of a quiet mood since he's still wrapped up in a murder novel and we already finished the two bottles of wine that we brought with us from town. In the picture he's displaying great affection for the real Turkish coffee they serve here instead of the usual Nescafe. He's the same age as me, but he left home 2.5 years ago to travel in New Zealand. He took a job shortly after at a hotel as a concierge, selling tours to tourists, recalling names on sight, and generally making people fell easy. He's a charismatic guy though not overly talkative if the moment calls for some quiet. He also worked as a bar tender at an Aspen resort for a year but despite the great lifestyle that it held, potential visa problems prevents him from ever seeing it as a permanent plan. You can manage a hotel for 10 years there and one day be denied a visa for no reason at all. That's not a good thing to have hanging over your head.

He's into both both North and South American music and really likes a combination called Bossa n' Beatles. Check out this link on youtube for a sample. Apart from the hotel work, he's also been traveling hard for the last 9 months and visited most of SE Asia and a lot of China. It sounds like he's had a great time, but he's picked up some strange habits from traveling. First of all he asks for a student discount for everything from food to bus fares to hostels. I'm going to do that too... nobody asks to see a student card except for government museums. Also, he started saving pack weight by abandoning underwear entirely. I'm not prepared to do that just yet though my pack is pretty heavy.

He heard about this place from another backpacker that he met. They described it as paradise. We took a series of buses from the last place we were at, Kas, and eventually got dropped off on the side of the road, high up on a cliff overlooking the sea. After hiking down a small trail for 30 minutes we found a series of tiny hostels clinging to the steep slopes of the canyon. They all do half board, so the breakfast and dinner are included, and all of them rent out tiny wooden shacks with rather uncomfortable beds or wooden platforms to set up your own tent on. Some of them are as much as $80 per person and are pretty luxurious but we found one for $20 each that skimps on the yoga classes, pool, and shaded hammocks. Still, we've got a kitchen area to sit at that has a good view and the bathrooms aren't too bad. Also there's free wifi. Some of the places to stay aren't so much hostels as they are camp grounds with toilets and juice bars. These ones attract a more rustic seeking backpacker. Usually these people have dreadlocks and specialized clothing that basically came from an organic Hot Topic. It's funny how the hippies nowadays really do have a uniform look to them.

Yesterday we slept for 11 hours and then after breakfast we went to the beach and claimed a spot under some shade. I played ukulele with a guy who had some drums and maracas and Ostin played with some of the many dogs on the beach. Most of the dogs belong to someone, but the Turkish guy, Turan, who runs our hostel says that he saw a pack of domestic dogs catch and eat a wild goat last winter. They seem pretty friendly at the beach, and one of the black schnauzers has real dreads. Adorable, but dirty. I swam the day before but this day I did not because I'm trying to let a few small wounds heal.

Later that night, Ostin and I talked with Turan for a good long time. He's been working for different hotels for almost a decade and he's just 25 now. His dream is to move to Germany and to start an organic restaurant because he's a pretty good cook. Also, 5 months ago he finished his mandatory military service for 1.5 years. Turkey has 2500 soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and he was unlucky enough to be picked for this duty. I think that Turkey probably had to send troops as a NATO obligation. He said that he saw a lot of fighting up in the mountains and that the Peshmarga that he was fighting against were crazy people. He says that they have no shoes, they hike the mountains in small bands, and shoot anyone they see. They aren't interested in a peaceful life and only live to fight. That's what he says at least. Anyways, the Peshmarga are Kurdish fighters (according to Wikipedia) and as far as I know aren't in Afghanistan so I don't really know who the hell was shooting at him.

Today Ostin and I are lazing around again. I'm working on my blog, he's readying, and later on I'll wash some laundry and hang it out to dry. I hear that there's a small waterfall to hike to. The cliffs here are very steep so I hope it's not too far. I'll let you know if anything interesting happens, but I hope that nothing does.