Falling in love with Turkey: Part II

Pamucak Beach, Selchuk

Upon checking in at Rebetika Hotel we decided that since we have the car, we would head straight to the beach. The hotel was pleasant, the room acceptable and the owner, warm and friendly. The view from the roof, as you can see from their website, is spectacular.

Frankly, just between you and me, all I want to do is climb in bed and sleep. After all I have been awake since 7 am the previous day!! But it will be a waste to arrive all the way in Selcuk and immediately spend time sleeping! So I pulled myself up and prepared us for our adventure to Pamucak Beach.

Pamucak Beach which is near Ephesus is 7 km west of Selcuk.

Did we have a map of the area? Nope.

So how did we get to the beach? Ibrahim, the brother of the owner Suleiman gave us the direction like this. "You see this road here? You go straight until you read the main road and you turn right, then you go straight on the highway until the end when the road finishes and you will see the beach."

I have to say that I am always impressed (even now after 10 years of being married to him) that my DH has an impeccable sense of direction and has good instincts in finding his way round places. True to Ibrahim's direction we found the Pamucak beach.

There was much not at the beach, 2 snack bars and some deck chairs for hire. We decided to drive in a little bit away from the main road. The beach was empty (it was afterall Thursday afternoon) except for 2 men and a woman fishing.


The breeze from the Aegean sea was just so refreshing after our dry sand locked, 55 oC summer in R/yadh. The Little One wasted no time, playing with the squishy sand. Admittedly, the sand is not as white or beautiful as the sand is in Trengganu but we just found our tiredness melting away as the wind blew gently at us and the waves rolling gently.



Father and daughter bonded together trying to make a sandcastle with their bare hands. I just sat there and watched them play not wanting to get my jeans wet, but enjoying every nano second of it.

We then decided to walk along the shore of the beach and passed along the people fishing. As we walked past the lady who was fishing, we took a peek at the tub of fish she caught.

"One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish..." comes to mind.

The kind indulgent lady gestured to The Little One to put her hand in the tub. I half expected The Little One to say, "No thank you." But she surprised me and went right ahead without hesitating.


SO the Little One took one wriggling fish out of the tub. She was so brave and not at all squeamish! After much persuasion we asked The Little One to put the fish back. Our lack of Turkish, and our kind lady's lack of English limited our conversation. I wanted to ask her if she would eat the fishes she caught for dinner.

She then gestured to her phone, asking for permission to take our Little One's picture using her sleek and shiny Motorola mobile phone. I smiled to show that it was OK and encouraged the Little One to smile.

Then I asked The Little One if she wanted to give the kind lady a kiss goodbye as a thank you. Instead, she went towards the lady and offered her cheek instead. And the lady gave her a huge big kiss.


If I didn't know any better that kiss was no different as the one which The Little's One grandma would give her. I was just so touched by her warmth.

We left the beach happy with warmth in our hearts.

Until we went the beach again the following day that is ....

to be continued