Week 9 from the Pirate – Thank you Turkey

It’s been a little more than 2 months since we left Hong Kong and we have finally made our way to Greece after what can only be described as an fabulous time in Turkey. I am not sure how to recap because there is so much to tell. So many unique and memorable experiences. So many wonderful people we’ve met in such a breathtakingly beautiful country.

Let me try nonetheless.

Without taking anything away from Turkey the place, it has to be said that we were very fortunate to have met many incredible people who helped us explore this amazing country. And it all began with 2 people who both coincidentally live in Hong Kong. Firstly, Askar Alshinbayev, who we have known for few years and became close friends with, has built a beautiful private resort in Teos and secondly the consummate and uber connector David Hui who made the introduction to Hakan Bulgurlu who went on to introduce us to EVERYONE in Turkey.

Let’s begin with Askar. In order to fully understand why we even began our journey in Turkey, I must go back to August 2019. We were concluding a 3 months sailing trip with Arabella around the Mediterranean and needed a place to lay our yacht up for the Winter. Askar, and his maritime man Sean were quick to suggest we moor our yacht in Teos marina under the watchful eye of their team. We graciously accepted. After dropping off Delphine, Arabella and Azania in Sicily in early August, Alexandra and I then sailed Arabella the yacht to Teos marina near Izmir in Turkey. Never nice to leave your yacht far far away from your (or your captain’s) watchful eye but in this case we were lucky to have good friends to help. 18 months on, the world has been turned upside down. An earthquake caused a tsunami in the Teos marina which required a major repair of our boat, and of course COVID, but somehow we managed to come back to our beloved Arabella yacht. Telling this whole story would require a separate post but let’s just say the world conspired to make us return to Turkey and how lucky we were.

The second person we have to thank is David Hui. David and I are members of Clearwater Bay Golf Club and I have had the privilege of getting to know this wonderful man during the pandemic. And what a special human being he is. David, for what ever reason, believes he was born to help others by connecting them with likeminded people. He has a gift for it perhaps like no other I have ever met. I guess there can’t be two like him otherwise the world would be too connected. Anyways, David knew of our impending trip and made the introduction to another old Hong Konger Hakan Bulgurlu (or otherwise known to me as the godfather of Turkey). Between these two people you won’t need to know anyone else. Everything in the world can be solved. I think we should put world peace in their hands.

I don’t want to summarise our 2 months in Turkey by telling you everything we did. Rather I’d like to share my feelings and emotions about this first leg of our journey. But before delving too deeply into the psychology let me broadly explain the journey we did over the past 2 months.

We visited 40 different places, sailed around 800 km, drove our rented car for 600km, flew in a helicopter for 111km and a seaplane for 231km. Below is the map showing our journey through Turkey. A number of friends commented on the fact that we were traveling in the wrong direction (east instead of west) and we kept returning to the same places. Well, truth be told. It’s hard to say no when you are invited to see something special just around the corner and it’s equally hard to not revisit great friends that you’ve met. I wouldn’t change a single detail. And don’t worry we will keep going west at some point. 🙂

Here are some of the fun things we did –

Flying over ancient ruins in a helicopter
Visiting Urla wine farm and Can’s nursery
Looking after our herbs
Hiking the Lycian Trail
Diving ancient wrecks and swimming with a giant sea turtle
Driving through the mountains as a family
Hunting wild boar in the mountains at night
Foil boarding through crystal clear waters watching turtles swim
Cooking up amazing meals and starting a naked Chef cooking channel
Night fishing for barracuda whilst smoking a cigar
Poker nights with friends (and winning 🤑)
Dinners with friends everywhere
Sailing in perfect conditions
Doughnutting behind the tender
Rock-climbing
Learning about octopus through catching and touching them
Being picked up from our yacht in a seaplane

Turkey is a big country. Even after two months period, we only covered a small area along the coast. We started relatively north near Izmir and explored south along the coast as far as Antalya and made our way back north to Izmir before departing for Greece. I think it is fair to say we explored some of the most beautiful parts of Turkey. Due to lockdowns in Turkey, we were able to visit some beautiful towns, ancient ruins and normally really busy anchorages with very few or no people around us. Summer in Turkey is a typically very busy along the coast but we had the place to ourselves for the first 6 weeks. Only during the last 2 weeks did we start to see a different place where the crowds started to build. Thankfully for us we experienced both and loved them both for their differences. Here are some of our Top family picks from around Turkey:

Afterall we cannot avoid the topic of Covid. Many wondered, including ourselves, the timing of our adventure. No question we would be faced with many uncertainties along the way. We knew that the world has not gone back to normal and we knew that we couldn’t plan very far in advance but this has allowed us to remind ourselves that we must live in the moment. Live today and not for tomorrow. We have never planned anything more than a day or two in advance and even these most basic plans change daily or even hourly. Covid has in many ways brought us closer to the way we dream to live our lives. Simply and in the present, with the people we love most. We enjoy the sunrise, the process of preparing meals, the excursions, the togetherness and the quiet. Yes, Covid has brought challenges but none has dampened our spirits and none is ever insurmountable. Our mantra is “just make a new plan”. We obviously realise how blessed we are to be free on our boat during an awful time for so many around the world. We cannot change these facts but we can make the most of this awful time. And we have. So far this must be one of the best decisions of my (our) lives.

We all learned history at school and our histories are different based on the biases of the authors. Frankly, I was exposed to mostly African and Western European versions of history with a serious bias towards the British and the Dutch. I was never really exposed to history in the Middle East and Western Asia. And neither did I know much about Before Christ. I definitely never learnt about the incredible history of Turkey. I have been amazed by how old everything is and how nonchalant the Turks take their own history. When you are touching anchors and amphoras that are 3000 years old something inside you changes. The experience reminds me of walking on the Great Wall of China before sunrise with nobody else around. There is something spiritual and emotional about it. It somehow puts time into perspective and makes you realise just how small and insignificant our existence is in respect to the thousand years of human civilisation.

Another noticeable trait of the Turks is their lifestyle. Some of you might know that I started naked Retreats because I realised the Chinese needed to learn to enjoy a more balanced lifestyle that doesn’t involve only work. I always thought I was especially qualified for this because I came from Cape Town, the city that leaves work at 3pm to catch a quick 18 holes, a surf or surfski. Hardwork and overtime has never been a characteristic of Capetonians. I can now say that Turks love their lifestyles equally as much. Everyday they are active, enjoying the sun, sea and surf. To me, this is life. Period.

Lastly a few words about the cast of people who made Turkey such an amazing place. A special thanks to all our incredible friends (new and old) who made our trip so special. Askar and David I have spoke about above. But to all the others I have decided to give you nicknames. You were all incredible and helpful to us and our whole family appreciated it terribly.

Hakan – “Mr Incredible”
Sean “the Fixer”
Can “Green-fingers”
Selim “Mr Toys”
Haluk “Mr Whisky”
Huseyin “The Police”
Burak “the Dreamer”
Kaan “the Hunter”
Hakan “Aquaman”

The most beautiful element of Turkey was definitely the generosity and love shown to us wherever we went. From the first day we arrived, everyone we encountered just wanted to help us. If they weren’t trying to tell us about where to go, they were sharing information about food to eat or, most often they were introducing us to someone who would inevitably make a huge contribution to our journey. We realise that this began through friends and their connections but soon we noticed that this is inherent in many Turks. There is a certain love and caring which we have rarely encountered. Generosity of time, inclusion of our family and their inordinate love for their country stand out as wonderful traits of the Turkish people.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.