We got to Kadir's Treehouses, Olympos at about 3pm and were med by Mike an Aussie guy who manages the place jointly with a kiwi guy called Ben. We were shown to our treehouses which are amusingly named Fawlty Towers (James and Mike), and the Princess Room (me), there are also others such as the VIP room and the Bangkok Hilton (max. security Thai womens prison) etc. Kadir's is very cool, it has everything a backpacker would possible want (excpet fast internet) and is a very laid back place to hang out.
Dinner is a serve yourself buffet (all vegetarian home-style stuff, plain but good), and following this I had a few drinks with some girls off the Fez bus.
Monday 8th May I got up late this morning (10.30), which is do-able here at Kadir’s because breakfast goes until 11am. I sat around for a coupe of hours with Phoebe and George (Aust and NZ), Tara (Aust) Ledge Aust, Fez leader), James Mike, and Tom (Aust) and Skye (Aust, Fez leader) debating over what we’d do for the day. Eventually the beach was decided on. It costs 2 lira to go to the beach because you have to walk through the ruins of ancient Olympos. It was a lovely day so hanging out at the beach until about 5pm when happy hour started back at the bar was no problem at all! I didn’t start drinking until we got back, but most of the guys had been knocking back beers since the free coffee stopped at 11am! I have been introduced to Cherry Ripe and Bounty cocktails, which are very yum! We tried to play the drinking game Four Kings (or Circle of Death) later on but Mike was too drunk to be remotely sensible and as Tom put it ‘there was no heart’ in the game. A Turkish guy pulled out his guitar for a while and played, he was really good. Most of us ended up turning in about midnight.
Tuesday 9th May This morning was pretty much the same as yesterday, omelette for breakfast and then indecision over what to do. We stuck to the beach again, a few absences and additions from yesterday’s crew because a Fez bus left last night and fez leader Kurt just arrived. Have only just got back from the beach now, am sitting with a bounty cocktail as I right this (happy hour!) Forgot to mention the antics at the beach today, Kurt created a ‘rock’ concert – naming the rocks etc on the beach with puns galore and trying to flog them to unsuspecting touro’s (unsuccessfully, would you buy a rock with ‘your name’ written on it from a beach filled with rocks??) There was also skulling warm (even hot) beer from a snorkel and sniffing condom’s up noses (not a pretty sight let me tell you!)
After last night no one was really doing huge drinking. We all ended up having bloody mary’s and watching The Hostel which was absolutely crap! It was way too gory and creepy for me, I watched (as usual) less than half.
Wednesday 10th May I got talking to the two new girls in my dorm this morning, Renee and Nicole, they seem really nice. I broke away from the pack today and actually managed to see something of the ruins of Olympos, (before hitting the beach of course). The ruins are awesome and very different from most I’ve seen before because they’re all hidden in the forest and are all overgrown. No effort has been made to maintain or restore them which is actually quite good – they’re a lot more really and mysterious looking that the other manicured ancient sites around. The beach was same same, the others got sidetracked with a couple of bottles of wine at Bayrams so I was the only one who actually made it!
Renee and I decided to crack open the bottle of vodka that I bought for the gullet and have a really big night of it. We had to sneak off to the market to buy juice to mix it with, vodka and mango iced tea goes surprisingly well. Another go was had at the drinking games, a much better effort all round without Mike! Tom even taught me a joke in case I pulled both of the jokers again! 'the skeleton walked into the bar and asked for a beer and a mop'. Renee also taught me one: 'what do you call a girl with one leg? Eileen'. They're not exactly classics but will do the job I think. Well the game did its job and I got really drunk really quickly, this unfotunately resulted in me being really ill! I ended up piking at about 1am I guess.
Thursday 11th May Well today is leave Olympos day and I'm pretty sad to go. I've had a great time but I think it will be nice to get away from all the heavy drinking and money spending. We all headed down to teh beach for the last time today after a second hangover breakfast of gozleme pancakes (with lemon and sugar - yum!). My laundry got back really late so I couldn't pack and check out until like 5pm (check out time is actually 11am... woops). I hung out talking toan English girl from my dorm for awhile, then had dinner and it was time to go.
We were lucky because the Fez bus only had like 11 people on it so we all got to have at least 2 seats each to stretch out on. I didn't really sleep that well though, it was uncomfortable and a bit cold, plus we kept on stopping.
