Article Thirteen
Top of the Mountain/Ilgas Resort Grounds
Wednesday 19th Sept.
Today was declared a ‘day-of-rest’ by the Dragon Lady Driver…The basic fuel cost, mountainous roads and the fact that we have already visited every town within a 150 km radius, all came into consideration and we both opted not to do anything! I have, over the years and many holidays abroad, tried to ‘drive;’ the various cars we have hired in various countries...but to no avail…She, who must be obeyed, insists upon driving because (by now) ‘…she has the most experience in driving on the right!” Big deal, the real reason is that she insists that her eyesight is 20/20 but! She maybe refuses to admit that she cannot read a standard tourist map to navigate the roads!
So today is a day for both of us to again, catch up our energy levels and with our washing, ironing, Internet and Travel Journals. We didn’t surface until 0800 and after breakfast got stuck into our house work. Later in the morning we tried to access the internet WI/FI and all was OK but very slow then the power went off and so did the WI/FI base. Enough, we decided to investigate the Resort grounds and to travel up the road, from our Resort to the top of the mountain.
There is much work going on around the Resort…Chalets being refurbished, Look-outs being built, Basket-ball and Tennis courts under construction plus Resort staff are busily polish ing the stone parquet floors and refurbishing the ancient, 8 inch wide pine flooring boards throughout the main lounge and restaurant buildings. We discovered that the Resort has a Sauna, Turkish-Bath and, numerous conference rooms beside the swimming pool and Gymnasium. The sweet scented pine forest, which defines the Resort boundaries means a very refreshing walk for us.
Then away up the mountain…We took the car because the journey is about five km…too much for these old bones…especially up a four-in ten slope!
Much to our pleased surprise, there are four huge Chalet Hotels (Ski-Lodges) up there all gathered around the foot of the only available Ski-Lift, which, being late summer, was not in operation. Strangely enough, it also became obvious that there was no custom at any of the Ski-Lodges…Everything, patios, car-parks, roads, reception, Bars, and Restaurants were all closed! We now appreciate that our Resort/Ski-Lodge is the only, 365 days/per year, operational enterprise in the area.
We were even more surprised that, even though we were at the top-of-the-mountain as far as the road went, that there were virtually no scenic views to be had. The mountain top Ski-Resort buildings are built on yet another spur which is flat and on the inside of the mountain face-curve…No views what-so-ever except down the road we came up…the ski-lift went to the ‘real’ mountain top but no, “tidak operational!”
OK, not really a waste of time but nothing to do up there, we couldn’t even buy a drink, even after posturing US$ currency. So, we drove the entire two kilometres back to our resort.
Once there, we embarked on a jaunt around the Resort Boundary. We discovered a Basket-ball court virtually newly completed, a View-point look-out, which was being constructed from pines cut down around the Resort, a Gymnasium with all the machines stacked into a corner, adjacent to an internal, heated, very chlorinated, swimming pool…quite large at that! We declined to swim, not having swim-suits and it struck us as not short of amazing that wherever we went, a little staff man would appear to offer his services…or prevent us from loading our car up with Gym-equipment??
Back in the Resort Lounge, the internet was still playing silly buggers…not the Hotel WI/FI but to wherever it was connected. Not hungry, I had an hour’s zoos whilst Patricia downloaded her photos to our computer. Later on, I tried again and was successful in achieving up-loading of our latest ‘Articles’ and Photo Galleries to the required internet addresses!. Full of bravado, I phoned Patricia, (back in our apartment resting) and as soon as she tried to do anything, the Internet connection became unglued or at least intermittent…even though we had a constant WI/FI 40 G/bit connection…what is the connection speed, and by what technology, is the WI/FI connection to the outside world!?
Had a few hours updating my Journal Articles and drinking a local canned beer. Put more simply, we are waiting until it is time to go to our evening buffet meal. The meals I are on a buffet formula, and roughly…there is a Soup-of-the-Day, mentioned earlier which every evening need the addition of some if not all of the twenty or so spices available in powder or flaked form.
As mentioned, various types of brown and white bread, very crusty and delicious are stacked up in abundance at the start of the buffet spread. The Turkish patrons (could they be Greeks or something else?) invariably take huge slabs and pile their plate high with many slices, or torn off sections of the bread on offer. However, there is NO butter on offer. They take much too much for one or two people. What a waste, I thought, until I noticed the waiters very quietly and almost secretively, collecting the uneaten plates of bread and returning them to the bread-rack/cutting board area!!! Waste not, want not, I suppose.
Then there are the Salads, Green-chilli with Tomato/Onion/Lettuce/green beans; Potato; hard-boiled egg with mayonnaise; mushrooms in white sauce. Differently there are dried apricots, dried-figs, dates, olives of every kind. Plates of cheeses, all types; plates of cold meat (NO ham or pork products) Sweet corn, Pickled cucumber and fresh cucumber, Cold fish in cream sauce, potato salad with mushrooms, and, on it goes.
The restaurant offered main course is displayed in up to five bain-marie…For example, sausages with vegetables; chicken of beef or lamb kebabs; beef or lamb stews with vegetables. All of these accompanied by a choice of steamed-rice; pasta (of many sorts) or a kind of Kish made from pastry with grilled cheese on top and various fillings, which vary from night to night.
Sweets are many selections of the Turkish small cakes/biscuits all soaked in honey, or blancmange set in moulds and decorated with chocolate or other flavourings. Sometimes there are profiteroles pumped full of cream and drowned in BLACK chocolate! To night? Again? I hope and pray!
Not tonight; as the week gets older, so the variety and choices also dwindle. Chicken with vegetables, Lamb with mushrooms in white sauce and, a vegetarian dish of what looked like baby-male-pumpkin flowers mixed up with other vegetables and, again, white sauce. The problem is the white sauce! It is simply cornflour thickening milky water. NO flavour and less taste! Oh well, the soup is usually brilliant and when Turkish bread is dunked into it…Devine!
Tomorrow is another day: I suggested a shopping visit to Ilgas but the Dragon turned it down due to the additional driving required. Wow, she has actually declared she needs the rest before the wild dash to Ankara and Istanbul next Saturday and Sunday…Enough for now, Cheers Lynne…Bye the way, Pat has included the ‘Adventures “Li Bearian-Teddy” into our Journal Pages. Which reminds me, please people, if you visit the Journal, please add your comments in the menu provided at the bottom of the Journal section-pages. So that I see who has read what and who has not!
Saturday we drive back to Ankara and overnight in the same hotel, near the airport. Sunday, we fly to Istanbul and we have three nights to explore before we depart on the 26th Sept. for Jakarta.
Thanks, and Cheers, Lynne
Here I was just about to upload this story when it occurred to me that as of Saturday 22 Sept, we lose this wonderful, free WI/FI Internet access. Unless our hotel in Istanbul offers WI/FI it will possibly be Kuala Lumpur before we can again upload and check our emails. If nothing is available in KL, then it will have to be Jakarta and a trip to the Sari San Pacific or Shangri La hotel(s) because I know that they have fre Wi/FI.
The point of this additional diatribe is simply to warn everyone that we may dissapear off the Internet scene for many days at a time! So be it.
Cheers Lynne
