Day 137: Saturday 2 August – Good News and Bad News at the Ptt in Bodrum, by Ken

There was no call to worship to wake us this morning. That didn’t make a lot of difference, we were both up and about shortly after 06:00.

Men From Camping Ground Heading Off On Early Morning Fishing Trip

Mabel’s fresh water tank was down to 25% full although ‘fresh’ is a bit of a misnomer since filling her with non-potable water in Kusadasi a week ago. Since then we have been drinking bottled water and only using Mabel’s supply for boiling for tea and coffee and for washing ourselves and dishes. The nearest tap in the camping ground looked as if it might be a bit too far away for our hose to sreach Mable. I walked over with the hose to check it out and as I did so one of the two elderly women from a nearby caravan pointed to a hose, picked it up and showed me that twisting the nozel made water flow. I pulled that hose towards Mabel. It came up short, but connecting our hose easily got water to Mabel’s filler. The flow wasn’t much more than a trickle and it took a good half hour for the tank to fill.

While Jane was minding the water I went in search of a power point so we could connect Mabel to the mains. I eventually found one that was in reach, it was a bit of a hotchpotch with the only available socket being on a multi-board that was itself connected to a multi-board. That socket gave a reverse polarity warning and my usual trick of turning the two pin plug through 180° resulted in no power reaching Mabel at all. I tried putting one of the plugs already connected to the multi-board into the empty socket and hooked Mabel up to the now vacant socket. The reverse polarity warning light was on whichever way round I tried Mabel’s plug. I gave up at that point, reeled up our cable and stowed it in the garage. The lack of a mains supply wasn’t the end of the world. Our solar panel would be enough to keep our battery topped up, we had a rectifier to provide 240 volts for charging laptops and iPads and the fridge was running on gas.

We set off in Smarty for Bodrum. Our to-do list included finding the Ptt office to obtain the smart cards necessary for us to use tolled motorways, visit the Castle of St Peter and its under water archaeology museum and do some supermarket shopping. A trip around the peninsula west of Bodrum was on the list as an optional extra.

The drive to Bodrum was painless with none of the delays we experienced yesterday. Satnav was programmed to take us to a street in which the Ptt was situated. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the street number associated with the Ptt’s address and the satnav lost interest shortly after we turned into the street. We reached some traffic lights where I thought we needed to turn left, Jane thought we should go straight on. We turned left, it was a mistake on my part and we found ourselves in streets that became narrower and narrower. Jane handed driving duties over to me at that point.

I eventually got us back to the main road into Bodrum and this time we turned off past the turn we had taken previously. That took us into the street we had turned left into ten minutes previously. A three point turn got us heading back the way we had come and a left saw us on the street Jane had wanted to take originally. About half a kilometre later there was the Ptt. We found an ‘otopark’ off a back street and walked back to the Ptt.

In preparation for our abortive visit to the Ptt in Pamukkale on Thursday I had written out what I wanted, i.e. an etíketí for the HGS system for a motor karavan (Mabel) and an araç (Smarty). As a back up I had photos of Mabel and Smarty on my iPhone. The transaction got off to a good start with the young female assistant understanding what I wanted. She asked for our passports and then entered my details on her computer having ascertained I owned both vehicles. The initial good progress stalled while the assistant and a colleague scanned Mabel’s and Smarty’s registration documents. It turned out they were looking for their registration numbers, I wrote them out for her. Next she wanted to know what type of vehicle Mabel was, I said “Motor Karavan”. “Ah, big” was her reply and reached for a barcoded shiny slip which I assumed was the e-ticket to be attached to the centre of Mabel’s windscreen. Then she wanted to know the make –“Mercedes?, Renault?” she suggested helpfully. I pointed to Auto Trail on Mabel’s registration document. The message didn’t seem to get across and they enlisted the help of a customer who had joined us at the counter. She produced a magnifying glass and started studying our documents. Her helpfulness didn’t match her enthusiasm to help.

The first assistant produced an application form which I proceeded to complete answering some of the questions I had already been asked with the aid of our phrase book. I got stuck on  ‘Ruhsat No.’. Our phrase book translated it as permit and I wondered whether they were looking for a driving licence number. I showed her my NZ licence which generated a blank look, I entered my licence number. I managed to answer all the questions except ‘ Araç Sinifi’. I knew Araç was car, but drew a blank on Sinifi in the phrase book, I wondered if it was car make as I had been asked the question earlier. I decided to leave it blank.

I handed back the form and all seemed to be going well us she entered details into her computer. That was until she reached Cep Telefonu which I had translated as Mobile Phone and entered my NZ mobile number. The assistant said they needed my number in Turkey, I said they could call me on that number in Turkey. They needed a Turkish phone number, the woman who had tried to help said “Give her your hotel number”. “But we are living in a camper van and you can call me on my NZ number”, I said. The assistant said the system wouldn’t accept that, they needed a Turkish number. I asked the helpful woman what her mobile number was, she laughed, but wouldn’t help. Neither would the assistant. The transaction ground to a halt at that point with the assistant saying she was sorry and me saying they were all crazy.

Ptt Bodrum

Outside the Ptt we agreed that bad though British bureaucracy was, the Turkish Ptt definitely had the edge. I briefly contemplated noting the phone number of a shop nearby and returning to the Ptt, but the next question was address and I had entered that which appears on Mabel’s Registration Certificate in Knowle, UK. I thought that probably wouldn’t pass muster either.

We decided to visit the castle and walked towards it through a busy bazaar. Try as we might we couldn’t find the entrance. A restaurant owner could see we were struggling and asked if he could help. He pointed us in the right direction and suggested we should come back after for lunch on his patio with good views over the harbour. We followed his directions only to find ourselves in what looked like a very expensive restaurant. We asked again and finally found what we were looking for adjacent to the harbour. I joined the queue at the ticket kiosk where I spotted a notice on the window stating the exhibition halls were closed from 12:00 until 1:00. It was 11:45.

Bazaar Shop

We decided that was enough and headed back to Mabel stopping at a Carrefour supermarket we had spotted yesterday for supplies. Jane drove us home and was appalled by the standard of driving. In Bodrum drivers were creating their own additional traffic lanes. At one point they doubled the two lanes on our side of a dual carriageway achieving the fourth lane by driving with two wheels on the pavement. Once out of town we caught up with a car being driven slowly in the outside lane. A van following was tooting and flashing its lights. Cars chose to pass on the inside cutting across close to the front of Smarty. When the white car finally did pull over the driver treated the two lanes as if they were one cutting across to the outside lane on left hand bends and back to the nearside for right hand. We decided to keep well back.

How To Create An Additional Traffic Lane In Bodrum

Back at Mabel we had bread and cheese for lunch. Jane went for a quick nap on Mabel’s bed and emerged 3 hours later, I read.

Dinner was yesterday’s macaroni cheese to which I added mushrooms, tomatoes and garlic. As we were eating a woman from the caravan opposite came over and gave us a plate of Melon.The Turks are the most welcoming and kind people.