The Azka Otel in Bodrum has its own beach, an early swim & quick rotisserie, a perfect start!

The hotel's "no outside food or drink to be consumed on the premises" a new concept to me! According to the hotel

'Mole', room cleaners are the food/drink Nazis, so kept my not-2-b-confiscated peaches in the safe along with a bottle of water!

Next adventure was finding the right ticketing office at the crazy Bodrum bus depot, then the bus for Söke, a 2 hr drive north.

Flash, clean bus was a highlight of the day, & not just because I found it! Air conditioned, reclining airline type seats, first class leg room, personal TV screens with new movies (dubbed in Turkish), music - several genre options, where we are on google map, TV programmes, internet access, games, and a catering menu! Wait there's more...even a neatly uniformed in-flight catering person who rolls a fold up trolley down the aisle with FOC edible food options & somehow makes tea & coffee on the nearly straight stretches! Total cost, $15.

My seating, adjacent to the trolley dolly (male) highly satisfactory, with elevated views of a hilly coast, pines down to the edge of the Aegean, glassed off water, blue, blue bays, boats, then plenty of rich alluvial flats with vegies & fruit. Also a perfect view of the catering goings on & collapsible trolley maneuvers.

Lots more housing developments, industry, and traffic, (much of it new cars - old ones, donkeys, scooters & bikes superseded in these parts), than last time I drove here 7 or 8 years ago. Oh & garden statuary shops I hope don't export!

A 30 min wait for my car amongst the barely salubrious bus depot hub bub, including avoiding the trash truck, proved educational in the back blocks of Söke - not a recommended tourist destination!

Arriving at the Turkish health retreat, Natur-Med, on the edge of the Samson mountains at Davutlar was a relief. Views over citrus, olive & peach plantations and the Aegean 4kms away one side, forest the other & on the edge of a country town, it's not a glitzy mineral spa, but has enough recommendations to convince me to try it.

A flock of about 100 sheep just went past my window, all with bells, & shepherded by a Turk riding bareback, his random dogs at heel heading for the main street. Sat night out?

Well, I'm into it. Not likely to hear from me for a week.

6.15am start tomorrow for an hour beach swim, with hope I can understand the rest of my programme, other guests, & the staff.

My Turkish repertoire of iyi geceler (hurry up) and tesekkür ederim (thank you) will need to improve. :)