Imprisoned in Belek, Turkey

AD_ward9

My wife tells me that this year I have worked too much, so she has booked a family holiday in Belek, Turkey for 15 days from 28th Aug. The hotel looks good for kids. She chose it because we have a 2 year old, who is very used to flying but would be insufferable for a trip to Thailand, where I would like to go, and may well go straight afterwards.

I did a quick internet search for dive centres in Belek, and found people asking questions along the lines of "how many hours away is the nearest decent dive centre?", rather than a link to anything useful.

Anyone on this board know how to escape from this prison, apart from staying in the hotel room for the duration hoping the internet keeps working, or inviting some wild friends along to liven things up? Planning yet another business trip for the once a few years family holiday will not go down well. Alternatively if there are a bunch of people in a similar family predicament, we could bring portable everything and find something underwater while we leave our better halves to themselves: my wife has organised a pile of her supermodel lady friends to also head to Belek at the same time, so your wife could enjoy glamorous evening company. I have been promised there is absolutely nothing to buy there, and the hotel offers free bar, free food, free everything legal, so it least it should be cheaper than a weekend in Paris .

I will be taking with me an unconventional rebreather, and would like about four hours a day for the two weeks to be underwater looking at any wrecks. All pointers welcome ..

Alex

dantheman

Something . . . something . . .



Is this it??

--dan

AD_ward9

One of them stolen out of the rather better equiped test schedules. At least the water will be warmer.

dantheman

Will your wife take pictures of the unit being modeled by her friends?

Just for scale, you understand.

Pretty please?

--dan

AD_ward9

I guess you have seen the Draeger LAR adverts? A lady, about 6 or 7 on the scale, with a group of guys in black coming out of the sea behind her. The only thing wrong with it is that it needs to have the inverse male to female ratio IMHO.

The hotel brochure clearly shows this place is by the sea. I just put Belek into Google maps to find where this prison is, and an arrow came up in the middle of Turkey! There is no sea in the middle of Turkey, unless my geography has gone seriously astray. The brochure is in Russian. I translitated the name of the place into English, and it came out as Belek. Will raid my wife's handbag just now to double check .. events today are getting worse by the minute.

Alex

CeeBee

Looking that way, Alex...it appears you'll be slap-bang in the middle of all those golf-courses...but then, perhaps there will provide some opportunity to put the rebreather to good use and retrieve errant golf-balls?

__________________
"In Ceebs We Trust. All others pay cash." Denz 1973-2007 King of the One-Liners


www.justgiving.com/markginsberg1

canetoad

Looks like there are 2 Beleks. One on the coast. Here is a link to a google map Google Maps
Looks pretty good to me. Lot of undiscovered coast, dive-wise I'd bet. Got to be some locals who dive the area, I know there is at least 1 RBW member from Turkey who posts semi-regularly & may be able to help.

__________________
PM

Mark Chase

Belek is about 45mins away from Antalya (Your airport) where there are a couple of shallow wrecks to dive one of which is I believe called the Paris and is not bad.

How the hell you get on with CCR i have no idea. Id googal dive centers in Antalya and see if you can get 02. There is some awesome cave diving in Antalya Project KarstDive - Underwater Cave Exploration in Southern Turkey but thats subject to local licenses etc so don't go there unless its and expedition type thing.

I have a villa nr Tasagil which is another 20mins down the road from Belek. I have only dived there once and they took us east toward Silifke. The drive was at least 1.5 hours and it wasn't worth it. Typical Mediterranean nothing in the water but nice caverns and rock formations.

They were shocked I had my own dive kit and it took ages for them to decide if i could do the single tank air dive to 18m bassed on my TDI Advanced nitrox card. All I carry is my nitrox card and my trimix ccr card. Whilst they were deciding i put my kit together and they said OK

Personally id take my OC kit and do some single tank stuff out there. Better still take golf clubs as Belek is the golf capital of Turkey and the courses are epic.

Things to check out are the local Antelya waterfall which is beautifully, local ruins and the incredible open air amphitheater which often does Carmon and similar popular classics. White water rafting is prety good too and the scenary stunning. Take Euros they don't like Turkish pounds and everybody uses Euro and quotes in Euro but if you get cash at the Hotel its in Turkish

Belec town center is prety crap and i havent found a decent resturant yet. Side is lovley but an hour down the road, never been to Antelia apart from the airport. Good food at the National Golf Course and a lovley setting. You dont have to play golf to eat there.

Villa should be finished in August so if any one fancies a four bed three bathroom detached villa for £300 - £650 a week next year let me know.

__________________
See my "Doing It Chasey" video where I'm locked into a padded room, naked, with two ball bearings and within an Hour, I manage to lose one and break the other!!!

Kevin Juergensen 16/11/08
[/quote]

AD_ward9

Thanks Mark, that was most helpful. Also thanks to Canetoad: you are right, there are two Beleks in Turkey. Fortunately. Those sat pictures of the right Belek are most helpful in confirming I need to book a hire car and do some serious travel.

Your villa looks really good Mark. Judging by your comments, I guess you too are imprisoned from time to time for your misdeeds, such as working.

I will PM the member in Turkey.

Truly many thanks for all your help,

Alex

Ben Field

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Damn, another forum ruined.... Mark, why did you have to bring up that awful torturous activity?

__________________
www.hugsac.org.uk