20120702
I woke up shortly before my 0430 wake up call so I finished packing and getting my poop in group. Once my call came in I jumped in the shower. Five hours later I was sipping coffee poolside at the Aydos Club Hotel in Dalyan. My shuttle driver was running a bit behind schedule. I debated whether or not I was going to have to cab it when I remembered I had printed out the hotel’s contact info. Before I could even get that out of my backpack, the driver showed up. 30 minutes or so later I was at the hotel.
Since my family was not going to get in for about six hours, I took the short walk along the river path in to town. There are a number of hotels with riverside cafes along the way that are pretty low key. The closer one gets to town, after about a 10 minute walk, the busier it gets with more densely packed hotels and restaurants. There is a lot of mostly tourist boat traffic on the river for trips to the beach downriver and the lake upriver.
In town are many more restaurants, tourist shops, and convenience stores. There is a small town square with a kid’s playground and the mandatory mosque. I did a quick recon for necessities such as beer and water and returned to the hotel.
Chilling around the pool and/or the pool side bar is the order of the day at any time of the day so that is what I did until my family got in at about at 1530. I greeted them and we all had a quick catch up before they took the time to get settled in. Afterward, they all explored the hotel grounds and we all met up for drinks by the pool before dinner. We ate a traditional Turkish dinner consisting of a selection of mezes and meat dishes, including kebabs and fish, by the pool. It was a very nice, relaxing meal which made for a great way to wind up our first day here at the Aydos Club hotel in Dalyan, Turkey.