My first Obstacle Course Race - O-Zone Games 2023

 just put the title in here first story later.

Turkiye/Greece 2015 - Fethiye Part 2: Paragliding in Oludeniz

Day 7 - 9th October 2015 (Friday)

I booked this paragliding trip with SkySports Paragliding weeks before my trip after reading good reviews on Trip Advisor. This is what I've been looking forward to after rock climbing in Kalymnos.

My session was at 9am in the morning so I waited at Sky Sports office after having my super breakfast at the hotel earlier. The office was actually just downstairs from my room. Talk about convenience.

So after everyone were gathered, we went up the Babadag Mountain with a van. To be honest, the view going up the mountain in the morning was breathtaking. Scary, but breathtaking.

The van went through multiple corners and wayyy too steep cliffs that I couldn't dare to look out the van windows. The roads were rough and you can tell it's used only for paragliding purpose.

I didn't manage to capture the scenery up there since we were advised not to bring our phones during our paragliding. So we left all our belongings in SkySports office.

The mountain was almost 2000meters high but our take off point was slightly lower from the peak at 1800meters.

I was the first to go from my session.

My paraglider Murat, explains few steps and stuffed me inside this hideous jumpsuit and put a helmet on my head.

I'm grateful for the jumpsuit though since it was freezing up there in the morning and you're almost 2000meters above the ground.

Before taking off. Just a few runs down the bricked path and I'm already on the air.

After we're up on the air, Murat ask me to take off my helmet so he can start taking pictures and videos. Now I know why our phones weren't allowed. But I love all the  pictures. Seriously.(^_^)

Me busy with my hair.

Touched down at Oludeniz beach.

30 minutes was really worth it. Murat is a friendly person so you wont feel bored up there.

You have enough time to take pictures with various poses, ask him questions about paragliding, watch other solo paragliders do their stunts and Murat doing some stunts himself and still have enough time to admire the beauty of Babadag Mountain, Blue Lagoon and Oludeniz beach from up above.

Worth all the hassle and the money spent.

Oludeniz is a place that I want to come back to in the future.

Thank God for the experience.

Next - Saklikent Gorge

Turkey/Greece 2015 - Istanbul Part 2

This time around I stayed in Sultanahmet area, or in specific Capa Shremini area. On the last day, I was just planning to go to the market to buy some souvenier to being back home. 

On my way back to my airbnb, I met two Malaysian boys when buying my dinner, one is studying medic and one is studying philosophy if my memory serves me right. I chatted with them for a while, they speak fluent Turkish. 

Since they were students, they asked me what its like to be working and they were suprised that I travelled solo. I told them I’m bored to death working in an office day in and day out for years and this is on of my way to blowing off steam. And the philosophy guys told the medic guy, this will be you. I wont work 9 to 5. Jokingly. 

Then it was raining heavily all of the sudden and they both forget to shut their home windows so they have to rush back home. But it was nice I got to talk to someone from back home.

Turkiye/Greece - Fethiye Part 1: Oludeniz, Paspatur & Calis Beach

Day 6 - 8th October (Thursday)

From Bodrum, I took a bus to Fethiye. Cost me another 40TL. About 4hours journey as well.

Need to wait an hour since the next bus will only be at 12pm.

So I waited at nearby cafe and had a typical Turkish meal (kebab, fries & Ayran) for only 10Lira. 

I arrived at Fethiye Otogari around 4pm. I have to take another bus to Oludeniz beach, another 20 minutes ride or so for 5Lira.

Had some trouble at Fethiye before managed to reached Oludeniz beach around 6pm. 

At first I planned to stay in Oludeniz town, but then I decided to stay somewhere by the beach so I chose Tonoz Beach Hotel. I can say the best hotel I stayed so far in my trip, best location, best service, and staying in Oludeniz was definitely the highlight of my whole trip.

I got these 2 bed room all for myself. Kinda my own crib far away from home. I really really love it.

Modern bathroom and alarm/lock system.

Obligatory selfie whenever you see a mirror.

Outdoor rest area.

They managed to make this small place as cosy as possible. So if you dont plan to have any activities outside you can just stay here have a drink or read a book.

Had a long day, wake up at Marmari, Kos Island, Greece, ended up in Oludeniz Beach, Fethiye, Turkiye. So I just settle down and call it a day.

Day 7 - 9th October (Friday)

I've booked a paragliding session today but I'm gonna make a separate post for that, so I continue with what I did after that. 

I had breakfast at the hotel first before going anywhere, breakfast included with my stay so must make full use of it.

Cereal was a little hard, less sweet than our usual Coco Crunch, but I got eggs everyday, potatoes, beans and sausages. Also various of that pastry I don't know what its called, I rarely take them anyway.

And I had coffee and orange/mango juice everyday.

What I love about Oludeniz beach, was it's mountainous background.

You can only imagine how lively it is at night. Too bad my phone didn't take great photos at night.

 Early morning at the beach.

 When the sun finally rises over the mountains.

I call this lazy carpet dogs.

It sleeps wherever it wants, in the shop, on the beach, in the middle of the roads.

I took the same van when I came from Fethiye yesterday.
One thing that stucked in my head is when the driver called for passenger, he'll shout,
"Fethiye, Hisaronu, Ovacik!!" multiple times until the van is almost full.
That phrase stucked in my head for no reason until now.

When I arrived in Fethiye, I took another bus to Fethiye Oldtown called Paspatur. To see the Umbrella Street. only 1.5Lira. Rather short ride, but I dont want to walk that far.

One thing that interest me about the locals here in Fethiye, they will avoid sitting next to a girl, even if the seat is empty. They rather sit next to the driver or stand.

Passing by a mosque during Friday prayer.

Paspatur - Fethiye Oldtown

Here you can see a lot of shops selling souvenirs, and beautiful cafes. Finding the Umbrella Street was not very straight forward since I dont know the exact street its located. Asking around proved to be quite a hassle, but at the end I finally found it.

For future reference, it is on the 95th street. Or look for the sign 95 Carsi or 95 Sokak.

Sokak means street and Carsi means more or less a bazaar.

These sign will be at both ends of the Umbrella Street

Not as fancy as the pictures since most of the umbrella was torn or worn out .

No proper maintenance I guess.

 Gratis - Turkish version of our Guardian/Watson.

Then I decided to take a water taxi from Fethiye port to Calis Beach because I read a review about the beautiful view of the sunset during the ride on the water taxi. I plan to go to Calis Beach for few hours and came back during sunset. So I went and look for the ticket booth.

There's only one booth selling tickets for the water taxi, again not very straight forward, you have to ask around. (picture above). Its nearby a kids playground, so just walk along the port until u see the kids playground.

But to my disappointment, the last ride was only up until 5.30pm. So no sunset ride for me.:(

I bought it anyway since I got nothing to do at the time, cost 7Lira one way.

Calis Beach was actually very near to the port but the water taxi was so slow, it took about 30 minutes to get there.

So this is Calis Beach

Nothing special in my opinion. I couldn't sit on one of those chairs since those are reserved for hotel residents. No public bench, plus its 2pm, kinda hot to sit by the beach.

I can imagine the place come alive at night.

I just walk along the pathway but too many waiter/waitress asking me to go inside their restaurant or buy their ice cream etc so I decided to take the next water taxi back to Fethiye port.

On the way back, probably seeing us bored an uninterested, the water taxi driver decided to let us passengers 'drive' the water taxi for a while.

Well it's only like 6 of us on the boat anyway, so one by one we took the steering, and took pictures of each other and laughs at how stupid we looked maneuvering the wheel without any clue of what we're doing.

The boat driver who has zero skill at taking pictures then took over the boat again before I drive the water taxi to oblivion.

I looked very very sunburned here. 

Berkilat.T__T

But he's cool though the driver,he can't speak any english but manage to entertain us after what seems to be a very meh trip to Calis Beach.

 After that I went back to Oludeniz and book for tomorrows trip to Saklikent Gorge.

I came back to different kind of these everyday. 

The view of the  parachute infested sky from my room window.

 Next - Paragliding in Oludeniz.