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From Bodrum to Bandirma

Driving our way through Southwestern Turkey

By Kin Mun "mrbrown" Lee

May 10^th, 2014

Bordum

Bordum is a resort town and a port city in the southwestern Aegean Region of Turkey and it was a very long drive from Istanbul. Ryan and I broke our journey up by driving to Foça and Izmir first but it was still quite a journey by car. Good thing we like road trips.

We stayed near the town centre, up on a hill, in an Airbnb home overlooking one of the best views of the city. When you stay in a residence rather than a hotel, the feeling is different. This is really someone’s home, complete with family photos and teen posters.

We tried to be as neat as we could, and not leave too much of a footprint during our stay here. Hosts appreciate that kind of thing, and it makes it easier for you to book another place when you have a reputation for being considerate and good guests.

When I say we had a good view, this is what I mean. Our very first day here, after a long drive, we had this evening view from the balcony, where we spent many an hour just reading or watching videos on our iPads.

By day, we wondered the streets near the beach, soaking in the rays. Two-hour lunches were common.

It wasn’t quite the summer season yet, being early May and all, so there were only a few hardcore swimmers who dared to brave the cold. We tried very hard to avoid the more touristy row of shops and the loud salesmen, choosing to walk near the coast.

An old castle seemed to be a popular gathering spot. I didn’t pay the 25TL to go in, just content to see the structure from the outside. We joined another group of folks just chilling by said castle.

Walking along the Marina was fun too, just to look at boats we would never be able to afford back in Singapore.

Bandirma

After a few days in lovely Bodrum, it was time to go. Most sane people fly from Bodrum back to Istanbul. We were not these people.

Instead, we chose to drive back to Istanbul, a six-hour drive to the port city of Bandirma, where we planned to take a ferry across at 6.30pm. Sure, you can drive all the way back, hugging the coast along the Sea of Marmara, but that would take an extra four to five hours, instead of the two hours by ferry.

We thought we had it all figured out, and even booked our ferry tickets in advance, and left Bodrum at 9am. We got to Bandirma early, at about 3pm, had some tea and explored the town.

While having tea at a little outdoor cafe, we saw a small gathering of people. They seemed to be protesting something. Having seen some of the madness of the Labour Day protests in Istanbul (which we wisely avoided by leaving Istanbul for our road trip early on the 1st of May), this was a mild affair.

From what I could gather, and with Google Translate’s help, they were “mourning the Turkish and Kurdish peoples of the sisterhood”. Different people came forward to make speeches, and then two young ladies and a guy sang some protest songs.

For Singaporeans who don’t see protests very often (except recently in Hong Lim Park, our designated “protest” park), this is new. I glanced around to make sure no riot police officers with tear gas were around, then stayed and took some photos.

At around 5pm, we decided to see if we could board our Istanbul-bound ferry. But when we reached the Bandirma ferry point, the Ido company staff told us the ferry was canceled because “ferry is broken”. We asked if there were any other options while they processed our credit card refund, but there wasn’t much choice.

The next Bandirma ferry was the next day at 6.30pm (assuming the vessel is fixed). There was another ferry leaving from Yalova at 7.45pm, but that was 160km away. It looked like we would have to drive for four more hours, all the way back to Istanbul, at night.

Somehow, we managed to drive to Yalova and reach the ferry port at 7.41pm, with four minutes to spare. We asked the staff there if there was any space for our car and the two of us, and they said, “Ferry is full.”

“Our Bandirma ferry got canceled, is there any way you can help us get on this Yalova one?” we pleaded.

They checked again and said, “Wait, we can squeeze one more car.”

So onto the ferry we drove, happy to avoid another three hours of driving. And to make things sweeter, we got to see this glorious sunset from our ferry ride. Not too bad a day at all.