What your beach towel says about you!

How lucky are you!  Turkey has never seen the like of this before.  Meet  Kalkan's newest phenomenon. More mysterious than Mystic Meg, more extraordinarily talented than an X factor contestant ( in round 1); please  welcome Mademoiselle Serviette Deplage. With a swift rub-a-dub-dub  her quite amazing powers  will leave you lost for words. So here, on Enjoy Kalkan,  discover what your beach towel says about you!

Twister Towel

You’re fun loving and sociable, with a taste for a little friendly competition!  Kalkan is the perfect resort for you - its welcoming and happy atmosphere will be spot on.  Twister towel lovers, you  might enjoy a spin round the bay on a banana boat or pedalo from  Kalamar Bay beach club.  I  also forsee you loving the twists and turns of a trip to the Saklikent Gorge.  If possible, put off any planning applications for a month or two as you may find yourself tied up with red tape. Your lucky colour is yellow and the letter K will be important to you.

The Twister towel is one of a number of great beach towels available (at time of writing) from Paramountzone.com .

Toy Story towel

It’s all about friendship and good times for you!  You love excitement and prefer to be leaping in the infinity pool or diving in the sea rather than lazing around.  Good for you!  Using up all that energy will mean you’ll be ready for a hearty lunch or a slap up meal in the evenings - and where better than one of Kalkan’s many wonderful restaurants.  I see smiles wherever you go in Kalkan.  Your lucky number is 3 and you will meet someone special with a Y in their name.
Toy story towel available online from Asda.com

Pirate towel

It’s up the main sail and out to sea for you.  Your heart is craving hidden treasure and you have no time to waste.  So get down to Kalkan harbour and decide which of the boats will be your vessel for the day and get exploring!  You may want to go a little further afield and explore an ancient sunken Lycian city in the Kekova area.  Dive in and swim in those ancient crystal clear waters - awesome. Your lucky colour is red and you will find the letter S is important to you.

Wandering Hands Towel

You're in the mood for love and romance.  Kalkan has it in spades, so this could be your lucky holiday!  Why not treat yourself to a turkish bath to get yourself into perfect condition for when Cupid decides to strike!  Your lucky number is 2 and you will meet someone with an O or U in their name.

Hippy towel

You want peace: world peace and individual peace, inner and outer peace - just peace. Kalkan is for you.  Stretch your towel out - somewhere with a beautiful view of that bay, not hard in Kalkan, and just go for it.  Let peace overtake you.  Then, when you’re fully chilled go forth and spread the message of peace and love throughout Kalkan - in the bars and restaurants, bazaar and beach clubs.  You may well notice just how successfully you’ve spread the word. Your lucky colour is white and you will find happiness and maybe a friendship bracelet somewhere starting with the letter D.

Wads of dosh towel

Time to polish up your medalion and get your latest Rolex on. You need to go places and get spending!  I suggest you start at the Thursday market in Kalkan, where you will find a huge selection of jewellery and 'genuine fake' designer sunglassses and watches to perfect your image.  I forsee you promenading along the harbourside in the evenings. a truly dazzling sight to behold.  Restaurant choices abound in Kalkan so maybe could choose a different one each night before hitting the dance floor later. The letters M, C and I could be lucky for you, particularly after midnight.

Mademoiselle Serviette Deplage will return soon with some more amazing beach towel forecasts.
She is even offering some free reading for any Kalkan lovers who would like one. Simply log on to the Enjoy Kalkan forum and send a picture (or even a description) to be professionally analysed by Mademoiselle Serviette Depl

Kalkan - Love at first sight

The Kalkan Phenomenom - Love at first sight
view from the rooftop bar of Tera Mare's  Kalamar Meltem Apartments**

There's clearly something about Kalkan, Turkey that encourages love at first sight.  You can tell just by looking around at people. There they are, lets call them A and B for simplicity.
A and B are sitting having a drink in a bar, chatting to each other, as you do - probably about the weather or the price of stamps; all perfectly normal stuff that takes place all over the world.  But then suddenly, just as A (quite likely a man) is explaining why it is utterly ridiculous that there are no postboxes around and people shouldn't be expected to walk all the way to the post office to send a card he notices that B (probably a woman) is gazing at a spot about half a mile behind his right ear, with a most peculiar expression on her face,  Concerned, A stops in mid rant to ask B if she is alright, and B - with a gentle sigh and contented smile mutters that everything is absolutely perfect, possibly adding a comment about the blueness of the sea or the general loveliness of, well everything... And that's happening all the time here.  It's understandable, even predictable - this beautiful little place is out to capture hearts and souls and has all the charms to succeed in this.
So what is it about Kalkan that  makes it so uniquely perfect?  There is important research into the Kalkan phenomenon with a growing band of people willing to sacrifice their time to investigate the causes of Love at First Sight in Kalkan.  You may even notice some of these undercover operators if you visit Kalkan this year.  Stationed across the village in restaurants, bars, beach clubs, and around the harbour these people may appear to be doing very little apart from drinking in the atmosphere - or drinking up their ice cold Efes.  But don’t be deceived - they are working.  It’s a tough job but someone has to do it...
You may be wondering how you too could sign up for this project.  Researchers are in constant demand - after all, statistics tell us that 89% of all surveys can not be verified scientifically because they are too small*.  So how can you get selected for this role?
Firstly, the Love at First sight in Kalkan project does not just take anyone.  You must demonstrate your training and qualifications for this position.  Observational skills are paramount and I suggest three ways of honing these.

1. The infinity pool lookout.   Practise this one several times a day until you have perfected it (could take years though).  Float at the side of the pool, with elbows on the poolside - apparently gazing at nothing but that view of the bay.  Drink in the view.  Thus positioned you are ready to report on any changes at sea, like the sun glistening on a passing boat or something.  It could be important, or not.  Variations on this approach are useful.  You may find that lilo manoeuvres (in pool or sea) can be similarly effective observational platforms.
2. Bar and restaurant work. Again, this may take years and years of undercover work to get a full picture of what is going on in Kalkan.  I suggest you try out a number of different bars and restaurants,  sitting at different places, observing the Kalkan way of life and making mental notes.  Please don't write anything down as it may get into the wrong hands.  Who knows what someone else might do with this research.  It is important to keep yourself hydrated and healthy during this arduous training so ensure you always have a full glass of something - maybe an Efes, an ice cold glass of rose or even an apple tea - ready to hand.

3. Mingling with the publicThe important thing is here is don't let yourself be spotted.  As a researcher you need to blend in seamlessly and appear to be just another happy person in Kalkan land.  So go shopping and spend, spend, spend!   What better way is there to appear that you are not just loitering and observing than by buying beautiful and essential items such as jewellery, leather bound books or beautiful lampshades.  You know it makes sense.

Are you still interested - knowing that this challenging training needs time and commitment if you are to get it right?  Good.  Well get training and I'll let you know the next steps very soon...
* based on a ten day study of holiday habits conducted under blazing sun with four participants, one of whom couldn't do the maths...
**Extensive range of accommodation available on Enjoy Kalkan website including some of  the Kalamar Meltem Apartments.

Magic in Kalkan

Izzi and Sophie were dressed up and ready to go.  Dave had secretly put his sat nav in mama's bag so he could take it apart in the restaurant, between courses, and discover why it wouldn't work in Kalkan.  With mama determined to find a nice place to eat off they trotted into the old part of Kalkan.  It was such a treat to wander along the harbour and up and down  those narrow streets.  Traders and restaurant managers invited their custom at every turn, but it was all so good humoured - and all really tempting.  Dave thought it would be good to find somewhere reasonably cheap - as the day had been a little pricy so far!  Clare nodded, silently disagreed and continued in her quest for the perfect meal that evening.
As it happened, the restaurant at the top of her list had just 1 table left, overlooking the harbour, and they offered free starters and free drinks after the meal.  Mama didn't hesitate long enough for Dave to notice that it was a tad pricier than he may have wished and within 30 seconds they were sitting, looking out over the bay of Kalkan as the sun started to set behind the hills. It was so beautiful; couldn't be lovelier - or so thought mama.  But she was wrong!  The evening was all set for real magic.
It wasn't long before the waiters were gathering round bringing drinks and menus and the choice seemed just right, for everyone.  The restaurant manager appeared and welcomed them to Kalkan.  'Was it their first night?'  His friendliness and good humour rubbed off on them and they were able to discuss how many ways they could use the 3kilo bag of lemon salt as well as who they could realistically give barbeque spices to as Christmas presents, for the next 3 years.
The meal arrived   - amazing.  Rarely does everyone get exactly what they want from a meal, but that evening Dave had his Turkish sizzling steak, mama her stuffed sea bass, Izzi her parmesan chicken and Sophie her chicken amaretto.  It was all sublime mmmm.  The restaurant manager returned to check it was all ok.  Lovely.  The food that is; well and the restaurant manager too actually.
Sophie, looking stunning in a strapless white dress seemed to be having trouble with her hair.  She kept tossing it this way, and that way, tying it up and then letting it loose.  Her eyes seemed to be following something too.  Oh yes, it was the restaurant manager.  His visits to the table seemed  to become more frequent as the evening progressed whilst Sophie still seemed to be having difficulties keeping her hair in order.
Dave got his sat nav out of mama's bag and started to look closely at it, presumably hoping to find a special hidden Kalkan switch.  Izzi and mama giggled at this, but Dave didn't even look up.  Sophie was completely oblivious to the sat nav situation as she was still having enormous problems with her hair and trying not to look as if she was watching the restaurant mangager.  This was difficult as by now he was circling the table every 30 seconds or so, seemingly unpeturbed by the sight of satelight navigational equipment in pieces on the table.  He was nice!  He was funny and he looked good.  He asked to sit down.  Actually he asked to sit down where Dave was, but that wasn't going to happen, there were too many bits of black plastic laid out carefully in that place.  So he sat down and chatted.  Sophie was finding her hair completely unmanageable by now and was tossing it around like a 60s go-go dancer.  The restaurant manager's questions  curiously seemed to be aimed more at Sophie than the rest of the family.  Had she been out much in the evenings?  Did she like Kalkan?  Could he help her with her hair?  Would she like to go dancing? 
Sophie looked at him and decided that perhaps she should be doing his hair, giving hers a rest for a while.  And so Izzi and mama watched as the two of them tossed their heads around in the most bizarre headbanging type of courtship dance ever seen in Kalkan.  Meanwhile, Dave was under the table looking for the small black bit that had come off his sat nav kit.  Luckily, an impromptu firework display lit up the street at that moment - illuminating the missing widgit.  A look of puzzlement crossed his face briefly as we saw his daughter sticking flowers into the restaurant manager's hair, but really he had much more important things to do - he was sure he'd almost cracked the sat nav problem.
  Izzi and mama sat happily watching the fireworks, Sat Nav Man and most of all  the hair dancers.  Two lovely young people who had just met and clearly couldn't keep their eyes off each other. Was it love at first sight?  Well, It really was a magical night! 
Did Sophie didn't go dancing that night? Find out in the next post