Most people asked me where Kusadasi was once I told them of my impending Turkey trip. So obviously not many people had heard of it even though it is a very touristy town on the western part of country on the Aegean coast. It is just a 75 minute ferry ride to Greece (Samos island) from here. The economy of Kusadasi is dependent on the cruise ships which come here in large numbers during the cruising season. Those who watch hindi films may recall that in Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Dil Dhadkne do’ starring Anil Kapoor, Ranvir, Anushka and Priyanka Chopra – their cruise ship had docked here. From the place ships dock or the jetty where boats bring you from the cruise ships, you just have to cross the road to get into a very bustling market which has a lot of food places and very many shops selling Louis Vuitton, Boss, Ray bans and Rolex. They are all fake but as a shopkeeper informed me – they are good quality fakes from Italy and not sub standard stuff from China !

While Istanbul is well connected to all these places in Turkey, the towns themselves have limited flights between each other. We were lucky that tickets were available on Pegasus Air flight between Cappadocia and Izmir when we booked them, because Pegasus was much cheaper than Turkish air flights. The difference was substantial. Izmir is the third largest town and I could see from the Air how congested it looked. But I have heard that it’s a nice place and very touristy with lovely beaches and markets. We were advised to take a day’s trip to Izmir but I didn’t have any inclination. Kusadasi was 90 km’s from Izmir Airport so we took a cab at a predetermined price to our lovely hotel called ‘The Charishma deluxe hotel.’

The cruise season was just starting and town was getting prepared to get a fruitful summer as many past summers have been lost to Covid. For a town dependent on cruise ship for tourism, Covid must have halted their economy and affected people badly. Much information about the town, surrounding areas and the people came from a gentleman called ‘Birge’ who was our cab driver for the duration we were in town. We availed his services to go to the historic ruins of ‘Ephesus’ and then finding him good and knowledgeable used him to go to other places. At Ephesus he dropped us at the gate of the ruins which were near the town of Selcuk which would be 25 minutes from our hotel and told us that it would be a nice walk through the ruins and he would meet us at the other gate after about an hour or ninety minutes.

Ephesus was very interesting and as cruise season has not picked up, it was not so crowded. Walking from gate to another it seems that you are walking through centuries of history. From Greece occupation to Roman Empire – they were all there. It was written that it was originally built in 10th century BC. It was later rebuilt .The games arena inside reminded us of the Rome Colosseum as it was quite large and impressive and could hold 24000 spectators. Library of Celsus was the best place for photographs as it was most impressive building still standing. House of Virgin Mary was there and not very far from ruins was the Temple of Artemis which has been designated one of the seven wonders of ancient world. Was it actually a coastal town 2000 years ago ? The geologists have no doubts about it. The city was abandoned as apparently the silt covered the harbour and without the port the trade ended killing the city. It was an interesting 90 minutes as you could see how people lived, calligraphy of that time, art, and even milestones. Impressive part was how the government has conserved all this and made a lot of graphic presentations which make history interesting. Museum was also nearby but we never went there.

We asked Birge to drop us to the place near the market and we had lunch at a lovely seaside restaurant called the La Terazza. I really loved the Steak they prepared and the view was fantastic and a cruise ship had just docked so there was some activity.

Our room in the hotel had magnificent views of the sea and the town. It was cold and very windy in evenings so going into the sea or to beaches was totally out of question.

The hotel had a terrific spa, turkish bath, health centre and an olympic size indoor pool. So we didn’t venture out till dinner and spent a lot of time in the spa and in the pool. The swimming pool and the gym had lovely views of the ocean so it was fun spending time there. One could have a drink in the room while watching the sun set before going for dinner. It was a very good dinner at a restaurant called Antepli near the hotel which made very good mutton stew kind of dish which one could have with Naan. Good part was that the restaurants were open till 11 PM so one could easily get good dinner outside the hotel.

The visit to the village of Sirince happened as we decided not to go to Pamukalle. Pamukalle looked divine in snaps and their natural travertine terraces are something that people travel from all over to have a look at. The resort city was built by Romans on the natural hot springs. I just didn’t feel like taking a 4 hour ride one way on such a cold day. I knew I wouldn’t venture in any of the hot springs so we decided to do Sirince instead on the suggestion of Birge. I did feel about not spending time in such a naturally endowed place but in the given weather conditions – it actually wasn’t worth a trip this long.

Şirince was a quaint village not very far from Ephesus. Had we known this we would have gone from Ephesus to Şirince and had lunch there the previous day. We passed some beautiful flowering Apricot trees, olive plantations and Vineyards. There were plenty of Olives available at Şirince and one could have bought cheap olive oil. It was a cold day so I took up a lot of offers of wine tasting as a lot of wine is manufactured in that area. It was named Şirince in 1926 which actually means ‘cute.’ Earlier it had some other name which meant ‘ugly’ so thankfully they changed the name. It has unique architecture and you can visit some houses to see the architecture. Any new construction has to be in line of previous houses. Many people come and stay here and enjoy long walks and nice views. It was another cold and windy day so we spent less time here than we would have otherwise. We did roam around and exploreo the lanes for a couple of hours. We did some memento shopping, had Turkish coffee, tasted wine and bought some spices.

During summer there are lot of water activities to be done in Kusadasi. It has beaches, boat rides, diving and water sports. At this time of the year it was just nice to relax and do some half day road trips and roam in the markets and on the waterfront. For a change we also enjoyed the hotel facilities to the full.

Next stop would be the historic Istanbul where we had spent around 5 days more than a decade back.