The carpet sellers of Turkey are surely the world's best salesmen. Before you decide to walk through the door of a carpet shop, you should be aware that you are entering a zone where the phrase "just looking" is meaningless. Here's how they sold me a carpet I had never intended to buy:

"Where are you from? Oh, Canada! I have many Canadian friends; they are helping me with my English. I have a book with many notes from my Canadian friends, please come inside and I will show it to you. It will only take a minute of your time. I love Canadians and Australians, you are friendlier than the English and the Germans. Look, here is my book, do you know any of these Canadians who have written in it?

"Is this your first time in Turkey? How do you like our country? Here is some tea, you must try it. No, you cannot refuse, you are our guest. This is what we do here in Turkey. It is apple tea, very good. You are living on a boat? You must meet my boss, he has done a lot of business with people on boats. No, please, you must, it will only take a minute.

"Hello, welcome! May I kiss your cheek? Have some more tea. Yes, you must; it is already poured for you. You are staying at Yacht Marine? Did you see the big boat that burned there? Well, who knows, maybe it was an accident, maybe it was for insurance. Some of these big boats belong to bosses in the mafia. No, no, not the Sicilian mafia, the Turkish mafia. Yes, of course there is a Turkish mafia. They are very dangerous people. In the world, the three big mafias are: number 1 Sicilian, number 2 Ruskie, number 3 Turkish. That boat was worth 5 million lira.

"My lunch has just arrived, it is upstairs. Will you share it with me? Please, you must not refuse, this is Turkish hospitality.

If you cannot buy a carpet today; that is not a problem. Let me just show you some carpets so you can learn a bit about them. Don't worry about missing your dolmuž; I will drive you to the stop on my scooter. This carpet is a dowry carpet- here is the symbol for the bride; here is the symbol for the groom, this jagged line represents the ups and downs in life. These carpets are all hand made and dyed with natural vegetable dyes. Look, if I drop this lit cigarette on the carpet, it does not burn. This is how you can be sure it is wool. If your husband was here, he would probably be willing to pay 150 lira for this carpet. You could take it back to the boat now and if he doesn't like it, no problem, come back and you can pick out a different one.

"You're sure you don't want to take it with you now and try it on your boat? No? Then please sign my book and give me your email address. I know you will come back here when you decide to buy your carpet. We are friends now and I will give you the very best price, not the tourist price. It is the end of the season, it is the best time to buy."
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(Two days later)
"Hello, you came back! I have had a busy day, I have sold 400 carpets. No of course I am not serious, in a whole year I would not sell 400 carpets. Have some tea- and here is a special treat, some Turkish baklava.

"What size carpet do you want? Let's lay them all out here, then you tell me which ones you don't like and I will take them away. Never mind the price; we will talk about the price after you choose your carpet. These are all very good quality. Ah, this is a very nice carpet. You have picked one of the expensive ones. You think the price is too much? How much do you want to pay, then? No, really. What is your best offer?

"I want you to put your hand on your heart. Now, reach deep inside yourself and tell me the best price you will pay.

"You didn't have your hand on your heart.

"Try again, put your hand on your heart and tell me what is the absolute most you are willing to pay.

"You're killing me.

"All right. I like you. You came back here to buy your carpet from me, instead of buying it from someone else. I am going to let you have the carpet at that price on two conditions: First condition: you tell all your friends at Yacht Marine that this is a good place to buy carpets. Second condition: you promise me you will not tell your friends how much you paid me for this carpet!"

Did I get a good price for my carpet? I'm absolutely sure I did. The carpet is lovely, but the experience of shopping for it was priceless. So, if you are thinking of buying a carpet in Marmaris, drop in to Bazaar 48, on the waterfront near the castle. I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

Turkey 2009

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Aisling was hauled out of the water on Wednesday evening and our lifestyle has gone down several notches as we are living aboard her in the Yacht Marine yard. Our friend Tom and Liz call this "doing hard time", a term that describes it pretty well, in my opinion. (See their great blog about living on the hard at http://port.boatus.com/blogs/portal/blog_view.asp?BID=2703 )

Onboard Aisling, things are completely topsy-turvy as we simultaneously tackle the jobs of packing, stowing the things that we usually keep on deck and completing the multiple tasks on a very long to-do list. When we want to "go ashore" we have to climb down a steep wobbly ladder, which suddenly makes our usual dockside exit strategy of climbing down the anchor look like a breeze. For the most part, I don't mind it too much, as long as a bathroom trip in the middle of the night isn't necessary. It's funny how the number of times we need to go seems to increase exponentially as the difficulty of getting to the toilet increases. But any elderly person could tell you that. What's not so funny is that, since we moved to the yard, our boat seems to have become the favoured feeding ground for most of Turkey's mosquitoes.

It's always a strange feeling to see Aisling being pulled out for another season. I felt like she was saying "Guys, what's going on, aren't we going home soon?" For now, the best we can tell her is that we won't be taking her any further east. Well, maybe just a little bit further.

Last night, as we sat in the garden outside the marina restaurant enjoying the warm temperatures, we began to wish that we had decided to stay for a few more weeks. The weather is still beautiful and the anchorages will be quiet. In Marmaris yesterday, the streets were so empty that it almost seemed as though a plug had been pulled to drain all the tourists away. Next month, many of the restaurants and shops will close for the winter and waiters and shopkeepers will return to their homes and families in various parts of Turkey.

Aisling is now a second home for us. We'll feel sad, and a little bit uneasy, when we lock the hatches and leave her behind. But the truth is, I don't think I would enjoy what we are doing nearly as well if I didn't know that we were going back to our real home for a while. Although we will be returning to cooler temperatures, work and responsibilities, I get a little flutter of excitement when I realize that we'll be there in less than 48 hours. Back to our family and our friends, our dog, our mosquito-free bedroom, our nice comfy bed and our big bathtub. Autumn colours and morning runs in Point Pleasant Park. Strawberries and blueberries on cereal, salmon and asparagus, fresh milk, bacon and Nancy's antipasta. Thanksgiving turkey and a full-sized kitchen with a floor that doesn't move. Only 14 hours till we meet our taxi at the gate. I'll be ready.

Turkey 2009

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There's an old joke about Canadians that goes something like this:

Question: How do you get a crowd of Canadians out of your pool on the hottest day of the summer?

Answer: Say "Could everyone please get out of the pool?"

This is meant to say that Canadians have a bit of a reputation for being tediously polite conformists. Some people have gone so far as to accuse us of being boring. While the Americans believe in "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and the French ascribe to "liberté, égalité, fraternité", we Canadians have taken "peace, order and good government" as our motto. It's a bit embarrassing, but there it is.

So, you can imagine my mortification yesterday, when a very angry man with a strong Germanic accent accused me of queue-jumping in the marina office. Which was ridiculous. Of course I wasn't queue-jumping. There are no queues here. The Yacht Marine office is a confusing place, with four desks manned by marina staff around the periphery of the room and several armchairs in the middle. If everyone is busy, you take a chair and wait. But how do you know who came in before whom? Any more than four people in the chairs and things deteriorate. My preferred strategy is to find a comfortable armchair, settle down with a good book and wait until someone decides that it's my turn. To improve my chances of eventually being helped, I look up and smile hopefully at a staff person from time to time. My strategy must have worked better than the angry man's, because I got called before him. He was certain that he had arrived before me, and he was furious. Even though both I and the marina agent instantly and simultaneously agreed to let him take my place, he would not be placated. Maybe he was just having a bad day. But by then, thanks to him, so was I.

After a long hot day of working on the boat, we cheered ourselves up with a nice swim in the marina pool and then took in the "end of summer" party in the marina restaurant. A huge buffet with lots of Turkish treats, complementary wine and beer, and a performance by traditional Turkish dancers... it was great! Except that just as we were starting to eat our dinner, another man (who would have gotten along famously with the angry guy in the office) came up and accused me of stealing his seat, while his wife berated their friends at the other end of the table for letting me "get away with it". Twice in one day!! So in the middle of our meal we had to pick up our plates and cutlery and find new seats. Fortunately, it all turned out well in the end, because we met some very friendly people and had a nice evening. Little did I know that my next faux-pas was just over the horizon.

With two very large bags of laundry to be washed, I decided to pay the extra to have the laundryroom staff do it for me. I couldn't believe my good fortune when the price they quoted me (25 TL) was actually less than I had paid to do two smaller loads in the self-service last week. I wondered why anyone ever used the self-service, but it all became clear when I returned to pick up my laundry. Was it my imagination, or did the staff person look a little annoyed with me? She passed me my bags, then motioned me over to a sign on the wall. "Washing of underwear is self-service only". Oops. I scurried back to the boat to look up "I'm sorry" in our Turkish phrasebook. Then I unpacked the laundry, and found that our underwear had been washed, but not dried, and separated into little "his and her" mesh bags.

It's funny how little experiences like these can make us feel like we are a very long way from home. And it got me thinking ...travelers, fairly or unfairly, become unwitting ambassadors of their countries. We need to be constantly aware that our behaviour can colour people's impressions of our home countries, and that cultural differences affect how people react in certain situations. Customs and actions that are usual and acceptable in one culture may be considered rude and unacceptable in another. In Turkey it's considered impolite to cross your legs, to show the soles of your feet and, apparently, to expect a stranger to wash your undies. So perhaps, in certain northern European countries, there is a strict and mysterious protocol for assigning places in queues and seats at parties.

In any case, I've vowed to be on my best behaviour for the rest of my stay. But when I go for my swim this afternoon, don't even think about asking me to get out of the pool!

Turkey 2009

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