Mariette and her Turkish husband run the café; it’s more of a bar and restaurant really. Mariette is a very friendly ‘front of house’ host and will even teach you the rules of Backgammon if you want to use one of the boards available for guests.

It’s not exactly a prime position, but makes up for its lack of beach / harbour front with good old-fashioned hospitality and a friendly welcome. Check out their weekly steak night and buffet night and meet some new people. It is a particularly good venue during ‘off peak periods when it attracts a lot of the locals.

If you’re on a budget and have already seen how cheaply you can buy a glass of cay (tea) at the Gumusluk Cay Bar (next to the jetty in Gumusluk Fishing Village), look no further than the small kiosk sitting next to the Bar. Here you can buy piping hot meat balls in fresh Turkish bread for the price of about £1.25.

It’s probably not the place to go for that romantic evening meal, but it does provide a cheap snack at lunch time and a pleasant view of the harbour. You could even splash out on a bottle of water from the Cay bar for another 50 pence!

The market is held just a few minutes’ walk* along the Bodrum road from the fishing village. It’s laid out in a ‘T’ shape with tents shading the stalls alongside the edge of a couple of fields. Everyone is friendly and there’s the usual banter as the stall holders ply their wares. One of our favourite stalls is at the far right of the ‘T’, selling fresh ‘Gözleme’ or Turkish pancakes with a variety of fillings including aubergine, cheese, meat, spinach and potato. With some fresh salad they make a great lunch. Another popular stall is one with a vast array of herbs and brightly coloured spices and stallholders who can answer any questions you care to ask. We rarely come away empty handed!

Try to master a couple of phrase before you go to the market :

Merhaba Hello

Ne kadar lütfen? How much is that please?

…and a few numbers so you understand the reply:

1 bir (beer) yarim (yareem) half

2 iki

3 üç (ewch)

4 dört (durt)

5 bes (besh)

Tesekkür ederim (tesha cure edarim) Thank you

If you’re feeling hungry after all your shopping, pop into ‘Gönüçelen’ bar just up the hill from the market towards the fishing village. It’s run by our neighbours at Opus, Ken and Jim and a Turkish friend and they serve an excellent ‘Irish Breakfast’ which you can enjoy from their roof terrace bar with its stunning views.

* Alternatively it’s a pleasant 30-40 minute stroll from our villa through country lanes. Turn left out of the gate at the top of the Opus site and right at the brow of the hill. Gumusluk (inland) village and its mosque are clearly visible in the valley below and the path winds gently down towards it. Turn right when you reach the road and head for the mosque. The market is held close by. You can get a lift back by taking the ‘train’ pulled by a tractor. These ‘trains’ are provided free by Gumusluk council and are a fun way to travel. The one going in the Gumuskaya (rather than Turgutreis) direction will drop you off at the Opus turn off at the top of the donkey track.

Call in at the restaurant to make your reservation and choose your table. Then make sure you arrive on time! We were a few minutes late the first time we went there and nearly lost our carefully selected sofa!

We suggest that you ask for Seyda and tell her that Paul & Val sent you (if she looks blank – tell her our villa is opposite Ken & Jim’s); you can rely on her judgement to select your fish. The best time for ‘specials’ during the peak summer months will probably be at lunchtime rather than the evenings when trade will be brisker.

The Turkish, as you probably know, have a tradition of tea (çay) drinking. This tradition is not only observed by the hospitality of being offered the beverage at various shops and businesses, but also by the preservation of unpretentious tea bars/ cafés ( usually with brown chairs and tables) where you can sit and order a small glass of çay for 0.50TL each.

One of the Çay Bars in Gumusluk fishing village sits next to the harbour where everyone, from locals to tourists, can sit and watch the world go by; try it yourself – the Gumusluk Çay Bar pictured also serves Apple (Elma) Tea for the same price, if you find Turkish tea rather strong.

So I have decided to tell you about one of the restaurants that has a slightly different feel and theme. Its name is Bati. Dining is alfresco, but with some trelliswork overhead and climbing plants providing shade during the day. It has a slightly elevated position; if you sit at one of the tables along the edge you have a good view of the harbour and can look over a low wall and watch the people walking past below.

Bati has its own wood-burning oven and its speciality is Turkish pizzas, garlic bread and the like; you can take a look for yourself at the food cooking in this baked-clay sided hole in the wall and the chef in front preparing pizzas and using the long wooden paddle to slide them into the oven.

Bati also has its ‘chill’ area at the rear of the restaurant, where you can sip a coffee or brandy after your meal; you take your shoes off before entering. There is an open fire for those cooler evenings early and late in the year. The tables are very low and seating consists of large cushions scattered around them; all under the shade of the extended branches of a gnarled old fig tree.

And as for the prices… they are very reasonable.

It is the closest fish shop to Gumusluk villa and probably has the freshest fish. One medium sized sea bream is about £2 to £3.

Alternatively we go to ‘Kipa’ (the Tesco Hypermarket in Bodrum): it has a massive display of fish. There is a whole counter with all varieties of fish on ice. There is also a large slab or island, standing on the sales floor, with a mountain of today’s fresh fish piled gullet to tail on a crushed-ice bed. It was an impressive display of sea bream (or was it red mullet) when I saw it. I remember being surprised that there was no smell of fish; it was as if they had presented themselves that morning directly from the Aegean.

Luckily on our first fish-buying expedition we were with our French friend, Anne-Lise. She educated us on the need for such things as ‘de-scaling’ and ‘gutting’. To achieve this we took the fish to the fish monger (or did we just point) and made gesticulations of cutting fish and running a pretend knife up and down the imaginary scales. It seemed to do the trick. We came back in five minutes and voila!

On this side of the bay they have strung out a line of white buoys to mark out a safe swimming area; which also acts as a barrier to prevent the ingress of boats and yachts.

Our favourite restaurant is called ‘Gusta’. It has glass screens to the front preventing the sea breeze from blowing sand over your table and its entrance is demarked by two large rounded Greek urns, which tilt outwards away from the entrance steps. Gusta also has the nicest sunbeds; they are beige fabric mattresses and very comfortable. The Gusta area is denoted by two stone turtles which sit at the margin between beach and sea, the waves gently lapping over them; one at each end of their pitch. These beds also have a little wooden shelf slotted into one side, which can be pulled out to rest your cool beer on.

Our favourite lunch time snack here is calamari and a special salad they do, the name of which escapes me; it is a finely chopped salad and has a certain spicy note – I’m sure you’d find it on their menu – it’s the one with the name you don’t recognise.

A Note to our previous Post:

We visited the beach yesterday 6th June 2010 and have disovered that ‘Gusta’ is no more. It is now called ‘Miko’ with a sailing boat motif as its signage. The sunbeds are new with good covers – but now of the ‘plastic’ variety. We cannot say what the new restaurant has to offer – we used the sunbeds and ate at ‘ The Beach’ restaurant next door ( which has also had good reviews from our gusts at Gumusluk Villa.)