Dalyan – 27th August

I was awake on Sunday 27th August before Captain Caveman landed in Dalaman, on time, at 7.55am. I checked the weather forecast and it looked to be a bit cooler than what he’s used to in Vietnam but still quite warm and dry. He was only going to be here for a week and then he had a Europe and UK trip planned, so he hoped to make the most of being back in Dalyan just for a short time. The most important thing was for me to sort out all the necessary paperwork so that I would be able renew my residency. Hopefully, I would have everything he needed to sign, completed before we left for another trip to Rhodes.
Captain Caveman arrived but, as he gets paid in Vietnamese Dong, he had no Turkish money. I went out to pay Fikri, the taxi fare of 850 lira (£25) while he brought in all his luggage. I was excited to see him but by 10am I was even happier – he’d managed to get me some Yorkshire teabags! His friend, Damo, had purchased a box from Cornwall, took it to Saigon to handover to Captain Caveman and then he’d brought it over to Dalyan! Unfortunately, there had still been no 2024 diaries anywhere on his journey so I would have to wait until he went back to England.
I’d waited to have my breakfast with Captain Caveman but he’d eaten already so I had fresh figs, banana, strawberries and quark with a nice cup of Yorkshire tea. I drank quite a bit of cucumber infused water in the hope of my eczema clearing up but it still looked quite bad.

By 2pm I was sending a copy of Captain Caveman’s tapu (deeds) and his tax code to Sonuç for my residency renewal file. At 3pm we decided to head over for a cheeky snifter at Tez bar before we went to meet Clare and Kelly at Lukka bar. Tez wasn’t there but his wife, Rabia, was feeding Bailey the new kitten so we had to get a photo. Of course, with Captain Caveman having been in Vietnam for 9 months I’d decided to book us in for a traditional meal as his first one.

All 4 of us were booked in for a Sunday lunch at Lukka where they do amazing Yorkshire puddings. We had pre-ordered the meat choices; Captain Caveman was having lamb and the 3 of us were having beef. The lamb dinner was 495 lira (£14.77), 400 lira (£11.94) for the beef dinner and that included apple pie and ice-cream. Captain Caveman had a couple of Efes beers which were 85 lira (£2.54) each. My glass of rosé wine was 98 lira (£2.98) but I didn’t order a second one as I wasn’t keen on the Buzbağ rosé. We shared a large bottle of water which was 45 lira (£1.34) as we needed to keep hydrated.
The food and service were good and I really enjoyed what I managed to eat, a little less than half of my meal went in to Tupperware for another day as it was huge. I even took my apple pie home as I was trying to be good. It’s not the cheapest place in town, we’d paid 1,248 lira (£37.25) for Captain Caveman and my Sunday lunch with drinks, but we had full tummies and enjoyed it. Clare and Kelly both said it would have cost more than that where they live in England so it was a nice treat, for a bit of a change.

Just after eating our meal, I got sad news that a friend, John, had died. He was the guy I met when I volunteered to push him round the Dalyan 5k Race in a wheelchair. He was quite a character and a lovely fella so I was rather sad. We decided to pop to Bistro Blue for a bit of a drink and I was in a bit of a daze for Clare’s farewell drinks. I managed a pint of draft Efes, Captain Caveman had another Efes Malt, Clare a gin & tonic and Kelly an English Garden cocktail.
On the second round I just had half and everyone else had the same as before. Here’s what we paid for the drinks:

1 litre of water 75.00
330ml draft Efes 75.00
500ml draft Efes 90.00
500ml Efes Malt 90.00
Gin & Tonic 130.00
English Garden cocktail 330.00

Our total bill for 4 of us came to 1,415 lira (£42.24) but the cocktails are probably the same as you’d pay in the UK. Back home, I was back on the cucumber water, while Captain Caveman had a gin and tonic and I made him a mini pizza wrap in the airfryer. While I was happy that Captain Caveman was back, I was sad that Clare and Kelly were leaving tomorrow.