♫As the summer gets into full swing Bodrum becomes a beehive of activities. To choose from this abundance is hard, but we have managed to select three coming events that in our opinion deserve special mention as they have international status. The first is the Fifth D-Marin Turgutreis international Classical Music Festival scheduled for 22-25 July ’09 in the Turgutreis D-Marin Marina. The musical menu of this seven concert feast is too extensive to be given here in detail but we’re happy to direct you to the excellent festival website: www.dmarinfestival.com/eng.html for all particulars. The second music event is a concert of songs by the inimitable Julio Iglesias to be held on 24 July ’09 in the Bodrum Antique Theater at 21:30 hrs. Some may be taken aback by the 270 TL ticket price, but we’re told that this is the norm in the “outside world”. The third event, in the realm of windsurfing, is the 2009 Palmalife RS:X Youth World Championships & RS:X Yalıkavak Municipality Under 21 Championships to be held in Yalıkavak 24 July-1 Aug ’09. Races start at noon, making the Yalıkavak Bay a sight to behold.
▼Our previous entry (below) tells that the central government authorities have assumed planning & development responsibilities for a “tourism center” area comprising the municipalities of Yalıkavak, Gündoğan and Göltürkbükü. The initial storm of dissent denouncing government interference in local affairs has subsided and resistance from local official has collapsed. The mayors of the three municipalities, in a joint meeting, capitulated with an expression of “unlimited trust” in the central authorities’ good will and ability to solve local problems. Between the lines one can sense their impatience, the desire to continue building new tourist facilities. Is the peninsula to be submerged in a sea of concrete or will the local citizenry wake up before it’s too late? Some may even argue that it’s too late already…
☻The rich and the famous have made landfall in Bodrum together with platoons of paparazzi and battalions of burglars and pickpockets who prey on the wealthy but also target the less affluent. The recent spate of burglaries was brought to national attention when a popular newspaper columnist’s home was thoroughly burgled. This vocal victim’s scathing articles (“Bodrum: a bed of thieves” etc.) focused media attention on our perennial problem – in one TV coverage participants honed in on the difficulties involved in apprehending the culprits: these crooks tent to stay in hotels like any other tourist, go to the beach, etc., and ply their trade at will, burgling homes even when their owners are on the premises. An announcement that nine thieves have been arrested suggests that the understaffed police and gendarmerie forces are trying to cope with the outbreak. Still, forewarned is forearmed, so do be very careful.