Month of December 2009 mail correspondence started between Mr Emin and Me regarding proposal to have tie up with Ayurdharshini and Manolya Spa. Initially I was not very much interested and after few more mails I started thinking of this proposal. I got official invitation from Mr Emin to get visa to turkey. Applied visa through Best Visa service in Bangaloru and it got rejected for unknown reason. Later after few days through my good friend Mr Mohan I got to know Ms Priya from Travel systems in Bangaloru. She arranged me a visa at last.
9th morning as usual I was in clinic and busy with some treatment.2pm came home and prepared myself for journey. Picked up few things to do some therapy classes in turkey. Arun came round 4pm to pick me up to bangaluru. On the way we came to clinic and give some instructions to reshma and we met Dr Najundaswamy. We dropped him to his clinic and left to bangaluru. Due to traffic we reached bangaluru 6pm. 7.30pm had dinner with Dr Avinash and family. Later around 8.30pm I came to Tanmya Noursing home and went out for some purchase with Dr Prassanna. Came back to home and slept around 11pm.
Morning 4.30am woke up and get ready to Airport. 5.45pm I got Volvo bus from vijayanagar BMTC dippo. Arrived Airport around 7am.finished all formalities and called home, clinic, and few friends before living India. 10.30 boarded flight to Dubai. Reached Dubai around 1.30pm. 3pm boarded flight to Istanbul. Reached Istanbul around 8pm. Had some confusion with my Name in passport in instanbul Airport before boarding to Antalya. It was ok after 15 min.9pm boarded flight and reached Antalya around 10pm. Mr Emin was there to pick me up. We came to Hotel Royal Atlantis Resort. It is 50 min drive from Airport. My room was booked early and went to sleep without dinner.
10th April, Saturday my first morning in turkey. It is 3 ½ hrs time difference in turkey.I woke up around 6pm and looked around in my room. previous night was little tired and I could’nt see my room properly. It was big room with all facilities. Room NO 1410.I was staying their as a guest. I was provided guest room.I opened curtains to see beautiful hotel. It is 5 star property. ROYAL ATLANTIS SPA AND RESORT. Hotel is near medetarian sea. It has got private beach. I got ready to start my first day in turkey.9pm I came to Roman restaurant for my breakfast. I got confused for a while seeing things in bufee. It was different type of olive, different type of yogurt, types chees, vegetables, salad, egg, pancakes, vegetables with meet, types of breads and lot other which I am seeing first time.I managed something for my breakfast and came to SPA. I was welcomed by spa manager Mr Era and was introduced to the staff. After introduction i was taken around to see the spa. It was very well organized and planned spa with traditional Turkish bath, thai massage, and all western therapies with hot and cold water pools for relaxation. Hotel has 5 swimming pool and spa has 2 pools. Ayurveda therapies was completely misunderstood and was doing in a wrong way. Ayurveda menu was wrongly designed. 11am Mr Emin came to the spa and we had little discussion and took the appointment of GM of the resort for the meeting.12.30pm met GM and discussed few things.GM was German and he showed interest in setting up a good Ayurveda centre in ROYAL ATLANTIS .After meeting I left with Mr Emin to visit another spa called HAMARA RESORT property of Bharut group of hotels. On the way to spa I saw a old roman theatre which is protected as a pride of the country. Manolya Spa in the Hamara resort was very energetic. We were there for couple of hours and had lunch near beach with Mr Emin, Mr Ali spa manager. After lunch we came back to spa and had some discussion and around 4pm I was taken back to Royal Atlantis. Mr Emrah was my driver and guide during my stay in turkey. He do not know English and I do not understand Turkish. It was really funny and I enjoyed his company. He was cool and very generous to me. very Interesting thing I noticed since I boarded flight to Antalya people in turkey call us or recognize us as Hindustanis. They were calling me doctor from Hindustan. I was very happy and felt proud. Turkey never look like Muslim country even it has 100% muslim population.I have not seen one single burka wearing women during my stay there. They are very fashionable and open to western culture. There are 800 five star hotels from Antalya to Kemer(100kms). coming back to spa I took a round to see the hotel. I had traditional Turkish bath. It was very relaxing. Hotel is huge. Majority of the customers are germans, few british. 7pm came back to room and watched TV for a while and slept around 9pm with out dinner.
11th April Sunday. I woke up early 5.30pm and went to beach. I was expecting few people in the beach. I found nobody except couple of dogs in the beach. Few minutes I was hesitate to stay there, but, later I managed to walk in the beach and started feeling good and enjoyed the cool breeze and company of dogs. I was there for 1 hr and later came back to room and got ready and had my breakfast. Today I was comfortable while breakfast. I came to spa around 9.30 am and had some good Turkish coffee with spa staff in staff room. I had little chat with staff and came back to office. I checked my mails for some times and worked out few programme in my laptop for a day. Mr Emin called me and told today I do not have any programme and I will go around to see some places with Mr Emrah. It was not expected and not in plan. After lunch I left with Emrah and newly appointed beautician from germany. I wanted to change my currency. I was little worried about it as I did’nt have any dollars in my pocket. I have 3000 indian rupees and for no use. I went to currency change and it was strange to see that only 8 to 9 turkish lira (2 cigarette pack)to 1000 indian rupees. Even they are suggesting me not to change as it is not worth. I was bit dull as I came to know it is not possible for me to change money and I have to be here without any money. Emrah assured me not to worry and he will take care me. I was still not very comfortable. We went to see the water falls in manavgat. It is beautiful falls, we spend time there and had some tea and we came back to manavgat city for some shopping. I had sim card of Emrah and he get me currency to it. From manavgat we went to serik. Serik is in the beach and has got plenty of jewelry shop and it is very expensive as it is tourist place. We saw old roman theater and was very impressed by the fact they honor their history. Few remaining of the old structure are very well protected. No police in traffic. People just follow traffic signals voluntarily. It was 2 century roman open theater beautifully engineered. We came to hotel around 7pm and finished my day. Slept with out dinner expecting interesting and good Monday.
12th April Monday I was bit early as I could not get sleep for unknown reason. I went to beach took a round and came back to room and had a nice tub bath. 9 am I came to spa first and few minutes later I went to breakfast. Had same breakfast and 9.40 came to spa and I was offered good coffee. I prepared for my next training session and other programme. 1.30pm I started my therapeutic training session to therapist in the spa. Showed them some therapy video and demonstrated proper abhyanga procedure.4.30pm I finished my session and I was free till 7.30pm. I went to lobby bar had some snacks and juice in between. 7.30pm one more combined session to the staff of royal atlantis and hamara spa Session was held by me and Dr Mat from Norway. Dr Mat took the class on anatomy of the body. later I continued the session regarding basic of Ayurveda and therapy to be done. We finished around 10.30pm and went to sleep around 11pm without dinner. 3rd day without dinner.
13th April Tuesday woke up little late around 7am. Came to office around 9am. Mr Emin came with his brother Mr Ahmed who is also in spa industries since 20 yrs. After introduction we discussed few things including some business. I still have to visit few spa’s owned by Mr Emin and check all the Ayurveda centers. As per plan I have to go with Mr Ahmed to other side of Antalya to visit spa and wellness centre in KEMER. We left to kemer around 11.30am and it was 100km drive from royal atlantis. We reached Antalya first and beautiful drive beside madetarian sea and in between hills and tunnels. We reached the spa around 1pm. Wellness centre and spa is in clubmed which is French company. Basically it is club having 1000 rooms. It is bigger than my expectation. beautiful atmosphere and majority of the guests are French. They are beautiful people. Saw some beautiful bars. Coffee was amazingly good. After seeing the wellness centre I went to HAMAS tradition therapy centre. I was introduced to the son of Mr Ahmed who is in charge of the centre. He took me around. During discussion I suggested some changes in the treatment rooms. I changed their ayurveda menu. (fortunetly they have’nt started Ayurveda yet). Till then my room was arranged and I kept my bag in room and went to beach around 6pm. Till 7.30 came back to room. While coming back to room saw some good French dance performing buy pretty girl near poolside and lobby bar. Watched few minutes and came to room. Slept early around 9pm without dinner.
14th April Wednesday woke up early and came to spa around 8.30am. kept my bag and went to breakfast. Today breakfast was more comfortable. I took it from buffe and had it beside swimming pool. I sat for a while as it was sunny day. Back to spa around 10am and had one coffee. I missed my friends Dr Sunil and company for few minutes near coffee bar. Later I had small discussion with spa manager regarding the promotion of the spa and give them few tips. 11am I started making few programmes and some proposals and spa menu. I finished around 1pm. Till then Mr Emin and Mr Ahmed came and I went to lunch with them. 1.30 pm therapy training session started and I finished it around 3pm. My next destination was Manolya spa in hotel Lara in Antalya. Drove back to Antalya with Mr Emin around 4.30pm. In between watched football match for few minutes. Staff in the spa was really busy. I have to wait for 1 hr. 14th april was Emin’s birthday and spa manager in the Lara hotel is Emin’s wife. She had arranged some some surprise celebration. After all this around 6pm I started my session. i finished around 7.45pm. Emrah ,me and two other male therapiest left spa around 8pm. We enjoyed night drive in Antalya. Very much impressed about this muslim country ruled by the conservative muslim party following very decent and decipline traffic rules. Came back to Royal Atlantis around 10.30pm and slept 11pm once again without dinner.
15th April Thursday was a day to remember in my life. Mr Emin was supposed to meet me morning for breakfast. I woke up around 6am. Feeling bit lethargic. I came down to spa around 9.30am and went to breakfast. It was not very interesting day till 3pm. I was little irritated. Mr Emin came around 3pm with Mr Era and we had nothing to discuss. We had tea. Emin told me we are going for fishing. We stepped inside the lift(3 members) and suddenly 2 more people came inside. We were telling them not to enter as the lift capacity is only 3 person. but, they just entered and with a huge jerk lift stopped. we were five inside. We called the operator and it was few minutes till they come. Initially it was ok. Later after few minutes things start getting worst. Light getting fluctuating, fan not working sometime. Trying hard to open. It was in between the floors. Suffocation started. Mr Emin having a phobia of being in closed place. We were talking with the lift persons, but still we start getting worried as it was taking time. It was 35 minutes later they made lift to move manually with mild jerks and brought us out. It was terrific experience. I started getting breathlessness for few minutes lately in the lift. For the first time I honestly worried about my weight. We came to Emin’s house after this incident. Emrah was ready wearing under water diving suit. Emin is a crazy man. He has hunter dogs, he has riffle and he go for hunting with his dog. He has all requirements for hunting. His house near sea and he regularly goes sea to do all crazy things. He has boat for fishing. We got ready with huge fishing net and his boat and drive to sea. He asked me to join them. As I don’t know swimming I took life jacket and went with them. It was wonderful journey in sea. It is interesting to know how they search the place to put a net for fish. We were there for 40 min and came back to the shore. In the sea Emrah was taking out the water in the boat for sometime. Nobody bothered much for that. We thought may be because of motor and boat was little deep in the sea. After coming from sea he still taking the water out. The german fellow passing by came near us and told us we are crazy and showed us a hole in the boat near the motor. We all were stun for moment. No body spoke for few seconds. Later we came to Emin house and I was dropped back to hotel. 8.30pm Mr Emin picked me up for dinner. We went to manavgat for dinner and at last I got vegetable curry with little rice. Till 10.30pm we were there in restaurant .came back to hotel 11pm. For some unknown reason I have not got sleep till 4am.
16th April Friday was my last working day as per programme in turkey. I was supposed to join them 6am to take the fishing net. But, I woke up around 8am. I was in spa 9.30am. Emrah told me they just got 4 fish and 10 crabs. Mr Emin came 10.30am and we had some serious last round of discussion. 12pm we went to New spa. From there we came back to Hamara Spa and stayed there for sometime. later on the way back I brought some turkey sweets to my home and friends. I came back to Atlantis Spa and as scheduled earlier I took a traditional turkey bath and massage. It was really relaxing and energetic. Finished treatment around 7pm and came back to room. My flight 17th 1.40pm from Antalya to Istanbul. From Istanbul to Dubai 7.25pm. I may reach bangaluru around 9am.
17th April Saturday. Nothing interesting in morning. Last night slept late. I went to watch foot ball match between Royal Atlantis spa and Hamara Spa. Match was scheduled at 10pm. Enjoyed watching match in lights. Came back to room at 12.30pm. morning woke up 7am. I got ready and came to spa and checked my mails and had breakfast in restaurant. Came back to room around 10am. 11am Emrah was waiting for me in reception. We checked out and left to Airport. 12.30pm came to Airport and said good bye to Emrah. He was very kind to me during my stay in turkey. 1.40pm board ONUIR flight from Antalya to Istanbul. Arrived Istanbul 2.30pm. Got boarding pass to Dubai and Bangaluru. 7.25pm departure to Dubai. Surprisingly saw many Indians in Airport. Past 9 days have not seen any. Group of children from Gujarat dancing in the airport. They told they came to turkey to perform Gujarat folk dance in Indian festival. Checked duty free shops. Expensive. They charge in Euro.18 to 20 countries Airport in Europe has been shut up due to thick cloudy wave from the volcano burst in Iceland. It is going to continue for few more days as per climate report. Many Indians working in those countries got stuck in Istanbul Airport. I boarded flight 7.25pm and arrived Dubai 12 25am(18th). 3.30am Dubai to Bangaluru departure. Arrival in bangaluru mostly 9am.Dubai Airport is very huge than my expectation. Money is flowing in all direction. I was told there are 600 gates in this Airport. I have not done any shopping as I do not have dollors. Airport has beautiful interiors.
18th Morning 9am arrived bangaloru international airport. Reached tumkuru around 12pm. Got fresh up and went to clinic. 2pm met Dr Sunil. I was little exhausted. I went home and slept.
Visit to turkey was memorable. Some positive towards my project. One more good place in my life time. Chance to meet different culture people in my life time. Hoping to visit one more time to turkey.
VAIDYA ARAVIND T.V
