One day crash tour in Rhodes old town

Modern day traveling requires us to spend super short time in the places we visit for the weekend trips or the the stop overs. Unusual moments requires unusual measures: you need to experience the best place you can see. If you feel exactly like above in Rhodes Island, you must visit the historic town of Rhodes. 

The historic town of Rhodes is enclosed by multiple medieval fortification left by many civilizations ruled the island; Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, Genoese, Ottoman ... There are more than 10 gates to get in. Each gate takes you to another realm in the maze like street web of the ancient city. Every path from every gate is a different adventure for the wonderer of the island. I recommend you to take a different one each time and get lost!

Among all interesting locations you may visit in the Rhodes old town, I recommend you to spend some time in the Fountain Square and Socrotous Street Market. That is one of the center of attaractions in Rhodes old town. You will see it is a very popular gathering point to meet up new people and get some munchies in the low cost cafes around. It is also a central point on the East of the fortress where multiple shopping streets are opened. It is also directly connected to the Turkish quarter where you can see very well preserved mosque and the Ottoman era mansion. You can reach the square from the ruins of gothic church whose view is magnificent at the twilight. 

Another nice point of attraction of Rhodes old town is the tower. You can visit the clock tower and several attractions around it. Moreover, the quarter of the clock tower is the house of many restaurants in the Medieval citadel. Rhodes old town accommodates most of the major restaurants and bars. It basically encompasses the night life of the Rhodes city. It is very hard to recommend restaurants among all enclosed by the fortification but one must always minds not to be tricked by the banners in front of the restos.  All typical touristic scams are valid here as well. The one that I had, as an example for your, was the missing 10 EUR in the change as I guess the waiter didn't like the amount of food I consumed and set a price 10 EUR higher than the bill. Anyway, try to taste the Greek delicacies. There were few trip advisor high rank Greek restaurants around the clock tower, worth to check out!  

The souvenir shops are worth to check out! You can buy many cool stuff to remind you the nice island trip. However what I definitely recommend you not to buy is the "authentic" Greek food over there. The olives, cheese, booze etc. are extremely pricy. I believe the best is to buy them either from the supermarkets in the new town, at the duty free shop in the harbor or even better on the other side of the sea, Turkey. Basically because the price in the shops here are twice or even triple of the normal level. 

So overall Rhodes old town is a place worth to see. You can see most of the attraction with an investment of a full day and night and enjoy Mediterranean sun and sea for the rest of your holiday. ENJOY!!

Rhodes: how to get in, stay and get out

As an island in the middle of eastern Mediterranean sea, Rhodes is very well connected to the major cities of mainland Europe, Great Britain and Russia through the air. In additional to the main airliner, flagship carriers and budget airliners, there are also many seasonal charter flights in the connection list of the island. All this air traffic makes Rhodes International Airport  the fourth busiest airport in Greece.   This relatively small airport accommodates all necessary facilities. There are few cafés open 24/7 which helps you plan flight in the middle of the night. 

The airport is located on north west cost of the island, 15 km away from the main residential area, Rhodes City. This distance can be travelled by few means. Taxi is the major way of transportation between the main residential areas and the airport though it is costly. For example, goin the Rhodes City may easily cost between 40-50 EUR. Another way is to take a bus ride which takes around 30 minutes. It cost 2.20 EUR for a single ride now. The tickets may be collected from the coffee shop at the entrance of the departure building. On the way back, you can buy the tickets from the ticket booth located at the main station or from the news stands in the city. Although the schedule changes in a seasonal fashion, you can find the updated departure timetable on the website of Greek ministry of tourism. Besides them the tour operators and the hotels are also running shuttle services for their customers. However, it is the best to check back with your hotel for the price because they are mostly not included in your rate.

Another convenient way of traveling to Rhodes Island is to take the ferries from Marmaris, Turkey or one of the other islands of the Dodecanese archipelago. From Marmaris, there are a couple of ferries and express catamaran services traveling both ways everyday. Similar services are ran between other islands and Rhodos as well. Dodekanisos Seaways is the major company running this service along with few Turkish companies. The average cost of one way ride between Marmaris and Rhodes is around 20 EUR excluding 12 EUR Turkish port tax you need to pay on both ways unless you do the return journey in the same day. The ships dock to the harbor just by the Medieval town and you are ready to go. Another important tip regarding the seaway is don't forget to check out the Greek and Turkish duty free shops because the prices rock!

Once you reached to the island, you can reach your hotel easily with the well connecting bus lines. There are also taxis at your disposal. You may also rent a car or a scooter but try to stay away from the conner which is quite likely to encounter in the rental business. 

The accommodation is a bit tricky in Rhodes. The Island basically surrounded by the hotels all around. However the general problem with the hotels, especially for the hotel in Rhodes City, is lack of maintenance and the noise. If you are a city dweller like me, you may check out the places in the new town where the prices are okay in several hotels but the customer satisfaction is very low. On the other hand, there are some accommodation option in the medieval town however they are quite pricy and I don't know if you can stand with that chaotic noise, mixture of everything. Therefore, I made my choice on a place just outside of the fortification but very close to everywhere, Silvia Hotel. You can check out the extensive review in my blog too. ENJOY YOUR STAY!!!!

A secluded hideaway in Rhodes Island, Greece : Silvia Hotel

Rhode is the fourth largest of the beautiful Greek Islands. It is the capital of Dodecanese archipelago. It is very well connected to the mainland Europe through the seasonal and all-year-long flights and to the nearest land, Marmaris - Turkey, by ferries. This all makes it geographically attractive to the backpackers and adventurer travelers. The beautiful beaches and the medieval old town of the island are the major attraction for the occasional holiday lovers. These all makes the island pretty attractive and its accommodation options pricy and tricky to be selected. 

When I have had my last trip to Rhodes, the challenge of selecting a hotel in Rhodes City was bad reviews written for many hotel in the new town. They main complaint was the noise coming from the discos and lack of maintenance probably due to the high demand for the island. This might make many property owners less caring for their facilities. And when you put the price of the places on top of the reviews, it is very likely you wouldn't stay many of the hotels there. Similar complaints were also made for the locations in the historic town. All and all, I had to spend substantial amount of time to find a nice accommodation in Rhodes. But I finally did managed to find a very decent one, at lease this was my conclusion after I stayed there, Silvia Hotel.

Silvia Hotel is cosy two star hotel located just south of the old town. The walking distance to the nearest entrance of the town from the hotel is around 5 minutes. So this already makes its location very convenient. It takes more or less 20 minutes to walk from the last stop of the airport bus to the hotel if you follow the cost line. There is one thing I must point out that the location you may get out of Booking.com confirmation email might be wrong. So you'd better use the one above. The hotel situates in a residential district where there is no disco or any other noise generating establishment. So that is already a plus. Furthermore, the crew of the hotel is extremely friendly and they try to make your stay a relaxing experience. They have been very helpful to me not only on exploring the city by giving precise tips and tricks but also on taking care of the hotel formalities like check in/out. Here I should point out that they don't except the credit cards other than Visa and Mastercard. Even if you used another card like AmEx for the reservation, you need to pay with another card. There is another good thing about the payment is that they don't preauthorize your credit card if you state there will a late check in. It is very nice to see that the mutual trust still works at some places.

I stayed in a one bed accommodation which was pretty comfortable and very well furnished. They room was all new and extremely clean. All the facilities like air-conditioning and the fridge were very well working. This shows the maintenance is being properly done. The room had a flat TV and a fridge where you can put your goodies or some beverages. That is pretty handy if you want to have some drinks in the room or if you want to store freshly bought Greek cheese. The bathroom was small but very clean. The only point missing was that for such a small shower space it is wiser to put a cabin than shower curtain which unfortunately cannot stand still. The toiletries were nicely places and if you need more they are also served. There was no slippers left at my disposal. So it might be wise if you bring your own. 

Normally, the price includes the continental breakfast. I would say it is average but not bad at all. There is no bacon or scrambled egg. But other that those, there were everything you may want to have in a nice breakfast.

To wrap up, Silvia Hotel is one of the nicest places you can find in Rhodes City with its convenient location, clean rooms and last but not least the friendly crew. In terms of price/quality balance, they are certainly placed in the upper rank and Silvia Hotel definitely deserve the high grade they get from Booking.com . 

Diving at the Shark Point, Phuket, Thailand

The las dive of the dive was at the famous Shark Point diving site. The place is know for the local leopard shark population who gives great pictures for the photo hunters of the deep sea. I came here to see them too. But it is just by luck to catch something underwater. I learnt that long before. Anyway, I worn my shorty to taste the water for the last time in Thailand till the next visit. So that made me even more excited and sad at the same time not only because the place was like a paradise but also I had to wake up from this tropical dream soon. 

The shark point is actually composed of a massive reef and a group of smaller ones located very close to the larger reef. The dive normally starts at the large pinnacle whose peak is just 2 meters deep. Then you may choose to take a turn around this one till 25 meters and then move to the second pinnacle and an see that one around 25 meters and ascend to 16 meters where the most of the beautiful things are located. If you are lucky you may see the leopard sharks during this part of the dive around the small reef. 

Nevertheless, the site embraces so many different species that you might not look for a shark meanwhile. That was my case at least! First of all the place includes many murray eels. You can almost see them every hole in the reef and they give great shots. The anemones, besides, host many clowns fishes. If you are a nemo like me then you will love the picture you take. There is also a beautiful sea horse on the west side of the 1st pinnacle and it is not shy at all. 

Apart from this particular beauties of the site, you constantly see the passing crowds of small fishes around you as well. This makes an extra flavor to the ambiance of the dive route. You may also see, like me, some interesting scenes. There were a dead murray being eaten by the other fishes slowly on one side of the 2nd pinnacle. Nature was calling and I was there. That might be the most interesting shot of mine up to now.

There were also several tritons wondering around with their funny and curious eyes looking both sides at the same time. I ended my dive again at the large reef but this time with a small sting ray slightly levitated from the sea bottom. It was moving so slowly that I thought this guy was really want some pictures to be taken.

Overall, I think the Shark Point was the best of all dive point I dived for the day.  The visibility was great. There variety of the fishes was amazing. And most importantly, we haven't seen any bamboo or leopard shark whose supposed to be seen at this point. As a final word, I can say that every diver must see the depths of Andaman sea one day. One should be very careful about the dive school and the dive boat in Phuket. I can definitely recommend the guys at Rumblefish Adventure but I have some doubts about Jolly Roger. 

Enjoy you dives and stay safe!

Diving at King Cruiser, Phuket, Thailand

I'm not gonna lie! After the terrible visibility at Kho Doc Mai, I needed a pallet cleanser to fresh up the taste of Andaman underwater. We have reached our destination for the second dive of the day. The king cruiser is located between Kho Doc Mai and the famous Phi Phi Island of the beach movie. You can actually see it if the visibility is good. Anyway, we started to suit up in our lovely boat Jolly Roger with ultimate interference of the mothers and wives at the divers area. I guess there is no need to talk about the super respectful customers of Jolly Rogers anymore after the previous article. 

I wish to say that the visibility was great in King Cruiser but I was not. However, it was not supposed to be great anyways. So this time the disappointment is less than previous time. Nonetheless, King Cruiser was hiding much more for us! The place is great for the lion fish chasers. Lion fishes are thriving around the wreck. I have seen at least 8 as individual and in groups. So the wreck was not really a deep one. The rock bottom is around 30 meters and most of the must-see parts of the wreck is around  16-18 meters. So she lets see her for an almost hour long dive.

Apart from the all the crowds of fishes and the sneaking hunter lion fishes, there are a couple of places you should check when you dive King cruiser. First of all don't forget to take a pee! Well yeah! On the back of the boat you can see the toilets of the cruiser. The ceiling was opened and the toilets are visible. So fun time! 

The other hot spot of the site is the chimneys of the boat where a shrimp colony was thriving. They are not shy at all and you can have great picture over there too. The color of them were so crisp and the scenery was amazing!

The gate of the vehicle deck is almost completely destroyed. Thus you can go in and have a nice trip inside the parking site of the cruiser. If you have a good flash light, I believe you can see many beautiful things inside.

All and all, King Cruiser dive was a great experience and it is a location for all levels of divers. She gives beautiful shots and you can see many different rate sea creatures down there... or up above. We have accompanied by a giant jelly fish during our ascent. The combination of sharp sunlight and the jelly fish gave great pictures to make this beautiful place unforgettable. 

Diving at Koh Doc Mai, Phuket, Thailand

In the boat Jolly Roger, which I have mentioned in detail in the previous entry, that was the first dive of the day at Koh Doc Mai. This little island has a very nice reef underskirts of her! You can think of it as a very large reef that you can wonder around. The dive can last a reasonable amount of time without turning around of the island more than once. The depth of the reef is around 30-40 meters if you keep yourself close to the vertical cliffs. Therefore the site is quite suitable for a range of divers from beginners to the experts.

Normally, the site supposed to have a good visibility especially in the early morning and for calm surface as you can see above. However I was not that lucky I guess. The visibility was quite poor and it was not possible to have a good shot unless you go for a macro shot. Nevertheless, the fauna down there was really great. Especially the nudibrach population was quite stunning. Other than that you may check out the groupers, box fishes, and random gang of fish crowds!

However the impressive part of the dive was, for me, to see the bamboo shark hiding underneath a big rock. I assume it is a regular inhabitant of the neighborhood because I encounter similar sceneries on other websites before.

Overall the spot is a nice dive point with variety of the fishes. I totally recommend you to check out if you pass by Phuket to dive. I hope you will be luckier than me and have great visibility so that 100% or your shots are clear.

Diving in Phuket Island, Thailand

Phuket, as I have mentioned before, is a great island to have a laid back holiday. She contains all necessary ingredients: tropical weather, golden beaches, turquoise sea, gorgeous people, good food... On top of all, there is another great feature of the island. That is the beauty of Andaman Sea's underwater life and uncountable number of diving points which are accessible from the island.

When I get to Phuket, I am not gonna lie, I didn't think to dive. I had good time under the Balinese sea and I hadn't had the time to make a search about the dive centers there. However, I hadn't also know that there was no way to hide from my destiny. As soon as I settled down in my "temporary hotel room", I realized the dive center across the street. Despite I spent such a long time to recover from long Bali-Phuket flight and the shuttle ride, the dive center was still open. ...and I knocked the door of Rumblefish Adventure. There I met great people. They were quite friendly and helpful. They explained me how diving business runs more or less and it actually has nothing to do with any other place I have dived before. 

In Phuket, the dive boats and the dive centers are almost completely separated. When you go to a dive center, as an experienced diver, they will show you the schedule of the available boats with their route of dive points. Every combination has its own price roughly changing between 1000-1500 THB/dive. According to your preferences and experiences, the guys at the dive school help you to choose the appropriate dive boat. Here the things start to bifurcate. You may be accompanied by the dive buddy/leader from the dive center or you may stuck with the guys of the boat or the buddy might be a freelance instructor, like in my case. So this separation of power has its own benefits and disadvantages, which I will explain later. Anyway, the complete gear is supplied by the school for 500 THB/day. You can also rent dive computer for around 300-500 THB/day. In my case, they were quite cool to me and let me use their good old Aladin UWATEC computer.

In the morning, a shuttle bus picks you and your gear up from your hotel and takes you to the harbor where the boat is. From this point on, you are with the dive boat crew and thus I will try to summarize my experience about the dive boat called Jolly Roger and her crew. I will tell about the three dive points of the day, Koh Dok Mai, King Cruiser and Shark Point,  in separate entries.

She is quite long, pretty new and well maintained dive boat. The main deck is composed of a preparation space for the divers and the dining room. There you can have a fresh and substantial breakfast in with lots of varieties. They also serve the lunch in the afternoon and it is also equally good. Highly recommended! There is also an espresso machine, cold and hot water and several munchies at your disposal at anytime on-board. There is also on-board WiFi which is very convenient. There are two shower/toilets right next to the preparation area. The upper deck is very roomy to socialize with the other divers, as well. Beer is also serve on-board but subjected to charges. From all the facilities provided, she is a great dive boat. But nothing can be perfect right. Here are the beasts inside the beauty!

First of all, the service crew was acting kinda weird! They were shouting to the customers here and there when people were trying to board. The people who guides you talks mostly in Russian because they and most of the customers were Russian but sometimes they forget there are people of other nationalities. I have to say that the order in the boat was a bit chaotic. Of course that was my experience with the customers of that day but it seemed to me that the profile is more or less the same in every trip after I shared my experiences with the other divers in Kata Beach. The space you prepare for the dive, although it was quite large, was stuffed by non-divers. Especially, the moms and the wives were everywhere and messing up with your gear. Coming back to the lunch room, people were leaving their leftovers on the tables and nobody were collecting them. Of course you are supposed to return your stuff but as you can imagine not everyone was taking care of. In the dives, there were no regular order to get in to the sea. I think for that may of diver (more than 30) the dive masters  need to do some planing before the dives. However, it seems to me the ones of the boat were coordinating themselves without letting know the other dive leaders. And finally on the way back, the shuttles were totally messed up. The chances are you may be left in the harbor if you don't understand Russian because they stop doing regular announcement in any other language. Thus you  need to go an ask if your bus is actually arranged.

To sum up, I think Phuket is a great place to dive. The underwater was flourishing. And that was a great boat in terms of all of the amenities inside. If you are a guy of luxury and can arrange the whole dive for his group, you may want to go for this boat. Otherwise, I recommend you to think twice and go for a second best option.  

Nusa Penida dives, Bali, Indonesia

In the second day of the dives, I went to the island called Nusa Penida located on the south east of Bali. The island is actually the biggest of the three islands at close coordinates. They are 45 min away from the Sanur beach by a relatively slow dive boat. Sanur beach is quite shallow and there is no pear to have a dry boarding. Hence, the BIDP guys arranged the transfer from the beach to the dive boat by small joker boats. From that point on you are on the dive boat till the afternoon. During that 45 min journey to the famous Manta point, the landscape was pretty nice with several water rocks facing to the island. The partly cloudy morning helped to enjoy the nice way with mild sun bathing...

We had a short briefing after reaching the Manta point and started our dive with the hope of seeing an elegant manta ray. The dive team was pretty crowded this time. We were eight divers and 4 dive masters leading the dive. From this point of view it was a safer dive then the ones I had in Tulamben with much more opportunity to see the hidden beauties of the nice reefs down there because two of the guys constant checking the cracks and bottom for the creature harder to notice while one is leading and the other was keeping the rear.

The crystal clear water of the Manta point started to freeze us since the beginning of dive with an average temperature of 18 degrees Celsius. That was not only another difference between the dives of today and USS Liberty but also a good indicator of different characteristics of all dive points scattered around the Bali Island. It is better to avoid the shorties at Manta point to keep body temperature reasonable. The bottom is composed of many small reefs an big pieces of rock which is covered with the colorful coral. Underneath the rocks and in the slits of the reefs, small predators look for their pray like the big lobster or weevers. The deepest point in the close vicinity is around 15 meter and thus you can enjoy long and colorful dives in the quest for manta rays. Unfortunately, at the end of the dry season for Bali, end of October, we were not that lucky to experience this unique encounter. Nevertheless, the underwater is still worthwhile to see with its relatively smaller creatures and rainbow of colors on the reefs.

The anemones blooming all around in different colors give beautiful shots for the underwater photo lover. However, I was not able to see anemone fish for almost all 40 minute dive. Instead, little gobies and lizard fishes staying still for their prays on top of small rocks or corals were reluctant to move while we were swimming around them.

All and all, I can say that Manta Point is a beautiful site with its rich marine life even if the mantas are not visible for you. It provides you a long and delightful five with its tranquil bottom.

The next destination of the day was Crystal Bay (C in the map above) located half an hour away on the north of Manta Point (A in the map). This is a small and calm isolated bay located on the west of the biggest island, Nusa Penida. When you first enter the bay, the astonishing view of small huts underneath palms trees gives you a delighting scenery. There were several dive boats around when we arrived. Then disappeared after we had lunch, giving us a wast underwater space to enjoy and better possibility to see the ocean sun fishes widely known as mola mola who thrives in this bay.

We started the dive half an hour after the arrival, a nice stop to enjoy the view and peace of mind. Following the jump in the water, we commenced to search for the mola molas possible surface for feeding or having their skins cleaned. The bottom of the sea shows different characteristics. While the part close to the shores are mostly dominated by the sand and pebbles, deeper parts are covered with corals. The maximum depth of our dive zone was around 23 meters and the average was 15 meters. We continued our search mostly at this average. Therefore, I was able to enjoy the bright colors by the help of sunlight penetrating down to this level.

The small fishes like the angel fishes, moorish idols or surgeon fishes were dominating the deep sea scenery of the bay. You can forget everything while chasing a moorish idol and suddenly find many of them hiding in a large crack.

The relatively flat bottom of the bay was rarely populated with big and isolated rocks covered by coral like the one below. Swimming around them to check the cracks and holes was a very good way of spending time while looking for mola molas. On top of it, around those boulders there were hundreds of small fishes wondering and giving marvelous shots like below.

Overall, the checking in the Crystal Bay was good and long dive although we were not able to encounter with the mola molas. The dive masters were claiming that the end of dry season is also the start of migration of those fishes from the region. Hence it might be more logical to come to Bali around August or September might be a better idea if you really want to see oceanic sun fishes. However, the other compromise is to stay here or on the southern hemisphere for all the time and to be unable to go other nice dive spots like Thailand, Malaysia or Philippines as there will be the mun-son season. It was an option to plan my trip but I didn't do that and I am happy to have the dives in Phuket.

In short, diving around Nusa Penida and Bali was a great experience for me and highly recommended although it is a must to find good accommodation and a hotel to near by the major towns. The BIDP guys were very helpful and also recomemended but I also recommend you to check out prices in other dive schools. Enjoy your time in Bali and sountheast Asia...