I recently entered a travel writing contest. The piece was about my favourite part of Turkey, the Lycian coast. It’s not hugely detailed as I was limited to 1,000 words but I managed to pack a lot in. The entry was adapted from my recent e-book Turkey, Surviving the Expats. The last time I entered a similar contest (featuring my best bits of Istanbul, also lifted from the same e-book), I failed to win any gold stars. Boo hoo. Guess what? I didn’t win this time either. Boo hoo too. Mind you, the reference to wet dreams probably didn’t help.

So, ladies and gents, I give you my Highlights of Lycia, the article that didn’t win a bean. Never mind, I like it anyway and I hope you do too.

Postscript

I later found out that my article did, in fact, make it in to the top twenty and I won a prize – Worlds Apart by Smitha Murthy and Dorothee Lang.  The book arrived today (8th October). Thank you!

Imagine the absurdity of two openly gay, married, middle aged, middle class men escaping the liberal sanctuary of anonymous London to relocate to a Muslim country. I chronicled our exploits with the mad, the bad, the sad and the glad in a blog for the whole world to ignore. Then came the book which became a critically acclaimed best seller. Its success opened out a whole new career for me, firstly as an author, and now as an indie publisher. Who'd have thought it? Certainly not me. In June 2012, we ended our Anatolian affair and paddled back to Britain on the evening tide, washing up in Norwich, a surprising city in eastern England, then to the wilds of Norfolk as the only gays in the village. I’m sometimes nostalgic for our encounters with the hopeless, the hapless and, yes, the happy go lucky. They gave me an unexpected tale to tell and for this I thank them.

14 thoughts on “Jack’s Lycian Ways”

  5. Hi, Jack. I’m taking my inamorato on an 8-day tour of the Lycian coast in February. Only £220 each for flights, tour, halfboard – not bad, eh? What’s the weather likely to be in mid-February?

    warm greetings from David and Khaled.

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    1. It’s a bargain. The good news is that the weather can be sunny and warmish during the day, and, because tourists are thin on the ground, you’ll get lots of attention. The bad news is that winter storms can be ferocious and most resorts shut up for the winter (though you will still find places to eat, drink and make merry). Pack a pac-a-mac and a few woollies. There’s nothing better than an roaring fire and an open bottle of red on a stormy night. For the price, who can complain? Have a fantastic time.

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