Ways to Help

Our thoughts are with all those affected by the earthquake in the Van province of Turkey.  Survivors are currently desperately in need of shelter and aid with winter not far away:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15470596

If you would like to make a donation to help the survivors of the Eastern Turkey earthquake, here are some links that you may find useful:

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: donations can be made from many countries to the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund.

ShelterBox: donations will help ShelterBox, working in conjunction with Turkish Red Crescent, provide shelter and aid to quake survivors.

Easy Entertaining - Kalkan Style

Impromptu barbecues (or planned ones, for that matter) are a great way to spend an evening in Kalkan, especially if you're staying with a group.  It's as simple as:


1: Making a trip to the butcher - who, most days, sells ready-to-throw-on-the-grill chicken skewers, lamb skewers, and lamb kofte (they look like mini-lamb burgers to me).  We like this guy:

Bulent, the butcher - located just past the Tesko roundabout.

2: Throwing said meat (or seafood - maybe you like seafood instead?) on the grill.  Even if your accommodation lacks a grill, it's easy enough to pick one up (along with coals and lighter fluid, and beer - what is a BBQ without beer?) at most supermarkets:

A selection of grills outside of Kartin Market.

And 3: Inviting over a group of friends, acquaintances, or those people you just met on a boat trip...


Besides feeding them and keeping their glasses filled, here's an easy way we've discovered to keep BBQ guests entertained.  First, grab an iPod - yours or someone's who's hopefully got a similar taste in music.  Then, sync it with one of these:

The Jambox from Jawbone, which you can also find here, among other places.  This nifty little speaker connects to devices with Bluetooth and will fill up a room with sound - we were really surprised at the amount of good sound that comes out of such a little speaker.  Tiny and light enough to fit in your hand luggage (though it slightly confounded some of the security staff when we took it into Dalaman Airport), we've discovered it's a great way to listen to our own music when we're on holiday.  And it makes entertaining in Kalkan just that little bit easier!