For all questions regarding Explora

[morpheusofthesea]

25 minutes ago, Waltershipman said:

Our experience in Kusadasi was sitting in a tent for about 4 hours and coming home with a beautiful Turkish rug  lol and true 

After the third cruise and discovering that every bus excursion sold in Turkey has an unadvertised stop at one of these Turkish rug shops. One is made to, forced to get off the bus and go through a gauntlet of employees locking arms so passengers can not escape, being 'herded' into the shop and having the door locked as the last has entered. The last time, we waited for the owner of the establishment to 'astound' the gathering by naming the oriental rug store and the proprietors' surnames in everyones present hometown. (Since he sells to them directly and the only deal anyone is going to get in Turkey is the sales tax levied by your home state). I watched the proprietor lock the door, but he made the mistake of leaving the key in the lock. When the proprietor turned his back I grabbed my wife's hand and bolted to the door, unlocked it quickly and ran out down the street about 100 feet to the Grand Bazaar.

Edited September 8, 2023 by morpheusofthesea

[Host Jazzbeau]

5 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

After the third cruise and every bus excursion sold in Turkey has an unadvertised stop at one of these forced Turkish rug shops. One is made to get off the bus and go through a gauntlet of employees locking arms so passengers can not escape being 'herded' into the shop and having the door locked as the last has entered. The last time, we waited for the owner of the establishment to 'astound' the gathering by naming the oriental rug store and the proprietors' surnames in everyones present hometown. (Since he sells to them directly and the only deal anyone is going to get in Turkey is the sales tax levied by your home state. I watched the proprietor lock the door, but he made the mistake of leaving the key in the lock. When the proprietor turned his back I grapped my wifes hand and bolted to the door, unlocked it quickly and ran out down the street about 100 feet to the Grand Bazaar.

Thankfully we have been to Ephesus twice and never had a forced shopping stop.  But we will not go back to Istanbul because you can't walk down the streets in the tourist areas without being accosted by the cousin of a rug shop owner who just won't take no for an answer.

[morpheusofthesea]

1 minute ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Thankfully we have been to Ephesus twice

I think I remember a picture you posted of you in front of the ancient brothel in your blog of Ephesus.

[Host Jazzbeau]

17 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

I think I remember a picture you posted of you in front of the ancient brothel in your blog of Ephesus.

Yes, but they weren't selling anything – I'm not that old!!!  🤣

[Waltershipman]

44 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

After the third cruise and discovering that every bus excursion sold in Turkey has an unadvertised stop at one of these Turkish rug shops. One is made to, forced to get off the bus and go through a gauntlet of employees locking arms so passengers can not escape, being 'herded' into the shop and having the door locked as the last has entered. The last time, we waited for the owner of the establishment to 'astound' the gathering by naming the oriental rug store and the proprietors' surnames in everyones present hometown. (Since he sells to them directly and the only deal anyone is going to get in Turkey is the sales tax levied by your home state). I watched the proprietor lock the door, but he made the mistake of leaving the key in the lock. When the proprietor turned his back I grabbed my wife's hand and bolted to the door, unlocked it quickly and ran out down the street about 100 feet to the Grand Bazaar.

Excellent love it

[Hlitner]

3 hours ago, Waltershipman said:

Our experience in Kusadasi was sitting in a tent for about 4 hours and coming home with a beautiful Turkish rug  lol and true 

ROFL.  I hope you were at least provided with some tea, during those hours.

 

[Waltershipman]

6 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

ROFL.  I hope you were at least provided with some tea, during those hours.

 

We were given a lot of Turkish  coffee

  of additional interest is the fact that 1 of the sales guys in the tent was studying the science of growing chickens.  we communicated after we returned to California where we lived at the time. And I connected him with a friend of ours who was a large chicken grower and they connected. Small world when connected with a warm hearts.  Looking forward to connecting on board the ship 

[Whipsnade]

We had our first meal at Marble last night. Setting is real steakhouse style. Black marble all around. Open kitchen. Very stylish. 
The meat offered is all European. France, Sweden. All their cows are grass fed like Argentina so meat very chewy. We are used to American style beef all corn fed. All  meat delivered with exactly as ordered doneness. If you order rare it will be rare. And so on. 
Sides pretty ordinary. 

We will go back to try pork and lamb but beef, while excellent quality, not to our taste. 

[Wheelhouse]

19 hours ago, Hlitner said:

That sounds completely nutz!  Shops are there to sell merchandise and it seems strange for them to set ridiculous rules, if they have inventory.  Perhaps the better solution is to take a cruise to Kusadasi, go the the "Genuine Fake Watches" store where you can likely buy the "rare" Rolex for about $10 :).

 

Now, I know this sounds silly but true story.  A few years ago, DW and I were at that store (in Kusadasi) and bought her Dad a Real Fake Rolex Daytona for less than $10.  It did look real and actually ran.  He wore that watch to work and a few folks noticed.  He mentioned that his daughter had bought it as a gift which impressed some folks :).

 

Hank

In 1984 a traveling partner and I each bought a couple of those fake Rolexes in St Thomas while traveling on the old Cunard Countess.  I remember bringing my wife her jewel encrusted model and she burst out laughing as she realized right away that they were fake. I do recall that the stem on mine failed very quickly. 

[Mr Luxury]

11 minutes ago, Wheelhouse said:

In 1984 a traveling partner and I each bought a couple of those fake Rolexes in St Thomas while traveling on the old Cunard Countess.  I remember bringing my wife her jewel encrusted model and she burst out laughing as she realized right away that they were fake. I do recall that the stem on mine failed very quickly. 

Always buy the real thing.

I've never had a problem with any models that I have bought over the years.

Life's too short for fakes 😀

[Wheelhouse]

5 minutes ago, Mr Luxury said:

Always buy the real thing.

I've never had a problem with any models that I have bought over the years.

Life's too short for fakes 😀

When your in your twenties and impecunious that's what you can buy.  It was a bit of a joke.  

[travelberlin]

Our experience at Kusadasi was, besides the fake rolex, being unpleasantly approached by vendors who were desperate to sell something. Ours was the last ship of the season and they were almost mad at people, because we were not buying enough.

[Waltershipman]

18 minutes ago, Wheelhouse said:

When your in your twenties and impecunious that's what you can buy.  It was a bit of a joke.  

Indeed in my 20s i bought  a watch in Tijuana and just as i was crossibf the border back to the US it stopped. It continued to stop  at the same time every day

[Mr Luxury]

27 minutes ago, Wheelhouse said:

When your in your twenties and impecunious that's what you can buy.  It was a bit of a joke.  

Yes,it sure is.