I flew from Istanbul down to Antalya, a famous resort town on Turkey's Southern coast, on the Mediterranean, where my conference was taking place. However, we were actually staying in Belek, approximately 60 km east of the town of Antalya itself. Belek is a newly developed resort area, with a series of mega-hotels along the coast, 10 golf courses built in the last few years, with 10 more scheduled to be completed in the next few years. And construction taking place everywhere.
We had been forewarned that the conference hotel,
Adam & Eve, was very modern and highly stylish. However, that in no way prepared me or my companions for the hotel itself, which had only been open a year or so.
The exterior of the building is green, covered with vines (fake of course) and the interior is uniformly white. Everything is white. Or clear. Or covered with mirrors. Except for the spa. Which is all black. The only color that you can see in the decor is the square apples which light up at night on the fake trees situated all around. Words cannot describe this place.
My room overlooked a large construction site next door, but the balcony was mirrored so the mountains and sea were reflected. The balcony was the best part of the room, with a metal curtain that could be raised and lowered by remote control.
The notable feature of the room (besides being all white) was that there were three beds - one nice and relatively normal bed, one large lounger for the balcony and the last was a Kamasutra bed (or so I was told) that consisted of a platform mattress (vinyl?) and many interestingly shaped wedges and pillows. Oh and a large jacuzzi bathtub in the middle of the room, right next to the desk. Apparently one of the taxi drivers called it the "sex hotel". Yes indeed, this is where a 1,000 person Oracle conference was taking place.
The room was quite stark and I spent some time looking for a brochure that provided a guide for the hotel. Instead I found 4 remotes and some limited instructions. As I've mentioned, one remote operated the metal balcony curtain, the second was for the TV, the third was for the A/C and the last and best one was for the room lighting options. There were 8 settings. One was for standard white LED lights, the rest were various colored options - I especially liked the rainbow option (where the lights cycled through the spectrum). This was particularly impressive since all the room walls were mirrored. Oh and the jacuzzi tub? Underwater changing lights as well!
The hotel had a huge Atrium level that was 5 storeys high, with the upper walls and ceiling covered with the same small mirrors used to cover disco balls. In the middle was the "longest bar in the world" and flanking the bar on either side were lounge beds, where I guess you could lie down and have a drink. At night, the Atrium had its own DJ, spinning one indiscernible house track after another, from 10 pm til midnight. I know this because I could hear the bass beat in my room. When the DJ was in session, the Atrium was also flooded with a colored flashing light show.
This is only a small illustration of the bizarre nature of this hotel. I've enjoyed the new modern boutique hotels like the Mondrian, Paramount etc in the past, but this one was just insane. It actually turned into an uncomfortable environment because it was so unnatural. Three nights here was way too long...
After two nights eating in the Adam & Eve, a few of us decided that we just couldn't take it anymore. So we hired a taxi to take us into the old town, or Kaleici, of Antalya. This was a 45 min ride each way and cost us an exorbitant 90 euros round trip. But it was well worth it to get away from the all white asylum that we were stuck in!
We then walked down to the harbor and had dinner at Ekeci, a nice fish restaurant. 5 of us shared a 1.5 kg grouper that was extremely fresh (bright red gills!) then filleted and grilled to perfection.
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