Dolmus - the Turkish mini-bus
When I visited Turkey for the first time in 2004, the holiday reps in Olu Deniz told us about the dolmus with stories of them being old and battered, fitted with kitchen chairs strapped to the side to offer additional seating, everyone crammed in regardless of numbers and don't be surprised if someone gets on with a goat or hens. Oh, and you get on sit down and pass your fare along the other passengers to the driver. Whilst I didn't see any goats, hens or other animals on a dolmus, they were a bit old and battered and I once had to sit on a cushion placed on a wheel arch as a seat. On my return to Olu Deniz the following year, the old dolmus had been replaced with very modern, white mini-buses with automatic opening doors in the middle, proper seats, buzzers to request a stop and a limit on the number of passengers.
I don't have a lot of experience of using buses back home but one day, I had decided to get one in to Halifax and I needed to be there by 12pm. Me being me, I set off very early, walked to the stop and saw that the Leeds-Halifax bus was due in 10 minutes. Not long after, I saw the bus coming down the road, stuck my arm out to indicate that was the bus I wanted and the driver stared at me as he sailed straight past! To be fair, I think it was the earlier bus that was late but no one seems to have much faith in the buses back home and in my area, they are only around every 30 minutes during the day and they are all due around the same time so it's easy to miss all of them!
Not so in Turkey; my experience has been wonderful. From what I picked up on Wikipedia, the dolmus which are about 12 seats are mainly on the coastal areas and are provided by the municipality but also there are some private operators and from what I've been told the one that runs from the village to the centrum (centre of Kusadasi) is one of those. It runs every 15 minutes from the centre of the village but if I ring the office, it will call up to the complex for an extra fee. The normal fee in to the centre is about 55p compared to about £2.50 for a similar length journey back home. Bus stops are denoted by a capital D on a black edged, white diamond shaped background and some stops have a back and top shelter. But bus stops are almost superfluous here. You can flag the dolmus down anywhere on the route and they stop. It sometimes seems a bit silly when you can see a stop ahead but someone is stood waiting about 6 metres before it and then someone else 10 metres past it.
Before I got the car, I used the dolmus on quite a few occasions. There seemed to be some confusion as to whether the fee to/from the complex was still 10tl or had gone up to 15tl. To be on the safe side, I used to give the driver a 20tl note and got different amounts back every time 😁.
We set off, very slowly along the route. The driver would beep his horn every time we got near a bus stop and in particular if he could see people nearby such as a man who was crossing the road on an overhead bridge. One time, when I had the car but decided to again use the bus, I drove down to the main road and parked at a little shopping centre. I then saw the dolmus coming so started to run towards the stop with my arm up, not expecting him to stop as I was a distance away. The driver hadn't seen me but a taxi had and chased to the side of the bus, beeped him and then the dolmus stopped for me!! Another time, we were passing another little shopping centre with an outdoor cay shop. The driver pulled over just past and we waited for a good 3 minutes before a little old man and lady got on. I'm sure they'd flagged the driver from the cay shop and finished their cup of tea before heading for the bus. Part way along the route, as more people got on, we were full, and the driver then started to proceed at quite a pace! Eventually I established that the drivers aren't just on a flat wage but relay on the fares; to what extent I haven't yet found out but it does explain why they move along slowly until full and are constantly looking for potential passengers along the route.
When waiting at the stop to return, I've learnt to check the route indicator (a reversible board) before getting on as the stop I wait at is on both the inbound and outbound routes. I always seem to get the return bus at rush hour, although the centre always seems to be on rush hour! One day I was on a fairly busy bus and for the first time ever witnessed someone's fare being passed from the back seat down to the driver at the front and the change making the reverse trip. The drivers are all excellent at multi-tasking - driving, smoking, using their mobiles and dealing with the fares, all at the same time. I'm not away of tickets being issued out and the driver keeps the money in a box, usually with compartments, in front of the gear lever. The dolmus are always very clean and some are decorated inside with the Turkish flag and other Ataturk memorabilia. And we usually have music from the radio.
On the same day, the driver stopped to pick up two elderly ladies. The younger, possibly the daughter, had badly twisted legs and was using crutches. The other, who I assumed to be her mother, was a tiny little thing, also not very agile and struggling with a full shopping trolley. Instantly, all the men on the dolmus jumped up to help them on, organised the shopping trolley out of the way and swapped seats so the ladies could sit together near the door.
We then all travelled on towards Sogucak at speed, weaving in and out of the rest of the rush hour traffic. At one stop the driver indicated to the elderly chap in front of me that we were at his stop. He stood up, searched through his trouser pockets to pay his fare and then started to slowly pick up his shopping bags, little plastic bags (still a big thing here) filled with vegetables and fruit. It must have taken him a full minute before he alighted but there was no huffing, puffing and tutting from anyone.
As we headed up the hill in to Sogucak there was only the two old ladies, me and a teenage lad engrossed in his mobile with earphones plugged in. As the bus pulled up to the stop for the two ladies, this lovely young man jumped up, got the shopping trolley and put it off the bus and then helped both of the ladies off the bus, making sure they were OK, before getting back on the bus and alighting a few stops further up the hill. I got taken back to the complex, as per my request.
From what I've seen, it's easy to get to anywhere in the region by using the dolmus service; there is even a route that goes to and through the National Park so you don't need to hire a car to get around the sights.
I don't have a lot of experience of using buses back home but one day, I had decided to get one in to Halifax and I needed to be there by 12pm. Me being me, I set off very early, walked to the stop and saw that the Leeds-Halifax bus was due in 10 minutes. Not long after, I saw the bus coming down the road, stuck my arm out to indicate that was the bus I wanted and the driver stared at me as he sailed straight past! To be fair, I think it was the earlier bus that was late but no one seems to have much faith in the buses back home and in my area, they are only around every 30 minutes during the day and they are all due around the same time so it's easy to miss all of them!
Not so in Turkey; my experience has been wonderful. From what I picked up on Wikipedia, the dolmus which are about 12 seats are mainly on the coastal areas and are provided by the municipality but also there are some private operators and from what I've been told the one that runs from the village to the centrum (centre of Kusadasi) is one of those. It runs every 15 minutes from the centre of the village but if I ring the office, it will call up to the complex for an extra fee. The normal fee in to the centre is about 55p compared to about £2.50 for a similar length journey back home. Bus stops are denoted by a capital D on a black edged, white diamond shaped background and some stops have a back and top shelter. But bus stops are almost superfluous here. You can flag the dolmus down anywhere on the route and they stop. It sometimes seems a bit silly when you can see a stop ahead but someone is stood waiting about 6 metres before it and then someone else 10 metres past it.
Before I got the car, I used the dolmus on quite a few occasions. There seemed to be some confusion as to whether the fee to/from the complex was still 10tl or had gone up to 15tl. To be on the safe side, I used to give the driver a 20tl note and got different amounts back every time 😁.
We set off, very slowly along the route. The driver would beep his horn every time we got near a bus stop and in particular if he could see people nearby such as a man who was crossing the road on an overhead bridge. One time, when I had the car but decided to again use the bus, I drove down to the main road and parked at a little shopping centre. I then saw the dolmus coming so started to run towards the stop with my arm up, not expecting him to stop as I was a distance away. The driver hadn't seen me but a taxi had and chased to the side of the bus, beeped him and then the dolmus stopped for me!! Another time, we were passing another little shopping centre with an outdoor cay shop. The driver pulled over just past and we waited for a good 3 minutes before a little old man and lady got on. I'm sure they'd flagged the driver from the cay shop and finished their cup of tea before heading for the bus. Part way along the route, as more people got on, we were full, and the driver then started to proceed at quite a pace! Eventually I established that the drivers aren't just on a flat wage but relay on the fares; to what extent I haven't yet found out but it does explain why they move along slowly until full and are constantly looking for potential passengers along the route.
When waiting at the stop to return, I've learnt to check the route indicator (a reversible board) before getting on as the stop I wait at is on both the inbound and outbound routes. I always seem to get the return bus at rush hour, although the centre always seems to be on rush hour! One day I was on a fairly busy bus and for the first time ever witnessed someone's fare being passed from the back seat down to the driver at the front and the change making the reverse trip. The drivers are all excellent at multi-tasking - driving, smoking, using their mobiles and dealing with the fares, all at the same time. I'm not away of tickets being issued out and the driver keeps the money in a box, usually with compartments, in front of the gear lever. The dolmus are always very clean and some are decorated inside with the Turkish flag and other Ataturk memorabilia. And we usually have music from the radio.
On the same day, the driver stopped to pick up two elderly ladies. The younger, possibly the daughter, had badly twisted legs and was using crutches. The other, who I assumed to be her mother, was a tiny little thing, also not very agile and struggling with a full shopping trolley. Instantly, all the men on the dolmus jumped up to help them on, organised the shopping trolley out of the way and swapped seats so the ladies could sit together near the door.
As we headed up the hill in to Sogucak there was only the two old ladies, me and a teenage lad engrossed in his mobile with earphones plugged in. As the bus pulled up to the stop for the two ladies, this lovely young man jumped up, got the shopping trolley and put it off the bus and then helped both of the ladies off the bus, making sure they were OK, before getting back on the bus and alighting a few stops further up the hill. I got taken back to the complex, as per my request.
From what I've seen, it's easy to get to anywhere in the region by using the dolmus service; there is even a route that goes to and through the National Park so you don't need to hire a car to get around the sights.
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