Turkey Tips please

melanzana

The irony of all the hassle is.... If they let us browse in their shops in peace, and read their menus in peace, they would get a lot more custom.

The resorts are set up for people like us, so they should really appreciate that we don't like being hassled, or hustled!

I think it is changing now. But the real leopards don't change their spots!

It is the most irritating thing in Turkey, and places like Egypt and Tunisia etc. i think its in their blood!

But I won't go back. Two trips is enough. The world is a big place!

Mr_Wang

Deleted_User wrote: »

Horses for courses indeed.
I've been to Greece more than 30 times and Turkey twice, to Gumbet and Kusadasi.
One country is like riding Red Rum past the winning post in the Grand National, the other is a seaside donkey in the back of a knacker's van heading for the glue factory.

I Travelled through Araxos, to Athens and then to Thessaloniki and then on to Istanbul last summer.

Greece was vastly over priced and dirty, it felt like it was 1992 in terms of modernity and infrastructure.

Yet when the bus pulled into Istanbul it felt like I'd just been dragged forward a couple of decades.

In terms of mainland Greece v Turkey - There is simply no comparison. Look who is begging for yet another bailout for example

PompeyPete

Mr_Wang wrote: »

Yet when the bus pulled into Istanbul it felt like I'd just been dragged forward a couple of decades.

We had our first trip to Istanbul 4 years ago, and were blown over my the place.

When I got home I started a thread on TA about a week in Istanbul on a shoestring. It sort of took off...

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g293974-i368-k3233572-Our_week_on_a_shoe_string_in_Istanbul-Istanbul.htm

It's by far my favourite big city anywhere.

Pollycat

melanzana wrote: »

The irony of all the hassle is.... If they let us browse in their shops in peace, and read their menus in peace, they would get a lot more custom.

I think the concept of 'just looking' is alien to some nationalities.

They seem to think that if someone walks into a shop or stops at a stall, there is real intent to buy and the only thing left is to agree a price.

I once treated Tunisians to the Pollycat form of shopping.
I'd seen a tajine (for display in my kitchen) in a particular colour at a market but it was chipped.
I went into every shop, picked up a tajine and said 'This - but in this colour' pointing to a different item in the colour I wanted.

'No, but we have......'
By this time, I'd said 'OK, Bye' and gone on to the next shop, leaving some very bewildered shop-keepers behind. :rotfl:

~Chameleon~

Never had any hassle in Hisaronu and was free to browse the shops before buying anything.

maman

melanzana wrote: »

The irony of all the hassle is.... If they let us browse in their shops in peace, and read their menus in peace, they would get a lot more custom.

The resorts are set up for people like us, so they should really appreciate that we don't like being hassled, or hustled!

I think it is changing now. But the real leopards don't change their spots!

It is the most irritating thing in Turkey, and places like Egypt and Tunisia etc. i think its in their blood!

But I won't go back. Two trips is enough. The world is a big place!

Deleted_User wrote: »

Horses for courses indeed.
I've been to Greece more than 30 times and Turkey twice, to Gumbet and Kusadasi.
One country is like riding Red Rum past the winning post in the Grand National, the other is a seaside donkey in the back of a knacker's van heading for the glue factory.

My use of this phrase is being taken out of context. I wasn't comparing Turkey with Greece or any other country. The world is indeed a big place.

My point is that within Turkey there are some very different resorts catering for different tastes. It's the same with Greece. I'm sure if my only experience of Greece had been somewhere like Malia on Crete I'd never go back.

balletshoes

I agree maman ~ gumbet and kusadasi (gumbet especially) are the malia or kavos of turkey. they are geared up for the young bar~crawlers and when twentys holidays and 18~30s were in their heyday, gumbet was one of their resorts (as were kusadasi and marmaris).

[Deleted User]

Mr_Wang wrote: »

In terms of mainland Greece v Turkey - There is simply no comparison. Look who is begging for yet another bailout for example

Continuing the political theme, there have been large-scale riots in both Athens and Instanbul within the past year.
In Greece they were by people protesting at the austerity measures being imposed on the country by the EU in return for a bailout.
In Turkey they were by citizens protesting at the increasing authoritarianism of their own government and the drive towards more Islamification which sees women being even further marginalised, religious and social intolerance and even poorer human rights.
They both share the same sun and I know which country I prefer to be in when I'm lying under it.
As I said before, there are very good reasons why the rest of Europe has spent the last 30 years objecting to Turkey's full membership of the EU.