Turkey

Harry’s Turkey material is all Istanbul, across two visits. The consistent theme is craft: barbers, coffee, baklava and bathhouses all done with a level of practised attention he doesn’t find elsewhere.

Observations

From I Visited Istanbul With No Plan 🇹🇷

• Turkish people are the most extroverted he has met. All-day sitting and talking, dinners that run for hours, and open passion about football, food and their own work.
• Turkish coffee is brewed in hot sand, which heats the pot in about a minute. It’s strong, unfiltered, and an acquired taste; the grounds at the bottom are the part Harry doesn’t like.
• The glass of water beside it has two meanings. It cleans the palate, and it rehydrates you after a coffee that dehydrates — but from Ottoman times, drinking the water first signalled that you were hungry, and the kitchen would start preparing food.
• Turkish barbers deserve the reputation. The full service is a shave, eyebrows, facial, cut, nose wax, ear hair burned off with a flame, ear candling, tonic, head massage, styling and cologne — about $20.
• Döner is a cooking method, not a meat. Chicken, lamb, beef and vegetable döner all exist, which Harry says he hadn’t realised.
• Turkey drinks more tea per head than any country in the world.
• The hammam is a live tradition, not just a tourist product, and comes in two forms — the traditional version, where a large man scrubs you, and the modern spa version.
• The Grand Bazaar’s sellers often refuse to be filmed. Harry’s reading is that much of the stock is counterfeit and filming creates a problem for them — and that some people simply don’t want a camera, which is fine.

Obs: this trip was a free press visit hosted by the Turkish tourism board, and the video also carries a separate sponsor. Only the travel content is recorded here.

From I Tried Insane 5 Star Treatments in Istanbul, Turkey 🇹🇷

• Turkey is a global centre for medical and cosmetic treatment. Harry’s figure is over a million people flying in every year, and a hair transplant at about $3,000 against roughly £10,000 in the West.
• The industry is built for foreigners: clinics put you in a nearby hotel, provide translators because not all staff speak English, and run the whole thing in a day or two.
• The hammam comes in two grades, and he draws the line explicitly — rough local bathhouses, and luxury versions with extras the traditional ones don’t do.
• Winter in Istanbul is cold and wet, which he compares to England.
• Licensed firearms and army surplus are sold in ordinary markets, which surprised him.
• Istanbul has two airports on opposite sides of the city — the most useful practical line in the video.

Obs: this second video is commercial throughout. Every clinic in it is linked in the description and it carries a separate card sponsor. Only what the procedures involve and cost is recorded.

Places

• Istanbul