No disrepect mate but would you say you are quite timid by nature?
Many of us here have travelled a fair bit, I've seen scenarios such as what you describe and I haven't really, ever felt threatened, that is not to say though, that you shouldn't be cautious and aware of your surroundings.
If the pub you were in was a touristy type place, maybe it has a 'reputation' for certain excesses, indulged by Westerners and the guys outside could have been looking to sell you something or 'provide a service'?
I suppose it's personal experience, Andy, and I just wanted to comment on Waccoe's post about the Leeds lads. I can imagine exactly what went on there because I've experienced what they're like. Maybe I was just unlucky and bumped into the wrong people but I don't think so because it was so prevalent. I've never had a problem in any other country in the world.
Timid? Not in its literal sense but I am more of a helper and friendly rather than an agitator and so I suppose in that sense I'm not one for confrontation. But, when you grew up in a working class area, that most people would describe as rough, you were in violent situations that weren't of your making and so you learned to stand up for yourself: you had no choice. When you've grown up in that rough working class environment and you've seen lots of violence, you have a sixth sense for when bother is coming to you. You can spot it a mile off because you've seen it so many times before. In the end, we are animals and we do have animal instinct. At least with the mob of Turks congregating over the side of the road I could see it a mile off, I didn't see it with the first taxi driver as that was the second day in Istanbul, I wasn't expecting anything like it and I'd never been robbed before.
When that taxi driver tried to rob me, on reflection it was a well worn routine. I was sat in the back seat and he said the fare whatever it was, so I gave him 20 (whatever the currency is, 'think it's lira), and like a magician the 20 disappeared out of his hand and there was a 1 lira note in there. There he was: you've given me 1 and so on, so I'm looking at him and the 1 and thinking what? But, I'm a trusting person unless someone gives me a reason not to trust them and so I thought it must have been me. 'Same again, gave him a 20 and with in the blink of an eye he had a 1 in his hand. This time, I'm thinking I'm almost positive I gave him a 20. So the next time I paid a lot more attention. He tried it again. This time I knew for a fact I'd given him a 20.
Aye, timid in the sense that I grew out of fighting when I was about 19 and was there on holiday rather than for confrontation but that old working class thing doesn't leave you when provoked, it's the only time in my life I've been robbed, and so I said: 'tell you what it is mate I'm not sure what I'm doing with these notes, I'll come 'round into the front seat and we'll sort it out. I'd been to the bank earlier so had a couple of hundred quid in my wallet and he's thinking he's going to take the lot but what he didn't know is that as I got out of the back I'm thinking can I fill this lad in and get away with it. I'm thinking well: I got in the taxi the other side of Istanbul and so he'll struggle to radio his pals in time before I've disappeared down a back street, it's broad daylight and so I can get lost in the crowds easy enough, I'm not far from where I'm staying and so I know where I'm going. Got in the front, and he was all menacing and locked the doors: "give me all of your money". He sharp changed his tune and I got my money back. I didn't fill him in but he would have deserved it, risk and reward: I got my money back, there's no reward in violence and the risk was that I'd end up in some Turkish nick eating bread and water for a few days. Absolutely the right decision to just leave it there, learn the lesson and shape up.
Everywhere I went it felt hostile and various people were trying it on in one form or another. I've never experienced that in any other country. When I was leaving to go to the airport, usually I'd just ring any taxi company or flag one down or ask the hotel owner to ring one, but I'd learned that these people weren't straight down the line and so I found a number from the internet of a reputable company thinking I've got some comeback if anything happens. The taxi turned up, I'd been in it 5 minutes, and the taxi driver started up, I half expected it: "my car needs to go in the garage to be fixed, my brother is following in a car behind, you get out of this car and into my brother's car". Right-o mate, you've no chance, drive to the airport. This went on for half an hour all the way out of Istanbul to the motorway, trying to get me into his 'brother's' car. I'd have been royally shafted. Everything I had on me would have been decimated in no time like 200 Waxwings stripping a rowan tree. When it didn't work and I refused to budge, he got on the motorway and swerved all over the road at about 80 or 90 MPH, looking at his phone while he was driving. Again, provocation, and so I'm sat in the back telling him if he doesn't drive like a sane human being he's going to have a problem. He calmed down a bit but was still driving like a maniac every now and again and trying to be clever. When we got out at the airport I felt like filling him in as well but it was a case of just get out of the country, leave them to it and just don't go back.
In a country/situation such as that, discretion certainly is the better part of valour. The coppers won't help you; they'll side with the locals (a quick look at the internet after the first attempted mugging tuned me in).
By the way, the pub wasn't a tourist pub. It was full of Turks who, to be fair, were no bother. The mob of lads over the road, rapidly increasing in numbers and staring at the 4 of us sat in the corner, was another matter. As I said, when you grew up in a certain environment and had experience of watching various edgy situations developing, you knew that this was another. You can spot it a mile off with experience.
That's just a couple of examples, and quite a few things happened in the space of a week. Very edgy people on the make was my experience. And, monumental bullies who seemed to thrive on intimidation, picking off what they thought were vulnerable targets (odds in their favour, their country, foreigners don't know the lay of the land and so on).
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