Deeper still and deeper...
Just returned from a business trip to Istanbul and, though I hadn't much time, couldn't resist making an excursion to my old haunts in the Aksaray/Yenikapi neighbourhood. (Incidentally, I disagree with those who keep writing it's a dangerous neighbourhood: there's a risk of getting ripped off - especially if you listen to the street hawkers' BS - but I've never felt physically threatened.)
It seems the Turkish authorities have finally established the balance they have been angling for in previous years: willing to tolerate certain activities - but these must be kept out of sight of "decent" people in this dirt-poor, socially conservative and religious neighbourhood. Several of the smaller hostess bars have recently added double entrance parts (most of the big ones had them already) so that passers-by don't inadvertently catch a glimpse of the action inside. Even some seedy dumps who'd done better to buy new restrooms had made such investments, so it must have been done subject to pressure.
But the quality of the mongering keeps going down! In the old days (5-6 years ago) there was an abundance of good looking and reasonably well-educated Russian and Ukranian girls, who spoke languages and mastered good conversation. A couple of years back, the quality of ru/ua girls had dropped significantly, but a number of Central Asian women of quite high quality had moved in to keep up standards. Now, most of the providers are plain girls (in the general sense of the word - some of them look quite OK) from Moldovia plus Romanians who - for reasons that escape me - pretend to be Moldovan.
Take the following example: I was sitting relatively early in the day in Irmak and caught a glimpse of a little bottle-blonde creature in tight jeans. My first thought was "what is that 13 yo doing here?", but when she turned around what I saw was the more experienced face of an adult woman. (Ultimately her Moldovan passport showed her to be 22 years of age.) I couldn't help the temptation of bedding the shortest woman of my experience, so we negotiated a price of 100 Turkish Lira for two pops. Prices used to be a variable 70-100 TL according to quality, but these days even the plainest girl's opening bid is 100 Euros and 100 TL was the lowest I could squeeze it.
We went to Orange Hotel and the "party" began. I should say that the girl did not have an attitude problem: in her own way she was friendly enough. But... she had no condoms and fully expected to do the job without. (Don't worry - I'd brought my own.) She could see no reason to take a shower and looked surprised when I took to the bathroom to clean up a bit. And, she was a reluctant kisser and winced when I asked for a blowjob. She began to massage the tip of my "unit" with her lips and caress it with her tongue, but would go no further than that. When I enquired what's wrong with her, she conceded (and showed me) that she had a sick tooth that obviously made both deep kissing and BJ very painful. OK, well... I felt sorry for the poor girl, but what can I say other than... extremely low class? She was clearly a peasant girl or an off-shoot of the urban proletariat in Kishniev to whom coming to Istanbul amounted to "moving up in the world".
On my only other getaway (in the evening this time) I picked up a plump blonde from Gold Can. She admitted freely to be Romanian and conversed with me in Italian. At first I put this down to the fact that Romanian and Italian are related languages - but, no no, she had worked for a couple of years in Italy. In the same profession? Si, naturalmente! But, she was so happy to be out of Italy, because the Carabinieri had really begun to hassle the working girls. Er yeah, baby... it's just... the paramilitary Carabinieri - as far as I know - don't inspect nightclubs, but they do patrol the highways. Which being so, by her own near-admission before joining the Istanbul club scene she had been standing next to roads somewhere in northern Italy offering blowjobs to the motorists.
To this has it come. "Sic transit semper gloria mundi."
