A British man was stunned at what he saw after walking through Istanbul’s “most dangerous” neighbourhood.
YouTuber Wendall, who visits some of the most notorious neighbourhoods around the world, appeared at the start of the video with his mate “dodgy Dave”.
They explained they were at Stansted, ready to fly to Istanbul so Dave could get a hair transplant. And while they were in Istanbul, Wendall planned to take a stroll through its “most dangerous ghetto”.
The first part of the video focused on Dave getting his new hair, but while he was being prepared for the procedure, Wendall asked staff at the facility about which neighbourhood was considered the roughest.
“I want danger, I want to get robbed,” he told them. They told him to head to Göztepe.
He met another friend, Danny, outside the facility and set about getting to Göztepe. Their cab driver on the way there said Dolapdere, a district in central Istanbul, was the city’s most dangerous area – so they headed there instead.
They were pleasantly shocked when they arrived, saying the area didn’t seem “too bad”. Wendall joked: “There’s more danger here of having a heart attack walking up the hilly streets.”
Wendall tried some local cuisine, a chicken doner kebab that he described as “six out of 10”, but couldn’t get his hands on any beer as it was a Muslim part of the city.
As they continued, they came across some young boys asking for money – buying them sweets instead – and spotted police searching someone, which Wendall explained was the “first sign of criminality” they had seen in Dolapdere.
And after they’d made it out, the pair seemed somewhat disappointed. Danny joked: “I think the most dangerous thing was the spicy sauce on that kebab you had.”
So the following day they headed to Göztepe, the first recommendation they’d had in the hair transplant facility.
The streets looked similar to how they were in Dolapdere, but this time Wendall got chatting with a local man who had lived in the area for 60 years. He invited Wendall into his “very basic” home and gifted him some beads. Wendall bought him some groceries in return.
The YouTuber said as they continued their stroll: “People have perceptions, because places are a bit rundown or maybe not as developed as they’re used to, that they’re dangerous areas – but they’re not!”
Wendall was keen to note how there was still extreme poverty in the areas they visited, highlighted by how Istanbul’s Trump Towers – a lavish complex including shops, offices and flats – “rise above” the areas he visited. He concluded: “The divide between the have and havenots in this city couldn’t be any bigger.”
