To them I was just another backpacker on tour with a bundle of traveller’s cheques and a camera in my knapsack. They decided to leave me alone when they saw the condition of my boots which didn’t look like they’d last the course to India.

I strolled around the grand mosques and palaces, was dutifully impressed and then prepared to get back on the road. I got myself a Turkish-English dictionary and mailed a couple of postcards to my folks back home to let them know that I was still alive.