Turkish Tea Part One: Leather, Rugs, and Saddam’s Brother?

In 1991, during my second tour of Sea Duty, I was in VS-28 and we deployed on the USS Forrestal to the Mediterranean Sea.   During that deployment I was the Flight Deck Coordinator for the squadron and I worked alongside two other Chief Petty Officers most everyday on the flight deck.  Gary “Hummer” Humrichhouser was the Line Chief, and Bob “Bombin’ Bob” Hubbard was the ordnance Chief.  Not only did we work side by side on the flight deck, we had many fun liberty calls.  Neither Hummer nor myself were the typical drunken sailor type.  Instead of finding the nearest bar, we would find a sidewalk café and get cappuccinos instead.   Here’s a story about our Antalya Turkey visit.

Post Gulf War Deployment

This deployment was just after the first Gulf War ended.  In October of 1991, the USS Forrestal pulled into Antalya Turkey for a port visit.  This was my first time to actually visit Turkey so I was excited to see what the culture was like.  Most ports that we pulled into had items that they were famous for.  Egypt was THE place to buy gold.  Naples Italy was THE place to buy Cameo’s.  Spain was THE place for paella and flan (another Hummer story).  Evidently, Turkey was THE place to buy leather jackets and Persian rugs.  It was also right up there with Egypt for the best deals on gold.

On the first day we had liberty, Hummer, Bombin’ Bob, and I got off the ship at fleet landing and rode the bus into town.  The first place I remember seeing after getting off the bus was a food “souk” (basically a marketplace or Bazaar).  It was pretty cool walking through that and smelling all the aroma’s.  We also found a sort of “gold souk” as well.  The way the shops and stores were set up, most “types” of store would be in the same area.  If you wanted food you went to the food souk area.  If you wanted gold you went to the gold souk area.  Each area had many stores or shops of the same kind clustered in that area.  There was an area for leather goods and an area for Persian Rugs as well.

Getting The Goods In Antalya

While we were in Antalya, Hummer and I went shopping for leather jackets.  Both of us were very experienced “Hey Joe-ers” and could haggle down prices on just about anything.  For those who don’t know, a “Hey Joe” is anyone who is trying to sell you something in a foreign (at least to us) port.  Most Hey Joe-ers set up shop as near to fleet landing as possible in order to get the most traffic.  Some of their best sales are around midnight when drunken sailors are returning to the ship and will buy anything….if they have any money left.  They get their name from saying “Hey Joe” to you as you pass and they try to sell your “real” Rolex watches for $20.  The term “Hey Joe” is synonymous to anyone you want to buy from.

Eventually, Hummer and I found a leather shop and after finding the perfect jackets, we haggled for the best price we could. Usually the asking price is ridiculously high, like $500 or something.  Every now and then an inexperienced sailor would just pay that price because that’s how things work in the U.S., but it doesn’t work that way overseas.  You never pay the asking price; you always negotiate.  

I honestly do not remember what we paid, but it was maybe $80 or so.  We both got the same jacket as I remember which is a tactic experienced Hey Joe-ers can use…buying in quantity to get an even lower price.  I wore that jacket for YEARS afterwards, and my kids even wore it long after I had.  They thought it was the coolest thing. 

Seeking Perfection Or Not…

After we bought our jackets,  we headed over to a Persian Rug store.  I think Bomb’n Bob wanted one.  I don’t recall me or Hummer getting one.  We mostly went to have fun “Anti Hey Joe” ing.  We were told by the merchant that each rug was handmade and had an imperfection sewn into it.  No rug could be perfect because only Allah was perfect.  After we learned this, then we would go into these rug stores and ask for machine made rugs since we were looking for a perfect rug.  We were not well received after our request as you can imagine.

It was kind of funny after this port call because you could find Persian Rugs stashed in every imaginable place around the ship.  You see, sailors do not get very much storage space, and a rug takes up more than is available.  Any kind of storage place likely had a rug or two stashed in there until the end of the deployment.  I know the rug sellers made a ton of cash from our visit!

Is That Who We Think It Is?

As we were wandering around town that first day off the ship we stumbled onto a restaurant that caught our eye.  It wasn’t necessarily the food that was on display that caught our eye, it was the proprietor.  This guy looked EXACTLY like Saddam Hussein.  We joked that it must be his brother or something.  We spied this place from across the street and didn’t go closer, we just continued on and joked about the resemblance to Saddam.

Later, on another liberty day, we were just enjoying being off the ship when we decided to go check out “Saddam’s Place” as we had started to call it.  The real name escapes me, probably because it was in Turkish and we couldn’t read it anyway.  This time we strategically approached from the opposite side of the street so that we could make a causal close encounter.  There was a display case next to the sidewalk, so we nonchalantly loitered there looking at the food but secretly checking out Saddam’s brother.  He noticed us looking at the display and approached us.

One of Two Universal Languages; Food

Communicating in a foreign port is often difficult due to language barriers.  English is fairly common in other countries and most people know some.  We knew zero Turkish.  I am going to refer to the proprietor as Sam from now on because he does not deserve to be called “Saddam’s brother” anymore.  Turns out this guy was SUPER nice – he really treated us well.  Sam approached us and, in broken English, asked if we were hungry.  Actually we were, even though we could literally not identify any of the food on display.  We tried to tell him we did not know what any of the food was, so he said, “Come, come, I show you” and proceeded to usher us into his restaurant.  When we were seated he brought out this huge platter that had a little of everything on it.  He said, “You try.  If like, I bring more.”  Man that was some great food as I remember!  We joked about goats eyes being so delicious, but honestly it was pretty cool to be sampling a plethora of authentic Turkish food that way.  By the time we left, Sam was our best friend and we were stuffed!!  Hospitality at its BEST!