Konya Warnings and Dangers

When I was in a supermarket, I was speaking English with my wife, and an old gentleman came up to me and began speaking in English. He told me he wanted to practice his English with me, and thus began a three hour trip with him. We had long conversations on various topics, but I still couldn't stop suspecting him, as I had read elsewhere that this "I want to practice my English" line was often used by scam artists.

Anyway, we just went to various monuments with him, and we bid him farewell, telling him that we were tired. Nothing happened, although he did try to take us into a carpet shop, but only after we suggested that we wanted to look at carpets. I don't know what to make of the entire episode, the man could have genuinely wanted to practice his english with me, although I did lie to him about my origins, (I pretended to be from Pakistan).

This shouldn't stop you from talking to the locals, they are very kind and helpful, but as is common sense, always be a little bit on guard. If anything does happen, there is a tourist police brigade, and I found the tourist police to be very kind, and fluent in English (I went there for some info, not because of any problems - they even let me use the internet for free!)