Quite Disappointed with the Turk

That is fascinating. Sounds like a nice trip otherwise, and I hope you and your wife had a great time. For some trips, it's good not to have to navigate all the arrangements across the language barrier. I have never been to Turkey nor anywhere near. So all I have is speculation on the Meerschaum market. It sounds like what you saw at the markets was altogether tourist merchandise, souvenir stuff, overpriced and for the most part shoddy. Somewhere there are Meerschaum pipe markets geared to real pipe smokers and wholesalers, I presume. There you'd need to engage your guide or someone who speaks the language to sniff out a higher level person who could deal. Finding the pipes and a good intermediary would take a chunk of time, not what you have on a vacation trip. My wife and I tried to buy wedding rings in the Provinces of France, with the help of friends fluent in the language, but ended up in the New York diamond district where my wife had much knowhow, and I think we did pretty well. We loved France, but for serious dealing, we needed solid footing. Boy, I was impressed with the security in the diamond district; they ain't just messing around.

Madox07: Was there any decent PipeTobacco available at tobacconists?I'd guess tobacco products are fairly cheaply priced there,

I would think it would be a dicey time to va-cay in turkey.

There was a thread sometime ago where one of the few famous turkish carvers was quoted with saying that all the good pipes went to Europe and America. Turks smoke cigarettes and tourists buy souvenirs only. His words. Might have been Bekler, but I'm not sure.

This is odd to me. When I was in Turkey a couple of years ago on a cruise there were a couple of shops devoted solely to meershaum and they had scads of pipes, some of them outrageously expensive. I bought a dragon claw meer in a fitted case after I bartered the guy down to about 1/3 of what he was asking and still thought I overpaid compared to what I could get a baki meer for with a real vulcanite stem.

I have been in Turkey a few times. I think you really have to be lucky enough to be in the right place to find a real meerschaum carver. I found one in Marmaris - he had hundreds of pipes, in every carving you could imagine. I bought a twin set of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson - the carver very subtly carved my initials into them when I bought them. I never saw any carvers though in Istanbul and certainly not in any of the bazaars.
This thread reminded me of my set - I haven't smoked them in some time: perhaps today :puffpipe:
Mike

Did you actually beat him? He's pretty good.

Jvnshr,so judging by this and keeping the average salaries in mind,for the majority of local smokers in Türkey, tobacco is far from being cheap.

Maybe you just went to the wrong place? There must be some good Meerschaum pipes there to be had, maybe in some other town? I'm not suggesting you should have driven all around Turkey of course.
Was the coffee at least good?

Just like anywhere, there are few pipe smokers in Turkey and thus few meerschaum carvers who are making pipes for smokers and not tourists. I visited one, back in 2003, in Ankara. Nice fellow who used to make his bucks by heading out to US Navy ships and hawking his pipes to the sailors. Still have the pipe, I think I paid $60 (yes, fifteen years ago) and it still smokes beautifully. Since then I read about the fellow who is supposed to make the best smokers in Turkey. His shop, or stall, is in something called the Arasta Bazaar and it is right next to the Blue Mosque, a major tourist site in the area of Istanbul that every tourist will visit. (Ten minute walk from the Grand Bazaar.) It pops up on google maps as "Meerschaum Pipes Personally Handerafted" (Yes, that typo is in the google maps title.) Next time I'm in Istanbul...

Reading about Turkey also reminded me of the last time I was there, 2013, with students, organized tour. Our guide, as it turned out, was a big time smoker. Weirdly, a former student sent along some posh cigars just before my trip and I had those, and my pipe, and the guide and I had several fine evenings the finest being one nice, fantastic red wine, perfect temps, and the two of us sitting around the hotel pool with a dramatic evening view of the Med. Perfect. I asked him as we traveled about tobaccos and all. He recommended nothing Turkish. I asked him how Turks get American or European tobacco. As there is an 18% duty, he said the black market was the only way. But, of course, it was a risk for anyone trying to sell that way. So, last night of the tour, we are having our farewell dinner in Istanbul, in a very touristy area, and I see this wee stall with a guy selling Turkish wooden pipes (which are not very good). Guide comes over and we both are looking. I ask about tobacco. Guide says, "it will only be bad stuff." Then he asks the seller, seller responds, and guide roars with laughter. Seller then pulls open a drawer, one behind the counter, and it is stuffed full of a wide variety of American and European tobaccos (at extraordinary prices). So you can get it, but you'll pay.

I just bought this Cavalier from MeerQueen a couple of weeks ago for $195.00

It arrived from Istanbul in three days, free shipping (UPS)