A lesson learnt in Istanbul

When I landed in Istanbul, because of my prejudice formed from reading material posted by travellers on the web, I spent the first 2 days behaving like a typical moron of a tourist, so cocooned in my own safety net, just afraid to engage and make eye contact, and ending up letting these nice people down. 
Self preservation. Or so I thought.

Until I somehow got caught up in small talk with a young trader.

Him : where are you from ?

Me : Malaysia

Him : Selamat Datang! 

Me : Terima Kasih ! Wow, where'd you learn to speak Malay ?

His friend : just ignore him, he drives me crazy. I don't even know what he's talking about 

Me : but his diction is excellent. And he speaks really well.

Him : ( oh boy, he goes on to impress me with even more rapid fire Malay . Sales pitch, mind you, sales pitch. )

We continue talking for sometime until I reveal that I can muster up some Chinese words

Him : ( face changes colour ) I don't like the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans

Me : why ?

Him : because everytime I open my mouth and greet them , they look terrified and run away from me

Me : haha , they're just afraid since they haven't heard many nice things about the traders here ( I laugh but I'm feeling rather sad for him )

Back on the bus, I think to myself that hey, omg, I too am guilty of that, we have hurt their feelings in our urgency to stay safe. And boy, have our predecessors done a great job. No one wants to bother us now, because they think we're either nuts, racist or stuck up. They'll never think that it's fear that's holding us back because (don't laugh) they think we're all capable of whopping their asses like black ninjas and Jackie Chan. Seriously....I know....

When I went under the Galata Bridge, a restaurant staff galantly welcomed me with a big smile and open arms and yet I scurried away like a miserable rat. 

He went : " Welcome to Istanbul, I know you are afraid of me, but let me tell you something....."
And I went : " Ya, ya, ya, ok byeeeee ....byeeeeeeeeee " and rushed away.
Man, I feel really awful about that. I still do. 

That was the turning point, I was a changed tourist on the 3rd day.