I went to chora church as I had bought the Istanbul museum pass so it was included. We found the neighborhood really odd as there was no one there empty streets and a bunch of m,en just looking at us, it was 2 pm even while we were waiting for the bus one man just parked the car in front of us and waited till we left that place , later I found out the inhabitants are Russian prostitutes and the area isn't safe at all, another place I have heard about is aksaray , but the problem is I use google maps and to catch some public transportation we need to go there for far away places like malls, flea markets.
My question is are these places really dangerous should we avoid them at all cost. Aleena-Ray33, Laleli and Aksaray are heavily commercial areas during the day. Huge number of wholesalers in textiles and clothing.
However at night, there are some ladies of the night roaming around. But is it alright if I have to stop there while in transit, like take metro or bus while going somewhere? I didn't notice that about aksaray as the tram stops there but laleli was clearly one, there was something definitely odd about it, like the area around chora church was a poor locality and men there look at you differently, not nice. You will be fine. You have some not so elegant ladies patrolling near Simit Saray down the road to Yenikapi and not so great guys approaching single males with offers.
In general this activity is much less than in the past. People interested in such things need to look and it is not out in the open like in some Asian centers. The term red light district is an overstatement. It is a joke of such a district ;. This is also not taking place at the tramway, subway, bus stops etc. Laleli is full of tourists many of them catering to Iranian and Arab guests. The textile district is empty at night but you wont be roaming around there anyhow and although it is empty it is perfectly safe.
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