8 hours ago
13
I travelled alone a lot when I was younger and often got myself into stupid situations. You think you’re immortal when you’re in your 20s.
One such occasion happened when I was 25 and travelling solo in Egypt, not long after the turn of the century. I had taken an overnight bus from Cairo to Dahab, which dropped me and my fellow passengers off in the middle of nowhere. I had to get a shared taxi into town at about 3am – one where everyone sat up the back in a ute tray – then find somewhere to stay.
I was the only tourist in the taxi and definitely the only woman. When we reached Dahab, things quickly went south. I didn’t speak Arabic, so I couldn’t understand what the driver was saying, but it was quite obvious he was becoming increasingly aggressive toward me.
As things got more and more heated, two Egyptian men who were also in the back of the ute stepped in. The taxi driver was gesturing to me and the other guys shouted back at him. They relayed to me that the driver wanted more money. I went to grab my wallet, but they told me to put it away. They paid him off themselves and the driver left. Suddenly I was alone with these two men, in the middle of the night, wondering if I’d gotten myself into an even hairier situation than the one I’d just exited.
The men asked where I was staying and I replied that I hadn’t booked accommodation. So they took me to a hostel, ensured the owner only charged me the locals’ rate, then disappeared without asking anything in return.
I woke up the next day determined to find – and thank – those two men. It took me three days of searching the city high and low, but I eventually found them, working in an internet cafe. It turned out they were medical students funding their studies by installing internet all over Egypt. I was a student nurse, so we had a lot in common.
They invited me to their home town, where I stayed for a few days and met their wonderful friends, families and future wives. Every time I went out, they escorted me to make sure I was OK. We stayed in contact for years afterwards.
You often meet the worst people when travelling alone as a young woman. I have been robbed everywhere, in every language under the sun. But those men were not motivated by anything selfish in helping me. I think they’d have done that for anyone, simply because it was the right thing to do.
They started as strangers, but I now regard them as two of the best people I’ve ever met.
