As an 18 year old on a GAP year in Europe, I took to hijacking friend’s holidays.
This particular trip was with a German couple and their friend to Tunisia. As one does in a Northern African country, we went for a camel ride. All things were going well, until we got off for a half-way break surrounded by nothing but just tufts of vegetation. One of the guides came up next to me and put his arm around me which was very odd. In that first moment, all I remember thinking was “is this how kidnapping starts?” After trying to force the fear out of my eyes, the guide started asking me personal questions as he gripped my shoulders tighter. He asked whether I was single and, without skipping a beat, I said “no” and pointed to my other companion. Unfortunately he did not react (still in shock I guess), the guide laughed and said he did not believe me.
Luckily for me that was the end of his games. However, this was not the end of the locals' undivided attention. We ventured out again from the safety of the resort to a local market with a preplanned pretense of a relationship with my male friend. This time he was approached by a Tunisian local and it turns out the Tunisian man offered to buy me for 2000 camels. I am not sure what my German friend would do with 2000 camels… A word of advice for the single blonde traveller to Northern Africa, have a bulletproof story about the whereabouts of your ‘husband’.
2,030
