Last month I was solo traveling Dahab
Egypt, I woke up at 2:15 am in a hostel dorm, through the tiny little ray of
light I saw a guy named Patric who was sleeping in the bed next to mine waving
at me and pointing up at the upper bed next to me, there slept a guy named
Adham, suddenly I started seeing Adham throwing up beside my bed and his friend
Nada jumping from her bed and repeatedly saying “it’s okay it’s okay”, I started
getting up in my bed and I saw her helping him descending the bed stairs and helping
him to go to the toilet, she immediately took tissues and went to clean behind
him and then came back to support him in the toilet, after he finished she
supported him back to the bed and started to comfort him by gentle words and tried
to make him laugh and not to be shy or sad over what happened, she wasn’t
disgusted and showed her friend care and compassion you might not see often.
That made me recall what happened to me
the year before in Sri Lanka, when I made an accident with the scooter I was
driving with friends I only knew for one month, how Omar, George from Egypt and
Hassan from Iraq took care of me and the guy named Mohamed that was sitting
behind me *who we only knew the day before*, they took us to the hospital with
several injuries and although the ambulance took us to the public hospital *
which was the most unclean utility I ever saw* they made sure Mohamed who had a
very bad cut in his foot and I take anodyne and they stayed up with us the
whole night until the morning when they moved us to a private hospital and make
sure they gave us medication and how the girls who were traveling with us came
in the very morning and had a really loud arguing with the hospital there due
to some issues I can’t recall, and they returned with us to the public hospital
and checked us in, and made sure we were examined and that the cut in Mohamed
was cleaned and bind and stayed with us until the night while another friend
named Eslam who was traveling with us but happened to be in another city came
to us with another friend named Vania from Hongkong and stayed the whole night
with us after the owner of the Hostel and her husband came to visit us. In the
morning Basma, Amira and Aya came and brought me a breakfast and sat with me on a
bed in a very strange men medication hall dorm and kept talking with me and trying
to cheer me up, later I found that they had took the scooter and drove it back
to the guy we rented it from and gave him the compensation money which was 200$
and they only asked me to pay 90$! Omar and Eslam spent that last night with us
until the morning they were arguing with the management because Mohamed was
staying in a really filthy dorm and they were afraid that we might have infection,
and called the embassy and a lot of issues. That morning Hassan came and helped
me checking out and pay the bill, and asking about Mohamed’s bill we’ve noticed
it was so expensive and after Omar and Eslam came to pay the bill for Mohamed
found that they charged him for staying for eight days while he actually stayed
for two, and after arguing with the head of the financial department payed the
right price. I will never forget the emotional support these friends gave me,
how they stood by my side and showed me compassion and love even though the
accident was my fault! I would never have felt that without travelling alone to
a country I only heard of two months earlier.
After recalling these unique memories and
reflecting on what had just happened, I’ve come to realize how travel make you
so vulnerable and open to every helping hand and how the travel shows you what
the core of anyone made of and helps you make friends for life.
