If we focused too much on everything we read on social media, we’d be left thinking the human race is doomed. There’s so much hate and anger and frustration, and we don’t hear nearly enough stories of kindness and hope to counter balance. That’s why we decided to share just a handful of the times that the kindness of strangers has restored our faith in humanity.
They often leave me thinking “what would I have done if roles were reversed?” As much as I count myself as a friendly and open person, I’m ashamed to say that often I realise I probably wouldn’t have done the same. Most of the time it wouldn’t even cross my mind. That’s one of the many things that travel has opened my eyes to, and I hope will help me to make changes in the future.
Whilst we love a good landscape, or a truly wild adventure, it is often the encounters with the local people that are the most memorable part of any trip and the ones we haven’t shared too much of on our blog yet.
There are so many people who have touched my heart in the last decade of travel, here are a few of my favourite memories.
The kindness of strangers: 10 moments that restored our faith in humanity
“Thanks for coming to our country” - El Salvador
El Salvador was a country I visited in 2008 with my sister, and one we were advised to steer clear of.
Few foreigners were travelling there at the time, and word on the backpacking scene was that it was far too dangerous. ‘You’ll be mugged on the streets’, ‘you’ll be held up at knife point on the locals buses’, ‘you’ll be kidnapped’ were just a few of the stories coming our way.
To be honest I could write a whole post on how wonderful the people of El Salvador were. I have rarely ever felt so welcome in a country.
My favourite memory is of travelling on a packed local bus (where I can’t count the number of people who got up to offer us their seat) and noticed that an older man was munching away on what looked like mango but with some red and white dip to go with it (which turned out to be chilli and salt).
He noticed me staring, and the next thing I know he had called over the seller and bought me some of my own. As we were travelling on the local chicken bus, I doubt he was one of the more well off Salvadorans, yet he bought a comparatively rich westerner this treat, with nothing expected in return.
Throughout our trip, we were bought coffees with a cheery ‘thanks for coming to our country’ and were accompanied by locals who would offer us a lift, telling us that ‘the bus will take you too long’.
I’m glad I ignored the rumours and it’s a country I am forever grateful we decided not to skip.
Turning up for coffee uninvited - Laos
This is probably one of my favourite people stories of all.
We’d taken a motorcycle up from the city of Pakse in the south, heading to the Bolevan Plateau for a loop of the waterfalls and coffee plantations. Just as we were making our way back from the second waterfall the heavens opened. The rain bucketed it down (like it does in the this part of the world) and it was beginning to feel unsafe to be on the mud road which was slowly turning into a mud river.
We saw a cafe nearby and made a run for it. We promptly sat down and a man came out and asked if we wanted a coffee. As we got chatting using an English dictionary to help with translation, it turned out this wasn’t in fact a cafe, but his own private home!
So after we waltzed in uninvited and sat down at this guys house, his first response wasn’t to wonder what on earth we were doing, it was to simply offer a coffee and have a chat. And we’re still friends on Facebook to this day!
Monks in Laos
Lost in translation - Ukraine
Getting the bus between Ukraine and Moldova was not one of my finer travel moments. My friend and I enlisted the help of a friendly local to buy the train tickets, given our extremely limited grasp of Ukrainian.
The buying of the tickets seemed to go smoothly. We’d board a night train which should arrive in Chisinau, Moldova 12 hours later. We boarded the train and found it fairly easy to fall asleep to the gentle rocking of the carriage. On waking the following morning, we were expecting to see that we were nearly at civilisation and were alarmed to discover it still looked like we were out in the sticks.
Eastern Europe was in the middle of a heatwave and a few sweltering hours later we had drunk the last of our water and decided to try and communicate with our two Ukrainian bunkmates. With no common language we did the only thing we could think of and drew a clock on a piece of paper.
We then motioned for them to write the time the train would arrive on the clock. To our horror it wasn’t a 12 hour train journey we had embarked on, but 24 hours! Unlike trains in much of Asia, there were no food and drink sellers, and we’d obviously brought nothing, thinking that we would arrive in time for breakfast.
Our roommates then proceeded to unwrap their homemade lunch and offered to share every bit with us, including the vodka!
Tea & food during Ramadan - Jordan
We visited Jordan at a special time of year, Ramadan. This meant that the vast majority of the country ate nothing between sunrise and sunset, not even a sip of water. During our visit we tried to avoid eating lunch, or at least not to eat in front of the locals.
Being avid hikers, one of the things we had been most looking forward to was the 14km hike through a canyon between Dana and Feynan Ecolodge. We visited in June and while the temperatures were fairly cool in Dana, as soon as you descended to the canyon, it was hot. Really hot.
Towards the end of the hike you begin walking through some Bedouin settlements, and despite the fact that they couldn’t touch a drop, almost every family invited us in to their tents for tea! Later that evening after watching sunset over the mountains, we were invited into another family home.
Not only were we offered copious amounts of delicious Bedouin tea (boiled with sugar and sage, it might be known as “type 2 diabetes tea” but it’s worth it!) we were also given homemade bread still warm from the oven. Sometimes these encounters can be the pre-curser to a sales pitch. Not in Jordan.
The Siq at Petra, Jordan
‘Just take my phone’ - Australia
Australia has been our home for the last five years, and it’s been a pleasure getting to know this amazing country and its people. Aussies are always friendly and jovial, and one of my favourite stories really highlights how wonderful they are.
My sister and I drove to the drop dead gorgeous Kanangra-Boyd National Park, around four hours north of Sydney. We hadn’t realised just how bad the access road to the park would be, and as we slowed down more and more to avoid the various sticks, rocks and ruts, I realised that I was going to be very late to meet my Malaysian friend back in Sydney who was only in town that night.
Our mobiles had no signal so I couldn’t even call to let them know. At this point a camper van drives in and two Aussies jump out and invite us to join them later for a campfire beer, and even said they had enough dinner to share.
When we explained that I needed to get back to town, they then offered to lend me their mobile (that still had reception) whilst they went for a hike.
Imagine that: lending someone your brand new iphone and trusting them to leave it at your camp for when you return. This is pretty typical of Australians and it’s a quality I absolutely love.
Green tea for all - Myanmar (Burma)
I don’t know how it is now that tourism has opened up, but we visited Myanmar when it was still difficult to get a visa, and it was way off the Southeast Asian backpacker trail.
I remember noting at the end of our first day that my face noticeably ached. I realised it was from smiling so hard at people all day, because that’s how hard they smiled at you. It was contagious and an amazing realisation!
My favourite memory comes from our trek between Kalaw and Inle Lake. We had two guides and spent our days walking amongst the farmland and stopping in at various people’s houses for meals. I casually mentioned to our guide that the only green tea I’ve ever liked was in Burma. It was fresh and delicious, and unlike any I’d ever tasted.
On our final day he disappeared into a building and when he came out, he’d bought me a big bag of green tea from a shop! We were only charged $10 (through an agency) each to have private guides for the walk, and so I can’t imagine that his wage was much - especially as we had two guides. However he’d bought me - a comparatively rich westerner - a huge bag of green tea. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.
You’ll also notice as you travel the country that every house and shop also provides green tea free of charge to people passing by. One family even gave us tea and tofu crackers and kept filling them both up until we couldn’t bear it anymore! Not once were we asked to pay.
Monsoon rain in Pyin Oo Lwin - Myanmar
‘You must come for lunch/dinner/to stay’ - New Zealand
New Zealand was the first country that got me hooked on travel. As a solo traveller it was the perfect place to go because everyone was so friendly that you rarely felt alone.
I lost count of the amount of times I was invited to stay round at complete strangers homes - sometimes this wasn’t even after a long interaction, but over a few words exchanged at a bus stop or whilst snapping a photo for someone.
As soon as they heard I was travelling alone the invites would start rolling in. At first I found it a little strange, and then, as I got used to it, I realised it was the most wonderful thing I’d ever experienced.
I’ve since returned several times to New Zealand and am happy to say this isn’t limited to solo travellers, even as a couple we were invited to stay with people many times.
The best ever tuk-tuk driver - Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is a friendly country, and you’ll feel it as soon as you step outside the airport. In fact I’m ashamed to say that they were so friendly that on our first day walking around Colombo I kept thinking they were going to try and sell us something. They never did.
When we got to Mirissa on the south coast we met a tuk tuk driver. Now, dare I say, they are usually not our favourite people, as they invariably try to over charge us by about ten times and come on with a pretty aggressive sales pitch! However, this man was different.
After the first journey, he asked us what our plans were, and we liked Jaya so much that we chose to travel all over the south coast with him.
He would drive hours to pick us up from wherever we were, just to make sure we were safe and didn’t mistakenly jump in with a crazy tuk-tuk driver or get over charged by a taxi. We kept hiring him because we enjoyed his company so much and despite what must have been long journeys for him he was always so enthusiastic.
On our final journey he even invited us to his family home for lunch. It was such an amazing spread and more just kept on coming. He even tried to give us more food to take away! We were genuinely sad when we left the area, his laugh was one of the most infectious I have ever heard.
Keeping us safe - Venezuela
Venezuela was another of those countries that came with a lot of warnings. In fact my sister and I booked flights (who could resist a Lufthansa special at GBP 300 return?!) without thinking much past how much we wanted to see Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall in the world.
After reading up in the Lonely Planet, we did start to get a little nervous about visiting a country with the highest murder rate in the world (at that time). In fact a line from the LP about an area in Caracas mentions ‘never close the eyes in the back of your head’. It sent shivers down my spine.
Now, whilst I won’t say that we always felt completely safe there, I will say that the vast majority of the general population in Venezuela were absolutely lovely. One evening, our four hour ferry ride from the mainland to one of the islands was coming to an end and we started to feel very uncomfortable.
We were being watched and seemingly tailed as we moved around the boat by a group of men, and at this point it was night time. A family noticed what was going on and invited us to sit with them. When the boat pulled up, they then told us to run straight to the bus. They followed behind to make sure we weren’t alone. Whilst ‘run’ is never something you want to hear in that kind of situation, we felt so much better knowing that the family were looking out for us.
No money, no problem - Israel
We’re going to be brutally honest here, Israelis are definitely not the friendliest people we’ve encountered on our travels (this is the country when they even refer to themselves as prickly pears after all!). But that made this interaction stand out even more.
We arrived at a restaurant in a fairly remote area and sat down ready to order. It was then that we remembered to ask if they take card, which they didn’t and there was no ATM in the area.
Having little cash on us, we ordered a meal to share. To our surprise, the owner realised our situation and insisted on bringing out a lavish meal worth five times the money we had and charged us the cash we had on hand!
We absolutely couldn’t believe how generous he was to two total strangers.
Cards in Jerusalem
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What are your favourite travel encounters? Have you got any memories you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below.
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