“You are always under the gun” From robbery to rape: what dangers await lonely Russian women when traveling?

Russians told about harassment during trips to India and Egypt

Increasingly, women around the world are choosing to travel alone. Some go solo to safe and developed countries, while others are willing to risk their lives in pursuit of impressions in India, Egypt and other countries with a high level of crime. Disturbing news about the abduction and rape of tourists often comes from there: girls disappear without a trace or find themselves in a helpless position under the influence of drugs spiked by strangers. But even this does not stop the travelers. The Russians told Lenta.“, why they like to visit distant countries alone and what dangers they had to face.

What attracts women to solo travel

After the coronavirus pandemic, a new trend has emerged in the world, which is increasing every year — solo travel. According to the online booking service Booking, 63 percent of men and 54 percent of women do not want to see loved ones around on vacation. And even parents spoke out against holidays with children or spouses.

The main reason given by the majority of the surveyed tourists is “we want to make up for lost time and do not want to wait for others.” Moreover, as a study by the non-profit travel organization Road Scholar shows, women most often want to be alone on trips, and in general, women are eager to travel more often than men.

Analysts were also struck by the fact that many of the surveyed travelers (60 percent) turned out to be married, but not always a partner has the opportunity or desire to go on vacation with his wife. “Don’t let such stupidity as marriage interfere with your desire to explore the world,” one of the study participants commented on her answer.

Janice Waugh, editor of Solo Traveler magazine, also believes that there are more and more lonely people in the world who simply have no one to go on vacation with. “Some people don’t want to wait for friends to have the financial opportunity to travel with them,” she explained.

Janice noted that a solo trip is a unique opportunity to explore the world without family and friends who expect something from us. “This will help you find out what you really are like when no one you know is looking at you,” the expert concluded.

Where in the world is the most dangerous place to travel

When it comes to security, experts’ opinions differ. Some believe that traveling alone puts women at great risk, while others remind them that most violence against women usually comes from the men they live with, not from strangers.

Nevertheless, there are objectively dangerous places on the planet where the crime rate is simply higher, which means that it will be more risky for one girl to go there.

According to the rating of the analytical agency World Population Review, South Africa is the most dangerous for traveling girls, which retains one of the highest levels of violence against women. In addition, the World Population Review lists Brazil, Mexico, Iran, the Dominican Republic, Morocco, Egypt, Thailand and India.

At the same time, Afghanistan has become the least peaceful country in the annual risk study from International SOS for the fifth year in a row. In this anti-rating, Yemen, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria and even Russia are side by side with it.

At the same time, there is more and more news in the media that tourists are being subjected to violence and attacks even in Western developed countries — for example, in Spain, France or Greece. However, even such alarming statistics do not scare travelers who are used to coping with difficulties alone. What drives them to take risks?

“For them, a white man is a superstar”

As told by the interlocutor of the “Tape.” Polina is from Moscow, she did not always travel solo, but at some point in her life circumstances developed so that no one could go with her, so she had to spend her vacation alone and from this she began to get much more pleasure.

“I have already visited several countries alone — Great Britain, Italy, France, Portugal, Finland, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. I really like that on such trips you don’t depend on anyone, you follow your pace and feelings in everything. If you wanted to, you woke up at six in the morning and went to meet the dawn on the embankment, if you wanted to, you ate too much ice cream in the evening in the hotel room and just watch the series without going anywhere,” the Russian woman shares.

At the same time, in her life there were trips to countries that are considered dangerous for solo tourism, for example, to India. “Actually, I originally planned to go there with a guy, but we broke up on the trip, and I had to ride around India alone. Of course, to some extent it upset me, but I saw one of the most colorful countries on earth and I do not regret at all that I decided to continue this journey solo,” the girl shares.

I have always been, I think, a very brave person. And it never even occurred to me that something could happen to me, something could go wrong. On trips, I could only be worried about hypothetical troubles that could actually happen at home: for example, that I would get sick or my rented car would break down

Polina

The country, which is famous for poverty and beggars, is especially risky for single women of European appearance to visit, the Muscovite stressed. In India, she was constantly approached and asked to take a picture, wanted to touch, talk, random passers-by asked a lot of questions or just complimented.

“This is normal for India, you need to be prepared for this. In general, I have never felt unsafe. There was only one case that bothered me — when I had to take the night bus for 12 hours to Delhi, because I didn’t have time to buy a ticket for the train,” the tourist recalls.

There were recumbent places in the transport, which were closed with curtains. To save herself from unnecessary glances and annoying conversations, the Muscovite immediately closed the curtain and planned to spend the whole way like this. However, during the stop, the driver intruded on her — he was delivering water to fellow travelers.

At that moment, Polina was noticed by a young Indian lying on the next bed. “For them, a white person, especially a white girl, is basically like a movie star, as the owner of the hotel where I lived explained to me. Therefore, the increased attention to me did not surprise me,” the traveler explained the sudden interest of her fellow traveler.

The girl knew that Indians are sociable people, but during an innocent conversation, the fellow traveler began to actively invite a new acquaintance to his home for the night. He promised to provide shelter, food, and a transfer to the airport. Polina refused several times, but the interlocutor continued to insist on his own, promising that he would solve all her questions and arrange the most comfortable overnight stay.

They don’t understand rejection. You should be prepared for this during your trip to India. They will offer some inappropriate things many times, even an overnight stay. For them, “no” means nothing.

Polina

Polina still managed to refuse the man, although he continued to ask the same question until the last second of the bus ride, but, fortunately for the tourist, he got to one station earlier. But even despite this unpleasant incident, the Russian woman was satisfied with the trip and does not consider India as dangerous as it is portrayed in the media.

“Of course, you don’t need to think of yourself as a superhero and risk your life walking down the street in open clothes at night. In any country, not only in India, it can be dangerous. But for me, the trip to India still remained a very vivid memory. All the people I met were very kind and helpful to me, helped me book tickets, pay for hotels and find taxis if I had difficulties,” she said.

According to the girl, the most wonderful thing about solo travel is that they always come up to you to get to know you, start a conversation, share their experiences. Thus, the Muscovite got a lot of friends from different countries. “Another plus is that the brain is constantly working. After all, the responsibility for the trip cannot be shifted to a friend, which means that you have to constantly be on the lookout and solve issues with housing, transport, movement around the city,” the heroine clarifies.

Personally, I get a huge amount of natural dopamine from this. Every time I deal with another difficult situation on my own, I get high

Polina

The only trouble that Polina faced during her solo trips was expensive housing. It is much cheaper to rent a hotel room with a friend than alone. Moreover, you can share expenses on transport, food or wine in a restaurant with friends.

I have never encountered difficulties in the form of harassment or any kind of danger at all. I have a lot of luck with people. I don’t know how it turns out, maybe it’s some kind of luck. But I really always come across some amazing people, no matter where I am. I’m in Sicily now, and I already have a bunch of friends in Palermo who are begging me to come back here again.

Polina

“The best company is me”

Another resident of Moscow, Ksenia, also came across only positive experiences in solo travel. According to her, when she was a student, she often went somewhere with her classmates and enjoyed it. It was easy to go somewhere on vacation, since everyone was free.

“Then you grow up, your vacations don’t match, and you just try to adjust to someone. At some point I got tired and thought: “Why wait if I can go to the land of dreams right now! And the best company is me.” Everything is simple here: you choose a date, buy a ticket and go on an adventure,” Ksenia said.

You can spend two hours on the banks of the Thames, dangling your feet over the water with ice cream in your hand, you can book the coolest pasta restaurant in Rome for the evening or lie in bed until lunch, because you just wanted to. Of course, sometimes you want to share emotions or tell someone “Look how beautiful it is!” This is not enough, but you can always send “circles” to friends or family chat in Telegram

At the same time, the girl has not encountered negative situations on such trips and also believes that she is lucky. Only in some countries did the tourist feel uncomfortable, for example in Turkey and the Arab states of Oman and Bahrain.

“In Turkey, as you know, there is a lot of unwanted attention to all girls and tourists in general. Once I returned to the hotel in Gocek in the evening, and a local resident followed me for a long time, insistently wanted to get to know me. It was unpleasant, I had to change the route to walk through crowded and lighted streets,” Ksenia noted.

In Oman and Bahrain, she was in hot weather, her legs were covered, but she had a T-shirt on top, and the tourist was met with disapproving glances from the locals. There was no danger in them, but it was unpleasant for her to catch them on herself, she had to put on a shirt to cover everything.

Ksenia has already traveled alone to Germany, Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Greece (almost all European countries), and also flew to Turkey, India, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar. And he believes that such an experience should be lived, because in such trips there is always a place for adventure and selfishness

“Even when traveling, I sometimes use Tinder or The Breakfast apps for travel purposes. It sounds ridiculous, but I really like it when the locals can show you the city. Once in Amsterdam, I accidentally “matched” with a TV presenter, without even knowing about it. And when we came to the museum, everyone wanted to take a picture with him,” says the Russian woman.

The most memorable adventure for the girl was a trip to Norway four years ago. Ksenia has long wanted to visit the Scandinavian country and bought tickets for the May holidays.

“For seven days I walked around Oslo and small nearby towns, dined at a three-table restaurant on an island that could only be reached by boat, went to the opera and even fished. Once I came to eat seafood, ordered a huge tray of everything in the world, and the waiter said: “You’re alone, it’s for two!” And I did not refuse on purpose and ate it all with great pleasure, washed down with wine,” Ksenia happily recalls.

Rapist bartenders and drug cocktails

But to the other interlocutor of the “Tape.ru” was much less lucky. Olesya from St. Petersburg does not like to travel alone and decided to try this kind of vacation for the sake of experiment. Her first experience was really positive — the tourist visited Bangkok and even started a holiday romance with a local Russian.

I didn’t feel threatened by the locals. Everyone either didn’t care about me, or they tried to help me in some kind way if I got lost on the streets. Although they scared me before the trip, saying it was dangerous there, but I was generally satisfied. The most interesting thing was during my next trip

Olesya

Emboldened after a tour to Thailand, the girl decided to rush to Egypt in 2023. The tours to Hurghada were on fire, and the friends had no time, so they had to go alone again. According to Olesya, she remembers this vacation with a shudder.

On the second day of rest, the St. Petersburg woman found herself in a bar at the invitation of familiar tourists. The girl couldn’t find them in the restaurant, so she sat down at the bar and ordered a cocktail. Then a terrible thing happened — the tourist felt her legs go numb and her head began to spin. Because of the sudden nausea, the Russian woman rushed to the toilet. When she returned to the hall, she noticed the suspicious look of the bartender on her, but she did not attach any importance to this and went to the hotel to recover.

After reaching the room, the Russian woman could not calm down for a long time and suffered from nausea. She assumed that the bartender had drugged her cocktail, realizing that the girl had come alone.

In general, in Egypt you always feel yourself under the gun. A lot of times I’ve caught the greasy glances of local men. And they don’t even hesitate, they don’t turn away. I was just a piece of meat to these men.

Olesya

“I’ve already started praying that he won’t kill me.”

But the danger may be waiting not only in distant countries, but right under your nose — in your native country. Maria from Moscow was vacationing in Yevpatoria in 2022. There the girl met a man — he drove up in a car, rolled down the window and asked the way to the bank, and at the same time decided to find out the phone number of a stranger. In order to end the dialogue faster, the Muscovite shared her contact, but she was not going to continue communicating.

Maria refused the first offer of a meeting, but after a few more attempts she gave up. The couple decided to sit on the beach and at first the date went smoothly until the man showed the girl a gun hidden in his belt. He said the weapon needed to be “taken somewhere.”

I felt particularly uncomfortable — in Moscow, walking with a gun in your pocket is not that accepted, but I decided not to show it. While my companion was coming home and laying out his weapons, I was frantically thinking what to do — it was too late and there was nowhere to run, and I didn’t want to go in his company to a deserted beach in the evening

Maria

When the man returned to the car, the tourist offered to take a walk in the city center — Maria assumed that the attacker would not harm her in a crowd of people. But the plan didn’t work: the cavalier understood everything and got really angry. “A person has changed beyond recognition in a second. He started raising his voice at me, insulting and humiliating me. He said that I was stupid because I was scared of guns, that he was disgusted to be around me and all that sort of thing. I already started praying that he wouldn’t kill me,” Maria shared.

Then another “huge bearded man” got into the car, who turned out to be a friend of the driver. He found out about what happened between the couple and also started insulting the girl. The Muscovite managed to persuade a new acquaintance to bring her home, after which she locked herself in and did not go outside until the morning.

“Adrenaline is flooding me”

Another experienced tourist, Maria, who travels a lot alone, shared that usually, to avoid such situations, she tells random strangers that she is vacationing with friends or accompanied by a young man.

“This is my life hack. If someone comes up to meet you, you do not need to say that you are traveling alone. It is better to say that you are with your family, friends or husband. I once put a ring on my ring finger so that people would think that I was married, and once again did not fit,” Maria noted.

At the same time, the girl is sure that a solo trip is a must—have experience that every person in life should experience

“When a plane lands in another country and you realize that you are alone here, you don’t have a single loved one and you need to solve all your everyday problems yourself, at first I am overwhelmed by some kind of adrenaline, and then dopamine from fulfilling these small goals,” the tourist describes her emotions.

According to her, when you are completely on your own and you have complete freedom to choose places and routes, it inspires. “But for the first time, I would not choose too dangerous countries like Iran, Pakistan or Africa. For the first time, it is better to choose something closer and clearer – the same Europe or maybe Georgia, South Korea, Japan,” advises Maria.

How to protect yourself in a foreign country

Panic is not the best helper during a trip, but it still does not hurt to be vigilant, because warned means armed. There are a lot of attacks on women when traveling, and it’s not necessary for them to be on a trip alone. Tourists whose husbands or friends stayed at the hotel for one reason or another and could not come to the rescue are often attacked. To avoid such an outcome, you need to follow the banal safety rules.

First, it is necessary to think over the route in detail in advance so that there are no unforeseen situations. To settle even in large cities in tourist areas, to study guidebooks. For example, which areas may be unsafe? In which areas do many immigrants live, for example? These are most likely poor areas where there may be more crime.

Polina

Then you should take into account the cultural characteristics of different countries and dress appropriately — although you want to dress up when traveling, but this is not a big sacrifice for your own safety. For example, in the Arab states, you should not get naked or walk through the streets of the city in a swimsuit — this is the easiest way to stumble upon open remarks or aggression.

The girl also advises to refuse a request to be photographed by unfamiliar men. “They may have some kind of chats. They can use these chats to send these photos later. That is, it is always better to refuse, and to refuse quite abruptly,” the traveler noted.

The Muscovite also recommended that you always stay in touch with your loved ones, even if they are in another country. Ideally, share your geolocation in real time. Then the family will know where their loved one is, and in which case they will be able to quickly call for help.

To avoid meeting with robbers, it is better not to wear branded items in crowded places. They will work like a red rag for a bull and make it clear to the thief that you can profit from a tourist. Finally, on a solo trip, it is recommended to lie as much as possible — to tell the curious that they came in a large company, put on an “engagement” ring and not reveal their real address in a foreign city to anyone.

Источник