Having bummed my fair share of lifts, meals and beds over the years I feel I’m at an age when I should be giving more than I get from strangers. The problem arises with being a tour guide and someone, like Daph, asks us for a lift. As the tour leader I am happy to have someone sit in a spare seat but the group might think it a bit odd that I suddenly start using the tour vehicle as a taxi.

On an unrelated subject, were you at the WTM last weekend Andy. I saw a man deep in conversation who looked like you but I didn’t have the courage to butt in.

They went down the line asking if people could spot them until they arrived back in town after the hike and had access to cash. My then partner and I saw them coming down the queue not having much luck. Part of me felt for them, but part of me tried to imagine myself in this situation- If I’d been careless like they’d been, I’d have turned around, gone back into town and got more money out and started the trek again the next day. Sure, it would have been a tedious few hours on a bus and a day’s delay, but I’d have no one to blame but myself for it, and no one to owe anything to. I wouldn’t go begging like that, it’s just not me.

The clincher however was that it that we knew this couple from the five day ferry ride we’d taken to the bottom of the world. For five days while everyone chatted and got to know each other, this couple had pretty much isolated themselves. Whenever you’d try to talk to them they’d kind of snub you, or blow you off. We knew them from the boat, sure, but they didn’t want to know us until they wanted something. So intuition told me not to lend them cash- and i didn’t.

You’ll have to share the taxi story sometime. We all have a rip-off taxi story or two to share…

So anyhow, we decided to just tour the place, and hoped that we would be able to find our way out without having to wait four hours for the next bus. During the entire time we were there, there were a group of tourists with their guide (shan’t reveal the nationality of the tourists) walking just behind us and barely anyone else. Later, when we were attempting to leave, we remembered them, and decided to wait and see if we could hitch a ride out in their vehicle; we assumed that if they had a guide, they were likely to also have their own van or car.

So, the two of us Chinese girls (by race, not nationality), approached them and, I’d like to think, very politely spoke to them in English. The first guy we approached completely ignored us; he did not even stop to listen and just walked past us as if we were transparent. The second guy we approached stopped briefly for 2 seconds, then said there was no space in the van.

Suffice to say we were really really pissed then, not because they declined us, but more so because they did not even give us the time of the day. And I sure hope they were not being racist because then there were clearly in the wrong country. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt that there were just being careful, although I think the two of us, who were about a head shorter than any of them, looked pretty harmless.

So the moral of my very long story/comment is that, the world needs more fellow travellers like you. So thank you!

And if you’re keen to know: we were lucky to find a cab out, and we were fleeced of some $ by the driver, but that’s a completely different story altogether for another day.

I also think that sometimes it’s hard to pick the difference between your intuitive voice and your conscious voice (considering they sound the same). Now I’m starting to sound like I need a shrink, talking about all these different voices in my head telling me what to do.