Do not talk to strangers

Being a woman and travelling half of the time alone in Asia is not easy. I am going to write some posts about women related safety issues, here's the first one, I thought of this when talking with some female friends who are also travellers but they haven't been in Asia alone.

Do not talk to strangers

When I was little my parents told me not to talk to strangers and this worked out for me pretty well until I moved to Asia. People here are so nice and so curious about you that they want to get to know. The ways of showing this curiosity go from:

• Honking at you from their mortorbikes or cars
• Saying "Hi", smiling and moving their heads when you walk by
• Rolling down the window and screaming things like "Welcome to my country!"
• Stopping their car in the middle of the road at 11pm when they see you walking on a direction that makes no sense.
• Asking you where you are from when you are walking on the street.
• Showing you the places where they like to eat (this applies everywhere we have been but not Thailand).

Do not take food from strangers

 Again, I know I shouldn't take food or drinks from people I don't know, but some of the best experiences that I have had are because people gave me food or drinks as presents. Here's some of the best examples:

• Bringing you drinks when you share a long bus ride with somebody.
• Giving you fruits that they picked from their gardens
• Inviting you to coffees, even if they don't talk to you and they just seat in the table next to yours
• Inviting you to have tea with them and chat for hours
• Bringing you a birthday cake with candle included because they heard it was your birthday

So if people are so nice and so warm, how am I supposed to not talk to strangers and not take food and drinks from people I don't know?