Traveling alone as a woman can be an intimidating and daunting experience. Women are often more vulnerable to harassment and assault while traveling, especially in unfamiliar places where they may not be aware of the cultural norms and social cues. This can lead to feelings of anxiety, fear, and unease.
A Canadian woman who was touring Kuala Lumpur recently shared a troubling incident she encountered while staying at a hostel here on the r/solotravel subreddit.
Harassment in Hostels
by u/sweetiepi3-14159 in solotravel
According to her account, the 27-year-old woman arrived back at her hostel at 2am and was confronted by a drunken man who emerged from another room in the same corridor.
The man persistently invited her to accompany him to downtown and to a sauna, but she firmly declined his advances.
He then asked where she was from, to which she replied, “Canada”.
He then proceeded to tell her he was from Belarus and asked “Can I have a kiss?” By then he was directly between her and the door.
“I stepped back and sternly told him ‘No. I’m going to bed now’. He grumbled something, tried to grab my arm and I pulled away,” she recounted.
As she remained unyielding, the man abruptly slapped her buttocks and stumbled off, muttering inappropriate remarks.
The next day, the woman notified the hostel’s reception and inquired if they had any Belarusian male guests.
Although she said there were surveillance cameras visible in the vicinity, the staff failed to offer any aid to the woman, despite her detailed depiction of the man’s appearance, leaving her feeling disregarded and exasperated.
“The woman I spoke to shrugged, told me to keep an eye out and maybe let them know who it was if I saw him around.
“It was apparent that she was searching for an excuse to evade taking action and concluded that my explanation wasn’t adequate to pinpoint the offender.”
Following the occurrence, the Canadian traveler expressed her dissatisfaction with the hostel staff’s failure to act.
She suggested that they could have intervened by accessing the CCTV footage, presenting her with scanned copies of the man’s passport based on her description, and either evicting him from the premises or issuing a warning.
“But they did none of that. I was left feeling pretty dismissed and frustrated that women have to just suck it up and deal with this crap,” she wrote.
The poster did not identify the hostel where the incident took place. Coconuts has reached out to her for more information on the incident.
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