While this is not a travel post in the traditional sense, it is an account of my experience during a recent trip that left me shaken, but also restored my faith in humanity. We live in a time when intolerance, fear-mongering, and ridiculous social media posts are turning many people’s brains into mush! Despite my harrowing experience, I was grateful to have had the opportunity to have my own preconceived notions shattered.

I was flying back from London to San Francisco through Istanbul on Turkish Airlines after an epic family reunion vacation in Italy.  This had been an amazing vacation and while I was sad to see it end, I was looking forward to going home. Just one more stop in a city I have grown very fond of, before my vacation truly came to an end.

I left London at 10.30 PM on a Saturday and arrived in Istanbul at 4 AM Sunday morning. I had a 9-hour layover before my connection to SFO. Wanting to take advantage of this, I had arranged to meet with friends who live here, for breakfast. Having visited Istanbul several times in the past, I have come to love this city and its very friendly people. But this morning, some of that changed.

Turkey allows people with an Indian passport who hold a valid US visa to get a visa on arrival. Having been here a few times in the past, I knew this to be a pretty straightforward process at passport control. However, in the one year since I last visited, a new e-visa system had been introduced. You go to the visa machine, input your details and pay the $43 fee and it prints out the visa document.

Thinking what an efficient system this was, I proceeded to use the machine and fill up all the required information. How mistaken I was! At the payment page, I tried using my debit card and my payment was declined.

Some background here: The day before I left for my vacation, I lost my wallet with my cards, ID and cash. I had just enough time to go to the bank in person and get a temporary emergency debit card which doesn’t have a name on it, but is linked to my bank account for 30 days. This was the only card I had on me, apart from cash in USD and Euros.

I tried the card 3 times and each time the payment was declined. I went to a window  clearly marked Visa where a lone, bored looking guy sat watching TV. I explained the problem to him and asked for help. He says, – sorry, go to information desk.

I walked around trying to find the information desk and finally spotted a tiny desk with another lone, bored guy. Turns out he doesn’t speak a word of English but he uses a translation app on his phone to communicate. This in itself was amazing, since this was meant to be the information desk! After a fruitless 15 min conversation with him using sign language and this blessed app, I finally figured out he is not the info desk guy but just a security guard temporarily using the desk. He pointed me to another window at the other end of the hallway and asked me to talk to the one marked ‘document check desk’. I go there and repeat my story and this time, I am told – ‘Go to Turkish Airlines, they will help you.’

I walked around looking for a Turkish Airlines helpdesk and found a transfer desk. I tried to explain the situation to the woman at this desk, only to be taken aback by her very rude response which essentially can be summarized into -I don’t care, go bother someone else.   She pretty much behaved like I had the plague and couldn’t wait to get away from me.

I walked all the way back to the visa desk guy and extremely politely apologized for disturbing his TV watching him again and explained that I have been given the runaround and can’t find anyone to help. Now, he says – Try Turkish Airlines office on this side (pointing to a different direction). You can maybe pay cash there and they can use their system to generate the visa.

Another long walk and this Turkish Airlines agent looks baffled when I explain what the visa desk guy told me. He says – ‘Sorry, can’t do anything. I can give you voucher for free breakfast at the lounge!’

By this time, I was frustrated!  It had been an hour since this saga started and I had been walking up and down the airport with no real help from anyone. Lack of sleep, travel fatigue, anger at the apathy of all the people I had encountered, and the early morning hour had my nerves on the edge. This time, when I walked back to the visa desk guy and asked him to please help me out by accepting cash, I could hear my voice breaking and my eyes threatening to spill over with tears!

In his same bored monotone,  the unhelpful visa guy says, “Sorry, India passport, e-visa only. No cash”.

I asked him what if I didn’t have a flight connection to the US, and Istanbul was my final destination, would I be deported? Or just sit around in the airport like Tom Hanks in that movie!

He simply turned away and went back to his TV.  As this was unfolding, there was another passenger near the visa desk who had just successfully received his  e-visa and was standing there putting his documents in order and had witnessed my entire encounter. He asked me hesitantly in broken English if he could help.

From his accent, I could make out he was from the Middle East. He initially thought I didn’t have any money for my visa and started to offer me cash. I explained my situation to him, and he immediately offered to walk the 100 meters back to the e-visa machine and use his credit card. I was genuinely surprised and truly grateful to him and walked back to the machine. This time, as I filled out all the information, he patiently waited and at the payment page, used his credit card which went through immediately. A few seconds later, my visa document was printed.

The relief and the kindness of this complete stranger, after the apathy I had encountered from the Turkish staff at the airport, was so overwhelming, I am embarrassed to admit I burst into tears! If it wasn’t culturally inappropriate I would have hugged the guy in gratitude.

I only had $20 bills and tried to give him 3 of them since I didn’t have $43.75 in exact change. He refused to accept it! After some cajoling, he took only $40 and was about to walk away (probably afraid of the suspicious looks coming our way thanks to my teary face). I asked him for his name and where he was from. Moutem (probably not the correct spelling) from Saudi Arabia.

Before today, my opinion of Saudi men came from books (anyone read Princess?) and the media, which was obviously not very flattering. Today, Moutem from Saudi just shattered that image and taught me an important lesson on the dangers of preconceived notion. He not just restored my faith in humanity but also in the goodness of strangers at a time when the world needs more of it.

I consider myself a secular person and have friends of many different faiths and languages. I have travelled widely, including in the Middle East and have been exposed to a number of different cultures around the world. My experiences have helped expand my thinking and broadened my horizons. And yet, I realized I had made the mistake of forming an opinion about Saudi men based on stereotypes, quite unconsciously.

Shukran Habibi! Inshallah, one day I will pay this kindness forward.

I’ll end this post on a happy note with a picture of what followed after all the drama. A scrumptious Turkish breakfast with my friends with a lovely view of the Marmara sea.