I wanted to visit Morocco as part of my Honours course and decided to go with a tour group so that someone else would arrange everything and all I had to do was focus on gathering info for my studies.

One day, we visited a big market or souk and I got carried away shopping. When I looked at my watch, I realised that it was an hour later than our meeting time. I’d missed the bus and lost my tour group!

I phoned the tour-guide company but their office was already closed. I had no idea where our hotel was or even its name! I walked around for hours with no luck as I barely spoke Arabic. It was dark, so I decided to use my spending money and book into a hotel.

The next morning I phoned again. They gave me a cellphone number for our guide. The poor guy had had a sleepless night, worrying about me. I have no idea what I would’ve done without a phone and enough money to sleep in a hotel – although now there is no more money left for shopping for Tas and I!