True Tales of a Traveller: Alternative Medicine by Alix Lee

True Tales of a Traveller is a series of stories consisting of several dozen traveller’s tales covering over three decades. Although presented in a short story format for reading convenience, these stories are not fiction. Apart from some of the characters’ names which have been changed to protect their identities, everything in these stories is true.

These stories do not all fit neatly into the ‘travel story’ genre, although some will indeed meet most readers’ expectations in this regard. Others are simply adventures - or misadventures - that happen to have taken place in various different countries. They will appeal to anyone with an interest in travel, contemporary history, geography, culture, or international relations, or anyone who just likes good short reads. Most of the stories are crafted to provide information on the locations featured in them, and thus also have a useful educational function!

The fourth of this series of stories, Alternative Medicine, is set mostly in Greece and Egypt in 1983. At around 13,000 words, this story is a lengthy short story which may need more than one sitting. Like the other stories in the series, it provides not only an entertaining read, but also information on all the places visited, some relevant only to the era in which the story is set, but most still relevant today. In addition to being a travel story, Alternative Medicine is also a story about career hopes, delusions, expectations, and opportunities.