We asked Egyptians for their most bizarre online dating stories

"I have several, but here is the most glaring one: We met on Tinder. He seemed nice and well educated, and he politely invited me to all you can eat sushi, so of course I agreed to meet! So we're at the restaurant, and everything is going well. He's nice and funny. He keeps encouraging me to eat more sushi, 'cus duh, it's all you can eat! On the second date he takes me to another restaurant. I order a huge meal and it's too much for me, so I request takeaway. He insists that I eat more and more. At one point, he ordered dessert. I was full, but I thought it would be cute to share it. He then said he didn't want any, and that it's all for me. I'm thinking 'I didn't even want this but OK.' 

A few days after that we were talking on the phone, flirting, and he tells me it turns him on to watch girls eat. In my mind, I'm already planning out all the lobster dinners I'm gonna have this guy take me to!  But then he ordered me to gain weight. He didn't suggest it, didn't politely say it, he ordered me to stop going to the gym and to eat more. That's where I drew the line. No one gets to tell me how much I should weigh. I didn't talk to him again after that."

-Sarah*, 26

"One guy I went out with sat there, telling me he hadn't had a drink in over 3 years, and that he wanted to change that. So he orders cocktail after cocktail, and gets plastered. He attempts to juggle sushi, but of course that doesn't go down well. He was so rude to the waiters, and kept asking me how his hair looked too. I ended up taking his keys, giving them to the waiter, and sneaking out."

-Aya*, 27 

"I matched with this really good looking guy on Tinder and we started to get to know each other. He was really outgoing and seemed like the life of the party, which I really liked. We somehow got to chatting about our favorite Disney movies and he claimed he knew most of the songs by heart. I thought it would be fun to ask him to sing me something. So he sent me a long voice note of him singing a song from The Hunchback of Notre dame, in Arabic, with instrumental music playing in the background. I thought it was funny at first, but then he kept sending me voice notes. He just wouldn't stop! He started with Disney songs and ended up singing Mostafa Hagag's Ya Mna3na3. That was way too much for me!"

- Laila*, 23

"There was one time when I almost got catfished. The guy claimed to be a bachata instructor visiting Egypt, and we exchanged messages, first on Tinder then on WhatsApp for a couple of days. We then agreed to meet, but this may or may not have been preceded by some explicit texting/voice messages. 

About an hour before we met, he said he had to tell me something. Turns out he, a) first spotted me a year ago close to the supermarket where I regularly do my shopping, b) isn't really a bachata instructor, but is an Egyptian who doesn't live here. He then "super liked" me using his real profile, but that didn't work, so he created a fake one. Needless to say, I immediately freaked out on him, threatened to retaliate if he contacted me again, blocked him, deleted my tinder, and changed my number. I was put off grocery shopping for a couple of weeks too. What a mess."

-Mervat*, 26

"This guy arranged to meet up with 2 of my friends, (they both didn't know about each other's arrangement) at Funk'n'Pop. He would talk to each for a duration of 5 minutes before disappearing. This happened till they both realized it was the same guy. They found him later that night making out with his girlfriend..."

-Nermeen*, 27

"A guy spent weeks texting me every day, and then took me out on three dates. He was all fluffy and cutesy to the point that I felt like I had to set the record straight and let him know that I wasn't interested in pursuing something serious at the time. He was hot, yet at the same time very hesitant and almost awkward, and I couldn't figure out why, because most guys on Tinder were so forward. But I found it somewhat endearing and figured there's no harm... So we hooked up for a third date. He took me back to his place and we watched a movie, got high, etc. The next day he was all charm and geniality. He then said he was "going fishing with friends in Hurghada" ... and I just didn't buy it. So I did some cyber-stalking, only to find out that he was indeed still in Cairo. So I texted "how's fishing?" to see if he would keep up the lie. He came up with some bullshit response so I dropped the whole thing, (didn't text him again). 

I couldn't help but wonder why he had lied, so I resumed some more in-depth cyber-stalking, only to discover he is married to someone I could very easily have known. And he took me to their flat and everything! My mind was blown!"

-Faten*, 26