The young women, however, thought he was full of it, until they found out it was a strip bar, at which point, they were convinced he was right, and had saved them. It's this sudden about face on their part that seemed strange to me, till I reread the part of them getting off the bus and dealing with all of these people who were trying to help them. That level of unexpected attention would lead anybody to assume they had narrowly avoided something terrible.
I agree that from the story told by the original metafilter guy, these women seemed to be potentially in real danger. The women had a different opinion, however, up until they were descended upon by police and others, which surely must have freaked them out.
In the judgment of the two people who this was actually happening to, the guy was overreacting. They continued to ignore him until they were freaked out by the people who met them at the bus. Why do we assume their original assessment of the situation was wrong, while his was right? Because they were "young girls, far from home". Meanwhile, young men of that same age, are leading fire teams in Afghanistan.
My point, I guess, is that, we don't know anything about this, except what this guy is telling us.