Bloggers and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Travel Day

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Anyone who has traveled for any length of time knows that travel is definitely NOT unicorns and rainbows all the time. Sure, it's fun and life-changing and can be amazing. But, as with any situation where complete control is out of your hands, things can easily go wrong when it comes to travel.

Whether it's canceled flights, bad weather, sickness, scams, or something much worse, bad travel days are inevitable the more often you travel.

In honor of the release of my friend Lauren Juliff's book about travel mishaps (called “How Not to Travel the World“), I asked a bunch of travel bloggers to talk about some of their WORST travel days and experiences on the road.

Bad Travel Days

Oh, and one of MY worst travel days? Probably the day I almost died in Iceland. But this post isn't about me. Check out all these other unfortunate stories!

Volcano Violence

Jeremy from Travel Freak

It was a beautiful morning in Quito, Ecuador when I decided to hike the Pichincha Volcano. This 15,000-foot monstrosity, most notably known as an acclimatization hike, would take the majority of the day, but with good weather on hand, I would be able to take my time and fully appreciate the wondrous landscape.

In typical fashion, I was running later than expected. I should have gotten a start at around 8am, but instead it was 10 by the time I finally began my ascent. What I didnโ€™t realize is that, at this altitude, and in this particular region, weather conditions can change in the blink of an eye.

I was nearly to the summit when it happened: thick pellets of hail began to stream from the sky. A thick fog enveloped the entire volcano, and I couldnโ€™t see more than 10 feet in front of me. The rain was intense, and huge strokes of lightning cracked through the bleak, dark sky.

Being within 30 minutes from completing the hike, I vowed to finish, no matter the weather conditions. But I just couldnโ€™t shake the thought of the headlines:โ€œAmerican Tourist Struck by Lightning During Massive Hailstorm on the Side of a Volcano in Ecuador.โ€ And whatโ€™s more, I was still going to have to climb down!

I returned only mildly injured, with a few scrapes and bruises, and covered in mud. I was soaked head to toe, and had received a veritable beating from the ice bullets. And since my camera died at the summit, I only had moderate proof of my experience that day. But the story still remains! (Click here to read the full story)

Gun Fights and Drug Busts

Heather from Conversant Traveller

Aftermath of the gun fight at Sani Pass

Maybe it was because the birds had stopped singing. Maybe it was because we were alone in no-manโ€™s land. Or maybe it was the gunshots ricocheting off the valley walls that told us something was wrong up ahead. Hubbie and I were tackling the notorious Sani Pass between South Africa and the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. A road famed for its dramatic hairpins, weโ€™d planned for plunging drops and treacherous weather, not bad guys and shoot-em-ups!

Skidding to a halt, our driver raised his substantial eyebrows in question. Did we want to venture on? It was a long way back to the border, and there were a couple of quad bikes with our names on at the top, so really we had no option but to continue. Besides, we wanted to know what was going on.

After the exchange of fire had ceased, we inched cautiously around the corner and I slid down into the foot well, wishing Iโ€™d packed spare underpants.

A lone policeman was standing in a cloud of lingering gun smoke beside an abandoned vehicle, his weapon trained at a pleading figure on the ground who was watching his accomplices flee the scene. Curiosity soon got the better of hubbie, who jumped out to assist the poor cop who had apparently forgotten his handcuffs. I played the girl card and stayed safe in my foot well. Had he taken leave of his senses? The bushes beside the road rustled and I felt sure the bad guys were there, ready to pick us off, one by one.

It turned out to be a couple of bemused goats!

In lieu of proper restraints, our driver sat on the captive until backup arrived, whilst hubbie went to examine the truck. The cocaine inside would have fetched millions, but the drug smuggler who had the misfortune to be caught was just the driver. A guy simply trying to feed his family with the small cut he would have made, and I couldnโ€™t help but have some sympathy for him despite the crime.

We eventually continued our journey, both shaken and stirred, and I really couldโ€™ve done with those spare pants!

A Kitty Scorned

Laurel Robbins from Monkeys and Mountains

Barcelona Cathedral

My flight into Barcelona was supposed to arrive at 12:30 am, but instead it arrived at 2:30 am. I was tired and cranky and eager to get to my hotel. As I picked up my bag from the baggage carousel, I noticed that it was wet. Damn airline, canโ€™t even keep my bag dry, I mumbled to myself as I hopped in a cab to my hotel.

As I started unpacking, I noticed a smell, then realized it wasnโ€™t just my suitcase that was wet, but that it was all my clothes too. It slowly dawned on me that this wasnโ€™t the fault of a careless airline. but the work of a spurned cat that was giving me a clear sign that he was not happy that I was leaving him! Yep, my cat peed inside my suitcase, over all my clothes!

At 3:00 am I proceeded to hand wash my clothes in a tiny hotel sink using a combination of hotel soap and shampoo. For the record, itโ€™s not very effective! The next morning I met my tour group in slightly damp clothes with a still faint smell of cat urine which I vainly attempted to cover by over perfuming myself!

Plummeting Plane

Rachel Elizabeth from Blond Wayfarer

The Smurfs danced on the screen in front of me. I remember choosing the Smurfs, because this older Boeing had seven in-flight entertainment channels.

As my eyelids drooped, my butt flew inches from my seat. I grabbed the armrests. If I hadn't been strapped in, the flight crew would've had to peel me off the ceiling.

Next to me, my mom gasped in disgust. Spilled wine stained her shirt. Her bottle struck the floor. Above her, overhead compartments flung open. My stomach churned as the plane plummeted again. The neverending falling sensation caused unfamiliar panic to rise inside my chest.

Then the dreaded announcement came:

“Cabin crew return to your seats.”

Flight attendants buzzed in the aisles. “And to think it's gonna get worse,” I overheard one of them not so subtly whisper.

“I'm stupid for traveling. Never again,” I thought, my mouth now dryer than paper.

Lights flickered. A passenger screamed. I closed my eyes, anticipating the next drop.

All was quiet a grueling fifteen minutes later.

After we arrived in London, the pilot apologized for the unexpected rough air, and admitted it was the worst he'd flown through in ages.

My flying fear hasn't gone away three years later.

A Bad, Bloody Day

Amber from With Husband in Tow

Looking for Signs 1

After a miserable press trip to an island that will remain nameless and an 11 hour bus ride, we were fried. We were living on nearby Bali and were trying to make a decision on whether to change our flight home, or to try to make the most of our time away by sticking it out the two nights we had left. We made the decision to stick it out and found a cheap room on points at the Sheraton. At the time, a lot of personal stuff had been going on, and we were making some big changes. I thought we could use the few days of resort living to smooth things out.

Part of the “let's make the most of a bad trip” involved making our way into the warm water from our comfy lounge chairs. Eric got a head start and was floating in the water as I made my way in. The sandy bottom quickly gave way to the sharpest coral on the earth, in some very shallow water. Eric realized where he was and tried to stand up to wave me off.

When he waved me off, though, off came his wedding ring. Immediately I tried to join him so we could try to find the ring. But it was a lost cause. The coral was deep and sharp. We tried to feel around with our hands, while the tiny waves kept making us lose our balance. After a few minutes, we knew it was no use.

We carefully walked back out and realized what had happened. We were bloody from the coral – my knuckles and hands, feet, and knees. It was a mess. The security guards were helpful, at least. They helped me clean my wounds, reported the incident, and helped to look for the ring on the beach.

When we were firmly out of danger, and with bactine on our wounds, I sat down on the lounge chair and cried. I was not all that sad about the ring, per se. After all, we expected Eric would lose it in the first year, and instead he lasted 13 years with it. That alone was an accomplishment. It was just a sign to us when we were trying to make some big decisions about living in Bali, about friendships unraveling. This was the last straw. It was certainly a sign, and one of our recent bad travel days. (Read more here.)

Not As-Advertised

Becky from The Girl and Globe

vangvieng

After a few weeks of mentally exhausting travel, I set off on an overnight tour known as the Vang Vieng Challenge looking for some fun. With two days of nonstop activities like hiking, abseiling, ziplining, camping, and a via ferrata (assisted rock climbing), I thought I was in for a treat. I love the outdoors and physical adventure and this one was jam-packed with excitement! Unfortunately, the experience was nothing like the description.

We bushwhacked through overgrown trails, tackling mud slides and leeches as we went. Trees sprung up out of nowhere in the middle of our zipline course and falling rocks were common while climbing on the via ferrata. In short, nothing went right. The appetizer to our dinner – fried maggots – was one of the best parts of the trip, which says a lot about the tour.

This trip was supposed to be nonstop thrill and instead it was one hour of fun buried under thirty hours of frustration. But, hey, you canโ€™t win them all.

Malaria Surprise

Melissa Shearer from The Mellyboo Project

When most people think of spending 3 nights in a beach hut on the shores of Lake Malawi in the famed Kandi Beach area, you would think it would be wonderful and that nothing could possibly go wrong. Thatโ€™s what I thoughtโ€ฆ and then I came down with malaria. I woke up a few short hours after falling asleep to waves of severe nausea, hot and cold sweats, and general achiness. After several attempts at trying to vomit to make myself feel better, I finally managed to make a complete mess of the bathroom – at about 4am.

I found myself sleeping for the entire 9-hour truck ride from Kande Beach to Lilongwe, only to find my tour guides shipping me off to a private clinic in a taxi (that they had arranged and negotiated the price for), getting the news of my malaria diagnosis (and a number of bottles of pills), followed by getting extorted by the taxi driver – resulting in me having to pay nearly double the negotiated price!

And to top it all off, Iโ€™d been guaranteed by my tour guides that the campsite in Lilongwe had strong internet – good enough to Skype – only for me to arrive and find out the network was down and the Skype date I had arranged with my boyfriend 6 days prior was not going to happen. Cue the tears!

An Awful First Day

Stephen from A Backpacker's Tale

Piazza Navona

The first day I ever traveled solo became an extremely bad travel day. I landed in Rome, my head buzzing with all the possibilities of traveling in Europe for the next two months. Little did I know, my excitement was going to be short lived.

I walked up to the ATM to get some cash and entered my pin. I stood waiting to get my cash. One minute went by, then another. After about five minutes and still no cash, panic set in and I knew I was in trouble.

I walked to another ATM and shakily inserted my card. After a moment a message appeared on the screen, โ€œYou have withdrawn your daily limit.โ€

I quickly exchanged what little cash I had, grabbed a cup of coffee to shake off the jet lag, and thought about my next move. I decided to grab a phone card and call my bank directly. I went through three phone cards before I found one that worked.

The bank representative tried to convince me that I had indeed withdrew money. In turn I tried to convince him that I most certainly had not and if they didnโ€™t fix this I would spending the next 24 hours roaming the airport. They wished me well in my airport wanderings but left me penniless.

However, due to the kindness of strangers, this bad travel day worked out nicely in the end.

Camera Boo-Boo

Nat from A Cook Not Mad

In 2012 we took off on a great train trip through Europe. One of our stops was Colmar, a real fairy tale town. Walking through town one night, we came upon a traditional dance troupe putting on a show. People were standing all around, and I was in the front, camera at the ready, when I heard something click. And as I brought the camera up to my face, my brand new wide angle lens came away from the camera and plummeted to the ground. This all happened in slow motion of course, and as I watched it happen I let out a screech, the crowd staring at me at this point gave me a look of empathy. I picked up the lens and we scurried to the hotel. The glass wasnโ€™t broken but the attaching mechanism was badly damaged.

This story does have somewhat of a happy ending. Arriving at our next stop, Munich, after several beers, Tim got the courage to try and fix the lens and did a wonderful job. Itโ€™s still not 100% but itโ€™s functional.

Stomach Rebellion

Sadie from Eclectic Trekker

Sadie

I recently signed up to volunteer on a small island where the living conditions were rustic to say the least. On my third day there, my stomach decided to turn on me and called on a mass evacuation of my insides. Itโ€™s not nice when you have a proper toilet, but itโ€™s even worse when you are using an outdoor toilet with a sheet door and tarp walls. Oh and there could be giant centipedes and huntsman spiders in there at any moment!

At night, there wasnโ€™t any electricity, so you needed to wear a head torch in order to navigate. Of course I forgot mine when I had to make about the 10th mad dash to the toilet. On the way there, I stubbed my toe on a protruding root and ripped the tip wide open.

I was fine at first until the blood loss hit me. I broke out in a cold sweat and became very lightheaded. Then my stomach thought this would be a great time to release itself AGAIN!

I had to be helped to the toilet since my legs were too weak to hold myself up, AND someone had to stand outside and make sure I didnโ€™t pass out. So embarrassing!

Guarded Gates

Neysha from Travelsuras

I lived in Panama when I was young, and over the years Iโ€™ve gone back to visit old friends. One summer I spent three weeks hanging out in the city with two of my girlfriends.

One of the few nights we decided to hit the town, one of the girls (the only one who still lived in Panama) decided to leave early. No problem, we thought; we could take care of ourselves. Until we found it nearly impossible to find a taxi to take us back to Fort Clayton (the old military base turned residential zone). Once we finally did, the shady guard at the front gate stopped us. He insisted we step out because we didnโ€™t have our passports. The driver looked back us, noting that we were two oblivious young girls. After exchanging a few words with the guard, he hit the gas so hard it took our breath away. Iโ€™m not sure what the guard would have done if we had gotten out of the taxi, but I canโ€™t imagine it would have been anything good. We made it to my friendโ€™s house safe and sound, but Iโ€™ll never take that risk again.

A Long, Long Walk

Caitlin from A Girl Abroad

Caitlin

We'd just finished a few days in Capacobana in Bolivia, and were preparing ourselves to explore the Uros Islands in Peru. This meant a little border crossing and a short bus ride into Puno.

We left our hostel early one morning to a warning from the owner that the roads were closed while an industrial dispute took place. Thinking she was just trying to keep my group of 8 at the hostel an extra night, we decided to take our chances and headed out.

When we arrived in Illave, we discovered the main road (the only road) through the town had been covered with all sorts of rubbish from tyres, barbed wire and even entirely destroyed vehicles. Not a single car was capable of passing through. We had to walk.

Walking across the town took us about 2 hours.

My group and I love a good hike though, so didn't find that to be an issue.

What caused the real pain for us was the diarrhea.

It's a very unpleasant experience having to walk for 2 hours, carrying all your gear, and constantly feeling the need to rush to a toilet, even for those of us who hadn't caught the bug yet!

Brussels Biking Disaster

Alexandra from International Spooning

They told us not to go. โ€œSteer clear of Brussels; itโ€™s big, not very nice, and itโ€™s horrible for biking.โ€ We had every intention of heeding the advice of many, but the Beer Mecca of Cantillon was lulling us in too sweetly, like the Sirens who lured sailors to their doom.

The day started off pleasant enough – in fact, it was great. We had secretly been led to a Belgian chocolate dream filled with free tasters. But, when we got to the city, things took a turn for the worse.

As we cycled into Brussels, the bike lanes disappeared. On a narrow street, I pulled over to let a van go by but my shoe got stuck and I fell over. The street was busy and everyone stopped to see if I was okay. I would have cried from the pain if it wasnโ€™t for all of the attention. A French-speaking Belgian woman pulled me into her apartment and doctored me. Neither of us shared a language, but I was overwhelmed by her kindness. I set off with wary but renewed hope.

Later we tried to navigate a very busy street and thought the sidewalk would be better. As I got onto the sidewalk, though, my bike slipped and I fell over again. My bandaging from earlier protected any new scrapes, but twice in one day was too much. I spent the next half-hour crying on the sidewalk. I eventually got back up. The next day we decided to train out of Brussels instead of riding.

Bad News on a Plane

Bryan from The Wandering Gourmand

Celebrating our first class upgrades after our previous flight was cancelled mid-air due to a plane malfunction.
Celebrating our first class upgrades after our previous flight was cancelled mid-air due to a plane malfunction.

I was half-asleep as I listened to my audiobook. Through a haze of knowledge by osmosis, something didnโ€™t feel right. I leaned towards my wife and whispered, โ€œI think the plane is turning around.โ€

โ€œNo,โ€ she said. โ€œIโ€™ve been on a plane that had to turn around before, and we did not turn around.โ€

I leaned back in my seat only to be nudged by the passenger next to me. โ€œIs it me, or did we just turn around?โ€

โ€œWe just turned around,โ€ I said.

Moments later the captain yelled into the intercom. โ€œAre you listening to me back there?โ€

The announcement that one of the planeโ€™s engines was running low on oil pressure followed shortly. We were returning to Charlotte to await further news on if weโ€™d make it to St Lucia for the first night of our brief babymoon.

As we approached CLT, the plane started to circle again. The captain came back on and said that the plane was too heavy to land. We were burning fuel until our landing weight was right.

The German pilot across the aisle confirmed that this was bad.

I was no longer concerned about missing the first night of our babymoon. I was concerned about living through the next hour.

After another thirty minutes, the captain announced that we would be landing and it would not be an emergency landing. We ended up arriving in St Lucia a day late, but at least we made it.

A Hawaiian Nightmare

Heather from Adventroverted

My friend and I took a trip to Oahu for six days and it turned into a slight disaster. First, she lost her credit cards before she got on the plane and we had to use my account for everything. Then, I was so tired when I got on the airport shuttle in Hawaii that I hit my head, HARD, on the door of the van. My head was throbbing for days, and on top of that I had the worst cramps of my life.

We also didnโ€™t rent a car, so we took the bus around the island. We were shoved against sweaty, smelly people and almost got run over several times. Not to mention the bus missed our stop several times.

Hanauma Bay was a complete bust, and we wasted a lot of money for water that was impossible to snorkel in and our gear was non-refundable. My phone broke on the North Shore, nothing in our hotel room worked, and Waikiki tourists were the worst.

On top of everything, my friend and I discovered we wanted completely different things and were irritated with each other the whole time.

The Queen of Travel Misadventures

Lauren Juliff from Never-Ending Footsteps

How Not to Travel the World

It was the night before I was due to enter Laos when I ate my first cockroach. Accidentally, of course, because I was drunk.

Little did I know that what Iโ€™d assumed would be a fun anecdote to tell friends for years to come instead marked the start of my worst travel experience.

I crossed into Laos the following morning and clambered on to a slow boat; I was going to be riding it down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang over the next two days. On the final morning, I was taking a nap when an elderly Laotian woman died of malaria. I had to spend the next six hours sitting beside her body and listening to the sobs of her grieving husband.

My traumatising experience didnโ€™t end there. After deciding to splash out on some fancy accommodation to recover, I ended up in the guesthouse from hell. First, I was locked out of my room and watched as the owner hacked off the doorknob with a machete. Then, I was locked inside my room because I no longer had a way of opening the door. Several hours later, after somebody finally heard my cries for help, I changed rooms to one that was filled with bugs. It was only available room left in the guesthouse and Luang Prabang has a curfew; this was my only option.

Cockroaches kept running over my face as I tried to sleep, so I ran outside and curled up in a ball on the ground. When two backpackers offered to let me sleep in their room, I was grateful for their generosity and agreed. I must have been out for an hour when I awoke to find one of them sexually assaulting me. I made to escape, only to discover they were staying in my old room: the one without a doorknob.

Somehow, I escaped unscathed, and the following morning, I checked in to one of the most expensive hotels Iโ€™ve ever stayed in.


Lauren's “incidents” are plentiful – she really *might* be the unluckiest traveler I know. But, her misfortunes come with a silver lining – she wrote a book about them (along with how travel helped her get over crippling anxiety and learn how to eat scary foods like rice)!

The book is a fun, easy, and funny read, and goes to show that, despite the bad days and misadventures, travel has the power to transform just about anyone.

You can buy How Not to Travel the World here.


And now it's YOUR turn – share one of your worst travel days/experiences in the comments below!

"It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and, if you don't keep your feet, there's no telling where you might get swept off to." - JRR Tolkien

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98 Comments on “Bloggers and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Travel Day

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  1. Wow! some of these stories are hair-raising. I feel like such an unadventurous traveller next to these bloggers. I still can’t believe the husband who went to help with the drug arrest in South Africa. I would have killed my husband if he did something like that.

      Ahhh I know that story is so crazy! But don’t let this make you feel unadventurous – some of these things happen while doing completely ordinary travel-y things!

    I really don’t have a bad day travel story. Probably the worst thing that happened was when I was in London trying to use the underground and had packed 2 suitcases and couldn’t get them up some stairs during rush hour. Someone had to lift them up for me and it was really embarrassing since it was obvious I was a tourist (and not a very smart one at that). Now I know to pack light.

      Well at least you learned a very valuable lesson there! ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Some of these stories are absolutely insane! Travel can be super stressful at times. I have had a lot of bad luck when it comes to flying. My family doesn’t even like flying with me anymore because I’m such a bad luck charm. It’s hard to remember a flight I was on that wasn’t canceled, delayed or something went wrong.

    I also almost was almost in a a tragic van accident in Laos. There was a sick tourist in the back that kept throwing up and the driver wouldn’t pull over. Suddenly the tourist got extremely angry and tried overtaking the steering wheel to get the driver to pull over. We were on a steep winding highway over a cliff and everyone started screaming and some others were grabbing the sick tourist who was trying to overtake the steering wheel. It was a mess. A very terrifying, stinky, vomit ridden mess.

      Ahhh that sounds so scary! I would have been terrified, too!

    I love these stories – although I really shouldn’t take any pleasure in the misfortune of others ๐Ÿ™‚

    Other than several long hikes through cities because we’ve been confused about public transport, our worst travel experience was hubby’s collapse in Kenya on our penultimate night. He had to be dragged back to our room by security staff, and we used the last of our money for a doctor. He was diagnosed with dehydration caused by gastroenteritis – I’ve never been so anxious in my life (I was literally rehearsing how I would tell by in-laws that their son had died…). Luckily a day of bed rest, black coffee and no alcohol, and hubby was almost as right as rain…

      That must have been so scary! I’m glad he was fine in the end!

    My worst travel day: I had just graduated high school and my history teacher takes about 30 girls overseas every year. We were in Paris and were supposed to meet up with another group to go back to the opera house to meet the larger group. Apparently there was a miscommunication between the groups: one was at the top and one was at the bottom of the Sacre Coeur. So we were late and then we found out our teacher hadn’t made it back yet and we had to wait for her to get there. We were all starving by this point. Come to find out our teacher had gone back to the hotel and the restaurant had lost our reservations. So we ended up not eating til almost 9 oclock. Looking back probably not the worst thing that could happen to me while traveling but between that getting while visiting Versailles and our guide losing her wallet, Paris and France have left a bad taste in my mouth.

      Always a bummer when bad experiences like that give you a sour taste about an entire city! Hopefully you’ll go back someday and give Paris another shot!

    These were interesting stories!

    The drug bust one reminds of me of border crossing on my Balkans trip last year. A guy was pulled over by Serbian border officers and his car was searched. The not so smart thing was that he had a weed leaf decal on the side of his car.

    Loved everyone’s stories. I haven’t had anything too bad happening when travelling thus far, but knowing my luck and clumsiness I’m sure some experiences like these are not too far away!

      Well, if/when they do hit, just remember that it’s all part of the experience and that plenty of others before you have had similarly awful days!

    When my husband & I went to Egypt we had an amazing time until we tried to get back to the airport. On the way to the hotel, we booked a cab to get us through all of the checkpoints and we asked the hotel to do the same on our way back. Instead, they called a cab of a friend of a friend of the staff, who was the worst driver ever. He drove erratically between lanes, almost hitting several cars, people, animals, you name it. He came close to hitting a couple who got married that night. The wedding caravan then surrounded us on the highway and stopped the car by barricading our cab. The people behind us were shooting above the car and the other drivers pulled our driver from the car and circled around him as we looked on from the back of the cab. Luckily a couple of older men stopped the shoving match and put our driver back in the car. We got to the airport finally to find out the airline overbooked the flight and we wouldn’t be able to get out until 12 hours later. On top of that, we both were sick from something we ate. Not the best of travels that day!

      Sounds like bad luck was just following you around that day! I, too, have had some terrifying cab rides (though none quite that bad).

    Great post and a great read. I enjoy reading posts like this since travel isn’t always rainbows and bunny rabbits. I’ve had my share of bad days on the road and it’s good that I’m not alone. Thanks for posting this ๐Ÿ™‚

      I think anyone who travels frequently enough will run into days like this – thankfully you usually have way more good days!

    My worst travel day occurred in Ko Phangan roughly 11 years ago (I was backpacking through Thailand). My memory of it is a little fuzzy but I got something in my eye so quite naturally, I was freaking out (I had no travel insurance). The bungaloo owner had someone take me to the island hospital and… I’m not sure what kind of treatment I received. But I wore a patch over that eye for several days.

    As it turns out, my eye healed perfectly. But the situation was a bit nerve-wracking.

      Having medical issues while traveling is always stressful! Glad everything healed up fine in the end.

    Oh wow! Is it weird that I actually find this post inspirational? I mean, it’s awful reading about all the things that could and do go wrong, but the overriding message is that, despite the bad days, everyone is still travelling. It’s about getting up, dusting yourself off, and chalking it up to experience before getting on with the real business of exploring the world.

    It definitely sticks with you in some way though. I remember a truly awful night in Wellington, NZ. I’d been on the road on a group tour for 3 weeks, so I decided to stay in out of the rain and use the hostel pay-per-minute internet to check my messages. Staring at me out of the screen was a message from a friend back at uni, letting me know that another friend had committed suicide. I needed space on my own, but there was nowhere in the hostel communal areas or our shared dorm to find it, and everything around seemed to be closed. I ended up wandering around one corner of Wellington in the pouring rain, on the other side of the world from my support network. The friends I’d made on the tour were great about it, but sometimes you just need to be with someone who’s going through the same thing.

    http://www.secondhandhedgehog.com/2014/02/my-worst-night-away-from-home.html

      Having someone close to you pass away when you’re on the other side of the world is definitely one of the most awful feelings ever. I’m sorry you had to go through that. ๐Ÿ™

      But you’re right – the underlying theme here is definitely that, despite the bad days, travel is still so worth it!

    I was awoken in the middle of the night by what sounded like a sword fight in the alley. Florence was experiencing a heat wave and I’d slept with the window open. A few moments later I heard shouting in the hallway and someone pounding on my door. After a few panicked seconds where I wondered if we were under attack, I opened the door to see Italian firemen pulling hoses through the hall which was filled with smoke – the hotel was on fire! Without thinking, my friend and I raced out the door and down the stairs to join all the other hotel guests on the front lawn. Only then did I realize that I was wearing just my underwear and a tank top. That was a very loooong night!

      Oh geez!! That must have been some wake up call!

    Most of our travels have been wonderful, even my fantastic knack for getting lost has always given us some grand adventures. However, one airplane flight will go down as the worst ever! We had been up all day, flew from Cambodia to Korea at midnight,then stayed up to go on a tour of Incheon and Seoul. By the time we were on our flight from Korea to California, we had been up over 24 hours. I waited until after the dinner service had been removed before leaning my seat back, but when I did lean back, I got a sharp smack in the head by the little old lady in the seat behind me. My grandson and the young lady on my other side were both leaned back as was the gentleman in front of me. I put my seat back up thinking she must be still eating, but after a bit I really needed to rest so slowly leaned my seat back. Again a sharp slap on the head. I (being the polite, docile lady I was raised to be) put my seat back up and again waited a bit. When I put my seat back next, she put her hand around my seat to smack me, but scratched my grandson. Whoa, now the tiger was out of the cage! I stood up yelling at her that she needed to keep her hands to herself and if she touched us again, I would make sure that she never touched anyone! I don’t know if she spoke the same language as I did, but I think she got the message. I was able to put my seat back and not be disturbed. Thank goodness, since my seatback entertainment was not working either!

      Uggghhhh I hate that sort of thing on planes! I can’t believe she was actually hitting you!

    I am so glad that I have been spared the really bad travel experiences. Some of those are just crazy.

      I know! Luckily, the good days always outweigh the bad in the end.

    My first long-haul trip (to Peru with a group) gave me a taste for travel, but also my first taste for mishaps! On our first day my roommate and I got horribly lost in Lima, and suddenly noticed we were being stared at by a large group of men on the other side of the road. As two very pale, very tall women, we really stood out. Luckily I managed to flag down and negotiate with a taxi driver to get us back to our hotel. On the plus side, nothing bad actually happened and it made me realise how good my Spanish was!

    And then a few days later I decided to eat some seafood … and got horribly sick. But I still managed to get through a boat trip to the Ballestas Islands (our guide told me to sit at the back and just throw up over the side if I needed to!)

      In that first instance, it’s good that you listened to your gut and got out of there! Even if nothing was going to happen, being in a situation that makes you feel like that is never pleasant.

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