Worst Travel Experiences

FTA69

People love to talk about how enlightening travel can be but holidays, journeys and trips can also have moments of disaster and general crap. Has anyone got any good stories of how everything turned to utter sh*te before their eyes? A couple that jump out for me.

1) early morning flight to Leon in Spain for Easter departing from Stansted. The night bus leaving from North London was overbooked to the high heavens by people desperate to get back for the Easter holidays. At 3am there was a surge to get on one of the buses and a fight broke out between Polish men scrambling to board. Luckily I managed to dive on and was happy as a ham until the bus broke down on the motorway. I was cutting it very fine to begin with and people started screaming at the hapless driver to the point he had to run up the road and desert the bus. This is all at 4am in the dark and driving rain on the side of the North Circular. Some people started calling Ubers and I saw others kneeling in puddles in floods of tears beating the ground with their fists as they were about to miss their flights home.

Yet again I managed to strong arm myself into an Uber with a spare seat and made the airport with a minute to spare. After clearing security I sprinted through Stansted shopping area and smashed (I think) a bottle of perfume with my bag as I ran. Eventually after getting onto the flight feeling like Jack Baur I realised as we took off that I had left my bank card at home and that I'd no money at all on me bar £1.29 I had in my pocket. I remember it because I was 70p short for a cup of tea.

2) Hiking in the border between Burma and Bangladesh, decided to have a drop of water in a village well. Contracted dysentery and lost almost 10kg. I had needed a military permit to enter the area as it is a conflict zone and was told I'd be arrested if I overstayed it. While sh*tting and puking my ring up and praying for death I managed to get pulled by the cops and interrogated for two hours until they realised I was just some innocent fool who was half dead before they dropped me back at my "hotel" which was a concrete shed with an old steel bed. I had to stay there for three days shivering and getting eaten alive by Mosquitos until I was well enough to travel again. Stomach was in loops for months afterward.

Mesrine65

Dysentery while travelling in Mali was a memorable experience to say the least.

Turtyturd

Atlanta...no more needs to be said.

FTA69

Mesrine65 wrote: »

Dysentery while travelling in Mali was a memorable experience to say the least.

Snap on the dysentery. Nothing worse than feeling that sickness build and futilely hoping that it's just a minor bug. Likewise the only jacks I had was a hole in the ground that already stunk like half of India had shat there already. First and only time I shat and gawked at the same time.

LDN_Irish

Taking my now wife for her first visit to Ireland. Had lost my passport so had to get a boat from Holyhead. Meant to be going straight from LDN Victoria straight to Holyhead. Something was wrong with the lines so it ended up taking nearly twice as long with stops and changes all along the way. Ended up getting dropped in Llandudno with the only instruction being "wait at the bus stop around the corner." At 3AM. In the lashing rain and freezing cold. Followed the other clueless sheep around there and waited across the road from some pub forabout an hour and a half. The most rickety bus I've ever been on (and I've been on Finnegan's buses) then took what felt like a million years to get us to Holyhead. Still caught the boat though.

Mesrine65

Getting the absolute shite kicked out of me by a crew of Arab lads while waiting for a ferry to Corsica in Marseilles...still didn't give up the goods :eek:

AgileMyth

The bus from Sapa in North Vietnam to Luang Prabang in Laos is known locally as the 'busride from hell'. Well I think we'd probably have gotten to hell a little quicker..

My friend and I were supposed to make this journey together but his passport had become damaged and he didn't want to risk being rejected at the isolated border crossing we were destined for. This meant he headed for Hanoi to find a consulate while I, not wanting to waste time as I had a flight to catch from bangkok a couple of weeks later, chose to journey onwards alone.

I should have gone to Hanoi..

The bus picked me up in the evening and I settled in for the 20 hour journey. It was relatively comfortable and I even managed some sleep. Til the rain started. We met a typhoon somewhere along the way, I think it was around 4am. Progress was slow but steady through the night.

As morning broke there was no sign of it letting up however. Things went from bad to worse as we came to a bridge which had been washed away entirely. There was nowhere to turn but backwards. Things went from worse to worser as we turned back only to discover a landslide now blocked the way. So we were stuck. We found a small village with a little shack that gave us shelter and some basic food. There we sat.. For four days!!

There was no ATM in the village andi was short on cash.I went the last day and a half with no food whatsoever. Pulling into Dien Bien Phu that evening to find a shower, a hot meal and WiFi was pretty amazing.

The next day we set off once again. Half way up the mountain to the border the driver stopped and tried to extort some more money from a Canadian couple, the only other westerners on the bus and my sole source of companionship for the prior four days. They refused and were thrown off, left to fend for themselves in the middle of nowhere on some mountainside!

After crossing the border we were put onto a different bus. This one was wedged full and I sat on a bag of rice for the next eight hours or so before being dropped somewhere vaguely near luang prabang and paying a tuk tuk driver to help me complete the 20 hour journey I'd set out on a week previously. Then I had a beer, an amazing beer.

If that was too long to read, imagine how long the experience felt.

MarkAnthony

Thinly veiled 'aren't I well travelled thread'. :pac:

Whitewinged

Went on a family holiday to The Isle of Man by boat when i was about 5 or 6.

The boat on the way home was so bad. Nearly every passenger had sea sickness. It was like the plague on the boat. People were lying on floor and basically just puking into sick bags.

My dad brought me to the deck to get fresh air and a huge wave soaked us.

sammyjo90

First holiday by myself..decided to go Prague.
Had how I was gonna get from the airport to the hostel all planned out and written down. Bus-tram-walk. Simple!

Got there and the tram was under maintenance. No internet to check an alternate route so had to figure out the metro.
Managed to get on the wrong one and go out to the completely wrong side of the city and into the outer districts...
I had been in Czech republic for an hour and gotten hopelessly lost.
Luckily a young woman spotted me getting a bit panicky and emotional. Spoke to me and thank fook she spoke English! Got me back on on the right line and found my hostel eventually.

Always have an alternate route to accommodation now!!

stuka

Dying for a whizz while on a bus to Donegal. Driver wouldnt stop as he was running late and cancelled the Cavan rest up. Peed my pants and soaked the poor bugger beside me (I was sitting in the long seat at the back). I was 8. I havent got a coach since. I haven't been on any fancy dan trips around the world so this will have to do ye.

cantdecide

MarkAnthony wrote: »

Thinly veiled 'aren't I well travelled thread'. :pac:

Yes I am but only kinda,

Had a motorbike accident in Nepal a few years ago and nearly lost my arm. I ended up breaking some ribs, my collar bone quite badly and "shattered" my shoulder blade. It took 2 weeks to get from the middle of nowhere to Kathmandu by any means through bad weather and national strikes. The hospital staff were literally laughing at my story. It took the best part of a year to recover but I can't complain.

The second worst part was getting Delhi belly while recovering from the surgery. The worst part was arguing with my insurance company who were adamant I didn't need help.

MarkAnthony

cantdecide wrote: »

Yes I am but only kinda,

Had a motorbike accident in Nepal a few years ago and nearly lost my arm. I ended up breaking some ribs, my collar bone quite badly and "shattered" my shoulder blade. It took 2 weeks to get from the middle of nowhere to Kathmandu by any means through bad weather and national strikes. The hospital staff were literally laughing at my story. It took the best part of a year to recover but I can't complain.

The second worst part was getting Delhi belly while recovering from the surgery. The worst part was arguing with my insurance company who were adamant I didn't need help.

There's an arm and a leg joke in there somewhere. I hope you're fully recovered.

Boring username

I spent 4.5 hours on a train last week with a bunch of middle aged Northside shrieking banshees on the way to a hen party. My ear drums are still bleeding. I'm currently petitioning Irish Rail to introduce a new 4th class carriage.

branie2

A hotel in Sligo. We'd booked for a couple of nights, left after 1, thanks to dirty water.

RayM

Stuck for over an hour on a broken-down train in 1998. It was in Staffordshire in England, right beside an Armitage Shanks toilet factory. There was nothing to do except stare out the window at a massive yard full of toilet bowls.

Nothing but toilets, as far as the eye could see.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Stuck with 2 others on an uninhabited island off Chile due to bad weather. 6 days with supplies for 2.

Actually, it was quite fun thinking back now with 40+ years of rose coloured glasses.

mynameis905

Mesrine65 wrote: »

Getting the absolute shite kicked out of me by a crew of Arab lads while waiting for a ferry to Corsica in Marseilles...still didn't give up the goods :eek:

Doesn't surprise me. Marseille is an absolute kip.

westcoast66

Was on a flight back from Mexico. About 2 hours from London started getting a bout of the Dehli belly, really bad. Air hostess insisted I take a seat 30 minutes from landing. Ended up having to squat in the seat and scutter into a sick bag a number of times. The other passengers were not impressed.

diomed

The first part was down a fast, deep half-mile wide river in Africa in a small boat. The motor cut out about twenty times. We drifted as floating trees went past. We got near our destination at dusk. The engine cut-out again about ten yards short. Luckily we made the last few yards in the dark.

After a few hours in a railway station it was a 150 mile train journey that took twenty hours, including a four hour spell where the engine uncoupled and fecked off without a word of explanation. The toilets were full/blocked in the first hour. Our carriage was built in 1910, and we were in the good part of the train.

ben.schlomo

Arrived in Naples on Easter Monday in 2009 to find our hotel had closed down. Had to walk around the filthy hellhole with backpacks for about two hours trying to find somewhere to stay.

OhDearyMe

FTA69 wrote: »

Contracted dysentery and lost almost 10kg.

You lucky, lucky bastid!

Schwiiing

I went to Cork once.

That is all.

Sir Osis of Liver.

westcoast66 wrote: »

Was on a flight back from Mexico. About 2 hours from London started getting a bout of the Dehli belly, really bad. Air hostess insisted I take a seat 30 minutes from landing. Ended up having to squat in the seat and scutter into a sick bag a number of times. The other passengers were not impressed.

Sweet Jesus,that's fcukin gross.

cantdecide

Schwiiing wrote: »

I went to Cork once.

That is all.

So you never left home again?

discus

Cuba. Total hell hole. The locals hated us, no matter where we went, but especially off thr beaten track. Gave up eventually and went to a resort, couldn't get over the amount of conflict we had to endure just to buy the basics. Queue up in a shop? No point, every Cuban is gonna skip you and curse you and push you. Not a drama until it happens everywhere, no matter where you go. Shopkeepers are all smiles until they realize you know some lingo, and once they can't rip you off they won't even bother completing a sale with you.

Jordan. Missed a flight with the RAF so had to fly civilian airline. Turning up to a middle eastern location with military kit, helmets, ammo pouches, uniforms hidden in suitcases and north face bags... secret police didn't like that one.

jank

FTA69 wrote: »

2) Hiking in the border between Burma and Bangladesh, decided to have a drop of water in a village well. Contracted dysentery and lost almost 10kg. .

Never ever ever drink the local water.


I have been fairly lucky I think on my travels, usually organised. I did spend an entire day stuck in Everest Base camp freezing my ass off because the mini bus that was supposed to bring us back broke down. Also, losing an entire bag of new clothes and presents on a flight from Boston. The Bag vanished, never to be seen again

Also, getting the $hits while on a boat cruise in Halong Bay. Couldn't have come at a worse time.

unjedilike

I actually died on a trip to Texas. Killed by a stray dog. Dead a good while now, not much fun tbh.

white van man pyh90tm

i am 43 and have been to 35 countries, some expensive trips and some budget.

Disaster 1, me and a friend arrive in france via callis on a bus ride from london to prague, friend is french and police come on bus and arrest him for some crime he did some years b4. so i go to prague alone and unbeknown to me he got bailed and followed me 2 days later, problem was no mobile phones in them days and he lost the hotel details, so we were in prague together but never seen each other until we met on the last day in the bus station. all his fault.

disaster 2, went to usa with the same guy and on paddy's day he got arrested again for fighting in a bar and got jailed for 2 weeks. again im alone.

disaster 3 went to Tijuana Mexico on a day trip from california with the same guy and some drug smugglers attached some bags of drugs to our van and we crossed back to usa with the drugs without knowing they were there and when we stopped for food we saw the guys go under our van and retrieve the goods. lucky the border cops didn't find the drugs or i would be writing this from jail.

almost a death disaster 4.

arrive in new york on september 10th 2001 and decided to go to the world trade center next morning, got too drunk the evening b4 and didn't go.

white van man pyh90tm

RayM wrote: »

Stuck for over an hour on a broken-down train in 1998. It was in Staffordshire in England, right beside an Armitage Shanks toilet factory. There was nothing to do except stare out the window at a massive yard full of toilet bowls.

Nothing but toilets, as far as the eye could see.

a man called mr crapper invented the toilet

Mongfinder General

westcoast66 wrote: »

Was on a flight back from Mexico. About 2 hours from London started getting a bout of the Dehli belly, really bad. Air hostess insisted I take a seat 30 minutes from landing. Ended up having to squat in the seat and scutter into a sick bag a number of times. The other passengers were not impressed.

Jesus. The stench must have been unreal.