Travel Disasters
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You are currently reading a thread in /trv/ - Travel
You are currently reading a thread in /trv/ - Travel
So what's the worst thing that has happened to you on your travels?
I write because my latest trip ended on a sour note. I was riding my motorbike around the US southwest on a 5-6 week long road trip and ended up crashing the bike in the middle of no where. Was about 3 weeks into my trip and missed out on some locations I've wanted to visit for years. I had to take a Greyhound back home and on the way they lost my luggage... The accident is also a major dent in my budget, all in all it will probably cost me around $2500. On top of that I had other short trips planned for the summer on the bike and now I probably won't travel at all until September. So yeah, not having a good time right now and not sure what to do with myself.
I wouldn't view what happened to me on my first trip as a terrible experience so much as an interesting experience, but it ruined vacations for a lot of people in the area.
Back in 2013, when I was nineteen years old and taking my first ever trip overseas and alone, I ended up staying in a hostel five minutes away from Taksim Square in Istanbul. I was right in the middle of all the chaos when the Gezi Park protests erupted and got shot in the back with a rubber bullet by a police officer while walking down a street crowded with shoppers and cars. What happened is that, on the first day of protests, there were very few people upset about what had happened. The owner of the hostel told me and a German I'd befriended that there were some angry hippies down at the park and that we should go check out what was happening and maybe meet some liberal Turkish girls.
We had to walk around for ages before we even found any protesters. 99% of the people on the street were just going about their daily business. Regardless, the police starting shooting tear gas at a dozen socialists who had gathered at a nearby intersection, which is where me and my friend were standing. Then they charged and started firing rubber bullets. I wasn't the only innocent bystander who got clobbered; I saw an elderly man get smacked in the face with a tear gas canister at fairly close range. He'd just been crossing the street and had to get carried away by a few other strangers.
My friend and I both started running down an alleyway to get away from the charging cops. I saw a line of people hauling ass through an open doorway and decided to follow them. It turned out to be the headquarters of the SDP, who were the ones the police were after. I had to hide out in their office for an hour while officers were ramming the door and yelling outside. I thought about jumping from a window onto a rooftop to get away but I stuck around until the police left (somebody told me there was a rule that
>>1120867
law enforcement couldn't enter a political party's headquarters or offices under any circumstances which weren't truly exceptional).
Anyway, shit really took off by the end of the day. I remember walking outside and heading back to Taksim, where people were building a giant barricade and stopping traffic. I took a right towards a wide boulevard called Tarlabaşı to get back to my hostel and saw thousands of people streaming up towards Gezi Park. Things quieted down at night but absolutely erupted the next day.
Probably because I was young and stupid (not that I've gotten too much older since 2013 - I was 19 then and am 23 now), I decided to follow along with the protests and take pictures. I ate a metric ton of tear gas and got to find out what it's like to get blasted by an armored vehicle-mounted jet of pepper spray mixed with tear gas.
I left Istanbul about a week and a half later, while the police were still gone from the area, only to travel to Izmir and end up seeing the protests in Gündoğdu Square.
Definitely made for a few interesting stories. Again, I don't count it as an abjectly awful or terrible set of experiences, but I think most people would regard it as such.
Otherwise, I've so far managed to avoid anything awful happening. I did get a flight delayed by 30 hours out of Bogota. Then, on my connection home, I was told that my flight was oversold and that I was going to be bumped to the next available flight.
Given that Delta compensated me with $1200 total in Delta Dollars for use on any future flight, I'm not going to complain too much.
Also gotten Delhi Belly and miserable sicknesses here and there, but I'm still alive and breathing.
Was on a plane that had electrics knocked out by a lightning strike when I was a kid. Made an emergency landing at a small, and very closed, airport in Alabama, where we were on one side of a lowered security gate and vending machines, toilets, etc. were on the other. Got to go out and piss on the plane wheel, so it was not a total loss.
>>1120867
heh I was there too, but later when the protests and stand-offs wth police became regular. Got my share of tear gas as well, but no rubber bullets. Good times.
scratched by a monkey in cambodia and got sick and was concerned i'd have to get flown to bangkok for treatment.
ended up okay, but was pretty nervous for a little while
Not really major but flying from Lisbon to Eindhoven. Waiting for the gate to be announced, turns out flight was delayed by 40 minutes. Wouldn't be a big deal if it weren't for the fact that I'd miss my train to Amsterdam, and that for some dumb reason Eindhoven Airport closes overnight. So instead of sleeping at the Sheraton in Amsterdam I ended up sleeping in front of Eindhoven Airport on the pavement in my suit and hugging my luggage. Thankfully this was in august, if it were winter I'd be supremely fucked.
>>1120860
Coming back from a family holiday in 2008 my mum almost died of an asthma attack on the plane, and had to be rushed to hospital when we landed back in the UK. Wasn't much fun
>>1120868
>compensated me with $1200 total in Delta Dollars
They did not even give you real compensation in real dollars? That is outrageous for a 30hr bump.
>>1122084
Delta dollars are actually worth more then real dollars.
I got trapped on a mountain in south korea and had to fight wild dogs to get down.
>>1122044
Was fine by me, honestly. I'm not rich. Getting $1200 in Delta Dollars means I can take at least one or two international flights for free. I'll probably go to Eastern Europe to visit a friend and then India (again).
I also have $400 in JetBlue credit, so I'll be going down to Mexico soon as well. Currently in Costa Rica. Feels good knowing I'll get to take a handful of trips without having to throw down for airfare.
>>1120860
2002: Old dude has a heart attack on San Diego to Lihue flight; my Dad administered medical care (he's a cop) and the dude ended up being fine.
2005: 7 hour layover in Dallas because maintenance worker noticed multiple fan-blades missing from one engine; took United hours to find us a plane to Tulsa; the passengers were never told how there were critical parts of the jet turbine missing.
2008: Find childhood friend and his family wandering in need of aid miles from the nearest town by the south rim of the Grand Canyon.
2010: Another heart attack on LAX to Sydney; Dad administered medical care but the dude died on our flight; that made things eerie to fly with a dead guy for like 7 hours
2014: All records of our trip to Chicago were deleted and we got new tickets with American at the airport
2015: My friends smoked bad drugs and got lost in Düsseldorf for almost an entire night; my buddy barely made his connection to Paris the next day; to this day none of my friends have any recollection of this night
>>1122145
So where did they store the body of the man who died?
Kind of makes you think about how airlines deal with unexpected stuff happening during flights.
>>1122145
>2005: 7 hour layover in Dallas because maintenance worker noticed multiple fan-blades missing from one engine; took United hours to find us a plane to Tulsa; the passengers were never told how there were critical parts of the jet turbine missing.
That's freaking ridiculous and untrue. The plane wouldn't even have landed safely in the preceding flight or escaped pilot notice from the sheer vibrations. So, damaged maybe, but missing, no.
I took a train out of Brussels hours before the station got bombed.
>>1122172
Not that guy but my understanding is they just ask the people in the front row to move and separate the dead body from the public with towels or whatever they have. Planes don't really have "put dead body here" compartments.
Got wasted in Florence.
Ended up at some American girls house somewhere far from the centre.
She was thikkk (fat)
She takes me to a bakery at 3 am
Fuck her after eating pastries
Walk back to the hostel in the morning.
Fingers covered in blood.
Realise at the hostel that I'd stupidly left my passport at the girl's house.
Completely forgot where she lived.
It's Friday and I need to go to the embassy in Rome.
Stressing out and get the regional instead of the fast train.
Takes like five hours.
Embassy is closed.
Return to Rome on Monday and miss my Sunday flight home.
Get passport.
Spend Monday evening booking a new flight for Tuesday.
Wake up. Realise I left my replacement passport at the internet cafe.
Go to internet cafe and miss my second flight.
Find my passport and book another flight home.
Leave on Thursday because fuck I might as well enjoy my time here.
Don't miss my flight this time thank fuck.
Such a staggering concentration of stupidity.
>>1122333
how are people like you even alive.
>>1122333
>Fuck her after eating pastries
you really need help, m8
>be me, 21 y/o
>in USA
>with 3 friends
>drive with rental car
>nearly 70mph instead of 55
>get caught by a ranger, not just a regular cop
>no money for the fine
>get thrown in jail
>some old dude with me in the box
>have a horrible night
>get carried to judge
>i deeply apologize
>get released for 50 bucks
>friends are all gone with the car
>mfw
Since then, my believe in friendship and humans in general has died.
>2013, was flying from Geneva to Bangkok, bought the cheapest ticket ever (420€) Egypt Air
>had a stop at Cairo, everything seemed weird, military everywhere, wtf
>they were rebeling, the airport was shutting down, no flight in or out, we were in no man's land
>spent the night sitting on the floor at airport, we were provided bottles of water, tried to contact ambassy but they can't get in the airport to help.
fuck you Egypt, never again.
>>1120867
Amazing to me that someone would enter protest areas willingly. Rape and murder also happens, jail plus interrogations also can happen, not just police clashes which you find so lacking in fear. Every single embassy will warn you to stay away from the areas, not encourage you to check it out to seek women. *boggle* You do know that the frontal lobe is the last part of the brain to develop right?
>>1122049
>scratched by a monkey in cambodia
>got sick
OMG!! Did it bite you? Land on your head and pull hair? Was it just a beggar that got aggressive? More details, please!
>>1122414
I do ask that myself sometimes. I like to think that stupid experience taught me a valuable lesson in personal responsibility...
It's been a few years since then and funnily enough I'm a deputy head of a school now.
>>1122172
They just throw them out of the airlock.
>>1120860
Got into a couple traffic accidents on a trip to Thailand.
>In Chiang Mai riding in a tuk tuk
>some Thai bitch not from the area hit us with like a pretty big car
>bumper came completely off the car
>no one got injured except for me
>slammed my head into the handrail thats about head level in the tuk tuk
>police, ambulance came
>wanted to take me to hospital for fear of concussion
>fuck no did want to spend the rest of the night
Ruined my night but ended up fine the next day.
Don't want to talk about the other time, was my own damn fault for crossing the street not a crosswalk
>>1122521
>fuck no did want to spend the rest of the night in a Thai hospital***
>>1122522
I cant type
>fuck no did not want to spend the rest of the night in a Thai hospita***
>>1122450
Did you read the post? The protests were TINY at first. There was no violence. Gezi Park would never have turned into such a huge event if the police hadn't overreacted in exactly the way I described.
>y wud u go to protest zone
Because my hotel was two minutes from
Taksim Square you bumblefuck. If I'd stayed inside when things did start to pick up, I would have been suffocated by tear gas.
Got our cars passenger window smashed in by gypsies/morrocans when we were sleeping in our car at a gas station in northern spain.
they managed to grab a bag on the passenger seat with duplicate keys for the vacation home (friends mom was driving, they own a house there) we were going to stay in. They didnt get the address and it was quite a distance still from the robbing to the house, but was still a bad feeling at night knowing some lowlife scum have keys for the door.
>In Laos on my motorcycle
>water buffalo charges out of jungle have to avoid
>not wearing helmet
>total bike get knocked out for a long time
>amnesia and stitches all over my body
>clinic that patched me up was so dirty ended up getting severe infections and had to go back home
>In tasmania
>go on a 5 day solo hiking trip before going back home
>friend drops me off in the bush will pick me up
>second day start smelling camp fire and hearing helicopters
>full on bush fire in the mountains mate
>no cell phone no one knows where I am
>come out of the mountains to meet my ride
>washing dishes at a hotel
>flying back to chicago but the road is barricaded by the fire fighters
>no way out no way in
>have to buy firefighters a bunch of drinks and convince them to let me ride out with them
>drive through forest fires with a bunch of hungover firefighters to make my escape
>In cambodia
>wasted at 2 am after a night out
>meet a guy that's willing to sell me a fuck ton of opium for cheap
>drive out of the city to a shady looking warehouse
>getting ready to buy guy's friend pulls a knife on me
>was kind of expecting it
>they take all of my money
>such a pathetic mugging that they feel bad for me
>dealer guy gives me a ride back to the city
>get jumped a few days later by 3 lady boys but fight them off
>pick pocketed a couple days after that by a junkie when I was dancing with shim singing danke schoen
I was very close to hitting a cow at the start of a road trip but having newer tires saved my ass. Those fuckers were black and it was just getting dark so I didn't think I needed brights on. They don't even move or react to a car screeching to a halt just in front of them.
That's all I've got really
>Last year in Mongolia
>Were hitchhiking with my gf
>trying for the third day to finally get out of the city called Moron.
>when we get to the road leading west the sky is just lead
>it's cold despite middle of summer
>it's starts raining and the rain is very cold
>all the warm clothes are already on her
>I find a local-made jacket in a ditch
>"mongolian wear, all-purpose clothing"
>it's warm and semi-waterproof
>even though wet from laying in the ditch it warms me up
>we catch a ride, 30km
>end up in absolute nowhere
>absolute, really
>it's raining heavily
>I set up a tent using a found cleaver as a hammer for tent pins
>wind changes the tent into a sail, but it stays in place
>survived a night
>pack up, most of everything is drenched
>there's a river right next to the tent
>It wasn't here yesterday
>still raining
>we catch a car
>car breaks
>catch another
>jeep
>full of people already
>little place
>we get told to put our backpacks on the roof
>I have no idea why I haven't declined
>try to cover the backpacks the best I can
>they drive us to a tiny village
>backpacks are soaking wet
>everything is wet
>every-fucking-thing
>it's almost 0 degrees
>in order not to die of hypothermia we go to a local "hostel"
>dry everything by a tiny oven for two days
>people from other places also sleep there
>somebody from 120km away in the direction we go to shows me pictures of snow
>tfw middle of july
>next day another man comes
>turns out that in the next village on our trip (the one we had to cross, there was no other way) ther is a plague epidemy
>goddamn plague
>fuck I thought the disease no longer exists
We ended up going back, and choosing another way. It was not really a disaster, but still probably the first time in my life I could actually die in confrontation with nature.
>>1122443
how you got out of the situation and what about your friends?
>>1122098
Story time anon
>>1122067
lucky guy. I ended up with two friends in front of an airport in finnland, somewhere close to the russian border. Airport was closed over night too. We drank a lot of coffe and bought some candles to keep our hands warm (those for graves, just in case we wont survive the night). Temperature was below 0. Every hour we were running few minutes in circles to keep us warm and not falling asleep. Next morning took the plane to germany and ended up at an airport with 25 degrees, still dress for the cold.
>>1124126
>meet a guy that's willing to sell me a fuck ton of opium for cheap
That's your own fault right there, bucko.
>>1124176
Plague is native to Mongolia (steppes of eastern Siberia, anyway). It depends on the type of plague, but the type common in Mongolia is not transmitted through air or coughing. You'd have to eat an infected marmot to get it, and it's not fatal nowadays (provided you get immediate treatment -- even good ol' penicillin works).
>>1124482
Yeah, I already educated myself a bit since that time. I wouldn't count on immediate treatment in Mongolia. You are unlikely to stay too long in a place with people nearby anyway, the problem starts when you are in complete nowhere. Locals told me this shit kills you in two days.
As to the transmission ways - now that's interesting... Can you source this information?
>be 13
>one morning as I was readying myself for school, dad barges in my room
>Anon, you have exactly one hour to pack your bag, we're leaving
>wait what, where to, dad?
>Canary Island, we're going to have fun at the beach
>cool!
>get on plane
>wait this isn't right, we're going to Sao Paulo dad
>Yeah that's right, we're going to have fun in Brazil
>oh cool
>plane lands
>border security didn't allow me in because dad didn't know Australian passports needed visa for Brazil and for most of Latin America (he was using European passport)
>Ok anon, stay with them, I'm getting your visa
>Cops "escorted" me to business lounge in airport, it was nice, I had coke and cakes
>Few hours later, dad is back, my visa was done
>cool
>Instead of getting out of airport, takes me to another terminal
>Haha Anon, jokes on you, we're going to camp in the middle of nowhere in Paraguay!
>what
>land in Asuncion, greeted by his friend
>next day he takes us in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, in the Gran Chaco; friend owns a big land
>he gives us a tent, a horse for each of us, one cow
>have fun guys
>we sleep outside, take bath in a pond, had to fish, horse riding all day, and pick some plants in this dry and arid plain
>learned some survival skills
>suddenly asthma attack (quite rare for me)
>in the middle of fucking nowhere
>knocked out for days, couldn't sleep, I looked like a zombie
>dad took some pics of me in that state
>he rode back to his friend's house, he gave me an inhaler that was too old to be truly effective
>relieves me a little
>few days later, better
>fly back
>dad show pics to mom
>mom was crying
>dad was laughing
Th-thanks dad.
That's pretty much it. I think that was the only time in my life I wasn't too sheltered during a trip. Still one of my fondest memories with my dad.
Cruise ship almost capsized during an evasive maneuver
>be 10
> first real vacation ever on cruise ship from Los Angeles to Mexico
>just me and dad
> first night as were entering the ocean in between the border area
>there's a Mexican drug smuggling boat with no lights off driving slowly
>they are asleep at the wheel just coasting thier way up to America and our cruise ship is headed straight for them
> captain swerves to avoid killing them last minute when he sees the boat
>everyone falls out of bed that was sleeping
>casino slot machines and everything not strapped down all over boat is knocked over
>I fall out of bed , roll and have a perfect view of the water right at our window line
fun times, some people got a little hurt and a few had broken arms but guess that's probably the worst traveling for me
>be 11 years old
>visiting Spain with family
>buy realistic toy gun in tourist shop
>go to airport to fly home
>I take gun out of luggage to play with it
>father shouts at me and takes it from me
>armed police swoop in out of nowhere
>they grab my dad and slam him onto the floor
>guns pointed at all of us
>shouting at us in spanish
>dad is handcuffed and dragged away
>they question him for ages
>finally accept story and let him go
>he has to pay for new flights because we missed ours
next time, try travelling with a car.
>>1124504
Your dad sounds like a total bro.
>>1124487
Yea plague does act pretty quickly (if you're unlucky). Not many world-class hospitals an hour away in the middle of the steppe.
Well, there are different types of plague, depending if it infects your lungs, blood or lymph system. Air-borne (lung infected) plague is pretty bad, but quite rare.
>>1124585
Is there actually any way to tell what I am dealing with before I catch it? Also, from what I heard the biggest problem are fleas, which jump high enough to be counted like half-airborne. I guess it may still not be worth the risk (mind you I always travel via hitchhiking, so getting out of car at some point is inevitable)
>>1122145
You are a chronic liar and I'm calling you out on your shit.
How does it feel to have a problem?
>>1124690
I believe fatigue, headaches, muscle pains, and pain/swelling in the lymph nodes (neck, armpit, groin) is a classic sign. If you were out in the middle of nowhere with it, I guess you'd be plain fucked. It can take up to a week to incubate, but once the symptoms start you better be in a hospital.
>>1124756
the horror, the horror.
>>1122450
American detected
>School trip with explorica
>London/Paris 2005ish?
>regular trip whatever
>Get to DC from London, fly to Chicago to spend the night before flying back home.
>Dumb fuck kid I know decides to take his jeweled letter opener out of his bag he bought in Paris and put it in his carryon
>O'Hare airport security find it in a check
>Legit looks like a huge goddamn knife and he is arab looking as fuck
>As he gets pulled away for questioning he says "<my name> can explain this, he knows it is just a letter opener!"
>You dumb motherfucker
I then spent the morning having to talking to TSA in a backroom until my teacher could convince them I was fucking 16 and not about to hijack a plane. I got released and almost immediately boarded the plane which we arrived 3 hours early for. I didn't even get a cinnabon.
