So these are my “Top Worst” travel experiences… otherwise known as my worst. We have been very lucky with travel overall (touch wood) and we have been healthy and safe for the most part, with only 2 near-miss car accidents , a rather scary red laser being trained on us, and 1 nearly missed flight to our names. But we have had our moments. Here are my Top 5:
Runner Up: Not being able to Say “No”, Japan
This was also rather unfortunate: apparently it’s rude to say “No”. This led to several non-ideal situations, including me eating dried fish with eyes on against my better judgement just to be polite, and me running out of a swimming baths covered in sand as apparently I had to be naked and I didn’t want to be.
Five: The Unfortunate Train Ride to Danang, Vietnam
We already had food poisoning (aka diarrhoea) before we got on the train which was unfortunate. We were able to manage that situation with Immodium, although it didn’t quell my anxiety about the prospect of undertaking a long journey on public transport in my condition! BUT that fear was quickly displaced when a large cockroach crawled out of a hole in my seat. I jumped about 2 foot in the air and then refused to sit in my seat again. Luckily there was a spare seat down the train carriage, so I sat there. Not my fave train journey ever.
Four: Bags Going Missing, New York
The airline flew our bags to one place, and flew us to another. In that moment at the airport, when you realise you will have to leave the airport without all your possessions and no idea of when you will see them again, it’s not nice. This was the first leg of a round-the-world trip so we were pretty screwed if we lost all our equipment like mosquito nets etc, plus as we were on the move we wouldn’t have 1 fixed forwarding address. I had medication in my bag so I was stressing out but the airline’s attitude was “well that’s your fault”. Cheers then! But this did end happily as we were reunited, so I know this could have been much worse!
Three: Trapped under a Snowmobile, Finland
In the middle of what was a truly thrilling, exhilarating snowmobile tour, we rolled the snowmobile, I put my leg down (which you shouldn’t do!), and got it trapped under the machine. It hurt A LOT and after managing to crawl away from the accident, we were in shock. Luckily the doctor later confirmed that my leg wasn’t broken, but at the time I didn’t know that! This is the only time we have had to see a doctor overseas and worry about travel insurance / healthcare costs etc so that wasn’t fun, but it worked out ok as the insurance covered us.
Two: Nazca Bus
The bus ride from hell. 15 hours of hair-pin bends. I was very sick and my BF felt very sick. For 15 miserable insufferable hours. I would have happily got off the bus in the middle of the night in the middle of the desert if I could, but my lovely BF was lucid enough to realise this wasn’t a great plan. Besides, we were stuck on board anyway. The silver-lining is we were never happier than after we got off the bus and reached solid ground, and afterwards if anything was terrible, we’d say “well at least we’re not on the Nazca Bus!”.
One: Robbed and Sick in Morocco
This was a double-whammy – first I was mugged. Two men on a motorbike ripped my handbag off me in the street. When I reported it I wasn’t dealt with with as much compassion as I would have liked or expected, which upset me more. The next day after dealing all the police reports etc, I got sick – vomiting and diarrhoea!! I felt terrible and spent the rest of the holiday in bed, unable to eat or do much apart from sleep and sip water. It was the worst holiday I have had so far! The only positive is that the travel insurance came through for us and reimbursed me for the cost of the stuff that was stolen. Plus, our sensible precautions also came through for us (putting credit cards and passport in the hotel safe meant we could at least fly home without any further issues).
I know that a lot worse things can happen, and we are very lucky that our worst experiences include things like eating a fish, which, you know, on the scale of things isn’t that bad. So I don’t mean to complain, but these are our low-lights of our trips so far, and as many of you will know, when you’re far from home and things are shit, you feel very alone and scared.
What are your worst travel experiences? Leave a comment and let me know!
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