Your most unpleasant travel memories?

Eating unpasteurized cheese in Oporto, Portugal, and then going by ambulance to an ER. The upshot: I got better, and the treatment was free!

Air Canada flight. Dead of winter. Problem with landing gear. Jettisoned fuel, Capitan said "OK, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna give it a go". All I remember is the horrendous WHOMP when we hit the ground. Several people injured by flying shit everyfuckingwhere. Several more injured sliding down the emergency chutes. I'd never seen so many emergency vehicles - ambulances, fire engines, trucks - in one place in my life. They bundled us all into a building, we were checked by medical staff. Air Canada wouldn't let us out of the building until we signed a medical release. Six hours later, I was on a plane to California. I never flew Air Canada again.

Vomiting in the street (twice!) in Cairo.

Public displays of vomiting is the best, R3! Don't be ashamed.

I suffered anal leakage in the airport in Oaxaca City while waiting for a flight. No symptoms, no sensation. I decided to visit the loo before boarding (always a good idea) and my knickers were the biggest chocolate MESS ever. I had to throw them out, fashion something out of paper towels to serve as knickers on the return flight. I was terrified it would happen again, mid-flight, but it didn't. I worried that I STANK and probably did. Cringe.

On a returning flight from Australia they gave us some type of egg omelette. I looked at it and told the flight attendant I was going to skip breakfast. He called me chicken and served it to the next passenger.

That time I flew on Asiana airlines with those incompetent pilots, Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo and Ho Lee Fuk.

Worst flight of my life.

^ wasn't Bing Dang Ow part of the crew on that airline, too!?

It was the red-eye from SFO to EWR. Somewhere nearby was a person with the worst flatulence imaginable. Every 10 minutes or so, a miasma arose sufficient to make me think crashing was preferable. I flew once from Frankfurt to EWR near a child that screamed the entire way; that flight was vastly preferable -- I had ear-buds.

My ex partner slapping me in the red light District of Amsterdam , because his daughter was a sreet ho in Chattanooga.

r6=Reynolds Woodcock.

The turbulence once on a trans atlantic flight from Newark to Italy.

Always hated it but a cousin of mine whose father worked for Air France who had flown a lot told me that you don't need to be worried until the staff looks worried.

Well late in the evening during dinner there was severe turbulence which then turned into a shaking of biblical proportions. I fully expected us to be thrown out of the sky to 30,000 feet below into the black ocean. The stewards struggled to get everyone's dinner in which we were in the middle of taken away and looked scared as shit.

I've rarely taken a long flight since then. Like 3 hours at the most.

Unusual 90+ degrees in Europe. Obscenely hot train from Paris to London - stench of unshowered Europeans. Then finally get to hotel - no AC. Went to a show - no AC.

Russia - ugly disgusting crime ridden place with few skanky gay bars, horrible food and sketchy unhappy people.

I have heard about the highways in Cairo but wasn't prepared for my first trip there. First, getting a proper taxi was a question. Some guy approached me as I was leaving the terminal and said he would arrange a taxi for me to go to Giza where I was staying. I eventually found myself in a taxi with someone who couldn't speak English and off we were down the road. This part of the ring road (circles Cairo) is filled with cars, trucks and buses, each having a dent or three on them, using whatever lane, or multiple lanes, to get wherever they were going. It looked like a free for all. I just kept my eye on my phone's map to make sure we were going in the right direction. This went on for 45 minutes. On the side of the road, some people were driving their mule with a cart on the side of the road. People selling tires and all sorts of things. And this was a main road. It was like being in a different world. I almost kissed the ground when I arrived at my Giza hotel. At least I know what to expect the next time I visit.

Shit my pants in Cancun

My luggage being 18 hours late as I was on my way to Antarctica.

So I had one night in Punta Arenas, Chile, before catching a boat to Antarctica for two weeks... and my luggage didn't appear when I landed in Chile! I had to be at the meetup point at 9AM the next day, and if my luggage didn't appear I'd be heading to Antarctica with no clean underwear or warm clothing. So my luggage arrived at the hotel at 4AM for some reason, but damn. I didn't sleep that night. Because imagine heading to Antarctica without any clean underwear or warm clothing.

I am a woman. Had to talk my way out of an abduction/rape in Sicily. Very scary and upsetting.

Riding a Greyhound bus is never pleasant. Some Mexican tried to finger me when I was asleep last time. Let me tell you what happened the first two times.....

Can you give more details r17?

i got montezumas revenge on my last few days in Cancun. I knew not to drink the water but didn't think about ice cubes in my drink at a restaurant one night. Spent the next two days thinking i was going to die. I made it to the airport and threw up in a trashcan. I remember sitting in the terminal waiting and there was a couple sitting near me and the wife had the same thing i had but had been to the ER. She could barely move. I remember the plane ride home was horrible, i just kept hoping i'd make it home to my bed. I haven't been back

I was sitting by myself in a row on a red eye to Mexico. This guy with a sick baby decides to bring the fussy baby with that gross sick croupy crying and sit in the seat on the aisle (no doubt to keep from disturbing the people who he was traveling with 🙄)

I finally put a blanket over my head to block the noise and illness. The baby continued crying then suddenly make a choking noise and suddenly I felt something land on the blanket. Yep - the bank had projectile vomited and it had hit the blanket.

The man was very apologetic and I was polite but asked to be seated elsewhere as I handed the flight attendant the puked on blanket.

I moved to the back of the cabin which now smelled of vomit.

Bienvenido a Mexico!

The best thing to do if you are traveling to countries where you might get a stomach virus is to get prescription strength antibiotics ahead of time from your doctor. The minute you start feeling funky take the meds. Waiting til your are sick is too late. It will mean the difference between a vacay on the beach or one in the bathroom.

I mostly stay home.

OP But the bedbugs from the Czech Republic are the best!

^ twinky blond ones, I bet

Two really bad experiences but I still love travel.

In Berlin I got food poisoning and proceeded to throw up in the Underground waiting for a train , in front of this lovely girl, who I still feel embarrassed about , then threw u just before my hotel. Made it to my bed. 5 days shaking and being sick worst ever. But off to Berlin again in 3 months!! Love Europe.

The more amusing , but frustrating time was losing my bank card and wallet in London. Ringing up MasterCard in the US was one of the most frustrating times in my life. I never realised Americans could be so dumb. Like unbelievable. Them: “ Your in London you said in England ? What State is that.?

My answer that it was the Capital city of England.

“ Yes Sir , but I meant the State, like I am from Washington State and you are? “

“In another Country. I am in The UK”

“ But you said you were in England? “ Now you are saying you are in the UK ? Which is it ?”

Me “ I am in England which is part of the United Kingdom”

“But you just said the UK ? Which is it ? “

Me “ I am in England which is part of....”

Them “ OMG I see it now but it says it is Great Britain , this is blowing my mind!! “

True story from4 years ago with many witnesses, all trying not to laugh, as I was so stressed and MasterCard were deadly serious.

Mmmm

Robbed on the shores of Lake Geneva. Had to hole up in a surpringly well managed hotel (it was actually run by Swiss-Germans, not the French) while my new passport, cards etc arrived.

What a fucking boring place.

r1 here.

I, too, vomited on the street---had too much afternoon Sangria in Toledo, Spain.

Also, I lost (had stolen?) my passport in Avila, Spain---had to return to Madrid for the new photo/documents rigamarole.

Had a Nikon stolen from our car in Lisbon (parked outside the British Hospital, another sickness bout). On a different trip, in Normandy we had the lenses stolen on the new camera after we stupidly left the camera bag unattended on what we thought was a deserted road.

Had our rental car broken into and filled suitcases stolen (can you believe, after the above-mentioned, my husband wanted to leave our camera in the car overnight?!) in Cambridge. Awesome ending, though: Two months later the police sent our found luggage AND clothing to us in the US!

I was hired at the last minute to go with a show for 12 weeks in Mexico. Three of us were hired at the same time. We entered as tourists and the producer of the show took us the first week we were there to get our work authorization papers.

12 weeks later, as I'm trying to exit the country, I am stopped. The work authorization papers are not in order. Or something. It took me three days of being directed to every mutherfucking government office in Mexico City before someone issued a document allowing me leave. My Spanish is poor, my money was about gone, and the ability to get anyone in any official capacity to correct the matter was stressful. I was only about 23, so I had little experience to draw upon to see me through this.

In retrospect, as a seasoned adult, I'm sure the Mexican employer paid off a friend to issue the papers, but the larger requisite fees were not paid. That was one problem. But the workers in the various offices who didn't want to get involved and would say, "Maybe if you go to this other office, maybe they can help you...." THAT shit was really hard to handle.

It is a beautiful country. I met some wonderful people. But don't fall into any situation in which you have to deal with the government.

How about one I avoided.

When I went to Paris for the first time when I was young a very cute well dressed young man starts chatting me up on the train platform right outside the airport exit on the train platform. A very pleasant start to my trip I thought. He eventually asks if I had a train ticket.

'No I'll get it on the train.

'But you have to get it just inside the terminal.'

'Oh well than I have to go back.' My suitcase was large and heavy.

'Ok I'll watch your suitcase for you.'

'That's alright I can manage.'

His face suddenly dropped as he knew I thought he was going to steal it. Of course I did. And I sure as hell wasn't going to have my first trip to Paris permanently ruined which would have always stung whenever I visited the city.

The way his face dropped maybe he was genuine but it wasn't worth finding out.

And if he was going to steal it I thought what a stupid shitty way of life for such an attractive young guy.

That’s very common in Mexico when dealing with extraordinary circumstances in professional or official situations. Passive aggressive behavior reigns. No one wants to be the one to take responsibility for a fucked up situation so it gets pushed to someone else - or they feign ignorance. Pues no se decirle..😑

Part of it is hoping you’ll just give up and go away. I absolutely love Mexico, but that was one thing about living there that would make me insane.

Do you realize OP that Morocco is not a third world country? Why would you even think that? I was there two weeks ago, so my knowledge of the country is more current. Perhaps you confused Morocco with the place where you grew up.

September before last - in Rome, - my 77 year old mother fell down a flight of stairs and broke both her legs.

My grandma farted in the Vatican

R34 I love your grandma.

Morocco is very much a third-world country, headed by an absolute Monarch, dependent on tourism and foreign remittances. Adult literacy hovers at 69% (lowest in North Africa and the Near East). Poverty is rampant, especially in rural areas, and most Moroccans earn less than $2,800 annually.

Flying with my cousin from Tel Aviv to Cairo on Air Sinai. It was 102 degrees outside on this overloaded Boeing 737 filled with DOZENS of grossly overweight Ugandan Christian tourists on their way home. I knew we were overweight for takeoff, used up every bit of runway on this ratty ole plane. I had been years in the airline business so flew all the time . 1st time I felt we were pushing the envelope. Thank god we were at or near sea level!

[quote]Because imagine heading to Antarctica without any clean underwear or warm clothing.

Not a problem.

Similar to R12

Atlanta to Paris (Delta of course). Ninety minutes into the flight the fire alarm goes off in the below cabin crew quarters. Smoke smell, but no one can find the cause or the fire.

Very professional crew’s faces turn from smiles to tight to barely suppressed fear. Fortunately, because we were Not over Atlantic, we landed safely up north.

When in Bora Bora, I came down with a cold. I went to the pharmacy to get some cough medicine.

I took some and felt much better. So I took some more. And then more.

I didn't realize they sold cough medicine with codeine over the counter there.

I'm allergic to the stuff and almost ODed on it. I was VIOLENTLY ill on the plane and spent the next two days in bed.

I just have the benign 'kid screaming' version of travel horror. We were delayed on the Miami tarmac back from Belize by huge thunderstorms up and down the East coast. It kept us grounded for over 6 hours in the plane before we returned to the terminal to wait for a new crew. At this point, one particularly loud kid, a girl of about 4 to 5 years, started screaming as we left the plane, in the terminal, and back onto the plane after 10 hours into the ordeal with a solid four hours of non-step screaming. The father was a goumba who verbally abused anyone who looked their way. Some teachers sitting across from me in the terminal began to discuss the best ways to end it. I nearly bust a gut keeping in the laughter. They really had some sinister ideas, but I figured they would know.

I once experienced violent turbulence in one of those commuter flights into NYC on American Eagle out of Logan. It was so bad passengers began to pray and I swear I heard the stewardess, belted in up front, joining in. I didn't know how bad it was until we landed and I found myself gripping the armrest so hard that I had torn it with my nails. Took Amtrak for a while after that.

On a 2 hour flight to Boston, I sat next to a 20 something year old woman with extreme motion sickness. She puked the entire flight, poor thing. I was polite and summoned the stewardess. Finally after 30 minutes it was so bad that I asked if it just didn't make sense for her to be seated with the stewardesses in back and they agreed. At times I thought I was going to be sick. Not good. Yipes.

My worse flight was a 20 hour flight from Bangkok to Paris. We stopped in (then) Bombay, Tehran, and Beirut.

Screaming children across the aisle. And French Cunt stewardesses prowling the aisles. And they serviced chicken with feathers still on! Yummy, Air France!

Probably Honolulu Hawaii, 2008. My parents anniversary and I joined them. Hawaii was our family go-to vacation when I was growing up. My dad was miserable, cruel and bitter about being there, the whole time. Sat in hotel room mostly with his nose in a newspaper. He said things that forever affected our relationship. Huge fights ensued. My mom crying. We ended up doing our own thing and going on some nice island tours to salvage it. But overall, just horrible. Then the island lost power for a few days. Total black out and long lines to get water, food, etc at the convenience stores. My father was also stung by a jellyfish on the trip.

R43 based on said itinerary that flight had to have taken place before God was born

Paris with three friends.

One of us had been to Paris a lot, two had been several times and one never. So I suggested: "Everyone do/see whatever you want during the day with whomever wants to do that, too. And pick a day and pick a restaurant that you run across during the day that looks fun and we'll all have dinner there."

It worked great for the first three days. Everyone got to do what they wanted during the day and we loved the restaurants at night. Until the last night. One of our group picked a restaurant off Place de la Concorde. It was, by far, the most expensive restaurant and, by far, also the worst. But we were in such a good mood we just joked about it. One friend said, "I've always loved Dinty Moore canned stew!"

Well, the friend who picked the restaurant took it all very personally. And lashed out at us, telling us he was embarrassed to travel with us because we epitomized ugly Americans, etc. etc. He was furious.

The problem was: We still had four more days in London. It was so uncomfortable.

It's never a good idea to have a confrontation while traveling. I you have a gripe, it's best to address it when you get back home.

R45 1974. On a Boeing 707. I was just a kid, but I remember it vividly.

My Story-from-Hell Adventure involved a trip to India. Just about everything that could go wrong, did.

After reading this thread I've decided never to leave the US again - the world is one big DEATHTRAP!

Broke down in Barstow, CA for four days in July heat. My travel companion was a bitch from hell. We slept in her broken car. I got mugged—punched and robbed—while walking on a well-lit and well-trafficked Street.

Awful but being with her made it all 10x worse.

Yeah a lot of my friends I would never live or travel with.

Stuck on the side of a mountain in Myanmar during the monsoon. You could see the hillsides above slowly collapsing as mud and rocks oozed onto the thin thread of a 2 lane road. The down hill side was a 600 foot drop to the valley below. 27 hours!

Some of these stories remind me why I almost always travel solo.

Going on a trip with a friend. Everything on a budget. The hotel sucked (he picked it), the restaurants mediocre at best. But the worst: he had planned everything from start to finish. There was nothing for me to decide. Nothing sponteneous happened to us during that time, we didn't make any contact because there was no time. We ran from A to B without enjoying the trip, there was not time to enjoy anything. It was about HIM HIM HIM. I'd rather go on my own.

SOF to HEL via LED on Balkan Airlines in 1990 on a Tu-134. One Finnish woman, me, and 85 Bulgarians. Smoking/non-smoking was divided by the aisle. But that did not matter; everybody smoked. Before taxi, duty-free liquor bottles were opened and passed around. But the time we took off, it was a zoo. During taxi and take off, tray tables were down, bottles fell onto the floor and broke, people stood up and moved around -- complete and utter chaos. On approach to LED, we hit severe turbulence and hand luggage crashed down from the overhead shelves. I was conked on the head by a bottle of Johnny Walker followed by a drunk women who landed on my lap. She suffered a broken leg in the process, so when we landed, I sat there while medics came aboard and carried her out.

I did not have a transit visa for LED, so I was quarantined alone in a glass enclosure in the arrivals hall while they refueled the plane and took on passengers. They escorted me to the stairs; I was the last to reboard. Thankfully my seat was still unoccupied. The second leg was very short and mostly empty, so that was better. But I had a knot on my head for weeks after that.

Shared a place with friends in Provincetown 4th of July week. The trip had been planned for a year.

At the last minute, a couple who were included announced that they were going to get married that week.

Suddenly, I whole trip was about them. They told us what we were eating every day (they went to the the grocery store the first morning, bought food for the whole week, and then presented us with our share of the bill). But they didn't like seafood, so we were at the beach eating frozen hamburgers. The only night to go out to eat was the night they choose -- the the most expensive restaurant in town -- which, we were told, we were treating them to, to celebrate their love. We were told what time we were to be ready and what we could and could not wear. After having enough of this controlling behavior, some of us ditched the frozen hamburgers and went out to eat. And incurred their glares.

They announced that their "reception" would be Labor Day weekend in Florida. Somehow, none of us could make it.

Something awful happened to me last summer when I was visiting Cabeza de Lobo with my cousin. I only wish I could remember what it was.

The time we took our little Maddie to Portugal.

Hardly got a moment on the beach with all the hullabaloo.

Let's just say, what started out as the opportunity of a lifetime got pretty shitty.

R55

Your not, by any chance, a Flyertalker, are you?

A dyke queefed loudly in Provincetown. It smelled too

A little different from the rest, but my worst was traveling to Europe with my mother in 1970. She was the stereotype ugly American. She took great glee in telling any European who was referred to a "Doctor" that they were not a doctor unless they were a physician and European degrees were worthless. She used WWII to humiliate whenever possible. (According to my father she was nearly jailed in German for a NAZI based remark she made.) She explained the lack of trash in Northern Europe to their being too poor to throw anything out (yes, she actually thought throwing fast food rubbish out of the window of a car was what made America great and refused to recycle.) The best part, was driving from Germany to Austria. Apparently there was short stretch that bordered on Czechoslovakia. She saw the sign and started screaming at my father to do a U turn, as if one can do a U turn on the Autobahn(?). It was hell.

R62 Unless that story is made up, your mother deserves a hard kick in the cunt.

R62 Is your mother still alive? I would love to arrange for her to travel with a few people I have travelled with. Preferably, a very long trip to a foreign place that only serves internal organs.

[quote]And French Cunt stewardesses prowling the aisles. And they serviced chicken with feathers still on! Yummy, Air France!

You didn't know that chicks don't shave in France?

One last mom story. We went to Ford's Theater. Basically, there was us and a large Baptist church group. My mother pointed to the top balcony, and said, "When I was a child, we called that nigger heaven." With perfect timing she turned to the church group and said, "Well we did."

R64, She is dead now. She had a terrible quality of life for the last 15 years or so.

R66 was your mom the original Deplorable?

PIA in the '90's. Spirit Air twice since 2008. Vile airlines/

Around New Year's Eve 1979 I was an American student (England-based) travelling from France back to England on a very crowded ferry that was hit by a huge storm on the Channel. The ferry attempted to dock several times on the English side but the Channel was so rough all attempts failed, and the boat was eventually sent back to France.

By the time we arrived on the French coast, most people had been violently ill for hours because of the rolling back and forth. Most of the toilets were out of order (besides the fact that people were so ill they often didn't make it to them).

When we got back to France, we found out that the French had gone on strike (including many of the workers on the ferry). There were more hours of dithering around by authorities. We were stuck on a rocking boat that stunk, had no food, etc. People with babies were freaking out because they didn't have enough diapers with them or food.

When we finally docked and were let off the ferry, we were in a terminal that was closed for the evening (but at least we had toilets and water). A large group of Israelis decided to sing and dance for several hours in the middle of the night while the rest of us were exhausted. There were very few seats in the terminal and little heat, so we were freezing. Eventually there was a group of fellow travellers who attacked the Israelis (trying to get them to shut up) and a brawl ensued; windows were broken (letting in more frigid air) and the police came.

Sometime the next morning (the storm was over), we were loaded onto a ferry although the strike was still on and taken to England. It took more than 36 hours for me to step on English soil and was one of the last times I took the ferry.

Geez, your story may top mine, although that one begins, back in the days of paper tickets, with the check-in agent returning them to us with a firm "No!"

I've travelled to MANY countries, met MANY people and they always give my handlers the worst presents, souvenirs, etc. It's so.......common.

This vase looks tacky enough as it is, then I discovered that someone shit in it.

You could fill a thread just with stories of Israelis behaving badly.

Gore Vidal perving on me at La Rondinaia. Having to be polite about it as he was besties with my sugar daddy. Extremely unpleasant for all parties.

R73 FUCK OFF NAZI SCUM.

After I posted the other day, I remembered what had happened only a few days prior that was just as memorable back in late December 1978. I was alone in the Rome train station when I was picked up by an extremely handsome and hot Italian in his early 30s who was a professor at a UK university. He invited me to travel with him and his friends to the mountains near Ventimiglia for a few days. I had a day or two to kill because I thought I was meeting a friend in France right after New Year's (those plans later fell through, which is when I decided to take the ferry back to England).

I agreed to go and we were having a pleasant journey when all of a sudden the train stopped dead on a large trestle in the mountains after dark. I didn't speak any Italian, but noticed the train staff running back and forth in a panic, but telling passengers to stay put. After a long while, one ran by and shouted something and everyone in my compartment got up and left. Finally the prof came back and told me that the Red Brigade had stopped the train and said they were going to blow us up unless they were paid a ransom. He grabbed me and hauled me to the back of the train where we were all crammed into the compartments (for example, I think there were at least 15 people in my compartment that sat about 6-8 people. This was because the train was completely on a trestle so we were not able to get off. I stood up on the seat since there was no floor room).

I remember thinking that I hadn't told anyone my itinerary, so it might take some time for anyone to realize I was on the train that was blown up. I had a cigarette while thinking about all that (no one cared that I smoked since they thought we were all going to die anyway). Thankfully, someone came by about 20-30 minutes later and told us that it was all off. I never knew exactly what went on, but it was reported on Italian radio the next day, which I heard after we had reached our destination in the mountains.

r76 wins the thread. You and your traveling companions were very fortunate.

And here I thought I was somethin' else by going into the Bologna train station soon after the RB had attacked it and killed 75.

You lived, great. Now what happened with the hot and extremely handsome Italian UK professor in his early 30s?

Hard act to follow, there R76. I did have an possibly life-threatening situation while taking a week-long riverboat excursion on the upper Amazon. One of the things the crew did on one night when we were near some side tributaries was to take flatboats out at night into the jungle and see what wildlife we could spot by flashlight (and to experience the sounds and ambience of the jungle).

One of the freakiest things they liked to do was shine the flashlights along the banks of the river. All the crocodile and caymen eyes are highly reflective, so all you can see is rows of yellow eyes glowing at you. Great fun until your outboard motor dies and can't be restarted, and the bilge drain on the boat is below the waterline, so you start slowly sinking. No one on the main ship knew what tributary we took, and they didn't have radios (or oars to paddle).

We were seriously looking at having to swim for it through the crocs (and whatever toothed fishes were surrounding us). Several of the females were crying, and the guide was trying to be calm, but he was worried.

After about what felt like hours (it was probably only about an hour), another boat from the ship came looking for us, and was able to transfer us back to the ship. By that time there as about 5-6 inches of water in our original boat, not swamped, but as close as I want to come, thank you very much.

R78 He taught me how to make spaghetti sauce so we made a beautiful simple dinner for his friends with whom we were staying, then we had a very hot night. Good times! I still use his recipe to this day.

R80 here. Forgot to say that I am R69/76.

Being chased by a crazy woman who threw a beer bottle at me near the Copenhagen train station

Getting food poisoning from a restaurant next to the Kuala Lumpur airport right before flying home - the layover in Qatar was also miserable

Spent a night in Amsterdam without anywhere to sleep thanks to losing a bankcard, this was pre-smartphones and I wasn't able to contact my mother to wire me some funds until the next day, what a mess that was! I was young and dumb and hadn't booked anything in advance. I hated Amsterdam and will never go back there.

My story pales compared to some of these.. The most eventful might be attending a destination wedding in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. The resort felt very isolated from civilization. My sandals were stolen from in front of our cabin. I feel like the day before the river boat guides who took us to see the mangroves and monkeys had been scoping out our footwear. There were planned national power outages every afternoon which was fine but it was really hot, so don't think too hard about refrigeration or anything. The wedding itself was nice, fun. A group of us were up late the last night and the next morning felt very sick. Turned out later a number of people in the party got sick. Long pokey van ride in traffic to the airport. Pretty sure I asked the van to pull over so I could puke, might be blocking it out because I was embarrassed. Pulled it together in the airport mostly but was not happy for a packed plane trip back to the States feeling so queasy.

Adventure tour of Indonesia, included an afternoon's hunt for white tigers on Sumatra - on elephants! Sounds really cool. The only thing they told us was to bring a towel.

Well, the towel was to be the only padding to sit on. And do not be fooled, the back of an elephant is huge. You cannot straddle it comfortably like you would a horse. Your legs do not work that way. Picture doing splits, with every stride bouncing you down onto a ridged backbone (see the linked pic to get an idea). You simply cannot shift your position, and since you're in 5 foot tall reeds that may contain tigers, you cannot be let off to take a break. The handler has a relatively comfortable location around the elephant's neck, where the daggers of the backbone don't existing and straddling is comparable to a horse.

I've never been in so much pain, grinding tailbone on elephant backbone in high humidity for hours. My brother had his taint rubbed so raw he was leaking blood through his cargo shorts. Instead of reveling in this incredible opportunity, all I remember is not being able to sit for two days.

If you ever get to do this, bring a lot of towels and opioids.

I should point out it was a photo hunt for tigers, not a hunt with guns. And we didn't see any tigers.

my dad walked in on me sucking my best friend’s dick on a family trip to disney world. only technically travel-related, but damn....

I sold my tribal shirt and my sandals for money to buy a Happy Meal at Micky Dee's in Zimbabwe. I walked up to the counter, and before I could order the crew leader told me to get out. When I asked why he pointed to a sign and said "can't you read bitch?" The sign read "No Shirt + No Shoes = No Service!"

r87 did you start a brawl after they told you to get out of Micky Ds? I believe that is hard-wired into the genetic code of blacks.

I had a friend who worked for an airline in Europe and he said that there was one flight that attendants begged not to get assigned -- Paris to Tel Aviv. He said that people would be on their feet fighting over luggage in the overhead compartments while the plane was still braking to a halt, people trampling each other to get off first, etc. Made me laugh my ass off. Does seem to capture two of the rudest most aggressive peoples in the world.

r32 has been TRIGGERED!!!

When I traveled to Phi Phi Island. The most beautiful place I've ever traveled.

Wow, some of you have been all over the place....

I can't wait to travel again once all these quarantines are over. I've been missing out.

When I was a kid, our family was on an Air France flight from Bangkok to Paris.

It took FOREVER.

And the only other people who spoke English as a first language on the plane were a hick and her children. They were across the aisle.

She kept screaming at them: "If you don't shut THE FUCK up, I'm gonna put a dying cleaning bag over you goddamn heads UNTIL YOU DIE!"

All the French people on the plane thought we were one family and were VERY frosty to us.

Travel is not as much fun as it used to be.

I was on a flight from Tahiti to Aukland.

I didn't realize that cough medicine you buy OTC in Bora Bora has codeine in it.

I am very allergic to codeine.

And was VIOLENTLY ill as soon as we took off.

R26 Had a similar thing happen at a car rental.

My travel partner (and driver) had a German passport and the dumb fat bitch at the counter insisted that Germany was part of England.

Spirit Airlines

'Nuff said.

Had wallet stolen from a sleeping compartment on an overnight train from Copenhagen to Paris in the early 80s. Steward just let himself into the car in the dead of night and took my wallet out of the back pocket of my trousers which were on a peg on the back of the door. Next morning when confronted, he feigned ignorance and indifference. Luckilly I was travelling with someone. The French police in Paris didn't give a shit and I speak rather good French. Lost wallet or had it picked on way to Versailles in 2018. Luckilly I was travelling with my husband. Theif managed to get cash out of my HSBC checking account by using my MC account number. And he/she/they used my MC to charge hundreds of dollars of train tickets on SNCF and buy French lottery tickets. Tried for two months (like every day) to get on TWA 800 in 1996 using FF miles either in Economy or First.

Took an overnight train from Prague to Budapest.

We were woken up in the middle of the night by officious men in uniforms -- epaulets for days -- banging on doors and barking at us to "show papers."

I felt as if I were in WWII and the Nazis had taken over the train.

They left us alone once they saw our American passports. But they dragged several people off the train.

One woman was screaming and wailing on the platform as we pulled away. It was like a nightmare.

Oh, and the sink in our compartment reeked of urine.