rangutan
Premium account
Joined: Aug 04
Points: 34752
Posts: 1044
|
Posted: 2004-10-19 17:21:00
Like always, PLEASE DO NOT POST ANY POLITICAL OR RELIGIOUS COMMENTS HERE! (see also "My BEST travelling experiences")
My pictures and reports cannot describe some of the crazy situations ive found my self in during travelling, some examples:
1) jumping into an 50-year old plane to see the Nazca Lines over the peruvian desert and the only motor cutting off at start.. gulp!
2) loosing my passport in Brazil. After many phone calls, the Hotel in Buenos Aires sent it to me in Rio. Similar, not finding the "entry-card" for peruvian officials to exit to Ecuador, only paper I thought!
3) getting shipwrecked during a thunderstorm (hours of hell)on the Vaal Dam Lake. What should have been a great days sailing!
4) Getting arrested in Rio de Janeiro for carrying a Swiss-Nife. One must know the rules of a city!
5) Getting arrested in Chile at customes for carrying coca-leaves. Chewed naturally in the high Andes mountains!
6) Missing two flights of six during a business trip to NY/New Orleans by minutes. Airlines now require promp attendance, upto two hours before departure! ---
Rudolf "Rangutan" Graspointner
|
Reply
Reply with quote
Contact rangutan
|
|
|
|
bear495
Joined: May 03
Points: 8634
Posts: 177
|
Posted: 2004-10-19 18:27:00
I am certain that I have many "worst" experiences. The first that comes to my mind is from one of my travels to Mexico. I took a charter airline and planned to spend four weeks in the Yucatan Penninsula, travelling from city to city, visiting different cultural sites, and so forth. I had been in a remote area, out of touch for the last two weeks prior to returning to Cancun for my return flight to Atlanta. I arrived at the airport two hours in advance, only to learn that the flight time had been changed and that the plane had already departed. The only alternative (other than spending an additional day in Cancun. I could not do so because I had a conference to attend in another city the next day.) was to take a flight to Charlotte, then find my way to Atlanta from there. As the plane touched down in Charlotte, the landing gear malfunctioned, and the pilot somehow managed to get us into the terminal safely. Then, I had to remain in Charlotte until a friend could drive the six hours to get me and return me to the ATlanta airport to pick up my car. Then, I had a five hour drive to get to the conference. Upon returning from the conference the next Saturday, my neighbor's washer had malfunctioned, causing a flood in my apartment.
Russ
---
"Own only what you can carry with you; know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag." Alexander Solzhenitsyn
|
Reply
Reply with quote
Contact bear495
|
|
|
|
kcheepv
Joined: Jan 03
Points: 3137
Posts: 34
|
Posted: 2004-10-20 02:53:00
A few years back I found myself stuck in Jakarta overnight. Not being a big fan of Jakarta this wasn't a good thing. So me and a few friends decided to walk to an area that I don't remember the name of. Essentially, it was on the water and had an open park, a water park, and a small amusement type park. We were walking around the backside of a golfcourse near the main road when we passed an older woman lying in the grass. I thought she was asleep but on of the guys with me stopped to inspect her closer. She appeared to be dead, not breathing and looking a weird color. We soon realised she really had passed away and reality hit. We all took off running toward the end of the golfcourse where a small bldg was. There were security for the park inside and we alerted them to the situation. The weird part was that they didn't ask us any questions except where exactly she was at. They really didn't seem that interested or maybe they didn't believe us. They told us to go on our way and we did. The worst part is I still don't know what happened to her. It haunted us for a lot of the trip and I still think of it to this day.
|
Reply
Reply with quote
Contact kcheepv
|
|
|
|
kandath
Premium account
Joined: May 04
Points: 6895
Posts: 35
|
Posted: 2005-06-12 03:24:00
It was interesting to read all your good and bad experiences. I suddenly remembered a small incident during a long haul flight . It must have been almost 10 years ago. I was in an Air Lanka Flight from London Heathrow to Colombo via Dubai. This young english girl who was sitting next to me was chatty and very sweet. She told me that she was on her way to Vietnam after taking a one year assignment there with one of the charity agencies. When we reached Dubai the airline instructed us to get out of the aircraft for at least half an hour as they were doing the cleaning. I can vividly remember her asking the crew whether it was ok to leave her carrier bag with a lot of papers on her seat and they said it was fine. So together we (she and I) went for a walg in the duty free and came back. When we reached the aircraft the bag was missing. She wasvery upset because some important note regarding her assignment at Vietnam was in that bag. Apparanty the cleaners threw the bag with the contents away while cleaning and sadly for her as the crew changed there was no chance of locating the person who gave her the wrong advise. Poor thing she had a worrying flight to Colombo and as we parted for different connecting flights she was sporting the look of the little lamb facing uncle woolf himself. I still can remember her sweet face, horrified and un-certain ! These are situations when one feel utterly helpless and only look ahead for better days! God help her where ever she is.
Cheers, ---
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy!" - Abraham Lincoln
|
Reply
Reply with quote
Contact kandath
|
|
|
|
rangutan
Premium account
Joined: Aug 04
Points: 34752
Posts: 1044
|
|
|
|
andreas
Joined: May 02
Points: 8309
Posts: 808
|
Posted: 2006-01-22 20:12:00
Hello everybody,
just wanted to throw in my five cents to that topic. Creating a "bad travel experience" area could call for potential trouble. The thing is, that the companies who the "bad experience" "tipp" would be about could take leagal action against GLOBO. We as a travel community can not see if the posting has substance or not. And even if we would see that, we would not like to run against walls of international lawyers. This is the real reason why we do not have such an area yet.
Regards,
Andy
|
Reply
Reply with quote
Contact andreas
|
|
|
|
frenchfrog
Premium account
Joined: Dec 05
Points: 26139
Posts: 60
|
Posted: 2006-01-23 05:28:00
Worst Travelling Experience:
It was not a worst travelling experience for myself but it was for someone else!
When I was travelling on the Trans-Siberian, there was a group of Irish people on board, it was on the train from Moscow to Irkust in Siberia (3 days trip). When we arrived at the Hotel in Irkust, the group was staying at the same hotel as us. The TOUR LEADER forgot his passport in Moscow. That meant that he was unable to carry on with goup that was leaving in two days time for Mongolia, taking the plane immediatly was out of question as you need a ...... photo ID to board an aircraft! It was so embarrassing for him, as it is his job to remind people not to forget anything.
The group had to carry-on on their own. As for him: he had to wait until the Hotel in Moscow send hom his passport by mail.
On my side I saw it the funny way, but I don't think he saw it that way!
Isabelle [ This Message was edited by: frenchfrog on 2006-01-23 06:19 ] ---
"It is far more better to have seen it once than to have heard about it a thousand time." Mongolian proverb
|
Reply
Reply with quote
Contact frenchfrog
|
|
|
|
