Worst Travel Experiences

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Canis Lupus wrote: »

You killed them and ate them didn't you.

I was tempted to eat the one who was like Private Fraser - we're doomed...doomed...doomed"

bodhrandude

Did anyone ever travel on a vessel that they discovered was going to sink, what was the ocean like, was it freezing, warm. Did rescue come at a decent time?

Cupcake_Crisis

Stuck in Toronto airport for 32 hours because of a US Airways mess up. Literally the rudest bunch of people I've ever encountered, refused us so much as a cup of coffee for our troubles. Point blank refused to put us up for the night (the end of a 10 day holiday, we hadn't the money for a hotel ourselves). They then proceeded to lose our luggage into the bargain and had the balls to blame that part on Aerlingus (who we eventually flew home with). I sent in an email of complaint and after a month got a reply politely telling me to go away!

Moral of the story, never fly with US Airways.

meeeeh

An 8 hour bus journey in Mexico that ended being about 36 hours. Farmers were striking and they put roadblocks everywhere and they were guarding them with big knives. We were stuck on a petrol station in the middle of nowhere for a day. And then they finally found a 'bypass' that was nothing more than a chicken path. At one stage we had to go across a narrow bridge and when one of the bus made it, the other driver who was showing the way, danced with joy. I think I must have slept for a day after we arrived to a destination.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

bodhrandude wrote: »

Did anyone ever travel on a vessel that they discovered was going to sink... Did rescue come at a decent time?

No, we all drowned.

steddyeddy

panda100 wrote: »

I went to naples by myself a couple of years ago. I'm very tall (6 foot), very pale and blonde so I am used to getting a lot of unwarranted attention when travelling solo in Italy. Naples was a whole other ball game though. Seriously scary levels of street harassment all over town. I'm generally okay with just ignoring calls from men like this on the continent but I had men following me back to my hotel, grabbing me, walking beside me constantly.It was just relentless. I literally had to lock myself in my room and was scared to leave the hotel.

I know some people might be dismissive of this but it was a really frightening experience. I've travelled a fair bit, both solo and in groups, but the street harassment in naples really was something else.

That is disgusting behavior! Ive been in some really messed up countries but never seen anything that bad.

mzungu

Travelling overland from southern Ethiopia through northern Kenya a few moons back. Roads were absolutely woeful, got bashed about so much I looked like I had gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson. To boot, it was a lawless enough area with shedloads of bandits and the threat of hijack always a concern. Some locals I was talking to were telling me that Al Shabab were beginning to become more active in the area...I found out later this was true. Looking back it was the best of times though.

Another time in Peru I ended up in a siege in a restaurant. I went out for a quick bite after a long days travelling. Went into this cosy looking place for a bit of grub. Anyways, this drunken looper starts to cause a commotion over in the corner, nobody really takes any notice. Security guard heads over to him, and all seems well. I take a quick toilet break and when I get back everyone in the place is hiding behind the tables and bar counter. Your man has whipped out a gun and is waving it about. I'm standing there in the middle of the gaff, no place to hide, and besides, everything in there is made from bamboo, so it aint exactly going to deflect any shots if they end up being fired. I was told the cops had been called by staff, so there was backup on the way if it ended up escalating.

The security guy (brave) is still trying to coax your man into handing it over. It was all a bit surreal. People were peeking out from behind the counters/tables , and then when yer man thew a wobbly and waved the gun around the heads would immediately drop for cover. It was proper naked gun stuff.

The only reason I hadn't legged it out the open door was because he was covering the it. Anyway, after a short while he started moving away from the door , I saw my chance to make a clean getaway and took it. Pegged it out of there like no mans business.

The next day I met some heads that were in there and found out the gist of what happened. When the backup team arrived he barricaded himself and everybody else inside. This went on for another 5 hours, until his girlfriend was summoned to play negociator. It all ended peacefully enough when he (presumably) sobered up and decided to end the charade.

In hindsight, it was obvious he wasn't a psychopath or anything like that. The thing that made it scary at the time was that he was pissed as a fart waving a gun around...thats how accidents happen!

AgileMyth

sangsung wrote: »

Got trapped in Charleroi airport during the big winter storm of 2010 I think it was.

I had arrived from Mombasa, which is a tropical city by the Indian Ocean, so I didn't have any winter clothes. Was supposed to get a connecting flight to Dublin.

I was stuck in Charleroi for about a week.

Ryanair had closed their offices and left everybody freezing to death in the airport. I was sleeping behind the coca cola vending machine on two boxes (the ones you put luggage in). There was warm air coming from the back of the machine which is why I slept there.

The Red Cross came to the airport to give food & soup to us. Old people got blankets. The local TV crew was there. I smelled like ****e as there were no shower facilities. Drank water from the bathroom taps as I couldn't afford to constantly buy bottled water.

On the third night I think, we were told a flight was ready to take us back to Dublin! We all queued up, happiest day of our lives. By the way, this was like 22nd or 23rd December, so we were all anxious to get home for Xmas. As we were boarding, the snow got worse, and were were told to get back inside. Flight cancelled.

That was the last straw. A huge crowd of us barged into the shop, bought every single drop of beer they had, and proceeded to get absolutely sh*tfaced falling around the airport. I don't remember much after the 4th can as I was malnourished at that point.

I woke up the next morning, asleep on my box, but this time I was in the middle of the floor in the main hall, right in front of a big queue.

My dad called me and asked me what the story was. He then booked me a hotel down the road until I could organize some sort of plan. That first shower in the hotel was great.

I celebrated Christmas day by myself, watching Belgian TV in my room eating a packet of crisps.

Eventually managed to get a Euroline bus from Brussels to Dublin via London. Longest bus journey ever. The ferry to the UK was nice though, it had a cinema.

I arrived in Dublin looking like a Syrian refugee.

I lived in Charleroi for a year. Probably the worst city in the world! You were better off in the airport.

discus

Mongfinder General wrote: »

Jesus, I think I might have been on that ferry! I remember a big 17 or 18 stone itinerant ale tank face down in a doorway on the ship's deck next to a puddle of puke. Absolute hellhole is Holyhead

I was asleep in the main ferry port building there one time and the traveller kids kept having a game of running up to me and jumping over me. I was asleep in a sleeping bag along a wall ffs. Anyway one of them end up running ON MY HEAD and falling and hurting themselves. Traveller women who had been watching the whole time apparently got up in my face, didn't even think to chastise their child. Was delighted to see customs the far side pick apart their story when they got caught with fake documents.

steddyeddy

bodhrandude wrote: »

Did anyone ever travel on a vessel that they discovered was going to sink, what was the ocean like, was it freezing, warm. Did rescue come at a decent time?

In the Congo out boat overturned and I was swept down a powerful river. Fractured both legs (hairline fracture) from hitting against the rocks under the water. Thought I was going to die but luckily I landed on an embankment. Got back on the boat to get to wear we were going and the two boat drivers messed up on balancing and we fell in again. Seen another guy being dragged along by the neck underwater by the ropes attached to the boat.

In Sumatra was grabbed by a female orangutan looking for food. She was feral, having been raised by humans. They're more dangerous than the wild apes because they've learned that they're several times the strength of a human. I have never felt power like that before and I'm not weak by any standards having practiced weightlifting for years.

Sirsok

Decided it would be a good idea to move to Australia with a girl I was goin out with for 10 months. She wante to go 4 months earlier then I intended so I agreed despite not having the amount of money I wish I had. We got there and we move into her relatives house, it turned into a disaster. I got a job that required an hour and a half travel each way to go cold calling people trying to generate leads for a funeral insurance company.

It was completely soul destroying dealing with that job as well as dealing with all the mental anguish I had back in the house with her( she starte a two hour argument with me over not telling her there was curry chips on a chip shop menu) . I decide to leave Melbourne and move to Sydney on my lonesome. While trying to find a job I slept in hostels while other travellers were out partying so I couldn't get rest. Nearly ended up homeless until I contacted a friend who kindly allowed me to crash on his landing for 3 weeks. I slept there as a possum ran around the ceiling occasionally sticking his nose out of the holes in the wall. ( we called the possum pete)

My mate clearly seen how depressed I was becoming offered to go on a trip with me, up the east coast he said. I couldn't wait , that was until his overbearing girlfriend decided she wanted to come but go to Ayers Rock instead. A big rock in the middle of no where, I was a depressed lonely guy, this was not the right trip for me . It took four days in a cramped car with them fighting the whole way to get there and 4 days back. Torture.

I got a labouring job and was ok for a while, houses come unfurnished over there in most cases so I slept on a floor for a good solid two months, gettin up at 5 to catch a bus to catch a train to catch another bus to get to work. After awhile I decided Perth was the place to go.

I missed my original flight to Perth by two hours but finally when I got there I had a couch to sleep on. I applied for jobs and heard nothing back. So I decided to call my old boss back in Sydney to see if I still had a job. I then missed my flight back to Sydney , so I was down to my last couple of hundred. When I finally got back, my boss rang me to tell me he was after getting arrested and sacked from the job, so he had no work for me. To make it worse jobs I applied for in Perth started contacting me a week after they said they would telling me my start dates.

My days were numbered and I knew I was going home, I went to take a casual swim in bondi, where I got caught in a rip and the rescue team came darting out quads and all to save me, until I realised the tide got carried out and I could now once again Stand up on the water, that was now waist high.

On my flight from Sydney to Dubai, I was severely depressed, after only 6 months I wa returning home. I had a whole row of seats to myself, but all I could keep doing was stare out the window of the plane. The north star was shining so bright, I started to feel vindicated about my decision to return home, gaining some sort of inspiration and hope. That was until I realised when we were landing that for a solid few hours I was just staring at the wing tip light of the plane .......

Duff

Stopping in Detroit while travelling from NYC to Chicago.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

AgileMyth wrote: »

I lived in Charleroi for a year. Probably the worst city in the world! You were better off in the airport.

It's far from the worst city in the world I mean, there's Cork for one. :pac:

TrustedApple

One of the worst was a few years ago me and my father where heading home from France we where driving and it was getting quite late and we said we should pull into a Hotel on the motorway.

The place we ended up pulling into was just about 30KM from Coventry and we pulled in and it was like one of these bad Motels that the rooms opened out to the carpark.

I turned to the father are you sure about here ?. He said it should be grand.

So we went in side the place just smelled really bad and we asked do they have a room ?. She said no problem and we paid and she handed over the keys.

We went up the stairs and we seen rain coming trow the roof and then we seen a cat run across in front of us and said thats it where going went back to the counter and got our money back.

But another night a few months before that we where heading back from Italy from our holidays and we where not able to get a hotel that night in Paris we outside it and we came across a hotel that we stayed in a few years before that and we said might as well try here and walked in and asked did they have a room he said yes we have a double or a suite and the suite was 5 euros more so we said might as well get the suite.

So we went into the room there was 4 double beds in it and you could pull out another 2 double beds as well. So we trow on CNN and went to bed about 20 mins later we where hearing some fighting outside and was like ok .... Then all sudden there was Gun Shots and more fighting and then more gun shots. All I remember that night was me and my dad sitting there going i wont it to be morning so we could go !!!!.

Herb Powell

Probably the time I was on my own in a hostel in Berlin, and I woke up on a couple of different nights coughing non-stop, violently, and barely able to breathe. I'm nearly sure now that these were full-on asthma attacks, but at the time I had no idea WTF was going on, asthma never even crossed my mind. It simply felt like I was going to die. My medicine was fruity tea from the hostel bar, consumed bleary-eyed, til I stopped shaking :pac:

On another occasion, the bus that took 24 hours to get from Berlin to London was fairly fuccking shhit. I could write a fuccking novel on that one. I've done the trip a good few times, and while it's a long journey, it's usually grand, but that time seemingly every possible mistake was made.

keithclancy

Laurie Uptight Puffin wrote: »

It's far from the worst city in the world I mean, there's Cork for one. :pac:

I must like crap places ... I always go there on purpose :pac:

MilesMorales1

5 hour flight from Cyprus to Dublin, needed a ****e so bad, ****ing ryanair had no bathroom, and I mean literally none. Torture.

valoren

Planned a weekend in London to visit a friend 10 years ago.
Arrived at cork airport at 5pm. Flight was delayed and eventually cancelled due to weather.
We got on a bus to Shannon at 9pm and arrived at 11.30pm.
Plane flew out to Stanstead at 1am.
Arrived and had to get a bus as trains were stopped.
Eventually get to friend's house at 3am.

Got the train from Liverpool St to Stanstead on the Sunday.
Train stops for 30 minutes halfway there.
Missed the check in by 10 mins.
Spent the night in Stanstead.

Fly back to Cork at 10am, the plane circles Cork for 20 minutes due to fog.
Eventually has to land in Shannon.
Then waiting for a bus back to Cork.

Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.

Stranger Danger

Spent a year teaching English in South Korea in a city north of Seoul, near the DMZ.

One night I was out with friends and got a taxi back to my apt. at the end of the night.
I fell asleep in the taxi and when I woke up, the driver was beside me in the back seat masturbating furiously.

I totally freaked out. started shouting, opened the back door and just legged it off into the night. Hadn't a clue where I was.

Eventually I got another taxi 20minutes later when I'd calmed down.

I stayed awake in this one until I got back home.

chewed

Stranger Danger wrote: »

Spent a year teaching English in South Korea in a city north of Seoul, near the DMZ.

One night I was out with friends and got a taxi back to my apt. at the end of the night.
I fell asleep in the taxi and when I woke up, the driver was beside me in the back seat masturbating furiously.

I totally freaked out. started shouting, opened the back door and just legged it off into the night. Hadn't a clue where I was.

Eventually I got another taxi 20minutes later when I'd calmed down.

I stayed awake in this one until I got back home.

Who was he masturbating?

Exiled1

Backpacking in Greece in the 70s/80s was a guarantee of adventure and things going wrong. Wife and I set out on a ferry from Piraeus to Santorini in August '82. A dirt bucket ferry if ever there was one. When getting a snooze below decks we were awoken to the unmistakable sound of metal on stone. Cue screams and panic. We managed to get on deck to see (11.00pm approx) no lights anywhere, a siren wailing and very disturbed water. What made this worse was that three weeks earlier a Greek crew had abandoned a sinking ferry and left 16 passengers to drown near Bari. I dragged the missus close to a crew member and stuck to him whatever he was doing. Within a few minutes we discovered we had hit rocks at the end of Folegandros. Eventually a few local boats and life rafts brought us ashore. We found a flat roof and lay there until dawn. Then we saw the ship impaled on the rocks. A ferry came out from Santorini and brought us to our destination by 10.00am.
A week later a 2 hour ferry trip from Paros to Delos took 6 hours when we hit a sudden storm. Never a good sign when the skipper hands out sick bags as you board....
During an interminable wait for another ferry, I got an uncontrollable urge to crap. Needless to say, no public conveniences ( non existent in Greece at that time), I hurried up a road and found a single olive tree for shelter. As I squatted, for some reason I looked down, to find a large snake coiled in the target area. Can't remember whether he or I moved quicker.
A great holiday because we were p$ss poor and glad to be able to get anywhere for a pittance.

Kolido

white van man pyh90tm wrote: »

a man called mr crapper invented the toilet

Bull Sh*t

keithclancy

Stranger Danger wrote: »

Spent a year teaching English in South Korea in a city north of Seoul, near the DMZ.

One night I was out with friends and got a taxi back to my apt. at the end of the night.
I fell asleep in the taxi and when I woke up, the driver was beside me in the back seat masturbating furiously.

I totally freaked out. started shouting, opened the back door and just legged it off into the night. Hadn't a clue where I was.

Eventually I got another taxi 20minutes later when I'd calmed down.

I stayed awake in this one until I got back home.

Did you take this username before or after the event ?

PTH2009

im going on my first flight on tuesday and i am ****ting myself about it. im edgy in work etc. i have been on rollacosters and all that but flying on a plane is scary too me. the amazing thing i studied tourism in college lol

JacquesSon

Never talk politics with anyone ever,

acemaster

AgileMyth wrote: »

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.

The bus from bangkok No.8, Ohh no comments

Pink Fairy

PTH2009 wrote: »

im going on my first flight on tuesday and i am ****ting myself about it. im edgy in work etc. i have been on rollacosters and all that but flying on a plane is scary too me. the amazing thing i studied tourism in college lol

Ah don't worry, planes only ever crash the once, you'll be grand!

The Ging and I

acemaster wrote: »

The bus from bangkok No.8, Ohh no comments

Beer Laos is worth a bit of inconvenience !

bnt

Cupcake_Crisis wrote: »

...
Moral of the story, never fly with US Airways.

Shouldn't be too difficult, considering they've just been eaten by American Airlines. I know what you mean, though. I flew with them about a year ago, and they were merely OK, clearly struggling financially.

I believe I've replied on this thread already, but my worst flight was something else. I have been known to get carsick in stop-start traffic with exhaust fumes around, but I've never been seasick, and never been airsick ... with one exception.

When I lived in South Africa, I was in a pipe band, and we were invited to play in the Cape Town Tattoo - similar idea to the Edinburgh Tattoo, though not as good. We were on the other side of the country - Pretoria, north of Johannesburg - but the South African Air Force was happy to fly us there and back.

The flight down was fine, even though it was in a C-160 cargo plane with only those "camping seats" bolted to the side. The Tattoo was pretty good, too, the highlight for me being a piece we didn't play: the 1812 Overture, complete with cannons going off about 20 feet behind my ears. Biggest problem we faced was getting the bagpipes to work: we had done all our practicing at over 4,000 ft above sea level, in dry conditions, and suddenly had to play at sea level in high humidity ... at one point I had blood dripping from my nose during Cock Of The North.

OK, but then we came to the flight back. The plane was a Douglas DC-4, ex-South African Airways: it even has its own web page. The thing was a classic ancient, due for retirement. (I just learned from that page that it was the very last DC-4 built, and had been in a mid-air collision in 1962 ... yay.) It had been used for ferrying VIPs around, and we were sort-of VIPs, so the interior was fairly nice. So what was the problem?

The problem was the ride. After takeoff, the plane felt like it was struggling to stay level, always tilted back. Not a constant tilt, but rising up and down in slow waves. The engines sounded like they were about to die of consumption, the revs rising, falling, rising, falling, rising, falling, rising, falling ... by half an hour in, we had all lost our lunches, and were too ill to speak.

I just sat there in a green funk, staring ahead as the plane and the engine note went up ... down ... up ... down ... up ... down ... and did I mention that a DC-4 is slow? World War II slow - top speed around 200mph, and we weren't doing top speed. What had been a modern 3h flight down to Cape Town was a 6-hour slog back up to Pretoria. We eventually landed, staggered off, and collapsed on to the concrete, just to feel ground under our backs again.

discus

Some great stories on this thread!

fanatics2014

Thailand.

chewed

fanatics2014 wrote: »

Thailand.

That's a fascinating story!

biko

3 days in a toilet in India because I drank local water.

Stripsearched upon entering Israel.

Couple days on a ferry in a bad storm, I convinced we would sink at any moment.

Duggy747

Needed to get to Galway so Bus Eireann pulls up, I ask the driver and he says: "Sure there's ones that leave from Knock airport, I'll sort ya out!"

Hop on the bus to Knock so.

We get to Knock airport, bus driver and I hop off and go over to a timetable.

Galway bus not due for another 6 hours.

Bus driver shrugs his shoulders, hops on his bus and promptly fúcks off leaving me in the car park.

Bastard.

cml387

Duggy747 wrote: »

Needed to get to Galway so Bus Eireann pulls up, I ask the driver and he says: "Sure there's ones that leave from Knock airport, I'll sort ya out!"

Hop on the bus to Knock so.

We get to Knock airport, bus driver and I hop off and go over to a timetable.

Galway bus not due for another 6 hours.

Bus driver shrugs his shoulders, hops on his bus and promptly fúcks off leaving me in the car park.

Bastard.

We have a winner.

Baxterly13

First time in Majorca. Holiday went well, til flight home. We arrived at airport, checked in etc. 20 mins before boarding time, announcement made that flight was delayed. 2 hours later, another announcement. Flight would be delayed for another couple of hours due to technical issues. This was back in 2008 and the airline we were flying with had a terrible disaster the week before we left. The plane had failed to take-off and when they attempted the second time, it blew up in bits. Won't mention the airline but many of ye might remember it.

Anyways, we're still waiting at the airport. 12 hours have passed and no one was able to get back into main part of airport for water, food etc. as we were told that we would not be allowed get back in for departure gate. After hours, the holiday rep appeared and managed to get us a croissant and small bottle of water. At this stage everyone was too tired to argue anymore.

Finally a plane was ready for us.

No joke, we were put on a shuttle bus and literally taken to the graveyard of airport, surrounded by bits of old planes. We boarded a ****ty old plane. On the plane, pilot gets ready for take off, and stalls and all we could hear was engine shutting down. So we all thought we would be getting off, but no he attempts again and all EVERYONE could was hold on for dear life. It was the most scary and traumatic couple of minutes of my life so far. Everyone was speechless and ****ting it to see if we were gonna make it. Thankfully this airline is now gone bust. Will never ever forget it

keithclancy

Baxterly13 wrote: »

First time in Majorca. Holiday went well, til flight home. We arrived at airport, checked in etc. 20 mins before boarding time, announcement made that flight was delayed. 2 hours later, another announcement. Flight would be delayed for another couple of hours due to technical issues. This was back in 2008 and the airline we were flying with had a terrible disaster the week before we left. The plane had failed to take-off and when they attempted the second time, it blew up in bits. Won't mention the airline but many of ye might remember it.

Anyways, we're still waiting at the airport. 12 hours have passed and no one was able to get back into main part of airport for water, food etc. as we were told that we would not be allowed get back in for departure gate. After hours, the holiday rep appeared and managed to get us a croissant and small bottle of water. At this stage everyone was too tired to argue anymore.

Finally a plane was ready for us.

No joke, we were put on a shuttle bus and literally taken to the graveyard of airport, surrounded by bits of old planes. We boarded a ****ty old plane. On the plane, pilot gets ready for take off, and stalls and all we could hear was engine shutting down. So we all thought we would be getting off, but no he attempts again and all EVERYONE could was hold on for dear life. It was the most scary and traumatic couple of minutes of my life so far. Everyone was speechless and ****ting it to see if we were gonna make it. Thankfully this airline is now gone bust. Will never ever forget it

I remember that Airline

I wouldn't have gotten on

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/2598557/Madrid-plane-crash-Passenger-forced-to-stay-on-disaster-flight.html

asherbassad

sangsung wrote: »

Got trapped in Charleroi airport during the big winter storm of 2010 I think it was.

I had arrived from Mombasa, which is a tropical city by the Indian Ocean, so I didn't have any winter clothes. Was supposed to get a connecting flight to Dublin.

I was stuck in Charleroi for about a week.

Ryanair had closed their offices and left everybody freezing to death in the airport. I was sleeping behind the coca cola vending machine on two boxes (the ones you put luggage in). There was warm air coming from the back of the machine which is why I slept there.

The Red Cross came to the airport to give food & soup to us. Old people got blankets. The local TV crew was there. I smelled like ****e as there were no shower facilities. Drank water from the bathroom taps as I couldn't afford to constantly buy bottled water.

On the third night I think, we were told a flight was ready to take us back to Dublin! We all queued up, happiest day of our lives. By the way, this was like 22nd or 23rd December, so we were all anxious to get home for Xmas. As we were boarding, the snow got worse, and were were told to get back inside. Flight cancelled.

That was the last straw. A huge crowd of us barged into the shop, bought every single drop of beer they had, and proceeded to get absolutely sh*tfaced falling around the airport. I don't remember much after the 4th can as I was malnourished at that point.

I woke up the next morning, asleep on my box, but this time I was in the middle of the floor in the main hall, right in front of a big queue.

My dad called me and asked me what the story was. He then booked me a hotel down the road until I could organize some sort of plan. That first shower in the hotel was great.

I celebrated Christmas day by myself, watching Belgian TV in my room eating a packet of crisps.

Eventually managed to get a Euroline bus from Brussels to Dublin via London. Longest bus journey ever. The ferry to the UK was nice though, it had a cinema.

I arrived in Dublin looking like a Syrian refugee.

edit: Forgot to add, I called my family on Christmas day for a few minutes from the hotel, and as I was checking out they charged me €70 for the call.

I was trapped in Dusseldorf airport during that storm but my experience was infinitely better. Was put up in the airport hotel that included breakfast. Bar in hotel opened all night and a bunch of English lads in were on expenses so beer was free for me. Got to Dublin on 26th.....but my Christmas was actually better being stranded.

irelandrover

Flying into Manglore airport one time. Its an airport on the top of a mountain. The week before i landed, a plane had crashed off the edge of the mountain and over 200 people died.

Anywy we took off from Mumbai and weather started getting worse. It was during monsoon season so very very heavy rain. We circled Mangalore for an hour and were running out of fuel. Went and refueled in Bangalore and came back to Mangalore. Circled for another two hours during which time we attempted to land and had to pull out due ot poor visibility. Eventually the pilot comes on the radio and says we are running out of fuel and need to land. I've never seen an entire plane full of people hold hands and pray silently before. After eventually landing there was a massive cheer with a load of strangers hugging each other.

Then I got very sick a few days later and spent three days in an Indian toilet. Im not the biggest fan of India after that.

podgemonster

Catching a train from Nice to Barcelona. The journey would take the whole day, Two connecting trains, connection in Narbonne, i left a good 2 hours connection time too to be safe. Just outside Marseilles the train stops for almost an hour, eventually a staff member comes down the aisle and tells us someone has thrown themself in front of the train. Everyone is shocked and sombre, we remain in the same place for another 2 hours.

We miss our connection along with plenty of other interrailers but we are all given complex directions to get to Barcelona, we are told to get back on the train we just got off, then we get a TGV for another few kms, then a regional train and eventually arrive into Montpellier at 1am with all the trains now stopping for the night. There are about 120 of us now stranded at the station. This was before smart phones too. Due to the scurring for various trains, all me and my partner have had to eat were a packet of biscuits and a stale sandwich on the TGV which cost €9.

Some yanks are considering a taxi to Barcelona, its (344km away). About 10 of them leave. From the darkness 60 seater bus pulls up. It was carnage, we scramble and push and shoved for a place on the bus, most of us backpackers. I remember american female backpackers asking for help with their bags but everyone was too concerned with ourselves, my priority was me and my OH bag and we squeezed onto the bus. We got a seat and watched as the driver and his assistant were pushing people off the bus.

We pulled out of the station at 2.30 am. At 7 pm we arrive at our hotel in Barcelona and spend the entire day in bed.

asherbassad

I suppose I haven't had too bad an experience travelling apart from the usual crap, missed flight, delayed luggage, sat next to a wanker, etc. But I did have a return from travel nightmare. I was going on a weeks training course to the US and another few days seeing friends after so 12 days. This was in august and I was living in Amsterdam at the time.
Woke up late, but I had packed so ran out with bags ticket, wallet passport, locked the apartment and fled to the taxi rank. Got to Schipol, checked in, sucked down quick triple vodka and tonic and boarded.
Only then did the horror hit me. I'd poured half a cauldron of stew into the bin, along with various other items from the fridge the night before with the intention of putting the bag on the street in the morning when I left. Milk, couple of eggs, half a block of pate, a banana.....and the stew all to sit there in a stifling apartment for 12 days.

I had nobody to contact to go in and take out the bin.

Can you imagine the wall of stench that I returned to, along with the accompanying blue-bottle, fly, and maggot apocalypse.

RoyalMarine

Horrible story, but it fits the thread.

Coming home from Thailand one year, stopped in Dubai. Travelling with a mate from the UK, he was bound for London, I had a connecting flight to Dublin.

In Dubai, we got pulled aside to be searched, along with 20 or so others.
One by one they brought us in to a private room, and went through everything. Took around 15 minutes per person.

Anyway, my turn came, and I went in. Bags on the desk, poured on the table, and they checked the lining, a quick swab test, everything through the xray etc.
Then asked to take off all clothes. Down to my boxers. they let me leave them on. Told to bend over a desk, and the glove came out.
Straight up the arse, and a quick wiggle about. On exit, a river of shít followed his finger and it went all over his sleeve and the floor. even got his shoe.

Did I mention I had food poisoning from eating fried frogs from a street vendor in Bangkok 2 days earlier? No. I guess I should have.

They screamed at me, sent me to a shower room and disposed of my boxers for me.

bodhrandude

Duggy747 wrote: »

Needed to get to Galway so Bus Eireann pulls up, I ask the driver and he says: "Sure there's ones that leave from Knock airport, I'll sort ya out!"

Hop on the bus to Knock so.

We get to Knock airport, bus driver and I hop off and go over to a timetable.

Galway bus not due for another 6 hours.

Bus driver shrugs his shoulders, hops on his bus and promptly fúcks off leaving me in the car park.

Bastard.

Where were you coming from, you should have hitched out to the main road and got the Feda O'Donnell bus, you'll know the next time anyway.

mzungu

RoyalMarine wrote: »

Horrible story, but it fits the thread.

Coming home from Thailand one year, stopped in Dubai. Travelling with a mate from the UK, he was bound for London, I had a connecting flight to Dublin.

In Dubai, we got pulled aside to be searched, along with 20 or so others.
One by one they brought us in to a private room, and went through everything. Took around 15 minutes per person.

Anyway, my turn came, and I went in. Bags on the desk, poured on the table, and they checked the lining, a quick swab test, everything through the xray etc.
Then asked to take off all clothes. Down to my boxers. they let me leave them on. Told to bend over a desk, and the glove came out.
Straight up the arse, and a quick wiggle about. On exit, a river of shít followed his finger and it went all over his sleeve and the floor. even got his shoe.

Did I mention I had food poisoning from eating fried frogs from a street vendor in Bangkok 2 days earlier? No. I guess I should have.

They screamed at me, sent me to a shower room and disposed of my boxers for me.

Christ, I didn't think random searches got that invasive...even in Dubai. Thats a bit nuts.

Not long ago I spent a few months in an Middle Eastern country currently going through some civil unrest, although not as bad as in some in the area. I was escorted to and from work every day, and was quite isolated and not really having much of a good time, but getting on with it.

One night I got desperately sick with food poisoning and wound up in hospital with dehydration. While I was dying a thousand deaths in hospital, bombs started going off outside and there was gunfire in the streets. We'd played dodge the mob a few times previous to this and I really thought this was the end game. My family didn't know I was sick and I was lying there helpless, wondering if I should let them know or if I should leave it to fate. Anyway, I recovered and went back to work in a few days.

From that point on it got more and more threatening, the car was surrounded a few times and shaken with the intention of turning it over, one of the security guys got out and was shooting into the sky to disperse the mob. Every day was scary just getting to work.

About a month before I was due to leave the security guys came and hammered down my door at 2 am and started stuffing my things into bags. Specific threats had been made towards foreigners working in my area and they had me packed and at the airport within an hour. Sitting in the plane seat and getting out of there was some surreal feeling at the time. Took me days to assimilate what had gone on the previous few weeks, you just don't realise the stress you're under until it's gone.

I've had a couple of goats slaughtered in my honour, not that I wanted this to happen. I had to drink the blood on one occasion as refusal would have been a dreadful insult to my hosts, and I was in dysentery hell for ten days afterwards. Another time I was told by a government official to get out of another country because I insulted him, that was pretty hairy too at the time.

Nothing too exciting compared to some of the travel stories here.

eisenberg1

RoyalMarine wrote: »

Horrible story, but it fits the thread.

Coming home from Thailand one year, stopped in Dubai. Travelling with a mate from the UK, he was bound for London, I had a connecting flight to Dublin.

In Dubai, we got pulled aside to be searched, along with 20 or so others.
One by one they brought us in to a private room, and went through everything. Took around 15 minutes per person.

Anyway, my turn came, and I went in. Bags on the desk, poured on the table, and they checked the lining, a quick swab test, everything through the xray etc.
Then asked to take off all clothes. Down to my boxers. they let me leave them on. Told to bend over a desk, and the glove came out.
Straight up the arse, and a quick wiggle about. On exit, a river of shít followed his finger and it went all over his sleeve and the floor. even got his shoe.

Did I mention I had food poisoning from eating fried frogs from a street vendor in Bangkok 2 days earlier? No. I guess I should have.

They screamed at me, sent me to a shower room and disposed of my boxers for me.

Jeez, a bit rough. Were they customs officers or cops? I would have thought you would need to caught with something on you or in your bag before they go ramming a finger up yer Jacksie?

ArnoldJRimmer

Regarding Dubai airport, I flew through Abu Dhabi during the SARs scare. We were marched out of the plane on the runway, weren't even allowed near the terminal building. We were then taken into a separate prefab building where we filled out forms and doctor's examined everyone. Didn't get a finger up the hole though. So basically, they can be a bit nuts in UAE

Subcomandante Marcos

Turtyturd wrote: »

Atlanta...no more needs to be said.

What's wrong with Atlanta? It's a pretty nice city tbh.

questionmark?

Candie wrote: »

Not long ago I spent a few months in an Middle Eastern country currently going through some civil unrest, although not as bad as in some in the area. I was escorted to and from work every day, and was quite isolated and not really having much of a good time, but getting on with it.

One night I got desperately sick with food poisoning and wound up in hospital with dehydration. While I was dying a thousand deaths in hospital, bombs started going off outside and there was gunfire in the streets. We'd played dodge the mob a few times previous to this and I really thought this was the end game. My family didn't know I was sick and I was lying there helpless, wondering if I should let them know or if I should leave it to fate. Anyway, I recovered and went back to work in a few days.

From that point on it got more and more threatening, the car was surrounded a few times and shaken with the intention of turning it over, one of the security guys got out and was shooting into the sky to disperse the mob. Every day was scary just getting to work.

About a month before I was due to leave the security guys came and hammered down my door at 2 am and started stuffing my things into bags. Specific threats had been made towards foreigners working in my area and they had me packed and at the airport within an hour. Sitting in the plane seat and getting out of there was some surreal feeling at the time. Took me days to assimilate what had gone on the previous few weeks, you just don't realise the stress you're under until it's gone.

I've had a couple of goats slaughtered in my honour, not that I wanted this to happen. I had to drink the blood on one occasion as refusal would have been a dreadful insult to my hosts, and I was in dysentery hell for ten days afterwards. Another time I was told by a government official to get out of another country because I insulted him, that was pretty hairy too at the time.

Nothing too exciting compared to some of the travel stories here.

That's sounds mad. What country was that?

Kiwi in IE

Took off from Bangkok airport just as a huge thunder storm started. Extreme turbulence during takeoff, including the plane dropping suddenly without warning numerous times, water started pouring out of the ceiling in several places in cabin. Everyone on plane thought we had been struck by lightening and were going down, people screaming, flight crew looking shocked and panicked. It took several minutes of mayhem while the water and turbulence continued, before the Captain came on to say that the plane was sound, the air conditioning unit had malfunctioned and was causing the water leakages and that the level turbulence we were experiencing was to be expected due to the weather. I really thought that was it for a few minutes.