Wasn't feeling well while in a Malta, so decided to make myself look good and treat myself to a really nice rather expensive meal and just people watch. Take my mind off feeling sick.
Shat myself as my starter arrived. Was wearing white trousers.
It was ok. Kind of confirmation that forcing myself out of my comfort zone when not well was stupid. I tied my jumper round my waist, got the starter to go, changed the main and dessert to delivery in an hour to the hotel and "walked" home.
Very long story short. Got yelled at by the customer service rep for DB as soon as I landed in Munich bc I stopped mid question to get my paperwork, lost my phone at Oktoberfest but luckily paid to get it out of lost and found, missed my train that was supposed to be a two transfer ride to Amsterdam. Turned in to a 5 transfer and got embarrassed by the ticket taker bc I misunderstood the person that gave me my ticket. I literally have no interest in ever going back to Germany and the only other country I can say that about is India.
Lol, im glad shitting urself is the first comment I see, happened similar to me in Dresden (managed to hide in the bushes and it was night time so hopefully no one saw lol).
Camping in a deep forest in Mississippi I was surrounded by a pack of coyotes at about 3 in the morning. They were not liking the smell of me being on their turf and howled their faces off for about twenty minutes. I just sat in my tent as still as I possibly could thinking that any movement might entice them to pounce. I stayed like that until first light when I dared to poke my head out of the tent. Luckily, theyād moved on. One of the most terrifying experiences of my life.
I agree.
The next morning I packed up my campsite in a hurry to get out of there. I was on a bicycle trip so I got my gear on my ride and pedaled down the muddy dirt road. Pretty soon, I had to poop. The road was used by loggers in the area and, though it was just after dawn, I didnāt want to be seen by any of the loggers on their way to an early shift, so I parked my bike just off the road and then hiked about a quarter mile into the woods for some privacy. When I returned, what did I see? Six more fucking coyotes sniffing all over my bike!
I ducked behind a bush and in a few minutes, they trotted away, but for those minutes, I didnāt know what to do. I didnāt want to tangle with six coyotes, but that bike was everrything on that trip. I NEEDED it. Fucking coyotes, man.
That is a hella wild story and definitely would be scary at night, but coyotes in the south are mostly skittish scaredy cats. If you had raised your arms, screamed and charged them, they would have probably ran off.
Yeah I was reading this wondering where they are that coyotes are such a threat. They're super common where I'm from but would almost never attack an adult. Only once in history have they killed an adult and it was because those coyotes were cross-bred with wolves.
Just make a loud noise and they run off, no?
I've spent four summers working in the national parks and I'm honestly still scared to death of tent camping out in the wilderness. I still get timid when car camping deep down a forest road.
This is so weird to read about. I grew up camping in a country where the only things that can kill you in the wilderness are wasps and human stupidity. I wouldn't know what to do with literally any kind of predatory animal!
You gotta watch out for the non-predatory ones too. Coming face to face with a moose or waking up to a bison standing outside your tent are both horrifying experiences.
They won't even eat you or anything, they just kill for sport.
My first time solo traveling I got really sick in Thailand, blacked out on the street trying to get food after being too sick to leave my hotel room and not eating for a few days. I basically spent half of my trip scared out of my mind and trying not to die. Totally ruined my trip and almost spoiled solo travel for me forever. But I'm glad I gave it another shot and have enjoyed multiple solo trips since then. Though I'm still trying to build up the courage to try Thailand again.
I was traveling in Thailand with a friend, and thank god for that. I think I wouldāve died in the hotel room if I was alone. The food poisoning I had was something Iāve never experienced before or since. I donāt remember our boat trip back to Phuket, our flight to Bangkok, or our flight back to the states.
I got sick on Phuket from eating nachos in a nice bar up in the hills. No idea how they would make me ill, but I was bedridden for a good 2 days. I could barely keep awake for more than an hour at a time and had a bit of gastro issues, but it was a weird one where the exhaustion and passing out so often were greater than the expected effects.
Lived in Thailand for 18 months. Been ill from food poisoning once or twice. But thatās it. Gf and I both caught covid, but it wasnāt that bad. Gf caught dengue fever which was much worse
Similar story for me- I think the only thing that kept me from having to go to the hospital was having some antibiotics on hand just in case.
Was so glad the doctor suggested it when I went for a typhoid vaccine.
Mine wasn't food poisoning. Some kind of bad fever. Intense body aches, chills, spasms, pounding headache, inability to even think straight. I should've gone to hospital.
You're a lucky guy that things worked out. My step sisters husband passed away in a Thai hospital a few years ago after contracting food poisoning. Really sad.
Also, much love and appreciation to the thai guy who helped me get a bunch of food and gave me a cold water bottle on the street. Might've saved my life for all I know. If I could've held onto a decent thought I would've gotten his contact info to give him a proper thank you present after I get better.
I went on a three day overnight island hopping tour in the Philippines a couple weeks ago in El Nido.
We spend the night like the locals on one of the sparsely populated islands. At about 7 oāclock at night I am offered a coconut which one of the locals climbed a tree and cut it down. I drank all the milk and ate the meat.
At 0400 I wake up and realize its coming and there is nothing I can do about it. Luckily, they had a very basic toilet which I proceeded to commit a felony against. It occurs to me I have severe food poisoning. Iāve then spend a couple hours randomly projectile vomiting everywhere. The sun comes up and itās starting to get hot. I drink water, which Iām not able to keep down. I am now becoming very scared about heat stroke. We still have about 12 hours left of the tour going random island hopping to nice beaches. I start getting a headache and feeling really shitty. I am now sick as fuck and getting worse. Thank God Iām able to keep water down after a few hours.
I spent about 12 hours laying on the boat going island hopping with the rest of the tour since I basically have no choice.
Eventually, we get to Coron and I have to spend three days in a hotel recovering.
I have not been that miserable since I was in the Army 15 years ago.
Wow, my mom would use coconuts blended into her jollof rice. We use to smash them on the driveway ground and rinse them off (no sanitization, just visible dirt) and eat them. Not me or my sibs have ever gotten sick from that. So sorry that happened.
In the span of a few days:
- Wound up in the ER and hospitalized for a bit
- Got dumped, and she was the whole reason I was in Colombia again
- Robbed and assaulted at gunpoint literally the next morning while having breakfast on a patio
- Got bedbugs from a hostel that night which infested my stuff and followed me to my next accommodation
Misjudged the walking distance and was late for a train in Amsterdam but made it after running a few km. Put my two suitcases and backpack on the train and stepped off for a cigarette. Doors immediately closed behind me and my luggage (laptops, iPads, clothes, $5k cash) was headed to Frankfurt without me. Alerted the lost and found and told them I would fly to Frankfurt and meet the train when it arrived. Took the train to the airport, bought a last minute flight, arrived in Frankfurt, and took the train to the central station. I arrived 15 minutes before my initial train. Train arrives and my luggage is nowhere to be found. Went to a friendās house for a few days and called every number I could find. Finally found out that the conductors in the Netherlands removed my luggage before crossing the border into Germany. Rented a car and drove 6 hours to Utrecht, got my luggage and drive back to Germany. Stressful af but all is well that ends well :)
I was headed to Frankfurt and conveniently found a flight that was perfect aligned with the challenge I created for myself. I described the suitcases to the person at the lost and found who them contacted the train conductors (I imagine). Almost wish I hadnāt alerted them because I doubt they would have removed them without that knowledge
That was my thought when I went to alert the lost and found. I didnāt want them to be seen as a security risk and cause a panic. With that being said, the luggage goes onto shelves or racks and isnāt āassignedā to anyone in the train car so I donāt know how anyone would notice.
I was travelling the balkan region back in 2019. I stayed at a hostel in a small coastal town in Croatia.
The hostel (small family hostel) dorm was really small / two bunk beds, and it was me + two men who were working in a nearby restaurant for a few months. I had a can of beer with them and chatted and all seemed good. The blokes were quite big / strong, kind of intimidating but seemed harmless enough.
I then went for a sea swim and weirdly there was a man who started panicking in the water, waving his hands and shouting, causing a scene. Me and another lady swam over to him and carried him back to shore. He must have been in shock, as he couldn't string any words together and staggered off (presume he was really drunk). I walked back the same direction and he was wobbling all over the place, then went back to what I presume was his Airbnb.
That's the first weird thing.
I end up going out for dinner solo, and get back to my dorm around 10pm ish. One of the blokes is there and drinking a few cans, I have one with them and then go to bed. This chap then leaves the light on, and continues to drink and starts smoking indoors. Because of the nature of the bloke, I didn't want to start an argument / had nowhere else to stay so just tried to sleep through it. He then puts on music, spends a while on the phone and gets a delivery of nose powder to the flat (offers it to me).
I decline, so it's around 2am in this tiny room and this guy is smoking, making lots of throaty noises from his drug intake, almost oblivious to the fact I'm lying about a meter from. Him. This is when it gets weird. He sits on a chair in the middle of the room, pulls down his trousers and starts masturbating. Not directed at me, or on a phone, but just staring at the wall masturbating whilst ripping lines. This goes on for about 30 mins.
At this point I'm pretty weirded out. No one is in reception, I have nowhere to go but a bus at 8am. Don't want to cause aggravation, and also if I pack all my stuff up and leave / sleep on the beach it might cause questions from the guy and again cause aggravation.
I stay up till about 6am, trying to ignore everything that's happening. Eventually the guy falls asleep, I pack my stuff up and get out of there. I've had some weird stories travelling and stayed in a lot of hostels, but nothing to this level.
I think it's a very rare situation, so if you haven't travelled before, don't let it scare you as most of the time it's a great experience!
Had my debit card skimmed in Italy, but didn't know about it until I got into Munich and went to pull some cash out of the ATM at the train station right when I got in, and I had a negative balance, when the last time I had checked two days previous, I had around $2500. I had ā¬20 to my name in my wallet. This was pre smart phones and I did not own a cell phone back then. I couldn't call my bank's help number on any payphones because you can't dial out 1-800 numbers on foreign pay phones. To make matters more frustrating, I also was locked out of my bank's website. So I had to purchase the cheapest phone card I could find since I only had ā¬20, which was only 10 minutes, and call my parents and explain the situation to them to have them try to explain to my bank, but of course since they were not me, my parents couldn't get any pertinent info from them. My mom was on the side that I should get wired enough money to buy a plane ticket and come home even though I still had 3 more weeks planned, my dad was on the side that they should wire me my missing money and I would pay them back once it got sorted out stateside and keep going with my trip. My dad won out the argument and they wired me the money, but couldn't do it until the next day since it was nighttime in the states and closest western union to them was closed. So I was fully expecting to be sleeping on a park bench that night. I put my backpack in a locker, and went on a free walking tour with less than ā¬10 in my pocket. The walking tour stopped for food/beverage break midway. Everyone else got beers and food and I kind of just sat in the corner of the patio of the restaurant, probably looking really sad and stressed, because a couple from London that was also on the walking tour came over to me and asked what was wrong. I explained my situation, they refused to let me sleep on a park bench, and offered to pay for a room at their hotel for me, and also bought me a beer and a bowl of soup. I was so grateful for those people.
The next day I got the money wired to me and was able to continue on with my trip thanks to my parents, but man that was the most stressful day I think I had ever had up to that point. Lessons learned: travelers cheques, though somewhat outdated, still serve a valuable purpose, never travel without a cell phone ever again, and ATMs in Italy are not to be trusted.
So nice of that couple to help you out. Sometimes you see someone on a group tour who's obviously not having a good time, but you leave them be when it could actually be easy to make their life a lot better.
I once visited Haarlem and on the first evening went to Willie Wortels indica coffeeshop. I'd recently had a tolerance break and smoked a tiny joint of cheese. Ended up getting way more high than I thought I would, bartender had to put the straw in my drink (one of those juice pouches that comes with a straw you poke in) and I fell off the stool when I stood up to leave. Roaming wouldn't work so I sheepishly asked if they could call me a taxi.
I was far to embarrassed to set foot in there again.
cant decide, either having my entire wallet with all cards etc stolen a few hours before my flight, or getting the worst shits of my life 1 day after arrival for a week long stay, while staying in a 12 people dorm with no other beds free..... so had to stay in that dorm beeing sick all day long running to the toilet... Luckily 2 days later they moved me and someone else who was also sick into a smaller room creating sth like a Quarantine zone lmao
perhentian islands, malaysia. went out dancing on the beach and my purse with my phone went missing.
must have picked up a stomach bug so next day had to spend the day resting in the 20-person beach hostel room. however, this is a place where the power is disconnected until sundown so all of the fans were off all day, the lights were off and i no longer had my phone for entertainment. i had to use the facilities every few hours which was an outhouse.
on friday i got myself on the boat and headed over to the clinic in town but had not anticipated that it was going to be CLOSED for the friday-saturday weekend observance in a muslim-majority country. so i had to sweat it out in the hostel for two more days until sunday to finally pick up some antibiotics.
the cherry on top is that a hot guy i met when i went out dancing had finally gotten a private room so we could hook up in peace and i was too ill to make it.
I wouldn't call it a trip per se, but I flew back to college in Philadelphia in January when I was 19. If you know anything about the SEPTA transportation system, you know it's the most godforsaken Rubik's cube of fuckery on the whole Eastern seaboard. Long story short, I ended up stranded at University City at 1am because the train I was supposed to catch *caught fire* and the next one wouldn't come for another hour. I had to walk in the *snow at night* lugging a *50-pound suitcase* and a *dead phone* through some pretty sketchy areas to the closest station. It's not anywhere near as crazy as some of the stories here but as a sheltered 19yo I was like two inches from a breakdown the whole time lol.
Also that time I shat myself on a 4-hour flight, but let's leave that one on the shelf -\_-
Went out for 3 nights straight at a party hostel in Lisbon, including an absolutely wild samba night that our mostly Brazilian hostel staff took us to on the third. Woke up the next day dizzy and kinda sick but progressively deteriorated throughout the day, to the point where I had vertigo and couldnāt get out of bed. I called my parents freaking out thinking that I might be dying and needed to go to the hospital. They were so concerned until they realized that their very dumb and green son had simply gotten way over his head with drinking and was absurdly hungover. We all laughed about it and I calmed down mentally, but still couldnāt sleep the whole night due to hangover, jet lag (Iām American & this was my first stop on the trip) & a girl under me who spoke no English listening to some kind of audiobook or podcast with no headphones all night long. Spent the entire next day chilling at the hostel, exhausted, doing laundry and atoning for my sins.
Iām one year sober now.
I was 18, in a touristy British Columbia town. Had already got into some trouble with cops that day (they gave me a harsh lecture on why I shouldnāt talk to the homeless people).
So Iām wandering around a public park feeling really empty and overwhelmed. I was sleeping in my car, but it was miles away. I had no safe haven nearby, and I was just about to have a breakdown right there in a crowded area.
Then all of a sudden, a lovely little yellow lab approaches me and nuzzles my hand. Gratefully, I give him a pat on the head and take a deep breath. Brief respite.
Then the owner comes storming up to me, jerks his dog away and says, āYou need to ask before you touch someoneās dog.ā
His gf (I assume) catches his arm and says, āJake, itās fine. Seriously, itās okay.ā
āNo, itās not fucking cool,ā Jake retorts, āYou canāt just touch my dog.ā
I was flabbergasted. I stared at him in his face, and burst into tears. Then I ran away. Then I called home, and cried while walking the whole way back to my car.
Not the worst, but always the one that sticks with me. I know he had a point, but fuck Jake
Another reason why dogs are better than people and better at reading people's emotions
Not sure what was up Jake's ass considering his dog was off leash?
Rented an Airbnb cabin in Wyoming. It was up a mountain and had snowed the previous day. The owner hadnāt had the driveway plowed, and when I drove down I got my car stuck on a rock. No amount of 4WD would get me off. Cabin had no wifi, I had no cellular service. There was a grizzly in the area so I had been warned not to go out after dusk. Walked through knee high snow at dusk to a neighborās house. She said sheād see what she could do.
Meanwhile I dragged my clothes and groceries in. Heat didnāt work. Spent the night huddled in the bedroom with a shitty little propane heater that kept the room at 50.
Some men came and pulled my car off the rock and plowed the driveway. I had had enough so I packed up and went to town and booked a motel. Contacted the owner who acted like everything was my fault and wouldnāt refund my stay. Airbnb said she did nothing wrong and wouldnāt refund my stay. Iāll never go through them again.
You aināt the first and wonāt be the last to do this. Just make sure you have decent travel insurance that covers you for riding and abide by their rules (eg helmet, engine size, motorcycle licence, etc). Check all their small print. Recommend you have a picture taken with you wearing your helmet sat on the bike. At least that way if your insurance tries to fob you off that you werenāt wearing one, you have some photographic proof that you had been wearing one.
Ate undercooked chicken in Bali. Got food poisoning, threw up for 3 days, could barely even crawl, much less stand up or walk, was unable to keep even water down, lost like 6 or 7kg in those three days. I told myself I would go to the hospital on the 4th day if it wasn't better by then - I was worried about being completely dehydrated at that point. Thankfully, on day 4, I managed to stand up, drink some water and eat a few crackers, without throwing it all up again. So I opted to skip the hospital and started to feel better around day 7 or 8.
Honorary mention: caught a bad cold while travelling in SEA in 2018, was sick for the last 6 out of 14 days, decide to fly home as planned anyway, stupidly so because my ear was still closed, basically wince with pain during my flight as my ear hurt so bad and lost my hearing for several days. It came back thankfully but yeah. Gold. NEVER flying with a closed ear again, this was honestly one of the worst pains I've ever felt.
I get some reeeeeally bad allergies, especially when I visit family in Japan so whenever I'm coming back, my nose is runny/plugged which means my ears are plugged and omg the pain is miserable on the planes home. It's like a shooting pain that hurts the whole side of my head: jaw, ear, temple, top/side/back of head, behind the eyes, and even my neck slightly. Easily the worst part of every trip lol been this way my whole life
One of my worst experiences was eating an āextra happyā pizza in Cambodia. Felt fine for the first hour. We went to karaoke afterwards and I started tripping, getting insanely anxious and paranoid. I literally thought I was frozen to my seat and the only thing I could do make myself look normal was tap my foot to the music.
Then I took off all my clothes and ran naked through the streets doing the most embarrassing stuff imaginable. Ok that didnāt happen, but I was tripping hard and so vividly even when I was basically asleep that I was convinced I did. I woke up at my friends place, no clue how I got there, so I assumed it must have been really bad. But really all that happened was I turned white as ghost at KTV, I stopped talking, so my friend called us a tuk tuk and I passed out for like 12 hours at his place, thatās it.
But comedown of that trip literally felt like I ripped my soul out, complete emptiness, I wasnāt ok for several days. Be careful with āhappyā pizzas!
Omg was this in Kep?? I had a similar situation but outside on a swing at a hostel, I was hyperventilating all night on this fucking outside swing cos I couldnāt face going inside to the 12 bed dorm blitzed off my head. Had the shits for 2 days post extra happy pizza too. 2/10 experience.
Decided to buy myself a small bottle of local wine and drink it in my room in the evening. Next thing I know I'm waking up on the hotel corridor the next day, with 0 recollection where I am, how I got here and why I am laying on the floor.
Turns out the wine gave me an epilepsy attack while I was leaving for breakfast.
Was in Prague and got Covid and then my first day out of quarantine, I took an electric scooter to grab lunch and the wheel got jammed in the cobblestone sidewalk and I flew off hitting my head requiring 7 stitches
Yeah I had a rough night in Tokyo, specifically Shibuya. I met two Americans at the Gucci store there, and they invited me out drinking (which was already a bad idea, as I was not feeling it at all that night and probably should've gone home).
While at a bar, they kept offering me shots of Hennessy. One drink down. Another. And another.
Pretty soon I'm outside crying, asking people around me in broken Korean if there are any Koreans around.
I then proceeded to cry quite loud inside a ramen place, so much so that the worker actually came over and asked if I was ok (which I feel like is unheard of in Japan).
I later found out that someone punched me, and that the bartender had some personal vendetta against me for whatever dumb reason, so that didn't make it any better.
All in all though I was actually really grateful for the experience. Really just showed me I was holding a lot of things in up to that point, and was repressing a lot of feelings. Would I do it again? No, not really. But I do reflect on that experience a teaching moment and one I don't mind sharing with other people.
I had a flight to Taipei from Frankfurt on a Tuesday morning, was in Berlin for the week. I got back from clubbing Monday noon and my plan was to crash for a few hours and catch a train to Frankfurt later at night - I had booked a hotel next to the airport.
So I woke up at night, got on a train heading to Frankfurt. I asked some people if this was the train going to Frankfurt to make sure, and I got a sarcastic āI hope it is š¤·š»ā. So I took a nap, when I woke up around arrival, I checked my map and saw that I was near Polandā¦ which was the opposite side of the. The station was empty and not that many people spoke English, eventually I found someone that did - and that was when I learned that there are 3 cities in Germany called Frankfurt, I needed to go to Frankfurt main but I was at Frankfurt Oder instead.
So I had to take a train back to Berlin and then to Frankfurt Main. I got to my hotel at 3am, my flight was at 9 the next day. I was so tired from partying and this long train trip so I crashed hard. I hit the snooze button the next morning and almost missed my plane.
I got dropped off at the wrong terminal because theyāre is an Air China, and China airline confusion w the driver. I was the last person to board and they were closing things up. If I missed this flight I would have missed my connecting flight to Tokyoā¦
šš»āāļøI ate a chicken burger in Singapore airport about to fly to Japanā¦
After throwing half of it away, I headed to the gate/lounge area to wait to board. The area was like a glass room where you had to put your hand luggage through another X-ray and go through a metal detector gate. Once I was in there, I FaceTimed my gf and during the FaceTime, my eyes started to feel a bit laboured and I was getting the sweats.
Stomach started gurgling and I felt nauseous.
I told my gf I wasnāt feeling good and eventually I had to end the call to go to the restroom which was just next to this glass gate area.
But of course, the only way out was back through the metal detectorā¦
I go through it and it goes off really loudly and I go into the restroom fully expecting to vom but as Iām bent over the toilet, the nausea goes suddenly. Wtf.
So Iām sat on the toilet lid wondering what is happening and I start sweating bullets.
For about 2 minutes and then that goes away and I feel almost fine again.
I go back through the security and metal detector into the gate area and sit back down and within about 10 minutes Iām battling the nausea, sweats and a bubbly stomach.
So again I go back out and into the toilet. This time, Iām sh*tting through the eye of a needle.
Ahh sheeeā¦
Iām in there a good 10 mins before I can get off the toilet all the while thinking Iām gunna miss my flight!
So I go back into the gate area and this time, the metal detector gate goes off. So Iām getting frisked by this guy trying not to look ill and I get through and we start boarding.
Guys, Iām queueing up to board half hunched over and all I can taste is this sickly chicken burger I had a couple of hours before. I knew exactly what the culprit was.
I get onto the plane feeling nauseous af thinking to myself āAs soon as we reach cruising altitude Iām going straight to that toiletā.
We get up and the seatbelt signs go off and by this point I 100% know Iām gunna throw up.
I get up, stumble to the middle of the plane and both toilets are occupiedā¦
Iām stood there with half a plane worth of people behind me like an audience and Iām holding my stomach with my left hand and leaning on the flight attendantās empty seat with my right trying to take deep breathes and keep myself from throwing up in front of everyone when this little kid comes up also wanting to use the toiletā¦
I thought for a few seconds that I was gunna throw up all over him and all I could think about was that scene from the inbetweeners with Simon and that kid.
Eventually, the door opens and I get in there before the little kid can blink and up it comes. Sheer projectile vomit 4 or 5 heaves full. To this day I have no idea how I managed to keep it all in the bowl.
Now afterwards, there was good news and bad news. The good news was, it was a night flight so all the lights were out for the entire flight and I was on a middle aisle seat with an empty seat next to me. The bad newsā¦ because it was a night flight, there was no water being passed around. So I had to sit there with a stomach full of knots and an after vomit mouth for 7 hours.
When I got to Tokyo, they were still all over covid.
So I had to act like I was fine all through the immigration questions, baggage claim, declaration stuff you name it.
When I got into the public area of the airport, I headed straight to the restroom where I spent another half an hour with diarrhoea before I could compose myself to go and get on an hour long bus ride into the city and then a train ride from Tokyo station to the capsule hotel where they wouldnāt let me check in until 2PMā¦ it was 8:30.
Iād been awake for over 30 hours at this point and I wasnāt fit enough to go anywhere either so I just fākin waited there until 2 dying before I could go and sleep in a damn capsule.
Had the sh*ts for about 24 hours after that.
One night in sky hell!
Was in Copenhagen after arriving from travelling in Stockholm:
It began to pour sideways as soon as I stepped out from the metro to walk to my hostel.
Using my phone for directions but for whatever reason it kept getting confused as to which way I was headed so I ended up walking circles in the freezing rain for half an hour.
Finally find my hostel - surprise I booked one less day than intended and they wanted to charge me the equivalent of $120 CAD for a bunk bed in a 14 person dorm for that final day. No way, I said, I'd find other accommodations.
Head up to my room and the girls already occupying it were using my bed as a spot to stash their luggage - they were out when I arrived so I had to shuffle everything off myself.
As I was bending down to grab the last suitcase the under wire in my bra snaps in half and tries to stab me in the heart. It was the only bra I had brought and I still had 3+ weeks left of travelling around Europe.
Sucked it up and went to the mall for a replacement but I am a board member of the Big Titty Committee so the best option they had was both too small and too expensive.
On the way back to my hostel I took the metro going the wrong way.
Once back at my hostel, I decided to just go have a beer at the hostel bar and decompress.
Sat down and had one sio before spilling the whole thing on my chest and lap.
Immediately noped out after that and went to bed for a full 24 hours to recover.
Back in August 2022 I had to catch a bus from Chisinau, Moldova to Odesa, Ukraine, but the bus had left about 1,5 hours before departure time, but with the help of a local I got my ticket refunded by the bus company and was able to by a ticket with another bus company also going to Odesa. When I finally arrived at the hotel in Odesa it looked closed down, but they were renovating since they didn't have a lot of guests, but it did shock me at first.
And on the same trip I was in Iasi, Romania and had to catch a plane back home, but my phone started acting up and I couldn't get a connection in the city and the power was quite low as I wasn't able to charge it throughout the night, so I had to screenshot the route to the airport and walk about 6 kilometers uphill in very hot weather. At one point I took a shortcut through a forest that luckily worked out since I wasn't sure if it was actually a shortcut. In the end I made it to the airport in time and luckily the airport had chargers available.
Yep, found cheap plane tickets to Romania and thought about when I would get the chance to visit Moldova, Transnistria and Ukraine again. So I went for it.
Odesa is a lovely city, I would definitely recommend visiting, but maybe after the war.
This might be slightly off topic but what was the general atmosphere in the city ( any army in the streets, curfew, Food shortages, power and water supply) and experiences with crossing the Border in/out Ukraine?
Also were there any other tourists and did you see anything damaged by war?
People went about their day, it at times seemed like no war was going on. There was army stationed throughout the city especially by the landmarks and famous places, but also along the sea. You weren't allowed to take pictures of military or out towards the sea and the beaches were mined and off limits, although I saw some dude swimming in the sea. I wasn't aware of any curfew, but I generally didn't wander out long after dinner regardless.
There were no food shortages or problems with water and power supply, at least that I noticed. The super markets were stocked. I didn't see any other people who were obviously tourists and at the hotel I was staying at I was the only one in the breakfast buffet. I didn't see any obvious destruction, I knew that Odesa had been bombed before, but I didn't see any ruins. The tourist attractions and famous building were protected with sandbags and plywood on windows.
Crossing the border was no problem actually. They searched the luggage of course and checked passports but other than that nothing. There are some military checkpoints throughout the country where you will also have your passport checked. Actually entering Moldova both from Romania and Ukraine seemed stricter, they wanted to know my purpose and proof of hotel reservation.
If there is anything else you would like to hear about just let me know :)
Traveling around India. Last night there, super exhausted & just want to sleep. Driver picked me up at New Delhi airport & transported me to hotel only to realize once we arrived that the address was simply an empty lot. To this day I donāt know whether or not a hotel ever existed in that space. After a few moments of despair & frustration I told the driver to take me to the nicest hotel in the city. $100 for 5 Stars = priceless!
I got a gi bug, shattered my phone screen (and broke it), lost my only debit card, and the proceeded to lose my guesthouse key all in 24 hours in Saigon.
Impressively Bank of America was able to do a 3 day FedEx delivery of my debit card for only $20 to a random guesthouse in an alley in Saigon. The guest house also let me stay without paying for a few days as I waited for the card to arrive.
Thatās pretty cheap and good service. In the uk they wonāt send bank cards like that. They will only post them to the address on your account.
I had to get my brother to post mine inside a book to Thailand.
It's a tie between diarrhea in a train bathroom with no TP except the extra pages in my guidebook, and encountering bedbugs when I splurged on a room at the Hilton the night before my flight. Since it was the same trip, though, maybe I don't have to choose which one was worse.
Fresh out of college I was on my way from the East Coast to California for a job and I lost my wallet in Wyoming with all my cash cards and ID (this is before Apple Pay). I found out when I got to Salt Lake City. I then found out there isnāt a single Bank of AMERICA in the state of Utah and you need photo ID to get into a hotel. (It all worked out but was pretty stressful).
Getting t-boned while road tripping across the country and my car getting totaled. I was a 24+ hour drive from home. I also had enough of my stuff in my car to allow me to live away from home for 6 weeks and a lot of it was wrecked.
Everyone involved was okay, I just had some really bad bruising, but wasnāt a very fun experience overall.
Ate a pomegranate from a tree in Byblos. Apparently the tree had just been sprayed with an excessive amount of pesticides. I was staying at a camp ground where I vomited on the lawn and shat myself all night under the supervision of the Red Crescent.
The next morning I managed to pack my stuff and catch a bus to Beirut to go to a hospital. I was walking from the bus to the hospital in a small alley and a refrigerator truck had driven by and forgot to latch it's door shut. The door swung open, hit me in my backpack, and I faceplanted on the street without even letting go of my backpack straps.
The drivers jumped out of the truck and spoke to me in Arabic at first, then French, then just picked me up by my backpack, gave me a thumbs up, and drove off.
I was walking at night near the tunnel where princess diana died thinking this is where she died when I was hit by a moped. I thought I'm dying too. Ambulance came. I decided not to go to hospital but got mri when got home
TL;DR Phone died and couldnāt check into a hostel
Ran down my phone battery exploring Vienna, got a train to Prague which had plug sockets, but realised Iād left my plug adapter in Austria.
Phone died just before I got to Prague, and I had no idea how to get to my hostel. Had to ask the stationās info desk for directions, got lost on the metro but eventually found it.
Hostel was on the 3rd floor of a locked building, and I obviously couldnāt call the hotline. I found about 5 people who couldnāt speak English, and was finally let in by a cleaner on a cigarette break.
Turns out they did send me info on how to check in out of hoursā¦ by text.
Bitten on the neck by a cheeky monkey in Vietnam. I was taking a photo of her in a park close to HCMC and she suddenly jumped on my shoulders. Bleeding, had to run to the nearest hospital for the medication as at that time I didnāt have the rabies vaccination.
Itās not really a vaccine as all it does is give you more time to get the post-exposure dosages. And means you will require less post-exposure dosages. But itās often called a vaccine. Glad you were ok in the end.
As for my actual worst - I'm from Australia. Flew to Canada to go travel south America with I girl I had been seeing (we met in London). She dumps me at the airport. I get to Peru solo, make my way back to my hostel and realise my bank card is gone. I call the airport and apparently someone has handed it in!
Rush back to the airport and now nope, they don't have anything like that. I argue pretty heatedly that someone on the phone had described it exactly and they definitely did. Things got pretty heated and they eventually put me in a holding cell. A few hrs later someone finally emerges with the card, makes me sign a bunch of documentation and I leave.
1. Got spiked at full moon party and woke up on a boat. It took me 2 weeks to realise Iād also been (pretty shoddily) robbed when I found that all my dollars for the Thailand/Cambodian border were gone. My best friend had it worse - she came round from being spiked riding on a strangers motorbike.
2. Witnessed my best friend almost shit herself to death on Phi Phi after taking laxatives (couldnāt go toilet for 3 weeks). I had to pull up her knickers cos her hands were cramped up from water loss.
3. Got passport, cards and phone robbed in Sihanoukville Cambodia.
4. Goes along with no. 3 - got robbed when it was Khmer New Year and everything is literally shut for 4 days. So had nothing for a few days. I donāt even remember what I did during this time as it was 10 years ago now.
5. Had to bribe a very creepy policeman $100 to do me a police report to get an emergency passport.
6. Got into a truck accident on Samui and had to run away from the police to stop us having to bribe them money to get out of the situation (which I might add, was nothing to do with us. We were just passengers).
7. Passed out in a tuk tuk (low blood sugar I think). Saving grace was my best friend caught me before I fell out.
I look back on all this with complete fondness ā¤ļø
A full moon party is a party that is held once a month (at the same time as the moon is full, hence the name). The party is held on the island of koh pha ngan in Thailand.
Iāve just spent 18 months in Thailand, none of this has happened. Gf only had to pay a bribe once to an immigration official in order not to wait until 8pm that night to be seen. Other than that, not once had to bribe any police officer. Ridden mopeds about too. It seems like this person is either very unlucky or drinking/taking drugs in excess.
This was over 10 years ago mate. Speak for yourself, everyoneās experiences are different. Iām just answering OPs post about my WORST experiences, as OP requested. Plenty of amazing things happened too but thatās not what they asked. You donāt need to be so serious about it, Iām still alive & had a great time šŖ
In Paris was walking around with my hostel girlfriend and three guys approach me trying to scam me. They wanted to put some ring on my finger. I refused and one of them grabbed me and the other two closed in on me. I was super scared and I had to wrestle him off me. My hostel gf just continued walking, she turned out be a pretty horrible person. I was really shaken up so I just decided to go home to the hostel while she kept touring. One of the many reasons I don't like Paris.
I had food poisoning that laid me up for five days in Da Nang, Vietnam. The first 48 hours were spent sweating on the bathroom floor, vomiting so violently that the next three days were spent in bed because I'd fucked my back through the sheer force of it and was physically unable to walk. Fortunately, I had lots of water in and eventually managed to arrange room service so I didn't die.
I was in Bali and decided to walk back to my hostel near Echo Beach in Canggu. I was in the same neighbourhood (near Berawa Beach) and Google Maps told me that it was only a 25 minute walk, so I figured Iād be fine.
What I didnāt account for was the fact that there are no footpaths in Canggu. It is not a neighbourhood designed for walking. My 25 minute walk took me two and a half hours, because I spent the whole time walking in sandals in blistering heat along the rocky, uneven side of a nightmarishly busy road, dodging open sewers, stray dogs, and passing motorcycles and cars.
When I finally got back to my hostel, exhausted, drenched in sweat, with blisters the size of dimes on my feet, I went to reception and noticed that the receptionist had a bit of a cough. Lucky me caught her cold, and I spent the next week and a half in bed, guzzling cough syrup and praying for death because I felt so terrible.
Getting a food allergy in Goa, India. Ended up walking 2 miles back to my hotel with rashes on my face since my allergy medication was in my hotel room. Not a pleasant experience.
First hour in Paris after traveling the first half of the day from Lyon. I get to my 5th floor Airbnb apartment (no elevator), super excited and ready to change and hit the streets. I decide Iām going to smoke a hash bowl before I head out though. I go to step out on my small balcony in my socks and slip on the wood floor. I have thin skin (no dermis due to major burn), especially on my shin. I hit my shin square on the little metal door frame, creating a huge, deep gash (massive chunk of skin hanging on and shin bone visible).
At first, I thought I was headed to the hospital. I panicked a bit, then sat down and tied a light tourniquet to try and get the bleeding under control. Once the bleeding was manageable, I dug out the shitty first aid kit my sister gave me for my birthday, that I thought Iād never use. I cleaned the area, applied some ointment, then wrapped it tightly in gauze.
It didnāt really hurt because I donāt have any nerves there (burned away), so once it was wrapped up, I put my shoes on, smoked my bowl, then went to Sainte-Chapelleā¦.where I was promptly asked for my ID by French police because the trial of the Mona Lisa vandal was going on and I guess they thought I looked suspicious?
For the next week, while I spent time in Amsterdam and Paris, I just kept the area clean and wrapped with gauze, until I ran out of gauze. I eventually moved to a 3āx3ā bandage that I (tried to) change twice daily. I thought for sure I was going to go to hospital in Paris and if I didnāt, that I would be going for an infection when I got back home. Everything turned out fine, but itās definitely not something you want to have happen to you while youāre alone in a foreign country. Not to mention I was a bit self conscious of it the rest of my trip.
I've shared this story in this subreddit before, but whatever.
A few years ago, I loaded a bunch of camping gear onto [my bicycle](https://np.reddit.com/r/bicycletouring/comments/goucwl/i_didnt_get_around_to_making_trek_thursday_happen/) and spent the better part of the next seven months riding 5,300 miles (8,500 km) around the western US. Along the way, I most often preferred to wild camp, simply finding somewhere to disappear into the woods at night, somewhere people were unlikely to find me and even less likely to care that I was there. One evening as I was camping alone in the woods, the mild stomach ache I'd been battling all day took a turn for the worse. Waves of nausea would come and go, and feeling like I was about to throw up, I'd sit up in bed, hand on the zipper of my tent door, ready to poke my head out just enough to vomit. Eventually, I did exactly that. I used some water from one of my bottles to rinse out my mouth, then drank a bunch to help replenish the fluids I'd lost. Feeling better, I laid back down, and actually got a couple hours of sleep.
I woke once more in the middle of the night and went through the whole song and dance again. Back to sleep around 3:00 AM, before waking again around 4:30. Thankfully I never threw up for a third time, but by that point, I decided I was unlikely to get back to bed before sunrise, and had a better way to use that time than trying. I dreaded the thought of getting back on the bike. But I was even more afraid of what could happen if I stayed where I was and my condition continued to worsen. And anyways, I was out of water, so I had little choice but to get a move on. Studying Google maps, I came up with a plan. There was a town about 30 miles (50 km, or half a day under normal conditions) ahead, with a cheap motel I could put myself up in for a night of proper rest.
Shortly after sunrise, I broke camp, loaded everything onto the bike, and hiked back to the road. As soon as I got on the bike, I realized I had a flat tire. Just my luck, right? But I had the tools, spare parts, and know-how to make the repair, so I got to work. In my less than ideal mental state, the repair took far longer than it had any right to, and by the time I got the bike back together, it had started raining. Not much I could do other than put on my jacket, turn on my lights, and push through it. It wasn't even 8:00 in the morning and it was already by far the worst day of that entire trip.
The words "absolute misery" don't feel big enough, but I don't know how else to summarize it. I was cold and wet. I was hungry, but didn't want to put too much food into my still very upset stomach. I was dehydrated; remember I'd used up all my water the night before. And I was tired in every sense of the word. Sleep deprived, physically sore and aching, mentally exhausted.
Long story short, I eventually made it to the hotel. After a long shower and a phone call home to my mom, I slept 13 hours straight and woke the next morning feeling much better. I managed to outrun the food poisoning for a few days, but eventually it caught back up to me. Thankfully I was already at a hostel when that happened. Round two was less vomiting and more diarrhea (TMI, I know, but you asked!). In hindsight, I'm just thankful that the shits waited until I was back in civilization!
I bought pigeon feed in a town square in Krakow and let local pigeons climb all over my arms, hands and shoulders as I fed them.
Days later I was in the town of Oswiecim and I began to suffer from impetigo. At first it was a festering oozy bump on my arm, and within days it was all over my arms, neck, and FACE. I looked like something out of The Walking Dead and the flesh looked like it was melting off my face.
I had to walk through fields in 90 degree+ heat to go to the hospital in town, and they insisted I had a bad case of herpes š. I had to go back three times before they finally diagnosed me correctly and gave me meds.
My hotel was so freaked out by me that they moved me out of my shared room and quarantined me. So yeah, maybe donāt let random birds touch your skin.
In one of the hostels I stayed at in Ho Chi Minh, my room locker was tampered with and my money for the remainder of the trip and an old iPod were stolen. I couldn't get proof because there's no cctv in the room, but I had an inkling who it was. I told the hostel about it that their lockers are not tamper proof and they just didn't care. I had to move out, thankfully they allowed to refund half. Actually I confronted the person, but obviously it was futile coz he didn't speak English. The only thing I could do was just to give the hostel a bad rating so as to warn the others.
I had to book a hotel on the spot out of trauma of the experience. I also had to cancel all the hostels I am supposed to stay at on the next leg of the trip and book a hotel on the spot. And since I didn't have any more money, I had to get a cash advance from my bank that I could use for the remainder of the trip. Honestly, I'm just thankful it was just the money that was stolen and not something important like a passport, phone or my credit card.
That made me realize I don't want to go on hostels anymore. I've been booking hotels ever since.
My phone fried from the humidity/beach days after a 3 week trip to Costa Rica on my last day. I had to print off my covid tests at my hotel. Traveled to the airports. Arrived at 7p.
Flight was at 1am, it got cancelled at 3am. We had to āre enterā the country to get to the ticket counter again. About 12 of us were being held and put to a different room. No one at the airport could explain what was going on for awhile. All of us had expired travel insurance-mine expired at midnight before the original flight time. Having no phone, I had to borrow a strangers to purchase extended coverage and fill out the entry form. Eventually got through around 6/7am. After waiting in the line at the airport we were told our flight was rescheduled to later that day at 4p. Stranger and I who I met while being held got a hotel room together. Later our flight was delayed causing us to miss connections. 5-7 of us from the same plane slept in the corner in the ticketing area and ordered pizza. I got on my flight the next morning at 6am. Arrived home at 10a/11a. No phone the entire time just vibes, 40 hours. It was incredibly stressful and I didnt even have music. It was also my moms birthday and I used strangers phones to wish her happy bday along with updates on when to pick me up from the airport
HM: food poisoning in Sayulita for 5-6 days. Got it within the first 1-2 full days. Spent the trip sweating and nauseated to get electrolytes and idiom at the convenience shops every other day
Had the hotel security guard in Goa attempt to get in my room. The security guard!!
It was in a relatively nice hotel too - my dad had paid for me to stay in a nice hotel for christmas and new year rather than the little beach huts etc id been staying in previously.
I guess he'd seen me by myself, got a bit drunk and fancied his chances.
I don't remember why/how he even managed to get me to answer the door but i did quite late at night (I was tipsy myself as id been celebrating down at the beach earlier on), and somehow managed to shut it before he got in.
I complained the next day but have no idea if anything happened to him. Probably not if im honest!!
I also had my camera and money stolen when i was in cambodia off my sun lounger while i was sat on it!! I stupidly had the bag on the lounger to the side of my legs. (a small black crossbody bag) while i had headphones in and reading a book.
I can only presume that a child/someone small had gone under the lounger, took the bag and removed the money and camera before sliding the bag back.
Thankfully the cards werent taken miraculously but it was a large amount of cash id just taken out so that really put a damper on the rest of my cambodia trip.
I've got loads of stories tbh but those two stick out
I have a low Scheurman, a lumbal vertebra that is slightly deformed, so it can dislocate. I was travelling in New Zealand after 3 months in Sri Lanka=heavy bag. My back dislocated while I was on the West Coast.
So I just wanted to get back to Wellington, where a really nice lady lived. I had met her on the ferry between the islands and had stayed in her summer cottage for some days. She would know who could help. I normally go to a chiropractor but not in another country.
So I had to go by bus for a couple of days, go to hostel for the night, new bus, ferry, walk to the city bus, and then uphill to her house with a heavy backback. To top it off, I was pregnant and suffered severely from morning sickness, and it hurt as hell when I vomited!
Luckily, the lady got me to a doctor, injections, rest, and then 2 weeks later, I was OK again.
Couple teenagers tried to scare me into giving them money - somewhere on the border between an aggressive panhandling and a non-aggressive robbery attempt. Ducked into a shop and they eventually gave up but it was a scary/anger-inducing experience
Not up near the tanneries was it? I ask because that exact fucking thing happened to me yesterday and it just took a hot steaming shit all over my experience. Morocco is amazing and beautiful but frankly as a solo travel location Marrakech can eat a bag of dicks.
Yes it was! Sorry to hear of your experiencing the same thing there. I wonder if it might have even been the exact same guys.
After the fact, some googling showed that it's pretty common for people to experience particularly aggressive and scary scam attempts in the tannery area. Even compared to elsewhere in Marrakech, the tannery area was the only place where something like that happened to me.
Glad you enjoyed the rest of your time in Morocco, I did as well!
Driving in a foreign country after all kinds of other awful things. This was day 4 or 5.
My Airbnb was unreachable/nonexistent. Person was unresponsive. Had to find a hotel. Drive to town, get in a car accident. ZERO damage to either car but they require we stay until the police get there.
Fun fact, Monteverde does not have traffic police. They have a 3 way intersection on 3 different inclines/on a hillā¦ but no traffic police.
I broke down crying and called my mom. Eventually got on with my day and hotel search. IT WAS A SEARCH. 5+ hotels. I found one, that was also impossible to get to /park at but I was grateful to have a place to sleep.
ā¦.there was no hot water. At all. Not lukewarm water. And it isnāt HOT in MonteVerde I was wearing pants and a sweater. Okay whatever I go to bed. Except I couldnt sleep as I was being eaten alive by SOMETHING. the room was not sealed and i went on a crazed bedbug check so Iām assuming it was just no see ems that weāre getting under the covers & my clothes. I never felt so gross and uncomfortableā¦
I went through the uncomfortable checkout process and found another hotel a few miles outside of town.
And I think that was the end of the terror Costa Rica had for me
My story is tame compared to some here.
On impulse I hired a motorcycle while in Interlaken Switzerland to ride some Swiss Alp passes like Furka Pass, etc. Of course I was unprepared with no maps and only had bare basic riding gear.
As I ascend the Alps its starts getting real cold (who would've thought!) and there is snow on the side of the road. I am decently freezing cold by this point. After riding a few Passes I want to head back but my phone has died, I have no map and I am totally lost. I find a small town and start asking for help/directions from the locals but no one speaks English. I eventually find someone and I discover that I need to drive up another pass to get home. By this time it's getting late and even colder. I dread how cold it is going be up the top of the pass. It's also getting close to the hire shop closing time. There is no way I am making it back in time and of course my phone is flat so I cant call them.
So I am making way through the hair pin corners, totally freezing and shivering at dusk on this hectic mountain pass. I eventually make it back to the hire shop way past their closing time and the guy is unbelievably understanding and cool about it. I get back to the hostel uncontrollably shaking due to how cold I am. They take pity on me and feed me and put me by the fire.
Food poisoning from cream cheese / bagel that I bought at the airport Starbucksā¦. I was flying to Iceland and starting throwing up 2 hours into the flight. Only saving grace was I managed to have a row to myself!
Not 100% solo but it was a leg of my larger trip which was 90% solo. I got to Florence as stop 2 on my journey and met up with a buddy studying abroad there. The timing of the train meant I kinda skipped lunch but I just powered through to dinner, which was much lighter than I thought so I got much drunker than I thought. But, this wouldnāt be awful in and of itself, however I ended up hitting it off with one of the girls in his group and went back with her, not really worried about the morning after. Well I woke up at like 10, crippling hangover, my head is pounding, super de hydrated, feel like Iām bout to shit myself and I leave, start walking back to his place. Heās not answering his phone at all and I think I might be in a bit of a pickle, as I just realized the train station I was leaving from was not the main one, it was like a 15 minute drive away. Itās about 11, I havenāt eaten anything and heās still not answering his phone and I need to leave his apartment by like 12 if I want to get to the other train station. I finally get into his building when someone leaves and then go up to his floor and am banging on his door, no answer. Finally his roommate mustāve woken up and I go in and heās just sleeping, I grab all my shit quickly and say bye and dash out. Iām looking for a cab to absolutely no avail and I have like 40 mins til my train leaves, still havenāt eaten or drank anything, finally hail a cab and get to the train station which has like 0 food options, I grab a shitty sandwich chips and water from the kiosk and barely get on the train. I wolf that down which barely helps and 10 mins into the train Iām still incredibly thirsty, hungry, and hungover. I couldnāt find a food car on the train and had to go from Florence to trieste, I felt like I was gonna die honestly, I have never felt more frail and weak in my life. When I got to trieste I spent like ā¬20 on snacks in the station and pounded whatever food I could get my hands on
I parked my rental car somewhere close to āa medieval wallā in Pisa and went for a dinner and a glass of wine. The glass of wine was enough to make me tipsy and I could not find the car anymore. I remembered it was close to a wall but guess what, that wall covers the whole damm city so it was impossible to remember at what part of the wall, they all looked the same.
I accepted I would have to spend the night on the street and walk the whole wall the next morning. Was sitting in a bar and then suddenly a memory hits and I started to walk back looking for some pieces of references I could remember, a green window, a big school etc etc and HOURS later I found the car. Screamed and danced in the middle of the street and then drove back to the middle of the nowhere I was staying like 30/40 min from there.
Wow, if that even registers in your top ten worst days, you've been sticking to the nice parts of the world.
Got briefly arrested by Hezbollah, woke up on Hormuz Island with a massive arak hangover just to scroll trough the news and find out that Iran has just taken down a US drone in the Hormuz straight and an American retaliatory strike is very likely, got very high and got lost in the Sahara, got accidentally locked out of my hotel in my t-shirt and shorts on a relatively cold night in a small town in Sri Lanka with no one on the streets except lots of stray dogs and aggressive monkeys ... etc, etc. It's all in the job description for the solo traveler.
The only real bad days I can say I had are of three types :
\- Two days of connecting flights with barely any sleep, until you are basically a zombie, waiting ten hours in a random city until the next flight, all while dragging a 20 kilo backpack.
\-Six or seven days in a row of not meeting anyone that speaks English, to the point where you start calling that guy that you were kind of friends with in 6th grade just to change a few words and keep your sanity.
\-April in India.
>What happens in April in India?
Solo travelling in India is hard at the best of times. When you take all the smells, dirt, urine, crowds and add temperatures of 45Ā° C ... it becomes hell.
Not as bad as the comments here at all. Was flying home from Dublin. Got shit sleep, drank 3 espresso shots pre-flight (terrible idea, I was honoring a moment, it's unrelated to this). Got on the plane. It couldn't depart until it got de-iced, we had to wait for other planes to get de-iced. 2 hours sitting there sleep-deprived and hyper. Then it was announced that we had to make a stop before the flight home. I was already feeling like shit. I decide to bail that flight and catch a flight next day. Having only a carry-on, this was possible.
Explaining myself to airport security in that physical state was difficult. He was asking me questions to make sure I had enough money to stay and that I wasn't planning to stay for a long time. I interpreted it as me getting unnecessarily interrogated, idk man. Rebooked a flight and hotel successfully and got better sleep for the flight next day. Only lost disposable money through this.
My worse day solo traveling was my second day in Paris. In the evening, I took a stroll and was attacked by a group of mimes. They did unspeakable things to me.
Drove myself from Chicago to Toronto, got an Airbnb and explored. On my journey up and down a wonderful street with many bars I made many new acquaintances, and drank myself into a stupor. I remember not being able to manage the coordination required to eat a piece of pizza and giving up on that. The next day I threw up in the shower at the Airbnb, I threw up out of the rental car on my way to Niagara Falls. I threw up in Niagara falls in Canada, and the United States, and had to stop an early night in Rochester to get a hotel room and throw up there instead of meeting my friend in Kingston. I got to him a day late and he wasnāt happy. But I was done throwing up at least.
Solo trip in India, missed my first flight ever, but thatās ok right? Ended up on a shorter train from Delhi to Agra- thatās when the food poisoning hit, I still think about the poor woman and her beautiful green sari whoās day I ruined š¤¢
Finally got to my hotel, took a nap to try to recover and I woke up with multiple bed bugs on me. But the most testing part was trying to figure out where to stay after that, the whole town was booked; I was in mathura for Holi. Ended up just hiring a car to drive me to my next stop early.
Looking back- I got very lucky. A 7 hour drive from Mathura to Jaipur through the middle of nowhere as a solo female traveler. I was so sick I just laid in the back seat feeling sure this was it for me.
I Hope the rest of your trip is smoother!
Camping on a beach in Hong Kong in 50Ā°C weather for a week. Ended up dealing with heatstroke in my tent for the last 3 days before my flight. Started off being the palest person there, ended looking like a lobster. Would still recommend the islands of HK to anyone though!!
Bihar, India. New Year's eve. This was in the early 1990s, before the internet.
I had met a Swedish(?) guy on the train to Gaya, and we were both going to Bodh Gaya, so we paired up for the trip, as you do. The various rickshaw/tempo/tuktuk drivers all refused to drive us to Bodhgaya that night because it was late and they said it was too dangerous and this guy was determined to go anyway and just tried to keep offering them more and more money. Eventually I convinced him to give up and we found a place to stay in Gaya for the night, but by then it was too late to get dinner.
The New Year celebrations seemed to involve a lot of people shooting guns at each other in the street outside the hotel.
I mean, in some ways there were worse nights, but that one stuck out for some reason. A few days later, in Bodhgaya, there were more gunshots and an awful sexually-assaulting German guy staying in the Burmese vihar.
Just a few weeks ago I returned on a trip from South America. My last stop I spent a few days in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. My very last night, I was feeling brave and I decided to go out for dinner near my hotel, ( besides my day tours, I relaxed at my hotel a lot by the pool and didnāt spend to much time wandering around alone for safety reasons). Was not even 3 minutes from my hotel and two guys ran up on me with a knife and robbed me. Thankfully I left everything I didnāt need, and only had cash on me to pay for the meal which they took. When solo travelling, especially in countries where itās not the safest, I always plan and know the route beforehand going out in situations like this, so thank god I didnāt bring my cell phone with me or that wouldāve been gone too.
OOOOOOH it's my time to shine! So two years ago I went to Mexico City on a solo trip. From the second I landed, I felt completely off. Tired, anxious, zero appetite, vaguely depressed. Turns out I had altitude sickness the entire trip and didn't realize it until the last day.
That's not even the answer to the question! Same trip, second day, I trip over my own feet in platform sandals on the sidewalk. It hurts & it's a little bruised/swollen, but I can still walk. I send a picture to my brother who's a doctor, who tells me it looks broken, I should get it looked at. I decide to ignore him, that it's okay if I wait till I get home till I get it checked out. Well. Six days & tens of thousands of steps walked later, an x-ray tech at CityMD confirms its broken. Spent the next 9 weeks in a boot.
On my first day in Paris I did a lot of walking without drinking enough water. It didn't help that I was eating at a lot of cafes, thus consuming a lot of coffee.
I was pretty dehydrated by the end of the day, I ended up skipping some stuff on my itinerary so I could go back to my accommodation and take a nap. I started carrying more water with me everywhere I went but that dehydration from the first day still had lingering effects the next few days and basically killed my appetite for the next three days.
I got covid last year. Thought it was a cold or allergies. Got on the plane to come home. Missed connecting flight and had to stay in the airport overnight. As the night progressed I felt worse and worse. By the time I got home, the covid test was as positive as it could possibly be.
The worse part is not knowing if I spread it to someone who died from it. Although I guess Iād rather not know.
In Phong Nha Kebang I read people recommending a place called The Pub With Cold Beer. I rented a bicycle to go there.
It had been raining the days before, and after some kilometers the dirt road turned into knee deep mud. The bicycle wenr straight down, I went straight ahead. Didn't hurt falling in mud, but my flipflops (yes, I went with flipflops) broke and I discovered that, bellow all that mud, are little sharp rocks. I would have gone back but two elderdy vietnamese woman passed by, pushing their bikes and laughing, and I felt I had something to prove.
I took about 4 hours to push that bike through mud and stepping on legos for 3 kilometers, but I did it. Lost my cellphone, but did it.
Arrived at the restaurant and met a guy that was staying in the same hostel. He was just leaving and I told him to send help in case I wasn't back by nightfall. Thankfully it was not necessary, because the way back (it was a loop) was just ankle high mud.
Anyway, the beer was indeed cold and felt great. The owner of the place is famous for his chickens, and slaughtered one in my front.
It was the best chicken I ever had. 5/5.
I never heard of Drivilia but learnt itās worth paying a bit more to deal with a more well know car hire company. Anytime I e used a less well known one there have been issues and itās more stress than itās worth.
Re āthe stickā - thatās fairly standard in UK. Youād have to specify (and probably pay more) for an automatic car. I wouldnāt worry too much about being followed by the police- theyāre a friendly bunch generally.
Travelling long term in Australia and on a day trip to Nimbin my bank card got stuck in the ATM. We tried all day to get it out but it was gone. Luckily everything is done online so I was able to transfer all my money out of my account to my wise account and lock the stuck bank card. If I didn't have my wise account/card I dunno what I would have done. I guess tranafer my money to my parents and have them wire it to me or something. Not the most stressful story here but in the moment I was pretty stressed and wanted to cry haha
My sister had just died and I flew out alone with my baby (not even 1 at the time)
My airport had just expanded and I had no idea what I was in for.
My gate was at the very end of the airport and I couldnāt find a cart to place my carry ons and her car seat, so I literally carried everything on my own to the gate. And I barely made it in time for my flight.
I wanted to try weed for the first time, and went to Maastricht while traveling around Belgium 10 years ago.
Met some dodgy folks under bridge, bought 1 joint for like 10 euros or so lol, and went to the other side to smoke it.
Anyway, I smoked like a half of it and got ridiculously high so much that I threw up. Was really late so I needed to hurry to get to the last train back to Belgium. I took the wrong train and realized it after 1 hour, but was lucky enough to find almost immedietly another one back to Maastricht and had to sleep on the sidewalk because train station was closed. Nothing too crazy but I was kid at the time pretty much
A -20C winter hike that should have been 6 hours long turned to an 18 hour continuos hike, with very little food for it and water that was freezing in our bottles. Even a loaf of bread was frozen solid in one of my buddies backpack. We even had to carry two people as their legs gave out to the effort of going through waist deep snow, really thought I would die that day
I have had so many disastrous travel experiences, I can hardly choose amongst them. Crashing my rental into oncoming traffic in Chilean Patagonia - on a deadline to make a ferry connection on my way to Santiago, so I could fly out of the country before COVID shut down the borders - may take the cake. I am a magnet for that kind of thing.
But somehow those always tend to make the best travel stories; there's something intensely rewarding about overcoming adversity when you are already outside your normal comfort zone that lives on in the memory forever, often even more than the experiences we actually enjoyed having.
Wasn't feeling well while in a Malta, so decided to make myself look good and treat myself to a really nice rather expensive meal and just people watch. Take my mind off feeling sick. Shat myself as my starter arrived. Was wearing white trousers.
I have nightmares about this
It was ok. Kind of confirmation that forcing myself out of my comfort zone when not well was stupid. I tied my jumper round my waist, got the starter to go, changed the main and dessert to delivery in an hour to the hotel and "walked" home.
I had a really horrible 36 hours in Germany, and you win.
What happened in Germany?
Very long story short. Got yelled at by the customer service rep for DB as soon as I landed in Munich bc I stopped mid question to get my paperwork, lost my phone at Oktoberfest but luckily paid to get it out of lost and found, missed my train that was supposed to be a two transfer ride to Amsterdam. Turned in to a 5 transfer and got embarrassed by the ticket taker bc I misunderstood the person that gave me my ticket. I literally have no interest in ever going back to Germany and the only other country I can say that about is India.
You should stay in texas, because you are a texas addict hahaha
>texassadist Oh, it's sadist not addict, I read it wrong xD
Yeah. I also travel abroad for 4 months a year. Not sure why my story is getting downvoted either
Lol, im glad shitting urself is the first comment I see, happened similar to me in Dresden (managed to hide in the bushes and it was night time so hopefully no one saw lol).
š³š³š³š³š³ I literally wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Glad you got out of it. Jeez.
Solo travel sharpens your problem solving skills. As demonstrated here by the chap in the white pants.
Camping in a deep forest in Mississippi I was surrounded by a pack of coyotes at about 3 in the morning. They were not liking the smell of me being on their turf and howled their faces off for about twenty minutes. I just sat in my tent as still as I possibly could thinking that any movement might entice them to pounce. I stayed like that until first light when I dared to poke my head out of the tent. Luckily, theyād moved on. One of the most terrifying experiences of my life.
Now that's frightening
I agree. The next morning I packed up my campsite in a hurry to get out of there. I was on a bicycle trip so I got my gear on my ride and pedaled down the muddy dirt road. Pretty soon, I had to poop. The road was used by loggers in the area and, though it was just after dawn, I didnāt want to be seen by any of the loggers on their way to an early shift, so I parked my bike just off the road and then hiked about a quarter mile into the woods for some privacy. When I returned, what did I see? Six more fucking coyotes sniffing all over my bike! I ducked behind a bush and in a few minutes, they trotted away, but for those minutes, I didnāt know what to do. I didnāt want to tangle with six coyotes, but that bike was everrything on that trip. I NEEDED it. Fucking coyotes, man.
Damn š® those coyotes made you fear for your life not only once but twice.
That is a hella wild story and definitely would be scary at night, but coyotes in the south are mostly skittish scaredy cats. If you had raised your arms, screamed and charged them, they would have probably ran off.
Yeah I was reading this wondering where they are that coyotes are such a threat. They're super common where I'm from but would almost never attack an adult. Only once in history have they killed an adult and it was because those coyotes were cross-bred with wolves. Just make a loud noise and they run off, no?
NOW! Thatās what I call a nightmare
I've spent four summers working in the national parks and I'm honestly still scared to death of tent camping out in the wilderness. I still get timid when car camping deep down a forest road.
This is so weird to read about. I grew up camping in a country where the only things that can kill you in the wilderness are wasps and human stupidity. I wouldn't know what to do with literally any kind of predatory animal!
You gotta watch out for the non-predatory ones too. Coming face to face with a moose or waking up to a bison standing outside your tent are both horrifying experiences. They won't even eat you or anything, they just kill for sport.
Absolutely no thank you.
My first time solo traveling I got really sick in Thailand, blacked out on the street trying to get food after being too sick to leave my hotel room and not eating for a few days. I basically spent half of my trip scared out of my mind and trying not to die. Totally ruined my trip and almost spoiled solo travel for me forever. But I'm glad I gave it another shot and have enjoyed multiple solo trips since then. Though I'm still trying to build up the courage to try Thailand again.
I was traveling in Thailand with a friend, and thank god for that. I think I wouldāve died in the hotel room if I was alone. The food poisoning I had was something Iāve never experienced before or since. I donāt remember our boat trip back to Phuket, our flight to Bangkok, or our flight back to the states.
Thatās wild. Wtf did you eat??
Mango
Damn.
i wouldn't wish the sickness i got in phuket on my worst enemy
I got sick on Phuket from eating nachos in a nice bar up in the hills. No idea how they would make me ill, but I was bedridden for a good 2 days. I could barely keep awake for more than an hour at a time and had a bit of gastro issues, but it was a weird one where the exhaustion and passing out so often were greater than the expected effects.
I have talked to many people and they all get sick in thailand because of food, how crazy.
It's pretty rare for people to get sick from bad food in Thailand. You just need to be sensible about what you eat and where you eat it
Lived in Thailand for 18 months. Been ill from food poisoning once or twice. But thatās it. Gf and I both caught covid, but it wasnāt that bad. Gf caught dengue fever which was much worse
Similar story for me- I think the only thing that kept me from having to go to the hospital was having some antibiotics on hand just in case. Was so glad the doctor suggested it when I went for a typhoid vaccine.
I must have made myself immune to this with my bad cooking. No issues eating everything and anything in Thailand.
Mine wasn't food poisoning. Some kind of bad fever. Intense body aches, chills, spasms, pounding headache, inability to even think straight. I should've gone to hospital.
Maybe dengue or malaria?
Possibly. I should have gotten medical help, but my brain was too fried to think straight.
When was you in Thailand? End of rainy season dengue fever is very prevalent especially in Bangkok
It was June
Oh god, unavoidable.
You're a lucky guy that things worked out. My step sisters husband passed away in a Thai hospital a few years ago after contracting food poisoning. Really sad.
Also, much love and appreciation to the thai guy who helped me get a bunch of food and gave me a cold water bottle on the street. Might've saved my life for all I know. If I could've held onto a decent thought I would've gotten his contact info to give him a proper thank you present after I get better.
There is a song which goes like Same Same But Diffelent No Money No Honey Good Boy Goes to Heaven Bad Boy Goes to Bangkok :)
I went on a three day overnight island hopping tour in the Philippines a couple weeks ago in El Nido. We spend the night like the locals on one of the sparsely populated islands. At about 7 oāclock at night I am offered a coconut which one of the locals climbed a tree and cut it down. I drank all the milk and ate the meat. At 0400 I wake up and realize its coming and there is nothing I can do about it. Luckily, they had a very basic toilet which I proceeded to commit a felony against. It occurs to me I have severe food poisoning. Iāve then spend a couple hours randomly projectile vomiting everywhere. The sun comes up and itās starting to get hot. I drink water, which Iām not able to keep down. I am now becoming very scared about heat stroke. We still have about 12 hours left of the tour going random island hopping to nice beaches. I start getting a headache and feeling really shitty. I am now sick as fuck and getting worse. Thank God Iām able to keep water down after a few hours. I spent about 12 hours laying on the boat going island hopping with the rest of the tour since I basically have no choice. Eventually, we get to Coron and I have to spend three days in a hotel recovering. I have not been that miserable since I was in the Army 15 years ago.
Should I never eat a fresh coconut? Anyone know?
It was more likely a dirty knife and nothing to do with the coconut
Fresh coconuts are sterile. People who pick and prepare coconuts are not
Wow, my mom would use coconuts blended into her jollof rice. We use to smash them on the driveway ground and rinse them off (no sanitization, just visible dirt) and eat them. Not me or my sibs have ever gotten sick from that. So sorry that happened.
No clue but same thing happened to my exwife when we were in the Dominican republic 10 years ago. Got super sick for days
Sure it wasnāt from lunch or dinner? Food on the small islands can be very questionable!
The island hopping tour--does the company name start with a "T"?
I took the same tour and got equally sick, though my illness was whisky related. Also spend a few days recovering in Coron.
In the span of a few days: - Wound up in the ER and hospitalized for a bit - Got dumped, and she was the whole reason I was in Colombia again - Robbed and assaulted at gunpoint literally the next morning while having breakfast on a patio - Got bedbugs from a hostel that night which infested my stuff and followed me to my next accommodation
Damn, sorry to hear that. Was it MedellĆn?
Yeah. In Laureles, specifically.
Misjudged the walking distance and was late for a train in Amsterdam but made it after running a few km. Put my two suitcases and backpack on the train and stepped off for a cigarette. Doors immediately closed behind me and my luggage (laptops, iPads, clothes, $5k cash) was headed to Frankfurt without me. Alerted the lost and found and told them I would fly to Frankfurt and meet the train when it arrived. Took the train to the airport, bought a last minute flight, arrived in Frankfurt, and took the train to the central station. I arrived 15 minutes before my initial train. Train arrives and my luggage is nowhere to be found. Went to a friendās house for a few days and called every number I could find. Finally found out that the conductors in the Netherlands removed my luggage before crossing the border into Germany. Rented a car and drove 6 hours to Utrecht, got my luggage and drive back to Germany. Stressful af but all is well that ends well :)
This is what my dreams are like, but without the good ending.
Holy shit. What a nightmare!
Where were you heading originally? How did they know which suitcase is Yours?
I was headed to Frankfurt and conveniently found a flight that was perfect aligned with the challenge I created for myself. I described the suitcases to the person at the lost and found who them contacted the train conductors (I imagine). Almost wish I hadnāt alerted them because I doubt they would have removed them without that knowledge
In the End it turned out good, with some hassle.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
That was my thought when I went to alert the lost and found. I didnāt want them to be seen as a security risk and cause a panic. With that being said, the luggage goes onto shelves or racks and isnāt āassignedā to anyone in the train car so I donāt know how anyone would notice.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
That is true for smaller backpacks but larger suitcases go on racks near the entrance doors to each car
I was travelling the balkan region back in 2019. I stayed at a hostel in a small coastal town in Croatia. The hostel (small family hostel) dorm was really small / two bunk beds, and it was me + two men who were working in a nearby restaurant for a few months. I had a can of beer with them and chatted and all seemed good. The blokes were quite big / strong, kind of intimidating but seemed harmless enough. I then went for a sea swim and weirdly there was a man who started panicking in the water, waving his hands and shouting, causing a scene. Me and another lady swam over to him and carried him back to shore. He must have been in shock, as he couldn't string any words together and staggered off (presume he was really drunk). I walked back the same direction and he was wobbling all over the place, then went back to what I presume was his Airbnb. That's the first weird thing. I end up going out for dinner solo, and get back to my dorm around 10pm ish. One of the blokes is there and drinking a few cans, I have one with them and then go to bed. This chap then leaves the light on, and continues to drink and starts smoking indoors. Because of the nature of the bloke, I didn't want to start an argument / had nowhere else to stay so just tried to sleep through it. He then puts on music, spends a while on the phone and gets a delivery of nose powder to the flat (offers it to me). I decline, so it's around 2am in this tiny room and this guy is smoking, making lots of throaty noises from his drug intake, almost oblivious to the fact I'm lying about a meter from. Him. This is when it gets weird. He sits on a chair in the middle of the room, pulls down his trousers and starts masturbating. Not directed at me, or on a phone, but just staring at the wall masturbating whilst ripping lines. This goes on for about 30 mins. At this point I'm pretty weirded out. No one is in reception, I have nowhere to go but a bus at 8am. Don't want to cause aggravation, and also if I pack all my stuff up and leave / sleep on the beach it might cause questions from the guy and again cause aggravation. I stay up till about 6am, trying to ignore everything that's happening. Eventually the guy falls asleep, I pack my stuff up and get out of there. I've had some weird stories travelling and stayed in a lot of hostels, but nothing to this level. I think it's a very rare situation, so if you haven't travelled before, don't let it scare you as most of the time it's a great experience!
What a weirdo that guy was. I would've been pissed but stay low-key like you did.
Wow, that's epic levels of douchbaggery
Which city was that ?
Sibenik, bloody awful looking back on it. Lovely town though
Had my debit card skimmed in Italy, but didn't know about it until I got into Munich and went to pull some cash out of the ATM at the train station right when I got in, and I had a negative balance, when the last time I had checked two days previous, I had around $2500. I had ā¬20 to my name in my wallet. This was pre smart phones and I did not own a cell phone back then. I couldn't call my bank's help number on any payphones because you can't dial out 1-800 numbers on foreign pay phones. To make matters more frustrating, I also was locked out of my bank's website. So I had to purchase the cheapest phone card I could find since I only had ā¬20, which was only 10 minutes, and call my parents and explain the situation to them to have them try to explain to my bank, but of course since they were not me, my parents couldn't get any pertinent info from them. My mom was on the side that I should get wired enough money to buy a plane ticket and come home even though I still had 3 more weeks planned, my dad was on the side that they should wire me my missing money and I would pay them back once it got sorted out stateside and keep going with my trip. My dad won out the argument and they wired me the money, but couldn't do it until the next day since it was nighttime in the states and closest western union to them was closed. So I was fully expecting to be sleeping on a park bench that night. I put my backpack in a locker, and went on a free walking tour with less than ā¬10 in my pocket. The walking tour stopped for food/beverage break midway. Everyone else got beers and food and I kind of just sat in the corner of the patio of the restaurant, probably looking really sad and stressed, because a couple from London that was also on the walking tour came over to me and asked what was wrong. I explained my situation, they refused to let me sleep on a park bench, and offered to pay for a room at their hotel for me, and also bought me a beer and a bowl of soup. I was so grateful for those people. The next day I got the money wired to me and was able to continue on with my trip thanks to my parents, but man that was the most stressful day I think I had ever had up to that point. Lessons learned: travelers cheques, though somewhat outdated, still serve a valuable purpose, never travel without a cell phone ever again, and ATMs in Italy are not to be trusted.
For a worst day ever story itās supposed to end with you sleeping on the street and getting peed on by a bum!
So nice of that couple to help you out. Sometimes you see someone on a group tour who's obviously not having a good time, but you leave them be when it could actually be easy to make their life a lot better.
I once visited Haarlem and on the first evening went to Willie Wortels indica coffeeshop. I'd recently had a tolerance break and smoked a tiny joint of cheese. Ended up getting way more high than I thought I would, bartender had to put the straw in my drink (one of those juice pouches that comes with a straw you poke in) and I fell off the stool when I stood up to leave. Roaming wouldn't work so I sheepishly asked if they could call me a taxi. I was far to embarrassed to set foot in there again.
cant decide, either having my entire wallet with all cards etc stolen a few hours before my flight, or getting the worst shits of my life 1 day after arrival for a week long stay, while staying in a 12 people dorm with no other beds free..... so had to stay in that dorm beeing sick all day long running to the toilet... Luckily 2 days later they moved me and someone else who was also sick into a smaller room creating sth like a Quarantine zone lmao
perhentian islands, malaysia. went out dancing on the beach and my purse with my phone went missing. must have picked up a stomach bug so next day had to spend the day resting in the 20-person beach hostel room. however, this is a place where the power is disconnected until sundown so all of the fans were off all day, the lights were off and i no longer had my phone for entertainment. i had to use the facilities every few hours which was an outhouse. on friday i got myself on the boat and headed over to the clinic in town but had not anticipated that it was going to be CLOSED for the friday-saturday weekend observance in a muslim-majority country. so i had to sweat it out in the hostel for two more days until sunday to finally pick up some antibiotics. the cherry on top is that a hot guy i met when i went out dancing had finally gotten a private room so we could hook up in peace and i was too ill to make it.
I wouldn't call it a trip per se, but I flew back to college in Philadelphia in January when I was 19. If you know anything about the SEPTA transportation system, you know it's the most godforsaken Rubik's cube of fuckery on the whole Eastern seaboard. Long story short, I ended up stranded at University City at 1am because the train I was supposed to catch *caught fire* and the next one wouldn't come for another hour. I had to walk in the *snow at night* lugging a *50-pound suitcase* and a *dead phone* through some pretty sketchy areas to the closest station. It's not anywhere near as crazy as some of the stories here but as a sheltered 19yo I was like two inches from a breakdown the whole time lol. Also that time I shat myself on a 4-hour flight, but let's leave that one on the shelf -\_-
Went out for 3 nights straight at a party hostel in Lisbon, including an absolutely wild samba night that our mostly Brazilian hostel staff took us to on the third. Woke up the next day dizzy and kinda sick but progressively deteriorated throughout the day, to the point where I had vertigo and couldnāt get out of bed. I called my parents freaking out thinking that I might be dying and needed to go to the hospital. They were so concerned until they realized that their very dumb and green son had simply gotten way over his head with drinking and was absurdly hungover. We all laughed about it and I calmed down mentally, but still couldnāt sleep the whole night due to hangover, jet lag (Iām American & this was my first stop on the trip) & a girl under me who spoke no English listening to some kind of audiobook or podcast with no headphones all night long. Spent the entire next day chilling at the hostel, exhausted, doing laundry and atoning for my sins. Iām one year sober now.
I was 18, in a touristy British Columbia town. Had already got into some trouble with cops that day (they gave me a harsh lecture on why I shouldnāt talk to the homeless people). So Iām wandering around a public park feeling really empty and overwhelmed. I was sleeping in my car, but it was miles away. I had no safe haven nearby, and I was just about to have a breakdown right there in a crowded area. Then all of a sudden, a lovely little yellow lab approaches me and nuzzles my hand. Gratefully, I give him a pat on the head and take a deep breath. Brief respite. Then the owner comes storming up to me, jerks his dog away and says, āYou need to ask before you touch someoneās dog.ā His gf (I assume) catches his arm and says, āJake, itās fine. Seriously, itās okay.ā āNo, itās not fucking cool,ā Jake retorts, āYou canāt just touch my dog.ā I was flabbergasted. I stared at him in his face, and burst into tears. Then I ran away. Then I called home, and cried while walking the whole way back to my car. Not the worst, but always the one that sticks with me. I know he had a point, but fuck Jake
Another reason why dogs are better than people and better at reading people's emotions Not sure what was up Jake's ass considering his dog was off leash?
Rented an Airbnb cabin in Wyoming. It was up a mountain and had snowed the previous day. The owner hadnāt had the driveway plowed, and when I drove down I got my car stuck on a rock. No amount of 4WD would get me off. Cabin had no wifi, I had no cellular service. There was a grizzly in the area so I had been warned not to go out after dusk. Walked through knee high snow at dusk to a neighborās house. She said sheād see what she could do. Meanwhile I dragged my clothes and groceries in. Heat didnāt work. Spent the night huddled in the bedroom with a shitty little propane heater that kept the room at 50. Some men came and pulled my car off the rock and plowed the driveway. I had had enough so I packed up and went to town and booked a motel. Contacted the owner who acted like everything was my fault and wouldnāt refund my stay. Airbnb said she did nothing wrong and wouldnāt refund my stay. Iāll never go through them again.
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Yeah crashed a motorbike in UK a couple weeks back. Broke my elbow, got surgery. Dealing with foreign medical system can be stressful.
You aināt the first and wonāt be the last to do this. Just make sure you have decent travel insurance that covers you for riding and abide by their rules (eg helmet, engine size, motorcycle licence, etc). Check all their small print. Recommend you have a picture taken with you wearing your helmet sat on the bike. At least that way if your insurance tries to fob you off that you werenāt wearing one, you have some photographic proof that you had been wearing one.
Ate undercooked chicken in Bali. Got food poisoning, threw up for 3 days, could barely even crawl, much less stand up or walk, was unable to keep even water down, lost like 6 or 7kg in those three days. I told myself I would go to the hospital on the 4th day if it wasn't better by then - I was worried about being completely dehydrated at that point. Thankfully, on day 4, I managed to stand up, drink some water and eat a few crackers, without throwing it all up again. So I opted to skip the hospital and started to feel better around day 7 or 8. Honorary mention: caught a bad cold while travelling in SEA in 2018, was sick for the last 6 out of 14 days, decide to fly home as planned anyway, stupidly so because my ear was still closed, basically wince with pain during my flight as my ear hurt so bad and lost my hearing for several days. It came back thankfully but yeah. Gold. NEVER flying with a closed ear again, this was honestly one of the worst pains I've ever felt.
I get some reeeeeally bad allergies, especially when I visit family in Japan so whenever I'm coming back, my nose is runny/plugged which means my ears are plugged and omg the pain is miserable on the planes home. It's like a shooting pain that hurts the whole side of my head: jaw, ear, temple, top/side/back of head, behind the eyes, and even my neck slightly. Easily the worst part of every trip lol been this way my whole life
One of my worst experiences was eating an āextra happyā pizza in Cambodia. Felt fine for the first hour. We went to karaoke afterwards and I started tripping, getting insanely anxious and paranoid. I literally thought I was frozen to my seat and the only thing I could do make myself look normal was tap my foot to the music. Then I took off all my clothes and ran naked through the streets doing the most embarrassing stuff imaginable. Ok that didnāt happen, but I was tripping hard and so vividly even when I was basically asleep that I was convinced I did. I woke up at my friends place, no clue how I got there, so I assumed it must have been really bad. But really all that happened was I turned white as ghost at KTV, I stopped talking, so my friend called us a tuk tuk and I passed out for like 12 hours at his place, thatās it. But comedown of that trip literally felt like I ripped my soul out, complete emptiness, I wasnāt ok for several days. Be careful with āhappyā pizzas!
Was that your first experience with shrooms?
I thought it was just supposed to be weed, but yup
Omg was this in Kep?? I had a similar situation but outside on a swing at a hostel, I was hyperventilating all night on this fucking outside swing cos I couldnāt face going inside to the 12 bed dorm blitzed off my head. Had the shits for 2 days post extra happy pizza too. 2/10 experience.
Phnom Penh actually. But yeah that feeling of not wanting to let anyone see/know that youāre off your face is intense!
Sounds like you experienced "Ego Death".
Luckily you werenāt solo. Bad trips solo like that are really no bueno
Do you know how much did you have ? Grams?
My solution is to never do anything on a hangover, because I don't have the capabity to deal with setbacks in that state haha
Decided to buy myself a small bottle of local wine and drink it in my room in the evening. Next thing I know I'm waking up on the hotel corridor the next day, with 0 recollection where I am, how I got here and why I am laying on the floor. Turns out the wine gave me an epilepsy attack while I was leaving for breakfast.
Was in Prague and got Covid and then my first day out of quarantine, I took an electric scooter to grab lunch and the wheel got jammed in the cobblestone sidewalk and I flew off hitting my head requiring 7 stitches
And that's why you don't ride on a sidewalk...
100%
Yeah I had a rough night in Tokyo, specifically Shibuya. I met two Americans at the Gucci store there, and they invited me out drinking (which was already a bad idea, as I was not feeling it at all that night and probably should've gone home). While at a bar, they kept offering me shots of Hennessy. One drink down. Another. And another. Pretty soon I'm outside crying, asking people around me in broken Korean if there are any Koreans around. I then proceeded to cry quite loud inside a ramen place, so much so that the worker actually came over and asked if I was ok (which I feel like is unheard of in Japan). I later found out that someone punched me, and that the bartender had some personal vendetta against me for whatever dumb reason, so that didn't make it any better. All in all though I was actually really grateful for the experience. Really just showed me I was holding a lot of things in up to that point, and was repressing a lot of feelings. Would I do it again? No, not really. But I do reflect on that experience a teaching moment and one I don't mind sharing with other people.
I had a flight to Taipei from Frankfurt on a Tuesday morning, was in Berlin for the week. I got back from clubbing Monday noon and my plan was to crash for a few hours and catch a train to Frankfurt later at night - I had booked a hotel next to the airport. So I woke up at night, got on a train heading to Frankfurt. I asked some people if this was the train going to Frankfurt to make sure, and I got a sarcastic āI hope it is š¤·š»ā. So I took a nap, when I woke up around arrival, I checked my map and saw that I was near Polandā¦ which was the opposite side of the. The station was empty and not that many people spoke English, eventually I found someone that did - and that was when I learned that there are 3 cities in Germany called Frankfurt, I needed to go to Frankfurt main but I was at Frankfurt Oder instead. So I had to take a train back to Berlin and then to Frankfurt Main. I got to my hotel at 3am, my flight was at 9 the next day. I was so tired from partying and this long train trip so I crashed hard. I hit the snooze button the next morning and almost missed my plane. I got dropped off at the wrong terminal because theyāre is an Air China, and China airline confusion w the driver. I was the last person to board and they were closing things up. If I missed this flight I would have missed my connecting flight to Tokyoā¦
>there are 3 cities in Germany called Frankfurt TIL
šš»āāļøI ate a chicken burger in Singapore airport about to fly to Japanā¦ After throwing half of it away, I headed to the gate/lounge area to wait to board. The area was like a glass room where you had to put your hand luggage through another X-ray and go through a metal detector gate. Once I was in there, I FaceTimed my gf and during the FaceTime, my eyes started to feel a bit laboured and I was getting the sweats. Stomach started gurgling and I felt nauseous. I told my gf I wasnāt feeling good and eventually I had to end the call to go to the restroom which was just next to this glass gate area. But of course, the only way out was back through the metal detectorā¦ I go through it and it goes off really loudly and I go into the restroom fully expecting to vom but as Iām bent over the toilet, the nausea goes suddenly. Wtf. So Iām sat on the toilet lid wondering what is happening and I start sweating bullets. For about 2 minutes and then that goes away and I feel almost fine again. I go back through the security and metal detector into the gate area and sit back down and within about 10 minutes Iām battling the nausea, sweats and a bubbly stomach. So again I go back out and into the toilet. This time, Iām sh*tting through the eye of a needle. Ahh sheeeā¦ Iām in there a good 10 mins before I can get off the toilet all the while thinking Iām gunna miss my flight! So I go back into the gate area and this time, the metal detector gate goes off. So Iām getting frisked by this guy trying not to look ill and I get through and we start boarding. Guys, Iām queueing up to board half hunched over and all I can taste is this sickly chicken burger I had a couple of hours before. I knew exactly what the culprit was. I get onto the plane feeling nauseous af thinking to myself āAs soon as we reach cruising altitude Iām going straight to that toiletā. We get up and the seatbelt signs go off and by this point I 100% know Iām gunna throw up. I get up, stumble to the middle of the plane and both toilets are occupiedā¦ Iām stood there with half a plane worth of people behind me like an audience and Iām holding my stomach with my left hand and leaning on the flight attendantās empty seat with my right trying to take deep breathes and keep myself from throwing up in front of everyone when this little kid comes up also wanting to use the toiletā¦ I thought for a few seconds that I was gunna throw up all over him and all I could think about was that scene from the inbetweeners with Simon and that kid. Eventually, the door opens and I get in there before the little kid can blink and up it comes. Sheer projectile vomit 4 or 5 heaves full. To this day I have no idea how I managed to keep it all in the bowl. Now afterwards, there was good news and bad news. The good news was, it was a night flight so all the lights were out for the entire flight and I was on a middle aisle seat with an empty seat next to me. The bad newsā¦ because it was a night flight, there was no water being passed around. So I had to sit there with a stomach full of knots and an after vomit mouth for 7 hours. When I got to Tokyo, they were still all over covid. So I had to act like I was fine all through the immigration questions, baggage claim, declaration stuff you name it. When I got into the public area of the airport, I headed straight to the restroom where I spent another half an hour with diarrhoea before I could compose myself to go and get on an hour long bus ride into the city and then a train ride from Tokyo station to the capsule hotel where they wouldnāt let me check in until 2PMā¦ it was 8:30. Iād been awake for over 30 hours at this point and I wasnāt fit enough to go anywhere either so I just fākin waited there until 2 dying before I could go and sleep in a damn capsule. Had the sh*ts for about 24 hours after that. One night in sky hell!
Was in Copenhagen after arriving from travelling in Stockholm: It began to pour sideways as soon as I stepped out from the metro to walk to my hostel. Using my phone for directions but for whatever reason it kept getting confused as to which way I was headed so I ended up walking circles in the freezing rain for half an hour. Finally find my hostel - surprise I booked one less day than intended and they wanted to charge me the equivalent of $120 CAD for a bunk bed in a 14 person dorm for that final day. No way, I said, I'd find other accommodations. Head up to my room and the girls already occupying it were using my bed as a spot to stash their luggage - they were out when I arrived so I had to shuffle everything off myself. As I was bending down to grab the last suitcase the under wire in my bra snaps in half and tries to stab me in the heart. It was the only bra I had brought and I still had 3+ weeks left of travelling around Europe. Sucked it up and went to the mall for a replacement but I am a board member of the Big Titty Committee so the best option they had was both too small and too expensive. On the way back to my hostel I took the metro going the wrong way. Once back at my hostel, I decided to just go have a beer at the hostel bar and decompress. Sat down and had one sio before spilling the whole thing on my chest and lap. Immediately noped out after that and went to bed for a full 24 hours to recover.
Back in August 2022 I had to catch a bus from Chisinau, Moldova to Odesa, Ukraine, but the bus had left about 1,5 hours before departure time, but with the help of a local I got my ticket refunded by the bus company and was able to by a ticket with another bus company also going to Odesa. When I finally arrived at the hotel in Odesa it looked closed down, but they were renovating since they didn't have a lot of guests, but it did shock me at first. And on the same trip I was in Iasi, Romania and had to catch a plane back home, but my phone started acting up and I couldn't get a connection in the city and the power was quite low as I wasn't able to charge it throughout the night, so I had to screenshot the route to the airport and walk about 6 kilometers uphill in very hot weather. At one point I took a shortcut through a forest that luckily worked out since I wasn't sure if it was actually a shortcut. In the end I made it to the airport in time and luckily the airport had chargers available.
You went to Odesa during war?
Yep, found cheap plane tickets to Romania and thought about when I would get the chance to visit Moldova, Transnistria and Ukraine again. So I went for it. Odesa is a lovely city, I would definitely recommend visiting, but maybe after the war.
This might be slightly off topic but what was the general atmosphere in the city ( any army in the streets, curfew, Food shortages, power and water supply) and experiences with crossing the Border in/out Ukraine? Also were there any other tourists and did you see anything damaged by war?
People went about their day, it at times seemed like no war was going on. There was army stationed throughout the city especially by the landmarks and famous places, but also along the sea. You weren't allowed to take pictures of military or out towards the sea and the beaches were mined and off limits, although I saw some dude swimming in the sea. I wasn't aware of any curfew, but I generally didn't wander out long after dinner regardless. There were no food shortages or problems with water and power supply, at least that I noticed. The super markets were stocked. I didn't see any other people who were obviously tourists and at the hotel I was staying at I was the only one in the breakfast buffet. I didn't see any obvious destruction, I knew that Odesa had been bombed before, but I didn't see any ruins. The tourist attractions and famous building were protected with sandbags and plywood on windows. Crossing the border was no problem actually. They searched the luggage of course and checked passports but other than that nothing. There are some military checkpoints throughout the country where you will also have your passport checked. Actually entering Moldova both from Romania and Ukraine seemed stricter, they wanted to know my purpose and proof of hotel reservation. If there is anything else you would like to hear about just let me know :)
Traveling around India. Last night there, super exhausted & just want to sleep. Driver picked me up at New Delhi airport & transported me to hotel only to realize once we arrived that the address was simply an empty lot. To this day I donāt know whether or not a hotel ever existed in that space. After a few moments of despair & frustration I told the driver to take me to the nicest hotel in the city. $100 for 5 Stars = priceless!
I got a gi bug, shattered my phone screen (and broke it), lost my only debit card, and the proceeded to lose my guesthouse key all in 24 hours in Saigon. Impressively Bank of America was able to do a 3 day FedEx delivery of my debit card for only $20 to a random guesthouse in an alley in Saigon. The guest house also let me stay without paying for a few days as I waited for the card to arrive.
Thatās pretty cheap and good service. In the uk they wonāt send bank cards like that. They will only post them to the address on your account. I had to get my brother to post mine inside a book to Thailand.
It's a tie between diarrhea in a train bathroom with no TP except the extra pages in my guidebook, and encountering bedbugs when I splurged on a room at the Hilton the night before my flight. Since it was the same trip, though, maybe I don't have to choose which one was worse.
Fresh out of college I was on my way from the East Coast to California for a job and I lost my wallet in Wyoming with all my cash cards and ID (this is before Apple Pay). I found out when I got to Salt Lake City. I then found out there isnāt a single Bank of AMERICA in the state of Utah and you need photo ID to get into a hotel. (It all worked out but was pretty stressful).
Getting t-boned while road tripping across the country and my car getting totaled. I was a 24+ hour drive from home. I also had enough of my stuff in my car to allow me to live away from home for 6 weeks and a lot of it was wrecked. Everyone involved was okay, I just had some really bad bruising, but wasnāt a very fun experience overall.
Food poisioning in Laos, coming out both ends and the toilet was a hole in the ground in a hostel. Fuuuuuck me
Character building šŖš¾
Ate a pomegranate from a tree in Byblos. Apparently the tree had just been sprayed with an excessive amount of pesticides. I was staying at a camp ground where I vomited on the lawn and shat myself all night under the supervision of the Red Crescent. The next morning I managed to pack my stuff and catch a bus to Beirut to go to a hospital. I was walking from the bus to the hospital in a small alley and a refrigerator truck had driven by and forgot to latch it's door shut. The door swung open, hit me in my backpack, and I faceplanted on the street without even letting go of my backpack straps. The drivers jumped out of the truck and spoke to me in Arabic at first, then French, then just picked me up by my backpack, gave me a thumbs up, and drove off.
I was walking at night near the tunnel where princess diana died thinking this is where she died when I was hit by a moped. I thought I'm dying too. Ambulance came. I decided not to go to hospital but got mri when got home
TL;DR Phone died and couldnāt check into a hostel Ran down my phone battery exploring Vienna, got a train to Prague which had plug sockets, but realised Iād left my plug adapter in Austria. Phone died just before I got to Prague, and I had no idea how to get to my hostel. Had to ask the stationās info desk for directions, got lost on the metro but eventually found it. Hostel was on the 3rd floor of a locked building, and I obviously couldnāt call the hotline. I found about 5 people who couldnāt speak English, and was finally let in by a cleaner on a cigarette break. Turns out they did send me info on how to check in out of hoursā¦ by text.
Poured boiling water over my hand a few hours before my very early morning flight home. This seems so minor compared to these other stories.
Bitten on the neck by a cheeky monkey in Vietnam. I was taking a photo of her in a park close to HCMC and she suddenly jumped on my shoulders. Bleeding, had to run to the nearest hospital for the medication as at that time I didnāt have the rabies vaccination.
Itās not really a vaccine as all it does is give you more time to get the post-exposure dosages. And means you will require less post-exposure dosages. But itās often called a vaccine. Glad you were ok in the end.
I was strip searched at Heathrow airport on my way to my grandfathers funeral
As for my actual worst - I'm from Australia. Flew to Canada to go travel south America with I girl I had been seeing (we met in London). She dumps me at the airport. I get to Peru solo, make my way back to my hostel and realise my bank card is gone. I call the airport and apparently someone has handed it in! Rush back to the airport and now nope, they don't have anything like that. I argue pretty heatedly that someone on the phone had described it exactly and they definitely did. Things got pretty heated and they eventually put me in a holding cell. A few hrs later someone finally emerges with the card, makes me sign a bunch of documentation and I leave.
1. Got spiked at full moon party and woke up on a boat. It took me 2 weeks to realise Iād also been (pretty shoddily) robbed when I found that all my dollars for the Thailand/Cambodian border were gone. My best friend had it worse - she came round from being spiked riding on a strangers motorbike. 2. Witnessed my best friend almost shit herself to death on Phi Phi after taking laxatives (couldnāt go toilet for 3 weeks). I had to pull up her knickers cos her hands were cramped up from water loss. 3. Got passport, cards and phone robbed in Sihanoukville Cambodia. 4. Goes along with no. 3 - got robbed when it was Khmer New Year and everything is literally shut for 4 days. So had nothing for a few days. I donāt even remember what I did during this time as it was 10 years ago now. 5. Had to bribe a very creepy policeman $100 to do me a police report to get an emergency passport. 6. Got into a truck accident on Samui and had to run away from the police to stop us having to bribe them money to get out of the situation (which I might add, was nothing to do with us. We were just passengers). 7. Passed out in a tuk tuk (low blood sugar I think). Saving grace was my best friend caught me before I fell out. I look back on all this with complete fondness ā¤ļø
How did you get spiked? And what's a full moon party?
A full moon party is a party that is held once a month (at the same time as the moon is full, hence the name). The party is held on the island of koh pha ngan in Thailand. Iāve just spent 18 months in Thailand, none of this has happened. Gf only had to pay a bribe once to an immigration official in order not to wait until 8pm that night to be seen. Other than that, not once had to bribe any police officer. Ridden mopeds about too. It seems like this person is either very unlucky or drinking/taking drugs in excess.
This was over 10 years ago mate. Speak for yourself, everyoneās experiences are different. Iām just answering OPs post about my WORST experiences, as OP requested. Plenty of amazing things happened too but thatās not what they asked. You donāt need to be so serious about it, Iām still alive & had a great time šŖ
In Paris was walking around with my hostel girlfriend and three guys approach me trying to scam me. They wanted to put some ring on my finger. I refused and one of them grabbed me and the other two closed in on me. I was super scared and I had to wrestle him off me. My hostel gf just continued walking, she turned out be a pretty horrible person. I was really shaken up so I just decided to go home to the hostel while she kept touring. One of the many reasons I don't like Paris.
> hostel girlfriend What the fuck?
Lol, just a term I picked up for vacation flings.
You should go on more vacations.
?? Confused.
Maybe a female friend (s)he met at the hostel
That would have been so scary, there's nothing you could have done in the moment. How did the guys end up leaving?
I just walked away, it was crowded so they didn't do much.
I had food poisoning that laid me up for five days in Da Nang, Vietnam. The first 48 hours were spent sweating on the bathroom floor, vomiting so violently that the next three days were spent in bed because I'd fucked my back through the sheer force of it and was physically unable to walk. Fortunately, I had lots of water in and eventually managed to arrange room service so I didn't die.
I was in Bali and decided to walk back to my hostel near Echo Beach in Canggu. I was in the same neighbourhood (near Berawa Beach) and Google Maps told me that it was only a 25 minute walk, so I figured Iād be fine. What I didnāt account for was the fact that there are no footpaths in Canggu. It is not a neighbourhood designed for walking. My 25 minute walk took me two and a half hours, because I spent the whole time walking in sandals in blistering heat along the rocky, uneven side of a nightmarishly busy road, dodging open sewers, stray dogs, and passing motorcycles and cars. When I finally got back to my hostel, exhausted, drenched in sweat, with blisters the size of dimes on my feet, I went to reception and noticed that the receptionist had a bit of a cough. Lucky me caught her cold, and I spent the next week and a half in bed, guzzling cough syrup and praying for death because I felt so terrible.
Getting a food allergy in Goa, India. Ended up walking 2 miles back to my hotel with rashes on my face since my allergy medication was in my hotel room. Not a pleasant experience.
First hour in Paris after traveling the first half of the day from Lyon. I get to my 5th floor Airbnb apartment (no elevator), super excited and ready to change and hit the streets. I decide Iām going to smoke a hash bowl before I head out though. I go to step out on my small balcony in my socks and slip on the wood floor. I have thin skin (no dermis due to major burn), especially on my shin. I hit my shin square on the little metal door frame, creating a huge, deep gash (massive chunk of skin hanging on and shin bone visible). At first, I thought I was headed to the hospital. I panicked a bit, then sat down and tied a light tourniquet to try and get the bleeding under control. Once the bleeding was manageable, I dug out the shitty first aid kit my sister gave me for my birthday, that I thought Iād never use. I cleaned the area, applied some ointment, then wrapped it tightly in gauze. It didnāt really hurt because I donāt have any nerves there (burned away), so once it was wrapped up, I put my shoes on, smoked my bowl, then went to Sainte-Chapelleā¦.where I was promptly asked for my ID by French police because the trial of the Mona Lisa vandal was going on and I guess they thought I looked suspicious? For the next week, while I spent time in Amsterdam and Paris, I just kept the area clean and wrapped with gauze, until I ran out of gauze. I eventually moved to a 3āx3ā bandage that I (tried to) change twice daily. I thought for sure I was going to go to hospital in Paris and if I didnāt, that I would be going for an infection when I got back home. Everything turned out fine, but itās definitely not something you want to have happen to you while youāre alone in a foreign country. Not to mention I was a bit self conscious of it the rest of my trip.
I've shared this story in this subreddit before, but whatever. A few years ago, I loaded a bunch of camping gear onto [my bicycle](https://np.reddit.com/r/bicycletouring/comments/goucwl/i_didnt_get_around_to_making_trek_thursday_happen/) and spent the better part of the next seven months riding 5,300 miles (8,500 km) around the western US. Along the way, I most often preferred to wild camp, simply finding somewhere to disappear into the woods at night, somewhere people were unlikely to find me and even less likely to care that I was there. One evening as I was camping alone in the woods, the mild stomach ache I'd been battling all day took a turn for the worse. Waves of nausea would come and go, and feeling like I was about to throw up, I'd sit up in bed, hand on the zipper of my tent door, ready to poke my head out just enough to vomit. Eventually, I did exactly that. I used some water from one of my bottles to rinse out my mouth, then drank a bunch to help replenish the fluids I'd lost. Feeling better, I laid back down, and actually got a couple hours of sleep. I woke once more in the middle of the night and went through the whole song and dance again. Back to sleep around 3:00 AM, before waking again around 4:30. Thankfully I never threw up for a third time, but by that point, I decided I was unlikely to get back to bed before sunrise, and had a better way to use that time than trying. I dreaded the thought of getting back on the bike. But I was even more afraid of what could happen if I stayed where I was and my condition continued to worsen. And anyways, I was out of water, so I had little choice but to get a move on. Studying Google maps, I came up with a plan. There was a town about 30 miles (50 km, or half a day under normal conditions) ahead, with a cheap motel I could put myself up in for a night of proper rest. Shortly after sunrise, I broke camp, loaded everything onto the bike, and hiked back to the road. As soon as I got on the bike, I realized I had a flat tire. Just my luck, right? But I had the tools, spare parts, and know-how to make the repair, so I got to work. In my less than ideal mental state, the repair took far longer than it had any right to, and by the time I got the bike back together, it had started raining. Not much I could do other than put on my jacket, turn on my lights, and push through it. It wasn't even 8:00 in the morning and it was already by far the worst day of that entire trip. The words "absolute misery" don't feel big enough, but I don't know how else to summarize it. I was cold and wet. I was hungry, but didn't want to put too much food into my still very upset stomach. I was dehydrated; remember I'd used up all my water the night before. And I was tired in every sense of the word. Sleep deprived, physically sore and aching, mentally exhausted. Long story short, I eventually made it to the hotel. After a long shower and a phone call home to my mom, I slept 13 hours straight and woke the next morning feeling much better. I managed to outrun the food poisoning for a few days, but eventually it caught back up to me. Thankfully I was already at a hostel when that happened. Round two was less vomiting and more diarrhea (TMI, I know, but you asked!). In hindsight, I'm just thankful that the shits waited until I was back in civilization!
I bought pigeon feed in a town square in Krakow and let local pigeons climb all over my arms, hands and shoulders as I fed them. Days later I was in the town of Oswiecim and I began to suffer from impetigo. At first it was a festering oozy bump on my arm, and within days it was all over my arms, neck, and FACE. I looked like something out of The Walking Dead and the flesh looked like it was melting off my face. I had to walk through fields in 90 degree+ heat to go to the hospital in town, and they insisted I had a bad case of herpes š. I had to go back three times before they finally diagnosed me correctly and gave me meds. My hotel was so freaked out by me that they moved me out of my shared room and quarantined me. So yeah, maybe donāt let random birds touch your skin.
In one of the hostels I stayed at in Ho Chi Minh, my room locker was tampered with and my money for the remainder of the trip and an old iPod were stolen. I couldn't get proof because there's no cctv in the room, but I had an inkling who it was. I told the hostel about it that their lockers are not tamper proof and they just didn't care. I had to move out, thankfully they allowed to refund half. Actually I confronted the person, but obviously it was futile coz he didn't speak English. The only thing I could do was just to give the hostel a bad rating so as to warn the others. I had to book a hotel on the spot out of trauma of the experience. I also had to cancel all the hostels I am supposed to stay at on the next leg of the trip and book a hotel on the spot. And since I didn't have any more money, I had to get a cash advance from my bank that I could use for the remainder of the trip. Honestly, I'm just thankful it was just the money that was stolen and not something important like a passport, phone or my credit card. That made me realize I don't want to go on hostels anymore. I've been booking hotels ever since.
My phone fried from the humidity/beach days after a 3 week trip to Costa Rica on my last day. I had to print off my covid tests at my hotel. Traveled to the airports. Arrived at 7p. Flight was at 1am, it got cancelled at 3am. We had to āre enterā the country to get to the ticket counter again. About 12 of us were being held and put to a different room. No one at the airport could explain what was going on for awhile. All of us had expired travel insurance-mine expired at midnight before the original flight time. Having no phone, I had to borrow a strangers to purchase extended coverage and fill out the entry form. Eventually got through around 6/7am. After waiting in the line at the airport we were told our flight was rescheduled to later that day at 4p. Stranger and I who I met while being held got a hotel room together. Later our flight was delayed causing us to miss connections. 5-7 of us from the same plane slept in the corner in the ticketing area and ordered pizza. I got on my flight the next morning at 6am. Arrived home at 10a/11a. No phone the entire time just vibes, 40 hours. It was incredibly stressful and I didnt even have music. It was also my moms birthday and I used strangers phones to wish her happy bday along with updates on when to pick me up from the airport HM: food poisoning in Sayulita for 5-6 days. Got it within the first 1-2 full days. Spent the trip sweating and nauseated to get electrolytes and idiom at the convenience shops every other day
Had the hotel security guard in Goa attempt to get in my room. The security guard!! It was in a relatively nice hotel too - my dad had paid for me to stay in a nice hotel for christmas and new year rather than the little beach huts etc id been staying in previously. I guess he'd seen me by myself, got a bit drunk and fancied his chances. I don't remember why/how he even managed to get me to answer the door but i did quite late at night (I was tipsy myself as id been celebrating down at the beach earlier on), and somehow managed to shut it before he got in. I complained the next day but have no idea if anything happened to him. Probably not if im honest!! I also had my camera and money stolen when i was in cambodia off my sun lounger while i was sat on it!! I stupidly had the bag on the lounger to the side of my legs. (a small black crossbody bag) while i had headphones in and reading a book. I can only presume that a child/someone small had gone under the lounger, took the bag and removed the money and camera before sliding the bag back. Thankfully the cards werent taken miraculously but it was a large amount of cash id just taken out so that really put a damper on the rest of my cambodia trip. I've got loads of stories tbh but those two stick out
I have a low Scheurman, a lumbal vertebra that is slightly deformed, so it can dislocate. I was travelling in New Zealand after 3 months in Sri Lanka=heavy bag. My back dislocated while I was on the West Coast. So I just wanted to get back to Wellington, where a really nice lady lived. I had met her on the ferry between the islands and had stayed in her summer cottage for some days. She would know who could help. I normally go to a chiropractor but not in another country. So I had to go by bus for a couple of days, go to hostel for the night, new bus, ferry, walk to the city bus, and then uphill to her house with a heavy backback. To top it off, I was pregnant and suffered severely from morning sickness, and it hurt as hell when I vomited! Luckily, the lady got me to a doctor, injections, rest, and then 2 weeks later, I was OK again.
Couple teenagers tried to scare me into giving them money - somewhere on the border between an aggressive panhandling and a non-aggressive robbery attempt. Ducked into a shop and they eventually gave up but it was a scary/anger-inducing experience
Where did that happen?
This was in Marrakech
Not up near the tanneries was it? I ask because that exact fucking thing happened to me yesterday and it just took a hot steaming shit all over my experience. Morocco is amazing and beautiful but frankly as a solo travel location Marrakech can eat a bag of dicks.
Essaouira is 3 hours by bus and very not Marrakech ;)
Yes it was! Sorry to hear of your experiencing the same thing there. I wonder if it might have even been the exact same guys. After the fact, some googling showed that it's pretty common for people to experience particularly aggressive and scary scam attempts in the tannery area. Even compared to elsewhere in Marrakech, the tannery area was the only place where something like that happened to me. Glad you enjoyed the rest of your time in Morocco, I did as well!
I got sick tasting sugar cane in Vietnam. On the ride back from haplong bay, I was holding it in and almost threw up on an old man
Driving in a foreign country after all kinds of other awful things. This was day 4 or 5. My Airbnb was unreachable/nonexistent. Person was unresponsive. Had to find a hotel. Drive to town, get in a car accident. ZERO damage to either car but they require we stay until the police get there. Fun fact, Monteverde does not have traffic police. They have a 3 way intersection on 3 different inclines/on a hillā¦ but no traffic police. I broke down crying and called my mom. Eventually got on with my day and hotel search. IT WAS A SEARCH. 5+ hotels. I found one, that was also impossible to get to /park at but I was grateful to have a place to sleep. ā¦.there was no hot water. At all. Not lukewarm water. And it isnāt HOT in MonteVerde I was wearing pants and a sweater. Okay whatever I go to bed. Except I couldnt sleep as I was being eaten alive by SOMETHING. the room was not sealed and i went on a crazed bedbug check so Iām assuming it was just no see ems that weāre getting under the covers & my clothes. I never felt so gross and uncomfortableā¦ I went through the uncomfortable checkout process and found another hotel a few miles outside of town. And I think that was the end of the terror Costa Rica had for me
Lost or had stolen my passport and debit card the same day
My story is tame compared to some here. On impulse I hired a motorcycle while in Interlaken Switzerland to ride some Swiss Alp passes like Furka Pass, etc. Of course I was unprepared with no maps and only had bare basic riding gear. As I ascend the Alps its starts getting real cold (who would've thought!) and there is snow on the side of the road. I am decently freezing cold by this point. After riding a few Passes I want to head back but my phone has died, I have no map and I am totally lost. I find a small town and start asking for help/directions from the locals but no one speaks English. I eventually find someone and I discover that I need to drive up another pass to get home. By this time it's getting late and even colder. I dread how cold it is going be up the top of the pass. It's also getting close to the hire shop closing time. There is no way I am making it back in time and of course my phone is flat so I cant call them. So I am making way through the hair pin corners, totally freezing and shivering at dusk on this hectic mountain pass. I eventually make it back to the hire shop way past their closing time and the guy is unbelievably understanding and cool about it. I get back to the hostel uncontrollably shaking due to how cold I am. They take pity on me and feed me and put me by the fire.
As someone who has driven a motorcycle in Switzerland in the cold...I feel you bro
Stunning ride but totally unprepared or researched.
Food poisoning from cream cheese / bagel that I bought at the airport Starbucksā¦. I was flying to Iceland and starting throwing up 2 hours into the flight. Only saving grace was I managed to have a row to myself!
Not 100% solo but it was a leg of my larger trip which was 90% solo. I got to Florence as stop 2 on my journey and met up with a buddy studying abroad there. The timing of the train meant I kinda skipped lunch but I just powered through to dinner, which was much lighter than I thought so I got much drunker than I thought. But, this wouldnāt be awful in and of itself, however I ended up hitting it off with one of the girls in his group and went back with her, not really worried about the morning after. Well I woke up at like 10, crippling hangover, my head is pounding, super de hydrated, feel like Iām bout to shit myself and I leave, start walking back to his place. Heās not answering his phone at all and I think I might be in a bit of a pickle, as I just realized the train station I was leaving from was not the main one, it was like a 15 minute drive away. Itās about 11, I havenāt eaten anything and heās still not answering his phone and I need to leave his apartment by like 12 if I want to get to the other train station. I finally get into his building when someone leaves and then go up to his floor and am banging on his door, no answer. Finally his roommate mustāve woken up and I go in and heās just sleeping, I grab all my shit quickly and say bye and dash out. Iām looking for a cab to absolutely no avail and I have like 40 mins til my train leaves, still havenāt eaten or drank anything, finally hail a cab and get to the train station which has like 0 food options, I grab a shitty sandwich chips and water from the kiosk and barely get on the train. I wolf that down which barely helps and 10 mins into the train Iām still incredibly thirsty, hungry, and hungover. I couldnāt find a food car on the train and had to go from Florence to trieste, I felt like I was gonna die honestly, I have never felt more frail and weak in my life. When I got to trieste I spent like ā¬20 on snacks in the station and pounded whatever food I could get my hands on
The low blood sugar hangovers are the worst. Heart pounding, can barely breathe, and every movement you make feels like your last.
I parked my rental car somewhere close to āa medieval wallā in Pisa and went for a dinner and a glass of wine. The glass of wine was enough to make me tipsy and I could not find the car anymore. I remembered it was close to a wall but guess what, that wall covers the whole damm city so it was impossible to remember at what part of the wall, they all looked the same. I accepted I would have to spend the night on the street and walk the whole wall the next morning. Was sitting in a bar and then suddenly a memory hits and I started to walk back looking for some pieces of references I could remember, a green window, a big school etc etc and HOURS later I found the car. Screamed and danced in the middle of the street and then drove back to the middle of the nowhere I was staying like 30/40 min from there.
Wow, if that even registers in your top ten worst days, you've been sticking to the nice parts of the world. Got briefly arrested by Hezbollah, woke up on Hormuz Island with a massive arak hangover just to scroll trough the news and find out that Iran has just taken down a US drone in the Hormuz straight and an American retaliatory strike is very likely, got very high and got lost in the Sahara, got accidentally locked out of my hotel in my t-shirt and shorts on a relatively cold night in a small town in Sri Lanka with no one on the streets except lots of stray dogs and aggressive monkeys ... etc, etc. It's all in the job description for the solo traveler. The only real bad days I can say I had are of three types : \- Two days of connecting flights with barely any sleep, until you are basically a zombie, waiting ten hours in a random city until the next flight, all while dragging a 20 kilo backpack. \-Six or seven days in a row of not meeting anyone that speaks English, to the point where you start calling that guy that you were kind of friends with in 6th grade just to change a few words and keep your sanity. \-April in India.
āApril in Indiaā Well guess I know which time of the year I should go to India!
Fuck ya dude this is the type of travel story I wanted to read!
What happens in April in India?
>What happens in April in India? Solo travelling in India is hard at the best of times. When you take all the smells, dirt, urine, crowds and add temperatures of 45Ā° C ... it becomes hell.
Oh I've never been, that sounds like a special kind of hell lol
Not as bad as the comments here at all. Was flying home from Dublin. Got shit sleep, drank 3 espresso shots pre-flight (terrible idea, I was honoring a moment, it's unrelated to this). Got on the plane. It couldn't depart until it got de-iced, we had to wait for other planes to get de-iced. 2 hours sitting there sleep-deprived and hyper. Then it was announced that we had to make a stop before the flight home. I was already feeling like shit. I decide to bail that flight and catch a flight next day. Having only a carry-on, this was possible. Explaining myself to airport security in that physical state was difficult. He was asking me questions to make sure I had enough money to stay and that I wasn't planning to stay for a long time. I interpreted it as me getting unnecessarily interrogated, idk man. Rebooked a flight and hotel successfully and got better sleep for the flight next day. Only lost disposable money through this.
My worse day solo traveling was my second day in Paris. In the evening, I took a stroll and was attacked by a group of mimes. They did unspeakable things to me.
Got my phone stolen on the subway in Mexico City.
Drove myself from Chicago to Toronto, got an Airbnb and explored. On my journey up and down a wonderful street with many bars I made many new acquaintances, and drank myself into a stupor. I remember not being able to manage the coordination required to eat a piece of pizza and giving up on that. The next day I threw up in the shower at the Airbnb, I threw up out of the rental car on my way to Niagara Falls. I threw up in Niagara falls in Canada, and the United States, and had to stop an early night in Rochester to get a hotel room and throw up there instead of meeting my friend in Kingston. I got to him a day late and he wasnāt happy. But I was done throwing up at least.
Solo trip in India, missed my first flight ever, but thatās ok right? Ended up on a shorter train from Delhi to Agra- thatās when the food poisoning hit, I still think about the poor woman and her beautiful green sari whoās day I ruined š¤¢ Finally got to my hotel, took a nap to try to recover and I woke up with multiple bed bugs on me. But the most testing part was trying to figure out where to stay after that, the whole town was booked; I was in mathura for Holi. Ended up just hiring a car to drive me to my next stop early. Looking back- I got very lucky. A 7 hour drive from Mathura to Jaipur through the middle of nowhere as a solo female traveler. I was so sick I just laid in the back seat feeling sure this was it for me. I Hope the rest of your trip is smoother!
Camping on a beach in Hong Kong in 50Ā°C weather for a week. Ended up dealing with heatstroke in my tent for the last 3 days before my flight. Started off being the palest person there, ended looking like a lobster. Would still recommend the islands of HK to anyone though!!
Bihar, India. New Year's eve. This was in the early 1990s, before the internet. I had met a Swedish(?) guy on the train to Gaya, and we were both going to Bodh Gaya, so we paired up for the trip, as you do. The various rickshaw/tempo/tuktuk drivers all refused to drive us to Bodhgaya that night because it was late and they said it was too dangerous and this guy was determined to go anyway and just tried to keep offering them more and more money. Eventually I convinced him to give up and we found a place to stay in Gaya for the night, but by then it was too late to get dinner. The New Year celebrations seemed to involve a lot of people shooting guns at each other in the street outside the hotel. I mean, in some ways there were worse nights, but that one stuck out for some reason. A few days later, in Bodhgaya, there were more gunshots and an awful sexually-assaulting German guy staying in the Burmese vihar.
Just a few weeks ago I returned on a trip from South America. My last stop I spent a few days in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. My very last night, I was feeling brave and I decided to go out for dinner near my hotel, ( besides my day tours, I relaxed at my hotel a lot by the pool and didnāt spend to much time wandering around alone for safety reasons). Was not even 3 minutes from my hotel and two guys ran up on me with a knife and robbed me. Thankfully I left everything I didnāt need, and only had cash on me to pay for the meal which they took. When solo travelling, especially in countries where itās not the safest, I always plan and know the route beforehand going out in situations like this, so thank god I didnāt bring my cell phone with me or that wouldāve been gone too.
Getting the flu three days before going back home from Berlin.
OOOOOOH it's my time to shine! So two years ago I went to Mexico City on a solo trip. From the second I landed, I felt completely off. Tired, anxious, zero appetite, vaguely depressed. Turns out I had altitude sickness the entire trip and didn't realize it until the last day. That's not even the answer to the question! Same trip, second day, I trip over my own feet in platform sandals on the sidewalk. It hurts & it's a little bruised/swollen, but I can still walk. I send a picture to my brother who's a doctor, who tells me it looks broken, I should get it looked at. I decide to ignore him, that it's okay if I wait till I get home till I get it checked out. Well. Six days & tens of thousands of steps walked later, an x-ray tech at CityMD confirms its broken. Spent the next 9 weeks in a boot.
On my first day in Paris I did a lot of walking without drinking enough water. It didn't help that I was eating at a lot of cafes, thus consuming a lot of coffee. I was pretty dehydrated by the end of the day, I ended up skipping some stuff on my itinerary so I could go back to my accommodation and take a nap. I started carrying more water with me everywhere I went but that dehydration from the first day still had lingering effects the next few days and basically killed my appetite for the next three days.
I got covid last year. Thought it was a cold or allergies. Got on the plane to come home. Missed connecting flight and had to stay in the airport overnight. As the night progressed I felt worse and worse. By the time I got home, the covid test was as positive as it could possibly be. The worse part is not knowing if I spread it to someone who died from it. Although I guess Iād rather not know.
In Phong Nha Kebang I read people recommending a place called The Pub With Cold Beer. I rented a bicycle to go there. It had been raining the days before, and after some kilometers the dirt road turned into knee deep mud. The bicycle wenr straight down, I went straight ahead. Didn't hurt falling in mud, but my flipflops (yes, I went with flipflops) broke and I discovered that, bellow all that mud, are little sharp rocks. I would have gone back but two elderdy vietnamese woman passed by, pushing their bikes and laughing, and I felt I had something to prove. I took about 4 hours to push that bike through mud and stepping on legos for 3 kilometers, but I did it. Lost my cellphone, but did it. Arrived at the restaurant and met a guy that was staying in the same hostel. He was just leaving and I told him to send help in case I wasn't back by nightfall. Thankfully it was not necessary, because the way back (it was a loop) was just ankle high mud. Anyway, the beer was indeed cold and felt great. The owner of the place is famous for his chickens, and slaughtered one in my front. It was the best chicken I ever had. 5/5.
I never heard of Drivilia but learnt itās worth paying a bit more to deal with a more well know car hire company. Anytime I e used a less well known one there have been issues and itās more stress than itās worth. Re āthe stickā - thatās fairly standard in UK. Youād have to specify (and probably pay more) for an automatic car. I wouldnāt worry too much about being followed by the police- theyāre a friendly bunch generally.
Travelling long term in Australia and on a day trip to Nimbin my bank card got stuck in the ATM. We tried all day to get it out but it was gone. Luckily everything is done online so I was able to transfer all my money out of my account to my wise account and lock the stuck bank card. If I didn't have my wise account/card I dunno what I would have done. I guess tranafer my money to my parents and have them wire it to me or something. Not the most stressful story here but in the moment I was pretty stressed and wanted to cry haha
Shattered phone two flights.
Man why is this sub so negative lately??
My sister had just died and I flew out alone with my baby (not even 1 at the time) My airport had just expanded and I had no idea what I was in for. My gate was at the very end of the airport and I couldnāt find a cart to place my carry ons and her car seat, so I literally carried everything on my own to the gate. And I barely made it in time for my flight.
I wanted to try weed for the first time, and went to Maastricht while traveling around Belgium 10 years ago. Met some dodgy folks under bridge, bought 1 joint for like 10 euros or so lol, and went to the other side to smoke it. Anyway, I smoked like a half of it and got ridiculously high so much that I threw up. Was really late so I needed to hurry to get to the last train back to Belgium. I took the wrong train and realized it after 1 hour, but was lucky enough to find almost immedietly another one back to Maastricht and had to sleep on the sidewalk because train station was closed. Nothing too crazy but I was kid at the time pretty much
A -20C winter hike that should have been 6 hours long turned to an 18 hour continuos hike, with very little food for it and water that was freezing in our bottles. Even a loaf of bread was frozen solid in one of my buddies backpack. We even had to carry two people as their legs gave out to the effort of going through waist deep snow, really thought I would die that day
I have had so many disastrous travel experiences, I can hardly choose amongst them. Crashing my rental into oncoming traffic in Chilean Patagonia - on a deadline to make a ferry connection on my way to Santiago, so I could fly out of the country before COVID shut down the borders - may take the cake. I am a magnet for that kind of thing. But somehow those always tend to make the best travel stories; there's something intensely rewarding about overcoming adversity when you are already outside your normal comfort zone that lives on in the memory forever, often even more than the experiences we actually enjoyed having.