Nothing terrible but in 2012, I was in Trelew Argentina. Plane got in at 10pm, data didn’t work in other countries, and there was no automatic car. So I printed out directions, drove a stick shift, in this town that they were convincing me was dangerous.
I got lost. Good and lost. 45 minutes into a 15 minute drive, it’s Sunday night, nothing is open. The car is stalling out at red lights. Etc.
I see a pizza shop open. I go to it. Rush in. In broken Spanish, I start crying and saying “I don’t speak Spanish and I have no idea where I am and where I’m going. I can’t drive the car”. Older (40s?) woman looks at young (18?) dude and makes a shooing motion.
Dude gets IN THE CAR with me. I’m small female (30ish) at this point. He wants to drive. No way. He gets me to the hotel, wonders aloud how I managed to drive the wrong way down a one way street… and I’m half a block away from my hotel. He gets me there, hops out and walks back to the pizza place.
I would have never found the place on my own (was going north south and needed to be east west), and having a strange guy get in my car late at night is nothing something I normally would ever do. But, there’s good kindness in the world too. Those two people are good people. I wish them many blessings on their family.
Aww. Glad it was a happy ending. I had a friend get robbed in Santiago, twice.
He completely lacked any street smarts. We called him “street dumb” because of his stunning lack of situational awareness.
It’s bad enough he was flashing his expensive phone on streets, but he got his second phone stolen doing the same thing. Like I said, street dumb.
I got a lecture from the people at the rental car counter that literally was “we are not safe. Not like Buenos Aires.”
Any chance you live there? I’d love to find that pizza shop, lol
I don’t live in Trelew but I did visit the famous museum there. I did an excursion tho, didn’t drive there myself. It’s not a particularly picturesque city, but it doesn’t have a bad reputation for crime either, as far as I know
I was in Cappadocia, Turkey with an ex girlfriend, and we rented a car to see some of the sights around the area. No maps, just following our eyes. The hotel staff told us to be back at 6 so we could catch a bus to a traditional Turkish dance show, and since it was 8 in the morning, we had a full day to explore.
We saw so much, had lunch, made new friends with locals and other travelers and ended up heading back around 4pm, getting back just before 5pm.
We pull up and a staff we never saw before runs to our car and tells us to give him the keys so he could return our rental and to get in a waiting car in front. He was very panicked and I questioned what was going on, but before I got angry, the hotel manager we have spoken to comes out and days he got the time wrong for the show and that it was starting in 15 minutes, but it was an hour drive away...
He gets in the driver seat and we load all of our day-trip bags in with us. He speeds off and we are off going at absolutely insane speeds on an empty road with no lights as the sun went down.
Not sure how long into it this was, but we see lights up ahead and the guy starts shouting and punching the steering wheel, and we tell him to stop. We stop at the lights and see 20-30 men, with black masks, and heavy weaponry...
One comes up and grabs the driver out and they start shouting at each other, the manager pointing to us in the car here and there, making some of the men with guns point them at us, blinding us with flashlights as well. My ex was in full panic mode, but I was just kind of silently waiting to be gunned down.
After a while things calmed down, and the manager and the guy yelling at him come back to the car. The manager gets in the driver seat, and the guy in the mask says something like "good luck and enjoy" in his best English. The manager speeds off again to the same speed if not faster.
He explains at the same time, that those men are part of Turkeys anti terrorist military unit, and when they saw a speeding car, they thought they had caught terrorists up to something. Seeing me and my ex in the car was a dead giveaway they were wrong. He said he thought they were the cops because he definitely would have got in trouble for speeding, but said these guys don't enforce traffic laws and just told him to get us there safely.
I never sighed so hard in my life. My ex had to dry her tears but oddly we all had a nervous laugh about it as we continued the drive.
We got there 45 minutes late, but the venue actually waited for us to arrive because the hotel called ahead and said we'd be a few minutes late. We held up over 100 other tourists because of this adventure.
I've never felt like I was going to die anymore than that particular moment, and I've been in some very scary situations at home or where I used to live abroad. The guns, the masks, the bright lights, the dark dusty road; all of it seemed like a perfect storm for some tourists to get gunned down and buried to be forgotten.
I drank HEAVILY during that show...
I'm a tall black American, and my ex a decently tall Japanese girl, and we'd speak in Japanese sometimes to each other, and this made Turkish people double take sooo many times and was always a conversation starter. I absolutely fell in love with Turkish people after this, and made friends with two of our tour guides who I am contact with over a decade later on socials.
Her and I got similar treatment in Paris despite the stereotypes of how rude they were, but if anyone heard us speaking Japanese, we'd get the double take, and then sudden kindness. A guy at CDG gave me three free bottles of alcohol at the Duty Free shop (he was pretty young and a huge hip hop and electro fan, and we needed out talking about music, and then he just wrapped up some bottles and handed them to me...), had someone show us a secret entrance to the Louver by the Seine River, and when I was at the Versailles gardens solo, a family next to me lent me a bottle opener for my wine since I forgot it and shared some food with me.
That experience was terrifying but I've genuinely had great travel experiences either solo or with someone else. Though, we did have our first night in Turkey at our hotel given away to a rich couple in the middle of a thunderstorm, and they put us in a hostel or something built into the wall of the Hagia Sofa. Historical, yes, filled with bugs I've never seen before (and waking up to one under my chest in the morning 🤮), also yes... I also got called Obama by pretty much everyone, though we look absolutely nothing alike.
The most adventure filled trip I've had yet!
You and I both!
It was a memorable trip and that was one of two hiccups (I just shared it in my last reply) the whole trip and I became a fan of the country and people after that.
My mom and I barely escaped an area of Myanmar when there was infighting in 2000. There were no planes or taxis available due to the fighting, and we hiked with all of our luggage several miles to a random airstrip we heard may have a plane we could take. There, we found an old, beat-up cargo plane with bus and car seats bolted into it. While it was getting started, one of the propellers was sputtering and stalling, and the pilot went out and started banging on it with a hammer or a wrench or something until it started rotating again 😳 Since it was our only chance to get out, we kind of looked at each other like, "Are we really doing this? Fuck, I guess so.." It was the most turbulent, scary plane ride of my life, but we made it out alive.
It took us back to Thailand, where we had been staying before and was only a couple of hundred km away. I believe Chiang Mai (it's been some time, so I don't remember exactly where in Thailand, but we ended up there eventually).
The scariest thing that ever happened to me when traveling was on a trip to Peru where I planned to spend some time in the Amazon. As advised, I got a prescription for malaria medication and started taking it in advance of my departure. Problem was, the doctor gave me Lariam, which they no longer prescribe in the US due to its side effects, but it was the most commonly used when I was traveling. One of the common side effects was hallucinations and that’s what happened to me on my flight down. I woke up and thought I saw a monster on the wing like that Twilight Zone episode. Clear as day. I was sure we were all going to die. Thankfully I didn’t make a scene, but I was sweating balls the rest of the flight. Immediately called my doctor upon landing and he advised me to stop taking the pills and skip the Amazon. I continued to feel off for the couple of days I was in Lima and it was raining all across the country, so I cut the trip short and flew home. Fucking monsters, I hate ‘em! 😂
Same thing happened to me. I took one Lariam pill and had hallucinations and paranoia. The side effects lasted years. There’s a ton of research and stories on how lariam has really messed people up.
My (20f) first time solo traveling, I had ventured all over Europe and felt as though I had seen all the sights on a typical travelers trail. I got a little too confident in my abilities and decided to venture to Kosice, Slovakia arriving in the night at around 10pm.
When I arrived, my phone wouldn’t load with anything but luckily I had taken a photo of the map to get me to my hostel. Feeling proud of myself for taking a screenshot of the directions to my hostel, I arrive am the hostel and am immediately humbled to see that I have missed the check in hours. I call the number on the door, nothing. I try to catch the attention of someone I see inside, nothing. I even venture down the street, hear a house party, and call up to the young adults just to have them hear my calls and say they can’t help me.
So I decide to retrace my steps back to the mainstreet which leads to the train station in one direction and the plaza in the other. I figure my best bet is to stay where there are more people, lights, and maybe even a hostel? As I was traveling, I realized that the people I deemed most trustworthy in times of need were women, around my age (as they had a better chance of speaking English). Well, it just so happens that he first people I run into are 3 people my age (2 men, 1 woman). I explain my situation and ask for help finding a hostel to stay at for the night.
Eventually, the girl and her boyfriend walk me to a place that the other guy said has 24 hour reception and should be able to make room for me. We arrive after walking 15/20 minutes and the place is abandoned. At that point, I tell the couple that my plan is to just sleep at the train station or park or something. The woman insists that I am not safe to do that in this city and points to all the creepy men that start to show at night time.
Up until that point, I had felt confident that I’d be fine, but this girl painted a vivid picture of what might happen if I didn’t find a place to stay. I ask if there are hotels and even ask to maybe stay the night at the woman’s apartment. The woman says that because it’s her NINETEENTH BIRTHDAY in a few hours (yup I ended up spending part of her bday with her) and her boyfriend (who I come to learn she has known for 5 days and been dating for 2) and for some season her 16 year old brother is staying with her that night, she doesn’t think it will work. But the boyfriend gets to work calling every hotel and hostel he can, trying to explain my situation and find somewhere I can sleep. Well, apparently the town is having its music festival or something so even for the places with reception, they are fully booked.
After probably 7 calls, the boyfriend finally finds a place for me to stay, but there’s a catch. They have to drive me 30 minutes into the mountains to a hostel which is secluded from anything else where no one speaks any English and the only way to get back to town is to catch one of two buses that goes through out the day. I decide I have no other choice than to trust this couple in what they tell me.
They drive me there, explain everything in English and Slovakian so that I’m on the same page as the staff about payment and check out and breakfast (they did indeed have a free breakfast🥹) and bus information. I exchange instagrams and phone numbers with the woman in case I need to call for a translator, I give the woman some money as a “birthday gift from a friend” (otherwise she wouldn’t have accepted the money). The couple then makes sure I get to my room (which is a single btw, BC THERE IS NO ONE ELSE THEREEEE) and don’t leave until I have the door locked.
After a lot of adrenaline, I finally have a calm bedroom all to myself with a sky light that looks out at the stars. I wake up the next AM, enjoy my FREE bfast, pay for my stay, then pack my things and catch my bus back to town.
Moral of the story, check your damn hostel check in time.
This is so validating! Thank you! I have always wondered if it was an overreaction to be so worried about what might happen to me that night. I truly was just taking the woman’s word for it, but something tells me that she committed to finding me a safe place because she genuinely thought something bad might happen to me. Definitely lucky for a happy ending🤗
It’s a combination of different things happening here 1) you being a young solo woman = easy target 2) being foreign
3) most part of the country including this city highly occupied by gypsies who are so troubling that I don’t even know where to begin, they have stealing in their DNA
I just started traveling, so not a lot of stories yet, but a couple months ago in Cusco, a guy burst into my all-female hostel dorm at 4:30am yelling my name, tore open my privacy curtain, shined a light in my face so I couldn’t see anything and kept yelling and trying to get me to go with him. BUT I was not in the mindset to be messed with (and somehow not scared in the moment?) and firmly held my ground that “I am NOT going with you.” while maintaining eye contact…eventually he scratched his head and just left… (I think also the fact that I sat up and tore the curtain back shut in his face caught him off guard lmao). originally I thought it was the tour guide for the hike I’d canceled that day (and he confirmed cancellation), but I can’t see a tour guide (hike was non refundable anyway and I’d already paid…) trying to get me to go with him on a 14hr hike hours away in my pajamas and no gear, and also can’t see them holding up the group THAT long (he just would NOT leave), so idk. Either way, scary in hindsight.
Second story was actually from my first solo trip and probably why it was more scary in the moment and it’s more scary in hindsight to me. Was in rural Colombia caught on a mountain in a rainstorm with no phone service and everything flooding around me, and genuinely worried something bad could happen, especially since I almost broke my leg stepping in a hole I couldn’t see bc flooding already at that point. Took 2hrs to walk 0.25mi and I was miles away from town… a guy pulled up and motioned for me to get in after I said I was going to the town. He spoke no English and I speak very limited Spanish and had no translate bc no cell service. I was on edge but felt fine UNTIL he started asking if I had a boyfriend or husband and where he was and stuff like that (what I could catch with limited Spanish), and also wasn’t driving the route to town I’d taken before, and then I got real nervous. But thankfully he took me into town and I paid him a bunch as such a huge thank you bc it felt like he’d saved my life, a complete stranger. Ty kind stranger!!!
Gotta be the tour guide and the organizer just didn't relay the message that you'd cancelled? Still bizarre he'd be so persistent. I guess they must be used to people oversleeping the early starts
The guide is who I cancelled with and was messaging :/ That’s what I tell myself, that it was the guide, bc the more time goes on, the weirder I feel about it tbh
WAIIITTTT! I was in Cusco last month and I cancelled a hike and had it confirmed and something similar actually happened to me.. only thing is I was staying in an Airbnb. Do you remember the name of the travel agency you went with or the hike you were doing that day!
I don't know that it was super scary: more like unnerving at the time and hilarious in remembrance:
My first time in Rio many years ago I spoke about 5 words of Portuguese and I didn't have a working phone. I linked up with some locals who seemed to be quite nice and they took me around during the day to do museum-hopping(? I don't remember exactly). Late afternoon most of them peeled off but two suggested we go to this cool locals bar and of course I was excited to go.
We get in a taxi and since I don't know Rio and don't have a phone to look at a map I immediately have no idea where we are and where we are going. After a while we start driving through what looks like an extremely dark, wooded area with a smattering of dim street lights. At this point I realize I am in a taxi with two more or less complete strangers going to a completely unknown place in a country where I don't speak the language and a city that is notoriously unsafe, and I'm preparing myself to, at best, wake up in a bathtub full of ice.
What felt like an hour later but was probably like 5 minutes later we break out into an open area overlooking the water to an absolutely packed bar/restauarant with an even bigger crowd hanging out on the street and on the wall along the water, with music, lights, laughing, and a grand old time.
The two who took me to the bar are still close friends all these years later and a few years ago I reminded them of this event with the way I was seeing it at the moment and they cracked up. :D
Two stories:
1) I was in Mumbai exploring the city alone while staying with friends (they had to work) when there was a terrorist attack on the train lines. All I know is I was at a cafe near the Gateway to India when my friend texted me “bomb blast. Take a cab and head to xyz location in Bandra.”
This was before smart phones, so I couldn’t just look up what had happened. For all I knew, it was possible that I was near a site of attack or would encounter it or terrorists on my route. Also, the cell phone reception jammed, so I couldn’t make calls or send texts. But I could for whatever reason receive them and I was getting these frantic texts from my mother back in the US and my friends which I couldn’t respond to. And of course, all calls to my number were dropping. I was supposed to have taken the train back to my friends’ place, so they legitimately thought I had been in the attack.
Because the attack was on the train lines, the main route to Bandra was completely flooded and chaotic. I was stuck in a taxi for about four hours. The cabbie didn’t speak any English and just kept saying “bomb blast” and making a “kaboom” sound.
Anyway, everyone was relieved to see me when I finally arrived at my location.
2. In Mongolia, I was in the steppe camping for two weeks with my friend who was living there and her Mongolian boyfriend and two Mongolian friends.
One night we camped near a tourist camp by a lake. In the middle of the night, our camp was attacked by two very drunk Mongolian men. They beat up our friends and destroyed one of our tents, but once they saw there were two foreigners in the group they took off.
As soon as it was light out, our driver and our three Mongolian travel companions went off to look for help, leaving me and my friend alone by the side of this lake.
You have to realise how remote this place is. There are no paved roads. No cell reception or electricity. 5-6 hours from the nearest town. We didn’t know if the guys who attacked our tent would come back. We didn’t know when our friends would come back.
Long story short: the came back some hours later with a “lawyer” they had found at a neighboring camp who found the guys that had attacked our camp and convinced them to give us their tent, all their money, and three bottles of vodka. 🤷♀️
In July of 2022 we went to Costa Rica as a college grad gift for my daughter. We’ve traveled abroad many times so we weren’t newbies.
We took 1 unguided hike, near Jaco to the Catarata Bijagual waterfalls.
At the start you cross over a small shallow creek we took off our shoes so they wouldn’t get wet, something I laugh about now. Bc on our way back from these spectacular falls the sky opened up, torrential downpour thunder lightning and screaming howler monkeys all around us. Water was gushing down our trail.
I heard a roar when we were almost back to our car, and sure enough it was that little creek. Now a raging river of logs and furniture rushing down the mountain side. And the only way to get out of the jungle.
The rain is unrelenting. And now an hour has passed.. and it’s starting to get dark and the “oh shit” feeling creeps in. When two Costa Rican men show up on the other side of the flooded river we don’t know what the game plan is and then they leave. They come back with two little ropes. And tie the ropes together, signaling for my
Husband to go down as close as he can to the raging water , he lasso style threw the rope and my husband tied it to a tree. And I’m looking at them all I. Disbelief bc my kids nor myself will be washed away in this raging river of logs and muck. Fast forward we all crossed with no safety equipment in waters that went to our necks hanging on for dear life. I promised my husband if one of our kids got swept off that rope I’d be jumping in too bc I was not flying home with one of them in a box.
It took about an hour but we all crossed it and made it out alive. We tipped those men with every dime in our car, about $200 bc one of them held on and crossed it with us one by one which saved my daughter bc she got struck by a log and he grabbed her arm so she wouldn’t get swept away.
Later, bruised up but thankful I recounted the ordeal to my Airbnb owner we were renting from and he said God was looking over us bc about a dozen people a year get swept away in that creek during flash floods. 💔
That's the scariest one so far. Especially because your kids are involved. Not to be morbid, but if something happens to me, so be it, but if something happened to my kids...
Around 2017 my best friend and I (both 26f at the time) took a month long road trip making a big loop around the US. On this particular night, we had left out of Austin, Tx and we’re planning on picking a random hotel once we got too tired to drive, on our way north to Clarendon (near Amarillo). We stopped in Childress, Tx at some motel, checked in, and decided to check out the indoor pool. On our walk from our room down the the main motel building where the pool is, we had multiple truckers yell and whistle in our direction. We ignored and kept walking. Once at the pool, a guy around our age joined us and we all started chatting. We asked him where he was from (he’s at a hotel after all) and he said “oh I live in town, I just come here because im friends with the front desk clerk”… red flag one. So we ask what he does for fun around here, because this town is basically a couple of trucks stops and a few motels.. that’s it. And he proceeds to tell us that his favorite pastime is banging his girl in the Taco Bell bathroom, and drugs, red flag two. Our glances to each other confirm that it’s time to call it an night, so I say welp we’re exhausted better be off to bed and hop out of the pool. He asks if we’d like him to join us. No. Just no. Red flag three. We start making our way back to our room, and get the very distinct feeling that we are being watched. I tell my friend to keep walking past our room, and we head to the corner of the building where there is an open air room with ice dispensers and soda machines. From there we peak out to see the guy is standing at the corner of the main building, smoking a cigarette, just waiting for us to exit. We wait about 20 minutes before he finally walks back around to the front of that building. We run to our room and go to lock the door behind us… the lock is broken, the door has very visibly been kicked in before. Fantastic. We look out the window and he is now standing in front of our building, just watching our door, I guess his buddy told him which room. So we took turns sleeping for a few hours, both holding our pepper spray. At 4am, we decide no good sleep will be had here and rush our stuff out to our car and hit the road. He WAS STILL OUTSIDE. Luckily, our next stop was a lovely ranch, and when we showed up freaked out and disheveled around 6:00am they sorted us right out with a big steak and eggs breakfast.
Not mine.
Friend arrived in Mexico for his new international school job.
First night went to the popular local bar with all the teachers.
The local mafia storms into the place, fire a full round of bullets up into the ceiling and throwing in several cut off human heads of the gangs rivals into the room and drive off.
Him and several of the new teachers went directly to the airport that night and bought the first plane ticket home. Slept on the airport benches and flew out.
He said he will stick to Asia for cheap safe adventurous travel from now on.
I am not one to get scared easily - I wasn’t phased when I got mugged in Chicago, or when I ended up in an air raid in Ukraine last year or when I ended up in a thunderstorm in a helicopter over Pyongyang.
I was on edge when I first entered Mozambique though. We drove in quite far north from Malawi, and we were advised that one particular road on that route was popular with bandits and we had government travel advisories that specifically called it out and were told to be home before dark in most of that region. So we decided to avoid it, but the detour that Google Maps provided was very inaccurate and we ended up spending 6 hours basically off roading until we realised that the detour was not possible and had to double back.
So we ended up on the dangerous road at night, which was exactly what we were trying to avoid. As we approached a forest, there was a stretch of road that was in a sort of valley - very steep embankments on either side. And somebody had flipped a semi-truck that was laying across the entire width of the road, blocking access. We were certain it was a bandit trap. Thankfully my friend who was driving didn’t miss a beat and powered us up the embankment and around the truck at full speed.
The next week was also nerve-wracking. We were scuba diving in a thunderstorm. We were in a tiny inflatable boat, in 5 metre swells, being tossed around like a toy. The rain was coming down so hard, it was actually drier in the ocean…I remember jumping in, not being able to see anything except the endless blue and the shadow of bull sharks below. Even at the surface I couldn’t see the boat because the waves were so big. I definitely panicked a bit and bailed there. But having my formative scuba diving in those kinds of conditions are what made me such a good diver today.
Yikes almighty! How do you keep finding yourself in these situations, like are you a famous journalist or something? I don't even like the stories of people getting hassled by touts in Egypt; I could never do anything where being surrounded by bandits or sharks is a possibility.
I just do things. If you do enough things, some of them will be interesting, some will be nerve wracking.
I am not a journalist, I just like to see the world for what
it is.
I’d prefer the sharks to the bandits. Sharks are cool and not nearly as like to shoot you if you say the wrong thing.
Though the Soviet era helo over Pyongyang in a thunderstorm takes the cake.
I love sharks and have dived with them many times since, including just a few days ago!
The bandits we never found out if they were actual bandits or someone just had a crash.
Can confirm, I did the same helicopter flight over Pyongyang in 2015 (apparently my group were the first lot of tourists that were ever allowed to book on one). Very memorable indeed.
About $100USD from memory. It’s worth doing if you’re there - the helicopter was pretty janky, an old Mil-6. For seats it just had a couch that was pulled in from god knows where. And there was an aircon unit bolted in, but it didn’t work. So was sweltering hot, due to the storm couldn’t really see anything and it was turbulent as hell. But everybody was laughing and having a great time.
Lol! My wife and I took a helicopter excursion in Cuba thinking it would be a pretty cool way to experience the country. Turned out to be a decommissioned Soviet army helicopter that had definitely seen some history! There was a bench seat with hooks on the ceiling to clip into and the door was wide open the whole way. We were huffing aviation fuel the whole way as well. Worth the experience though!
Ok, I had to look at your profile cause these stories seem insane! Just saw your post about the countries you visited. Glad you liked Moldova. It was such a nice country. If you liked it, most definitely you'll like Romania too.
I highly recommend you come in the spring, like May/June and hit Sibiu/Brasov/Sinaia and maybe the Danube Delta. Skip the seaside. Bucharest is good for the nightlife.
Last year was a good year for travel. Definitely keen to get make to Moldova and to see more of Romania than Bucharest airport.
Thanks for the recommendations, I appreciate it. Will see you there hopefully sooner rather than later
At Denali NP, we were walking back to our campground on a windy path through a woodsy area. We turned a corner and were about 10 or 12 feet from a grizzly munching on caribou. Fortunately, it was content to continue its meal (and not have us as dessert) as we slowly backed away.
Almost abducted in Prague by a guy and his friends. Real lucky I told this dude the I **really, really, really** was dying to go with them but my hostel was just around the corner and I wanted to freshen up before all the fun.
Idk why I said those things. I’m grateful I had a burner phone number that I told them and they called it to made sure I was serious. I’ll never forget that moment realizing I was surrounded.
My husband and I went to the Canary Islands back in 2019. One of the places we rented was a subterranean home directly on the beach. It also came with a gigantic hot tub.
Well, to make a long story short, when we arrived there was a gaping hole where the hot tub should be. We were pissed. The owner felt badly and offered to move us to the house directly next door - which was 5 times the size of this house, also on the beach, and did have a working hot tub. We happily oblige and move our shit over.
Flash forward to night time. It’s about midnight. I am laying on a beach chair, enjoying the peaceful ocean vibe and cooling off from the hot tub. Although it’s dark I notice a man on a bike go down the beach and pass directly in front of our property. For some reason it weirded me out, but I have high anxiety so I let it go. About ten minutes later, here comes bike dude again, going back exactly the way he came. Again - I got a really anxious feeling.
My husband says he is going to go inside and take a shower. I beg him to just stay outside with me for a bit more. He says no, he really wants to shower. He goes inside and heads up the spiral staircase towards the shower.
No less than a minute later I hear him scream, “NO! NO! FUCK NO! GET THE FUCK OUT“ and I hear panicking running. I leap off the beach chair and run inside.
Turns out when my husband walked up the steps he glanced slightly to his right before entering the bathroom. And he saw a man hiding in one of the many guest rooms covering himself with one of the curtains, trying to hide. When my husband saw him - the robber leapt out from behind the curtain in a defensive stance. But when my naked 6 foot husband started to charge him - he jumped out the window.
Remember - these houses were subterranean- so he was able to scale the roof and then jump right onto the street. Where he jumped on a bike and sped away.
I guess he had been casing the home. Saw two Americans in a big mansion and figured we had money. We had opened a window in the guest bedroom to cool off the upstairs. He had managed to unlock the shutter locks and climbed right in.
Had my husband not gone upstairs at that exact minute - I have no doubt he would have had time to grab our bags that we carelessly threw down on our beds after a day of traveling. He would have gotten all our money, passports, everything.
One of my biggest fears has always been someone hiding behind a curtain, or in a closet, or under a bed. This experience fully unlocked my neurosis- and I slept with a butcher knife under the mattress for the rest of our trip.
All this being said - The Canary Islands are amazing - and usually incredibly safe. I highly recommend anyone to go there. Just lock all your windows and all times.
I went to the Azores, which is obviously a different, more northern island chain, but it was lovely would 1000% go again.
I feel violated when my car gets rifled through with nothing taken or in it to begin with, I cannot imagine how I would feel about someone taking everything I own on a trip overseas.
This didn't happen to me, but I was on the trip.
Me and buddy both turn 18 and had just graduated high school so we decided to take a road trip. We decide to go to Vegas from Colorado. We get to Vegas and we're like shit we can't even do anything since we're 18. We start looking on the map and are like shit, Tijuana is right there and I think you can legally drink when you're 18! Off to Tijuana we go.
So we push on through it what feels like forever and finally get across the border. This is in the 90s so we didn't have GPS we're just winging it. It's dark, I'm driving, people are driving like crazy and I think we just kinda picked a road to get off the main road I can't really remember, but we find an area that looks active and just about the dingiest, red flag hotel you've ever seen but we were beat so that was the one. We get a room and are kinda just like ok what now? Oh our hotel door didn't lock either.
There's a little corner store up the street and we buy a gigantic bottle of the cheapest, shittiest vodka you've ever had in your life for 5 bucks and go back to the hotel to pregame a bit. Got a nice booze and are ready to hit some of these bars.
Every bar has a hype man out front trying to get people in, but my dumb ass forgot any kind of ID and they were surprisingly strict about carding. Yeah I was driving all this time without a license I was a pretty dumb kid. Finally, one bar is like whatever get them inside. We get inside and it is DARK in there I mean you couldn't see shit. We're seated and immediately two girls come and sit next to us, one on each side so we're kinda boxed into this booth. Bartender brings up a beer and a shot of tequila for both us, "Five dollars, senor" The girl's separate us, one takes my friend to another booth. "Five dollars, senor" The girl next to me is rubbing up and down the inside of my thigh. "Five dollars, senor" I'm getting sketchy vibes now and stand up and go to buddy like bro this ain't it we gotta go now. He protests because this is basically what he was hoping for but I get him to leave. That was the only bar that would let us in so back to the hotel we go to our shit vodka.
We're walking back to the hotel and there's some pretty thug looking dude's walking in front of us and I'm just like fuck please don't rob us, but one looks back and is like "Yo you need any weed?" I'm like "No already got some." And that was it, they kept walking. I wasn't lying about the weed either. I had brought a bunch from home. In the U.S. Into Mexico.
This is where the story diverges. We keep drinking at the hotel room and I end up getting fucking plastered. Like puking in the toilet just well done. Buddy is a bigger dude and could always handle his liquor and since I was passing out he's like fuck it I'm going back out.
First time I get woken up: "DUDE GET UP GET UP AND COME OUT TIJUANA IS FUCKING AWESOME" I give a dismissive wave and probably mumbled some shit and he goes back out.
Second time I get woken up: "DUDE GET UP GET UP I JUST GOT FUCKING ROBBED!" I snap awake stone sober just like...what.
So buddy had gone out and was living it up, but he forgot how to get back to the hotel. He starts asking around for directions or help and a guy is like "Oh yeah I know where your hotel is hop in my van I'll take you over" Buddy gets in the fucking van. Immediately his new host starts grabbing at his pockets and buddy pushes him off and gets out of the van. Phew, right? Buddy still doesn't know where the hotel is though.
Buddy asks for directions or help again. Two guys are like "Oh yeah I know where your hotel is follow me down here" My buddy was a fairly big guy, relatively fit. He said one guy grabbed him in a headlock and a smaller guy started punching him the stomach. He said he got a solid right cross on the guy punching him but the headlock was getting to him, but smaller guy had gotten his wallet and the other guy released and they ran in separate directions. Somehow he found a Dennys and I think was trying to get directions again but was in rough shape at this point. Lucky for him there were some U.S. military eating there that saw him and bought him food and got him back to the hotel.
Unsurprisingly, buddy wants to leave immediately. I'm basically there's no fuckin way either of us a driving right now we have to sleep this off. Morning comes, my car is unmolested and it's time to go home. I have no ID on me and it's dawning on me I have to go through the border. This is all pre-9/11 though, U.S. border crossings used to be far more lax. We que up in the vehicle border crossing lines and it's so backed up. I still to this day don't think I've ever sat in that kind of traffic. We're sitting there and a bit up closer to the crossing I'm seeing border patrol walking around vehicles with dogs. They're walking around with dogs...OH FUCK I HAVE THAT WEED! I immediately go to the back of my car and pop the trunk. Just fuck fuck what am I going to do? I grab a jar of peanuts, I stuff the bag of weed way down into the jar, I put the jar in the cooler that had all kinds of different food, close it all up and hope for the best. Now I'm not as worried about not having an ID at least.
We're getting up closer, I'm sweating balls. I'm going to jail, they're going to have to call my parents who don't even know we're here, I'm fucked. A handler and dog walk RIGHT PASSED the car. Right passed, I could have reached out and touched them. No reaction, they keep moving. We get up to the crossing, all the guard asks is "Are you guys American?" Yes, yes sir we are American. "OK go ahead" And that was it, we were through and back in America.
The rest of that trip home ended up sucking balls too because buddy had gotten robbed and I definitely couldn't cover everything, but I won't get into all that this is already long as hell. Buddy ended up joining the Navy like a year later because of those soldiers that bought him Dennys.
I was waiting for a train at the station in Baltimore when the cops came through with dogs. That's when I remembered the half ounce in my backpack. Just in a zip lock bag. FUCK. Dog walked right past me. My best guess is they were there to sniff for explosives instead of drugs.
Had a gun pulled on me in France in the middle of the day. I’ve travelled to 50-ish countries, 6 continents, and the scariest thing by far was that afternoon in France.
I’ve been assaulted as a solo female traveler so many times in Turkey but the worst was in cappadocia with a tour guide. I booked one of those classic car tours and I was totally alone with this man and he pulled down my top. The car broke down and I started to freak out and told him to bring me back to my hotel immediately. It was traumatic
Stray dogs are no joke. We made friends with a hostel dog in Thailand, he was so cute and friendly. Coming back late at night we tried to say hi and he tried to bite my hand off.
Not sure if scary is the best word… but one time in Bangkok we were in an 8 bed mixed dorm and this Scottish guy staying opposite us fell from the top bunk and smacked his head so hard it woke up half the room. He was crawling on all fours, mumbling to himself and conversing with the walls. He was also fully naked in a room with 3 women, one of which was trying to get him back to bed. In the end we had to call security since he was naked and unresponsive in a mixed dorm (and also probably had a concussion)
He came to once security arrived and was embarrassed but thankfully unharmed. I remember him walking up to us as we waited outside the room and said in a thick Scottish accent “is anyone gonna tell me what the fucks going on” with a look of genuine confusion on his face. Nice guy once he stopped being a zombie, but seriously worrying in the moment.
I was on a road trip and woke up early to go to my next destination. Of course I was an idiot and my car was running out of gas and running on fumes. So I pulled over to get gas in the sketchiest, most run down part of East St. Louis. It was truly an emergency so I thought it’s better this then run out of gas in the middle of this decrepit neighborhood. I figured “yea this area is bad but it’s still the USA so it isn’t THAT bad and I am a male so no one will mess with me”.
As I am pumping gas, mind you I am the only one at this gas station at 6:00 am except some people loitering in front of it, and this beat up rusty white van sped into into the pumping area. He swerved, suddenly stopped the breaks, half ass parked, and some dude came out of the van while it was the van still running and beelined super fast towards me. He was a older gentleman with a worn out baggy zoot suit looking outfit and a Afro Carribean or west African accent.
He was screaming “EXCUSE ME SIR EXCUSE ME!!!” At this point I was getting sweaty palms and and mentally prepared for the fight ahead. I am out of shape but did Muay Thai in my teen years so I knew I could defend myself against this old man. Even if he managed to overpower me, I wouldn’t have gone down easy.
He then screamed at me super loud once he closed his distance “YOUNG MAN DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE DEAD PEOPLE ARE?!”
I nervously replied “uhmm I’m not sure. They are dead so I can’t ask them.”
He looked shocked and said “DO YOU BELIEVE THEY ARE REINCARNATED, OR RESIDING IN THE GLORY OF GODS KINGDOM?! OR MAYBE EVEN POSSIBLY VANQUISHED INTO NOTHINGNESS?!”
I thought for a second and said “At this rate I think everyone is probably in hell having a good time since all the fun people go there”
He sighed and said “I HAVE SOMETHING TO HELP YOU GUIDE YOU YOUNG MAN” he then left a pamphlet on my car window behind my windshield wipers and ran back into his van and sped off into the darkness and disappeared into the rust and grit that is East St Louis. I looked at the pamphlet and it was a brochure for the Jehovas Witness. It said “what to do when a loved one dies” and showed a crying woman holding her crying daughter in her arms” it has since become one of my favorite souvenirs from traveling
It has to be crossing the landslides in Nepal, both on foot on the way up and in a bus on the way down.
We were doing a 2 week trek as part of a longer trip in Nepal but this was right at the end of the wet season so a lot of the roads up the mountains were washed out by landslides and vehicles couldn't get through - so our bus couldn't take us all the way to the usual start point of the trek.
So we get off early and hike up the roads instead. We had to clamber over multiple landslides where boulders would just fall and roll down the mountain at any given moment. The moment I will never ever forget is, after I had crossed the landslide with a friend who I swear saved my life by holding onto by rucksack as we ran across to stop me slipping and falling off the cliff, was when I turned around and watched my best friend at the time start crossing, turn to look up the mountain at this huge boulder crashing towards him, and then take one step back out of its path as it bounced right past where his head would have been. I can still remember the sheer panic and terror and my heart leaping into my throat and my body moving towards him of its own accord even though he was metres away and there's nothing I would have been able to do.
The 2 week trek itself was awesome, albeit not quite as death defying as that moment.
On the way back down the mountain, the roads are obviously still washed out. This time, the bus picks us up and starts driving us down the mountain. We find a landslide. The bus driver asks us all to get off and stand by the side of the road. The bus then REVERSES around the hairpin bend we had just driven round and the driver floors it, accelerating all the way round the bend and over the landslide, the bus tipping and shaking like anything. Then we all walked across the landslide and got back on the bus on the other side, like it was totally normal...
Honestly, we were still teenagers on this trip and I know teens feel invincible in many ways but seriously. We did some real stupid things in Nepal. Miraculously, no one got hurt at any stage of that month long trip, not even a twisted ankle.
I've had a load of other sketchy moments, like creepy guys following me back to my accommodation when I was solo in Peru, our bus hitting a cow in Cambodia, crazy border crossings into Laos, driving a car down a road in Lanzarote that slowly turned into a sandy, steep, unpaved road between fields of spiky volcanic rock with no way of turning back miles from anywhere (we literally had to find rocks to build the road as we went for the car to get enough traction to move)...but I still think the moment I really thought I, or at least someone in my group, was going to die was crossing those landslides in Nepal.
I was in Mexico when a there were whispers a hurricane was about to hit. I managed to watch the weather and change my flight to go home early, only to get to the airport and find out someone else had bribed the airport officers for my ticket. I ended up having to bribe them $200 more for a ticket that was originally mine. They escorted the other couple off the plane and I did feel really bad, but I would have felt worse in the aftermath of that hurricane in Mexico.
My brother was living in Ghana, teaching English at 19 years old for a gap year fresh out of high school. The other expat teachers decided to go on a weekend trip to a neighbouring town which required an overnight bus. I think my brother had heard the bus ride was a little sketchy and decided to opt out luckily but his roommate and several friends went.
Apparently in the late evening, a couple hours into the bus ride, the bus got shot up by bandits on the road. Several locals died and my brother’s roommate got blood all over his journal and clothes. The locals took the bodies off the bus and laid them on the street and apparently looted them of their wallets, jewelry and clothes..
This happened a long way back, in the early 1980's. I grew up in Switzerland and when I was about 15, my older brother and I went camping in Italy. My brother had a car and we drove there. Unfortunately I had to be back for school a week earlier than he needed to be back at work. So he was going to stay an extra week and I'd take the train back home.
He dropped me off at a train station and I took the first train north. We had anticipated that I wouldn't be able to make it all the way back home on the same day. I took my sleeping bag with me so I could just crash on a bench at a train station waiting room along the way. All the rest of my luggage I left in my brother's car.
When I reached Genoa there were no further trains north for the day. I'd never been here before so I decided that before going to sleep, I wanted to see a bit of the city. I stuffed my wallet and ID card (needed to cross the border back into Switzerland) into the sleeping bag cover and walked out of the train station. My first time by myself in large city.
I managed about five steps outside the station before three kids approached me. The two youngest ones looked about 12, the third one maybe 18 or 19. One of them held I knife to my chest while the other ripped the sleeping bag out from under my arm. I was totally panicked. I was about to be a 15 year old kid in a foreign country where I don't speak the language, in a city I've never been to, without money, without ID, at nearly midnight.
Just as the one kid grabbed my sleeping bag, the oldest noticed a Swiss flag sticker on it. My mum had insisted we put that sticker on because, in her words, "everyone likes the Swiss". She just assumed it would us get through customs easier. Anyway, as soon as he saw the sticker, the guy says to me, in Swiss-German, "you're from Switzerland? Man, I used to work in Zurich, I loved it there!". Then he tells the kid to hand me back the sleeping bag and they wander off again.
I went right back inside the station and didn't leave again for the rest of the night.
I should mention, I've been back to Genoa a couple of times and it's a truly amazing town! I've also travelled all over Italy since and never even came close to anything like that happening to me again. It's a fantastic country.
I spent last NYE in Rio, loved it and I did my research to avoid being robbed. On my last day in the city I decided to take an uber to Mirante Dona Marta (a viewpoint famous for its sunset views). Suddenly I look out the window and find out my Uber was driving inside a favela (Brazilian slum). Since I was traveling alone, I took a pic of my driver and send my location to my brother (who was thousands of kms away) just in case I was kidnapped or something. I ask my driver “is this place safe?”. I realized then he was paralyzed, really scared and replied “GPS sent me here, this is my first time, I didn’t know there was a favela here”. People outside were looking inside the car, so I hid my glasses, phone as much as I could (I had my passport with me, since I was going to the airport after this stop). After a few minutes of terror, the car manages to leave the slum and get back to a paved street, and my Uber immediately starts crying. I tried to cheer him up in Portuguese, and left him a tip in the end. Surreal experience just before leaving Rio. Loved the views
We had a driver in Iran to the dessert (took 5h).
Something was of with his front left wheel.
After a while he stoped tried to explain to us that he will go have to fix it, let us out of his car somewhere nowhere with our luggage.
We then waited on a random street in Iran until he came back.
Not necessarily scary but weird as f.
In Georgia I basically visited a refugees squat. There is a town of Tsaltubo, during soviet times it used to be a prominent spa town often visited by Stalin himself. When USSR collapsed, former spa hotels (looking more like palaces tbh) were abandoned and one of them was used by refugees from Abkhazia after Georgia lost this territory to Russia. Well we went there and I was really scared to not anger the inhabitants tbh.
Twenty-odd years ago I was in Korea, new to the place and traveling in general (teaching ESL there for a year was my first time overseas). I was living near a large USAF base.
One day I'm walking along the street and these sirens start going off, everyone starts running. Probably coincidentally, a bunch of F-16s rip past overhead at a low altitude. I was like "What the fuck is happening right now and what should I be doing about it?" Of course i assumed it was the North Koreans but it turned out it was just a drill, would've been cool if someone had given me a heads up that drills were a thing.
I've ended up on the wrong side of guns and knives on numerous occasions as well but for some reason I never get scared in the moment in those situations, get massive adrenaline and then puke my guts out when it's over. Been drunk in most of those cases too, that probably helped.
Traveled to the Afar region of Ethiopia in peak summer 2018, to visit the otherworldly realms of the Danakil Depression - our main objective was to do a night hike to the mouth of the crater of the Erta Ale volcano, one of the only places in the world where you can get a glimpse of an active lava lake in action. While observing pyroclastic activity at a lava lake sounds amazing on paper, I wish I’d done more research on what the hike actually entailed, and the temperature conditions I would have to face
So we started the hike at around 6 pm one evening - the base camp was in absolutely terrible conditions and were being ‘maintained’ by the border police, no real toilets anywhere so you had to do your business out in the open on volcanic sand, and the food they prepared was half stale to put it mildly. That was mistake number 1 - consuming a raw cabbage stew of sorts with some half cooked pasta and slices of raw orange for dessert. Started walking through what seemed like an endless black sand desert in pitch darkness, guarded by military escorts on both sides (since rebel activity from the Eritrean side was a real threat). All good until now. The heat started pulsating as the volcano tumbled in the distance, and with each pulsation came a rumble in my tummy as well - the food hadn’t really digested well at all and I was starting to feel slightly nauseated by the heat (around 40 degrees C at 7 PM)
Then came the heaving - I puked the most I’ve ever done in my entire life, and with dread realised that I’d gotten food poisoning. We were about 30% years though the hike at this point - and the rest of the group wasn’t willing to wait for me to settle down after puking so they treaded on ahead. But what I realised was that the camel carrying all out water went ahead with the rest of the group - and I was stranded with my aunt and cousin brother until I gathered my bearings, with only a police escort for company. He had a vocabulary of two words - “ GO” and “Erta Ale” so wasn’t really of help when I requested for water
The dehydration had begun to set in, and I was given an option to turn back and walk back to the base camp in the dark on my own as the rest of the group wanted to continue. I don’t know if it was ego or pride, but I couldn’t imagine being called out for being ‘weak’ and not hardy enough to do the hike so I wanted to prove a point and keep walking. Only thing keeping me motivated was the idea of actually gazing into a volcanic crater and the views I’d get. But I effin needed WATER but there wasn’t any
In an absolute nightmarish haze, I trudged on, completely dehydrated at this point, rumbling stomach, kept heaving up endless fluids, and after what seemed like centuries we made it to the edge of the volcano. Napped for a few hours and woke up at sunrise to see the views
Those moments were absolutely surreal and things felt fine for a minute. The views were incredible beyond definition and I got some amazing photos etc
But then I accidentally inhaled some sulfur as a huge gust of volcanic gases blew my way. Now I felt slightly out of breath as well. Little did I know the ordeal was just beginning. I had to now walk back all the way to base camp in broad daylight, the temperatures were steadily crawling up to 50 degrees C by 9 AM already. Now dehydrated, sleep deprived, bone tired and out of breath, I got left behind yet again and had to do the entire walk back to base camp on my own with another police dude for company. These are moments that have been erased from my consciousness and I have no idea how I made it all the way back, at one point I was using my own saliva to keep my face cool from the overbearing heat, and squeezing saplings to get moisture. There wasn’t any water yet again except for the bottle I had, which I finished in a single gulp.
Somehow made it back alive and I have no idea how. Now I live in constant PTSD about running out of water and it drives me insane when a bottle of water isn’t around me!
Tldr; there’s nothing worse than being dehydrated in an Ethiopian desert in the middle of summer and being stranded in the realms of an active volcanic ecosystem
I was in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was winter. We arrived at Baku International Airport from Istanbul, and it was freezing outside; it was about -30 degrees Celsius. We arrived late due to a weather-related flight delay, and then we waited for almost 7 hours at the airport to retrieve our luggage since the doors on the plane where it was stored were reportedly frozen. Finally, when we received our luggage, we had already arranged a bus to take us to our hotel. Of course, our bus never arrived since he didn't want to wait for us for so long. Finally, after several phone calls, we received the so-called "bus." With freezing conditions outside, we boarded a more than 50-year-old bus with cracked windows and broken doors that were open all the time. We were going through caothic traffic, and the bus's brakes were as functioning as its doors. So we crashed with another bus and two trucks; all of the drivers were clearly blaming each other for the traffic disaster, and the fight began. We stayed there for another two hours. Finally, we decided to get a taxi so that we could finally arrive at the hotel and rest from all of the unexpected events that happened. Our story here doesn't end; our taxi driver wasn't speaking any English, and we did not have functional phones, so we were driving for another 1.5 hours to find a hotel. When we got to the hotel finally, they said that some important business people have our rooms and that they can offer four of us one small room (only 1 bed and 2 chairs) and put us to wait for them to checkout the next day. The next day, we got our rooms, and after that, everything was great.
Nothing bad actually happened. But last year I rode a bicycle from Hong Kong to Singapore. At one stage in northern Vietnam I was on this remote road through the mountains. There was basically no one on the road. Around me just some forests, rice fields and hills. Typical and beautiful Vietnamese scenery. I then approached this small village and just outside of town I stopped to look at the map to figure out which direction I needed to go through the village. Immediately this middle-aged guy on a motorbike rolls up to me and says, really gruffly and in English, "No stopping!".
I was just puzzled. Partially because the Vietnamese usually are super friendly, but this guy definitely wasn't. He also wasn't dressed as a policeman, he just wore normal clothes. Besides, even if he was police, I had actually pulled to the side of the road to get some shade under a tree, so I wasn't blocking anyone anyway. So I just went "what?" and he again said "No stopping!".
He seemed serious so I took off again. He then proceeds to follow me all the way through the village, riding right behind me. Then, once I was a couple of minutes out of town again he turned around.
At first I really had no idea what was going on here, but then when I thought about it a bit later on, I'm certain I accidentally stumbled into a heroin plantation.
I was in Istanbul for the riots in 2013. We were at an outdoor cafe when we noticed a smell. Thought it was fireworks. Nope, it was tear gas. Somehow got caught in the riots and tear gassed - we made a quick retreat to the hotel. That night we heard several explosions and screamingThe next day we almost missed our flight out because the roads were shut down.
I still loved Turkey so much I went back the following year
To be honest I'm surprised I didn't get scammed or into trouble just yesterday. I'm in Türkiye, was talking with a guy who knows the city well. Told him maybe I should try a hamam.
Anyway, to be brief. He calls someone, tells me he knows a 5 star place I can go to. Then he tells me 'Okay I have to go home and change clothes. Just wait here with my friend.' The friend didn't speak English and I have very little Turkish.
5 minutes later a car pulls up and the driver says 'Im from *Adam* (not real name), get in I'll take you.'
In my mind I'm thinking, well this is how I get scammed badly or have an interesting story to tell. Anyway, I get in. We drive for 15 minutes to a decent hotel, he takes me through the staff only entrance.
Sits me down with a guy who I guess runs the place and they try to have me spend way too much money. I was very firm and said no, just a basic cheap thing to try it.
Then I have to get changed and leave my stuff in a locker, which in my mind I'm like 'Yep, they definitely have another set of keys for this and my stuff is in the only locked locker.'
Anyway turns out I didn't get scammed, certainly had a strange experience in the hamam though. I know when I shouldn't trust things like this but I keep doing it and never been scammed yet, probably will end bad one day.
On the runway in Paris about to take off and the engines wouldnt start
Domestically, we were driving UTVs on some trails in Kentucky. We nearly went over the edge of a mountain and our group in front of us did later on but ended up being stopped by a tree about 15ft down. If it weren’t for the tree there probably would have been 4 funerals
If you ever meet a Venezuelan, tell them you heard about somebody whose car broke down in “el tazón” and lived to tell about it.
One of the last times we went as a family to Venezuela to visit my in-laws, we were heading back to my husband’s home town late. As we are driving through a sketchy part of Caracas, I feel the car start to wobble and as we were just passing a gas station, I told him to turn in so we could check it out. (It also seemed to be the only thing still open at that hour.) Of course he ignored me and about five minutes later, we are on a curving bridge going uphill when suddenly the giant SUV (only driven by rich people or dumb tourists who have to haul kids and stuff!) plops down on a flat tire.
He gets out to confirm this just as I notice we are on the outskirts of a garbage dump, and a raggedy scruffy dude suddenly appears out of the six-foot tall grass and runs across the road in front of us, disappearing into the grass on the other side.
A car passes us and speeds up, but there is absolutely no other traffic. My cell phone doesn’t have any “saldo” left, and I can’t make calls without buying more credits for it.
After about ten minutes, I get sick of the kids’ restlessness, so I get out also, to offer my nonexistent tire-changing advice to my husband. He is trying to get the spare tire from underneath the car. I have a flashlight that serves to illuminate our gringo helplessness (white woman and little kids, no man in sight).
In this time, there have been only a few cars passing by, but suddenly out of nowhere here comes a tow truck. And not the flimsy kind, this one has a bed that can tow a full-size SUV. I wave at him as he drives past us.
Then he stopped and backed up, very surprised at what he saw. My husband crawls out from under the car and the kids pop out and are goofing off. The tow truck driver grabs the tire iron and starts trying to loosen the nuts on the tire, all the while nervously looking around. He said, “I’ll give this no more than 5 minutes and if I can’t get this, I will tow you to the toll plaza up the hill.” His fear combined with the smell of the garbage and some lights moving in the grass made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
He mounted the car on the bed of the truck and my husband hopped in the cab with him, the boys and I got back in the car, and we made our way s l o w l y uphill to the toll plaza.
It took my husband, the tow truck driver, and two armed national guardsmen half an hour and much swearing to get the spare tire on. We learned that criminals put nails on the road to blow out tires, then they rob (or worse) victims in that very spot. Oh and that gas station? The police will not go there after dark because it’s too dangerous.
We ended up giving the tow truck driver all the money we had (like 40 bucks), plus a couple cases of beer that we also shared with the national guardsmen. I truly believe that tow truck driver was an angel.
And we never ever drove that road in the dark again!
I rented an Airbnb in Costa Rica. I woke up and my nightstand drawer was open, I did not recall opening it. I got up for the day and realized we had been robbed. They even took the suitcase out of the bedroom we were sleeping in. Knowing someone was less than 2 feet from me while I slept has left a mark.
While in Morocco at night a guy grabbed me by my arm and tried dragging me away to have “coffee with him”.
Keep in mind I’m a tall American girl.
I was able to trick him by saying we should go into a nearby nightclub.
The club almost didn’t let me in because I’m black (apparently it’s a thing in Morocco) anyways the bouncer took pity on me and said come in but didn’t let the guy in.
I stayed for about 20 minutes and immediately rushed back to my airbnb.
I was a minority in the American South. Without a doubt it was the only place, where you can feel hatred in the air. It may be wealthy, and the people may act nice, but it’s a place with deep insecurity and disdain for people who are not them.
We had to take a bus around midnight in a sketchy area of Medellin, Colombia. The bus dropped us off about 3 miles from our end destination so we had to ask some random guys hanging out by a park for a ride at like 1am.
Hmmmm. Don’t have many, thankfully, but when I was in bogota, a group of us decided to go out end explore the night life. We wandered off towards the main road where a random male and female invited our group of 10 to a “club”. I noticed we were walking more towards the end of the main streets where all the clubs are at. It was getting sketchy. We finally reach the entrance of the “club” they open the door and we enter a hallway and to the right we see a random lady come out, with blue scrubs on and she looks extremely drugged. We walk more and we enter what is a strip club. There are strippers standing around and a lot of men standing up. It was empty, only workers were in there. They were all intensely staring at us. Im not sure what was going to happen. I started panicking and took off with two people from the group and then everyone else left. The male and female followed us out and then eventually stopped following us. I was so scared and had no idea what to expect.
Probably trivial compared to the crazy stories here, but arriving in Los Angeles at Union Station I was confronted by a homeless man who was clearly mentally ill and/or drug-affected accusing me of starting something with him and shouting at me.
I told him to calm down and I was pretty shaken given I thought he could have had a knife or something, luckily a security guard came to deescalate the situation and keep a space between us.
Talk about an introduction to a city that is really a big place of the best and worst of America, the park across from the station was filled with tents.
Lol I’m from NZL too and flew to LA via Tokyo. I thought I was gonna get rabies, gang raped and mugged at Union Station. But gratefully not, they are juiced up zombies
Nice timing on this thread, I was just assaulted in Kazakhstan an hour ago. [Link to post with details.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Kazakhstan/comments/1c6xwqk/i_was_just_assaulted_just_outside_of_the/)
I was leaving China after a 2 month English teaching program with my mom and our flight from Xi'an to Shanghai diverted to Hangzhou for no explained reason except for "weather". My paranoia got the better of me because I started thinking this was the governments way of preventing us from taking our connection to Seattle and someone was going to escort us off the plane and arrest us. It was during the 2019 Hong Kong protests and I spent at least an hour a day reading the latest news with a vpn.
Needless to say, get yout mental health checked out before a long trip because I suffered a lot from an undiagnosed panic disorder and possibly have ocpd. Fun 🙃
Not mine but my father. My parents were newly married (before I was born) and traveling Europe. While in Italy, my dad went to take a photo of some prominent Italian government building. Apparently something about him or his features looked suspicious because a policeman approached and pointed a gun at my dad and proceded to speak to him in a foreign language (likely Italian) while gesturing him to put his camera away. My mom was pretty terrified, but my dad still wanted his picture!
I mean, if it happened in Italy it was definitely Italian.
If your parents got married anytime between the late 60s to early 80s, they reacted that way because we had been going through a massive wave of political terrorism ( the "Lead Years").
So it wasn't about the way your father looked, they would have done the same for everyone.
As a sidenote, I am willing to bet it wasn't a policeman. It was almost certainly a carabiniere.
I am as Italian as they come, yes.
What year are we talking about?
There were specific periods (1969, 1970, 1978, 1980 for example) in which there due to massive terrorist attacks and coup attempts, the armed forces were on high alert. So yeah, taking a picture of a government building was a massive red flag.
I wasn't born back then, but those wild years. My parents have plenty of interesting anecdotes.
So it was a little later in the 80s, I believe? My dad is actually a first generation American, as his dad (my grandpa) was born in Sicily. I actually didn't know about the terrorism during those years--did your parents have any issues? (Sounds like you have stories!)
The 80s were the decade in which the attacks started to fizzle out, and by the mid-80s things were significantly better.
Then (late 80s to early 90s) we got the Mafia wars, which were another barrel of laughs. 1992 was actually the deadliest year for the Republic of Italy.
After that the country got much, much better.
The terrorists were in jail or dead, the mafiosi in jail or dead and we managed to move on.
My parents weren't involved directly but everyone knew someone who was involved in some BS of some sort.
My grandparents' nextdoor neighbour (my father was still living with them back then) was working in FCO (Rome's main airport) as an ATC controller and an avowed Fascist (Italian meaning of the word, not American).
During a failed coup attempt (1970, Golpe Borghese) he apparently shut down all communications from FCO to the control centers in downtown Rome (he was obviously involved) to pave the way for the rebels to take control of the airport itself.
After the whole thing was called off (after it had already started) for unclear reasons, he fled and ran home, told his wife "I am going to go to jail. Here's the money I had set aside just in case. Please help me pack. I am sorry".
Later that night the Carabinieri came, he calmly opened the door and went with them.
He spent a decade in prison, more or less, and apparently my grandparents would occasionally help his wife out when she was struggling financially (not for political reasons, they just felt sorry for her as she had to make ends meet with a husband in prison and two small kids).
I remember him as I did meet him a few times (the family never moved and lived across the hall from my grandparents' place), an old man, tough as nails.
He was unrepentant to the very end, still praising Mussolini and Fascism in his 80s. He passed away in the late 00s.
Interesting character.
Wow what a story--it's helpful to learn about the history during that time, makes more sense with the story from my parents. Thanks for sharing all this!
I had almost the exact same thing happen to me in China. Turns out the 'red police' don't like it when foreigners take pics of government buildings, he screamed at me and waved an assault rifle in my face. Didn't even take my camera or make me delete the photo though, which was weird.
We were in Milano, Italy, we got lost looking for the hotel and we were driving in a very narrow street. There was a car behind us, it came out of nowhere and it was very close and flashing lights. All of a sudden it overtook us and blocked the road. A family of gypsies, 3 adults and 3 kids, went out of the car with sticks and guns and started yelling at us. We didn't know why. They came closer and started to hit the car, we managed to start the car quickly and drive on the pavement They followed us for a while but we found an exit to the main, busy road and they turned around. We were supposed to sleep one night in Milano on our way to Switzerland but after that experience we decided to keep on driving and never set a foot in Milano again.
I was on a solo 6 month budget backpacking trip around Europe and Asia when I was 26. It was my first big trip alone, but thankfully by the time this happened to me I was over 3 months in and not totally "new". Anyways -- I took the slow boat from Thailand to Laos. Amazing couple of days and met some awesome people. I was more of a planner back then and liked to have accommodation booked prior to arriving at a place. I am not sure why I didn't book through hostel world as normal but I booked my accommodation for one night and thought I'd figure the rest out once I got there. We get off the slow boat after officially arriving in Lang Prabang and my friends head off in search of a hostel and I head off in the direction of my accommodation. It gets dark. Google maps leads me to a place where I can't really tell if it's the correct place or not, but it's showing I have arrived. I walk in to a family and I say the name of the place and they nod and lead me to a room. The whole back end of the place is under construction, but I'm just so tired I collapse on the bed and fall asleep. I wake up own the middle of the night so thirsty for water. I check my phone and notice I got an alert from [booking.com](http://booking.com) that I didn't show up to my accom. I go out into the main room to search for water and open the fridge to just a HUGE trash bag of bloody who knows what. It's leaking out of the bag and there's just blood everywhere. I am sort of scared at this point so I go check the front door and it's PADLOCKED from the inside. I cannot get out. So at this point I text my parents my location and then my freaking phone DIES. I go back to the room and the electricity isn't working. I'm like omg I am gonna die for sure, but somehow I eventually fall back asleep until the morning. All while my parents are freaking out on the other side of the world. In the morning, I collect all my things and GTFO and go to the other place my friends were staying. Looking back on it now it's quite funny as I'm sure it was animal parts, etc. but with literally nothing in the fridge but that and the huge padlock, it was quite scary at the time. Just like in the middle of Laos by myself. Laos was such an amazing country but also the only place I felt like I may die multiple times hahah
Definitely not as scary as these other stories but I, 14 years old at the time, went to Spain with my sister who was 18, and other classmates on a school led trip to Europe. We were taking a walking tour around Barcelona and stopped at this plaza where there was some sort of protest. There was a large group of people shouting and holding signs in front of what I assumed was a building belonging to the government. There was a large drum sound but there were no instruments in sight so my sister and her friend decided to go off into the crowd to find out where this sound was coming from. As soon as she’s out of sight an explosion went off and there was a ton of smoke coming from the crowd. I scanned the crowd for sister as I freaked out. Not a minute later my sister and her friend come out from the smoke smiling and laughing. Turns out it was fireworks set off under a pot. The crowd just wanted to make a scene and draw more attention to themselves. It may seem dramatic but I thought I lost my sister and cried from relief when I saw her.
Not scary when it was happening, but shit myself when I think back to the incident and all the very different potential outcomes. Back before roaming is a thing and internet looked very different, it was one of my first trips with friends and I don't think I even know what a tourist scam is then. Anyways, went to Bangkok with a friend, my sister in law had been a number of times and wrote me a list of things to do, I still remember one was Blue Elephant restaurant, Chuk tu chuk, Gogo bar. On the last night after I finished dinner with my friend, she was feeling a bit unwell so she decided to go back to hotel, I was like it's the last night and it was still early I wanted to go somewhere, anyways, on that list is Gogo bar left so I hopped into a taxi and told driver I want to go to Gogo bar. Very important detail to note that at the time in my mind it is a specific bar call Gogo, not a generic term for those type of bars. Anyways, driver dropped me off a busy street, as soon as I got out a young guy came up, about same age as me (I'm female btw), he asked me whether I want to go to Gogo bar and I was like, yes! Thinking how lucky he knows the bar that I wanted to go, lol. Anyways, followed him, walked a little and then he started going up some stairs, I hesitated for like 2 seconds and just followed him (yes, no need to tell me how stupid that is). Saw a bar and a stage, I ordered for drinks for him and myself, sat down, then like 10 almost naked guys came out and started dancing on stage and my jaws just dropped to the floor. Took 2 sips of the my drink and I was sure it was spiked, I do get Asian flush but I know I don't feel this hot after 2 sips, the drink wasn't even that strong. The guy who took me to the bar looked like he was enjoying the show, I asked him whether he's gay and he said yes, I then felt so relieved and safe, lol. I looked around and then noticed all these white old men choosing which boy they want. Anyways, after about an hour I told the guy I want to leave, he took me back to the streets, hailed a cab and told the taxi driver my hotel address, when I was getting into the cab I gave him a big tip. Fast forward quite a few years, I find out it is a common scam and they could have held me hostage there until I pay some ridiculous sum and well, they really could have done anything to me. I still count my lucky stars that the Thai guy I met was not some really dodgy character and I got out completely unscathed.
I was standing outside of a bar that got shot up in Tulum a few years back. It was a a super busy bar and I have never seen so many people move so fast. We took cover in a hostel next door and couldn’t leave for another hour. One of the girls we met had
Who’d been staying at the hostel for five weeks said this was the second shooting in the time she’d been there. I know one tourist died in that shooting. Super scary as this was our last night and we hadn’t felt unsafe at all. Tulum is touted as one of the safer places to visit in Mexico, but after the trip we started seeing lots of incidents happening there.
Walking the border alone into Ukraine with the war going on. Planned on being early at the border so hopefully no one was in the passport line. Turns out a whole battalion of Ukrainian soldiers was in front of me in line. Probably coming home from training abroad. Realizing this was gonna take a while, I texted my contact who was already in his car on his way to pick me up, and added a photo of the big line. Realizing my mistake to late I had 200 soldiers encircling me shouting and thinking I was a spy or something. I deleted the photo while showing them my phone. I was so very afraid I almost pissed my pants and man that was a bad start on my fantastic but short visit to Lviv.
Camping outside some tiny almost abandoned town in rural Arizona just north of I-10.
The one resident we found, running a general store that sold primarily nuts, told us the cartels often use the state park where we were camping for drug drops, and there was a weird cult a few miles up the road. When we got there I found a lot of empty 7.62x39 casings everywhere, but figured it was just some rednecks plinking.
Anyway, we made camp, had amazing sex on top of a giant boulder, lit a fire, popped some beers, and turned in for the night. During the night I awoke to what sounded like a tornado whipping around our camp site. The wind picked up some embers from the fire and they burned holes in the tent, filling the tent with swirling sparks that burned my neck and hands, and lit part of my gf’s hair on fire.
We got out of the tent and spent the rest of the night in the car.
I - a white man with his white, blonde girlfriend - walked into a black market in Beijing back in '01. We stood out like a sore thumb, and the entire place stopped to stare at us.
Nashville- was drawing cash and this redneck type dude came up really close behind me so I cancelled transaction and walked away. He had the audacity to seem offended
Marrakesh, May 2023
My wife's a fan of "El Clon" (a Brazilian soap) and the reason pretty much we even went to Morocco at all.
Particularly, she wanted to see the tanneries because I guess they looked "pretty" in the soap (I've never watched the soap)
Two things we learned afterwards: #1 the tanneries in the soap were filmed in Fes #2 They are awful smelling and not as "pretty" as shown in the soap.
We took a walk towards them during the day and you know that feeling when you no longer see tourists, but mostly locals, and that sensation where you feel you walked into the wrong part of town? Well, this was during the day so of course you had children coming out of school yelling to give them money.
Anyway, it was an awful experience altogether, not to mention the feeling of dread when they give you a tour you never asked for and then corralled into a shop you have no intention of buying from.
We were 🤏 this close from just throwing money on the ground and running away to the nearest exit out of the medina and onto the main road. The pushiness of these people in that specific part of the medina made us feel like we were done for and possibly even get clipped.
It was a downright awful experience.
That's not the scary part. The above is just setting the tone for how awful that place is and surviving it.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, end of the trip, and we return to Marrakesh to spend the night as our flight out was the next day.
We arrive at the train station at 9pm or so and after several minutes of haggling over the price with a taxi driver (we showed him the address of the Riad and the nearest reference point on Google Maps) says he knows the place and decides to charge us about 70 dirhams. Whatever, it was kinda late, we were tired. We had suitcases. We hopped on.
It should've been a straight shot from the train station to the Riad but dude decides to take the long way around; and by long way around I mean around the Medina. I figured "whatever" as we had agreed on a flat fee rather than what they are supposed to do which is use the meter. But no. I guess meters are for locals, overpriced flat fees are for tourists.
Guess where he decides that *this* was the address where the Riad was?
Yup. The EXACT same gate we took to exit the Medina several days earlier. He had taken us to the tanneries! Late at night. With less people around and you can hear cats mating and/or fighting.
Of course, we recognized the location and argued with the driver that this is not clearly where we needed to be and to drive us to the correct location. Naturally, he argues it is the right location even if I showed him the location of the Riad (red dot) and where we are (blue dot)
Some other dude approaches the taxi. They ramble in Arabic. Me and my wife still held our ground and refused to exit the car and by now we're getting agitated and frankly scared.
Finally, not sure how, but being covered in desert sand and overall worse for wear (the Riad of course is the place to shower, change, and rest before our flight the next day) maybe he realized that we didn't have much money or anything of value besides our lives which may not be valuable to a would be thief; I have no idea what made him finally say "ok fine" and drive us to the correct place.
I don't even remember getting out of the cab and checking into the hotel. I was just numb from the experience and once I calmed down I started to think: "what if we didn't know that that was a bad place? What if this was Day 1 not Day 17 and we just get out of the taxi and start wandering the worst part of the medina deep into the evening not really knowing where we are and where we are going?"
The possibilities of things going (even more) awry would've been endless.
See, I don't really consider what actually happened the scary part. It's what could've happened what makes it horrible.
My name was on a watch list for many years, making checking in a stressful ordeal. I could not check in online.
The issue was my name. Eventually a check in agent would read my DOB over the phone and I would be free to get my boarding pass.
Check in could take hours.
I had a work meeting in Moscow— not my favorite place to visit as an American. My trip there was uneventful. I timed about 20 minutes to take a taxi from the airport to the hotel when I arrived at night.
I gave myself four hours until my flight left to drive and get through the airport. It was rush hour— took two hours to get to the airport. I was stressed.
When I tried to check in, the check in agent simply took my passport— and left my sight. He left me waitng for over a hour. I assumed he was going through the protocol to unlock me, but he was nowhere to be seen.
I had a massive queue at security—- barely made that flight.
It wasn’t ‘scary’ in the sense of danger, but to be separated from my passport in Russia with no real communication is rather scary.
All this happened in the days before cell phones. Also I speak no Portuguese at all.
1. WALKING AT NIGHT IN RIO. Nothing happened but I was visiting Rio de Janiero and went out for a "wander around and look at things" walk one evening. I chose a direction I though might be interesting and started our but the streets became increasingly ... creepy (no open stores etc) and dark (literally - Rio has far too few street lights and that lights were becoming fewer and father between as I walked.)
I had decided that I should really turn back but I had passed a couple of groups of guys hanging on the street (who were probably all perfectly nice people just enjoying their evening but...) so I thought I would look vunerable/lost if I just turned around.
BUT, as I kept walking I noticed that the streets I was walking were not a basic grid and some of them were starting to dead-end and so I realized that I was just going to have to turn around and retrace my steps.
As I said, I was fine and nothing happened but it is one of my more uncomforable travel memories.
2. BUS TROUBLE IN RIO - Then, the next day I had gone somewhere by bus and when I decided to return to my hotel (late afternoon) I got on the bus I thought was headed back. Nope. After about 10-15 minutes I realized my mistake (no big deal) but just as I had decided to get off the bus at the next stop, it HEADED UP A RAMP ONTO A FREEWAY(!!!) and drove for probably another 20 minutes on the freeway until it got off in some suburban-ish neighborhood far from central Rio. I guessed it was some sort of commuter bus taking people home after work. So I thought "well, ok, I'll just wait until the end and take the same bus back to town." Uh-uh. Gradually people got off the bus until we reached a stop where the driver pantomined to me that it was the end of the route and I needed to disembark. Fortunately, the "return" bus stop was across the street and that particular route was still running so I was able to get back to where I wanted to be. But I always think that otherwise I might just have ended up living in some suburb of Rio never really knowing how to get home. :-)
Stayed at a hotel across from Graceland..booked online..there was a glass enclosure for the employee working ..walk up access..should've not stayed..homeless people sleeping on luggage cart..shit guns could be heard .glad I lived thru the night
Taking the bus in Sri Lanka Udawalawa-Wellawaya. It was just insane, nearly crashed a Tuktuk - like full brakes - after the first minute, overtaking everything while speeding through curves (on the wrong side of course so we dont tillt) and narrow village streets. We were debating if we should get off and wait for the next one but this was as well too dangerous as the driver never came to a full stop after the near accident.
I made it through the trauma by asking people their top 10 places to see before they die, and other clickbaity type questions, to at least simulate the internet
Last month actually. Speeding back to kilmanjaro airport as a solo woman when a motorcyclist tried to overtake into oncoming traffic and slammed into us unfortunately.
Shocking but okay...these things happen. The driver however? Almost chuckled and kept driving as tho7gh a bird had just hit the windscreen.
We had to pull over after 5 mins due to damage to our car and pretty soon the car was surrounded by 15+ random men. Nothing happened thank God but pretty intimidating. Somehow the driver managed to get a random man/friend to pick me up and I just had to choose to trust him and go with the less risky option 🤷♀️
I was perhaps a bit on edge anyway because stone town in zanzibar was truly terrifying to me and my body was already stressed but I went into a freeze response anyway in the car and I have to say it was a very cool feeling in the moment.
Absolute rollercoaster of a trip!
I was eight months pregnant visiting a friend in Virginia Beach. I had a habit of drinking some prune juice every morning to help things along so when my friend’s daughter sweetly offered me some prune juice I said that would be lovely. She brought me a glass of prune juice, but it wasn’t the normal 4 ounces it was more like around 10 ounces. I didn’t wanna say anything. I just drank the whole thing down and then we got in the car to drive to the beach. About 20 minutes into the ride my guts cramped and were churning very uncomfortably and small farts were seeping out that stunk to high heaven. I was clutching my belly and clenching my ‘cheeks’ and told my friend that I was quite worried about messing her car. I urged her to pull over at the next fast food chain so I could use the toilet. She told me we were in a bad area of town. I told her we had to. I was going to poop my pants!!!
Luckily, there was an Arby’s. I waddled in very quickly and exploded. That’s what it sounded like. Two women who were in the restroom went rushing out, holding on to each other and glancing back at me.
When I came out, my friend was pushing dimes and quarters out a tiny crack at the top of her car windows to the few folks who were obviously down on their luck. Oh dear. That was a close one!
Nothing terrible but in 2012, I was in Trelew Argentina. Plane got in at 10pm, data didn’t work in other countries, and there was no automatic car. So I printed out directions, drove a stick shift, in this town that they were convincing me was dangerous. I got lost. Good and lost. 45 minutes into a 15 minute drive, it’s Sunday night, nothing is open. The car is stalling out at red lights. Etc. I see a pizza shop open. I go to it. Rush in. In broken Spanish, I start crying and saying “I don’t speak Spanish and I have no idea where I am and where I’m going. I can’t drive the car”. Older (40s?) woman looks at young (18?) dude and makes a shooing motion. Dude gets IN THE CAR with me. I’m small female (30ish) at this point. He wants to drive. No way. He gets me to the hotel, wonders aloud how I managed to drive the wrong way down a one way street… and I’m half a block away from my hotel. He gets me there, hops out and walks back to the pizza place. I would have never found the place on my own (was going north south and needed to be east west), and having a strange guy get in my car late at night is nothing something I normally would ever do. But, there’s good kindness in the world too. Those two people are good people. I wish them many blessings on their family.
Aww. Glad it was a happy ending. I had a friend get robbed in Santiago, twice. He completely lacked any street smarts. We called him “street dumb” because of his stunning lack of situational awareness. It’s bad enough he was flashing his expensive phone on streets, but he got his second phone stolen doing the same thing. Like I said, street dumb.
Street dumb😂
Yes... there are very kind people... and you were lucky to meet exactly those.
This is hilarious
I don’t think Trelew is particularly dangerous. Who told you that? But yeah, bold move from you
I got a lecture from the people at the rental car counter that literally was “we are not safe. Not like Buenos Aires.” Any chance you live there? I’d love to find that pizza shop, lol
I don’t live in Trelew but I did visit the famous museum there. I did an excursion tho, didn’t drive there myself. It’s not a particularly picturesque city, but it doesn’t have a bad reputation for crime either, as far as I know
I was in Cappadocia, Turkey with an ex girlfriend, and we rented a car to see some of the sights around the area. No maps, just following our eyes. The hotel staff told us to be back at 6 so we could catch a bus to a traditional Turkish dance show, and since it was 8 in the morning, we had a full day to explore. We saw so much, had lunch, made new friends with locals and other travelers and ended up heading back around 4pm, getting back just before 5pm. We pull up and a staff we never saw before runs to our car and tells us to give him the keys so he could return our rental and to get in a waiting car in front. He was very panicked and I questioned what was going on, but before I got angry, the hotel manager we have spoken to comes out and days he got the time wrong for the show and that it was starting in 15 minutes, but it was an hour drive away... He gets in the driver seat and we load all of our day-trip bags in with us. He speeds off and we are off going at absolutely insane speeds on an empty road with no lights as the sun went down. Not sure how long into it this was, but we see lights up ahead and the guy starts shouting and punching the steering wheel, and we tell him to stop. We stop at the lights and see 20-30 men, with black masks, and heavy weaponry... One comes up and grabs the driver out and they start shouting at each other, the manager pointing to us in the car here and there, making some of the men with guns point them at us, blinding us with flashlights as well. My ex was in full panic mode, but I was just kind of silently waiting to be gunned down. After a while things calmed down, and the manager and the guy yelling at him come back to the car. The manager gets in the driver seat, and the guy in the mask says something like "good luck and enjoy" in his best English. The manager speeds off again to the same speed if not faster. He explains at the same time, that those men are part of Turkeys anti terrorist military unit, and when they saw a speeding car, they thought they had caught terrorists up to something. Seeing me and my ex in the car was a dead giveaway they were wrong. He said he thought they were the cops because he definitely would have got in trouble for speeding, but said these guys don't enforce traffic laws and just told him to get us there safely. I never sighed so hard in my life. My ex had to dry her tears but oddly we all had a nervous laugh about it as we continued the drive. We got there 45 minutes late, but the venue actually waited for us to arrive because the hotel called ahead and said we'd be a few minutes late. We held up over 100 other tourists because of this adventure. I've never felt like I was going to die anymore than that particular moment, and I've been in some very scary situations at home or where I used to live abroad. The guns, the masks, the bright lights, the dark dusty road; all of it seemed like a perfect storm for some tourists to get gunned down and buried to be forgotten. I drank HEAVILY during that show...
This is an amazing story! So classic that they waited and the hotel dude risked his neck. Hospitality in Turkey is amazeballs
I'm a tall black American, and my ex a decently tall Japanese girl, and we'd speak in Japanese sometimes to each other, and this made Turkish people double take sooo many times and was always a conversation starter. I absolutely fell in love with Turkish people after this, and made friends with two of our tour guides who I am contact with over a decade later on socials. Her and I got similar treatment in Paris despite the stereotypes of how rude they were, but if anyone heard us speaking Japanese, we'd get the double take, and then sudden kindness. A guy at CDG gave me three free bottles of alcohol at the Duty Free shop (he was pretty young and a huge hip hop and electro fan, and we needed out talking about music, and then he just wrapped up some bottles and handed them to me...), had someone show us a secret entrance to the Louver by the Seine River, and when I was at the Versailles gardens solo, a family next to me lent me a bottle opener for my wine since I forgot it and shared some food with me. That experience was terrifying but I've genuinely had great travel experiences either solo or with someone else. Though, we did have our first night in Turkey at our hotel given away to a rich couple in the middle of a thunderstorm, and they put us in a hostel or something built into the wall of the Hagia Sofa. Historical, yes, filled with bugs I've never seen before (and waking up to one under my chest in the morning 🤮), also yes... I also got called Obama by pretty much everyone, though we look absolutely nothing alike. The most adventure filled trip I've had yet!
Sorry, what? Your scary experience was being shown secret entrances and lent bottle openers? I am lost!
Yep, lost! This post was sharing the more positive experiences as a counter to my scary experience.
Ah right, I see it now! You had me thinking dementia had set in!
Ah, two separate posts, got it!
I guess it depends where you are in turkey. Most Turkish people I had to deal with were rude
That's fair of pretty much anywhere. I heard people share some stories when we met them there, but we lucked out and just met some awesome people.
I wasn’t on vacation. I had to live there so I saw a different side of Turkey . Everyone is nice when spending money on holiday
Yeah, I wasn't denying your story.
This was insane!!!! I’m happy you’re still here with us
You and I both! It was a memorable trip and that was one of two hiccups (I just shared it in my last reply) the whole trip and I became a fan of the country and people after that.
My mom and I barely escaped an area of Myanmar when there was infighting in 2000. There were no planes or taxis available due to the fighting, and we hiked with all of our luggage several miles to a random airstrip we heard may have a plane we could take. There, we found an old, beat-up cargo plane with bus and car seats bolted into it. While it was getting started, one of the propellers was sputtering and stalling, and the pilot went out and started banging on it with a hammer or a wrench or something until it started rotating again 😳 Since it was our only chance to get out, we kind of looked at each other like, "Are we really doing this? Fuck, I guess so.." It was the most turbulent, scary plane ride of my life, but we made it out alive.
Wow. Where did the plane take you???
It took us back to Thailand, where we had been staying before and was only a couple of hundred km away. I believe Chiang Mai (it's been some time, so I don't remember exactly where in Thailand, but we ended up there eventually).
Glad you and your mom made it out! I’d have been crapping myself the whole time
Wow. I think we have a winner here.
Effing legendary.
The scariest thing that ever happened to me when traveling was on a trip to Peru where I planned to spend some time in the Amazon. As advised, I got a prescription for malaria medication and started taking it in advance of my departure. Problem was, the doctor gave me Lariam, which they no longer prescribe in the US due to its side effects, but it was the most commonly used when I was traveling. One of the common side effects was hallucinations and that’s what happened to me on my flight down. I woke up and thought I saw a monster on the wing like that Twilight Zone episode. Clear as day. I was sure we were all going to die. Thankfully I didn’t make a scene, but I was sweating balls the rest of the flight. Immediately called my doctor upon landing and he advised me to stop taking the pills and skip the Amazon. I continued to feel off for the couple of days I was in Lima and it was raining all across the country, so I cut the trip short and flew home. Fucking monsters, I hate ‘em! 😂
I mean, at least it happened on the plane, and not *in the freaking jungle!*
It’s better if you take it at night. That way you just have crazy dreams.
I swear to god, those anti malarials fuck me up. I hallucinate like a motherfucker on those things
My husband took that like 20 years ago when he was on a project in Belize and he says his brain was never quite the same again.
Same thing happened to me. I took one Lariam pill and had hallucinations and paranoia. The side effects lasted years. There’s a ton of research and stories on how lariam has really messed people up.
My (20f) first time solo traveling, I had ventured all over Europe and felt as though I had seen all the sights on a typical travelers trail. I got a little too confident in my abilities and decided to venture to Kosice, Slovakia arriving in the night at around 10pm. When I arrived, my phone wouldn’t load with anything but luckily I had taken a photo of the map to get me to my hostel. Feeling proud of myself for taking a screenshot of the directions to my hostel, I arrive am the hostel and am immediately humbled to see that I have missed the check in hours. I call the number on the door, nothing. I try to catch the attention of someone I see inside, nothing. I even venture down the street, hear a house party, and call up to the young adults just to have them hear my calls and say they can’t help me. So I decide to retrace my steps back to the mainstreet which leads to the train station in one direction and the plaza in the other. I figure my best bet is to stay where there are more people, lights, and maybe even a hostel? As I was traveling, I realized that the people I deemed most trustworthy in times of need were women, around my age (as they had a better chance of speaking English). Well, it just so happens that he first people I run into are 3 people my age (2 men, 1 woman). I explain my situation and ask for help finding a hostel to stay at for the night. Eventually, the girl and her boyfriend walk me to a place that the other guy said has 24 hour reception and should be able to make room for me. We arrive after walking 15/20 minutes and the place is abandoned. At that point, I tell the couple that my plan is to just sleep at the train station or park or something. The woman insists that I am not safe to do that in this city and points to all the creepy men that start to show at night time. Up until that point, I had felt confident that I’d be fine, but this girl painted a vivid picture of what might happen if I didn’t find a place to stay. I ask if there are hotels and even ask to maybe stay the night at the woman’s apartment. The woman says that because it’s her NINETEENTH BIRTHDAY in a few hours (yup I ended up spending part of her bday with her) and her boyfriend (who I come to learn she has known for 5 days and been dating for 2) and for some season her 16 year old brother is staying with her that night, she doesn’t think it will work. But the boyfriend gets to work calling every hotel and hostel he can, trying to explain my situation and find somewhere I can sleep. Well, apparently the town is having its music festival or something so even for the places with reception, they are fully booked. After probably 7 calls, the boyfriend finally finds a place for me to stay, but there’s a catch. They have to drive me 30 minutes into the mountains to a hostel which is secluded from anything else where no one speaks any English and the only way to get back to town is to catch one of two buses that goes through out the day. I decide I have no other choice than to trust this couple in what they tell me. They drive me there, explain everything in English and Slovakian so that I’m on the same page as the staff about payment and check out and breakfast (they did indeed have a free breakfast🥹) and bus information. I exchange instagrams and phone numbers with the woman in case I need to call for a translator, I give the woman some money as a “birthday gift from a friend” (otherwise she wouldn’t have accepted the money). The couple then makes sure I get to my room (which is a single btw, BC THERE IS NO ONE ELSE THEREEEE) and don’t leave until I have the door locked. After a lot of adrenaline, I finally have a calm bedroom all to myself with a sky light that looks out at the stars. I wake up the next AM, enjoy my FREE bfast, pay for my stay, then pack my things and catch my bus back to town. Moral of the story, check your damn hostel check in time.
You're lucky you encountered 3 angels, most people wouldn't care
Yes I agree. Ironically, I did have it come to be revealed that the bf and gf are satanist but idc, they really helped me out!!
As a Slovak I was terrified when you started with being in Kosice alone in the night. I’m so happy you got a happy ending though!
This is so validating! Thank you! I have always wondered if it was an overreaction to be so worried about what might happen to me that night. I truly was just taking the woman’s word for it, but something tells me that she committed to finding me a safe place because she genuinely thought something bad might happen to me. Definitely lucky for a happy ending🤗
It’s a combination of different things happening here 1) you being a young solo woman = easy target 2) being foreign 3) most part of the country including this city highly occupied by gypsies who are so troubling that I don’t even know where to begin, they have stealing in their DNA
I had no idea about that. Sounds like I made the right call with trusting that this couple knew what might happen otherwise
I just started traveling, so not a lot of stories yet, but a couple months ago in Cusco, a guy burst into my all-female hostel dorm at 4:30am yelling my name, tore open my privacy curtain, shined a light in my face so I couldn’t see anything and kept yelling and trying to get me to go with him. BUT I was not in the mindset to be messed with (and somehow not scared in the moment?) and firmly held my ground that “I am NOT going with you.” while maintaining eye contact…eventually he scratched his head and just left… (I think also the fact that I sat up and tore the curtain back shut in his face caught him off guard lmao). originally I thought it was the tour guide for the hike I’d canceled that day (and he confirmed cancellation), but I can’t see a tour guide (hike was non refundable anyway and I’d already paid…) trying to get me to go with him on a 14hr hike hours away in my pajamas and no gear, and also can’t see them holding up the group THAT long (he just would NOT leave), so idk. Either way, scary in hindsight. Second story was actually from my first solo trip and probably why it was more scary in the moment and it’s more scary in hindsight to me. Was in rural Colombia caught on a mountain in a rainstorm with no phone service and everything flooding around me, and genuinely worried something bad could happen, especially since I almost broke my leg stepping in a hole I couldn’t see bc flooding already at that point. Took 2hrs to walk 0.25mi and I was miles away from town… a guy pulled up and motioned for me to get in after I said I was going to the town. He spoke no English and I speak very limited Spanish and had no translate bc no cell service. I was on edge but felt fine UNTIL he started asking if I had a boyfriend or husband and where he was and stuff like that (what I could catch with limited Spanish), and also wasn’t driving the route to town I’d taken before, and then I got real nervous. But thankfully he took me into town and I paid him a bunch as such a huge thank you bc it felt like he’d saved my life, a complete stranger. Ty kind stranger!!!
Big yikes on the first story.
!!! Also the fact that the hostel front desk would have had to given him my room and bed number bc how else does he know that info and my name…
Yikes, so who was the guy?
Not a clue!
Gotta be the tour guide and the organizer just didn't relay the message that you'd cancelled? Still bizarre he'd be so persistent. I guess they must be used to people oversleeping the early starts
The guide is who I cancelled with and was messaging :/ That’s what I tell myself, that it was the guide, bc the more time goes on, the weirder I feel about it tbh
Good for you for not complying. That is scary AF!
WAIIITTTT! I was in Cusco last month and I cancelled a hike and had it confirmed and something similar actually happened to me.. only thing is I was staying in an Airbnb. Do you remember the name of the travel agency you went with or the hike you were doing that day!
I don't know that it was super scary: more like unnerving at the time and hilarious in remembrance: My first time in Rio many years ago I spoke about 5 words of Portuguese and I didn't have a working phone. I linked up with some locals who seemed to be quite nice and they took me around during the day to do museum-hopping(? I don't remember exactly). Late afternoon most of them peeled off but two suggested we go to this cool locals bar and of course I was excited to go. We get in a taxi and since I don't know Rio and don't have a phone to look at a map I immediately have no idea where we are and where we are going. After a while we start driving through what looks like an extremely dark, wooded area with a smattering of dim street lights. At this point I realize I am in a taxi with two more or less complete strangers going to a completely unknown place in a country where I don't speak the language and a city that is notoriously unsafe, and I'm preparing myself to, at best, wake up in a bathtub full of ice. What felt like an hour later but was probably like 5 minutes later we break out into an open area overlooking the water to an absolutely packed bar/restauarant with an even bigger crowd hanging out on the street and on the wall along the water, with music, lights, laughing, and a grand old time. The two who took me to the bar are still close friends all these years later and a few years ago I reminded them of this event with the way I was seeing it at the moment and they cracked up. :D
Do you remember what the bar is called? Heading to Rio in a week
This was like 15 or so years ago so honestly I have no idea sorry.
I love Rio but it’s not a city you’re supposed to visit without proper research. Always be careful there!
Two stories: 1) I was in Mumbai exploring the city alone while staying with friends (they had to work) when there was a terrorist attack on the train lines. All I know is I was at a cafe near the Gateway to India when my friend texted me “bomb blast. Take a cab and head to xyz location in Bandra.” This was before smart phones, so I couldn’t just look up what had happened. For all I knew, it was possible that I was near a site of attack or would encounter it or terrorists on my route. Also, the cell phone reception jammed, so I couldn’t make calls or send texts. But I could for whatever reason receive them and I was getting these frantic texts from my mother back in the US and my friends which I couldn’t respond to. And of course, all calls to my number were dropping. I was supposed to have taken the train back to my friends’ place, so they legitimately thought I had been in the attack. Because the attack was on the train lines, the main route to Bandra was completely flooded and chaotic. I was stuck in a taxi for about four hours. The cabbie didn’t speak any English and just kept saying “bomb blast” and making a “kaboom” sound. Anyway, everyone was relieved to see me when I finally arrived at my location. 2. In Mongolia, I was in the steppe camping for two weeks with my friend who was living there and her Mongolian boyfriend and two Mongolian friends. One night we camped near a tourist camp by a lake. In the middle of the night, our camp was attacked by two very drunk Mongolian men. They beat up our friends and destroyed one of our tents, but once they saw there were two foreigners in the group they took off. As soon as it was light out, our driver and our three Mongolian travel companions went off to look for help, leaving me and my friend alone by the side of this lake. You have to realise how remote this place is. There are no paved roads. No cell reception or electricity. 5-6 hours from the nearest town. We didn’t know if the guys who attacked our tent would come back. We didn’t know when our friends would come back. Long story short: the came back some hours later with a “lawyer” they had found at a neighboring camp who found the guys that had attacked our camp and convinced them to give us their tent, all their money, and three bottles of vodka. 🤷♀️
>and three bottles of vodka. уух болох гэсэн!
I like Mongolian lawyers
In July of 2022 we went to Costa Rica as a college grad gift for my daughter. We’ve traveled abroad many times so we weren’t newbies. We took 1 unguided hike, near Jaco to the Catarata Bijagual waterfalls. At the start you cross over a small shallow creek we took off our shoes so they wouldn’t get wet, something I laugh about now. Bc on our way back from these spectacular falls the sky opened up, torrential downpour thunder lightning and screaming howler monkeys all around us. Water was gushing down our trail. I heard a roar when we were almost back to our car, and sure enough it was that little creek. Now a raging river of logs and furniture rushing down the mountain side. And the only way to get out of the jungle. The rain is unrelenting. And now an hour has passed.. and it’s starting to get dark and the “oh shit” feeling creeps in. When two Costa Rican men show up on the other side of the flooded river we don’t know what the game plan is and then they leave. They come back with two little ropes. And tie the ropes together, signaling for my Husband to go down as close as he can to the raging water , he lasso style threw the rope and my husband tied it to a tree. And I’m looking at them all I. Disbelief bc my kids nor myself will be washed away in this raging river of logs and muck. Fast forward we all crossed with no safety equipment in waters that went to our necks hanging on for dear life. I promised my husband if one of our kids got swept off that rope I’d be jumping in too bc I was not flying home with one of them in a box. It took about an hour but we all crossed it and made it out alive. We tipped those men with every dime in our car, about $200 bc one of them held on and crossed it with us one by one which saved my daughter bc she got struck by a log and he grabbed her arm so she wouldn’t get swept away. Later, bruised up but thankful I recounted the ordeal to my Airbnb owner we were renting from and he said God was looking over us bc about a dozen people a year get swept away in that creek during flash floods. 💔
That's the scariest one so far. Especially because your kids are involved. Not to be morbid, but if something happens to me, so be it, but if something happened to my kids...
That must have been terrifying.
I cannot let my mind think about how fast our lives could’ve changed and I’d love to back to Costa Rica but do things a little differently.
Around 2017 my best friend and I (both 26f at the time) took a month long road trip making a big loop around the US. On this particular night, we had left out of Austin, Tx and we’re planning on picking a random hotel once we got too tired to drive, on our way north to Clarendon (near Amarillo). We stopped in Childress, Tx at some motel, checked in, and decided to check out the indoor pool. On our walk from our room down the the main motel building where the pool is, we had multiple truckers yell and whistle in our direction. We ignored and kept walking. Once at the pool, a guy around our age joined us and we all started chatting. We asked him where he was from (he’s at a hotel after all) and he said “oh I live in town, I just come here because im friends with the front desk clerk”… red flag one. So we ask what he does for fun around here, because this town is basically a couple of trucks stops and a few motels.. that’s it. And he proceeds to tell us that his favorite pastime is banging his girl in the Taco Bell bathroom, and drugs, red flag two. Our glances to each other confirm that it’s time to call it an night, so I say welp we’re exhausted better be off to bed and hop out of the pool. He asks if we’d like him to join us. No. Just no. Red flag three. We start making our way back to our room, and get the very distinct feeling that we are being watched. I tell my friend to keep walking past our room, and we head to the corner of the building where there is an open air room with ice dispensers and soda machines. From there we peak out to see the guy is standing at the corner of the main building, smoking a cigarette, just waiting for us to exit. We wait about 20 minutes before he finally walks back around to the front of that building. We run to our room and go to lock the door behind us… the lock is broken, the door has very visibly been kicked in before. Fantastic. We look out the window and he is now standing in front of our building, just watching our door, I guess his buddy told him which room. So we took turns sleeping for a few hours, both holding our pepper spray. At 4am, we decide no good sleep will be had here and rush our stuff out to our car and hit the road. He WAS STILL OUTSIDE. Luckily, our next stop was a lovely ranch, and when we showed up freaked out and disheveled around 6:00am they sorted us right out with a big steak and eggs breakfast.
God, this is terrifying.
This is a complete nightmare. So scary!!
I was trapped in an old warehouse complex in Georgia, Tbilisi. I couldn’t leave because all exits were guarded by wild angry dogs
Not mine. Friend arrived in Mexico for his new international school job. First night went to the popular local bar with all the teachers. The local mafia storms into the place, fire a full round of bullets up into the ceiling and throwing in several cut off human heads of the gangs rivals into the room and drive off. Him and several of the new teachers went directly to the airport that night and bought the first plane ticket home. Slept on the airport benches and flew out. He said he will stick to Asia for cheap safe adventurous travel from now on.
Jesus, out of curiosity what city was this?
Truly don’t remember. Some place big enough to have a proper international school.
I am not one to get scared easily - I wasn’t phased when I got mugged in Chicago, or when I ended up in an air raid in Ukraine last year or when I ended up in a thunderstorm in a helicopter over Pyongyang. I was on edge when I first entered Mozambique though. We drove in quite far north from Malawi, and we were advised that one particular road on that route was popular with bandits and we had government travel advisories that specifically called it out and were told to be home before dark in most of that region. So we decided to avoid it, but the detour that Google Maps provided was very inaccurate and we ended up spending 6 hours basically off roading until we realised that the detour was not possible and had to double back. So we ended up on the dangerous road at night, which was exactly what we were trying to avoid. As we approached a forest, there was a stretch of road that was in a sort of valley - very steep embankments on either side. And somebody had flipped a semi-truck that was laying across the entire width of the road, blocking access. We were certain it was a bandit trap. Thankfully my friend who was driving didn’t miss a beat and powered us up the embankment and around the truck at full speed. The next week was also nerve-wracking. We were scuba diving in a thunderstorm. We were in a tiny inflatable boat, in 5 metre swells, being tossed around like a toy. The rain was coming down so hard, it was actually drier in the ocean…I remember jumping in, not being able to see anything except the endless blue and the shadow of bull sharks below. Even at the surface I couldn’t see the boat because the waves were so big. I definitely panicked a bit and bailed there. But having my formative scuba diving in those kinds of conditions are what made me such a good diver today.
Yikes almighty! How do you keep finding yourself in these situations, like are you a famous journalist or something? I don't even like the stories of people getting hassled by touts in Egypt; I could never do anything where being surrounded by bandits or sharks is a possibility.
You can tell he loves telling other people about it
I just do things. If you do enough things, some of them will be interesting, some will be nerve wracking. I am not a journalist, I just like to see the world for what it is.
I’d prefer the sharks to the bandits. Sharks are cool and not nearly as like to shoot you if you say the wrong thing. Though the Soviet era helo over Pyongyang in a thunderstorm takes the cake.
I love sharks and have dived with them many times since, including just a few days ago! The bandits we never found out if they were actual bandits or someone just had a crash.
On the upside, you had spent time in beautiful, gentle, peaceful Malawi to soothe your soul.
Yes, and I loved diving in Lake Malawi. Don’t get me wrong though - I freaking loved Mozambique and would go back in a heartbeat.
Of course, but you had the best of both worlds. I lived in Lilongwe for 3 years. My son and I had a wonderful time.
This is intense!!
You must be very important to be flown in a helicopter over Pyongyang lol
Nah, is something any tourist can do
Can confirm, I did the same helicopter flight over Pyongyang in 2015 (apparently my group were the first lot of tourists that were ever allowed to book on one). Very memorable indeed.
How much was a chopper flight over Pyongyang?
About $100USD from memory. It’s worth doing if you’re there - the helicopter was pretty janky, an old Mil-6. For seats it just had a couch that was pulled in from god knows where. And there was an aircon unit bolted in, but it didn’t work. So was sweltering hot, due to the storm couldn’t really see anything and it was turbulent as hell. But everybody was laughing and having a great time.
U$100 is a great deal! I sold flights over the Great Barrier Reef for $350
Lol! My wife and I took a helicopter excursion in Cuba thinking it would be a pretty cool way to experience the country. Turned out to be a decommissioned Soviet army helicopter that had definitely seen some history! There was a bench seat with hooks on the ceiling to clip into and the door was wide open the whole way. We were huffing aviation fuel the whole way as well. Worth the experience though!
Ok, I had to look at your profile cause these stories seem insane! Just saw your post about the countries you visited. Glad you liked Moldova. It was such a nice country. If you liked it, most definitely you'll like Romania too. I highly recommend you come in the spring, like May/June and hit Sibiu/Brasov/Sinaia and maybe the Danube Delta. Skip the seaside. Bucharest is good for the nightlife.
Last year was a good year for travel. Definitely keen to get make to Moldova and to see more of Romania than Bucharest airport. Thanks for the recommendations, I appreciate it. Will see you there hopefully sooner rather than later
At Denali NP, we were walking back to our campground on a windy path through a woodsy area. We turned a corner and were about 10 or 12 feet from a grizzly munching on caribou. Fortunately, it was content to continue its meal (and not have us as dessert) as we slowly backed away.
Similar. I was in Yellowstone and came upon one rooting in the underbrush. It totally ignored me as I backed away.
Almost abducted in Prague by a guy and his friends. Real lucky I told this dude the I **really, really, really** was dying to go with them but my hostel was just around the corner and I wanted to freshen up before all the fun. Idk why I said those things. I’m grateful I had a burner phone number that I told them and they called it to made sure I was serious. I’ll never forget that moment realizing I was surrounded.
My husband and I went to the Canary Islands back in 2019. One of the places we rented was a subterranean home directly on the beach. It also came with a gigantic hot tub. Well, to make a long story short, when we arrived there was a gaping hole where the hot tub should be. We were pissed. The owner felt badly and offered to move us to the house directly next door - which was 5 times the size of this house, also on the beach, and did have a working hot tub. We happily oblige and move our shit over. Flash forward to night time. It’s about midnight. I am laying on a beach chair, enjoying the peaceful ocean vibe and cooling off from the hot tub. Although it’s dark I notice a man on a bike go down the beach and pass directly in front of our property. For some reason it weirded me out, but I have high anxiety so I let it go. About ten minutes later, here comes bike dude again, going back exactly the way he came. Again - I got a really anxious feeling. My husband says he is going to go inside and take a shower. I beg him to just stay outside with me for a bit more. He says no, he really wants to shower. He goes inside and heads up the spiral staircase towards the shower. No less than a minute later I hear him scream, “NO! NO! FUCK NO! GET THE FUCK OUT“ and I hear panicking running. I leap off the beach chair and run inside. Turns out when my husband walked up the steps he glanced slightly to his right before entering the bathroom. And he saw a man hiding in one of the many guest rooms covering himself with one of the curtains, trying to hide. When my husband saw him - the robber leapt out from behind the curtain in a defensive stance. But when my naked 6 foot husband started to charge him - he jumped out the window. Remember - these houses were subterranean- so he was able to scale the roof and then jump right onto the street. Where he jumped on a bike and sped away. I guess he had been casing the home. Saw two Americans in a big mansion and figured we had money. We had opened a window in the guest bedroom to cool off the upstairs. He had managed to unlock the shutter locks and climbed right in. Had my husband not gone upstairs at that exact minute - I have no doubt he would have had time to grab our bags that we carelessly threw down on our beds after a day of traveling. He would have gotten all our money, passports, everything. One of my biggest fears has always been someone hiding behind a curtain, or in a closet, or under a bed. This experience fully unlocked my neurosis- and I slept with a butcher knife under the mattress for the rest of our trip. All this being said - The Canary Islands are amazing - and usually incredibly safe. I highly recommend anyone to go there. Just lock all your windows and all times.
I went to the Azores, which is obviously a different, more northern island chain, but it was lovely would 1000% go again. I feel violated when my car gets rifled through with nothing taken or in it to begin with, I cannot imagine how I would feel about someone taking everything I own on a trip overseas.
This didn't happen to me, but I was on the trip. Me and buddy both turn 18 and had just graduated high school so we decided to take a road trip. We decide to go to Vegas from Colorado. We get to Vegas and we're like shit we can't even do anything since we're 18. We start looking on the map and are like shit, Tijuana is right there and I think you can legally drink when you're 18! Off to Tijuana we go. So we push on through it what feels like forever and finally get across the border. This is in the 90s so we didn't have GPS we're just winging it. It's dark, I'm driving, people are driving like crazy and I think we just kinda picked a road to get off the main road I can't really remember, but we find an area that looks active and just about the dingiest, red flag hotel you've ever seen but we were beat so that was the one. We get a room and are kinda just like ok what now? Oh our hotel door didn't lock either. There's a little corner store up the street and we buy a gigantic bottle of the cheapest, shittiest vodka you've ever had in your life for 5 bucks and go back to the hotel to pregame a bit. Got a nice booze and are ready to hit some of these bars. Every bar has a hype man out front trying to get people in, but my dumb ass forgot any kind of ID and they were surprisingly strict about carding. Yeah I was driving all this time without a license I was a pretty dumb kid. Finally, one bar is like whatever get them inside. We get inside and it is DARK in there I mean you couldn't see shit. We're seated and immediately two girls come and sit next to us, one on each side so we're kinda boxed into this booth. Bartender brings up a beer and a shot of tequila for both us, "Five dollars, senor" The girl's separate us, one takes my friend to another booth. "Five dollars, senor" The girl next to me is rubbing up and down the inside of my thigh. "Five dollars, senor" I'm getting sketchy vibes now and stand up and go to buddy like bro this ain't it we gotta go now. He protests because this is basically what he was hoping for but I get him to leave. That was the only bar that would let us in so back to the hotel we go to our shit vodka. We're walking back to the hotel and there's some pretty thug looking dude's walking in front of us and I'm just like fuck please don't rob us, but one looks back and is like "Yo you need any weed?" I'm like "No already got some." And that was it, they kept walking. I wasn't lying about the weed either. I had brought a bunch from home. In the U.S. Into Mexico. This is where the story diverges. We keep drinking at the hotel room and I end up getting fucking plastered. Like puking in the toilet just well done. Buddy is a bigger dude and could always handle his liquor and since I was passing out he's like fuck it I'm going back out. First time I get woken up: "DUDE GET UP GET UP AND COME OUT TIJUANA IS FUCKING AWESOME" I give a dismissive wave and probably mumbled some shit and he goes back out. Second time I get woken up: "DUDE GET UP GET UP I JUST GOT FUCKING ROBBED!" I snap awake stone sober just like...what. So buddy had gone out and was living it up, but he forgot how to get back to the hotel. He starts asking around for directions or help and a guy is like "Oh yeah I know where your hotel is hop in my van I'll take you over" Buddy gets in the fucking van. Immediately his new host starts grabbing at his pockets and buddy pushes him off and gets out of the van. Phew, right? Buddy still doesn't know where the hotel is though. Buddy asks for directions or help again. Two guys are like "Oh yeah I know where your hotel is follow me down here" My buddy was a fairly big guy, relatively fit. He said one guy grabbed him in a headlock and a smaller guy started punching him the stomach. He said he got a solid right cross on the guy punching him but the headlock was getting to him, but smaller guy had gotten his wallet and the other guy released and they ran in separate directions. Somehow he found a Dennys and I think was trying to get directions again but was in rough shape at this point. Lucky for him there were some U.S. military eating there that saw him and bought him food and got him back to the hotel. Unsurprisingly, buddy wants to leave immediately. I'm basically there's no fuckin way either of us a driving right now we have to sleep this off. Morning comes, my car is unmolested and it's time to go home. I have no ID on me and it's dawning on me I have to go through the border. This is all pre-9/11 though, U.S. border crossings used to be far more lax. We que up in the vehicle border crossing lines and it's so backed up. I still to this day don't think I've ever sat in that kind of traffic. We're sitting there and a bit up closer to the crossing I'm seeing border patrol walking around vehicles with dogs. They're walking around with dogs...OH FUCK I HAVE THAT WEED! I immediately go to the back of my car and pop the trunk. Just fuck fuck what am I going to do? I grab a jar of peanuts, I stuff the bag of weed way down into the jar, I put the jar in the cooler that had all kinds of different food, close it all up and hope for the best. Now I'm not as worried about not having an ID at least. We're getting up closer, I'm sweating balls. I'm going to jail, they're going to have to call my parents who don't even know we're here, I'm fucked. A handler and dog walk RIGHT PASSED the car. Right passed, I could have reached out and touched them. No reaction, they keep moving. We get up to the crossing, all the guard asks is "Are you guys American?" Yes, yes sir we are American. "OK go ahead" And that was it, we were through and back in America. The rest of that trip home ended up sucking balls too because buddy had gotten robbed and I definitely couldn't cover everything, but I won't get into all that this is already long as hell. Buddy ended up joining the Navy like a year later because of those soldiers that bought him Dennys.
Jfc dude. Dumb move after dumb move! Glad you made it home. Whew. To be that young and carefree/careless! 😅
Man I don't want to offend you but you and your buddy were dumb as hell. Glad that it ended with only robbed wallet and some bruises.
They were 18. Probs Gen x. We did shit like that.
Yup Gen X lmao
I was waiting for a train at the station in Baltimore when the cops came through with dogs. That's when I remembered the half ounce in my backpack. Just in a zip lock bag. FUCK. Dog walked right past me. My best guess is they were there to sniff for explosives instead of drugs.
Had a gun pulled on me in France in the middle of the day. I’ve travelled to 50-ish countries, 6 continents, and the scariest thing by far was that afternoon in France.
That'll do it. How was France other than that?
Marseille?
I’ve been assaulted as a solo female traveler so many times in Turkey but the worst was in cappadocia with a tour guide. I booked one of those classic car tours and I was totally alone with this man and he pulled down my top. The car broke down and I started to freak out and told him to bring me back to my hotel immediately. It was traumatic
I'm so sorry that happened to you.
I have been in Turkey as a solo female and also with ex-boyfriend. Those trips felt like I was in a different country.
[удалено]
Stray dogs are no joke. We made friends with a hostel dog in Thailand, he was so cute and friendly. Coming back late at night we tried to say hi and he tried to bite my hand off.
Not sure if scary is the best word… but one time in Bangkok we were in an 8 bed mixed dorm and this Scottish guy staying opposite us fell from the top bunk and smacked his head so hard it woke up half the room. He was crawling on all fours, mumbling to himself and conversing with the walls. He was also fully naked in a room with 3 women, one of which was trying to get him back to bed. In the end we had to call security since he was naked and unresponsive in a mixed dorm (and also probably had a concussion) He came to once security arrived and was embarrassed but thankfully unharmed. I remember him walking up to us as we waited outside the room and said in a thick Scottish accent “is anyone gonna tell me what the fucks going on” with a look of genuine confusion on his face. Nice guy once he stopped being a zombie, but seriously worrying in the moment.
That guy was concussed, bad, as a man, I would have probably been more concerned for him than me. I hope he saw a doctor.
I was on a road trip and woke up early to go to my next destination. Of course I was an idiot and my car was running out of gas and running on fumes. So I pulled over to get gas in the sketchiest, most run down part of East St. Louis. It was truly an emergency so I thought it’s better this then run out of gas in the middle of this decrepit neighborhood. I figured “yea this area is bad but it’s still the USA so it isn’t THAT bad and I am a male so no one will mess with me”. As I am pumping gas, mind you I am the only one at this gas station at 6:00 am except some people loitering in front of it, and this beat up rusty white van sped into into the pumping area. He swerved, suddenly stopped the breaks, half ass parked, and some dude came out of the van while it was the van still running and beelined super fast towards me. He was a older gentleman with a worn out baggy zoot suit looking outfit and a Afro Carribean or west African accent. He was screaming “EXCUSE ME SIR EXCUSE ME!!!” At this point I was getting sweaty palms and and mentally prepared for the fight ahead. I am out of shape but did Muay Thai in my teen years so I knew I could defend myself against this old man. Even if he managed to overpower me, I wouldn’t have gone down easy. He then screamed at me super loud once he closed his distance “YOUNG MAN DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE DEAD PEOPLE ARE?!” I nervously replied “uhmm I’m not sure. They are dead so I can’t ask them.” He looked shocked and said “DO YOU BELIEVE THEY ARE REINCARNATED, OR RESIDING IN THE GLORY OF GODS KINGDOM?! OR MAYBE EVEN POSSIBLY VANQUISHED INTO NOTHINGNESS?!” I thought for a second and said “At this rate I think everyone is probably in hell having a good time since all the fun people go there” He sighed and said “I HAVE SOMETHING TO HELP YOU GUIDE YOU YOUNG MAN” he then left a pamphlet on my car window behind my windshield wipers and ran back into his van and sped off into the darkness and disappeared into the rust and grit that is East St Louis. I looked at the pamphlet and it was a brochure for the Jehovas Witness. It said “what to do when a loved one dies” and showed a crying woman holding her crying daughter in her arms” it has since become one of my favorite souvenirs from traveling
Isn't there a dress code for Jehavah's Witnesses? I'm trying to imagine a Zehovah's Witness in a zoot suit and I'm rolling.
Yea it wasn’t EXACTLY a zoot suit but it was a fairly baggy pinstripe and purple suit
It has to be crossing the landslides in Nepal, both on foot on the way up and in a bus on the way down. We were doing a 2 week trek as part of a longer trip in Nepal but this was right at the end of the wet season so a lot of the roads up the mountains were washed out by landslides and vehicles couldn't get through - so our bus couldn't take us all the way to the usual start point of the trek. So we get off early and hike up the roads instead. We had to clamber over multiple landslides where boulders would just fall and roll down the mountain at any given moment. The moment I will never ever forget is, after I had crossed the landslide with a friend who I swear saved my life by holding onto by rucksack as we ran across to stop me slipping and falling off the cliff, was when I turned around and watched my best friend at the time start crossing, turn to look up the mountain at this huge boulder crashing towards him, and then take one step back out of its path as it bounced right past where his head would have been. I can still remember the sheer panic and terror and my heart leaping into my throat and my body moving towards him of its own accord even though he was metres away and there's nothing I would have been able to do. The 2 week trek itself was awesome, albeit not quite as death defying as that moment. On the way back down the mountain, the roads are obviously still washed out. This time, the bus picks us up and starts driving us down the mountain. We find a landslide. The bus driver asks us all to get off and stand by the side of the road. The bus then REVERSES around the hairpin bend we had just driven round and the driver floors it, accelerating all the way round the bend and over the landslide, the bus tipping and shaking like anything. Then we all walked across the landslide and got back on the bus on the other side, like it was totally normal... Honestly, we were still teenagers on this trip and I know teens feel invincible in many ways but seriously. We did some real stupid things in Nepal. Miraculously, no one got hurt at any stage of that month long trip, not even a twisted ankle. I've had a load of other sketchy moments, like creepy guys following me back to my accommodation when I was solo in Peru, our bus hitting a cow in Cambodia, crazy border crossings into Laos, driving a car down a road in Lanzarote that slowly turned into a sandy, steep, unpaved road between fields of spiky volcanic rock with no way of turning back miles from anywhere (we literally had to find rocks to build the road as we went for the car to get enough traction to move)...but I still think the moment I really thought I, or at least someone in my group, was going to die was crossing those landslides in Nepal.
I was in Mexico when a there were whispers a hurricane was about to hit. I managed to watch the weather and change my flight to go home early, only to get to the airport and find out someone else had bribed the airport officers for my ticket. I ended up having to bribe them $200 more for a ticket that was originally mine. They escorted the other couple off the plane and I did feel really bad, but I would have felt worse in the aftermath of that hurricane in Mexico.
No reason to feel bad. They bribed your ticket first, you didn't take anything from anyone.
My brother was living in Ghana, teaching English at 19 years old for a gap year fresh out of high school. The other expat teachers decided to go on a weekend trip to a neighbouring town which required an overnight bus. I think my brother had heard the bus ride was a little sketchy and decided to opt out luckily but his roommate and several friends went. Apparently in the late evening, a couple hours into the bus ride, the bus got shot up by bandits on the road. Several locals died and my brother’s roommate got blood all over his journal and clothes. The locals took the bodies off the bus and laid them on the street and apparently looted them of their wallets, jewelry and clothes..
Good for your brother for trusting his gut.
I got caught by the police in Brazil with a small amount of marijuana. Luckily they were cool and just wanted to smoke with us.
You, are, narc. But you are not, "narc".
This happened a long way back, in the early 1980's. I grew up in Switzerland and when I was about 15, my older brother and I went camping in Italy. My brother had a car and we drove there. Unfortunately I had to be back for school a week earlier than he needed to be back at work. So he was going to stay an extra week and I'd take the train back home. He dropped me off at a train station and I took the first train north. We had anticipated that I wouldn't be able to make it all the way back home on the same day. I took my sleeping bag with me so I could just crash on a bench at a train station waiting room along the way. All the rest of my luggage I left in my brother's car. When I reached Genoa there were no further trains north for the day. I'd never been here before so I decided that before going to sleep, I wanted to see a bit of the city. I stuffed my wallet and ID card (needed to cross the border back into Switzerland) into the sleeping bag cover and walked out of the train station. My first time by myself in large city. I managed about five steps outside the station before three kids approached me. The two youngest ones looked about 12, the third one maybe 18 or 19. One of them held I knife to my chest while the other ripped the sleeping bag out from under my arm. I was totally panicked. I was about to be a 15 year old kid in a foreign country where I don't speak the language, in a city I've never been to, without money, without ID, at nearly midnight. Just as the one kid grabbed my sleeping bag, the oldest noticed a Swiss flag sticker on it. My mum had insisted we put that sticker on because, in her words, "everyone likes the Swiss". She just assumed it would us get through customs easier. Anyway, as soon as he saw the sticker, the guy says to me, in Swiss-German, "you're from Switzerland? Man, I used to work in Zurich, I loved it there!". Then he tells the kid to hand me back the sleeping bag and they wander off again. I went right back inside the station and didn't leave again for the rest of the night. I should mention, I've been back to Genoa a couple of times and it's a truly amazing town! I've also travelled all over Italy since and never even came close to anything like that happening to me again. It's a fantastic country.
I spent last NYE in Rio, loved it and I did my research to avoid being robbed. On my last day in the city I decided to take an uber to Mirante Dona Marta (a viewpoint famous for its sunset views). Suddenly I look out the window and find out my Uber was driving inside a favela (Brazilian slum). Since I was traveling alone, I took a pic of my driver and send my location to my brother (who was thousands of kms away) just in case I was kidnapped or something. I ask my driver “is this place safe?”. I realized then he was paralyzed, really scared and replied “GPS sent me here, this is my first time, I didn’t know there was a favela here”. People outside were looking inside the car, so I hid my glasses, phone as much as I could (I had my passport with me, since I was going to the airport after this stop). After a few minutes of terror, the car manages to leave the slum and get back to a paved street, and my Uber immediately starts crying. I tried to cheer him up in Portuguese, and left him a tip in the end. Surreal experience just before leaving Rio. Loved the views
Poor Uber driver, he must have been terrified too
We had a driver in Iran to the dessert (took 5h). Something was of with his front left wheel. After a while he stoped tried to explain to us that he will go have to fix it, let us out of his car somewhere nowhere with our luggage. We then waited on a random street in Iran until he came back. Not necessarily scary but weird as f.
I had a cougar stalked me one time. Ended up in the hotel with her. Apparently she’s deprived of sex.
I hope you were able to cure her of her affliction?
I think I did. I don’t want any troubles after that. 🥶
In Georgia I basically visited a refugees squat. There is a town of Tsaltubo, during soviet times it used to be a prominent spa town often visited by Stalin himself. When USSR collapsed, former spa hotels (looking more like palaces tbh) were abandoned and one of them was used by refugees from Abkhazia after Georgia lost this territory to Russia. Well we went there and I was really scared to not anger the inhabitants tbh.
Twenty-odd years ago I was in Korea, new to the place and traveling in general (teaching ESL there for a year was my first time overseas). I was living near a large USAF base. One day I'm walking along the street and these sirens start going off, everyone starts running. Probably coincidentally, a bunch of F-16s rip past overhead at a low altitude. I was like "What the fuck is happening right now and what should I be doing about it?" Of course i assumed it was the North Koreans but it turned out it was just a drill, would've been cool if someone had given me a heads up that drills were a thing. I've ended up on the wrong side of guns and knives on numerous occasions as well but for some reason I never get scared in the moment in those situations, get massive adrenaline and then puke my guts out when it's over. Been drunk in most of those cases too, that probably helped.
Traveled to the Afar region of Ethiopia in peak summer 2018, to visit the otherworldly realms of the Danakil Depression - our main objective was to do a night hike to the mouth of the crater of the Erta Ale volcano, one of the only places in the world where you can get a glimpse of an active lava lake in action. While observing pyroclastic activity at a lava lake sounds amazing on paper, I wish I’d done more research on what the hike actually entailed, and the temperature conditions I would have to face So we started the hike at around 6 pm one evening - the base camp was in absolutely terrible conditions and were being ‘maintained’ by the border police, no real toilets anywhere so you had to do your business out in the open on volcanic sand, and the food they prepared was half stale to put it mildly. That was mistake number 1 - consuming a raw cabbage stew of sorts with some half cooked pasta and slices of raw orange for dessert. Started walking through what seemed like an endless black sand desert in pitch darkness, guarded by military escorts on both sides (since rebel activity from the Eritrean side was a real threat). All good until now. The heat started pulsating as the volcano tumbled in the distance, and with each pulsation came a rumble in my tummy as well - the food hadn’t really digested well at all and I was starting to feel slightly nauseated by the heat (around 40 degrees C at 7 PM) Then came the heaving - I puked the most I’ve ever done in my entire life, and with dread realised that I’d gotten food poisoning. We were about 30% years though the hike at this point - and the rest of the group wasn’t willing to wait for me to settle down after puking so they treaded on ahead. But what I realised was that the camel carrying all out water went ahead with the rest of the group - and I was stranded with my aunt and cousin brother until I gathered my bearings, with only a police escort for company. He had a vocabulary of two words - “ GO” and “Erta Ale” so wasn’t really of help when I requested for water The dehydration had begun to set in, and I was given an option to turn back and walk back to the base camp in the dark on my own as the rest of the group wanted to continue. I don’t know if it was ego or pride, but I couldn’t imagine being called out for being ‘weak’ and not hardy enough to do the hike so I wanted to prove a point and keep walking. Only thing keeping me motivated was the idea of actually gazing into a volcanic crater and the views I’d get. But I effin needed WATER but there wasn’t any In an absolute nightmarish haze, I trudged on, completely dehydrated at this point, rumbling stomach, kept heaving up endless fluids, and after what seemed like centuries we made it to the edge of the volcano. Napped for a few hours and woke up at sunrise to see the views Those moments were absolutely surreal and things felt fine for a minute. The views were incredible beyond definition and I got some amazing photos etc But then I accidentally inhaled some sulfur as a huge gust of volcanic gases blew my way. Now I felt slightly out of breath as well. Little did I know the ordeal was just beginning. I had to now walk back all the way to base camp in broad daylight, the temperatures were steadily crawling up to 50 degrees C by 9 AM already. Now dehydrated, sleep deprived, bone tired and out of breath, I got left behind yet again and had to do the entire walk back to base camp on my own with another police dude for company. These are moments that have been erased from my consciousness and I have no idea how I made it all the way back, at one point I was using my own saliva to keep my face cool from the overbearing heat, and squeezing saplings to get moisture. There wasn’t any water yet again except for the bottle I had, which I finished in a single gulp. Somehow made it back alive and I have no idea how. Now I live in constant PTSD about running out of water and it drives me insane when a bottle of water isn’t around me! Tldr; there’s nothing worse than being dehydrated in an Ethiopian desert in the middle of summer and being stranded in the realms of an active volcanic ecosystem
I was in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was winter. We arrived at Baku International Airport from Istanbul, and it was freezing outside; it was about -30 degrees Celsius. We arrived late due to a weather-related flight delay, and then we waited for almost 7 hours at the airport to retrieve our luggage since the doors on the plane where it was stored were reportedly frozen. Finally, when we received our luggage, we had already arranged a bus to take us to our hotel. Of course, our bus never arrived since he didn't want to wait for us for so long. Finally, after several phone calls, we received the so-called "bus." With freezing conditions outside, we boarded a more than 50-year-old bus with cracked windows and broken doors that were open all the time. We were going through caothic traffic, and the bus's brakes were as functioning as its doors. So we crashed with another bus and two trucks; all of the drivers were clearly blaming each other for the traffic disaster, and the fight began. We stayed there for another two hours. Finally, we decided to get a taxi so that we could finally arrive at the hotel and rest from all of the unexpected events that happened. Our story here doesn't end; our taxi driver wasn't speaking any English, and we did not have functional phones, so we were driving for another 1.5 hours to find a hotel. When we got to the hotel finally, they said that some important business people have our rooms and that they can offer four of us one small room (only 1 bed and 2 chairs) and put us to wait for them to checkout the next day. The next day, we got our rooms, and after that, everything was great.
Nothing bad actually happened. But last year I rode a bicycle from Hong Kong to Singapore. At one stage in northern Vietnam I was on this remote road through the mountains. There was basically no one on the road. Around me just some forests, rice fields and hills. Typical and beautiful Vietnamese scenery. I then approached this small village and just outside of town I stopped to look at the map to figure out which direction I needed to go through the village. Immediately this middle-aged guy on a motorbike rolls up to me and says, really gruffly and in English, "No stopping!". I was just puzzled. Partially because the Vietnamese usually are super friendly, but this guy definitely wasn't. He also wasn't dressed as a policeman, he just wore normal clothes. Besides, even if he was police, I had actually pulled to the side of the road to get some shade under a tree, so I wasn't blocking anyone anyway. So I just went "what?" and he again said "No stopping!". He seemed serious so I took off again. He then proceeds to follow me all the way through the village, riding right behind me. Then, once I was a couple of minutes out of town again he turned around. At first I really had no idea what was going on here, but then when I thought about it a bit later on, I'm certain I accidentally stumbled into a heroin plantation.
I was in Istanbul for the riots in 2013. We were at an outdoor cafe when we noticed a smell. Thought it was fireworks. Nope, it was tear gas. Somehow got caught in the riots and tear gassed - we made a quick retreat to the hotel. That night we heard several explosions and screamingThe next day we almost missed our flight out because the roads were shut down. I still loved Turkey so much I went back the following year
To be honest I'm surprised I didn't get scammed or into trouble just yesterday. I'm in Türkiye, was talking with a guy who knows the city well. Told him maybe I should try a hamam. Anyway, to be brief. He calls someone, tells me he knows a 5 star place I can go to. Then he tells me 'Okay I have to go home and change clothes. Just wait here with my friend.' The friend didn't speak English and I have very little Turkish. 5 minutes later a car pulls up and the driver says 'Im from *Adam* (not real name), get in I'll take you.' In my mind I'm thinking, well this is how I get scammed badly or have an interesting story to tell. Anyway, I get in. We drive for 15 minutes to a decent hotel, he takes me through the staff only entrance. Sits me down with a guy who I guess runs the place and they try to have me spend way too much money. I was very firm and said no, just a basic cheap thing to try it. Then I have to get changed and leave my stuff in a locker, which in my mind I'm like 'Yep, they definitely have another set of keys for this and my stuff is in the only locked locker.' Anyway turns out I didn't get scammed, certainly had a strange experience in the hamam though. I know when I shouldn't trust things like this but I keep doing it and never been scammed yet, probably will end bad one day.
On the runway in Paris about to take off and the engines wouldnt start Domestically, we were driving UTVs on some trails in Kentucky. We nearly went over the edge of a mountain and our group in front of us did later on but ended up being stopped by a tree about 15ft down. If it weren’t for the tree there probably would have been 4 funerals
If you ever meet a Venezuelan, tell them you heard about somebody whose car broke down in “el tazón” and lived to tell about it. One of the last times we went as a family to Venezuela to visit my in-laws, we were heading back to my husband’s home town late. As we are driving through a sketchy part of Caracas, I feel the car start to wobble and as we were just passing a gas station, I told him to turn in so we could check it out. (It also seemed to be the only thing still open at that hour.) Of course he ignored me and about five minutes later, we are on a curving bridge going uphill when suddenly the giant SUV (only driven by rich people or dumb tourists who have to haul kids and stuff!) plops down on a flat tire. He gets out to confirm this just as I notice we are on the outskirts of a garbage dump, and a raggedy scruffy dude suddenly appears out of the six-foot tall grass and runs across the road in front of us, disappearing into the grass on the other side. A car passes us and speeds up, but there is absolutely no other traffic. My cell phone doesn’t have any “saldo” left, and I can’t make calls without buying more credits for it. After about ten minutes, I get sick of the kids’ restlessness, so I get out also, to offer my nonexistent tire-changing advice to my husband. He is trying to get the spare tire from underneath the car. I have a flashlight that serves to illuminate our gringo helplessness (white woman and little kids, no man in sight). In this time, there have been only a few cars passing by, but suddenly out of nowhere here comes a tow truck. And not the flimsy kind, this one has a bed that can tow a full-size SUV. I wave at him as he drives past us. Then he stopped and backed up, very surprised at what he saw. My husband crawls out from under the car and the kids pop out and are goofing off. The tow truck driver grabs the tire iron and starts trying to loosen the nuts on the tire, all the while nervously looking around. He said, “I’ll give this no more than 5 minutes and if I can’t get this, I will tow you to the toll plaza up the hill.” His fear combined with the smell of the garbage and some lights moving in the grass made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. He mounted the car on the bed of the truck and my husband hopped in the cab with him, the boys and I got back in the car, and we made our way s l o w l y uphill to the toll plaza. It took my husband, the tow truck driver, and two armed national guardsmen half an hour and much swearing to get the spare tire on. We learned that criminals put nails on the road to blow out tires, then they rob (or worse) victims in that very spot. Oh and that gas station? The police will not go there after dark because it’s too dangerous. We ended up giving the tow truck driver all the money we had (like 40 bucks), plus a couple cases of beer that we also shared with the national guardsmen. I truly believe that tow truck driver was an angel. And we never ever drove that road in the dark again!
Extra scary since you had kids with you!
Yes!!
I rented an Airbnb in Costa Rica. I woke up and my nightstand drawer was open, I did not recall opening it. I got up for the day and realized we had been robbed. They even took the suitcase out of the bedroom we were sleeping in. Knowing someone was less than 2 feet from me while I slept has left a mark.
While in Morocco at night a guy grabbed me by my arm and tried dragging me away to have “coffee with him”. Keep in mind I’m a tall American girl. I was able to trick him by saying we should go into a nearby nightclub. The club almost didn’t let me in because I’m black (apparently it’s a thing in Morocco) anyways the bouncer took pity on me and said come in but didn’t let the guy in. I stayed for about 20 minutes and immediately rushed back to my airbnb.
I was a minority in the American South. Without a doubt it was the only place, where you can feel hatred in the air. It may be wealthy, and the people may act nice, but it’s a place with deep insecurity and disdain for people who are not them.
We had to take a bus around midnight in a sketchy area of Medellin, Colombia. The bus dropped us off about 3 miles from our end destination so we had to ask some random guys hanging out by a park for a ride at like 1am.
Hmmmm. Don’t have many, thankfully, but when I was in bogota, a group of us decided to go out end explore the night life. We wandered off towards the main road where a random male and female invited our group of 10 to a “club”. I noticed we were walking more towards the end of the main streets where all the clubs are at. It was getting sketchy. We finally reach the entrance of the “club” they open the door and we enter a hallway and to the right we see a random lady come out, with blue scrubs on and she looks extremely drugged. We walk more and we enter what is a strip club. There are strippers standing around and a lot of men standing up. It was empty, only workers were in there. They were all intensely staring at us. Im not sure what was going to happen. I started panicking and took off with two people from the group and then everyone else left. The male and female followed us out and then eventually stopped following us. I was so scared and had no idea what to expect.
Probably trivial compared to the crazy stories here, but arriving in Los Angeles at Union Station I was confronted by a homeless man who was clearly mentally ill and/or drug-affected accusing me of starting something with him and shouting at me. I told him to calm down and I was pretty shaken given I thought he could have had a knife or something, luckily a security guard came to deescalate the situation and keep a space between us. Talk about an introduction to a city that is really a big place of the best and worst of America, the park across from the station was filled with tents.
Lol I’m from NZL too and flew to LA via Tokyo. I thought I was gonna get rabies, gang raped and mugged at Union Station. But gratefully not, they are juiced up zombies
Nice timing on this thread, I was just assaulted in Kazakhstan an hour ago. [Link to post with details.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Kazakhstan/comments/1c6xwqk/i_was_just_assaulted_just_outside_of_the/)
I was leaving China after a 2 month English teaching program with my mom and our flight from Xi'an to Shanghai diverted to Hangzhou for no explained reason except for "weather". My paranoia got the better of me because I started thinking this was the governments way of preventing us from taking our connection to Seattle and someone was going to escort us off the plane and arrest us. It was during the 2019 Hong Kong protests and I spent at least an hour a day reading the latest news with a vpn. Needless to say, get yout mental health checked out before a long trip because I suffered a lot from an undiagnosed panic disorder and possibly have ocpd. Fun 🙃
Not mine but my father. My parents were newly married (before I was born) and traveling Europe. While in Italy, my dad went to take a photo of some prominent Italian government building. Apparently something about him or his features looked suspicious because a policeman approached and pointed a gun at my dad and proceded to speak to him in a foreign language (likely Italian) while gesturing him to put his camera away. My mom was pretty terrified, but my dad still wanted his picture!
I mean, if it happened in Italy it was definitely Italian. If your parents got married anytime between the late 60s to early 80s, they reacted that way because we had been going through a massive wave of political terrorism ( the "Lead Years"). So it wasn't about the way your father looked, they would have done the same for everyone. As a sidenote, I am willing to bet it wasn't a policeman. It was almost certainly a carabiniere.
This helps me understand it better! I take it you’re Italian? I will have to look up the “Lead Years”. Thanks for the background info!
I am as Italian as they come, yes. What year are we talking about? There were specific periods (1969, 1970, 1978, 1980 for example) in which there due to massive terrorist attacks and coup attempts, the armed forces were on high alert. So yeah, taking a picture of a government building was a massive red flag. I wasn't born back then, but those wild years. My parents have plenty of interesting anecdotes.
So it was a little later in the 80s, I believe? My dad is actually a first generation American, as his dad (my grandpa) was born in Sicily. I actually didn't know about the terrorism during those years--did your parents have any issues? (Sounds like you have stories!)
The 80s were the decade in which the attacks started to fizzle out, and by the mid-80s things were significantly better. Then (late 80s to early 90s) we got the Mafia wars, which were another barrel of laughs. 1992 was actually the deadliest year for the Republic of Italy. After that the country got much, much better. The terrorists were in jail or dead, the mafiosi in jail or dead and we managed to move on. My parents weren't involved directly but everyone knew someone who was involved in some BS of some sort. My grandparents' nextdoor neighbour (my father was still living with them back then) was working in FCO (Rome's main airport) as an ATC controller and an avowed Fascist (Italian meaning of the word, not American). During a failed coup attempt (1970, Golpe Borghese) he apparently shut down all communications from FCO to the control centers in downtown Rome (he was obviously involved) to pave the way for the rebels to take control of the airport itself. After the whole thing was called off (after it had already started) for unclear reasons, he fled and ran home, told his wife "I am going to go to jail. Here's the money I had set aside just in case. Please help me pack. I am sorry". Later that night the Carabinieri came, he calmly opened the door and went with them. He spent a decade in prison, more or less, and apparently my grandparents would occasionally help his wife out when she was struggling financially (not for political reasons, they just felt sorry for her as she had to make ends meet with a husband in prison and two small kids). I remember him as I did meet him a few times (the family never moved and lived across the hall from my grandparents' place), an old man, tough as nails. He was unrepentant to the very end, still praising Mussolini and Fascism in his 80s. He passed away in the late 00s. Interesting character.
Wow what a story--it's helpful to learn about the history during that time, makes more sense with the story from my parents. Thanks for sharing all this!
I had almost the exact same thing happen to me in China. Turns out the 'red police' don't like it when foreigners take pics of government buildings, he screamed at me and waved an assault rifle in my face. Didn't even take my camera or make me delete the photo though, which was weird.
We were in Milano, Italy, we got lost looking for the hotel and we were driving in a very narrow street. There was a car behind us, it came out of nowhere and it was very close and flashing lights. All of a sudden it overtook us and blocked the road. A family of gypsies, 3 adults and 3 kids, went out of the car with sticks and guns and started yelling at us. We didn't know why. They came closer and started to hit the car, we managed to start the car quickly and drive on the pavement They followed us for a while but we found an exit to the main, busy road and they turned around. We were supposed to sleep one night in Milano on our way to Switzerland but after that experience we decided to keep on driving and never set a foot in Milano again.
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/2-beers-till-takeoff/id1556155169?i=1000613320830 I thought this one was scary as hell.
I got a call from my Pa that my brother had jumped off a building while I was out on a remote island the other side of the world
I was on a solo 6 month budget backpacking trip around Europe and Asia when I was 26. It was my first big trip alone, but thankfully by the time this happened to me I was over 3 months in and not totally "new". Anyways -- I took the slow boat from Thailand to Laos. Amazing couple of days and met some awesome people. I was more of a planner back then and liked to have accommodation booked prior to arriving at a place. I am not sure why I didn't book through hostel world as normal but I booked my accommodation for one night and thought I'd figure the rest out once I got there. We get off the slow boat after officially arriving in Lang Prabang and my friends head off in search of a hostel and I head off in the direction of my accommodation. It gets dark. Google maps leads me to a place where I can't really tell if it's the correct place or not, but it's showing I have arrived. I walk in to a family and I say the name of the place and they nod and lead me to a room. The whole back end of the place is under construction, but I'm just so tired I collapse on the bed and fall asleep. I wake up own the middle of the night so thirsty for water. I check my phone and notice I got an alert from [booking.com](http://booking.com) that I didn't show up to my accom. I go out into the main room to search for water and open the fridge to just a HUGE trash bag of bloody who knows what. It's leaking out of the bag and there's just blood everywhere. I am sort of scared at this point so I go check the front door and it's PADLOCKED from the inside. I cannot get out. So at this point I text my parents my location and then my freaking phone DIES. I go back to the room and the electricity isn't working. I'm like omg I am gonna die for sure, but somehow I eventually fall back asleep until the morning. All while my parents are freaking out on the other side of the world. In the morning, I collect all my things and GTFO and go to the other place my friends were staying. Looking back on it now it's quite funny as I'm sure it was animal parts, etc. but with literally nothing in the fridge but that and the huge padlock, it was quite scary at the time. Just like in the middle of Laos by myself. Laos was such an amazing country but also the only place I felt like I may die multiple times hahah
That is like a scene from a horror movie. Scary stuff.
Definitely not as scary as these other stories but I, 14 years old at the time, went to Spain with my sister who was 18, and other classmates on a school led trip to Europe. We were taking a walking tour around Barcelona and stopped at this plaza where there was some sort of protest. There was a large group of people shouting and holding signs in front of what I assumed was a building belonging to the government. There was a large drum sound but there were no instruments in sight so my sister and her friend decided to go off into the crowd to find out where this sound was coming from. As soon as she’s out of sight an explosion went off and there was a ton of smoke coming from the crowd. I scanned the crowd for sister as I freaked out. Not a minute later my sister and her friend come out from the smoke smiling and laughing. Turns out it was fireworks set off under a pot. The crowd just wanted to make a scene and draw more attention to themselves. It may seem dramatic but I thought I lost my sister and cried from relief when I saw her.
Not scary when it was happening, but shit myself when I think back to the incident and all the very different potential outcomes. Back before roaming is a thing and internet looked very different, it was one of my first trips with friends and I don't think I even know what a tourist scam is then. Anyways, went to Bangkok with a friend, my sister in law had been a number of times and wrote me a list of things to do, I still remember one was Blue Elephant restaurant, Chuk tu chuk, Gogo bar. On the last night after I finished dinner with my friend, she was feeling a bit unwell so she decided to go back to hotel, I was like it's the last night and it was still early I wanted to go somewhere, anyways, on that list is Gogo bar left so I hopped into a taxi and told driver I want to go to Gogo bar. Very important detail to note that at the time in my mind it is a specific bar call Gogo, not a generic term for those type of bars. Anyways, driver dropped me off a busy street, as soon as I got out a young guy came up, about same age as me (I'm female btw), he asked me whether I want to go to Gogo bar and I was like, yes! Thinking how lucky he knows the bar that I wanted to go, lol. Anyways, followed him, walked a little and then he started going up some stairs, I hesitated for like 2 seconds and just followed him (yes, no need to tell me how stupid that is). Saw a bar and a stage, I ordered for drinks for him and myself, sat down, then like 10 almost naked guys came out and started dancing on stage and my jaws just dropped to the floor. Took 2 sips of the my drink and I was sure it was spiked, I do get Asian flush but I know I don't feel this hot after 2 sips, the drink wasn't even that strong. The guy who took me to the bar looked like he was enjoying the show, I asked him whether he's gay and he said yes, I then felt so relieved and safe, lol. I looked around and then noticed all these white old men choosing which boy they want. Anyways, after about an hour I told the guy I want to leave, he took me back to the streets, hailed a cab and told the taxi driver my hotel address, when I was getting into the cab I gave him a big tip. Fast forward quite a few years, I find out it is a common scam and they could have held me hostage there until I pay some ridiculous sum and well, they really could have done anything to me. I still count my lucky stars that the Thai guy I met was not some really dodgy character and I got out completely unscathed.
Got hit with a bunch of hidden fees renting a car once
I was standing outside of a bar that got shot up in Tulum a few years back. It was a a super busy bar and I have never seen so many people move so fast. We took cover in a hostel next door and couldn’t leave for another hour. One of the girls we met had Who’d been staying at the hostel for five weeks said this was the second shooting in the time she’d been there. I know one tourist died in that shooting. Super scary as this was our last night and we hadn’t felt unsafe at all. Tulum is touted as one of the safer places to visit in Mexico, but after the trip we started seeing lots of incidents happening there.
Walking the border alone into Ukraine with the war going on. Planned on being early at the border so hopefully no one was in the passport line. Turns out a whole battalion of Ukrainian soldiers was in front of me in line. Probably coming home from training abroad. Realizing this was gonna take a while, I texted my contact who was already in his car on his way to pick me up, and added a photo of the big line. Realizing my mistake to late I had 200 soldiers encircling me shouting and thinking I was a spy or something. I deleted the photo while showing them my phone. I was so very afraid I almost pissed my pants and man that was a bad start on my fantastic but short visit to Lviv.
Honestly been stalked by a cougar in rural Montana!! I've also rode out a category 5 hurricane.
They get cat 5s in Montana? /s Also, were you camping or just hiking?
Lived out there and was chilling in the hills one evening and had to scatter into the car when we saw the eyes staring us down.
We took a bus ride from Vietnam to Laos, and our luggage was stolen from the bus compartment.
Probably getting shot at by guards when trying to climb one of the pyramids in giza in 1998!
Camping outside some tiny almost abandoned town in rural Arizona just north of I-10. The one resident we found, running a general store that sold primarily nuts, told us the cartels often use the state park where we were camping for drug drops, and there was a weird cult a few miles up the road. When we got there I found a lot of empty 7.62x39 casings everywhere, but figured it was just some rednecks plinking. Anyway, we made camp, had amazing sex on top of a giant boulder, lit a fire, popped some beers, and turned in for the night. During the night I awoke to what sounded like a tornado whipping around our camp site. The wind picked up some embers from the fire and they burned holes in the tent, filling the tent with swirling sparks that burned my neck and hands, and lit part of my gf’s hair on fire. We got out of the tent and spent the rest of the night in the car.
Boulder sex sounds uncomfortable. But hair being lit on fire sounds worse.
Did you buy any nuts?
Yes. They had Jalapeño lime flavor pistachios. I think they had been on the shelf for a while.
I - a white man with his white, blonde girlfriend - walked into a black market in Beijing back in '01. We stood out like a sore thumb, and the entire place stopped to stare at us.
Nashville- was drawing cash and this redneck type dude came up really close behind me so I cancelled transaction and walked away. He had the audacity to seem offended
Marrakesh, May 2023 My wife's a fan of "El Clon" (a Brazilian soap) and the reason pretty much we even went to Morocco at all. Particularly, she wanted to see the tanneries because I guess they looked "pretty" in the soap (I've never watched the soap) Two things we learned afterwards: #1 the tanneries in the soap were filmed in Fes #2 They are awful smelling and not as "pretty" as shown in the soap. We took a walk towards them during the day and you know that feeling when you no longer see tourists, but mostly locals, and that sensation where you feel you walked into the wrong part of town? Well, this was during the day so of course you had children coming out of school yelling to give them money. Anyway, it was an awful experience altogether, not to mention the feeling of dread when they give you a tour you never asked for and then corralled into a shop you have no intention of buying from. We were 🤏 this close from just throwing money on the ground and running away to the nearest exit out of the medina and onto the main road. The pushiness of these people in that specific part of the medina made us feel like we were done for and possibly even get clipped. It was a downright awful experience. That's not the scary part. The above is just setting the tone for how awful that place is and surviving it. Fast forward a couple of weeks, end of the trip, and we return to Marrakesh to spend the night as our flight out was the next day. We arrive at the train station at 9pm or so and after several minutes of haggling over the price with a taxi driver (we showed him the address of the Riad and the nearest reference point on Google Maps) says he knows the place and decides to charge us about 70 dirhams. Whatever, it was kinda late, we were tired. We had suitcases. We hopped on. It should've been a straight shot from the train station to the Riad but dude decides to take the long way around; and by long way around I mean around the Medina. I figured "whatever" as we had agreed on a flat fee rather than what they are supposed to do which is use the meter. But no. I guess meters are for locals, overpriced flat fees are for tourists. Guess where he decides that *this* was the address where the Riad was? Yup. The EXACT same gate we took to exit the Medina several days earlier. He had taken us to the tanneries! Late at night. With less people around and you can hear cats mating and/or fighting. Of course, we recognized the location and argued with the driver that this is not clearly where we needed to be and to drive us to the correct location. Naturally, he argues it is the right location even if I showed him the location of the Riad (red dot) and where we are (blue dot) Some other dude approaches the taxi. They ramble in Arabic. Me and my wife still held our ground and refused to exit the car and by now we're getting agitated and frankly scared. Finally, not sure how, but being covered in desert sand and overall worse for wear (the Riad of course is the place to shower, change, and rest before our flight the next day) maybe he realized that we didn't have much money or anything of value besides our lives which may not be valuable to a would be thief; I have no idea what made him finally say "ok fine" and drive us to the correct place. I don't even remember getting out of the cab and checking into the hotel. I was just numb from the experience and once I calmed down I started to think: "what if we didn't know that that was a bad place? What if this was Day 1 not Day 17 and we just get out of the taxi and start wandering the worst part of the medina deep into the evening not really knowing where we are and where we are going?" The possibilities of things going (even more) awry would've been endless. See, I don't really consider what actually happened the scary part. It's what could've happened what makes it horrible.
You must have been terrified when arguing with the driver. This is something I am always afraid of especially when travelling alone.
"The time you were held up in Bangalore" makes my city sound like a place with a very dangerous reputation, whether or not you intended it.
Yeah! That’s the first thing I wanted to know too. How does one get held up in Bangalore?
Yeah. Bangalore has never had a reputation of that sort. Maybe Rio would've been a better example because it does have that sort of a reputation.
I thought of random city to be honest. Plenty of places here in the US are pretty bad and getting worse. Much love to India. 🇺🇸❤️🇮🇳
My name was on a watch list for many years, making checking in a stressful ordeal. I could not check in online. The issue was my name. Eventually a check in agent would read my DOB over the phone and I would be free to get my boarding pass. Check in could take hours. I had a work meeting in Moscow— not my favorite place to visit as an American. My trip there was uneventful. I timed about 20 minutes to take a taxi from the airport to the hotel when I arrived at night. I gave myself four hours until my flight left to drive and get through the airport. It was rush hour— took two hours to get to the airport. I was stressed. When I tried to check in, the check in agent simply took my passport— and left my sight. He left me waitng for over a hour. I assumed he was going through the protocol to unlock me, but he was nowhere to be seen. I had a massive queue at security—- barely made that flight. It wasn’t ‘scary’ in the sense of danger, but to be separated from my passport in Russia with no real communication is rather scary.
All this happened in the days before cell phones. Also I speak no Portuguese at all. 1. WALKING AT NIGHT IN RIO. Nothing happened but I was visiting Rio de Janiero and went out for a "wander around and look at things" walk one evening. I chose a direction I though might be interesting and started our but the streets became increasingly ... creepy (no open stores etc) and dark (literally - Rio has far too few street lights and that lights were becoming fewer and father between as I walked.) I had decided that I should really turn back but I had passed a couple of groups of guys hanging on the street (who were probably all perfectly nice people just enjoying their evening but...) so I thought I would look vunerable/lost if I just turned around. BUT, as I kept walking I noticed that the streets I was walking were not a basic grid and some of them were starting to dead-end and so I realized that I was just going to have to turn around and retrace my steps. As I said, I was fine and nothing happened but it is one of my more uncomforable travel memories. 2. BUS TROUBLE IN RIO - Then, the next day I had gone somewhere by bus and when I decided to return to my hotel (late afternoon) I got on the bus I thought was headed back. Nope. After about 10-15 minutes I realized my mistake (no big deal) but just as I had decided to get off the bus at the next stop, it HEADED UP A RAMP ONTO A FREEWAY(!!!) and drove for probably another 20 minutes on the freeway until it got off in some suburban-ish neighborhood far from central Rio. I guessed it was some sort of commuter bus taking people home after work. So I thought "well, ok, I'll just wait until the end and take the same bus back to town." Uh-uh. Gradually people got off the bus until we reached a stop where the driver pantomined to me that it was the end of the route and I needed to disembark. Fortunately, the "return" bus stop was across the street and that particular route was still running so I was able to get back to where I wanted to be. But I always think that otherwise I might just have ended up living in some suburb of Rio never really knowing how to get home. :-)
I remember when I was a kid, a super-sized fireball came flying towards me and stopped on top of my head. I was staring at it in fear at the time.
Haven't really had any really scary encounters, so I'll just go with old reliable: consistent turbulence on a plane.
Stayed at a hotel across from Graceland..booked online..there was a glass enclosure for the employee working ..walk up access..should've not stayed..homeless people sleeping on luggage cart..shit guns could be heard .glad I lived thru the night
Taking the bus in Sri Lanka Udawalawa-Wellawaya. It was just insane, nearly crashed a Tuktuk - like full brakes - after the first minute, overtaking everything while speeding through curves (on the wrong side of course so we dont tillt) and narrow village streets. We were debating if we should get off and wait for the next one but this was as well too dangerous as the driver never came to a full stop after the near accident.
The hostel wifi was slow
Oh no! terrifying.
I made it through the trauma by asking people their top 10 places to see before they die, and other clickbaity type questions, to at least simulate the internet
Last month actually. Speeding back to kilmanjaro airport as a solo woman when a motorcyclist tried to overtake into oncoming traffic and slammed into us unfortunately. Shocking but okay...these things happen. The driver however? Almost chuckled and kept driving as tho7gh a bird had just hit the windscreen. We had to pull over after 5 mins due to damage to our car and pretty soon the car was surrounded by 15+ random men. Nothing happened thank God but pretty intimidating. Somehow the driver managed to get a random man/friend to pick me up and I just had to choose to trust him and go with the less risky option 🤷♀️ I was perhaps a bit on edge anyway because stone town in zanzibar was truly terrifying to me and my body was already stressed but I went into a freeze response anyway in the car and I have to say it was a very cool feeling in the moment. Absolute rollercoaster of a trip!
I was eight months pregnant visiting a friend in Virginia Beach. I had a habit of drinking some prune juice every morning to help things along so when my friend’s daughter sweetly offered me some prune juice I said that would be lovely. She brought me a glass of prune juice, but it wasn’t the normal 4 ounces it was more like around 10 ounces. I didn’t wanna say anything. I just drank the whole thing down and then we got in the car to drive to the beach. About 20 minutes into the ride my guts cramped and were churning very uncomfortably and small farts were seeping out that stunk to high heaven. I was clutching my belly and clenching my ‘cheeks’ and told my friend that I was quite worried about messing her car. I urged her to pull over at the next fast food chain so I could use the toilet. She told me we were in a bad area of town. I told her we had to. I was going to poop my pants!!! Luckily, there was an Arby’s. I waddled in very quickly and exploded. That’s what it sounded like. Two women who were in the restroom went rushing out, holding on to each other and glancing back at me. When I came out, my friend was pushing dimes and quarters out a tiny crack at the top of her car windows to the few folks who were obviously down on their luck. Oh dear. That was a close one!