The least you'll get is a story - bad travel experiences

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It is being said that travelling educates. They say travel widens your horizon and knowledge, it broadens your mind. 

But not all experiences during travels are necessarily pleasant; some might be just unpleasant, some even frightening and some very bad. On the other hand side, (especially) those experiences will also have the aforementioned effect(s). And the least you will end up with is always a (good) story and a unique perspective. This post is about those stories. 

The more I travelled the more I became aware that things do not always go quite as you planned or as you wished for - as is valid for life in general ;) And I am not only talking about regularl rip-offs (for transportation, tours, food or accommodation) or loosing something here and there. Those are to be expected, annoying but not much more. I am talking about nasty accidents, sicknesses, robberies, etc. Let me share a few of mine...

Food poisoning in Thailand
Rumour has it that 70% of tourists to Thailand will have problems with the stomach, diarrhea or even food poisoning. The first time hit me right in the middle of my scuba diving course, only thanks to medication I was able to finish my practical exam. 2nd time I went to hospital even, not something you wish for in a foreign less developed country. 

Fortunately the German hospital in Bangkok was very modern and they could help me right away. Reasons were ice in a drink (1st time) and probably some bad street food the 2nd time. Taught me to appreciate my country health system wise and also to develop a healthy portion of scepticism when it comes to eating on the street abroad.

Animal encounters
More of a funny anecdote since nothing really happened, but still scary in that situation. The incident I felt was the worst, was a raven chasing and nosediving down on me all the way from the lighthouse in Coral Bay, where I must have been close to his nest when jogging. He followed me for almost ten minutes and always came superclose to me whenever I turned my back on him..

On the same day I went snorkelling in the shallow waters of the bay; when I suddenly turned my head at some point, there was shark only half a metre away. It was a harmless reef shark not bigger than 1.5 m but still it was a shock to me.

Third encounter were some stray dogs in Kota Kinabalu at dawn. We went up to a lookout on the hill behind the hostel when those two dogs began barking and blocking our way. Luckily the noise made some locals aware of the situation and they took us into their car to give us a lift past the dogs.

Car accident in Australia
Probably the worst that happened to me while traveling was a car crash in Western Australia, on the highway close to Carnavon. Naturally, you spend long hours driving in Australia, with very little traffic and concrete burned from the resentless sun. All those blown tires on the side of the road should have been warning enough for us.

Right when we were passing a road train a tire blew, the car started to fling and we only came to a stop after the car had flipped twice. Fortunately there was not much vegetation at the side of the road, so the car was sliding out on the red, although flipped over. Three out of four were able to climb out of the car by ourselves, the last one we managed to securely get out of it even before police and firemen arrived.

I will never forget the night in the hospital, where everyone was already joking again since nothing serious had happened to us. A few scratches and small bruises only.. Still we stayed in hospital for the night, so we the staff could make sure to get the confirmations from our foreign (travel) health insurances clear. 


To recover a from the shock and also to figure out a new ride to Perth, we stayed two more days in Carnavon. And when we got kicked out of the hostel after a little birthday celebration (the owner was very very sensitive) we found shelter in the backyard of one of the hospitals staff that we met the other day 😉  Next day we found a new car and were able to continue the trip, still shaken though.

Theft in hostel on Borneo
Last one I want to share now was an incident I had in a hostel in Kota Kinabalu, Borneo again. Due to rainy season the hostel was quite empty, I shared a room only with one American that I went out for the night with. At night it was pouring down like crazy and at 2AM some new guy came to our room. In the morning I went to the bathroom and when I came back the room was empty... But not only the two guys left, but also my iPod, camera and mobile phone were missing. 

The American then came back from the bathroom as well, nothing missing from his side. Downstairs at the reception they told me the other guy had just left. Unfortunately I could not see him on the street anymore.

All the more annoying when I found out, that the hostel had already been warned of this person. He did the same in other hostels in the surroundings. Because of that the hostel manager felt very sorry and actually helped me a lot with the police and was able to get me translated documents I could use to claim some money back from my travel insurance (yes, I am very German). He also invited me for lunch and had some interesting conversation. The only stress I had afterwards was finding reasonably priced new devices. 

What crossed my mind was if also my purse and credit cards would have been stolen, I probably could have ended the whole trip. But this way the damage was kinda small.


And now I am interested in hearing your stories: What is the worst thing that happened to you while traveling? What was the outcome of bad experiences? What did you take away from those moments? Did you also end up in good company even after something unpleasant happened?

Hang loose,
Sebbo

Comments

Tobi Säuberlich said…
Oh mate. Have to admit that I was curious about the teaser picture that's why I only read the part of the accident in WA close to carnarvon. I remember those streets, the blown tires and all the dead kangaroos like it was yesterday. So cool that nothing really bad happened for u guys. I was never able to overtake other cars with my 96 er Campervan but I guess it's easy to get in an accident with a typical backpacker budget and schedule.

Cheers Tobi
9 February 2018 at 12:59
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