I want to take a moment to talk about something people often don’t share on social media when they go travelling. The times we all prefer to forget about. Those missed flights, lost luggage, injuries and scary moments in strange countries where English is most definitely not the first language.
Travel Fails.
The subject of this post came to mind as I stumbled across a Facebook post my fellow travelling friend, Rachel shared recently. She is currently away overseas exploring South America. Rach just had possibly the worst day of travelling since arriving in Columbia, in none other than Medallion. She wanted to share ‘the darker side of travel’ in which she learnt the hard way about the overcrowded trains. After being pushed, pulled and shoved, and well and truly missing her station, she was separated from her mother whom she is travelling with and landed on a station platform with no idea where she was, no way to get in contact with her mum, and, due to the aggressive shoving, also now very shaken up and shoeless in the pouring rain. Riding back and forth between stations she started to panic, frantically trying to find her mother. Rach finally gave up and heads back to where they started, hoping her mum might do the same.
Thankfully she finds her, only to learn that her mother has been interrogated by the police as they think she has stolen a local’s wallet while trying to escape from said overcrowded train. (Note to self – limit train travel in Medallion). And whilst very upsetting for two female Aussies travelling alone, unfortunately this is one the lighter ‘travel fails’ I have heard from people adventuring across South America. (Cue the drug stories!)
So what’s the answer here – to never visit South America? Of course not. The lesson is to just be aware. Really aware. That in some countries of the world you cannot act the same way you do back home, expect fair police treatment or use public transport safely. It’s just a fact.
Last year, I avoided bombing in Turkey by a two weeks when visiting Istanbul’s Blue Mosque and also lost my passport in the airport. Whilst living in London, I became caught in the tube doors as they were closing on a hot summers day and nearly been dragged to death. In Canada, I had many close calls snowboarding the mountains if it had not been for my helmet. Not to mention getting my finger crunched in a bear trap.
In New York with a friend, we found ourselves in a decidedly ghetto borough which we fled from after being given some very shifty looks and racist comments. In South Africa, I had to wind my windows up whilst driving through Johannesburg at night so as not to get robbed at gunpoint. In Rome, I lost my best friend for 24 hours and eventually found her sobbing on a metro platform.
In Mexico, I have partied with some questionable Mexicans who had to smuggle us out of the ‘tourist compound’ on scooters that were definitely unsafe vehicles. I was in Fiji when the Tsunami hit and we had to evacuate our beautiful bungalows in the dead of the night and climb to the top of the mountain along a muddy dirt trail, in case that wall of water came at us.
The list goes on. Suddenly the airline losing your bag doesn’t sound so bad. After all, you’ll get it back, that’s what travel insurance is for.
Go insured. Go with knowledge. Go without expectations.
Travelling isn’t meant to be all shiny and perfect. It can be dirty and dangerous. It will also be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life, if you allow some breathing room for mistakes.
What’s your biggest travel fail?