Forums > Social Chat > Worst Traumatic Travelling Tales

Posted: 24th Mar 2005
Right
Earthquake. Bali. Evacuation. No Sleep. Volcano....
Goodbye paradise one week early....

.:Pink Exocutioner:.

I am Jack's Raging Bile Duct...

Loving you from the deepest part of my loins.

Posted: 24th Mar 2005
Thats a really really horrible thing to happen. No fuel!!!???



I arrived on the koh sahn road in bangkok two months into my trip only to find out i had no money. none whatsoever.



it took quite a while and a lot of phonecalls to sort out the mishap and for a while there the world had completley ended.

Love is the law.

Posted: 25th Mar 2005
Paris, Eiffel Tower New Year's Eve 2004.

Kids all over the place set of firecrackers in close proximity to crowds, and while it's a real nuisance (not to mention a safety hazard), people don't seem to get much more than startled (after all it's NYE.) After a couple more of them, you'd start to notice something was going on.

Several packs of youths (hundreds, marching three by three) walk through crowds grabbing valuables from random strangers, then running in all directions. Witnessed one bystander get something snatched, he chased, caught the guy, only to get beaten to the ground then assaulted in a storm of kicks and bashes by the snatch thief's 20 or so other friends.

Meanwhile, from another corner you hear 'monsieur monsieur! sil'vous plait, sil' vous plait!' and turn to see a young girl frantically following a guy who looks like a basketball player in baggy clothes, casually stuffing her purse into his jeans, then brushing her off. Everyone around is too frightened because there are just so many of them.

Not a single policeman in sight. You'd think security would be upped for such a 'major' event..

I met a couple from Cairns and we started talking earlier that evening because we had the same camera, the three of us were just terrified being in the middle of all this clutching our bags and things close to our bodies, and in the commotion, a hand comes towards us and starts yanking at my friend's tripod leg! Meanwhile, she's wrapped her arm around the camera on top and her leg round the tripod, so luckily nothing gets taken. Digital SLRs.. imagine how terrifying the prospect of theft seemed..

Anyway, suddenly we see the riot police jogging in, single file. People start cheering. Not long after about 15 of them jog past, we see a pack of younger kids following the police. We figure that they're somehow communicating with the pack of older kids so that the police become more or less useless.

Well, we decide not to stick around for the 'fireworks' and leave at 11.30, proceeding down the river. Midnight comes and goes, and the fireworks aren't even average. You hear a pop and have to look around to find where the firework is/was.

Anyway, after a terribly anticlimactic New Year's Eve, I brisk walk my way down Blvd Saint Germain through crowds of revellers a million 'Bon Annee!'s before finally getting back to the place I was staying at, near Jardin du Luxembourg.

Next day at Notre Dame, I started talking to another backpacker who found himself under the Eiffel Tower at midnight. Apparently turned into a whole full blown riot, complete with pepper spray, riot police with shields and batons. This guy found himself running around with burning eyes, only to open one slightly to see a shield and baton running straight at him! He managed to escape though. Was glad I didn't stick around.

Well, yep. Not exactly traumatic (to be in Bali when it happened, or to have your backpack stolen in Costa Rica is -bad-), but it didn't leave a good taste in my mouth. I don't think Paris deserves the 2012 Olympics (your opinion may differ, but that's what I think).

Posted: 25th Mar 2005
when i went to paris.. i hated it.

Every1 there was rude and obnoxious. It really pissed me off. INMO Paris is te armpit of europe. Wot is posted above seems to prove that.

And i just finshed my french aural 4 my GCSEs, so no more academic french speaking 4 me

The existance of flamethrowers says that someone, somewhere, at sometime said "I need to set that thing on fire, but it's too far away."

Posted: 26th Mar 2005
Some of the people I met were wonderful. It's just that the bad ones really spoil it for everyone else.

It's a place that everyone should see at some point in their lives I think, but feel free not to prioritise it

Posted: 26th Mar 2005
I didn't really enjoy Paris either. I was travelling round Europe when I was 16 with a friend (also 16) and we got lost in Paris. We asked people several times for directions and they all sent us in completely the wrong direction. We eventually managed to find our way back after about 5 hours and our host told us that it is a common joke in Paris to send travellers in the wrong direction. It just seemed antisocial and rude to me...

It was the most unfriendly place I've ever been to, I don't think I've ever had so many people be rude to me as I have there. It was hard to appriciate the beauty of the city while everyone (apart from other travellers) was being so horrible to me!!

Axx

Usually me on fire (rather than flames being amber coloured)

Posted: 26th Mar 2005
I think many french people dislike people who speak english. when my mum was in paris (it's many years ago, but still) she soon learned that people were nicer if she first spoke norwegian and then english when they (off course) understood nothing

Luke sum ipse patrem te.

Posted: 27th Mar 2005

Written by: Amber Flames

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We asked people several times for directions and they all sent us in completely the wrong direction. We eventually managed to find our way back after about 5 hours and our host told us that it is a common joke in Paris to send travellers in the wrong direction.Axx

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Happened to me too.. I was at Notre Dame, and I asked for directions to Sainte Chapelle (next door, almost). Some guy sent us across the river!!

Written by: alvheid

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I think many french people dislike people who speak english. when my mum was in paris (it's many years ago, but still) she soon learned that people were nicer if she first spoke norwegian and then english when they (off course) understood nothing

---

I had the funniest thing happen to me. I was learning numbers in French, and I mastered how to say 46 (room number) perfectly. Came back and said 'bonsoir! quarante seis sil vous plait' (complete with that raunchy 'r') to get my key from the reception.



Then, the cheerful reception lady starts off to tell me that there's a receipt for me behind the counter, and she's not quite sure why it's there because it's usually only there when you check out, and she didn't know because someone else was manning the counter in the morning, but she'll just give it to me and they'll sort out the problem, and how was my day?'



In French. I didn't get a single word she was saying, and when she finally realised, we started laughing and she explained it to me in English..



I think most of them are fine if you make a bit of effort to stumble a few phrases out. I think the bad thing is the amount of Amazing Race type tourists who ask for directions..

Posted: 28th Mar 2005
I was asking in French, I speak French. They still sent me the wrong way! I think it could just be tourists in general.

Axx

Usually me on fire (rather than flames being amber coloured)

Posted: 28th Mar 2005
quote from green day......

"zieg heil to the president gasman.

bombs away is your punismet!

pulverise the eiffel towers,

who critesise you government"



don't nget me started on the french!! ok some are cool but most are just *edit by Pele*!! yes i been there got the t-shirt and all i can say is N.U.K.E them
EDITED_BY: Pele (1112055170)

Posted: 28th Mar 2005
WOW no cencorship



*You really don't want to try this, as it gets you in trouble...Pele*



haha you gotta try it out
EDITED_BY: Pele (1112055227)

Posted: 28th Mar 2005
harsh!!

Posted: 28th Mar 2005
not realy........

french joke...


"have you heard the french have a new national flag?




its a white cross on a white background

Posted: 28th Mar 2005


Not the dreaded c word?

hehehe! Now i can finally blame the internet 4 sumthing mwhahahaha!

The existance of flamethrowers says that someone, somewhere, at sometime said "I need to set that thing on fire, but it's too far away."

Posted: 28th Mar 2005
ah! thats such a horrible word!
be prepared to have your mouth gaffa taped shut if you say that around me >.<

Posted: 28th Mar 2005
hey raver head

have you read the [Old link]

incidently i've just spent the entire weekend with a lovely french couple.

its the sexiest accent in the world after scottish.

Love is the law.

Posted: 28th Mar 2005
Here is a horror story from my most recent road trip to Mississippi from California...

I was driving down the road in the middle of nowhere Texas. I really had to goto the bathroom, so I decide to pull over to the side of the road. In California, if you get caught urinating in public, you're prosecuted for exposing yourself and labeled a sex offender, so I kneeled next to my front tire while I did my business, making it appear that I was examining my tire or something. I finished and drove off. It was about dusk when this went down.

30 minutes and 40 miles later, I can't find my wallet. My heart sank into my stomach. I imagined my wallet slipping out of my back pocket while I was on the side of the road and pictured myself searching the roadside scenery the rest of the evening.

Luckily, my wallet had fallen into the floorboard, so all was well. Now it's just a silly story...


Here's another good one. I was returning to Texas from Chicago with my friend Justin. We were on a highway in the middle of nowhere Arkansas, somewhere near Arkadephia. I was driving my beat-up Honda Civic CRX. This car was in such bad shape, you had to put a quart of oil into the engine every 800 miles. So, we were doing this at a gas station, then hopped back on the highway. Shortly afterwards, we hit some light traffic. As we slowed down, I noticed the engine smoking really bad. We pulled over and popped the hood...

The cap for the engine, where the motor oil went into, was missing. My friend Justin gave me a very evil look as we start walking down the highway back towards the gas station, looking for this missing cap. I had accidentally left it ontop of the battery, which by this time... is now gone. We walk 5 miles, closely examining the side of the road for this damn cap when we decide to hitchhike back to the gas station. It didn't help that we were both wearing metal t-shirts, jeans, and boots. The locals there just thought we were strange. We eventually get a ride and discover that we had travelled 15 miles down the highway before the engine started to smoke...

We check to see if the gas station sold any caps, which they didn't. We looked around the gas station, highway on ramp, and about a mile of highway before we give up. We get a ride back to my car and ask the driver where the closest auto parts store is. He points further down the highway, probably a quarter mile ahead of my car, and says that there is one just on the other side of the overpass. So, we wasted a good 3 hours hunting for this auto needle in a haystack.

We buy the cap, eat some pizza, and head home. This is why I was afraid that I had lost my wallet on the side of the road, I very clearly remember this encounter.

Granted, it's not as bad as getting things stolen, but it definitely killed the mood...

"I always knew I was a pyro..."