Torres del Paine, Chile: broken down with sunset approaching
Listen to someone talking about their adventures in deepest Africa or in the Australian outback, and it’s easy to buy into the dream that their trip was perfect. Great people, exotic food, unforgettable sights and exciting adventures. But we all know that during any trip there are those moments that do not make us feel great. The best we can do is think “this will make a great story when I get home”. But at that moment in time we might just choose to be anywhere else. Here’s a few areas where my memory has played tricks on me and tried to retain only the good bits:
Getting cold and/or wet
Sometimes even with the most diligent planning you just don’t take the right clothes. Last year we packed summer clothes on a trip to Syria and Jordan. Driving out of Damascus one morning in glorious warm sunshine, I was comfortable in my T-shirt and shorts. A couple of hours later we parked up at Krak des Chevaliers, a stunning hilltop Crusader castle, and as soon as we stepped out of the car we knew we needed to change. Thankfully we had our bags in the boot and quickly put on all the clothes we had worn to reach the airport in London, and then another layer for good luck.
Nowgrodek, Belarus: nowhere would look good in this weather
Yet this was only a mild shock compared to what came later. On leaving the castle the low hanging clouds suddenly dropped and visibility reduced to a few metres. The cold rain then started and by the time we reached the car, parked around 10 minutes walk away, we were miserable and drenched to the bone. It’s funny to think of it now, but at the time…
Waiting
As an Inter-Railer in the 1980s I used to wait in train stations for crazy lengths of time. I remember once sitting in Belgrade station for around 8 hours waiting for my train. I’d seen enough of the city and just sat on the floor in the corner, chatting with other backpackers as they came and went.
My days of sitting on the station floor may be over, but I still don’t enjoy the lengthy hanging around at airports or the long queues waiting to buy tickets. Our long term memories thankfully seem to blur out these wasted times.
Feeling rough: Phnom Penh
Feeling rough: Phnom Penh
Getting sick
An episode of D+V is not unusual for any long haul trip, and when we are struck down with a bug it can be horrendously unpleasant. It is doubly hellish if we have to travel while sick, or if we have no access to a decent loo. It’s a miracle of the human mind that these ordeals become the stuff of dinner table legends on our return home.
Not knowing the way things work
Turning up at the wrong bus station (I didn’t know there were two in this tiny city!), standing in the wrong line for over an hour before being told to join an even longer one, or learning the hard way about the favourite scams of Delhi’s tuk-tuk drivers. These are just a few examples where a little bit of local knowledge would have made life easier, and my ignorance created frustration and a lot of wasted time. Often the best adventures can arise from our misunderstandings of unwritten local rules, and these might make for great stories later; at the time however they create annoyance and tension.
So next time you hear about someone’s amazing holiday and they tell you how brilliantly it went, stop for a moment before your jealousy boils over. The chances are that at some point they were having a lousy time and wished they were back home.
Yeah,
we are travelling on a motorbike so it is a great source of hapiness but also demotivation when problems arise…
cheers
Michal
Waiting at the airports, going out in a warm morning with a light jacket and returning with a fever at night because it suddenly got cold and rainy; getting stuck at midnight in the Köln-Bonn airport just because the ticket machine offered no other language than German (yes, at the airport it was imossible to use some English)… All of these are quite annoying, and they only turn into fun when we are back home telling our folks about it.
Best,
FelixCatus
Once caught an ear infection in Morocco just two days before we were due to fly home. That wasn’t fun at all.
I think there are also moments of just being lonely that no one talks about. I’m leaving for a RTW on March 31st and I fully expect there will be moments where I just feel alone. I’ve felt it before on solo trips although I just ignored it as the trips were short but that’s harder to do when you leave for a year.
Thanks to Ayngelina, Karen and Fernanda for the comments (i dziękuje Michal!) – the ear infection before flying is one of my fears whenever I go swimming near the end of a trip.
Good point Ayngelina about loneliness. I certainly agree when travelling alone this can hit hard. The good thing is that it is usually temporary and an encounter with a stranger or even a good rest can provide a more sunny outlook quickly. Good luck with the trip.
Reading about your motorbike journey Michal. It looks like a great adventure!
Not sure if you’d classify it as “crap” but I was disappointed when in Knoxville a few weeks ago: http://unexpectedtraveller.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/knocking-in-knoxville/
The Unexpected Traveller
Thanks. Just read your post. I’d say from your description ‘crap’ is an excellent way to classify Knoxville.
Yes, I agree 100%! we had a dream trip that turned into a nightmare at one point. you can read aboput it here: http://ezinearticles.com/?Traveling-Highway-101-in-California—The-Beauty-and-The-Dangers&id=3173246 Sincerely, Pamela
That’s quite a story Pamela! Well worth a read. Thanks for sharing.
Agreed, agreed, agreed. Excellent list of Travel Crapness. Could I also add my personal travel specialty to the list? Getting lost. The hours I have spent wandering up and down, and up again, and down again, and around some more in cities I can’t navigate, well, those hours are probably in the hundreds by now. The mix of avoiding pulling out a conspicuous map emblazoned with the words ‘I am a tourist’, combined with zero sense of direction, limited language skills, and plain stubbornness over taking a taxi have led to many an achy footed, tearful travel moment. That said, yes, I do still talk about the time that I went for a drive in Croatia and accidentally wound up in Sarajevo, with glee.
Getting lost certainly qualifies for crapness Zoey. While it can create fabulous stories after the event, it is best done alone, as it can cause great arguments within a couple/group. Thanks for sharing.
Ha great post! Yesterday I wandered through some back streets in Jodhpur and ended up with about 8 ten year olds pulling my camera and bag to the crowd wanting money. Not a good feeling. Found a rickshaw and jumped in. Overall Jodhpur has been absolutely amazing!
Thanks Dawson. Yes, sounds like a scenario where you needed a quick getaway. Must admit we didn’t find that much hassle in India but I think we were lucky.
Great topic. Getting sick has to qualify for crapness. A dark cloud has been cast upon entire countries for me based on getting sick there. Siberia in particular rankles, I got sick and it was freezing cold and miserable.
However, some of the worst moments can also turn out to be the most memorable too.
On crossing the land border from Vietnam to China we (1) Were heavily intimidated by the border police, (2) went to a bank to change money only to be told by the bank manager that the only person who could change dollars was a street corner money changer (3) couldn’t find the bus station (4) Sprained an ankle falling into a pot-hole in the road trying to find said bus station and (5) were hit by a landslide on the said bus journey.
Despite and because of all this we have dined out on the story happily ever after
Thanks Ben. Your episode sounded pretty crap, esp. the sprained ankle! That’s the best way to approach these moments – think of them as stories for later. And the best thing is, the stories get taller and taller and taller… after you’ve told them a few times you can’t even remember what really happened
Lovely list of travel crapness. I heartily agree with them all. From sleeping in a lodge in Utah in -1 with no sleeping bags or blankets, to getting stuck at the Mongolian / Russian border for hours with 3 small kids and no toilets, to getting the worse jelly belly imaginable in a hut in Borneo with no running water. But the one where my wife flipped out in the bombed airport still makes me smile when I reminisce http://3-6-6.com/855/the-longest-day-and-possibly-longest-blog
You are right, long term memory reviles all the crap and leaves you with war stories to dine out on. Perhaps this is one of the hidden joys of travelling, that the pain, tedium and frustration are transitory but the experience stays with you for a lifetime.
Joe, what an ordeal with Cathay! It does make for a wonderful story though
Thank you for sharing.
Great story! No one usually talks about the really hard times on the trips, because by the time you are home they have turned into really funny stories, even though they weren’t at the time. Sometimes the worst experiences have the best ending, or at least make you a stronger person for next time! Here is one of my examples: http://jennifertice.com/?p=504
Thanks!
Thanks Jennifer, and what a great story! You really did strike lucky to find yourself in the right gas station at the right time