Terrible events on holiday..

[Kharis]

Hi Folks.

Having just returned from a week in the sun of Mallorca and one of the most terrifying experiences abroad (my hired car got towed away and I had to reclaim it from a pound.....you try asking where the *beep* your car has been taken to in Spanish!!!, or rather signing!!)......I am proud to pose the same question to each of you!

So...this weeks question is...what is the most nerve wracking and stressful experience you've ever had while on holiday...?

I have a few other stories that are equally as awful...but will save them for another time and maybe later on in this thread!

 

[cookie_monster]

i went to the wrong airport when i was travelling round china and missed my flight to japan.

i was in the right city, just the wrong airport with 90km through the centre of shanghai between me and my intended destination and only an hour till take off.

needless to say, i never made it and had to rely on a conference call from a payphone between me, sta travel and barclaycard travel insurance (god bless them!) to find out i could get my flight changed to another one 3 days later for free.

i was quite shaken by the experience, but scarily when i sent an email explaining the situation everybody replied that they werent surprised that such a thing could happen to me!!! theres nothing like faith.


x


ps. it also took me 18 months to tell my mum about my mishap because i knew she wouldnt let me out of the house unaccompanied if she knew....and i only told her coz i was drunk!

 

[Andreas Rex]

When I was 16 my sister was in India on a year out, so me and my parents decided to go and visit her for 3 weeks. We were having a fantastic time...went to watch the sunset at Monsoon Palace which was used in Octopussy...various temples, forts, markets etc, and obviously we wanted to go to the Taj Mahal. My dad was always meticulous in his planning of our holidays, but this time he'd screwed up and taken us to the Taj Mahal on the first day in 3 years it was closed for cleaning! Excellent.

We could only view it from the Red Fort (about 150 metres away) so were rather disappointed to say the least. To make up for it my dad said he'd take us to this 5 star hotel on the way back for a nice meal. Up until that point we'd all stuck to the advice everyone gives you; don't eat meat. I decided that seeing as it was a 5* hotel then the food would be safe enough for me to take a risk....and as it was a Chinese restaurant I couldn't resist having Sweet & Sour Chicken. Big mistake.

When we finished the meal we got a taxi to the train station, as we were staying in the middle of Delhi. The journey took a couple of hours (I think), but I must have fallen asleep fairly soon after getting on. I woke up when my mum nudged me to say we were at the station, and realised that my mouth was full of sick. I then proceeded to vomit EVERYWHERE, and felt very disorientated and weak. My parents helped me off the train and onto the platform, where we got onto a couple of rickshaws and headed back to the hotel. By the time we got back I was covered in sick, as was the rickshaw. We struggled upstairs to the room, only to discover that the air-conditioning had broken. I sat on the loo whilst my body got rid of its entire contents from any available orifice, which took a few hours. The place was boiling hot, I was extremely dehydrated (I was being given stuff to take but only rehydration tablets and something else), and was verging on delirious. I eventually managed to lie on the bed by a window, but was unable to move or do anything. My family decided that they would go up to the cafe on top of the hotel for a drink and to let me sleep, but a few minutes after them leaving a traditional Indian wedding started up in the square directly outside my window. It was incredibly loud and repetitive music and chanting, and went on for hours and hours, and it was driving me insane. My parents came and checked on me periodically, and in the meantime tried to find another hotel to go to where the air-conditioning did work. The next day we went to the YMCA hostel (which was dead nice and clean...and more importantly had A/C ) and a doctor came out to see me. After an examination he informed me that I had gastroenteritis, and had to have antibiotic injections asap cos I was in a pretty bad way. So, my dream holiday in India started off well and ended up with me having injections in my arse in a YMCA hostel. Is that the kind of terrible you meant?

 

[db]

ended up with me having injections in my arse in a YMCA hostel.

i thought this was supposed to be terrible events?

oh, wait..

 

[gon2seed]

ended up with me having injections in my arse in a YMCA hostel.

i thought this was supposed to be terrible events?

oh, wait..

 

[gon2seed]

I've wracked my brains, dredged the very depths of my grey matter in order to stun you all with a story to to compete with any other ...

I once dropped a peanut butter sandwich on the beach in Barmouth and it got all sandy, undeterred I attempted to eat it, but was put off by the grinding betwixt my teeth...

I really love peanut butter sandwiches!

 

[Doctor]

As a kid (about 12 I guess) I went on hols to Crete with the family. I remember it as the best holiday ever as we had only been camping before. This was a proper holiday house (next to a building site - great as a kid) but there were a series of things that should have made it hell. It was just as Fredie Laker had to ground all his DC10's (we were due to travel on one) and had to spend 23 hours at Gatwick airport (I knew the place inside out afer that). The holiday homes weren't finished (see above), it was a massive heat wave and I get sun stroke and burn very easily (my whole back was in blisters half way through the holiday and the skin came off in sheets once back home). We got lost in the rental car and then the door fell off, I think there were various other problems with the car too but can't really remember -I recall missing various meals out due to it. The little rocky cove that was our beach was full of spinny sea urchins. Everyone got the odd spine in them but I managed to kicked a bunch of them and had 21 spines in my two biggest toes including many going through the nail. Dad had to pick them out with tweesers and didn't get them all - the last one worked it's way right through my big toe and came out the other side a year later!
Still the best holiday I've ever had!

 

[Mrs M]

I can remember my first holiday abroad was a 3 week camping holiday to the South of France and Spain. We ventured down stopping at seversl places and having a fantastic time exploring france, trying out the lingo, I was only 9 at the time. We then attempted to venture into spain. As we came up to the border all was well until we were about to cross. In our little morris 1100 we started to cross the border into Spain when suddenly we heard 'HALT' as we turned arround the armed police raised there guns and pointed them at our little mustard colourd car we had not got a clue what was going on. We all ducked and all that could be seen was my dads two hands holding onto the steering wheel. We pulled over to the side, nobody said anything to us but kept pointing to a sticker which we had in the back of the car window. What we didn't realise was that there had been rioting in spain due to Glasgow Rangers winning the UEFA European Cup, beating Moscow Dynamo 3-2 in an exciting final in Barcelona. The banner we had on our window at the time said ' Follow Stafford Rangers''. Not quite in the same league I know, but try telling the Spanish that.

 

[TENSHON]

During my student days I went on a trip to Amsterdam. Myself, and a few others necked a bottle of Southern Comfort on the journey. As soon as we checked in to hotel, we headed straight to some cafes. At about 4am, we emerged after a five hour session smoking the funny stuff with absolutely no idea where the hotel was or what it was called. All we could remember was that there was a skip outside. We walked the streets for two days before we eventually bumped in the rest of the group. I also had my wallet robbed on same trip.

 

[BBC]

I remember this well. Still makes me laugh

 

[Mrs M]

I was going to visit family in the Isle of Lewis. Took a train from stafford to Glasgow which was fine. Had a heavy night out in Glasgow with a few mates and got up late the next day. Just managed to get to airport on time, so we thought. We were using a forces pass and the old 'gentleman' dealing with us had never had one of these before. To cut a long story short, by the time we got to departure lounge we had missed our plane and the next one was the next day. As you can imagine we were none too pleased. For some reason British Airways thought that a couple of drinks vouchers would have kept us quiet. Don't know why they thought that (this is at 10.30am). After some complimentary sandwiches and guiness and Strongbow, we agreed to take a flight to Benbecula, having to wait there for 5 hours then catching a plane to Stornoway. Now we had heard that it was quite a remote Island but that's not the half of it. We got out of the Airport to be welcomed by, well,nothing but the Millitary camp. There were two squadies waiting for a taxi to the local pub and offered us a lift. (British Airways had kindly given us £20.00 to get something to eat). 20 Minutes later we arrived at the pub called 'Low Flier', (don't know why as it was no where near the airport). It didn't sell food either. We ended up playing squadies at pool all afternoon for drinks and ended up absolutely blotto. Eventually a taxi came to take us back to the airport. We were greeted by a very polite gentleman in a suit who showed us through to the departure lounge. He then showed us onto the plane The old fashioned type with two propellers. After the plane took off the gentleman (very much like Jerry Lewis) was sitting on the back seat of the plane. After a while we realised that this man was also the pilot.....arghhhhhhhhhhhhh. We were flying very low over the sea at this stage my hubby asked if he should acually be sitting at the front of the plane, he just laughed and carried on doing whatever. (Still thought it was Jerry Lewis) Eventually we got to Stornoway and was absolutely sloshed. The first thing my inlaws wanted to do was take us out on the town...... What a journey.

 

[theflamingred]

I've had a fair few dodge holidays as I mostly end up camping cause it's cheap.

But, the worst for me was when I was a teeny FlamingRed. I got a kite with an eagle on it. It was fantastic and I ran around the field with it all day. And the string snapped. And it got snagged in a whooping great tree far to tall for my Dad to climb. I shed a tear as we drove off and I could see my kite up that tree. Broke me little heart!

 

[theflamingred]

Sorry - I'm repeat posting but I just remembered a few amusing moments from family holidays of yesteryear.

1. My Mum leant over my Dad to give him a peck on the cheek (he was kipping in a deck chair). Her hair tickled him - he was dozing and thought it was a wasp. Smacked Mum square in the face. It was a fair thwack as well.

2. My Mum was several months preggers one summer and sat on a deck chair. It fell through and she was sat through it and stuck. All I saw when I peeked out the caravan window was a pair of arms and legs flailing about the place angrily yelling at me poor pa.

3. Outside souvenier shop - chap starts bike - bike backfires - I look down and see my Mum on the floor. She hit the deck cause she thought it was a bomb (bit of a conspiracy theorist). Sooooo embarassing.

4. Little sister chopped end of thumb off in caravan door - know that one's not funny, twasn't pleasant.

Ahhh, explains a few things

 

[joshi]

just come back from cyprus, and just happened to be that the group of lads i was with got mugged by the cyprus mafia on friday night walking across the beach back to the hotel!!!
and the poilce are dodgy their aswell, they couldnt be bothered to catch them cos we are tourists!! an some foreigners think were twats!!!!