Your travel panic moments

I suppose mine would be Escape From Moscow.. All's well that ends well!

J. Reply to this

My girlfriends drink was spiked in Cusco. She is always well mannered and well behaved. She had three drinks and went crazy. I had to call a doctor she was so out of it. I always swore if I found the person who did it I might never have been allowed to leave Peru again! Reply to this

I had explosive diarrhea on a bus from Vietnam to Kunming just a few days ago. Also got my laptop stolen on the same voyage after I finally fell asleep with soiled boxers. Reply to this

After 6 trouble-free months in South America I got robbed on my last night, all my money and cards gone. In the morning I phoned the British Embassy using my last coin on a payphone and they told me to come there and they'd give me some free money and pay for my taxi! Did that but still missed my flight back to England. The airline kindly agreed that if I came to the airport the next day and there were any no shows on the plane I could take the seat of the no-show for free.

I took a taxi to the airport the next day and paid the driver with a 100peso note for the 50 peso fee, saving my 50 peso change for the departure tax. Luckily there was a no show and I was told I could take the seat.

When it came to going through departures I wasn't allowed through because the 50 peso note the taxi driver had given me, the only money I had, was fake. As I had had to wait till check in closed to make sure there was definitely a no show and I could have my seat, I now had only about 30 minutes before take off. I offered the guards to sell them my watch and when they said no I ran around asking people if they wanted to buy it. Eventually one of the guards beckoned me back over and offered to buy it for about a quarter of its value, just enough for the departure tax, and I got onto the plane minutes before take off! Reply to this

I had a few panicky moments last year in Africa.

The worst of them though happened when I was returning a rental car to Maun in Botswana. I was taking a scenic though less-travelled route recommended to me by a local, which was essentially straight up through the middle (skirting around the Kalahari). Granted, it was one of the best sunsets I've ever seen, though shortly after I encountered what I found out to be the biggest problem in Botswana.

The farmers don't bother to fence their animals in; during the daytime cows, goats and donkeys graze at the side of the road, occasionally drifting across, ignoring the traffic. At night, they gather on the road. I did not know this until I was driving along, squinting to see in front of me (a swarm of billions of flies had darkened the lights), I saw something I'll never, ever forget.

There were easily 50 donkeys in the middle of the road. I swerved to the left, slamming on the brakes. I hit one or two of them; I remember hearing that. The car spun around; I was heading backwards, across the road, before hitting a bump. (This part seemed to happen in slow motion) The bump turned the car onto its roof, spinning a couple of times, before landing perfectly on its wheels facing the wrong direction right under a tree.

When I got out of the car I collapsed on the ground, half expecting to be dead! I was alive and relatively uninjured. I was lucky enough to have crashed near a cattle post - they'd heard the crash and came to help me. They managed to get through to the police (who took 2 hours to come). I was bleeding from the head, blood all down my face and favourite t shirt, which didn't stop the cattle post guys from stealing from me. I was running around the crash site looking for my possessions - I managed to get my wallet, passport and phone which I kept on me, but they stole my spare phone, binoculars, sunglasses, swiss army knife etc.

I had to spend the night in a hospital (specifically here: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Rakops&sll=-20.287961,24.752197&sspn=2.509077,3.532104&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Rakops,+Boteti,+Botswana&ll=-20.535077,23.79364&spn=1.252581,1.766052&t=h&z=9 Officially the middle of bloody nowhere.

All in all I'm relatively glad I had the crash - I survived (which made me happy) and it makes a good story!

Other panics are
AirFrance losing my luggage and refusing to go and find it (despite saying they knew where it was and that I had a connecting flight in 2 hours - cut that one v close)

A guy who tried to mug me in Pretoria - twice. (he was a beginner, bless him)

Having my debit card cloned in Rustenburg, the day after the Namibian Border Police threatened to arrest me and "lock me up" Reply to this

Everywhere I'd been ,previously, cash machines give you your card 1st then your cash but for some reason it's the opposite in Sth America. My 1st week in Peru i got US$100 from the bank. I had aleady paid my rent so this $ lasted me around 10days. When I went to get some more $ I didn't have my card. I realised ,out of a lifetimes habit, I had grabbed my $ and walked, leaving my card in the machine. Luckily ,in Peru, you have to re-enter your pin number for each transaction but it was a scary 12hrs, waiting until Australian office hours, to cancel my card. I had another account and had family put some $ in there ,to see me through, but I would have been in trouble without them as it took about 5weeks to get replacement card to Peru Reply to this

A fool and his money (the bemo from Remo). details loosing all my remaining funds and my passport to a random bemo driver at 7am in Sumatra. Things don't go as planned in the land of the buffalo cult. details in far to great detail how our bank left us with no cash, and unusable cards, this time in Sulawesi. And, though I onloy briefly mention it, getting stung by a scorpion while rafting on the Kali Gandaki in Nepal, miles from anywhere. Reply to this

I have had a few but I think the real PANIC moment was about 30 years ago,I was Interrailing through Europe and had spent the night in Basel Switzerland. I was with a couple of friends and we had gone to the train station to book trains to the south of France ( overnight Couchettes).left the trains station and went for a wander in the city,later in the day I noticed that my travel pack with my passport,Interail card,youth hostel card,Travellers Checks and other bits and pieces was no longer on my person.PANIC!!!!!!!!!
I retraced my steps ,but went back to the train station where a smiling clerk just waved my pack and gave it back to me,he would not accept a reward,I have been a lot more careful since then.

Mel one trick I have learned about buses,is to note the colour and registration so you get back on the right one.A lot easier now with digital cameras,also useful for taking pictures of luggage lockers,bus stops and other markers in the areas you are travelling through and need to get back to. Reply to this

Other than being bitten on the shoulder by the nephew of a woman imprisoned for cannibalism in PNG I would say it was being detained by indonesian authorities regarding a visa overstay issue.

I had already checked my bags in and was about to walk through customs to board my flight when I felt a hand on my shoulder and was steered by imigrasi to an interview room, possibly the same interview room occupied by the bali 9 and chapelle corby (all aussies convicted for drug offences in recent years in bali) where a large customs man sat and flicked through the pages of my passport without saying anything as the minutes to boarding passed by. Eventually it turned out that I had been the victim of a well organised scam with a particular Virgin plane arriving just before midnight leading to confusion/corruption with immigration people stamping your visa pre midnight date so you technically overstay your visa...in my case by 4 minutes.

I was offered the following choices - 250,000 rupiah cash and 25USD or 25 day jail...he got the cash and I had to run through the gate and scramble onto the plane just as it was leaving. I dont want to go through that too often. Very unnerving. Reply to this