What were your biggest traveling mistakes? Here are mine.
Every traveler makes mistakes. They are rites of passage that even seasoned travelers can never entirely avoid-- whether it's missing a flight or eating a regrettable roadside meal or wandering around lost for hours. If you have the right attitude though, mistakes are part of what keeps traveling interesting and exciting. As Thomas Edison, ever the optimist, once observed: "I have not failed 10,000 times. I have successfully found 10,000 things that will not work."
That's why I feel no shame in recalling my greatest travel mistakes, culled from an impressive and ever-growing list. First place goes to the time I was in Ecuador and lost my passport-- the veritable cardinal sin of traveling. Thankfully, despite some bureacratic hassle, I got a new one after spending a few weeks in Quito, where I earned about a thousand dollars playing poker at the casino. That's money I never would have made if I wouldn't have lost my passport. Thanks, my stupidity!
Some mistakes on the road are more embarrassing than anything else. For instance, after living in Prague for a few months, I thought I had a pretty good idea of the layout of the metro stops. One day I was riding on the the metro with some friends, and we came to the "Muzeum" stop. The doors opened, and an elderly man standing on the platform asked me, in Czech, "Is this Muzeum?" "No," I told him confidently, in front of dozens of people. "This is Můstek." He appeared confused, and gave me a look as if to say, "Are you sure?" "Yes," I said. "To je Můstek." The doors closed, and the metro sped off, while my fellow passengers looked at me like the idiot I was. I like to assume that old man eventually figured out where he was, but really, who the hell knows.
Of course, these aren't the only mistakes I've made. I've missed transatlantic flights, left doors unlocked and had my laptop and mp3 player stolen, been swindled out of money by street husslers, and done scores of other stupid and otherwise inexcusable things that probably should have ruined my trip.
But they never have. It's a testament to the power of travel that no matter what happens on the road, I'd still rather be there than anywhere else.
Okay, I've shared my biggest traveling blunders; now it's your turn. Got a good story? Feel free to share it in the comments.
Filed under: Stories, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Transportation
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mar 9th 2008 @ 10:23AM
Eva said...
Hmmmm.... I left my passport and boarding pass on top of the toilet paper dispenser in a KLIA bathroom stall once, but when I realized ten minutes later and went sprinting back, they were still there. Thank goodness for enormous and under-used post-Asian tiger airports!
I'm trying to think of more, and wondering whether I might be too cautious when I travel. I make plenty of mistakes when I'm at home, but I'm usually on high alert on the road. Never missed a flight, never had anything major stolen (knock on wood and knock on wood), and any scams or getting lost have all been pretty minor. Aw man, now I feel like one of those excessively uptight over-planned travelers!
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Mar 9th 2008 @ 10:53AM
janbrew said...
Traveling with my learned sister (she speaks 6 languages) is always an adventure. I leave myself open to new experiences. We start with a plan - then always modify as we go. My sis usually has her purse stolen, or loses money or something. I am the uptight organized one.
My favorite was our trip to sicily. We bumped into two scruffy looking old men outside our posh hotel. We befriended them over two days time. I finally offered to buy them dinner. Instead one of the men owned three of the finest dining places in Taurmina - and had his daughter prepare the finest meal we have EVER had. Ah, travel, such fun!
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Mar 9th 2008 @ 3:29PM
Gregg said...
I somehow forgot to take a Toothbrush to Moscow on a month long business trip. Even having complete US Embassy access didn't help.
Another member of the team I was traveling with had forgot to bring a towel, (yes it was the USSR then and you brought your own towels and toilet paper), but had and extra, brand new toothbrush. I had two towels, best trade I have ever made in my life!
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Mar 9th 2008 @ 7:15PM
Jacqueline said...
I can't think of anything too awful beyond the typical forgetfulness - I've left articles of clothing and toiletries behind in more hotel/hostel rooms that I can remember. At least I never travel with anything that isn't replaceable!
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Mar 10th 2008 @ 2:21AM
Brian Hollar said...
A few of mine include:
Getting locked in a bathroom in my hotel room in Japan in the middle of the night -- had to yell for help for about 30 minutes, hoping someone who spoke English could hear me.
Getting stuck in the mud in the middle of the Panamanian jungle and then using a condemned outhouse at an Indian village (I should have gotten a hint when an Indian boy ran to get a crowbar to open the door for me).
Accidentally hiking with three Yakuza (Japanese mafia) down a mountain on Miyajima Island, just outside of Hiroshima.
Read many more here: http://thinkingonthemargin.blogspot.com/2006/05/no-touch-monkey.html
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Mar 10th 2008 @ 7:03AM
neutralaegis said...
I once left a backpack on the ground of a Parisian subway, shutting down the 4 (the line between two of the Gares) for an hour or so. As I was moving to France at the time I had my laptop, passport, birth certificate, etc. in that particular bag.
When I got back to the stop overground, French police had closed off the station and were awaiting the bomb squad, who was going to blow up the bag.
http://www.zeshep.com/node/17
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Mar 10th 2008 @ 7:50AM
Nicole said...
Feb 08' In Amman overnight on our way to Petra, Jordan. I met two friendly Australian's who became like brothers once they learned I was traveling alone.
We have dinner and the waiter tells us a bar to go to.
We hop in a taxi and he tells us we should go to Monte Carlos instead. We decide to go to the suggested bar first, but when it was dead we decided the taxi driver knew his city and took him up on the proposition, literally.
We find ourselves standing in the middle of an Islamic strip club being ushered to a table up front. Part curiosity, part whiskey from earlier, we decided to have one round of drinks and then leave, purely out of respect for the establishment, of course.
A five peice band, set with violenist and all, set the tempo of the girls. Once we finished our drinks they handed us a $300 bill. Well after some negotiation we paid $100 bc my friends were getting very leary with all the gangsters that were starting to surround them.
It was an expensive laugh but non the less one of the best mistakes I ever made. If a taxi cab driver tries to maek baksheesh off you by one of the shady bazarr's, be friendly and leave.
One more tip, if the taxi driver is peddling you around town, don't pay him till he gets you back to where you are going if possible. Then negotiate bc he is making $ on you anyways.
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Mar 10th 2008 @ 9:17AM
datageegal said...
The usual assortment of forgetfulness:
* left my bifocals in the airline seat pocket
* left my iPod in the airline seat pocket
* left a PDA in the airline seat pocket
(I think I've finally learned to stop using that pocket!)
* left clothing articles in hotel dresser drawer, several times
And then there's my ongoing directional challenge: my brain appears to be hard-wired to think the ocean is in the West, regardless of which coast I'm really at. It makes trying to drive inland from Boston or New Jersey rather, um, interesting....
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Mar 11th 2008 @ 8:16PM
nealcarn said...
Same problem going to the West Coast when living on the East Coast....dang ocean is in the wrong place!
Mar 12th 2008 @ 2:56AM
Paul Converse said...
I went to get on a flight in Cairo at 11:45PM ( since it is so hot there almost all flights leave at night when the air is cooler so the planes can actually get airlift). and was told the flight left 24 hours earlier.
Somehow with the time being near the next day , I thought it was. Anyway, the guards with machine guns, and non English speaking, got rather fearsome.
Eventually I was told to go to Airport #2 and try Turkish Airlines in the morning as a walk on,and it actually worked. I got a first class seat at an economy price, and then got first class food poisoning from freshly squeezed orange juice in a wine class, courtery of Turkish Airlines.
Which reminds me of ROmanian AIr. Never eat any sandwich they give you that has meat or cheese in it. THey keep them on hand, w/o refrigeration until someone eats it.
I learned this in 15 min as one of 4 unlucky passengers in an old Russian ANdropov plane. I turned green and started sweating and we all stood in line for the one odd bathroom with wooden seats for the duration of the one hour flight. This was the worst flight I was ever on. When we landed,( quite softly) I noticed a white patch on the left tire. It was a very worn tire with the inner parts showing and the landing had to be soft or we would blow the tire.
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Mar 13th 2008 @ 6:59PM
susan said...
I followed my "navman" navigator from Reno to Las Vegas Nevada, and the thing took me up into the mountains, on a dirt road, where no-one lived, I got stuck in the rocks, had to leave my car there and walk for several hours, had to call 911 5-6 times, they sent 3 rescue teams out to look for me, temp dropped from 95 to 35 when it got dark, and I gave up the ghost for death, when they actually found me!
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Mar 13th 2008 @ 8:37PM
coach said...
lucky for him Mustek and Muzeum are just down the square from each other.
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