Congratulations to roughy02 who is the winner of the Scams story competition run in month 5. Check out the winning entry here http://www.lonelyplanet.com/members/roughy02.
This competition is now closed, thank you to everyone who entered and shared their travel tales.
Congratulations to timclark533 who is the winner of last month’s "Refunds" story comp. Check out his winning entry here http://www.lonelyplanet.com/members/timclark533.
This competition has now closed, thank you to everyone who entered and shared their travel tales.
If it is at all possible to die of fun, then I think I came pretty close on Santorin . Tooling around with motor scooters on an idyllic Greek island with a total disregard for personal and public safety is all fun and games until someone attempts to pass their machine through the cheese grater like mesh of a chain link fence. I barely had time to appreciate the fact that I was alive and relatively unscathed when I realized that the underside of the fence had scuffed up the left side of my scooter like a thousand little keys in a poorly lit city car park.
Suddenly the refund on my scooter deposit and substantial penalties came into play . Fortunately our tour bus driver took pity on me and produced a tin of bus polish and some super glue. Half an hour of frantic buffing and strategic adhesive application produced an acceptable looking scooter to the naked eye, but no doubt one with many dangerous operational issues for the next poor sucker to deal with. Here’s to random acts of ...
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On our first night in Moscow, we found ourselves in a dingy all-you-can-eat establishment. My friend and I took one look around and instantly opted for the vegetarian offerings. My girlfriend made the crucial mistake of asking for the chicken.
“Undercooked” would have been a significant understatement. Any doubts about the soft, slimy pile of pink meat making its way to our table were confirmed after the optimistic first incision (“I’m sure it still tastes alright…”) punctured a blood clot the size of Red Square.
It dawned on us then that our three-word Russian vocabulary (“yes”, “no”, “toilet”) did not extend to “refund”, “salmonella” or “Director-General of the World Health Organisation”, but we put on our most pitiable faces and carried the blood-soaked plate back to the counter, where we were directed to a lone man in a dark corner.
Judging by the black suit, glasses and surreptitious hand-in-jacket, this man was part-time complaints officer, part-time Russian mafia. He...
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In Sumatra I got a refund without even asking for it! I had hopped on to a bus to Bandar Lampung and paid for a fake ticket – a common scam in Indonesia. Just as the bus pulled out the real man came aboard and demanded the fare. ‘STOP THE BUS!’ I jumped out and ran back along the road to the terminal and found the scammer about to board another bus. I gave his head a crack against the side of the bus and he being just a small guy it was no trouble to pull off his shorts while he was still a bit stunned. (I doubt my poor Irish mother would understand this!) I shook out the pockets and retrieved my bundle of rupiahs and threw the rest of the cash (and his pants) into the wind to blow about the terminal. Cruel? I am not a violent person and I must admit I felt a bit sorry for the thief as I jumped onto another bus – he didn’t know what to do with his hands – whether to hold his sore head or cover his nuts!
iconvector You are a God of western tourism. If only there were more like you,....
We were on our last $60US dollars and we managed to get 2 tickets to Kao shuing from Hong Kong. We were fleeing a bad employer to a better city so we hoped. Got to a seedy hotel and we promised that we'd get jobs to cover the bill. Our passports were held and the front desk. We worked and were covering our bills till our work ran out. We were unable to pay even tho we had a small amount kept aside to pay for a ticket back to Hong Kong. We were desperate to get out of the hotel as prostitutes would frequent there with their clients and all day porn ran on a televisions that tamper proof! We made a plan to get out of there but had to steal our passport back. It was 4.53am on the clock at the front desk and without disturbing the attendant, we got our passport and made a runner! Hard to run with 15kg backpacks and even harder to ride tandem on a motorbike.
Travelling in France we were staying in a small town at a friends home. It was time to leave for our next destination and they dropped us and our luggage off at the bus stop. As we waved goodbye and they drove round the corner we realised our small backpack with all our money, passports, telephone and other vital stuff had been left in the car. Quick thinking and a call to our own phone alerted our friends to this dilemma and they returned 'post haste'. Safely on the bus with the luggage stowed underneath we set off to Toulon. I began breastfeeding my 1 year old baby (this was actually her birthday!) as we drove along. As we went round a large roundabout my daughters meal was rudely interrupted by a loud crash - the luggage compartment had come open , our suitcases flew out and the bus even managed to run one over!! My partner got off and gathered our belongings - with only offer of help I might add - and we finally made it to Toulon , bought a new suitcase and headed to Italy ...
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My boyfriend and I were kicked out of a "hotel" in Vietnam at 1am for complaining that there were rats in the roof. We asked for our money back so we could go elsewhere which enraged the man at reception so much he not only refused a refund but held our passports held hostage until we paid in full (what a joke!)
We were then harassed by drug dealers on the deserted backstreets of Hanoi and followed by about 5 'taxi drivers' offering "good price". We eventually got into the back of a 'taxi' who agreed to take us to Hanoi airport (so we could get the hell outta there!). Once we were in the car the driver insisted on giving us the ride of our lives (literally) by driving 110km in 60km zones and laughing hysterically when we asked him to slow down. We got to the the airport at 2.30am (which was closed) the driver sped off (no suprise here) and left us to hide behind a row of baggage trolleys until the sun came up! PETRIFYING!
We lost our money and a large portion of our dignity!!
Not having much Japanese under his belt, it was expected that my friend Pete would have difficultly getting a refund on the electric razor he'd just purchased at the electrical chain store in rural Fukui. He'd tried the razor, but it didn't cut the mustard (or the hair), and, even though it was only a few thousand yen at stake, it seemed it may as well have been money that he could call his own rather than something that used to be his.
At the counter he began with "Sore wa dame. Dame desu." (this is rubbish. it's rubbish).
"sumimasengaokyakusamadoushitandesuka", Pete thought he heard in reply.
"Dame desu. Okane chodai" (it's rubbish. Money please.. "chodai" being the sort of word a little kid would use to get their mum to buy watermelon at the shops).
"sorewaikanaidemohokanohougaikagadesuka", was the remonstration.
"Okane chodai. Dame desu. Okane chodai... okane chodai", Pete was very calm.
"aitakaratsukattakaraokanenohogogadekinaindesu", fell on deaf ears.
When travelling in Europe last year I took a flight to Spain. When I arrived in the airport in Malaga the airline couldn't locate my bag. After waiting for hours trying to speak to someone they gave me a lost baggage document and told me to call the number tomorrow. The next day I began calling and double checked with 3 different people on the other end that the information I had been given -" as we cannot locate your bag, you can spend 50 euro's a day and keep the receipts and we will reimburse you until we can locate your bag". I did as I was told and bought the necessities- toothbrush, underwear etc . My bag didn't arrive for 5 days. As you can imagine I spent about 250 Euros. When I arrived back in Australia, I was in contact with the airline and did exactly what was required of me; posted all boarding passes and receipts. They, apparently received it and then a few weeks later I called and apparently my cheque was coming in the mail... it never arrived.
I was travelling around the US a couple years back. Within our first 2 hours of arriving in New Orleans, LA me and my friends were approached by a friendly, smooth talking local on Bourbon Street. With a massive grin on his face he said that he would bet me $40 that he knew where I got the sneakers that I was wearing that day. I had no doubt that he wouldn't guess the right store since I had bought them at a Canadian sports shop so I accepted the bet. Then he turned mean and said: "you got your shoes standing on Bourbon Street, New Orleans right now!" Clearly I had become a Homonym victim, but when he saw my hesitation to hand over the $40 two of his buddies came up behind him to intimidate me into it. It wasn't the best first impression of the city but I learned a valueable lesson.. if it sounds too good to be true it usually is!
iconvector a true Canadian rube..I thought that was just a stereotype.
It was an amateur mistake to make.
We had arrived in the Vietnamese city of Nha Tranh after a hellish bus ride and were ready to collapse into the first bed that flashed its frilly undercovers at us.
A tout lured us to a guesthouse with pretty pictures of a room that looked good enough to woo a fussy mother-in-law.
First mistake.
At the front counter we handed over our passports and the mandatory US$60 to secure our booking for three nights.
We were so exhausted we didn't inspect the room first.
Second mistake.
When we opened the door a large rat scuttled across the floor and disappeared inside an enormous hole in the wall. A window pane was missing and the bathroom was squalid, but the final straw was the dishevelled bed and the three stout, curly hairs perched on top!
I stormed downstairs, suddenly more alert, said the deal was off and we wanted our money back.
Too bad, so sad was the gist of the response I got from the man behind the counter, whose English had mysteriou...
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I learned a good lesson when my backpack mysteriously disappeared en route to China.
It was totally disheartening when my trusty bag did not appear on the airport conveyor belt and I had to face my first night in China with only a handbag.
My optimism of exploring a new country turned to depression the next day, when the airline could not even find where my backpack might be.
Three days later, they found it in Kathmandu (no joke) and refunded the price of my ticket to make up for the blunder. What joy!
The Lesson; Every cloud has a silver lining - Optimism and travel make fine companions.
My sister and I went on a day trip on this yacht in Vanuatu to go snorkling and have lunch on the beach in this remote side of Efate; the yacht was filled with mostly Australian upper middle-class families and couples, all seeming nice enough. A few of the more adventurous hopped in a dingy and went out to go snorkling... when we went to go back the digny broke down, so the guys jumped in the water and towed and the women paddled with fins back to the yacht - we were then there for several hours with no food (the food was on the beach with the less adventurous members of the tour ,though we had water to drink) but everyone was having a merry time swimming and chatting... soit was ok as it was pretty much the most beautiful place to be stranded - rather a luxury in my books.
After a while they got the dingy working and went and picked up the 'beach folk', who then came back on the yacht and spent the next two hours on the trip home abusing the pregnant hostess and stealing drinks f...
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This month’s theme is ‘Refunds’. Have you ever had to get a refund while travelling? Was it easy or traumatic?
EXAMPLE: I was in Huaraz, Peru in the middle of January, which is well into the wet season. This coincides with the low season for tourists but I was really hoping to do the Olleros-to-Chavin trek and I had been told there were always groups going. I spent the first day looking for a group that was doing the trek and finally found a place that said they were leaving the next morning. I paid my money, only to get a knock on my hostel door that night, with a man saying the tour had been cancelled because some British tourists had arrived late and needed more time to acclimatise. Thankfully, they were pretty good about giving me a refund. I ended up heading back to Lima early – which worked out well because the buses went on strike and I would have missed my flight! - Jerome Paul, Lonely Planet staff
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Getting Started – Bali & Lombok
It pays to do your money homework before arriving in a new destination, as a Melbourne couple discovers while travelling in South America.
Vampires aren’t the only thing to beware of in Romania – predators prowling the platforms of Bucharest’s main train station, Gara de Nord, can ruin your trip with one smoothly executed team effort. Just ask Mic…
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