International Travel Horror Stories

Nothing bad has happened yet thankfully.

However, when my now wife and I landed in India at 1AM, I was convinced we were going to be raped and murdered when our cab driver stopped under an overpass where 20 people were hanging out in almost total darkness in Delhi.

Turns out, he was just giving his friend a lift, but I was pretty much prepared to die.

Later on during that trip, our driver (who was great) went to pay a toll/tax at a state crossing. My wife took a picture of some monkeys on leashes. Owner got aggressive asking for money. My wife rolled the window down way too far to slip some rupees. Dude wanted more money so he stuck his hand in the window as she rolled it up, then started pushing on the car.

I remembered I had a cellphone and called my driver. Pulling the phone out scared the dude off but damn. My wife learned a lesson there.

I thought India was awesome. My wife enjoyed her time but is in no hurry to return

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Those monkey people are kinda like those metal men in Nola. You can look but as soon as you take a picture, they want money. And you being a westerner, ofcourse, they wanted to milk as much as possible out of you guys. Pretty funny story however.

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Oh ya, the good thing is she gave the "correct" amount in rupees. This guy was trying to get more than I'd pay in dollars.

Will say the guy's dedication to lose his hand was inspiring.

Just like any other kind of insurance, different policies cover different things. Shop around and read the fine print.

Insure my trip - Amazon of trip insurance

I was on the Eurostar train from Paris to London when a "technical difficulty" made the train stop midway in the Chunnel. Train was dead stopped for over an hour under La Manche. We had exactly the two word explanation of "Technical Difficulties". I knew I could hoof the 13 miles to the UK opening if necessary but that was dependent on there not being a fire and dying from smoke inhalation. A brake was dragging and the smoke set off the smoke alarms and automatically shut down the train.

It made me since always purchase medical insurance for international trips. I don't get trip insurance because a decent percentage of my travel is somewhat business-related. Worst case I have to pay my own way home, that's very little potential cost compared to a medical issue.

I have several Credit Cards which have automatic car rental insurance coverage. If not, and a couple of times they did not cover the insurance, I buy the offered coverage from the rental agency. I always price this before renting as it can vary greatly from one rental company to another.

Man that sounds like a terrible way to end your trip

Went into the poorest part of Panama City and we had a couple guys split us up as we were walking in a market and they cornered by buddy. He immediately started shoving them and calling my name. Thankfully both guys ran off. We had multiple people stop us and tell us we needed to get the hell out of there.

Also drove through a mountain range and the place we rented our truck from gave us bald tires. Almost flipped the truck a few times and would have definitely died.

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That doesnt sound scary at all tbh. Thats an ordinary occurrence in the chunnel

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We could smell something burning in the car and the regular lights were out in all the cars, only the Emergency Lights were lit. We were (I found out later) almost exactly in the middle of the Channel. Again, no information other than "Technical Difficulties" or Eurostar employees around.

I guess since you wouldn't be alarmed in that situation that means you are the Official TD Travel Board Internet Extreme Badass.

Congrats, Mr Official TD Travel Board Internet Extreme Badass.

We are all extremely envious of your badassery.

My aunt & uncle were on a Mediterranean cruise a few years ago. They were docked at some island on Greece and were on some tour where you rode a donkey up some steep arse stairs to the top of hill. I dont remember what was at the top. Anyway, Aunt decides she doesn't want to ride donkey back down, so they decide to walk. Well somehow she twists her ankle and ends up breaking it. They panic b/c it's not like they're in Athens(which probably wouldn't have been much better). Hardly anyone speaks English. They get her on donkey and back down hill and to ship.

The ship refuses to let her board b/c they don't have the medical accommodations for a broken ankle and I guess they don't want the liability. My uncle is pleading with them, but they refuse. He runs on board and packs all of their stuff frantically b/c ship is getting ready to leave.

They reach a local doctor and arrange for an airlift to the closest hospital. Still in Greece, but still not Athens. Don't remember what island they end up on.
The hospital is not state of the art to say the least. They do x-rays and say it requires surgery. My aunt doesn't want them to perform surgery and just wants to get back to U.S. for surgery. Doctor advised against this, but she's adamant. My uncle has BCBS and was on the phone for days arranging for a flight back to US, insurance hassles with payment to these doctors and hospital etc. I think it took 3-4 days to get her out of that hospital and to an airport to fly out of (their original flights back were out of Madrid). She flew commercial, but required extra room for her leg/foot which had to stay elevated, so she was booked into a bulkhead seat with more room.
They finally made it back, but they said it was a nightmare. I think his BCBS covered a lot of it eventually, but he had to come out of pocket for thousands of dollars on stuff like the airlift, changing plane tickets, hospital etc. Plus they missed most of the 14 day cruise.

I've ridden on one of those donkeys on Rhodes before. I can see why she wasn't a fan, they feel unstable and the donkeys look like shite from a health perspective.