Travel bucket lists, memories and more.

Tools    





Great stories, Dani. Now I know who is in your avatar (gwinny fricking biting pigs!).
__________________
Et Eärello Endorenna utúlien.
Sinome maruvan ar Hildinyar tenn' Ambar-metta
!



the samoan lawyer's Avatar
Unregistered User
Some great stories and photos here in this thread. Dani you're hilarious!!


If I find any photos of travelling I'll get them up but I'm not great at that stuff.
__________________
Too weird to live, and too rare to die.



You can't win an argument just by being right!
Woah! Crazy story!! Sounds like Belfast in the 70's!


I don't think its possible to get rid of the bug. I cant get as far afield now but in the last 18 months was able to get to Germany, Iceland, France and Czech Republic.
It was pretty bad. I mean Srinagar is great and I'd been there a few years earlier just post monsoon and this time it was just post freezing winter so to experience it in two incredibly diverse climates was pretty amazing, but people were racing to get there before curfew on this road (following photos courtesy of dr google)



and there was a fatality right infront of us. *insert bad word* what the hell was I thinking. A totally needless accident considering there was a landslide a kilometre up ahead and we were stuck there for hours. Sights like this are not uncommon



The mantra became 'when we get to Srinagar, Inshallah'.' memo to self - next time take a plane. Oh that's another story... I'll try to remember that one for later.

It was Ramadan so no food during the day. Not a big deal but the two english girls were smoking a bit (lot) of hash and getting the munchies so travel companion decided to leave the houseboat to go into town to buy some food if any non practising muzzies were selling. The streets were dead except for gormless soldiers standing around with their rifles. Suddenly people came pouring out of the mosque after prayer time and he got caught in crossfire. Funny you should mention northern island because my dad went to the widgery tribunal and the same thing happened to him, although he and his mate were drunk and there were no mosques involved.

Travel companion turned up with the best bread I've ever tasted.



Pretty stupid in hindsight because we were the only dumb tourists in Srinagar at the time and our boat was constantly surrounded by these pesky sellers



but when you travel for a lengthy period you end up doing some pretty dumb sht.



You can't win an argument just by being right!
I think that same guy got me drunk. god, that whiskey is vile!!! but keeps delhi belly away. That rocket fuel would even kill ebola virus.



You can't win an argument just by being right!
Party! Who else is mardi grassing?




I think that same guy got me drunk. god, that whiskey is vile!!! but keeps delhi belly away. That rocket fuel would even kill ebola virus.
Sang Som is what we drunk. I think it was supposed to be Rum but it tasted more like bad whisky mixed with oil and sweat.



You can't win an argument just by being right!
bad whisky mixed with oil and sweat.
LOL. Sounds like the whiskey I drank but I cant remember what brand. Took a long time for my brain cells to recover.

I think we could have an entire thread on booze that made you blind which reminds me of this experience.

Home made brew in Hunza valley - yes this is true. Not all muslims think booze is haram. I'm not sure what brand of paint stripper my lovely host used but one tiny sip nd I couldnt see. Really, I;m not that cheap of a drunk but my sight totally crapped out. It was the Aga Khan's birthday so quite rude to refuse. Oh my lordy lord. When he wasnt looking I tipped it on a pot plnt. 10 minutes later that poor thing was dead.



You can't win an argument just by being right!
I did actually lose my sight temporarily. I think that stuff is pure alcohol.

Another time in India I was invited to lunch by an indian family I had met on the beach in Goa. They had, just the day before, been airlifted out of Kuwait when Iraq invaded and had lost everything there. Dear god, travel stories give me verbal dysentery. Anyhoo, after an amazing banquet (that woman was an incredible cook) they gave us home made arrack. The husband kept saying 'one more for the road'. Dont drink and drive but it's ok if you're on bicycle. Well cycling back to our hotel was hilarious if it had happened to someone else. Pitch black, no moon at all, I dont know where our lights were or if we were just too drunk to switch them on. I have absolutely no recollection of how long that took to find our room.



You can't win an argument just by being right!
Ohh...from wiki

Pakistan[edit]
Alcohol is strictly licensed or otherwise illegal in Pakistan. However unregulated production in rural areas thrives. Products include tharra and its variants including what is ironically known as "Hunza water" and rudimentary beers made from barley, rye and other grain mixtures. Some brandy is also produced in the north where fruit is more readily available. Methanol contamination is a serious problem in some regions.



I had some dodgy stuff in Bali. Some guy cooking a barbecue disappeared when we asked for some booze and came back holding 2 carafes of colourless liquid. Come to think of it, it may actually have been lighter fuel for the barbecue, it certainly tasted like it.

Reminded me of the scene in The Three Amigos when the hapless barman brings el guapo's men the tequila.

Either way it did the job, as that was basically the last memory of the day.



You can't win an argument just by being right!
I don't think I could afford much to travel out of the country, so my target is on visiting all 50 states.
That's cool. Which states have you been to already?



You can't win an argument just by being right!
Come to think of it, it may actually have been lighter fuel for the barbecue, it certainly tasted like it..
LOL. I think I had the same stuff in Lombok.

Rocket fuel - just say no.

Had some home made arak in Turkey. Making my way up the stairs to go to bed was a display of pure elegance. I should have been prima ballerina.



You can't win an argument just by being right!
Did you try the 'shrooms in Bali, Scarlet? My dear departed bro told a story about his trip to Bali. He ordered mushroom soup. Came out as a clear soup and he asked where the mushrooms were. Waiter thought he was asking for magic mushrooms (yeah I;m sure my bro embellished that bit) and some time after eating it he became jesus christ (which is funny because his initials were JC). His wife had to help him back to the hotel and lock him in the bathroom with just a candle for the next week. I dont believe the week bit either. Maybe I;m mixing tht part up with another story.

They flew to India and were immediately hit with culture shock at the airport. I've never experienced full on culture shock except on returning to Sydney 3 years after leaving. Anyway, they locked themselves in their hotel room for a week and just cried. LOL. What a baby.



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
Has anyone gone 2-3 days without speaking a word to anyone because of languages issues? It drove me a little nuts. And as time goes on, communication seems to be more difficult. People also don't seem capable of talking to strangers, and unfortunately, many just stare at their phone, possibly losing a great opportunity for a conversation.



You can't win an argument just by being right!
No, I talk to anyone, even if we cant find a mutual gibberish. For me travel is first and foremost about people, so I atleast try to learn bazaar lingo so I can haggle and have some fun, be polite, ask someone's name etc. I dont bother learning directions phrases because I have no sense of direction anyway. Half the fun is getting lost. As for my phone, only took it to usa so my husband and I could call each other if we got separated and so I could text my family if I felt like it.



You can't win an argument just by being right!
I don't think I could afford much to travel out of the country.
Just on this point, dont feel bad. As my mountaineering buddy says, travel sure wont make you rich, lthough some people think they can supplement their travels by doing stupid sht like buying gemstones or rugs then flogging them when they get home only to find they're fake, or even more stupidly, traffic drugs.

Despite the fun in this thread it's not all roses. Muggings (never happened to me although my husband's ipod was flogged out of his bag enroute in NZ). People get killed - a young aussie recently went missing in Rio airport and turned up floating in the ocean a long way from the airport. My niece was attacked when she was volunteering in Peru. I was pulled off my bicycle by young guys in India, groped in the surf in India, groped in Jammu on the way to Kashmir (like groped between the legs just walking on the street). Almost died a couple of times. My travel companion almost bled to death after minor surgery was botched. Slept in some pretty dodgey places eg on the pavement outside Tokyo train station the night before my plne out. They close it overnight so homeless and drunks cant sleep there. Been spat on. Refused hotel rooms or food because we were white devil foreigners. Extortion attempts because we were in a remote area and had no way of getting out if we didnt pay up. Bad food (not too many of those but they were certainly memorable for all the wrong reasons). Been hassled to screaming point. Almost got pushed out of a train. jesus cherist the memories are flooding back. Ripped off by taxi drivers with the oldest tricks in the book. Been stuck with whiney backpackers. Overnight bus rides that take 4 days. Trains breaking down for hours. Cerebral malaria - if I had a gun I would have blown my brains out. Seen some atrocities that made me so angry (I'm not proud of this) I trashed my hotel room.

The list goes on. Toilets which I've mentioned. Bed bugs. Loud music through shtty speakers that makes you insane. Stench from open sewers in heat waves. Planes grounded for days due to weather. Got chased by a crazy old guy with a big stick in Bombay. Got chased by a crazy young guy with a huge metal gadget in Osaka. Unwittingly walked into a secret meeting of taliban in Islamabad nd had to back out slowly. Had a gun pointed at my face. Had my neighbourhood terrorised in Kyoto by bososoku (young thugs wanting to join yakuza) Lots and lots of tears and I'm pretty seasoned, but you get pushed to breaking point at times. So many bad experiences as well as the fun times.