5 Month Travel Update: 10 Traveling Mishaps

I thought we’d celebrate 5 months on the road by talking about a few of the travel mishaps Vicky and I have had along the way. Some of these we’ve mentioned before in other posts and some we haven’t.

Frankly, Vicky and I have had a rather safe 5 months free of any major mishaps. We’re pretty careful and I think traveling as a couple is a lot safer. You tend to have less run-ins. I remember in Ho Chi Minh how an American friend of ours, Tom, would frequently get asked if he was looking for weed. It’s true, Tom does look like a bit of a pothead (sorry Tom!), but I think that being a solo traveler invites a different kind of local to approach you. Still, you can’t travel around for 5 months and have nothing to say. Here are a few of our stories.

Japan

Going For Broke In Shirakawa-go – Our first travel mishap hit us after only one week. We had made a trip to Shirakawa-go, a remote Japanese village in between Kanazawa and Takayama. At this point Vicky and I weren’t quite in the habit of checking our wallet frequently enough and we realized, upon arrival, that we had just enough cash for our ticket out but barely any money for food, water, or activities. Not a very fun day.

As this is a fairly remote part of Japan, we were told there were virtually no ATMs for miles. There was, however, one hope; a post office. We saw on a map that there was a post office a few kilometers down and thought there might be a chance that there would be an ATM there. We were worried our card would not be accepted, as it often wasn’t, but luckily, after about 30 minutes of walking, we arrived and refilled our empty wallets.

Believe it or not this was not the last time we ran out of money. The next time was in South Korea at our temple stay. I had to ask the monks to give us a discount while we frantically looked for an ATM at Haeinsa Temple. Luckily (again!) we found the only one in town.

No Offense – One of our earlier Couchsurfing hosts in Japan was a very pleasant elderly man in his 70s. He had hosted dozens of people before and we were particularly excited to meet this CS legend and make friends. We arrived around 7pm just in time for dinner. Vicky and I had already eaten as we didn’t want to assume that he would feed us, only to find out that he had prepared quite a large feast for us…strike one. Shortly after, while talking about education, I asked him where he went to college. He explained that he never went to college …strike two. Next, while looking at a picture I asked him if that was his son (who he mentioned earlier). I come to find out that it is not his son, but his wife…who passed away three years ago. Strike three. The next day while getting up to go to the bathroom I walked in on him naked (full frontal). Strike infinity.

South Korea

Right Or Left? – We had planned a day hike of Beomesa Temple outside of Busan. When we arrived, we had no clue what to do. There were no signs, no one who spoke English, no indication whatsoever of where to go. We saw a trail that was going upwards and decided to take it. On the way we ran into another hiker, who spoke literally no English except to say that she was also hiking Go Dang Bong (our peak), so we followed her. Up and up we went until we reached the top…of another peak. She had led us in the wrong direction (accidentally, of course). There was really no getting around this, we would have to climb part way down and ascend the right peak. An hour or so later and we were there.

Mystery Meat – Famished and unacquainted with our surrounding neighborhood, Vicky and I wandered into a small tavern on the side of the road. No English on the menu, not even any pictures, except on the wall. We did the only thing we could do – point. The 10 or so people there burst into a loud discussion. Democracy was going to decide what we would be eating for dinner that night. Our first dish looked like…a side of maggots. Later we found out that it was silk worms (phew?). The next dish was some sort of meat. It was kind of crunchy, long…I wasn’t sure what it could be. I tried a few bites – not tasty.

Vicky “I think it’s…chicken feet”

Dave “Check please!”

That was it for me. We paid our tab and left. I’m glad to say that I tried the meat without knowing what it was and still didn’t like it, psychology aside.

China

Preparing For The Worst – Preparation without confidence is useless. If you don’t have the confidence to carry it through, you can’t properly execute the plan. This is what happened to us when we tried to go to the Great Wall on our own. We had everything down – the bus we would take, the times, the fare and then we ran into a random stranger who convinced us to do something entirely different…and we did. We got on a random bus and then off at a random stop, quite far from the Great Wall. You can imagine what came next; an expensive cab ride.

Time To Wake Up – We hurriedly left our apartment in Beijing to get to the bus station. While on the bus to the Great Wall I was napping in a rather uncomfortable position with legs elevated. I didn’t think anything of it – until I got up to exit the bus. I fell immediately to the floor. My left leg was completely numb. The entire bus, filled with Chinese, was staring at me, possibly more confused than I was myself. I hobbled off and feeling returned shortly after.

Vietnam

Dude, Where Are My Clothes? – Somehow on our train from Lao Cai to Hanoi I managed to lose my two spare t shirts, leaving me with only one (the one that I had been wearing) for the next 40 or so days. Later on, Vicky’s parents came and brought me two more from home…and I promptly lost the one I had previously retained.

Not So Easy Rider Tour – While our Easy Rider Tour was spectacular, we did run into a few problems, mainly flat tires. In total there were two, but perhaps the first one was “the worst”. Vicky’s guide got a flat tire and we pulled over – no problem, they carry spares, multiple in fact. However, in his haste to fix it and have us be on our way, Bin managed to rip an additional two tires. This left us without any. My guide, Hai, rode off to see if any stores were open (they weren’t). It was getting late, past sunset, and we waited an hour on the side of the road until one of Bin’s friends from the closest town drove up with a spare and escorted Vicky and I to our hotel for the night. Just after we left it started pouring – lucky for us, not so lucky for Bin and Hai.

Am I Dreaming? – While on a bus driving back from our Mekong Delta Tour Vicky and I dosed off for a bit. We both woke up at around the same time and, naturally, started to peer out the driver’s window to see where we were (not like we would know anyways). Suddenly, it became apparent that we were on the highway, driving against traffic. Cars and trucks started coming toward us – we stopped, and slowly backed up and changed our direction. They stopped too. Wrong time to wake up and look out the window I guess.

Thailand

No More Wheels – While staying on the island of Koh Lanta in Thailand we rented a motorbike for several days (highly recommend, btw). I had never driven a motorbike before, but it wasn’t too difficult. One night, after hanging out with a few people Vicky met at her cooking class, we decided it was time to wrap things up. I turned the key but it wouldn’t give. We were out of gas. It was midnight and we were several kilometers away from our hotel. I was not looking forward to wheeling this motorbike home for the next 40 minutes, when all of the sudden we saw a stand selling gasoline by the liter in glass bottles – I’ll take three!

It would have been great if our motorbike troubles had ended there. A few days later, while on a beach, I realized that I had left the key in the motorbike helmet and it had fallen out. We had been moving around the beach to stay with the sun for the past three hours and in all the commotion the key had fallen out. We were miles away from our hotel and I was beginning to think that finding this key on the beach was going to be a needle in a haystack exercise. I ran back to where we first started and after 5 minutes, I saw the little green keychain sticking out of the sand – phew!

What are some of your travel mishaps?