Introduction
Anyone who travels knows that surprises happen. You can't control everything (and believe me I've tried). But I have to admit that sometimes the surprises are the best part. Or at least make for the most interesting stories.
The Good
I have been fortunate enough to visit some beautiful places over the years. Often your expectations are too high, and you end up feeling a little disappointed. But it’s always a pleasant surprise when a destination is even better than you anticipated.
Another pleasant surprise is when what starts out as a bad surprise turns into a good one. For instance, one of the things you dread most when traveling is a canceled flight. Especially one that strands you far from home.
At the end of an Australia and New Zealand tour we were supposed to fly from Queenstown to Christchurch to Auckland to Los Angeles then home. Queenstown's airport is very small and it closes down if the wind blows. That day the wind blew. It threw our whole schedule off. We ended up spending the night in Auckland and had a free day until the next night's International flight.
Auckland wasn't even on our itinerary, but that didn't stop us from exploring it when we got the chance. Nice town. Wish we could have stayed longer.
I also once had a 12 hour layover in Honolulu, and don't think I didn't take advantage of that. I caught a public bus to Waikiki and spent a very pleasant day at the beach, instead of the airport.
The Bad
Luckily, I can't think of too many bad things that happened to me during my travels.
Getting robbed is another dread of travelers. I remember walking with some fellow travelers in Rome and one of the girls got robbed. She was wearing a fanny pack (easy pickings) and these two kids stole her notebook and pen. The funny thing is they came back and returned the notebook (but kept the pen).
On another trip in France some people in the tour group had their smartphones stolen in the hotel. My roommate was one of them. I was still using a flip phone at the time so they left my phone alone. Sometimes it pays not to have the latest technology.
Probably my scariest travel moment took place in Russia. St. Petersburg was beautiful, but I found Russia to be very oppressive. I felt like I was being watched the whole time I was there.
Then at the border, an idiot couple in our tour group tried to sneak a forbidden icon purchase out of the country. We were all detained by security. We didn’t think we were going to get out. But our tour guide Ana got us released. I’ve never been so relieved to leave a country in my life.
The Ugly
Ana was an example of a good tour guide. Almost all of the tour guides I encountered were good. They were knowledgeable and took their job seriously.
They were always working. Planning every little detail and dealing competently with every crisis. Answering questions and keeping us out of trouble. Doing everything they could to provide us with a good experience.
There was one glaring exception. The trip was actually a U.S. bus tour of New England. I went alone and was paired with a roommate, Helene from Australia. There were a lot of Australians on the trip. It was a fun group.
The guide Barbara was nice, but inexperienced and not too bright. She didn't explain things well (and we had a lot of foreigners in the group). She also wasn't very organized and didn't think things through. In short, she was in way over her head.
There were a lot of mishaps on that trip, but the culmination took place one night in Maine after dinner. Barbara was losing control of the group by then and trying to please everyone (while pleasing no one). She let a small group of about 6 people break off from the tour dinner. The bus driver Steve dropped them off in Bar Harbor to explore and do dinner on their own. We would pick them up after the rest of the group had dinner in another town.
Well, long story short, Barbara forgot about them. The main group drove back to the hotel after dinner. (Did I mention this was a cheap tour so the hotel was way out in the boonies?).
Since my roommate Helene was one of the 6 who was in Bar Harbor and I didn't see her on the dark bus headed back to the hotel, I asked Barbara about the Bar Harbor group. She assured me we had everyone. I assumed they were picked up earlier and were back at the hotel. But I was still uneasy. And sure enough, they were not back at the hotel.
I sought out Barbara again. I was talking to Steve the bus driver, and getting his version of events, about the time Barbara was taking a frantic phone call in the hotel lobby from the 6 in Bar Harbor. Everything had shut down and it was a chilly October night. Where the f*%# was the bus?!
Steve and Barbara proceeded to hot foot it to Bar Harbor to pick up the strays. Barbara took a moment to ask me to keep this quiet from the rest of the tour group. Yeah, like that was going to happen. I didn’t have to say a word. Everyone knew by breakfast and no one was talking to Barbara. It was bad before. Now it got ugly.
I could understand everyone's anger. Still, I felt sorry for poor Barbara. I even gave her a pitiful tip. I may have been the only one.
Any good, bad or ugly travel experiences you want to share?
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