Traveling isn’t always rainbows and butterflies. There will be days where nothing goes according to plan, moments where you’ll be so stressed out, times where you’ll be sick, homesick, and scams you'll have to deal with.
However, that being said, you just have to take it with a grain of salt, realize it’s out of your control, and just make the best of the situation as humanly possible.
So grab your popcorn, because it's story time.
We want to share with you our travel horror stories, so that hopefully you can learn from our sh*tty moments, and not have to go through the same sh*t that we did!
However, that being said, you just have to take it with a grain of salt, realize it’s out of your control, and just make the best of the situation as humanly possible.
So grab your popcorn, because it's story time.
We want to share with you our travel horror stories, so that hopefully you can learn from our sh*tty moments, and not have to go through the same sh*t that we did!
Cell Phone Stolen Out of Hands in Bali, Indonesia
We heard that this happens often in Bali, so we always took extra precautions. We were nearing the end of our two months there, and had about one week left. We went out to a bar one night in Seminyak with some local friends and on our way home on our motorbike, I (Meagan) had my arms wrapped around Justin's stomach, with my cell phone close to his bellybutton with Google Maps open with directions to our hotel on.
It was around 3:00am so the streets were quiet, it was like a ghost town. All of a sudden out of nowhere, two local men on a motorbike ripped past us, snatched my cell phone out of my hands and took off faster than you can possibly imagine. I was gripping my phone with two hands, but he still somehow managed to snatch it out of my hands. I screamed to Justin, "HE TOOK MY PHONE, HE TOOK MY PHONE!" then Justin told me to get off the bike so that he could try to catch up with them, but unfortunately was unsuccessful as he took off in lightning speed.
At the time, I had the brand new Samsung Galaxy S8, with hundreds of photos and videos on it. Luckily, I had a password on it, as well as the Track My Phone app. Somehow, we managed to get home without the directions, and as soon as we walked in the door we tried to use the app, but go figure, my phone was turned off. The next day we tried all day long to pinpoint where it was, but he still had the phone off. Right then and there we knew we weren't going to see it again, so I called my provider, reported it stolen, and they blacklisted my phone. Meaning, if they managed to unlock it, they would still not be able to use the phone. We also erased all of our personal information, photos and videos, and reset my phone - now the phone was completely useless to whoever stole it.
We've heard countless stories of tourists purses, backpacks, and phones being snatched while on motorbikes, and sometimes even falling off of their bike and getting road rash, so whatever you do, put your bag under the seat, and pull off to the side of the road to check directions. Another preventative is to have one headphone in, and listen to the audio for directions. Also never have your phone out taking videos or photos while driving. And be sure to download the Track My Phone app just in case.
At the end of the day, we were thankful we were okay and did not get injured during the snatching. When it comes down to it, it's just a phone, and is replaceable - we were just upset we lost our photos and videos more than anything.
It was around 3:00am so the streets were quiet, it was like a ghost town. All of a sudden out of nowhere, two local men on a motorbike ripped past us, snatched my cell phone out of my hands and took off faster than you can possibly imagine. I was gripping my phone with two hands, but he still somehow managed to snatch it out of my hands. I screamed to Justin, "HE TOOK MY PHONE, HE TOOK MY PHONE!" then Justin told me to get off the bike so that he could try to catch up with them, but unfortunately was unsuccessful as he took off in lightning speed.
At the time, I had the brand new Samsung Galaxy S8, with hundreds of photos and videos on it. Luckily, I had a password on it, as well as the Track My Phone app. Somehow, we managed to get home without the directions, and as soon as we walked in the door we tried to use the app, but go figure, my phone was turned off. The next day we tried all day long to pinpoint where it was, but he still had the phone off. Right then and there we knew we weren't going to see it again, so I called my provider, reported it stolen, and they blacklisted my phone. Meaning, if they managed to unlock it, they would still not be able to use the phone. We also erased all of our personal information, photos and videos, and reset my phone - now the phone was completely useless to whoever stole it.
We've heard countless stories of tourists purses, backpacks, and phones being snatched while on motorbikes, and sometimes even falling off of their bike and getting road rash, so whatever you do, put your bag under the seat, and pull off to the side of the road to check directions. Another preventative is to have one headphone in, and listen to the audio for directions. Also never have your phone out taking videos or photos while driving. And be sure to download the Track My Phone app just in case.
At the end of the day, we were thankful we were okay and did not get injured during the snatching. When it comes down to it, it's just a phone, and is replaceable - we were just upset we lost our photos and videos more than anything.
Left at the Border from Cambodia to Vietnam
We had our first land border crossing by bus from Cambodia to Vietnam - obviously we had no idea what to expect. We purchased our tickets online, with the bus company, 'Khai Nam'. Upon arriving on the bus, a staff member collected everyone’s passports and e-visas for Vietnam (which you must get in advance, before arrival).
Once we got to the immigration office at the border, an officer came over to us and asked us where our visas were – we kept repeating ourselves that the driver took them. Unfortunately the officer did not speak any English, and was starting to become frustrated with us, and kept trying to push us to an interrogation room. We quickly opened up our Google Translate app, and translated that our driver took our visas. He read it, said okay and walked away.
About 5 minutes had gone by, and during this time everyone from our bus was already through to the Vietnam side. Once the officer came back with our stamped passports, we exited the building and were officially in Vietnam, but our bus was gone! We pre-paid for this bus to take us all the way to Ho Chi Minh, which was another 3 hours away!
Totally stressed out and confused about what to do, we thankfully noticed that our SIM card from Cambodia was still working so we called our bus company, Khai Nam. The lady on the phone said, “If you take too long at immigration, passengers complain to the driver and they leave without you. But, another bus comes in 30 minutes so you can get on the next one.” Relieved but still annoyed, we waited for the next bus.
If our SIM card from Cambodia was not working, or we did not even have one, I'm not sure what we would have done. We probably would have ended up having to pay for another bus ticket.
But, now we know, and now you know! Another good reason to purchase SIM cards in each country as well!
Once we got to the immigration office at the border, an officer came over to us and asked us where our visas were – we kept repeating ourselves that the driver took them. Unfortunately the officer did not speak any English, and was starting to become frustrated with us, and kept trying to push us to an interrogation room. We quickly opened up our Google Translate app, and translated that our driver took our visas. He read it, said okay and walked away.
About 5 minutes had gone by, and during this time everyone from our bus was already through to the Vietnam side. Once the officer came back with our stamped passports, we exited the building and were officially in Vietnam, but our bus was gone! We pre-paid for this bus to take us all the way to Ho Chi Minh, which was another 3 hours away!
Totally stressed out and confused about what to do, we thankfully noticed that our SIM card from Cambodia was still working so we called our bus company, Khai Nam. The lady on the phone said, “If you take too long at immigration, passengers complain to the driver and they leave without you. But, another bus comes in 30 minutes so you can get on the next one.” Relieved but still annoyed, we waited for the next bus.
If our SIM card from Cambodia was not working, or we did not even have one, I'm not sure what we would have done. We probably would have ended up having to pay for another bus ticket.
But, now we know, and now you know! Another good reason to purchase SIM cards in each country as well!
Taxi Scam in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Unfortunately, this event followed right after being left at the border, so we were in no mood to be screwed with. This was not a great introduction to Vietnam at all.
At the border we met these girls form the UK, they had already been to Vietnam so we asked them how much a taxi should be from the bus station to our hotel (only 3km), and they said no more than 50,000VND ($3CAD/$2.15USD). When we got to the bus station we found a taxi driver willing to take us, using the meter.
Whenever we're traveling in a taxi, we always have Google Maps open with the directions to our place, so we can ensure they're not trying to screw us over by taking the long route, or even going the wrong way. However, our driver kept making wrong turns, even though we adviced him otherwise. He kept telling us there was traffic (this is a classic scam). He wouldn't stop taking the wrong turns so we said to him, "please take the route that Google Maps states, whether there’s traffic or not."
He started getting visibly angry, huffing and puffing. Once we spoke up about him going the wrong way, we noticed that the meter was going up very, very abnormally fast. We brought that to his attention, and he said that it was normal. This was by no means normal, we’ve been in more than enough taxis to know this. We told him to please fix it, but he got so angry and stopped the taxi at the side of the road, still 1km away from our hotel. He told us to pay up and get out – we looked at the meter and it was a grand total of 450,000VND ($27CAD/$19.50USD), we had only gone 2km at this point!
Now, we know this isn't a lot, however, when you’re on a backpacker’s budget, every dollar counts. More importantly, it’s the principal – whether we’re being ripped off by $0.25CAD, or $25.00CAD, we will still have the same feeling. We told him that he was cheating us and that we weren’t going to pay that, then he locked our doors, and started screaming at us to pay 450,000VND.
Unfortunately our big backpacks were in the trunk, but luckily we were in a hatchback kind of vehicle, so Meagan reached over the back seats and grabbed our bags. Even though he locked the doors, we could still unlock them manually ourselves, thank goodness. So, we grabbed our backpacks, gave the man $5.00USD, and got out. All while this was happening, he was still screaming at the top of his lungs.
We ended up just walking the rest of the way since we were only 1km away. If we were coming from the airport which was 8km away, that fare would make sense, but 3km, yeah right.
On top of everything else that had gone wrong that day, our camera died during this situation, so we didn't have time to change the battery, and film what happened.
Later on we found out that there are VinaSun Taxi impostors, so be careful when choosing your taxi. Taxi scams are the biggest scams out there, in almost every country. So, always have your Google Maps directions open, as well as keeping your eyes peeled on the meter. The drivers will always try to take advantage of you, so it's always a good thing to say that it's your second time in the country, even if it's not.
At the border we met these girls form the UK, they had already been to Vietnam so we asked them how much a taxi should be from the bus station to our hotel (only 3km), and they said no more than 50,000VND ($3CAD/$2.15USD). When we got to the bus station we found a taxi driver willing to take us, using the meter.
Whenever we're traveling in a taxi, we always have Google Maps open with the directions to our place, so we can ensure they're not trying to screw us over by taking the long route, or even going the wrong way. However, our driver kept making wrong turns, even though we adviced him otherwise. He kept telling us there was traffic (this is a classic scam). He wouldn't stop taking the wrong turns so we said to him, "please take the route that Google Maps states, whether there’s traffic or not."
He started getting visibly angry, huffing and puffing. Once we spoke up about him going the wrong way, we noticed that the meter was going up very, very abnormally fast. We brought that to his attention, and he said that it was normal. This was by no means normal, we’ve been in more than enough taxis to know this. We told him to please fix it, but he got so angry and stopped the taxi at the side of the road, still 1km away from our hotel. He told us to pay up and get out – we looked at the meter and it was a grand total of 450,000VND ($27CAD/$19.50USD), we had only gone 2km at this point!
Now, we know this isn't a lot, however, when you’re on a backpacker’s budget, every dollar counts. More importantly, it’s the principal – whether we’re being ripped off by $0.25CAD, or $25.00CAD, we will still have the same feeling. We told him that he was cheating us and that we weren’t going to pay that, then he locked our doors, and started screaming at us to pay 450,000VND.
Unfortunately our big backpacks were in the trunk, but luckily we were in a hatchback kind of vehicle, so Meagan reached over the back seats and grabbed our bags. Even though he locked the doors, we could still unlock them manually ourselves, thank goodness. So, we grabbed our backpacks, gave the man $5.00USD, and got out. All while this was happening, he was still screaming at the top of his lungs.
We ended up just walking the rest of the way since we were only 1km away. If we were coming from the airport which was 8km away, that fare would make sense, but 3km, yeah right.
On top of everything else that had gone wrong that day, our camera died during this situation, so we didn't have time to change the battery, and film what happened.
Later on we found out that there are VinaSun Taxi impostors, so be careful when choosing your taxi. Taxi scams are the biggest scams out there, in almost every country. So, always have your Google Maps directions open, as well as keeping your eyes peeled on the meter. The drivers will always try to take advantage of you, so it's always a good thing to say that it's your second time in the country, even if it's not.
Missing Our Flight From Sri Lanka to India
This one is just embarrassing. It was eight months into our travels, and we're actually surprised this didn't happen sooner, or more than once (knock on wood).
We had a flight to India from Sri Lanka on February 19th at 2:30am. Our entire time in Sri Lanka, we're like okay, we've got a flight on the 19th, 19th, 19th, and told ourselves, alright we have to be at the airport at 11:30pm, three hours prior. So we're about to go to sleep on the 18th, it's about midnight, and we receive an e-mail stating that our flight is scheduled to depart 15 minutes earlier than scheduled. Then we started thinking to ourselves, oh wait, so we don't need a hotel booked for the 19th then. Then we realized, OH SH*T! We have to be at the airport RIGHT NOW!
We had to be at the airport at 11:30pm, on 18th, not the 19th! It was midnight, and we were three hours away from the airport, and our plane was supposed to leave at 2:15am. There was no way we were going to make it! We didn't even have our belongings packed. We immediately called the airline, told them our (stupid, very stupid) mistake, and asked if we could switch our flight to 24 hours later. He said no problem, but then told us it would cost $475.00CAD/$342USD. While we were on the phone, we were multi-tasking and also looking up flights. We found a direct flight for only $10.00CAD more than what he was offering, so we told him never-mind. He then told us we needed to pay $180.00CAD/$130USD for a cancellation fee (ridiculous, right?). You don't need to pay when you no show, so we fibbed and said, never-mind, we'll just head to the airport now and see if there's anything they can do for us. After hanging up, we ended up booking the direct flight ourselves, for $480.00CAD/$345USD. Such an expensive mistake that we'll never make again!
We had a flight to India from Sri Lanka on February 19th at 2:30am. Our entire time in Sri Lanka, we're like okay, we've got a flight on the 19th, 19th, 19th, and told ourselves, alright we have to be at the airport at 11:30pm, three hours prior. So we're about to go to sleep on the 18th, it's about midnight, and we receive an e-mail stating that our flight is scheduled to depart 15 minutes earlier than scheduled. Then we started thinking to ourselves, oh wait, so we don't need a hotel booked for the 19th then. Then we realized, OH SH*T! We have to be at the airport RIGHT NOW!
We had to be at the airport at 11:30pm, on 18th, not the 19th! It was midnight, and we were three hours away from the airport, and our plane was supposed to leave at 2:15am. There was no way we were going to make it! We didn't even have our belongings packed. We immediately called the airline, told them our (stupid, very stupid) mistake, and asked if we could switch our flight to 24 hours later. He said no problem, but then told us it would cost $475.00CAD/$342USD. While we were on the phone, we were multi-tasking and also looking up flights. We found a direct flight for only $10.00CAD more than what he was offering, so we told him never-mind. He then told us we needed to pay $180.00CAD/$130USD for a cancellation fee (ridiculous, right?). You don't need to pay when you no show, so we fibbed and said, never-mind, we'll just head to the airport now and see if there's anything they can do for us. After hanging up, we ended up booking the direct flight ourselves, for $480.00CAD/$345USD. Such an expensive mistake that we'll never make again!
Meagan Being Sexually Harassed in India
We were in the middle of the desert in Pushkar, India - We were taking photos when 3 Indian men were about to drive past us on their motorcycle, until they saw us and stopped and got off. At the beginning they were just saying hello, and asked to take photos with us (which is the norm in India).
One of the men was taking a photo with myself (Meagan), while Justin was talking to the others and had his back turned to us. Just as the photo was about to be taken, the man I was taking a photo with, pulled open my tank top, and put his face down into my tank top to look at my chest. I immediately pushed him off of me and said, "what the f*ck?!", 'causing Justin to turn around and asked what happened. I started crying immediately, I felt so violated.
Justin was super angry and told the men to, "f*ck off!" The Indian men kept laughing and were still trying to take a photo of us, even while I was crying. Justin ended up pushing the man that was taking photos still, and told them to leave. About 5 minutes later, while they were still laughing, they finally left.
We went back to our hostel right away, and told the hosts - they said we should have called them, and they would have come down to help. But while we were in the moment, neither of us thought of that. Moral of the story, if you're a woman, don't take photos with Indian men. Women and children are okay of course, but it's best just to avoid the photos with men, because this happens so often.
We also luckily managed to snag a photo of them taking off, along with their license plate, which we also showed to our hostel hosts.
One of the men was taking a photo with myself (Meagan), while Justin was talking to the others and had his back turned to us. Just as the photo was about to be taken, the man I was taking a photo with, pulled open my tank top, and put his face down into my tank top to look at my chest. I immediately pushed him off of me and said, "what the f*ck?!", 'causing Justin to turn around and asked what happened. I started crying immediately, I felt so violated.
Justin was super angry and told the men to, "f*ck off!" The Indian men kept laughing and were still trying to take a photo of us, even while I was crying. Justin ended up pushing the man that was taking photos still, and told them to leave. About 5 minutes later, while they were still laughing, they finally left.
We went back to our hostel right away, and told the hosts - they said we should have called them, and they would have come down to help. But while we were in the moment, neither of us thought of that. Moral of the story, if you're a woman, don't take photos with Indian men. Women and children are okay of course, but it's best just to avoid the photos with men, because this happens so often.
We also luckily managed to snag a photo of them taking off, along with their license plate, which we also showed to our hostel hosts.
Robbed at Machete Point in Colombia
On the night of January 7th 2020, at Playa Genemaka in Taganga, (north of Santa Marta), us, a woman from Switzerland and her Colombian boyfriend were hanging out at the beach before we got robbed. Shortly after sunset, around 7:00pm, two masked men with knives and machetes appeared from behind us from the bushes. They immediately stole our phone out of my (Meagan) hand (yes, again!), and told us not to move and to give them all of our money (in Spanish).
The woman we were with gave them all of her cash, which wasn't much, and luckily Justin and I didn't actually have any cash on us. Our new Colombian friend told them in Spanish that they're just musicians and don't have anything on them. Justin and I were sitting on our valuables in hopes that they wouldn't notice.
Justin served in the Canadian Army and was in the private security industry for many years, therefore has training in weapons self defense. The robbers ended up noticing we were sitting on bags, so as the attacker with the machete attempted to steal Justin's bag from under him, an opportunity presented itself and Justin managed to obtain the machete from the attackers hand and chased them both away.
In the squabble Justin sustained a minor laceration to his left hand but we were all very thankful it worked out in our favour. The minute he was able to retrieve the machete, the attackers started to run away. While they were running away, all 4 of us started screaming for help, in both English and Spanish, at the top of our lungs; to the point we lost our voices the next day.
The robbers started throwing rocks at us from the top of the hill overlooking the beach. Our Colombian friend was hit in the head by one of the rocks, resulting in a large gash on his head. There was one individual male, at the end of the beach, who either did not want to get involved or was an accomplice in the incident. Therefore, he did not provide any assistance to us, and there was nobody else around.
Once the attackers stopped throwing rocks we knew they left so we immediately ran directly to the police station in Taganga. Unfortunately, we also did not receive any assistance from the police either. We arrived bleeding, crying, and even had evidence (the machete), yet, no questions were asked by any of the officers. The officers were not concerned, they showed no compassion or sympathy to the whole ordeal. The officers refused to file any sort of police report, or provide a safety escort back to our hotel. Although, I would like to note that they kept the machete.
Once we realized the police were of no assistance, we walked 15 minutes to our hotel alone. Once we arrived at our hotel we were received from our hosts with the same pathetic response as the police. The couple we were with were planning on sleeping at that beach that night, but after that, there was no way we were going to allow them to do so, so we snuck them into our room and made them stay the night with us.
The following morning, we immediately checked out of our hotel, even though we still had 2 nights left. Our hotel did not provide any refund, even given the circumstances. Not only did we leave our hotel early, but we also booked another flight back home to Canada, 5 days earlier than planned.
In total, we lost $1050CAD/$758USD because we preferred to get back to Canada sooner, where we feel safe, than stay in Colombia any longer than we had to.
The woman we were with gave them all of her cash, which wasn't much, and luckily Justin and I didn't actually have any cash on us. Our new Colombian friend told them in Spanish that they're just musicians and don't have anything on them. Justin and I were sitting on our valuables in hopes that they wouldn't notice.
Justin served in the Canadian Army and was in the private security industry for many years, therefore has training in weapons self defense. The robbers ended up noticing we were sitting on bags, so as the attacker with the machete attempted to steal Justin's bag from under him, an opportunity presented itself and Justin managed to obtain the machete from the attackers hand and chased them both away.
In the squabble Justin sustained a minor laceration to his left hand but we were all very thankful it worked out in our favour. The minute he was able to retrieve the machete, the attackers started to run away. While they were running away, all 4 of us started screaming for help, in both English and Spanish, at the top of our lungs; to the point we lost our voices the next day.
The robbers started throwing rocks at us from the top of the hill overlooking the beach. Our Colombian friend was hit in the head by one of the rocks, resulting in a large gash on his head. There was one individual male, at the end of the beach, who either did not want to get involved or was an accomplice in the incident. Therefore, he did not provide any assistance to us, and there was nobody else around.
Once the attackers stopped throwing rocks we knew they left so we immediately ran directly to the police station in Taganga. Unfortunately, we also did not receive any assistance from the police either. We arrived bleeding, crying, and even had evidence (the machete), yet, no questions were asked by any of the officers. The officers were not concerned, they showed no compassion or sympathy to the whole ordeal. The officers refused to file any sort of police report, or provide a safety escort back to our hotel. Although, I would like to note that they kept the machete.
Once we realized the police were of no assistance, we walked 15 minutes to our hotel alone. Once we arrived at our hotel we were received from our hosts with the same pathetic response as the police. The couple we were with were planning on sleeping at that beach that night, but after that, there was no way we were going to allow them to do so, so we snuck them into our room and made them stay the night with us.
The following morning, we immediately checked out of our hotel, even though we still had 2 nights left. Our hotel did not provide any refund, even given the circumstances. Not only did we leave our hotel early, but we also booked another flight back home to Canada, 5 days earlier than planned.
In total, we lost $1050CAD/$758USD because we preferred to get back to Canada sooner, where we feel safe, than stay in Colombia any longer than we had to.
Each experience, good or bad, is always a lesson learned, and makes us wiser on the road. Hopefully by sharing our stories, you'll be able to avoid these mistakes, and incidents that happened to us.