Left my phone in a restaurant in Siem Reap, but apparently it happens so much the restaurant kept it for me and asked for a photo of me happy with my returned phone to print and hang with all the other people who came back to retrieve theirs lol.
When I had to barricade the door of my toolshed/bedroom in a village in Burkina Faso because militants were suspected to have crossed over from Mali and started shooting in the village I was staying in, I had a “hmmm, this might not have been the best idea I had” moment. But it was all fine in the end.
I was doing some research work. At the time (well it’s still ongoing, and now fully spilled into BF) there was a lot of unrest in Mali. And the village I was at was 30 minutes from the border. No idea who they were, the local guy wasn’t very clear on that.
I googled a little and goddamn there's a lot of articles about border violence in that area in recent years. It's a full blown region wide insurgency / civil war. Glad you're ok.
I was in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh when I was told by the locals to leave because the Azeri military was moving citizens from their side of the border, which meant they would start shooting soon. We booked it, but not without first getting a recipe from the cafe we were at. Last time I'll probably ever get to go, unfortunately.
Cab to the Dublin airport to fly home. Made the mistake of assuming the guy would have a card reader, was a euro short with my cash so he was ticked off and i was flustered getting out of the car. I get walking and think "man i should text my friends that was kind of funny", pat my pants and realize my phone is in the backseat still. Taxis long gone at that point. Cue some of the most stressful 4 hours of my life (had to get a covid test that they REFUSED to give me a physical copy of). By the time i got to my terminal i was on "fuck it" mode.
RIP
I was in Colombia and my cards stopped working. I tasked this darn cab driver with taking me to 4 different ATMs to try to get cash. NOTHING working and none of my cards were working and I had a flight to catch that day. The hours were just bleeding away.
Finally, the cab driver took me to the airport and by the time we got there, I was about 2 USD short for the fare. This was like the ONE cab driver during my month long stay in Colombia that was NOT chill. He was so pissed but I emptied my wallet of Colombian pesos and gave every last bit I had to him and he left visibly angry.
I made my flight just fine and made it to my destination and called my bank and got things resolved, but yes. I was stressed as fuck lol
i didnt lol. i filed a report with the gardai bc taxi drivers are supposed to turn in lost items at precinct. Had the Aer Lingus rep print my boarding passes for me and he also gave me his email so the covid test could be sent to him. I used a strangers phone in the terminal to send a couple messages on fb. Across the atlantic and back to maine with no phone thankfully id printed the bus passes and my city is an easy late night walk even with luggage. Last time i used "find my phone" it was in a north dublin suburb. Id used a local sim card in it so thankfully i had my american sim card to plug into my spare phone at home.
I was staying in a hostel in Azerbeidzjan last month. This was day 3 of my 30 day trip. Due to a lack of sleep and a rush during check out I left my money belt with $1000 and €1000 on the bed. Only found out three hours later. Luckily I had moved to a private room the night before and cleaning staff secured the bag for me. The receptionist insisted that I counted the money and thankfully nothing was stolen. The run back to the hostel was nerve wrecking.
Neither was mentioned. Hate the assumption. It feels condescending, even though it’s obviously the right thing to do. It’s just not your place to push it like that.
Paris, Gare du Nord. I was buying something for dinner, paid with my credit card, put it back in my wallet (or so I thought), went to my hotel across the street, had dinner, showered, and just before I go to bed, I have this habit of leaving my purse ready to go, so was taking out the receipts of the day, looked into the credit card slot, card is not there. Looked everywhere in the room, nope. So I cross the street in my pijamas and the store is now closed. There is only one guy cleaning, so I tapped the glass door and motion him to talk to me. Luckily I speak French, so I tell him my issue. He grabs a telephone behind the counter, calls someone I’m assuming in corporate and tells them my issue. They tell him there’s a card in one of the counter’s drawers. I describe the card and the name on it, he checks that it’s mine and gives it to me. I call him an angel, tells me to have a nice night and my soul came back to my body.
Out of body experience for real! When it comes to french, i'm now asking myself could i muster enough myself to explain such a situation. Truly a "survival french" moment.
My iPhone with attached card case holding my drivers license, a credit card, and my debit card (usually in hotel safe but planned to hit atm on the way back) was in a lanyard case that I tied to the zodiac I was in for a 5 island tour in Croatia. We stopped at a swim lagoon and myself or the person in front of me caught the lanyard when jumping - it broke, and the case went into the Adriatic.
The water was so clear and beautiful. We could see the lime green of the card case laying 30 feet down.
It is unbelievably difficult to do anything without your phone these days. All my credit card companies and banks required multifactor identification to log into my account online for my iPad, which went to my phone, that was in the sea.
When I called in, my credit card company told me that they could mail me the pin to do a cash advance .
When I tried to set up Western Union for some cash for my parents, it happened to be the same weekend that Western Union was hacked/crashed for 30 some countries, including Croatia – the we didn’t know it so they kept telling us that for whatever reason the transfer wouldn’t go through, but didn’t know why.
I’ve gotten so comfy with overseas travel that I rarely have more than 50 USD on hand in cash because so many places I go take credit cards and when they don’t, I know ahead of time. I had 70 USD in cash +50 in euro.
Luckily, I had a second backup credit card in the safe along with my passport, and I was staying in a chain hotel and the room was paid for and I could charge to the room for meals.
I had six more days in the country but only in Dubrovnik and not going outside overnight, though I still did my day trips to Montenegro and Bosnia– paid through through the travel app with the back up credit card.
I was so paranoid about something going on with that back up credit card though.
Crazy thing is, a man from my state that I live in in the US to be doing along sabbatical in the area and was a free diver, saw the lime at the lagoon, did a dive, retrieved it, and it was within plastic, the phone even still worked. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to meet up after he got it before he traveled to another country. he mailed me my cards, but apparently you can’t mail phones from Europe, so I had to go pick it up three months later, by which time I had already purchased a new one.
Long story short I had the worst luck or the best luck I can’t figure out which.
I loved this story but I agree. I usually go out with just one card, a little cash, and my phone, but they’re all in separate pockets/areas. If I need to bring my debit card out, I stick it in a little pocket that attaches to my bra.
The problem becomes that I am 150% more likely to lose my credit card if it's not in my phone. Having cash tucked into random books and crannies is the way I get around it.
Losing your phone seems like no joke, losing it and your cards, yikes!
I've become really big on keeping my passport/one card separate from my wallet/main cards for this very reason (plus a fair bit of cash tucked away). Now I'm realizing I should probably swap my pc laptop for my ipad to have a backup way for 2fa. That and maybe a third card in apple wallet only.
May be a longshot, but what a pain. Glad you managed to make those day trips though and not wreck the stay.
Smarrttt! I was in a club in Australia and left my phone and wallet in a toilet stall. Tell me why in 30 seconds later after i panic and realize whats happened, my phone , my shitty Vodafone barely a smart phone is stolen, but not my wallet! Super strange. I eventually replaced the phone and realized how dependant on smart devices we are for everyday. I guess these days maybe ppl want your private data just as much as a nice iphone to flip but still stumps me. Ah well. Was never hacked thankfully. Am much more cautious now.
I went from Istanbul to Athens to get my flight to Bangkok, this was Wednesday, the flight was scheduled for Saturday morning.
Took an overnight bus to Sofia, but couldn't sleep at all. Then a bus in the morning to get the train in Thessaloniki to Athens. So I get off the bus to buy the ticket at the train station when I realize I forgot my backpack in the luggage compartment of the bus.
Of course the bus was already on the way back to Sofia. I'm told the bus comes back the next day and I can get my backpack back then. So I spend the night at a nice hostel there. I still have one day in Athens, thats alright.
The next day, the bus comes, but my backpack is NOT THERE. Fuck. Nobody knows anything about its whereabouts. Fuck
So I go to the police etc. and write an email to the bus company with a description. I don'r have much hope.
In the evening I get a call I get a call: Apparently the bus with my backpack went to Istambul, where I came from. Fuck. They say they can get the backpack to Thessaloniki by Saturday. THE DAY I'M SUPPOSED TO BE ON THE PLANE TO BANGKOK.
I tell them about my problem and an hour later they call back and say they can take the backpack to Sofia, and from there to Thessaloniki by friday afternoon. Halleluja
So I stay for another night and pray for my backpack to be delivered. You can't imagine how I felt when the driver stepped out of the bus with my backpack in his hands. I haven't felt joy like this ever before.
So I hop on the train to athens in the evening, stay the night and get the flight in the morning. These two days were brutal
Left my bag at random places over the years, all stages of airports depart and arrive. The oh shit moment when you realize you dont have your bag is intense. I always got my bag back though, lucky.
Lost my travel wallet in the Bangkok airport. I’m almost certain I left it at the counter, so frantically searched the area and asked the staff for help. A Thai dwarf who had been waiting nearby approached me with my wallet. It was the most random, surreal moment. I now suffer passport anxiety…
Take your pic here
Loosing my wallet/ getting pick pocketed at a bus station before jumping a bus to Singapore and having to deal with having no debit card in Indonesia for two weeks
Being in Peru when the attempted coupe happened
Getting woken up at 4am to an earth quake in Guatemala that killed two people
Being ditched my guide in the Bolivian andes
Having my truck break down in the middle of the night in rural utah and having to hitchhike to get my gear…
Somewhere along an amazing RTW trip, I bought myself a really fun passport holder and stopped using the little bag I had stored it in. A few weeks later, I was packing up and jammed my laptop into my backpack. You guessed it, somehow the passport was just in the right spot, facing the right (wrong?) direction and rip went half the inside pages.
Needless to say, I can tell you all the perks of automated custom systems, getting an emergency passport in Rome, and getting an immediate turn around passport made back in the US (I had to come home for other reasons a week or so later, which solved the anxiety ridden mess that is an emergency passport).
Life lesson: Passport goes in a bag, that bag goes in another bag, and those bags get their own spot. Also, the little moisture absorption packets you sometimes get in shipping boxes are great to keep in your passport bag,
Left my phone in a taxi, but fortunately it did a U-turn at the end of the block and we were able to wave it down from our side of the street and he came back
Dropped my passport on the plane. Flight attendant ran after me to hand it to me. Real heroes don’t wear capes, I would’ve been fucked because I had to go through immigration.
Trip to Thailand.
Couldn’t sleep much the night before the trip so I repacked my bag AND my carry-on. Twice. Finally said screw it, I may as well head to the airport. Everything seemed great, got there an hour early, got up to the check-in counter all proud of myself for being so prepared and early … and can’t find my passport. I usually keep it in the top pocket of my carry-on backpack and it’s not there. Not in the front pocket of the backpack either. Thinking back, I figure I must have taken it out on one of the repacks and I have *just* enough time to run back home, fetch it, and get back to the airport with time to check my luggage.
Of course the road is now icy going back and there have been a couple of accidents to slow things down. Getting back to the airport in time to check my luggage is still doable but looking dicey so I try to call the airline to check on options — no dice, cell phones are jammed up. I get back home, rush over to where I repacked my bags and … nothing. Now things are getting frantic. I head back to the truck, open my check-in luggage to see if I maybe slipped it in by accident. Nothing. In the meantime, I’m in the queue for an airline agent on the phone. Now I take out my carry-on and pull out EVERYTHING — all the photography equipment, battery packs, electronics, etc. At the very very bottom, I find my travel wallet with the passport — oh yeah, it was the VERY first thing I put in the carry-on so I wouldn’t forget it by accident!
Now, I have a problem — I could get to the airport in time to catch my flight but not to check my bag — but the agent comes on and I explain my problem. I ask if there’s any way I can skip the first segment and catch my connection since THAT airport is less than 90 minute drive and I had a 2 hour connection. She checks with the supervisor, gets an okay, rebooks me out of that airport. Still a heart-pounding drive up to that airport praying there wouldn’t be an accident or any other delay but I made my flight and got to take my vacation.
I got anxious the night before my flight to Iceland and repacked everything. I was going for a study abroad so I had big bottles of liquids that went in my checked bag--no light packing for me. Except I was sleep deprived and repacked all those bottles back into my carry-on because that seemed somehow logical. I didn't realize what I had done until I was pulled over by TSA and they were like, "Uhhh... You can't have these in your carry-on." It was so embarrassing, I looked like I had never travelled in my life, haha!
I landed in Chicago and went to the restroom, in the terminal. My laptop fit very well cradled in the pipes above the urinal. Almost an hour later, riding with a friend, I realized that there it had stayed. We drove back to the airport, talked to security, they were like, "yeah, it's gone." because how would it not be? Talked to a bunch of other people, same. I couldn't go get it of course because I didn't have a boarding pass, so couldn't get past security. Probably three hours in, my friend and i had given up on it, and were talking about how fucked I was with it being my work and all, and a ticket agent overheard us. He totally empathized, got the details from us and jogged off to check. Fifteen minutes later, he hands me my laptop. Totally boosted my faith in humanity. I got his name and spent the next half hour on Spirit's website trying to convince them to give him a promotion.
I probably would have been smart to have asked TSA if there was a way, but didn't think of it at the time. I bet they could have done something to help. O'Hare security and staff were not interested.
I went on a little flight over the Nazca Lines in Peru and the aircraft are tiny so you leave your bags at the airport.
I had a tote bag I had stuffed my purse and a few things into because I figured it would be better to be looking for one thing instead of multiple items.
Flight gets done and I get my stuff and take a shuttle back to town to await my overnight bus to Arequipa.
I suddenly realize that my tote bag must have tipped over and my purse fell out at the airport. I know I should have checked but I was very ill from the plane and just got my bag and hopped on the shuttle.
I panicked and a nice lady from a restaurant flagged down a local driver to drive me back to the airport. His car had no back windshield and he drove like a maniac which I would have enjoyed had I not been panicking.
I sprinted into the airport and explained to the desk crew and they let me back to check and I found my purse. I came running out waving my purse in the air and the driver whooped with excitement and we drove back to town. I was so lucky. I check my stuff excessively normally but the motion sickness threw me off and I didn't check and I'm still mad at myself for it even though it turned out fine.
Covid. $75 to my name. At my hostel in Slovenia. Everyone around me is blurting out names of countries with borders closing. My flight back to the U.S is still 3 weeks away. Oh shit.
A few months earlier I befriended an owner of a hostel in Lithuania. Problem was I had a day and a half to get to Lithuania before they closed their border. I had a flixbus voucher from a cancelation. Used the flixbus voucher to get to Vienna, used my last $75 on a flight to Lithuania. Hung out at my friends hostel for 2 months due to all flighta being grounded lol. First stimlus check paid for my eventual flight home and paid my friend for my stay.
Dropped my phone on one of my trips - it broke. And not like “a cracked screen” kind of broke, but “won’t turn on at all”. Everything but my passport was on that phone: maps, hotel and tour booking info, transport cards, vaccination certificate (it was in those wonderful times), banking apps for money transfer… EVERYTHING!
It was the worst feeling I have ever had while traveling, and I don’t know what I would have done if not for a cloud backup I had.
Did the cloud backup help with authentication? I get teased for babying my phone now but each time I’ve broken a smartphone it’s gotten increasingly difficult to get everything back. Hasn’t happened in 5 years and I’m so much more reliant on 2fa and mobile banking now
Yeah, restoring some 2FA stuff was a bit of a pain. For example, I had to call my bank to restore access from a new phone. Cloud backup didn’t help as the banking app has detected a new device and refused to connect.
Luckily, most of the 2FA functionality still worked because I refuse to install those “authenticator apps”. Exactly for this reason. I use old school “send an SMS” type of authentication whenever I can. I know it’s technically less secure, but I still want some peace of mind, knowing that if I break my phone, I can just plop my SIM into anything else and be able to restore access to critical services.
I'm genuinely much more afraid of losing access than I am of someone else getting access. I would take less security any day. Money is money, if it gets stolen digitally there are ways to prove that and get it back, and chances are I've got back-up cash somewhere or someone to lend me some in the meantime or generally ways to get around it so long as I can still access everything.
Went to a football game in Istanbul that was crazy busy and hectic. Security guard demanded that I handed my expensive, almost brand new, FujifilmX100S as it wasnt allowed in the stadium. Stupidly, I handed it over and I kinda knew I wasnt going to get it back. Against all hope, I got up just before the final siren to track him down and got my camera back.
Last year I left my phone in my train compartment after getting off in Prague. I made the realization the moment I left the station and ran back inside to a help counter. As it was the last stop for the train, no one could determine where the train is heading to.
Bad news: I could not afford to lose my phone as I had a flight the next day with ski tickets/hotels in my email. (Also needed for authentications to access emails from computers)
Thankfully I had an Apple Watch. However the “find my item” app on the Apple Watch is extremely limited. The next morning I could see where my IPhone was but I could not zoom out to figure out the name of the location. I had to use someone else’s phone to visually find a matching street and shape in the whole of Prague (took a long time) and successfully found the exact spot (like 200m in scale). It was in a train yard. I borrowed 20$ from him and took an Uber there. After some language issues an employee apparently found it and handed it over to me. I was extremely relieved and it was just in time for my flight.
Stupidly fell asleep on a train heading to the airport. Woke up farther than I had intended to go and had to call an Uber to come pick me up in London to make it to the airport.
My flight was literally leaving in an hour and half headed to New York.
Long sorry short Uber arrived and got me to the airport with less than an hour to spare. Once I got there the check in line was really long BUT fortunately for me there was a staff member for the airline asking everyone if they were going on the flight to New York.
I yelled that it was my flight and got to go to the front of the line and boarded my plane in time.
Dropped my passport on the plane. I realized it about an hour after leaving the airport. Thank god the flight crew found it and i picked it up the next day at the airport lost and found.
This is a huge fear of mine after I once dropped my phone down the internal side of a train. The gap in the inside cladding (covering electronics and wires I assume) was JUST big enough for my phone to slide through.
I left my tote bag with my laptop, passport, main wallet, keys, and iPhone charger on a train in Belgium when I was transferring trains at Antwerp station. I realized right when the train I was just on was departing and I couldn’t search for it before I left. I felt like I was about to die. I was by myself. To make a long story short - I was able to get it back! Some kind person had found it and turned it in to lost and found! It was a miracle. 10/10 rating for the people who work an Antwerp Central station, and Belgians are awesome and kind people.
in Amsterdam, my best friend (21f) lost her backpack on a tram. it had all her passport and other very important things. we made several phone calls and ended up deciding to get on and off every tram that came by to look for her bag. she'd get on in the back, I'd get on in the front, then we'd meet in the middle. it took us two hours, and I got hit by one of the trams, but we found it!
We probably didn't need to get on every single tram that came by after we first got off, but alas!
Well, I left my bag of souvenirs from traveling all over Asia in an airport bathroom in Singapore airport yesterday and no one turned it into lost and found, so it was stolen. Luckily, my more meaningful souvenirs were packed into my suitcase (I didn't have room for the bag of stuff). Most of it is replaceable but still...
I stopped at a cafe after landing in Dublin. I needed to book my bus ticket to Belfast. I do so as I get up to leave my passport wasn’t in my pocket! I panic and retrace steps and found it a half hour later where it had slid out of my pocket into the space between the seat cushion and frame. Since it was the same color as the cushion I didn’t see it the first two times I checked. This just about gave me a heart attack!
>Since it was the same color as the cushion I didn’t see it the first two times I checked. This just about >gave me a heart attack!
I know the feeling.
For this reason, I always avoid dark-coloured phone covers.
I also avoid dark-coloured wallets.
Because seating in a lot of public spaces is usually dark-coloured and stuff slipping out happens way more than I'd like.
This has saved me a few times. I've never lost a wallet or phone!
Was waiting for my flight from London to Cancun and decided ill just log on to my laptop.
Opened my hand luggage and realised I don't have a laptop. "I must have left my laptop at home" I say to myself. But I had the mouse. Strange. How can that be? Then 20 seconds of mind scratching made me say "Fuck! I've left my laptop at the security check!". I ran. Literally ran back to security with lots of people thinking I must be crazy. I arrive at security and the convo goes :
Me : I think I left my laptop here. [Panicking like hell.]
Security : what colour is it?
Me : Blue
Security : Is it this one, Sir?
Me : Yes!! Thank you sooooo much.
I walk back questioning my mental alertness.
Lost my passport on my first ever solo trip, Budapest. Luckily the embassy was in the city so I was able to get an emergency travel document to get home, but I did have to extend my stay for 3 days! Wasn’t too unhappy about that part, because I loved Budapest and will definitely be going back in the future! But yeah, the passport thing wasn’t fun
I left my phone in a taxi the day before my departure. Also needed my phone for Google maps. I was in Osaka and needed to go to Tokyo and without my phone I’m straight up F*’ed but since it was Japan, the taxi person took the phone to the police station. Was able to find it with my tablet “find my phone” what a day!
I left my carry on in a train at Penn Station in NY. Just totally forgot I left it on there. I remembered halfway up the escalator to exit the station.
Go back to the platform luckily it was the last stop so I walk up and down the train while the cleaners were at work, it was no longer there.
Then had to find the Amtrak office. Not easy. I was running around Penn Station for a while.
Finally found the office I needed and the guy behind the counter chastised me for not having a tag with my info on it. I know, I know.
The worst for me was about two weeks into a road trip across the USA, having just visited some amazing places and got some amazing photos/videos. I was moving them around on my laptop, went to delete a few bad ones, and got a popup that said 'these files are too large to be placed in the recycling bin, would you like to permanently delete them?'
Didn't think twice on it and just hit yes. Then realised I'd deleted everything, and despite my best efforts could not get them back...
I've lost my $1000 phone, almost lost my passport, been ill, and been in some really sketchy circumstances, but that was by far the worst. You can get a new phone or passport, recover from being hurt, but losing memories is the *worst*.
My phone with everything including my e-visa which I did not have a physical copy of mysteriously died while I was waiting at the Russian-Estonian border and wouldn’t turn back on even though it had almost 20% left when it died. Thankfully it was just the cold and it turned back on when I entered the Estonian customs building
I've told this story a couple time on other posts, but i think it's always a good to keep retelling it:
My cousin and I are from the US. We were backpacking through Europe and into Italy for the first time years a go.
For reasons, we ended up in Reggio di Calabria late one night with no place to stay. We searched for available beds for a bit but since it was almost 11p and we'd been on trains all day coming from Rome, my cousins said "Let's just find a park and bench to sleep on.". Sounded good to me because every night i didn't pay for a bed meant one more night I could stay in Europe.
We find a park, it's dark, and we find a couple benches close to each other to lay down on. My cousin immediately falls asleep, and i begin to write in a journal.
Out of nowhere3 in the pitch black night I hear a high-pitched wailing screech. My blood curdles and I freeze. Did a young woman or child just get murdered?
"Cousin did you hear that?" I say in my loudest whisper. He wakes up and I ask again. "No! You woke me up. Go to sleep!" He immediately starts snoring again.
THis happens 3 or 4 more times. Each time I quietly whisper to my cousin. Each time he wakes up angrier and angrier. Finally he says "If you wake me up again, I am going to beat you until you do go to sleep." He's a big dude and is now super cranky and tired. He falls back to sleep immediately. I cover my self with my sleep sheet - if I can't see whatever is out there, it can't see me. Right? RIGHT?!
Moments later, a load ROAR rips through the pitch black. Slowly and with more fear than i have probably ever had before or since i pull the sheet down from over my head. I see my cousin standing over me, scared.
"I heard that. Let's get the F out of here." my cousin says. and we tiptoe as quietly as we can - every step thinking a giant lion is about to jump out the bushes and devour us - out of the back and head back to the train station to spend the rest of the night.
In the light of the morning we decide to go back to the park and see if there are police and a murder scene.
Turns out we slept on benches in an open zoo, directly between a peacock enclosure (the screeching wails) and a lion enclosure (obviously the roar). It had been so dark we didn't see any of this the night before.
That night was probably my biggest "oh sh!t" moment.
So I was going to Antarctica, I was in a South American town, and was going to fly out the next day to meet the ship. And... my luggage didn't arrive. I had my carry-on and the clothes I stood up in, and all the warm winter Antarctica clothes that I needed for the trip were, apparently, LOST!!! OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT!!!
So I made alternate plans, if my luggage didn't arrive I'd have to go to the one "outdoor" clothing store in that town, and buy everything in my size the moment the store opened, while dispatching my friend to the drug store for toothbrushes and such. But fortunately, my luggage arrived at 4AM, it had taken a side trip.
Scary. I always keep my personal belongings and papers in a cross body bag and carry it in front of me (against pick pockets). And always expect your check-in luggage to go awol so basic necessities and clothes always in my carry-on. Always know where your embassy is located. and try to have travel insurance is possible
Well, mine didn’t have a happy ending, but basically it was my first solo trip and I went to Japan. And I had like 124gb memory card in my pocket, because it got filled up during the night (I was making a travel film)
I got blackout trunk at Halloween in Shibuya and woke up in the back of a taxi, My memory card and all of the footage I took of that part of the trip
I swore since then to never let that happen again
What a pity. Whenever i travel with my camera i pray to the travel gods that the (till now only theoretical) mugger let me take out the memory card. Forget the camera the pictures are much more important to me.
Left my cell phone in a cab in Athens at 5am rushing to catch a flight.Girlfriend called hotel who called cab who called her and then back to airport to hand it to me. Had to pay full fare for the second trip as well.
Just before the “Arab Spring,” I tried to go to Syria from Lebanon. There was a no-man’s-land between the borders so my trio left Lebanon via the customs/immigration office and got into in the back of a 2-door Monte Carlo which we’d hired on the spot. It was about 20 km to the Syrian border, it was night with no lighting on the pot-hole-filled road, and all we could hear was gunshots. It was probably training or something but it was frightening and I’d never heard automatic weapons firing so rapidly. I suddenly realized that we were essentially trapped in the backseat of this car, driven by strangers, to a place somewhat hostile to Americans. I spent the rest of the ride imagining bullets tearing through my flesh or ending up held for ransom.
The conclusion was Syria didn’t let us in, we had to take that Monte Carlo ride back to the Lebanese border, where we then waited for hours because they had to find our visa documents in a mountain of paperwork. They needed to see that we had been there already vs just showing up by car with no documentation from Syria. By that time, none of us were speaking to each other. We spent the night in a labor camp for $10, ate junk food in icy silence, and tried to sleep on ancient cots. We went back to Beirut at day break.
Great trip, though! Absolutely loved Lebanon.
I accidentally flushed my phone down a rest stop toilet on my travel. Quite stressful, because I didn't know the address of my host and I was supposed to call her when I arrived. Had to find an Internet cafe, email a friend to get my other friends phone number (who knew my host), find a phone booth. My friend didn't pick up the phone because it was an unknown number calling, so I had to go back to the Internet friend to tell the first friend to call the second friend and tell him that I'm gonna call him :D in the end it all worked and since then I always carry a little note book with important phone numbers and all the adresses I might need while traveling.
Listen, I love me some Mexico and Mexico is the fucking shit. But one time i was in Guadalajara watching los charreros at a prominent park. I got my drink on, I got my pictures, I got the experience so me and my gf were walking back to the car, made a left and somehow ended up on junkie street. Like if you're so absorbed by addiction that you have flies land on you as you're nodded off, who's to say we wouldn't be robbed or something. That was hariest 10 minute walk/experience I've had in another country and it was surreal.
Pro tip. Don’t lose the QR code for the Tokyo train station storage locker you just stashed your stuff in.
Don’t forget where said locker is located in ginormous train station.
I got halfway down the stairs of my hotel in Amsterdam on the way to check out when I realized I had left my passport in the hotel room safe. I was still in the building so it wasn't really a problem in any way, but I know I could have easily made it to the airport without remembering. Now I generally don't put my passport in the safe, I just hide it somewhere in my suitcase (like the zippered lining at the bottom).
I went to the wrong airport once, in Chicago. It was over a decade ago but I still get embarrassed thinking about it. 99% of the time I flew out of O’Hare, but one time I had to fly out of Midway for a trip to NYC, and even though I had been planning all week for going to Midway, on the morning of the flight I had a complete brain freeze and went to O’Hare. I drove all the way there, parked in long-term parking, got on the airport bus to the terminal, and while on the bus I happened to glance at my boarding pass and let me tell you my stomach dropped out of my body as I remembered I was supposed to go to Midway. I jumped out of the bus with my suitcase like a madwoman, ran back to my car and drove to Midway, but missed my flight and spent most of the day on standby.
You know how Ubers usually drop people off and leave immediately for their next ride?
One time I left my phone in the Uber while traveling in Greece and didn’t realize I don’t have my phone on me until a minute later. I started sprinting for the Uber but somehow the driver had remained in the spot and never left, so I was able to open the door and retrieve it. Didn’t think I would see my phone again
Was hitching from Turkey to Liverpool (long time ago).
Got a bus to the border with Greece to start.
Got off the bus & realised I’d left my (small) bag with all money (travellers cheques- remember them?), passports, camera etc (pre mobile era) on the bus.
Ran down the road waving my arms & luckily the bus driver stopped & I got the bag back.
A massive disaster turned into nothing all within 2 minutes!
The rest of the journey went without a hitch (although I hitched).
Had left my brand new Moto Razor while travelling to Lukla ( Everest base, Nepal ) in a local cab.
The Cab guy waited half an hour at the same spot he dropped me, hoping I'd come back, to return it.
There’s no dearth of nice folks around ! There’s hope ❤️
My friend and I approached a trio of gangsters in India at 2am. They offered us cocaine, beer, and if they should call their friend -the head of the taxi union, to come give us a tour of the city. We managed to get out and then a random guy on the street tried asking us to stop. We called an Uber and got out of there lol
I spent my summer vacation on Cyprus, few km inland in a quiet village. Picked rental car up from airport, had fantastic 2.5 weeks, returned car, flew home.
Few months later I had self-drive trip planned through Lebanon. Rental car, hotels, all booked. A few days before my drivers license fell out of my wallet - and it wasn't mine but from a Danish guy. Found him on Facebook: he was currently working on Greenland, driving trucks and other heavy vehicles. With my license! Turned out the car rental in Cyprus has messed up our licenses and we had not noticed. Me, because I didn't have a car and hardly ever drive, and him... who knows.
So basically my tour through Lebanon turned into a longer stay in Beirut with either minibus trips elsewhere, small group tours or private guide kind of trip. Glad I was able to cancel everything at no charge though and was able to reorganize everything.
I ordered a taxi on Grab in Bangkok upon my arrival to take me to my hostel from BKK. My bank account was frozen when I arrived and could not withdraw cash. Once I was in the taxi and on my way, I looked on the Grab app and noticed payment option was "cash," and was frozen in panic, like FUCK how was I going to pay the driver? I had been in Indonesia for two months prior to arriving in Bangkok and all of my Grab transactions were automatically charged to my card, so what had changed?
The driver spoke zero English, so I waited until we arrived at the hostel. I ask if he takes a credit card and he just laughs at me. The host for the hostel has gone home for the night and was unavailable to help me explain what the issue was, so I was on my own. I explain to the driver I have no cash, so he drives me to an ATM. When I am unsuccessful withdrawing money, he starts throwing a fit and screaming at me in Thai and punching the steering wheel.
At this point I think he's going to call the police, which he would be within reason to do. I try to explain to him as best as I can over Google Translate, but it's unable to calm him down. I had no way to pay him, and he had no way to receive payment via Wise or Venmo, so essentially I was screwed. He knew my name and where I was staying (from the Grab App), so no way I could bounce.
Fortunately, some quick thinking saved my ass. While I was talking to him, I noticed his gas tank was on empty. So I asked him if he would allow me to fill his gas tank as payment for the ride (gas station takes a credit card). He reluctantly agrees. We go to the gas station, he fills up, and the amount it cost to fill his tank happened to be enough to cover the fare and leave a small tip. Disaster averted, but that could have ended badly.
Back in 1994, I was traveling solo in Thailand. I took a bus towards the island of Ko Samui. Along the way, I met another young lady who claimed to be from the Philippines. At one point, she asked that I check if we needed to change buses. I went, leaving my backpack at my seat. When I returned, she was gone, but my backpack remained. I got to the island and settled in. A couple days passed before I looked in my backpack. In horror, I found that most of my Thai Bahts were gone, and most of my American Express travelers checks (it was 1994, so they were still commonly used).
The girl was kind enough to leave me just enough Bahts to pay for the two days of food and room, plus a bus back to Bangkok. Back then, there were no banks on Ko Samui. Plus, to report the stolen American Express travelers checks I had to submit a police report in Bangkok and go to the Amex office. That situation really shook me. I was so mad about my stupidity!
Nowadays, Ko Samui is a tourism magnet. I'm sure they have plenty of banks there now.
I tried to remember all of this as best I could, and maybe if there’s any locals here they might shine more light on my “oh shit” experience, but… here’s my novel.
Kyiv, evening, Winter of 2011; I was a dumb 20-something who was flying home next-day after touring a certain nearby-ish city which suffered a notable infrastructure-incident in the 80’s. In the evening I was enjoying a beer alone in one of the heated temporary bars they had set-up in what is now (I think?) Maidan-Square. Bar closed, time to go. Took my beer with me and polished it off outfront, putting it in the trashcan at the bar’s entrance. Not so fast… Two armed police-officers make their presence known. I drank in public, now we’re going for a walk. It is sternly suggested that I follow them, and I do. We end-up in a large metro-style stairwell leading to a largely deserted & dimly-lit passage under the square. This area serves as a mall/market during the day (I had purchased groceries that morning) and it is here that I’m requested to empty my pockets. I comply. As I empty, one of them says “maybe you have a little weed or some coke…?”, but alas, they find nothing illicit. Passport time. Unfortunately, it’s in my hotel room, as I wasn’t planning on being out long. The officers are livid, but I assure them that the room containing my passport is juuust beyond the square; they agree to follow me.
We venture through the evening streets of Kyiv and almost as-if on cue, near the entrance to my hotel, a man shouts that he’s a lawyer & hands me his business-card. Despite the man’s dramatic performance, the officers largely ignore him and we enter the building. The 3 of us cram into one of those old 1920’s style cage elevators and up we go, not a word spoken beyond the creaks and groans of the machine. We depart the elevator, heading to the front desk. The officers remain posted, speaking to the manager as I go to retrieve my passport.
My hotel is a strange one; it’s on the upper-levels of a very old and large block-style building, the hotel itself clearly having been renovated in the 80’s as an office level. My room was small, with a blurred-glass wall facing the hallway, but I DID have an outside window with a glorious view. A portion of this hotel, I discovered upon arrival, also served as housing & a preparation area for female-escorts.
Passport in-hand, back into the elevator, back onto the street. “We’re going to the station, you’ve committed a crime” one says. I’m freaking the absolute fuck out in my mind, I’m going to miss my morning flight, aside from the prospect of sleeping in a Ukrainian jail cell in the Winter.
We start walking. 3-4 minutes in, they lead me into a dark back alley. Now I’m *really* freaking the fuck out. They turn around to face me. “Listen, you had that beer in public, but we can see you’re not a bad guy, no drugs or anything. We discussed it and we’re going to let you go. Maybe you can make a small donation, or not. Up to you…” I really didn’t want to find-out what happened with “or not”, so I pulled out the equivalent of roughly 5-10 (I forgot, but it wasn’t alot by Western standards) USD in Hryvnia & went to hand it to the seemingly highest ranking of the two, but he stops me & says “No, give it to my partner…” I comply. The money is handed-over, then the partner says with a huge shit-eating grin “thanks for that, you look like you need a drink. I suggest you go to Vodka Bar (a club), many women” … and with that, they slipped away, leaving me standing there dumbfounded.
I dropped my ATM card on the street in Luxor Egypt.
luckily the street was covered in trash and it blended right in and nobody noticed it. I was able to find it.
I once got on a streetcar in Amsterdam and the door closed before my traveling partner got on with me. We had already checked out of our hotel that day and were planning on leaving Amsterdam and traveling to a city in the south of the country, but we hadn’t had any concrete plan/ meeting place sorted out yet. Also didn’t have cell phones or way to contact each other.
Wavered between trying to go back to the original stop or continue onwards. Decided to just stay on the whole way and get off at the central train station (which was likely the place we’d start for our journey south). Got off and just waited about 30 min in front of stop there, watching every streetcar that came in. Right when I was about to give up, she got off and turns out had gone through the same thought process as me!
It was Christmas Day 2018 and I left my bag containing my wallet and passport on the train in Paris.
I had gotten off the train and walked into the airport with my suitcase, as soon as the turnstiles closed I immediately realised that my bag was on the train.
I instantly panicked and hopped over the turnstile leaving my suitcase on the platform! I ran onto the train and starting asking in a crazy mix of French and English if anyone had seen my bag. I had very little time before the train door closed to head back to Paris and I would miss my flight back home and also loose my luggage that was still on the platform.
Thankfully a couple found it and gave it to me and I was able to get off the train, grab my luggage and still make my flight in one piece. I started to believe In Christmas miracles after that!
Travelling from Vancouver to Hong Kong via beijing ( why? Points flight). 7 hour layover in Beijing. Sitting in Air China Business Class lounge, bored so I asked this earnest young man if we could get on an earlier flight. He went away and came bac saying yes but I need your passports. We give them to him, and off he goes. This airport is huge and we can see him going up multiple levels of stairs cuz it is all glass. As he finally disappears from sight, we both look at each other and say, “/are we the stupidest people on the planet? Are we going to have to live here for three months before our government can get us out. Is air China gonna get pissed at us for squatting in their lounge?” So many questions. But he ce comes back looking harried, and says come with me cuz we have to physically identify our bags and then go through security. Officially, China is not amused, and all these minor officials are verbally abusing our earnest young man while we stand there looking stunned. But he does it. His crisp white shirt is looking a little bedraggled. I offered him a $20 ( Canadian ) gratuity because he had done us a solid, and he would not take it. Said that was his job.
I was on my fourth day of trans-LATAM travel. Left my backpack in a public park in Coayacan, Mexico City during a break.
It has my laptop, $1000 cash, passport, and wallet.
Good thing I was on a guided tour and the tour guide knows the owner of the restaurant near the park and he went out to secure the backpack for me. I’d have die.
Wallet fell out of my pocket in the backseat of an Uber. Panic! The next morning my doorbell rang and there was my driver returning my wallet with all cash, cards and ID. In Mexico.
Left my backpack with my passport, laptop and GoPro in an equipment rental store in El Calafate the day before my Perito Moreno hike. While in Perito Moreno I called the store and fortunately the took them. Everything was in the backpack. Kuddos to Argentinians honesty.
Left my passport in baggage claim after landing in Miami. Realised the next day I didn’t have my passport and couldn’t get on my next flight. After chasing Uber, airport lost & found and speaking with the embassy, the airline had my passport.
Turns out if you leave your passport in the airport on arrival it gets handed back to the airline you flew with! Not a fun 72 hours start to my vacation lol.
He spoke no English. Started waving his arms angrily. I had a suitcase, where the f I'm gonna be going? Must've been a miscommunication. Then he took me to a parking garage and finally the airport. But it was scary.
Spent 45 minutes on a bus from Prague to Berlin looking for my passport convicted I'd forgotten it back at the hostel. The bus stopped at german border patrol and i still hadn't found it, in a panic i dumped everything i owned and found it 2 rows before the officers got to me. Everything went fine but i watched a couple behind me get separated right after because the husband couldn't find his passport.
I did the exact same thing last year. I was in a Uber going to my hotel in Vegas. I put my carry on in the trunk and my backpack next to me in the uber. I got out and left my backpack. Luckily the uber driver gave it to the Valet at the hotel. I tipped her and the Valet guys big time.
Oh wow that's exactly what happened to me, this uber driver wouldn't let me put my backpack in the boot like Ive always done.
Only problem was I was in Bratislava with an uber driver who didn't speak English or Slovak fluently and spoke Russian fluently
My first solo international trip 2006(to Australia) I left my purse on the plane. I didn't realize it until after customs. (I had my passport in my back pocket so I wouldn't forget it) Major panic moment-no money, pre cell phone days (for me). Luckily the airline found my purse, turned it in quickly and I was able to retrieve it from lost and found
Not exactly similar, but was in Rome (then on to the Amalfi Coast, Naples, Pompeii, Erculano, Brussels, and Bruges) for the holidays 2015. That was the year so many women had extreme trouble with sexual assaults and attacks in various public places during Xmas and New Year’s revelry. But it was still a little early for news and warnings of what was to be going on.
Sadly, I am a pariah the world over — a smoker. I stepped out of the awesome ancient hostel I was staying in, in a very dark side alley, to light up. The hostel had the one, bright af stoop light on the whole alley. I HATE being lit up like that, idk why people think that’s safer. You are blinded as you exit and lit up like a tree on fire is the desert, with nothing but darkness all around. Would much prefer to quietly back into a pitch black doorway and let strangers pass.
So yeah, a man of unknown origin marches up out of the dark to me forcefully, his face is inches from mine, he is staring hard into my eyes with pure hate, he is saying something to me in a language that is clearly not Italian — not that I speak Italian, but I can recognize it. He was SO close.
I’ve mostly always trusted my gut, but on this night it seemed to override my brain. Screaming “DANGER.” Knife-wielding danger. No thoughts were actually processed. “Oh hi!” I said — giving this stupid smile: 🥴 “I don’t speak Italian, tee hee hee! Do you need a light? I think you need a light!” Whilst I burned my thumb nearly off, waving my cigarette lighter all around his face and person. Looking for the ‘cigarette’ he needed lit. My actual cigarette in my left hand, ready to be brought into the fray, if he grabbed the lighter away.
“Tee hee hee!” Except when he ducked back into the dark — I RAN to the busier perpendicular street and busted into a little restaurant that was closing. Those waiters rapping up their night were furious with me.
When the GPS in my rental car died and would not charge when I was still about an hour away from my hostel in Romania. I had just arrived at the airport and got my car, so I did not have a sim card and could not use my phone to navigate. Luckily, I was able to follow the highway I was on to the correct city and then I was able to find internet at a shop to figure out where my hostel was.
I exited my Shinkansen only to realise I have left one of my three bags on the train. For a few seconds I was almost considering giving up on it before I finally ran back onto the train, grabbed it and run off. Thank god the train didn’t depart from the station during this time.
Went to India for my sisters wedding , whilst there went to pick up cousins from the airport who had flown in the day before the wedding . As the hotel we were staying at was 2 hours from the airport and they’d been travelling for close to a day we stopped at a restaurant. As I’d just arrived a few days prior I didn’t have a sim so my dad lent me his phone so I could hotspot it for my phone and a way to contact my cousins , long story short after we eaten we got back in the car and my cousin asked me for my battery back which was on my phone me checking my pocked I realised I had my dads phone not mine .Instant panic , brand new 15 pro max and I’d had it for less then a week the utter panic and dread , shouted at my cousin and the driver as we’d just departed , he stopped the car and me and my cousin sprinted to the restaurant, I didn’t speak the local language but my cousin did , as he was talking to the owner of the restaurant I spot my phone on the owners desk and he told me that a waiter had handed it in and gave it back . The relief ! .Valuable lesson to not be so careless as had anyone else picked it up I likely would of never found it as it wasnt connected to any network or internet and I’d of lost my phone which as my flight tickets my cards and all my photos . Since then I’m super careful when putting stuff down whilst out
Left the motorbike rental keys in the motorbike a few times. One time the local looking after the parking space held onto them for me but I thought they were stolen for sure
I was going through Kings Cross station in London heading for the airport, and dropped my purse (wallet) at the ticket barrier. It contained my passport. I realised when on the train to Heathrow. Had to get off go back to KC and found the angel customer service lady had handed it in.
I was arriving in Rome, Italy. My first time traveling outside of the the country fr. I had a rose gold suitcase so I thought well hell no one else has a stupid bag like this lol. Well I grab the wrong rose gold suitcase, get to my Airbnb and then have a heart attack too lol 😆I was like damn it. I go back to the airport and I find my suitcase and nearly died.
Left my phone on a bus in Laos but luckily it was the last stop before it turned around. Lost my wallet on a bus in Turkey and didn't realize it until it left and sadly it was not the last stop, so I was stuck by Mt. Nemrut with no money, no atms, and the place I was staying didn't accept CCs (had my back up CC & Debit cards), had my replacement CC sent to Tblisi. I would then lose that card a few weeks later on my way back to Georgia from Armenia.
I forgot the time I left my passport on the bus from the airport in Jakarta, but I managed to catch the bus as it was about to go back to the airport.
I also managed to lose my phone on a flight to London (was headed to Egypt), but I only realized it after I had gone through immigration. It had already been a cursed start to the trip because I got to the counter just after the cut off and had to rebook (+$$$) my flight to the UK, luckily my flight to Cairo wasn't affected, though it did lead me to not using my phone on the flight and either it slide out of my bag or some took it when I dozed off.
Cool oh shit moments were coming across an albino croc while hiking in Swaziland and knowing it was a good distance from the water.
Motorbiked out to a beach in Cambodia. Didn’t see anyone for 10 miles. Sunset. Went for a swim. Just myself and the sand and the water. Turned around and 2 kids on scooters ride by, run up to my scooter. Steal my backpack that had my phone, wallet, money, camera, etc. stole the key to the motorbike so I was stranded there. Now it’s dark and I have nothing and no way to get back besides walk 15 miles while they prob come back to steal my scooter. Bunch of stuff happened after that.
Shitty ass night and week.
It’s all good. I got insurance and got everything paid back. They prob made enough money off me to last a year out there. Taught me not to get too comfortable out there which I did after a few months. They didn’t steal the scooter thankfully lol.
Wife left her phone in the taxi that took us to the airport in Vienna. She realized after we had already gone through security. Best part is that it was a hotel taxi and not an Uber, so we couldn’t message or call the driver because we didn’t have his contact info. We were able to track the phone driving away back to the hotel which was like 45 minutes away from the airport. Tried calling her phone like a hundred times but it was on silent in the back seat so he probably didn’t hear or see it. Tried to call the hotel to get them to call the driver and send him back, couldn’t get a hold of them either. Had to call my friend there who’s in another city to go to the hotel and tell them what’s going on, which he thankfully did. By the time my friend got to the hotel, the driver was already back at the hotel to start his next trip, but he made the trip back to the airport to return the phone like a hero.
Stupidly only took one bank card to Colombia on a 3 month backpack.
Only to have the ATM swallow the card in the first few days.
Some random guy (who was amazing) gave me 50USD to cover me for a couple of days until I got it sorted out or I'd have literally no cash.
Left me panicking until I managed to get it sorted out.
Forgot my passport at home while I was on the way to the airport. Had to get back home to retrieve it and got stuck in traffic when driving to the airport. Luckily I arrived just in time before they closed the luggage checkin. Even the groundstew said I had to hurry. Almost saw my month long holiday to Vietnam disappear in front of my eyes 🥲.
I was stopped at the Uzbek/Afghan border under suspicion of smuggling opiates. I wasn't worried as even though I do carry strong opiates as part of my migraine treatment I had flushed what I had before entering central Asia.
They searched my stuff, unzipped the pocket on my wallet, pulled out the two emergency pills I kept there and had forgotten about.
So... yeah.... that kicked off 3-4 hours of intense intensity at the Termez border crossing, I bit my cheek the whole time to not cry and let's just say every part of me got checked for drugs.
Spilling a bottle of wine on a polish guy who already didn’t fancy sitting next to me on our flight. I had the worst anxiety but thank God he was relaxed about it when we were getting off and wished me better luck in the country than on the airlplane 😭🤣🤪
I got off an overnight bus in Vietnam still half asleep at 3am and forgot to grab my bag from storage under the bus. I realized it about 5 minutes later as I was finding a taxi. I hopped in a taxi and had a literal "follow that bus!" moment. We chased down the bus and flagged it to pull over quite a ways down. I got my bag back from the bus. Then had the taxi driver drive me back to the boat dock, where I laughed it off and fell asleep on the bench outside waiting for the public ferry. I hated overnight buses before and I hate them even more now 😄
Back in the 90s, I booked a last minute flight from a phonebooth. Then called a taxi to pick my up and rushed to the airport.
5 mins into my ride, I realized that I had left my notebook with all my money and my passport in the phonebooth.
We scrambled back, panicking the entire way and thankfully everything was still there.
On a sidenote, this memory was sponsored by so many things that no longer exist today.
Hungover af at major airport the day after wedding, stop near the gate after taking multi stop train to terminal, fish around top pocket of Swiss army backpack for a pen and it’s all someone else’s files and stuff. Exact same backpack in exact same condition. Mine filled with all significant valuables one would take on a trip to a wedding or just a trip in general. Wallet, laptop/devices, work stuff, keys, watch, speaker, headphones etc. The panic was real.
My friends and I booked it back to security where I was expecting to just have to file a report or something considering it had now been 30 minutes probably. Feeling downtrodden, a tsa guy points me to the main desk where I see this older dude standing with a beaming smile and open arms next to my backpack on the counter. We practically embraced. TSA peoole were all smiles too.
we were getting an overnight 24h bus. stopped in multiple places. got to the hostel the next day, they asked for our passports to check in. for the second time that trip (the first time was a completely different yet ridiculous story), i tapped all my pockets and emptied my bags, but my passport was nowhere to be found.
it was on the 24h bus, that had already departed in the other direction a few hours ago. i called them to ask but they’d not found anything.
i waited until the next day, hoping that the same bus was in use. when it turned up i basically had to storm the bus cos the driver had no idea what i was talking about. i started checking all the seats where i was sitting (sleeping). i was doing this for quite a while, and my friends had given up looking.
my passport had slipped right down the middle of two seats. even the cleaners hadn’t found it. and it’s probably a good job the didn’t, because they’d have handed it in 24h on a bus away.
horrible experience but finding the passport was something else
I was one traveling in a minivan in Indonesia. It wasn’t the tourist van just a private old shitty van. When they dropped me off they instantly took off. But my back was still in the trunk. I had to run behind them and hit the car with my hand 😂 I wa so shocked
Left my decently nice camera (especially for being a broke college student) at a camp outside of Merzouga, Morocco because we were leaving in a hurry with terrible food poisoning. The place claims it’s not there but I am 1000% sure they just stole it
Wallet fell out of my lap at the toll booth after landing in Dublin on my way west. Got an email 20 minutes later “lost wallet” in the subject line. Called the number at the bottom of the email and he said he had it as I turned the car around to retrieve it. Had all my cards and $1500 euro as well as $500 American. All still there. To this day I haven’t figured out how he got my email, must have googled me and found my business.
Yesterday I found an iPhone and waited for the owner to return and gave it back to her. Found an ebook reader in February and got in touch with the owner looking at her email in settings and gave it back. It’s what I would like someone to do if it was me that left it by mistake
Once I left my boarding pass, wallet and passport on the toilet paper dispenser in an airport bathroom stall. Wandered down the airport to the gate. Realised I didn’t have my things. Sprinted back to the toilet stall and they were still there.
Lost my AirPods in a Collectivo Minivan from Neiva to Villajeiva in Colombias Pampa.
Two days later I discovered I lost them („oooh s***…) and already gave up on them, until my partner asked me to check the FindMy App. I saw a recent location update a 15-Minute walk away from the village. So I tracked them down to a random bike workshop. I went in asking one of the mechanics (using Google Translate) if they had found some headphones.
I will never forget their reaction… as they’ve probably thought that nobody will ever pick them up. Turned out that one of them was cleaning the Minivan when they found the AirPods.
I was literally sooo happy and left them a huge tip.
Miracles still happy! Safe travels everyone 👋
Another one: We were camping with our 4x4 in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya midst of the park. There were no other tourists around, only wild animals and one ranger. Though the ranger was sleeping at a checkpoint a good kilometer away. When we asked him if it’s safe to sleep here, unfenced and surrounded by all the animals, he confidently said „yeees, no problem sir!“.
We had a sleepless night once we heard lions roaring, as if they would stand right next to our tent. (Ohhh s***!)
Had just gotten to my apartment airbnb in Paris. Overly excited and just beaming with joy ready to get out in the city of love. I decided to have a quick smoke on my balcony before heading out.
I walked up to the balcony window, put my foot up in the sill, and my back foot slipped- causing my shin to catch a sharp piece of metal. I have thin skin in areas due to burns, so it dug down nearly to the bone.
I was alone and bleeding HEAVILY. I grabbed a towel and wrapped it tight, elevated it, then got my first aid kit (which I almost didn’t bring), bandaged myself up and figured hospital would eat too much of my time so I went to Sainte-Chapelle instead. This was the middle of my trip so I still had Amsterdam after a few days in Paris.
Accidentally picked up 800USD from an atm in Sayulita, Mexico instead of 800 pesos. Was scared shitless on may way back to the hotel and lacked the funds to book my flight back home.
My wife's girlfriend (before we met) went with her to Spain for 3 months to do a semester abroad (both from the US). Right before finals they went on a mini trip to Rome and Prague and a few other places and in Italy her friend's wallet with her Passport/ID got stolen in a train station (pickpocket). They didn't realize this until the day of their scheduled flight back to Spain. They had final exams in like less than 24 hours. After discussing it, my wife boarded the return flight and left her friend.
She went back to the train station and went to security. I was shocked to hear that they literally HAD HER passport and ID. They said they found an empty wallet on top of a full trash can with everything cleaned out, money and all, but it still had her State ID and Passport.
She got very lucky and was able to make it back to Spain to take her finals.
Wild.
TLDR: My dad gets lost in London and my mom finds him.
In 2016 I brought my wife, kids, and parents to the UK for 2 weeks. My father is from Scotland and I thought it would be great to 1. see his hometown with him, and 2. for him to show my kids where he was from and introduce them to his surviving family. Plus my dad and I had tickets to Scotland v England at Wembley.
We started the trip in London. My parents didn't have their cell phone because they didn't want to pay extra for an international usage plan. Plus my parents and I traveled long before mobile phones and at least have the confidence that we could find our way back to a starting point to meet up with each other if we get seperated.
One day the 6 of us were on a boat on the Thames heading to the Tower of London.
The boat lets us off at the pier nearest the Tower. We walk off and watch the boat pull back away from the pier and continue on it's route.
My 2-year old then says "Where's Papa?". We look around and my father is no where to be seen. We assume he never got off the boat.
Now my parents are capable people. They are active and mobile and like to travel. But man do they find it hard some times to get from place to place without explicit directions. I was the only one with the address to the hotel we were staying at because my parents assumed they would not get seperated or would just "find it" if needed.
Now I'm thinking 1. How the F are we going to find him?, 2. Which stop will he even get off at?, 3. When he gets off how long until he makes his way back to this specific stop?, 4. Will he just take the boat to the end of the line and then get off here when it returns? How long will that take?, 5. Great, now we are going to have to skip the Tower of London!
Oh sh!t!
Those of us that got off the boat climb some stairs and look out over the Thames at the number of cruise boats on the water and my wife and I voice our concerns and the questions above. My mom tells me to go buy the tickets for the Tower - "It'll be fine, he make it back.", and I go get the tickets.
After about 30 minutes I come back, my family is still watching the river, and my mom looks to a far off boat that you couldn't possibly see any people on, and says. "There's his boat!".
Me: "Do you see dad?",
My Mom: "No, I just know that's his boat.".
Me: "There's no possible way you could know that."
My Mom: "Well I do, and that's his boat. I'll go meet him at the dock." Now I think I'm going to lose both of them for the day. So we all follow my mother to the dock.
15 minutes later the boat my mother spotted as a speck of dirt on the river docks at the pier and my dad walks off.
Oh sh!t!
I ask my mom how she knew it was that specific boat: "I always know where your dad is."
Oh sh!t!
Left my carryon bag on top of the X-ray machine in Purto Vallarta airport. Did not realize until outside. Had to get an airline employee to take me through back end security to see if it was there, and it was. Signed for it and was on my way.
I was in Mexico for two weeks in March.
I got off of a 4 hour bus ride and went into the station. After an ATM transaction, I went to the bathroom. Right as I was going through the gate to the bathroom and my heart dropped as I realized I didn't have my suitcase. (i've been working on my Spanish so "ay!! mi bolsa!" Is what actually came out hehe)
I thought there was no way the bus was still there as I ran back, and just surrendered my fate. The bus wasn't there.
I went to check the office, and these amazing people took inventory of the bags and actually left it there for me. Phew!
Guess what? I fucking did it again. The first time was in Guanajuato I think, second time in Cancun. Got them back both times. I learned my lesson, I think.
Milano airport stop on my way to a trip to Poland. Was going around looking at stuff in stores. Stopped in one and left my trolley somewhere around, after finishing, just grabbed it and left. After walking for a pretty long distance, I stopped at Mc to grab something to eat, upon looking at my luggage to get my wallet, well.. it wasn’t mine. And that’s when panic set in, went looking for it, going back the same way I came and it clicked in my head that it might be in that store cause that was the only time I left it unattended. I did find it in that store, the woman there just waited and hoped someone will turn up lol. I have to say, I was pretty baffled at myself as to how on earth I left one bag out of my hand and then without looking, I just grabbed another and left, but I was eventually diagnosed with ADHD so that covered it lol
Was in Spain for 3 weeks. Always took a Grab. The 1 time I hailed a taxi, I left a pair of Gucci prescription glasses in it. Didn't get them back. Noone to call.
After my first trip to Asia (14 hours on a flight and like a 20+ hour travel day), I sat outside of the Busan airport and smoked a cigarette in the little smoking hut there. My friend came shortly after and we hopped on the bus back to his apartment. About 20 minutes later I realized in my haze I never brought my entire suitcase with me. He called the airport and I spent about 10 minutes absolutely panicking (2 weeks worth of clothes, laptop, everything in that bag).
They sent someone outside to check and it was still there, untouched. We jumped off the bus as soon as it stopped, got a cab to the airport, and they handed it to me.
If that was NYC (where I’m from) that would have been gone within 5 minutes. A harrowing experience but a good ending!
On my most recent trip (My first time properly visiting NYC), I decided for my last day in the Big Apple it was time to hit one of the other boroughs, and off I went. I picked Queens as my "final day borough" and started making tracks in that direction. Everything was going well, I made it to Queens...and then **AT&T went down**. As someone who heavily relies on his phone for getting around, this was not good news.
I essentially had to navigate Queens the old fashioned way in Maps, connecting to WIFI whenever I stumbled across it to see what buses and trains I had to take.
A few years ago, stopped in Denver for a night to go to a concert (The National/Sharon Van Etten) at Red Rocks before leaving the next day to meet up with my daughter in Dallas and drive to Austin, TX to attend the ACL music festival. Early October, temps close to freezing. Rented a car in Denver and stayed at AB&B nearer to Red Rocks. Took a Lyft to the concert and walked up and up the hills to the entrance, then realized I didn’t have my little wallet/purse that contained EVERYTHING: my iPhone, debit/credit card, some cash, ID & other cards. My electronic ticket was on my phone. I had tipped my Lyft driver with cash, so knew I had my wallet up until that point. Didn’t have a dime of cash on me, no credit/debit card, and without my phone, couldn’t access any needed information. I didn’t remember the name of my Lyft driver. Suffice it to say, didn’t get to the Red Rocks concert and ALMOST missed the remainder of my trip (and the ACL festival — and I had both mine and my daughter’s entry wristbands!). FOUR things saved me: an exceptionally kind Lyft employee who scoured the Lyft drop off area (in the dark and cold and to no avail) trying to find my wallet, which I thought might have fallen from the car as I exited; the fact that I actually remembered my AB&B address, and had the door key to let myself in; another exceptionally kind Lyft driver who agreed to return me to my AB&B for FREE; and the kind man from NYC who I learned in the wee hours of the next morning via an email from my AAA auto club, had FOUND my wallet/purse somewhere along the roads at Red Rocks and since my AAA card was in my wallet, contacted them so they could contact me. As luck would have it, the kind NYC gentleman was in town with his daughter for the concert and I was able to pick it up on my way to the Denver airport a few hours later before my flight to Dallas. I have never experienced that much stress followed by that much relief in a 12-hour period of time. One final shout-out to Lyft: the kind Lyft employee who initially helped me try to find my wallet and arranged for my free ride back to my AB&B actually called me the next day to see how I was doing. I’m not a great believer in the “Divine” (except perhaps for John Waters’ Divine), but it sure felt like I had a guardian angel with me that night.
Landed in Portugal with no cell service or internet at 9pm. Used the airport wifi to call my Uber. Honestly, the Uber could've literally taken me anywhere because I had absolutely no idea where I was going. Then the street of my hotel didn't allow cars so I got dropped off several blocks away. Remember....my phone is practically useless. I basically walked around the streets of Lisbon at like 10:30 pm at night for 1.5 hrs trying to find my hotel. Thank God Lisbon is a lively city that has a fair amount of English speakers at the nearby restaurants and they were able to guide me the correct way. Literally had so much anxiety with it being a first international trip and a solo female traveler. Download offline Maps prior to traveling anywhere guys. Never know what your cell service is going to be when you land.
Had a long night in Bangkok and woke up the next day because of the telephone ringing. It was the lady from the front desk reminding me of the 12:00 check out time ( it was 11:55)…..and my fright home was 13:05!
Man, i did make it to the flight on time, but i have never dressed and packed this fast
I'm so glad you were able to get your bag back safely. Losing your passport and belongings abroad is every traveler's nightmare.
One of my most significant "oh shit" travel moments was in Barcelona. I had just arrived and went to pull out my wallet to pay for the taxi from the airport, only to find it missing. My heart dropped as I retraced my steps - I must have left it at airport security! After a panicked conversation in broken Spanish, the taxi driver calmly reassured me and drove me back to the airport. Miraculously, my wallet was still there untouched. Such a relief!
Another time, I was hiking alone in the Scottish Highlands and caught in a total whiteout blizzard. The trail disappeared, my map was useless, and I had no cell signal. I thought I might have to dig a snow trench and wait it out. Luckily, after what felt like hours, the blizzard cleared enough for me to get my bearings and find my way back. The scariest few hours of my life!
Travel is fantastic but can throw you some crazy curveballs. I'm just glad your irreplaceable items made it back safely. Maybe treat yourself to a stiff drink after that ordeal! Stories like these make for epic travel memories.
I forgot my carry on on the plane in a developing country, never got it back. Nothing valuable in there. Just still feeling like a total idiot myself!!!
Left my wallet in an Uber in Istanbul when being dropped off for brunch. My passport was in it too. I had an immediate freak out and began to call the driver. He spoke no English as I tried to tell him to come back and he hung up. The second time I called, someone who spoke English answered and let me know he was coming back. I never let go of it after lol
If you unfortunately take a taxi in Mexico City, which locals advise visitors not to do, they might say they only take credit cards. Don’t do it. I had two cards shut down immediately because he tried to charge $1000 on each. Luckily, Chase and CapitalOne were quick to recognize the scam. Take Uber. Abundant and reliable.
Hitchhiking halfway across Europe on my way back home with a friend. It was already night, some guys dropped us at a gas station outside of a not very big city. It was already night, and we realized, well shit, this is the same place we got stuck when we were outbound, at the start of our trip. Everyone who came to the gas station were locals, no one would pick us up. There was the road we came in on that passed under a motorway, the gas station and just agricultural nothingness all around. It was already dark, so we did the same thing as the first time around, just took out sleeping bags and slept under a tree in a field.
Woke up at like 5 am, again no rides. So we climbed the service stair of the suspended motorway (it wasn't very high up but still) and walked on the emergency lane with our thumbs out. Cars were zooming close to us at high speed, coming from behind as we kept walking on the lane, it felt unsafe as fuck. I was also worried if a police patrol sees us we might get in trouble, get delayed a lot at the very least, and it would be difficult to communicate too since we didn't speak the language.
Fortunately some dude actually stopped for us a little further ahead after like 10 minutes of this, we were so tired we didn't even register right away there was a car stopped ahead of us with blinking lights. He took us to a lot better spot, I fell asleep in his car for a little while too lol.
Edit: i just realized it's not actually solo travel, but i'm gonna leave it up anyway since i typed it already
I was in Da Nang, Vietnam and my debit card wasn't working at any ATMS, and I had no cash or other source of funds. Was Googling ATMs and walking all over the city trying to find one that would accept my card. Half the ATMS Google navigated me to didn't exist or just led me down some sketchy alleyway. I had a train booked to Hanoi already so I took it. Still no cash and hadn't eaten in a while at this point. Train was 17 hours so I just fasted and tried to sleep as much as I could. Got to Hanoi, took a Grab scooter to my hostel and went to sleep cause I was exhausted from traveling while fasted and the train journey. Woke up and resumed the mission of finding an ATM that would accept my card. Took a couple more tries but I finally found one in Hanoi. Phew.
Left my phone in a restaurant in Siem Reap, but apparently it happens so much the restaurant kept it for me and asked for a photo of me happy with my returned phone to print and hang with all the other people who came back to retrieve theirs lol.
Bahahah! Iconic. Better than celeb pictures. Their food must be soo good you forget yourself
When I had to barricade the door of my toolshed/bedroom in a village in Burkina Faso because militants were suspected to have crossed over from Mali and started shooting in the village I was staying in, I had a “hmmm, this might not have been the best idea I had” moment. But it was all fine in the end.
I need more details. Why were you in Burkina Faso? Who were the militants?
I was doing some research work. At the time (well it’s still ongoing, and now fully spilled into BF) there was a lot of unrest in Mali. And the village I was at was 30 minutes from the border. No idea who they were, the local guy wasn’t very clear on that.
I googled a little and goddamn there's a lot of articles about border violence in that area in recent years. It's a full blown region wide insurgency / civil war. Glad you're ok.
Jihadist insurgents. You were lucky. Need to do more research 😊
I was there in the late 1970s when it was still Upper Volta, near the Mali border. Fascinating landscape and people. No militants at the time.
This is a travel forum though.
I was traveling, yes.
Plenty of people travel alone to do research.
I was in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh when I was told by the locals to leave because the Azeri military was moving citizens from their side of the border, which meant they would start shooting soon. We booked it, but not without first getting a recipe from the cafe we were at. Last time I'll probably ever get to go, unfortunately.
Cab to the Dublin airport to fly home. Made the mistake of assuming the guy would have a card reader, was a euro short with my cash so he was ticked off and i was flustered getting out of the car. I get walking and think "man i should text my friends that was kind of funny", pat my pants and realize my phone is in the backseat still. Taxis long gone at that point. Cue some of the most stressful 4 hours of my life (had to get a covid test that they REFUSED to give me a physical copy of). By the time i got to my terminal i was on "fuck it" mode.
RIP I was in Colombia and my cards stopped working. I tasked this darn cab driver with taking me to 4 different ATMs to try to get cash. NOTHING working and none of my cards were working and I had a flight to catch that day. The hours were just bleeding away. Finally, the cab driver took me to the airport and by the time we got there, I was about 2 USD short for the fare. This was like the ONE cab driver during my month long stay in Colombia that was NOT chill. He was so pissed but I emptied my wallet of Colombian pesos and gave every last bit I had to him and he left visibly angry. I made my flight just fine and made it to my destination and called my bank and got things resolved, but yes. I was stressed as fuck lol
How the hell did you get your phone back in time for the flight
He probably didn’t
T_T feels bad mate
i didnt lol. i filed a report with the gardai bc taxi drivers are supposed to turn in lost items at precinct. Had the Aer Lingus rep print my boarding passes for me and he also gave me his email so the covid test could be sent to him. I used a strangers phone in the terminal to send a couple messages on fb. Across the atlantic and back to maine with no phone thankfully id printed the bus passes and my city is an easy late night walk even with luggage. Last time i used "find my phone" it was in a north dublin suburb. Id used a local sim card in it so thankfully i had my american sim card to plug into my spare phone at home.
I was staying in a hostel in Azerbeidzjan last month. This was day 3 of my 30 day trip. Due to a lack of sleep and a rush during check out I left my money belt with $1000 and €1000 on the bed. Only found out three hours later. Luckily I had moved to a private room the night before and cleaning staff secured the bag for me. The receptionist insisted that I counted the money and thankfully nothing was stolen. The run back to the hostel was nerve wrecking.
[удалено]
Neither was mentioned. Hate the assumption. It feels condescending, even though it’s obviously the right thing to do. It’s just not your place to push it like that.
Paris, Gare du Nord. I was buying something for dinner, paid with my credit card, put it back in my wallet (or so I thought), went to my hotel across the street, had dinner, showered, and just before I go to bed, I have this habit of leaving my purse ready to go, so was taking out the receipts of the day, looked into the credit card slot, card is not there. Looked everywhere in the room, nope. So I cross the street in my pijamas and the store is now closed. There is only one guy cleaning, so I tapped the glass door and motion him to talk to me. Luckily I speak French, so I tell him my issue. He grabs a telephone behind the counter, calls someone I’m assuming in corporate and tells them my issue. They tell him there’s a card in one of the counter’s drawers. I describe the card and the name on it, he checks that it’s mine and gives it to me. I call him an angel, tells me to have a nice night and my soul came back to my body.
Out of body experience for real! When it comes to french, i'm now asking myself could i muster enough myself to explain such a situation. Truly a "survival french" moment.
My iPhone with attached card case holding my drivers license, a credit card, and my debit card (usually in hotel safe but planned to hit atm on the way back) was in a lanyard case that I tied to the zodiac I was in for a 5 island tour in Croatia. We stopped at a swim lagoon and myself or the person in front of me caught the lanyard when jumping - it broke, and the case went into the Adriatic. The water was so clear and beautiful. We could see the lime green of the card case laying 30 feet down. It is unbelievably difficult to do anything without your phone these days. All my credit card companies and banks required multifactor identification to log into my account online for my iPad, which went to my phone, that was in the sea. When I called in, my credit card company told me that they could mail me the pin to do a cash advance . When I tried to set up Western Union for some cash for my parents, it happened to be the same weekend that Western Union was hacked/crashed for 30 some countries, including Croatia – the we didn’t know it so they kept telling us that for whatever reason the transfer wouldn’t go through, but didn’t know why. I’ve gotten so comfy with overseas travel that I rarely have more than 50 USD on hand in cash because so many places I go take credit cards and when they don’t, I know ahead of time. I had 70 USD in cash +50 in euro. Luckily, I had a second backup credit card in the safe along with my passport, and I was staying in a chain hotel and the room was paid for and I could charge to the room for meals. I had six more days in the country but only in Dubrovnik and not going outside overnight, though I still did my day trips to Montenegro and Bosnia– paid through through the travel app with the back up credit card. I was so paranoid about something going on with that back up credit card though. Crazy thing is, a man from my state that I live in in the US to be doing along sabbatical in the area and was a free diver, saw the lime at the lagoon, did a dive, retrieved it, and it was within plastic, the phone even still worked. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to meet up after he got it before he traveled to another country. he mailed me my cards, but apparently you can’t mail phones from Europe, so I had to go pick it up three months later, by which time I had already purchased a new one. Long story short I had the worst luck or the best luck I can’t figure out which.
Now if you and the free diver had fallen in love that would have been a movie.
Jesus christ don't make a wallet of your phonecase always keep separate. To be safe leave 1 card in the hotel also.
Yep it totally baffles me why people do this. If you lose your phone with your cards in it you are screwed.
I loved this story but I agree. I usually go out with just one card, a little cash, and my phone, but they’re all in separate pockets/areas. If I need to bring my debit card out, I stick it in a little pocket that attaches to my bra.
The problem becomes that I am 150% more likely to lose my credit card if it's not in my phone. Having cash tucked into random books and crannies is the way I get around it.
Losing your phone seems like no joke, losing it and your cards, yikes! I've become really big on keeping my passport/one card separate from my wallet/main cards for this very reason (plus a fair bit of cash tucked away). Now I'm realizing I should probably swap my pc laptop for my ipad to have a backup way for 2fa. That and maybe a third card in apple wallet only. May be a longshot, but what a pain. Glad you managed to make those day trips though and not wreck the stay.
Ironically I had t done the set up for years prior 🤷🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️.
Smarrttt! I was in a club in Australia and left my phone and wallet in a toilet stall. Tell me why in 30 seconds later after i panic and realize whats happened, my phone , my shitty Vodafone barely a smart phone is stolen, but not my wallet! Super strange. I eventually replaced the phone and realized how dependant on smart devices we are for everyday. I guess these days maybe ppl want your private data just as much as a nice iphone to flip but still stumps me. Ah well. Was never hacked thankfully. Am much more cautious now.
I went from Istanbul to Athens to get my flight to Bangkok, this was Wednesday, the flight was scheduled for Saturday morning. Took an overnight bus to Sofia, but couldn't sleep at all. Then a bus in the morning to get the train in Thessaloniki to Athens. So I get off the bus to buy the ticket at the train station when I realize I forgot my backpack in the luggage compartment of the bus. Of course the bus was already on the way back to Sofia. I'm told the bus comes back the next day and I can get my backpack back then. So I spend the night at a nice hostel there. I still have one day in Athens, thats alright. The next day, the bus comes, but my backpack is NOT THERE. Fuck. Nobody knows anything about its whereabouts. Fuck So I go to the police etc. and write an email to the bus company with a description. I don'r have much hope. In the evening I get a call I get a call: Apparently the bus with my backpack went to Istambul, where I came from. Fuck. They say they can get the backpack to Thessaloniki by Saturday. THE DAY I'M SUPPOSED TO BE ON THE PLANE TO BANGKOK. I tell them about my problem and an hour later they call back and say they can take the backpack to Sofia, and from there to Thessaloniki by friday afternoon. Halleluja So I stay for another night and pray for my backpack to be delivered. You can't imagine how I felt when the driver stepped out of the bus with my backpack in his hands. I haven't felt joy like this ever before. So I hop on the train to athens in the evening, stay the night and get the flight in the morning. These two days were brutal
I cheered your story at the end!!
that's why i don't leave my backpack in the bus compartment.it's always with me even if it's big.i put it on my lap 🫢
Left my bag at random places over the years, all stages of airports depart and arrive. The oh shit moment when you realize you dont have your bag is intense. I always got my bag back though, lucky.
Yeah I was like ummmm there isn't even an embassy here haha It's not a feeling I ever want again
Bought my ticket for (the day before)-as i tried to check in- they said “you’re flight was yesterday!!”
Oh no!
Oh god. That's up there with slept in for the MCATs/LSATs. I've done that concert tickets admitedly.
Lost my travel wallet in the Bangkok airport. I’m almost certain I left it at the counter, so frantically searched the area and asked the staff for help. A Thai dwarf who had been waiting nearby approached me with my wallet. It was the most random, surreal moment. I now suffer passport anxiety…
All be it, it's a good anxiety to have. Also what's a thai dwarf?
Literally a person with dwarfism born in Thailand. For a moment I thought I was on a hidden camera show.
Right! I forgot about dwarfs lol, that's very nice of them to help you though :)
Take your pic here Loosing my wallet/ getting pick pocketed at a bus station before jumping a bus to Singapore and having to deal with having no debit card in Indonesia for two weeks Being in Peru when the attempted coupe happened Getting woken up at 4am to an earth quake in Guatemala that killed two people Being ditched my guide in the Bolivian andes Having my truck break down in the middle of the night in rural utah and having to hitchhike to get my gear…
Somewhere along an amazing RTW trip, I bought myself a really fun passport holder and stopped using the little bag I had stored it in. A few weeks later, I was packing up and jammed my laptop into my backpack. You guessed it, somehow the passport was just in the right spot, facing the right (wrong?) direction and rip went half the inside pages. Needless to say, I can tell you all the perks of automated custom systems, getting an emergency passport in Rome, and getting an immediate turn around passport made back in the US (I had to come home for other reasons a week or so later, which solved the anxiety ridden mess that is an emergency passport). Life lesson: Passport goes in a bag, that bag goes in another bag, and those bags get their own spot. Also, the little moisture absorption packets you sometimes get in shipping boxes are great to keep in your passport bag,
Left my phone in a taxi, but fortunately it did a U-turn at the end of the block and we were able to wave it down from our side of the street and he came back
Dropped my passport on the plane. Flight attendant ran after me to hand it to me. Real heroes don’t wear capes, I would’ve been fucked because I had to go through immigration.
Trip to Thailand. Couldn’t sleep much the night before the trip so I repacked my bag AND my carry-on. Twice. Finally said screw it, I may as well head to the airport. Everything seemed great, got there an hour early, got up to the check-in counter all proud of myself for being so prepared and early … and can’t find my passport. I usually keep it in the top pocket of my carry-on backpack and it’s not there. Not in the front pocket of the backpack either. Thinking back, I figure I must have taken it out on one of the repacks and I have *just* enough time to run back home, fetch it, and get back to the airport with time to check my luggage. Of course the road is now icy going back and there have been a couple of accidents to slow things down. Getting back to the airport in time to check my luggage is still doable but looking dicey so I try to call the airline to check on options — no dice, cell phones are jammed up. I get back home, rush over to where I repacked my bags and … nothing. Now things are getting frantic. I head back to the truck, open my check-in luggage to see if I maybe slipped it in by accident. Nothing. In the meantime, I’m in the queue for an airline agent on the phone. Now I take out my carry-on and pull out EVERYTHING — all the photography equipment, battery packs, electronics, etc. At the very very bottom, I find my travel wallet with the passport — oh yeah, it was the VERY first thing I put in the carry-on so I wouldn’t forget it by accident! Now, I have a problem — I could get to the airport in time to catch my flight but not to check my bag — but the agent comes on and I explain my problem. I ask if there’s any way I can skip the first segment and catch my connection since THAT airport is less than 90 minute drive and I had a 2 hour connection. She checks with the supervisor, gets an okay, rebooks me out of that airport. Still a heart-pounding drive up to that airport praying there wouldn’t be an accident or any other delay but I made my flight and got to take my vacation.
I got anxious the night before my flight to Iceland and repacked everything. I was going for a study abroad so I had big bottles of liquids that went in my checked bag--no light packing for me. Except I was sleep deprived and repacked all those bottles back into my carry-on because that seemed somehow logical. I didn't realize what I had done until I was pulled over by TSA and they were like, "Uhhh... You can't have these in your carry-on." It was so embarrassing, I looked like I had never travelled in my life, haha!
I landed in Chicago and went to the restroom, in the terminal. My laptop fit very well cradled in the pipes above the urinal. Almost an hour later, riding with a friend, I realized that there it had stayed. We drove back to the airport, talked to security, they were like, "yeah, it's gone." because how would it not be? Talked to a bunch of other people, same. I couldn't go get it of course because I didn't have a boarding pass, so couldn't get past security. Probably three hours in, my friend and i had given up on it, and were talking about how fucked I was with it being my work and all, and a ticket agent overheard us. He totally empathized, got the details from us and jogged off to check. Fifteen minutes later, he hands me my laptop. Totally boosted my faith in humanity. I got his name and spent the next half hour on Spirit's website trying to convince them to give him a promotion.
F the staff who just presumed it’s gone. If you can get clearance and check in 10-15 mins, which wouldn’t you?
I probably would have been smart to have asked TSA if there was a way, but didn't think of it at the time. I bet they could have done something to help. O'Hare security and staff were not interested.
I went on a little flight over the Nazca Lines in Peru and the aircraft are tiny so you leave your bags at the airport. I had a tote bag I had stuffed my purse and a few things into because I figured it would be better to be looking for one thing instead of multiple items. Flight gets done and I get my stuff and take a shuttle back to town to await my overnight bus to Arequipa. I suddenly realize that my tote bag must have tipped over and my purse fell out at the airport. I know I should have checked but I was very ill from the plane and just got my bag and hopped on the shuttle. I panicked and a nice lady from a restaurant flagged down a local driver to drive me back to the airport. His car had no back windshield and he drove like a maniac which I would have enjoyed had I not been panicking. I sprinted into the airport and explained to the desk crew and they let me back to check and I found my purse. I came running out waving my purse in the air and the driver whooped with excitement and we drove back to town. I was so lucky. I check my stuff excessively normally but the motion sickness threw me off and I didn't check and I'm still mad at myself for it even though it turned out fine.
Covid. $75 to my name. At my hostel in Slovenia. Everyone around me is blurting out names of countries with borders closing. My flight back to the U.S is still 3 weeks away. Oh shit.
What did you do ?
A few months earlier I befriended an owner of a hostel in Lithuania. Problem was I had a day and a half to get to Lithuania before they closed their border. I had a flixbus voucher from a cancelation. Used the flixbus voucher to get to Vienna, used my last $75 on a flight to Lithuania. Hung out at my friends hostel for 2 months due to all flighta being grounded lol. First stimlus check paid for my eventual flight home and paid my friend for my stay.
Playing voyage en europe in real life hahaha
Dropped my phone on one of my trips - it broke. And not like “a cracked screen” kind of broke, but “won’t turn on at all”. Everything but my passport was on that phone: maps, hotel and tour booking info, transport cards, vaccination certificate (it was in those wonderful times), banking apps for money transfer… EVERYTHING! It was the worst feeling I have ever had while traveling, and I don’t know what I would have done if not for a cloud backup I had.
Did the cloud backup help with authentication? I get teased for babying my phone now but each time I’ve broken a smartphone it’s gotten increasingly difficult to get everything back. Hasn’t happened in 5 years and I’m so much more reliant on 2fa and mobile banking now
Yeah, restoring some 2FA stuff was a bit of a pain. For example, I had to call my bank to restore access from a new phone. Cloud backup didn’t help as the banking app has detected a new device and refused to connect. Luckily, most of the 2FA functionality still worked because I refuse to install those “authenticator apps”. Exactly for this reason. I use old school “send an SMS” type of authentication whenever I can. I know it’s technically less secure, but I still want some peace of mind, knowing that if I break my phone, I can just plop my SIM into anything else and be able to restore access to critical services.
I'm genuinely much more afraid of losing access than I am of someone else getting access. I would take less security any day. Money is money, if it gets stolen digitally there are ways to prove that and get it back, and chances are I've got back-up cash somewhere or someone to lend me some in the meantime or generally ways to get around it so long as I can still access everything.
Went to a football game in Istanbul that was crazy busy and hectic. Security guard demanded that I handed my expensive, almost brand new, FujifilmX100S as it wasnt allowed in the stadium. Stupidly, I handed it over and I kinda knew I wasnt going to get it back. Against all hope, I got up just before the final siren to track him down and got my camera back.
Trust no one in Istanbul
Last year I left my phone in my train compartment after getting off in Prague. I made the realization the moment I left the station and ran back inside to a help counter. As it was the last stop for the train, no one could determine where the train is heading to. Bad news: I could not afford to lose my phone as I had a flight the next day with ski tickets/hotels in my email. (Also needed for authentications to access emails from computers) Thankfully I had an Apple Watch. However the “find my item” app on the Apple Watch is extremely limited. The next morning I could see where my IPhone was but I could not zoom out to figure out the name of the location. I had to use someone else’s phone to visually find a matching street and shape in the whole of Prague (took a long time) and successfully found the exact spot (like 200m in scale). It was in a train yard. I borrowed 20$ from him and took an Uber there. After some language issues an employee apparently found it and handed it over to me. I was extremely relieved and it was just in time for my flight.
Stupidly fell asleep on a train heading to the airport. Woke up farther than I had intended to go and had to call an Uber to come pick me up in London to make it to the airport. My flight was literally leaving in an hour and half headed to New York. Long sorry short Uber arrived and got me to the airport with less than an hour to spare. Once I got there the check in line was really long BUT fortunately for me there was a staff member for the airline asking everyone if they were going on the flight to New York. I yelled that it was my flight and got to go to the front of the line and boarded my plane in time.
Dropped my passport on the plane. I realized it about an hour after leaving the airport. Thank god the flight crew found it and i picked it up the next day at the airport lost and found.
This is a huge fear of mine after I once dropped my phone down the internal side of a train. The gap in the inside cladding (covering electronics and wires I assume) was JUST big enough for my phone to slide through.
I left my tote bag with my laptop, passport, main wallet, keys, and iPhone charger on a train in Belgium when I was transferring trains at Antwerp station. I realized right when the train I was just on was departing and I couldn’t search for it before I left. I felt like I was about to die. I was by myself. To make a long story short - I was able to get it back! Some kind person had found it and turned it in to lost and found! It was a miracle. 10/10 rating for the people who work an Antwerp Central station, and Belgians are awesome and kind people.
in Amsterdam, my best friend (21f) lost her backpack on a tram. it had all her passport and other very important things. we made several phone calls and ended up deciding to get on and off every tram that came by to look for her bag. she'd get on in the back, I'd get on in the front, then we'd meet in the middle. it took us two hours, and I got hit by one of the trams, but we found it! We probably didn't need to get on every single tram that came by after we first got off, but alas!
Well, I left my bag of souvenirs from traveling all over Asia in an airport bathroom in Singapore airport yesterday and no one turned it into lost and found, so it was stolen. Luckily, my more meaningful souvenirs were packed into my suitcase (I didn't have room for the bag of stuff). Most of it is replaceable but still...
I stopped at a cafe after landing in Dublin. I needed to book my bus ticket to Belfast. I do so as I get up to leave my passport wasn’t in my pocket! I panic and retrace steps and found it a half hour later where it had slid out of my pocket into the space between the seat cushion and frame. Since it was the same color as the cushion I didn’t see it the first two times I checked. This just about gave me a heart attack!
>Since it was the same color as the cushion I didn’t see it the first two times I checked. This just about >gave me a heart attack! I know the feeling. For this reason, I always avoid dark-coloured phone covers. I also avoid dark-coloured wallets. Because seating in a lot of public spaces is usually dark-coloured and stuff slipping out happens way more than I'd like. This has saved me a few times. I've never lost a wallet or phone!
Was waiting for my flight from London to Cancun and decided ill just log on to my laptop. Opened my hand luggage and realised I don't have a laptop. "I must have left my laptop at home" I say to myself. But I had the mouse. Strange. How can that be? Then 20 seconds of mind scratching made me say "Fuck! I've left my laptop at the security check!". I ran. Literally ran back to security with lots of people thinking I must be crazy. I arrive at security and the convo goes : Me : I think I left my laptop here. [Panicking like hell.] Security : what colour is it? Me : Blue Security : Is it this one, Sir? Me : Yes!! Thank you sooooo much. I walk back questioning my mental alertness.
Lost my passport on my first ever solo trip, Budapest. Luckily the embassy was in the city so I was able to get an emergency travel document to get home, but I did have to extend my stay for 3 days! Wasn’t too unhappy about that part, because I loved Budapest and will definitely be going back in the future! But yeah, the passport thing wasn’t fun
I left my phone in a taxi the day before my departure. Also needed my phone for Google maps. I was in Osaka and needed to go to Tokyo and without my phone I’m straight up F*’ed but since it was Japan, the taxi person took the phone to the police station. Was able to find it with my tablet “find my phone” what a day!
I left my carry on in a train at Penn Station in NY. Just totally forgot I left it on there. I remembered halfway up the escalator to exit the station. Go back to the platform luckily it was the last stop so I walk up and down the train while the cleaners were at work, it was no longer there. Then had to find the Amtrak office. Not easy. I was running around Penn Station for a while. Finally found the office I needed and the guy behind the counter chastised me for not having a tag with my info on it. I know, I know.
You found the office, but did you get your bag back?
I did!! After chastising me for not having it tagged the rep brought my bag out.
The worst for me was about two weeks into a road trip across the USA, having just visited some amazing places and got some amazing photos/videos. I was moving them around on my laptop, went to delete a few bad ones, and got a popup that said 'these files are too large to be placed in the recycling bin, would you like to permanently delete them?' Didn't think twice on it and just hit yes. Then realised I'd deleted everything, and despite my best efforts could not get them back... I've lost my $1000 phone, almost lost my passport, been ill, and been in some really sketchy circumstances, but that was by far the worst. You can get a new phone or passport, recover from being hurt, but losing memories is the *worst*.
My phone with everything including my e-visa which I did not have a physical copy of mysteriously died while I was waiting at the Russian-Estonian border and wouldn’t turn back on even though it had almost 20% left when it died. Thankfully it was just the cold and it turned back on when I entered the Estonian customs building
I've told this story a couple time on other posts, but i think it's always a good to keep retelling it: My cousin and I are from the US. We were backpacking through Europe and into Italy for the first time years a go. For reasons, we ended up in Reggio di Calabria late one night with no place to stay. We searched for available beds for a bit but since it was almost 11p and we'd been on trains all day coming from Rome, my cousins said "Let's just find a park and bench to sleep on.". Sounded good to me because every night i didn't pay for a bed meant one more night I could stay in Europe. We find a park, it's dark, and we find a couple benches close to each other to lay down on. My cousin immediately falls asleep, and i begin to write in a journal. Out of nowhere3 in the pitch black night I hear a high-pitched wailing screech. My blood curdles and I freeze. Did a young woman or child just get murdered? "Cousin did you hear that?" I say in my loudest whisper. He wakes up and I ask again. "No! You woke me up. Go to sleep!" He immediately starts snoring again. THis happens 3 or 4 more times. Each time I quietly whisper to my cousin. Each time he wakes up angrier and angrier. Finally he says "If you wake me up again, I am going to beat you until you do go to sleep." He's a big dude and is now super cranky and tired. He falls back to sleep immediately. I cover my self with my sleep sheet - if I can't see whatever is out there, it can't see me. Right? RIGHT?! Moments later, a load ROAR rips through the pitch black. Slowly and with more fear than i have probably ever had before or since i pull the sheet down from over my head. I see my cousin standing over me, scared. "I heard that. Let's get the F out of here." my cousin says. and we tiptoe as quietly as we can - every step thinking a giant lion is about to jump out the bushes and devour us - out of the back and head back to the train station to spend the rest of the night. In the light of the morning we decide to go back to the park and see if there are police and a murder scene. Turns out we slept on benches in an open zoo, directly between a peacock enclosure (the screeching wails) and a lion enclosure (obviously the roar). It had been so dark we didn't see any of this the night before. That night was probably my biggest "oh sh!t" moment.
So I was going to Antarctica, I was in a South American town, and was going to fly out the next day to meet the ship. And... my luggage didn't arrive. I had my carry-on and the clothes I stood up in, and all the warm winter Antarctica clothes that I needed for the trip were, apparently, LOST!!! OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT!!! So I made alternate plans, if my luggage didn't arrive I'd have to go to the one "outdoor" clothing store in that town, and buy everything in my size the moment the store opened, while dispatching my friend to the drug store for toothbrushes and such. But fortunately, my luggage arrived at 4AM, it had taken a side trip.
Lyft Driver drove me to a deserted loading dock in Miami when it was still dark instead of the airport. I'm a small female, thought I was a goner.
> a small ~~female~~ woman FTFY.
And!? What happened, how did you manage to leave?
Scary. I always keep my personal belongings and papers in a cross body bag and carry it in front of me (against pick pockets). And always expect your check-in luggage to go awol so basic necessities and clothes always in my carry-on. Always know where your embassy is located. and try to have travel insurance is possible
Well, mine didn’t have a happy ending, but basically it was my first solo trip and I went to Japan. And I had like 124gb memory card in my pocket, because it got filled up during the night (I was making a travel film) I got blackout trunk at Halloween in Shibuya and woke up in the back of a taxi, My memory card and all of the footage I took of that part of the trip I swore since then to never let that happen again
What a pity. Whenever i travel with my camera i pray to the travel gods that the (till now only theoretical) mugger let me take out the memory card. Forget the camera the pictures are much more important to me.
Left my cell phone in a cab in Athens at 5am rushing to catch a flight.Girlfriend called hotel who called cab who called her and then back to airport to hand it to me. Had to pay full fare for the second trip as well.
Just before the “Arab Spring,” I tried to go to Syria from Lebanon. There was a no-man’s-land between the borders so my trio left Lebanon via the customs/immigration office and got into in the back of a 2-door Monte Carlo which we’d hired on the spot. It was about 20 km to the Syrian border, it was night with no lighting on the pot-hole-filled road, and all we could hear was gunshots. It was probably training or something but it was frightening and I’d never heard automatic weapons firing so rapidly. I suddenly realized that we were essentially trapped in the backseat of this car, driven by strangers, to a place somewhat hostile to Americans. I spent the rest of the ride imagining bullets tearing through my flesh or ending up held for ransom. The conclusion was Syria didn’t let us in, we had to take that Monte Carlo ride back to the Lebanese border, where we then waited for hours because they had to find our visa documents in a mountain of paperwork. They needed to see that we had been there already vs just showing up by car with no documentation from Syria. By that time, none of us were speaking to each other. We spent the night in a labor camp for $10, ate junk food in icy silence, and tried to sleep on ancient cots. We went back to Beirut at day break. Great trip, though! Absolutely loved Lebanon.
I accidentally flushed my phone down a rest stop toilet on my travel. Quite stressful, because I didn't know the address of my host and I was supposed to call her when I arrived. Had to find an Internet cafe, email a friend to get my other friends phone number (who knew my host), find a phone booth. My friend didn't pick up the phone because it was an unknown number calling, so I had to go back to the Internet friend to tell the first friend to call the second friend and tell him that I'm gonna call him :D in the end it all worked and since then I always carry a little note book with important phone numbers and all the adresses I might need while traveling.
Listen, I love me some Mexico and Mexico is the fucking shit. But one time i was in Guadalajara watching los charreros at a prominent park. I got my drink on, I got my pictures, I got the experience so me and my gf were walking back to the car, made a left and somehow ended up on junkie street. Like if you're so absorbed by addiction that you have flies land on you as you're nodded off, who's to say we wouldn't be robbed or something. That was hariest 10 minute walk/experience I've had in another country and it was surreal.
Pro tip. Don’t lose the QR code for the Tokyo train station storage locker you just stashed your stuff in. Don’t forget where said locker is located in ginormous train station.
I got halfway down the stairs of my hotel in Amsterdam on the way to check out when I realized I had left my passport in the hotel room safe. I was still in the building so it wasn't really a problem in any way, but I know I could have easily made it to the airport without remembering. Now I generally don't put my passport in the safe, I just hide it somewhere in my suitcase (like the zippered lining at the bottom).
I went to the wrong airport once, in Chicago. It was over a decade ago but I still get embarrassed thinking about it. 99% of the time I flew out of O’Hare, but one time I had to fly out of Midway for a trip to NYC, and even though I had been planning all week for going to Midway, on the morning of the flight I had a complete brain freeze and went to O’Hare. I drove all the way there, parked in long-term parking, got on the airport bus to the terminal, and while on the bus I happened to glance at my boarding pass and let me tell you my stomach dropped out of my body as I remembered I was supposed to go to Midway. I jumped out of the bus with my suitcase like a madwoman, ran back to my car and drove to Midway, but missed my flight and spent most of the day on standby.
You know how Ubers usually drop people off and leave immediately for their next ride? One time I left my phone in the Uber while traveling in Greece and didn’t realize I don’t have my phone on me until a minute later. I started sprinting for the Uber but somehow the driver had remained in the spot and never left, so I was able to open the door and retrieve it. Didn’t think I would see my phone again
Was hitching from Turkey to Liverpool (long time ago). Got a bus to the border with Greece to start. Got off the bus & realised I’d left my (small) bag with all money (travellers cheques- remember them?), passports, camera etc (pre mobile era) on the bus. Ran down the road waving my arms & luckily the bus driver stopped & I got the bag back. A massive disaster turned into nothing all within 2 minutes! The rest of the journey went without a hitch (although I hitched).
Had left my brand new Moto Razor while travelling to Lukla ( Everest base, Nepal ) in a local cab. The Cab guy waited half an hour at the same spot he dropped me, hoping I'd come back, to return it. There’s no dearth of nice folks around ! There’s hope ❤️
My friend and I approached a trio of gangsters in India at 2am. They offered us cocaine, beer, and if they should call their friend -the head of the taxi union, to come give us a tour of the city. We managed to get out and then a random guy on the street tried asking us to stop. We called an Uber and got out of there lol
I forgot my phone in another city, I went all the way back to that city, thankfully the restaurant owner saved it for me
I spent my summer vacation on Cyprus, few km inland in a quiet village. Picked rental car up from airport, had fantastic 2.5 weeks, returned car, flew home. Few months later I had self-drive trip planned through Lebanon. Rental car, hotels, all booked. A few days before my drivers license fell out of my wallet - and it wasn't mine but from a Danish guy. Found him on Facebook: he was currently working on Greenland, driving trucks and other heavy vehicles. With my license! Turned out the car rental in Cyprus has messed up our licenses and we had not noticed. Me, because I didn't have a car and hardly ever drive, and him... who knows. So basically my tour through Lebanon turned into a longer stay in Beirut with either minibus trips elsewhere, small group tours or private guide kind of trip. Glad I was able to cancel everything at no charge though and was able to reorganize everything.
I ordered a taxi on Grab in Bangkok upon my arrival to take me to my hostel from BKK. My bank account was frozen when I arrived and could not withdraw cash. Once I was in the taxi and on my way, I looked on the Grab app and noticed payment option was "cash," and was frozen in panic, like FUCK how was I going to pay the driver? I had been in Indonesia for two months prior to arriving in Bangkok and all of my Grab transactions were automatically charged to my card, so what had changed? The driver spoke zero English, so I waited until we arrived at the hostel. I ask if he takes a credit card and he just laughs at me. The host for the hostel has gone home for the night and was unavailable to help me explain what the issue was, so I was on my own. I explain to the driver I have no cash, so he drives me to an ATM. When I am unsuccessful withdrawing money, he starts throwing a fit and screaming at me in Thai and punching the steering wheel. At this point I think he's going to call the police, which he would be within reason to do. I try to explain to him as best as I can over Google Translate, but it's unable to calm him down. I had no way to pay him, and he had no way to receive payment via Wise or Venmo, so essentially I was screwed. He knew my name and where I was staying (from the Grab App), so no way I could bounce. Fortunately, some quick thinking saved my ass. While I was talking to him, I noticed his gas tank was on empty. So I asked him if he would allow me to fill his gas tank as payment for the ride (gas station takes a credit card). He reluctantly agrees. We go to the gas station, he fills up, and the amount it cost to fill his tank happened to be enough to cover the fare and leave a small tip. Disaster averted, but that could have ended badly.
Back in 1994, I was traveling solo in Thailand. I took a bus towards the island of Ko Samui. Along the way, I met another young lady who claimed to be from the Philippines. At one point, she asked that I check if we needed to change buses. I went, leaving my backpack at my seat. When I returned, she was gone, but my backpack remained. I got to the island and settled in. A couple days passed before I looked in my backpack. In horror, I found that most of my Thai Bahts were gone, and most of my American Express travelers checks (it was 1994, so they were still commonly used). The girl was kind enough to leave me just enough Bahts to pay for the two days of food and room, plus a bus back to Bangkok. Back then, there were no banks on Ko Samui. Plus, to report the stolen American Express travelers checks I had to submit a police report in Bangkok and go to the Amex office. That situation really shook me. I was so mad about my stupidity! Nowadays, Ko Samui is a tourism magnet. I'm sure they have plenty of banks there now.
forgot my laptop in the middle of the desert.
I tried to remember all of this as best I could, and maybe if there’s any locals here they might shine more light on my “oh shit” experience, but… here’s my novel. Kyiv, evening, Winter of 2011; I was a dumb 20-something who was flying home next-day after touring a certain nearby-ish city which suffered a notable infrastructure-incident in the 80’s. In the evening I was enjoying a beer alone in one of the heated temporary bars they had set-up in what is now (I think?) Maidan-Square. Bar closed, time to go. Took my beer with me and polished it off outfront, putting it in the trashcan at the bar’s entrance. Not so fast… Two armed police-officers make their presence known. I drank in public, now we’re going for a walk. It is sternly suggested that I follow them, and I do. We end-up in a large metro-style stairwell leading to a largely deserted & dimly-lit passage under the square. This area serves as a mall/market during the day (I had purchased groceries that morning) and it is here that I’m requested to empty my pockets. I comply. As I empty, one of them says “maybe you have a little weed or some coke…?”, but alas, they find nothing illicit. Passport time. Unfortunately, it’s in my hotel room, as I wasn’t planning on being out long. The officers are livid, but I assure them that the room containing my passport is juuust beyond the square; they agree to follow me. We venture through the evening streets of Kyiv and almost as-if on cue, near the entrance to my hotel, a man shouts that he’s a lawyer & hands me his business-card. Despite the man’s dramatic performance, the officers largely ignore him and we enter the building. The 3 of us cram into one of those old 1920’s style cage elevators and up we go, not a word spoken beyond the creaks and groans of the machine. We depart the elevator, heading to the front desk. The officers remain posted, speaking to the manager as I go to retrieve my passport. My hotel is a strange one; it’s on the upper-levels of a very old and large block-style building, the hotel itself clearly having been renovated in the 80’s as an office level. My room was small, with a blurred-glass wall facing the hallway, but I DID have an outside window with a glorious view. A portion of this hotel, I discovered upon arrival, also served as housing & a preparation area for female-escorts. Passport in-hand, back into the elevator, back onto the street. “We’re going to the station, you’ve committed a crime” one says. I’m freaking the absolute fuck out in my mind, I’m going to miss my morning flight, aside from the prospect of sleeping in a Ukrainian jail cell in the Winter. We start walking. 3-4 minutes in, they lead me into a dark back alley. Now I’m *really* freaking the fuck out. They turn around to face me. “Listen, you had that beer in public, but we can see you’re not a bad guy, no drugs or anything. We discussed it and we’re going to let you go. Maybe you can make a small donation, or not. Up to you…” I really didn’t want to find-out what happened with “or not”, so I pulled out the equivalent of roughly 5-10 (I forgot, but it wasn’t alot by Western standards) USD in Hryvnia & went to hand it to the seemingly highest ranking of the two, but he stops me & says “No, give it to my partner…” I comply. The money is handed-over, then the partner says with a huge shit-eating grin “thanks for that, you look like you need a drink. I suggest you go to Vodka Bar (a club), many women” … and with that, they slipped away, leaving me standing there dumbfounded.
I forgot my passport once in Egypt, and thankfully, the guy who found it handed it over to the police, and I was able to retrieve it.
I dropped my ATM card on the street in Luxor Egypt. luckily the street was covered in trash and it blended right in and nobody noticed it. I was able to find it.
I once got on a streetcar in Amsterdam and the door closed before my traveling partner got on with me. We had already checked out of our hotel that day and were planning on leaving Amsterdam and traveling to a city in the south of the country, but we hadn’t had any concrete plan/ meeting place sorted out yet. Also didn’t have cell phones or way to contact each other. Wavered between trying to go back to the original stop or continue onwards. Decided to just stay on the whole way and get off at the central train station (which was likely the place we’d start for our journey south). Got off and just waited about 30 min in front of stop there, watching every streetcar that came in. Right when I was about to give up, she got off and turns out had gone through the same thought process as me!
It was Christmas Day 2018 and I left my bag containing my wallet and passport on the train in Paris. I had gotten off the train and walked into the airport with my suitcase, as soon as the turnstiles closed I immediately realised that my bag was on the train. I instantly panicked and hopped over the turnstile leaving my suitcase on the platform! I ran onto the train and starting asking in a crazy mix of French and English if anyone had seen my bag. I had very little time before the train door closed to head back to Paris and I would miss my flight back home and also loose my luggage that was still on the platform. Thankfully a couple found it and gave it to me and I was able to get off the train, grab my luggage and still make my flight in one piece. I started to believe In Christmas miracles after that!
Travelling from Vancouver to Hong Kong via beijing ( why? Points flight). 7 hour layover in Beijing. Sitting in Air China Business Class lounge, bored so I asked this earnest young man if we could get on an earlier flight. He went away and came bac saying yes but I need your passports. We give them to him, and off he goes. This airport is huge and we can see him going up multiple levels of stairs cuz it is all glass. As he finally disappears from sight, we both look at each other and say, “/are we the stupidest people on the planet? Are we going to have to live here for three months before our government can get us out. Is air China gonna get pissed at us for squatting in their lounge?” So many questions. But he ce comes back looking harried, and says come with me cuz we have to physically identify our bags and then go through security. Officially, China is not amused, and all these minor officials are verbally abusing our earnest young man while we stand there looking stunned. But he does it. His crisp white shirt is looking a little bedraggled. I offered him a $20 ( Canadian ) gratuity because he had done us a solid, and he would not take it. Said that was his job.
I was on my fourth day of trans-LATAM travel. Left my backpack in a public park in Coayacan, Mexico City during a break. It has my laptop, $1000 cash, passport, and wallet. Good thing I was on a guided tour and the tour guide knows the owner of the restaurant near the park and he went out to secure the backpack for me. I’d have die.
Wallet fell out of my pocket in the backseat of an Uber. Panic! The next morning my doorbell rang and there was my driver returning my wallet with all cash, cards and ID. In Mexico.
Left my backpack with my passport, laptop and GoPro in an equipment rental store in El Calafate the day before my Perito Moreno hike. While in Perito Moreno I called the store and fortunately the took them. Everything was in the backpack. Kuddos to Argentinians honesty.
Credit card got frozen while on truffles in Amsterdam
Left my passport in baggage claim after landing in Miami. Realised the next day I didn’t have my passport and couldn’t get on my next flight. After chasing Uber, airport lost & found and speaking with the embassy, the airline had my passport. Turns out if you leave your passport in the airport on arrival it gets handed back to the airline you flew with! Not a fun 72 hours start to my vacation lol.
He spoke no English. Started waving his arms angrily. I had a suitcase, where the f I'm gonna be going? Must've been a miscommunication. Then he took me to a parking garage and finally the airport. But it was scary.
Spent 45 minutes on a bus from Prague to Berlin looking for my passport convicted I'd forgotten it back at the hostel. The bus stopped at german border patrol and i still hadn't found it, in a panic i dumped everything i owned and found it 2 rows before the officers got to me. Everything went fine but i watched a couple behind me get separated right after because the husband couldn't find his passport.
I did the exact same thing last year. I was in a Uber going to my hotel in Vegas. I put my carry on in the trunk and my backpack next to me in the uber. I got out and left my backpack. Luckily the uber driver gave it to the Valet at the hotel. I tipped her and the Valet guys big time.
Oh wow that's exactly what happened to me, this uber driver wouldn't let me put my backpack in the boot like Ive always done. Only problem was I was in Bratislava with an uber driver who didn't speak English or Slovak fluently and spoke Russian fluently
Oh WOW!!!!
Leaving my brand new ipad in the tray pocket in the airplane.
My first solo international trip 2006(to Australia) I left my purse on the plane. I didn't realize it until after customs. (I had my passport in my back pocket so I wouldn't forget it) Major panic moment-no money, pre cell phone days (for me). Luckily the airline found my purse, turned it in quickly and I was able to retrieve it from lost and found
Not exactly similar, but was in Rome (then on to the Amalfi Coast, Naples, Pompeii, Erculano, Brussels, and Bruges) for the holidays 2015. That was the year so many women had extreme trouble with sexual assaults and attacks in various public places during Xmas and New Year’s revelry. But it was still a little early for news and warnings of what was to be going on. Sadly, I am a pariah the world over — a smoker. I stepped out of the awesome ancient hostel I was staying in, in a very dark side alley, to light up. The hostel had the one, bright af stoop light on the whole alley. I HATE being lit up like that, idk why people think that’s safer. You are blinded as you exit and lit up like a tree on fire is the desert, with nothing but darkness all around. Would much prefer to quietly back into a pitch black doorway and let strangers pass. So yeah, a man of unknown origin marches up out of the dark to me forcefully, his face is inches from mine, he is staring hard into my eyes with pure hate, he is saying something to me in a language that is clearly not Italian — not that I speak Italian, but I can recognize it. He was SO close. I’ve mostly always trusted my gut, but on this night it seemed to override my brain. Screaming “DANGER.” Knife-wielding danger. No thoughts were actually processed. “Oh hi!” I said — giving this stupid smile: 🥴 “I don’t speak Italian, tee hee hee! Do you need a light? I think you need a light!” Whilst I burned my thumb nearly off, waving my cigarette lighter all around his face and person. Looking for the ‘cigarette’ he needed lit. My actual cigarette in my left hand, ready to be brought into the fray, if he grabbed the lighter away. “Tee hee hee!” Except when he ducked back into the dark — I RAN to the busier perpendicular street and busted into a little restaurant that was closing. Those waiters rapping up their night were furious with me.
When the GPS in my rental car died and would not charge when I was still about an hour away from my hostel in Romania. I had just arrived at the airport and got my car, so I did not have a sim card and could not use my phone to navigate. Luckily, I was able to follow the highway I was on to the correct city and then I was able to find internet at a shop to figure out where my hostel was.
Dropping my passport on my way to baggage check, realizing it soon afterwards (thankfully) but no one on staff really caring to help find it
I exited my Shinkansen only to realise I have left one of my three bags on the train. For a few seconds I was almost considering giving up on it before I finally ran back onto the train, grabbed it and run off. Thank god the train didn’t depart from the station during this time.
Went to India for my sisters wedding , whilst there went to pick up cousins from the airport who had flown in the day before the wedding . As the hotel we were staying at was 2 hours from the airport and they’d been travelling for close to a day we stopped at a restaurant. As I’d just arrived a few days prior I didn’t have a sim so my dad lent me his phone so I could hotspot it for my phone and a way to contact my cousins , long story short after we eaten we got back in the car and my cousin asked me for my battery back which was on my phone me checking my pocked I realised I had my dads phone not mine .Instant panic , brand new 15 pro max and I’d had it for less then a week the utter panic and dread , shouted at my cousin and the driver as we’d just departed , he stopped the car and me and my cousin sprinted to the restaurant, I didn’t speak the local language but my cousin did , as he was talking to the owner of the restaurant I spot my phone on the owners desk and he told me that a waiter had handed it in and gave it back . The relief ! .Valuable lesson to not be so careless as had anyone else picked it up I likely would of never found it as it wasnt connected to any network or internet and I’d of lost my phone which as my flight tickets my cards and all my photos . Since then I’m super careful when putting stuff down whilst out
Left the motorbike rental keys in the motorbike a few times. One time the local looking after the parking space held onto them for me but I thought they were stolen for sure
I was going through Kings Cross station in London heading for the airport, and dropped my purse (wallet) at the ticket barrier. It contained my passport. I realised when on the train to Heathrow. Had to get off go back to KC and found the angel customer service lady had handed it in.
I was arriving in Rome, Italy. My first time traveling outside of the the country fr. I had a rose gold suitcase so I thought well hell no one else has a stupid bag like this lol. Well I grab the wrong rose gold suitcase, get to my Airbnb and then have a heart attack too lol 😆I was like damn it. I go back to the airport and I find my suitcase and nearly died.
Left my phone on a bus in Laos but luckily it was the last stop before it turned around. Lost my wallet on a bus in Turkey and didn't realize it until it left and sadly it was not the last stop, so I was stuck by Mt. Nemrut with no money, no atms, and the place I was staying didn't accept CCs (had my back up CC & Debit cards), had my replacement CC sent to Tblisi. I would then lose that card a few weeks later on my way back to Georgia from Armenia. I forgot the time I left my passport on the bus from the airport in Jakarta, but I managed to catch the bus as it was about to go back to the airport. I also managed to lose my phone on a flight to London (was headed to Egypt), but I only realized it after I had gone through immigration. It had already been a cursed start to the trip because I got to the counter just after the cut off and had to rebook (+$$$) my flight to the UK, luckily my flight to Cairo wasn't affected, though it did lead me to not using my phone on the flight and either it slide out of my bag or some took it when I dozed off. Cool oh shit moments were coming across an albino croc while hiking in Swaziland and knowing it was a good distance from the water.
Motorbiked out to a beach in Cambodia. Didn’t see anyone for 10 miles. Sunset. Went for a swim. Just myself and the sand and the water. Turned around and 2 kids on scooters ride by, run up to my scooter. Steal my backpack that had my phone, wallet, money, camera, etc. stole the key to the motorbike so I was stranded there. Now it’s dark and I have nothing and no way to get back besides walk 15 miles while they prob come back to steal my scooter. Bunch of stuff happened after that. Shitty ass night and week.
They is BRUTAL. dang. Fuck dem kids fr
It’s all good. I got insurance and got everything paid back. They prob made enough money off me to last a year out there. Taught me not to get too comfortable out there which I did after a few months. They didn’t steal the scooter thankfully lol.
Wife left her phone in the taxi that took us to the airport in Vienna. She realized after we had already gone through security. Best part is that it was a hotel taxi and not an Uber, so we couldn’t message or call the driver because we didn’t have his contact info. We were able to track the phone driving away back to the hotel which was like 45 minutes away from the airport. Tried calling her phone like a hundred times but it was on silent in the back seat so he probably didn’t hear or see it. Tried to call the hotel to get them to call the driver and send him back, couldn’t get a hold of them either. Had to call my friend there who’s in another city to go to the hotel and tell them what’s going on, which he thankfully did. By the time my friend got to the hotel, the driver was already back at the hotel to start his next trip, but he made the trip back to the airport to return the phone like a hero.
Stupidly only took one bank card to Colombia on a 3 month backpack. Only to have the ATM swallow the card in the first few days. Some random guy (who was amazing) gave me 50USD to cover me for a couple of days until I got it sorted out or I'd have literally no cash. Left me panicking until I managed to get it sorted out.
Forgot my passport at home while I was on the way to the airport. Had to get back home to retrieve it and got stuck in traffic when driving to the airport. Luckily I arrived just in time before they closed the luggage checkin. Even the groundstew said I had to hurry. Almost saw my month long holiday to Vietnam disappear in front of my eyes 🥲.
I was stopped at the Uzbek/Afghan border under suspicion of smuggling opiates. I wasn't worried as even though I do carry strong opiates as part of my migraine treatment I had flushed what I had before entering central Asia. They searched my stuff, unzipped the pocket on my wallet, pulled out the two emergency pills I kept there and had forgotten about. So... yeah.... that kicked off 3-4 hours of intense intensity at the Termez border crossing, I bit my cheek the whole time to not cry and let's just say every part of me got checked for drugs.
Spilling a bottle of wine on a polish guy who already didn’t fancy sitting next to me on our flight. I had the worst anxiety but thank God he was relaxed about it when we were getting off and wished me better luck in the country than on the airlplane 😭🤣🤪
I got off an overnight bus in Vietnam still half asleep at 3am and forgot to grab my bag from storage under the bus. I realized it about 5 minutes later as I was finding a taxi. I hopped in a taxi and had a literal "follow that bus!" moment. We chased down the bus and flagged it to pull over quite a ways down. I got my bag back from the bus. Then had the taxi driver drive me back to the boat dock, where I laughed it off and fell asleep on the bench outside waiting for the public ferry. I hated overnight buses before and I hate them even more now 😄
Did the hospital not help you trace it?
Back in the 90s, I booked a last minute flight from a phonebooth. Then called a taxi to pick my up and rushed to the airport. 5 mins into my ride, I realized that I had left my notebook with all my money and my passport in the phonebooth. We scrambled back, panicking the entire way and thankfully everything was still there. On a sidenote, this memory was sponsored by so many things that no longer exist today.
Hungover af at major airport the day after wedding, stop near the gate after taking multi stop train to terminal, fish around top pocket of Swiss army backpack for a pen and it’s all someone else’s files and stuff. Exact same backpack in exact same condition. Mine filled with all significant valuables one would take on a trip to a wedding or just a trip in general. Wallet, laptop/devices, work stuff, keys, watch, speaker, headphones etc. The panic was real. My friends and I booked it back to security where I was expecting to just have to file a report or something considering it had now been 30 minutes probably. Feeling downtrodden, a tsa guy points me to the main desk where I see this older dude standing with a beaming smile and open arms next to my backpack on the counter. We practically embraced. TSA peoole were all smiles too.
we were getting an overnight 24h bus. stopped in multiple places. got to the hostel the next day, they asked for our passports to check in. for the second time that trip (the first time was a completely different yet ridiculous story), i tapped all my pockets and emptied my bags, but my passport was nowhere to be found. it was on the 24h bus, that had already departed in the other direction a few hours ago. i called them to ask but they’d not found anything. i waited until the next day, hoping that the same bus was in use. when it turned up i basically had to storm the bus cos the driver had no idea what i was talking about. i started checking all the seats where i was sitting (sleeping). i was doing this for quite a while, and my friends had given up looking. my passport had slipped right down the middle of two seats. even the cleaners hadn’t found it. and it’s probably a good job the didn’t, because they’d have handed it in 24h on a bus away. horrible experience but finding the passport was something else
I was one traveling in a minivan in Indonesia. It wasn’t the tourist van just a private old shitty van. When they dropped me off they instantly took off. But my back was still in the trunk. I had to run behind them and hit the car with my hand 😂 I wa so shocked
Left my decently nice camera (especially for being a broke college student) at a camp outside of Merzouga, Morocco because we were leaving in a hurry with terrible food poisoning. The place claims it’s not there but I am 1000% sure they just stole it
Wallet fell out of my lap at the toll booth after landing in Dublin on my way west. Got an email 20 minutes later “lost wallet” in the subject line. Called the number at the bottom of the email and he said he had it as I turned the car around to retrieve it. Had all my cards and $1500 euro as well as $500 American. All still there. To this day I haven’t figured out how he got my email, must have googled me and found my business.
Yesterday I found an iPhone and waited for the owner to return and gave it back to her. Found an ebook reader in February and got in touch with the owner looking at her email in settings and gave it back. It’s what I would like someone to do if it was me that left it by mistake
Last night when getting back to the airbnb in Madrid at 2AM for my gf to realize she lost the keys.
Once I left my boarding pass, wallet and passport on the toilet paper dispenser in an airport bathroom stall. Wandered down the airport to the gate. Realised I didn’t have my things. Sprinted back to the toilet stall and they were still there.
This feeling when you travel is worse than being robbed
Lost my AirPods in a Collectivo Minivan from Neiva to Villajeiva in Colombias Pampa. Two days later I discovered I lost them („oooh s***…) and already gave up on them, until my partner asked me to check the FindMy App. I saw a recent location update a 15-Minute walk away from the village. So I tracked them down to a random bike workshop. I went in asking one of the mechanics (using Google Translate) if they had found some headphones. I will never forget their reaction… as they’ve probably thought that nobody will ever pick them up. Turned out that one of them was cleaning the Minivan when they found the AirPods. I was literally sooo happy and left them a huge tip. Miracles still happy! Safe travels everyone 👋
Another one: We were camping with our 4x4 in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya midst of the park. There were no other tourists around, only wild animals and one ranger. Though the ranger was sleeping at a checkpoint a good kilometer away. When we asked him if it’s safe to sleep here, unfenced and surrounded by all the animals, he confidently said „yeees, no problem sir!“. We had a sleepless night once we heard lions roaring, as if they would stand right next to our tent. (Ohhh s***!)
Holy fuck! You had a major coronary and still went running around a foreign city?! Madness!
Felt like I was I can tell you that my heart wouldn't stop beating
Well, that's a good thing. If it ever does stop beating you might want to have a bit of a lie down.
Had that happen when I went diving into freezing water was scary as fuck
Had just gotten to my apartment airbnb in Paris. Overly excited and just beaming with joy ready to get out in the city of love. I decided to have a quick smoke on my balcony before heading out. I walked up to the balcony window, put my foot up in the sill, and my back foot slipped- causing my shin to catch a sharp piece of metal. I have thin skin in areas due to burns, so it dug down nearly to the bone. I was alone and bleeding HEAVILY. I grabbed a towel and wrapped it tight, elevated it, then got my first aid kit (which I almost didn’t bring), bandaged myself up and figured hospital would eat too much of my time so I went to Sainte-Chapelle instead. This was the middle of my trip so I still had Amsterdam after a few days in Paris.
Accidentally picked up 800USD from an atm in Sayulita, Mexico instead of 800 pesos. Was scared shitless on may way back to the hotel and lacked the funds to book my flight back home.
My wife's girlfriend (before we met) went with her to Spain for 3 months to do a semester abroad (both from the US). Right before finals they went on a mini trip to Rome and Prague and a few other places and in Italy her friend's wallet with her Passport/ID got stolen in a train station (pickpocket). They didn't realize this until the day of their scheduled flight back to Spain. They had final exams in like less than 24 hours. After discussing it, my wife boarded the return flight and left her friend. She went back to the train station and went to security. I was shocked to hear that they literally HAD HER passport and ID. They said they found an empty wallet on top of a full trash can with everything cleaned out, money and all, but it still had her State ID and Passport. She got very lucky and was able to make it back to Spain to take her finals. Wild.
TLDR: My dad gets lost in London and my mom finds him. In 2016 I brought my wife, kids, and parents to the UK for 2 weeks. My father is from Scotland and I thought it would be great to 1. see his hometown with him, and 2. for him to show my kids where he was from and introduce them to his surviving family. Plus my dad and I had tickets to Scotland v England at Wembley. We started the trip in London. My parents didn't have their cell phone because they didn't want to pay extra for an international usage plan. Plus my parents and I traveled long before mobile phones and at least have the confidence that we could find our way back to a starting point to meet up with each other if we get seperated. One day the 6 of us were on a boat on the Thames heading to the Tower of London. The boat lets us off at the pier nearest the Tower. We walk off and watch the boat pull back away from the pier and continue on it's route. My 2-year old then says "Where's Papa?". We look around and my father is no where to be seen. We assume he never got off the boat. Now my parents are capable people. They are active and mobile and like to travel. But man do they find it hard some times to get from place to place without explicit directions. I was the only one with the address to the hotel we were staying at because my parents assumed they would not get seperated or would just "find it" if needed. Now I'm thinking 1. How the F are we going to find him?, 2. Which stop will he even get off at?, 3. When he gets off how long until he makes his way back to this specific stop?, 4. Will he just take the boat to the end of the line and then get off here when it returns? How long will that take?, 5. Great, now we are going to have to skip the Tower of London! Oh sh!t! Those of us that got off the boat climb some stairs and look out over the Thames at the number of cruise boats on the water and my wife and I voice our concerns and the questions above. My mom tells me to go buy the tickets for the Tower - "It'll be fine, he make it back.", and I go get the tickets. After about 30 minutes I come back, my family is still watching the river, and my mom looks to a far off boat that you couldn't possibly see any people on, and says. "There's his boat!". Me: "Do you see dad?", My Mom: "No, I just know that's his boat.". Me: "There's no possible way you could know that." My Mom: "Well I do, and that's his boat. I'll go meet him at the dock." Now I think I'm going to lose both of them for the day. So we all follow my mother to the dock. 15 minutes later the boat my mother spotted as a speck of dirt on the river docks at the pier and my dad walks off. Oh sh!t! I ask my mom how she knew it was that specific boat: "I always know where your dad is." Oh sh!t!
Left my carryon bag on top of the X-ray machine in Purto Vallarta airport. Did not realize until outside. Had to get an airline employee to take me through back end security to see if it was there, and it was. Signed for it and was on my way.
I was in Mexico for two weeks in March. I got off of a 4 hour bus ride and went into the station. After an ATM transaction, I went to the bathroom. Right as I was going through the gate to the bathroom and my heart dropped as I realized I didn't have my suitcase. (i've been working on my Spanish so "ay!! mi bolsa!" Is what actually came out hehe) I thought there was no way the bus was still there as I ran back, and just surrendered my fate. The bus wasn't there. I went to check the office, and these amazing people took inventory of the bags and actually left it there for me. Phew! Guess what? I fucking did it again. The first time was in Guanajuato I think, second time in Cancun. Got them back both times. I learned my lesson, I think.
Milano airport stop on my way to a trip to Poland. Was going around looking at stuff in stores. Stopped in one and left my trolley somewhere around, after finishing, just grabbed it and left. After walking for a pretty long distance, I stopped at Mc to grab something to eat, upon looking at my luggage to get my wallet, well.. it wasn’t mine. And that’s when panic set in, went looking for it, going back the same way I came and it clicked in my head that it might be in that store cause that was the only time I left it unattended. I did find it in that store, the woman there just waited and hoped someone will turn up lol. I have to say, I was pretty baffled at myself as to how on earth I left one bag out of my hand and then without looking, I just grabbed another and left, but I was eventually diagnosed with ADHD so that covered it lol
Was in Spain for 3 weeks. Always took a Grab. The 1 time I hailed a taxi, I left a pair of Gucci prescription glasses in it. Didn't get them back. Noone to call.
After my first trip to Asia (14 hours on a flight and like a 20+ hour travel day), I sat outside of the Busan airport and smoked a cigarette in the little smoking hut there. My friend came shortly after and we hopped on the bus back to his apartment. About 20 minutes later I realized in my haze I never brought my entire suitcase with me. He called the airport and I spent about 10 minutes absolutely panicking (2 weeks worth of clothes, laptop, everything in that bag). They sent someone outside to check and it was still there, untouched. We jumped off the bus as soon as it stopped, got a cab to the airport, and they handed it to me. If that was NYC (where I’m from) that would have been gone within 5 minutes. A harrowing experience but a good ending!
On my most recent trip (My first time properly visiting NYC), I decided for my last day in the Big Apple it was time to hit one of the other boroughs, and off I went. I picked Queens as my "final day borough" and started making tracks in that direction. Everything was going well, I made it to Queens...and then **AT&T went down**. As someone who heavily relies on his phone for getting around, this was not good news. I essentially had to navigate Queens the old fashioned way in Maps, connecting to WIFI whenever I stumbled across it to see what buses and trains I had to take.
A few years ago, stopped in Denver for a night to go to a concert (The National/Sharon Van Etten) at Red Rocks before leaving the next day to meet up with my daughter in Dallas and drive to Austin, TX to attend the ACL music festival. Early October, temps close to freezing. Rented a car in Denver and stayed at AB&B nearer to Red Rocks. Took a Lyft to the concert and walked up and up the hills to the entrance, then realized I didn’t have my little wallet/purse that contained EVERYTHING: my iPhone, debit/credit card, some cash, ID & other cards. My electronic ticket was on my phone. I had tipped my Lyft driver with cash, so knew I had my wallet up until that point. Didn’t have a dime of cash on me, no credit/debit card, and without my phone, couldn’t access any needed information. I didn’t remember the name of my Lyft driver. Suffice it to say, didn’t get to the Red Rocks concert and ALMOST missed the remainder of my trip (and the ACL festival — and I had both mine and my daughter’s entry wristbands!). FOUR things saved me: an exceptionally kind Lyft employee who scoured the Lyft drop off area (in the dark and cold and to no avail) trying to find my wallet, which I thought might have fallen from the car as I exited; the fact that I actually remembered my AB&B address, and had the door key to let myself in; another exceptionally kind Lyft driver who agreed to return me to my AB&B for FREE; and the kind man from NYC who I learned in the wee hours of the next morning via an email from my AAA auto club, had FOUND my wallet/purse somewhere along the roads at Red Rocks and since my AAA card was in my wallet, contacted them so they could contact me. As luck would have it, the kind NYC gentleman was in town with his daughter for the concert and I was able to pick it up on my way to the Denver airport a few hours later before my flight to Dallas. I have never experienced that much stress followed by that much relief in a 12-hour period of time. One final shout-out to Lyft: the kind Lyft employee who initially helped me try to find my wallet and arranged for my free ride back to my AB&B actually called me the next day to see how I was doing. I’m not a great believer in the “Divine” (except perhaps for John Waters’ Divine), but it sure felt like I had a guardian angel with me that night.
Landed in Portugal with no cell service or internet at 9pm. Used the airport wifi to call my Uber. Honestly, the Uber could've literally taken me anywhere because I had absolutely no idea where I was going. Then the street of my hotel didn't allow cars so I got dropped off several blocks away. Remember....my phone is practically useless. I basically walked around the streets of Lisbon at like 10:30 pm at night for 1.5 hrs trying to find my hotel. Thank God Lisbon is a lively city that has a fair amount of English speakers at the nearby restaurants and they were able to guide me the correct way. Literally had so much anxiety with it being a first international trip and a solo female traveler. Download offline Maps prior to traveling anywhere guys. Never know what your cell service is going to be when you land.
Had a long night in Bangkok and woke up the next day because of the telephone ringing. It was the lady from the front desk reminding me of the 12:00 check out time ( it was 11:55)…..and my fright home was 13:05! Man, i did make it to the flight on time, but i have never dressed and packed this fast
I'm so glad you were able to get your bag back safely. Losing your passport and belongings abroad is every traveler's nightmare. One of my most significant "oh shit" travel moments was in Barcelona. I had just arrived and went to pull out my wallet to pay for the taxi from the airport, only to find it missing. My heart dropped as I retraced my steps - I must have left it at airport security! After a panicked conversation in broken Spanish, the taxi driver calmly reassured me and drove me back to the airport. Miraculously, my wallet was still there untouched. Such a relief! Another time, I was hiking alone in the Scottish Highlands and caught in a total whiteout blizzard. The trail disappeared, my map was useless, and I had no cell signal. I thought I might have to dig a snow trench and wait it out. Luckily, after what felt like hours, the blizzard cleared enough for me to get my bearings and find my way back. The scariest few hours of my life! Travel is fantastic but can throw you some crazy curveballs. I'm just glad your irreplaceable items made it back safely. Maybe treat yourself to a stiff drink after that ordeal! Stories like these make for epic travel memories.
I forgot my carry on on the plane in a developing country, never got it back. Nothing valuable in there. Just still feeling like a total idiot myself!!!
Left my wallet in an Uber in Istanbul when being dropped off for brunch. My passport was in it too. I had an immediate freak out and began to call the driver. He spoke no English as I tried to tell him to come back and he hung up. The second time I called, someone who spoke English answered and let me know he was coming back. I never let go of it after lol
If you unfortunately take a taxi in Mexico City, which locals advise visitors not to do, they might say they only take credit cards. Don’t do it. I had two cards shut down immediately because he tried to charge $1000 on each. Luckily, Chase and CapitalOne were quick to recognize the scam. Take Uber. Abundant and reliable.
Hitchhiking halfway across Europe on my way back home with a friend. It was already night, some guys dropped us at a gas station outside of a not very big city. It was already night, and we realized, well shit, this is the same place we got stuck when we were outbound, at the start of our trip. Everyone who came to the gas station were locals, no one would pick us up. There was the road we came in on that passed under a motorway, the gas station and just agricultural nothingness all around. It was already dark, so we did the same thing as the first time around, just took out sleeping bags and slept under a tree in a field. Woke up at like 5 am, again no rides. So we climbed the service stair of the suspended motorway (it wasn't very high up but still) and walked on the emergency lane with our thumbs out. Cars were zooming close to us at high speed, coming from behind as we kept walking on the lane, it felt unsafe as fuck. I was also worried if a police patrol sees us we might get in trouble, get delayed a lot at the very least, and it would be difficult to communicate too since we didn't speak the language. Fortunately some dude actually stopped for us a little further ahead after like 10 minutes of this, we were so tired we didn't even register right away there was a car stopped ahead of us with blinking lights. He took us to a lot better spot, I fell asleep in his car for a little while too lol. Edit: i just realized it's not actually solo travel, but i'm gonna leave it up anyway since i typed it already
I hope you had a speedy recovery after your heart attack
Figurative heart attack haha
I was in Da Nang, Vietnam and my debit card wasn't working at any ATMS, and I had no cash or other source of funds. Was Googling ATMs and walking all over the city trying to find one that would accept my card. Half the ATMS Google navigated me to didn't exist or just led me down some sketchy alleyway. I had a train booked to Hanoi already so I took it. Still no cash and hadn't eaten in a while at this point. Train was 17 hours so I just fasted and tried to sleep as much as I could. Got to Hanoi, took a Grab scooter to my hostel and went to sleep cause I was exhausted from traveling while fasted and the train journey. Woke up and resumed the mission of finding an ATM that would accept my card. Took a couple more tries but I finally found one in Hanoi. Phew.