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Travel Out Takes – Inexplicable & Unexpected

January 30, 2017 by AggieB 6 Comments

There are the bizarre travel experiences and these are more often than not when you don’t speak the language and you have no idea what is going on.  So much more comfortable to deal with these situations when you are in a group, when you are by yourself it can be a bit of a nightmare.

Photo credits to Phoebe Thomas, http://www.loumessugo.com

Like the time I was with two girlfriends and we were flying between Phnom Penh and Siem Riep (Angkor Wat) in Cambodia. This was quite early on, soon after the conflicts of the 80’s and 90’s and the UN Peacekeepers were still there. We all worked in Embassies in Hanoi and the advice we’d received was that it should be fine as long as we stayed on the paths at Angkor Wat. Go off the paths and we’d either be captured by the Khmer Rouge or step on a land mind.  Seems easy enough.

Travel in Cambodia has become safer and easier since but then the only way you could get to Siem Riep was by air. The land and river routes were too dangerous. And by air, the only option was Cambodian Airlines.

The visit went smoothly.   The day before the markets had been bombed and there had been sniper fire in the restaurant at the hotel, but for some reason we were fine with this.  Ah, youth.

We visited Angkor Wat, careful not to leave the paths, and stopped at a bar run by a Kiwi guy that had a fridge full of flak jackets in case the customers needed them.

When we went back to the airport to catch the return flight to Phnom Penh we weren’t allowed on the flight.  The flight was called, people started to exit the departure lounge to board the flight and we were told to stay in our seats. Because of the language barrier we had no idea why. Had we done something wrong? Were we about to be taken hostage? We asked again and no we could definitely not board and again, no explanation.

The plane took off.  In the time that it takes for another plane to taxi into the departure position another plane arrived. We three were invited onto this plane and had the whole aircraft to ourselves. Which we made the most of by trying to sit in as many seats as possible. Very strange and never explained.

Mongolia

Mongolia could be renamed ‘Inexplicable-ia.

Firstly – when I visited twenty years ago their currency had a 3 Tughrik note. Seems like it doesn’t exist any more but at the time it was quite strange – It doesn’t add up to anything. You can’t exchange 2 x 3 Tughrik notes for a 6 xTughrik note because it doesn’t exist.

Photo credits to Phoebe Thomas, http://www.loumessugo.com

But getting back to aircraft departure times, we flew from Ulan Baatar to Hovd. When it came to the return flight there was no information about the departure time and we had to get back to catch the Trans Siberian as it came through Ulan Baatar in the evening of the same day.  We asked at the hotel and the best advice was to go to the airport at about 9am and then wait for the plane from Ulan Baatar to arrive.  IF it arrived there is a good chance that it would return, subject to fuel being available.

We waited all day at the airport until finally it arrived and then there was a stampede for the plane, because there was no allocated seating.  But we were good at stampedes by this time so got seats.

On the same visit, we caught a bus out of the city to a nearby town. This was a very quiet town, and in the dying stages of a communist system. Checking into the hotel we were told that no, there were no rooms available. A flat stare and quite clearly not true. Defeated we caught the next bus back to UB. We were wise to this in Hovd, and when we were refused a room we asked our Mongolian driver to check in for us and which he did with no problems.

Japan

In Japan I was constantly making cultural gaffes and most of the time I got away with it because of the good nature and politeness of the Japanese people that I was working with and living amongst. But there was the time when I parked my car on the street and it got buried in about half a metre of snow overnight. Coming from a hot place with no snow I was a bit nonplussed. I couldn’t do much with it on the street because of the traffic so I pulled into the nearest drive and started to scrape the snow off. An old lady came screeching out of her house, and started to whack me with a broom and shouted until I moved my car.

And of course the easy mistake of being disgusting and not showering before you get in the public baths.

What about you, have you faced the inexplicable?

This blog post is linked to the excellent Travel Link up.  To get back to The Adventures of a London Kiwi click here.

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Filed Under: Asia, Exploits and Expeditions, Japan, Travel

Comments

  1. Tanja (the Red phone box travels) says

    February 3, 2017 at 9:11 am

    when I went to Turkey by train, at some point in the middle of the night the train stopped and literally everyone got out. we were very confused but then figured out that we must have be at the border and that we must get off to get our passports checked!:) #travellinkup

    Reply
    • AggieB says

      February 7, 2017 at 7:17 am

      Ha! So you work it out eventually. Thanks for dropping by.

      Reply
  2. Emma @ Adventures of a London Kiwi says

    February 3, 2017 at 10:10 pm

    You really have had some adventures!

    Reply
    • AggieB says

      February 7, 2017 at 7:17 am

      Mostly inadvertent ! Another great #travellinkup.

      Reply
  3. Phoebe | Lou Messugo says

    February 6, 2017 at 2:37 pm

    Great memories! I’m glad your brain remembers some different details to mine, so together we can fill in the gaps! Those were the days, eh?

    Reply
    • AggieB says

      February 7, 2017 at 7:18 am

      I’d like to know what your memories were :). Am I remembering the 3Tg note correctly? Yes, indeed the trans siberian trip was certainly memorable.

      Reply

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Thought for today

Fact 1: The state changed its name in 2000, and caused a lot of bitterness because of the amount of stationery that had to be changed.  Uttarakhand was formerly known as Uttaranchal.

Dehradun, May 2019

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