Any Negative International Travel Experiences?(both)

I wouldn't say the entire experience was bad, I tend to plan thoughtfully and know which places are best to spend time in, including natural scenes.

Three events stick out though, I got robbed in Paris once. I don't know why they thought my shoes are expensive enough to demand them, just a Chinese copy and I wasn't carrying much cash. It was hilarious.

In Hyderabad, I needed a taxi-phone or any service to buy out a sim. And guy I asked for direction kept insisting I go with him. I found a group of taxi driver, I certainly wasn't going to get inside a car, I just wanted directions, but they kept insisting I take one of the taxis and then all of them follow me, like twenty and continue insisting. I had an anger outburst so I carried a big rock and threatened the one who was doing it with his car. They stopped.

I eventually found one on my own.

In Gaza strip, Israeli soldiers check points made me go through the procedure repeatedly while checking me out. Not just me, some other co-worker too.

And inside the zone, they made it a priority to target medical staff in whatever way possibly. Wearing a green vest or a vest with the crescent or a cross was basically telling a sniper to shoot at you.

On a rural road in Ireland, I found out that the rental agency hadn't changed the tires in a while when I ended up in a field because there was zero grip when I had to evade a tour bus that was traveling in my direction at a good clip. He claimed that I was at fault, but someone on the bus, also an American said that she saw him talking to someone and had his head turned away from the road. Luxury rental car towed out of field and tires were bald. I had to buy tires and get reimbursed by the agency, since I wasn't about to drive it a hundred miles on bald tires and they could not dispatch someone with another car. Had to wait to get tires delivered for the car and then set out again. And, the car had no jack in it, but the spare tire, but the standard tool kit was not there so I couldn't change the tire. When I asked why it wasn't there, the agent on the phone said "Oh, somebody could nick it."

Two days later, the same car was sideswiped by a tour bus while parked in a legal parking spot near the corner of a High Street because the bus driver "didn't see it." Two of my new tires were now flat, and I had yet to be reimbursed from the rental agency. I called them again, and they agreed that it was no problem to cover the costs, since I had full insurance. Ireland is one country where you need full insurance because most credit card insurance policies for LDW/CDW exclude Ireland because of the number of claims.

Luckily, the sideswipe was in a larger town and I didn't have to wait to get tires fitted, but they had to rig the mirror to stay on the door as it was knocked off by the bus. The luxury rental car was looking a bit shabby by this point. So, the journey continued, and we were at a lovely hotel for dinner, and the car had made an odd sound on the way into the parking area. The valet took the car, and we took our luggage out and checked in for the night. Midway through dinner, the hotel manager came into the dining room and was looking around. He found me and said that he needed to speak to me urgently because the car was now on fire. I remember that I said "Of course it is" and burst out in a frustrated laugh as I walked to the lot with him to identify the vehicle in question. I was happy that I had insisted on getting everything out of the car before dinner, though.

I called the rental agency and said that there was a problem with the car. She asked me to drive it back to her, but I told her at the outset that the car was on fire. She thought I meant the heating system was stuck on too high, not that the car was smoldering after the fire brigade arrived to extinguish it. I remember standing there holding my head and the phone, while she prattled on about driving the car back to the agency, which I assured her was completely impossible. They agreed to deal with the tow company with the vehicle that burned to a crisp, but had no facility to get another car to me.

I had to go back to the airport to get another car. When I was picking it up, the lot porter said "Are you the bloke who had the car burst into flame?" I said that I was and he said "I knew that car was acting funny. I told them it was the fuel line." I just nodded and said that it had wanted to self destruct as it had thrown itself in the path of two buses before bursting into flame. They gave me the identical car, down to the color, and I had a horrible sense of deja vu.

I took that car, as it was the only one that met the size needs and need for an automatic transmission as one in my party could not drive a right hand drive stick shift. All was fine for the remainder of the trip, about two and a half weeks. The morning I was going to the airport, I awoke to two flat tires, but they were low on air, not destroyed, though the garage recommended replacing them. We drove gingerly to the airport and I reported the tires, and got reimbursed for all the tires I had purchased for the destroyed car. I honestly thought there was a stalker trying to kill me through the car at one point. Ha ha.

I have been back since, and no matter what, I check the rental cars, and have had some aggravating experiences, but nothing as bad as that rental.

2nd/3rd world travel is always a unique experience, it's not for everyone, and has a learning curve. But there are plenty of very civilized countries to visit too, for all sorts of types of travel and vacations.

Aus is a very nice place, but culturally... sparse, while the world is so huge and interesting.

At least go to Italy once in your life.

yes I was really sick with a really bad stomach virus when I traveled to Europe. I went to the hospital.ever cince then eventhough i healed i have a bad stomach i get sick after every little thing.

I've been to Europe and people there don't act like animals

I said maybe later to some balanese guy selling shirts.. he saw me a few days later and demanded I buy all his shit.. he started to gather a bit of support from a few other local businesses.. I had to get mean 😎👌