Unpleasant Travel Experiences

I was asked recently if I have had any bad travel experiences! I laughed at this question as I would be lying if I said all my trips always go smoothly. 

I will give two instances of some of my travel woes.

     In April 2015, my friend and I went to Thailand. I wrote about it here and here. We travelled with Turkish Airlines and the trip going was fine, but I can’t say the same about the return leg.

We sat in front of the noisiest set of passengers who seemed to be having a conversation with the whole plane. It made the 11 hour flight uncomfortable. At some point, they gathered around and I had a guy standing over me and adjusting and doing God knows what with his belt and zipper, Ugh! We asked them if they could keep their voices down at some point, but they quickly resumed their noisy chat. We hardly got any sleep.

Customer Service

It is almost common place to hear 'anything for the boys?' from guards to drivers, filling station attendants and worse, Policemen! I don't mean to sound . . . (can't find the appropriate word) but I always stop to wonder if they aren't paid a salary. It may not be decent but begging shamelessly, I simply can't come to terms with that and it puts me off.

Once I was travelling and thanks to a certain group of people, there are numerous military and police check points on the roads in Nigeria. I was flagged down and we greeted each other then the elderly man who happened to be a policeman standing by my car door asked, 'won't you give your father anything?' I looked him in the face, my response was 'will a father not be the one to give to his children? Besides I am travelling so I'll prefer that this father says a prayer for journey mercies for me'. It worked like magic, he said a few words then bid me farewell, I was on my way again.