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I knew a guy who told me that he was on a flight to Denver or some place west years ago. Apparently, the flight's cruising along when in mid-air the engine just pops like hell. Needless to say, he shat himself.
During a 40 day long south-east asia trip, my friends and I went to the Sunderban forests in India. Among other things, the main attraction here is viewing the Royal Bengal Tiger in the wild. Much of the forest is marsh land, so there are only few walkable spots on land and most of the touring is by boat in the vast expanses of the Bay of Bengal, which leads into the Indian ocean.
There were about 20 passengers on a clunky old blue wooden boat with a very loud diesel motor. The crew consisted of two individuals, the captain and his helper. The one day tour was going fairly smoothly and we were able to make all stops and got a great view of the forests and the wildlife (including the fabled tiger).
However, things got very interesting on our way back to the city. It was starting to get dark, and somehow we had come into the open ocean. It seemed like the boat was way out of its league and was very wobbly to say the least. We could see no land, just hear the loud motor, and watch the sun gradually disappear. The boat was really tilting to one side, and to make the boat stable and not tilt over, the captain asked a few "heavier" folk to sit on the higher side of the boat. We all thought that we would drown. And the boat had no rescue equipment for its 20 passengers incase it tipped over.
What could go worse you ask?
Amidst all this, the captain yelled out something really loud in Bengali to his helper and he panicked, and ran to switch off all the lights inside and outside the cabin. Then, he asked everyone to stay away from the windows.
"Stay out of sight" he yelled.
"What's going on?" some people asked.
"We are being watched by Bangladeshi pirates", said the helper.
Apparently, we were quite near the Bangladesh border, and it was usual for pirates to look for tourist boats and steal money and valuables. The captain hoped that turning all the lights off and hiding the passengers would fool the pirates and they would turn around. We could see the pirate boat in the distance. Maybe a mile away from us.
And the antics worked.
After about 30 minutes of cat and mouse in the vast expanses of the ocean, we reached stable waters. And then could see land.
You see this is why I don't like visiting non-English speaking countries!!
Sitting with my husband on a curb in "downtown" Montezuma, Costa Rica drinking guaro and a couple of guys pull up in a new Toyota 4X4 truck and ask if we want to join them to go pick up a surf board... being young, on vacation (and slightly intoxicated) we say "sure!"
We start driving down a back road (read dirt road) toward Mal Pais and the passenger in the truck passes us a small tinfoil package and asks if we would like some. We figure it's pot, so my husband opens it and it's clearly coke. We politely decline, as my heart is beating a thousand beats a minute, and we continue on our way. I figured that someone would eventually find our dead bodies at the side of the road....
Turns out that they were drug runners for a fairly significant drug boss - but they were also really nice guys who taught us how to swear in Spanish. We still laugh about it til this day... but only because we're still alive.
Almost getting killed picking up the wrong hitch hiker
The last 2 hitch hikers I picked up turned out to be interesting. I stopped at the store on my way to work at the airport. This guy was looking for a ride to the airport and seemed normal. Once in the car he started with the old "I just got paid but my check is in my car and my girl friend was using it.". He offered to write me a check if I would lend him some money. When I declined the offer he no longer needed to go to the airport so I pulled over and told him to have a nice day. Several months later he was in the news for being arrested for writting a bunch of bad checks.
The last hitch hiker I picked up was standing along side the highway. Again appeared to be quite normal. After getting in the car the first words out of his mouth were " I just got released from prison today". Turned out to be a very uneventfull trip.
That was probably 15 years ago. Have not picked up anyone since.
Probably the most scared I have been was when I was the loadmaster on a cargo flight departing Luanda Angola. After going thru the depature checkpoint, without any explaination I was seperated from the rest of the crew and taken to an interrogation room. I was very sternly questioned about how much money I had. At first I thought the immigrations official was looking for a bribe. But when he asked if I was carrying any local currency and I said no, all of a sudden he became very nice and told me to have a nice day.
This is a fabulous thread--have only read half so far, but I'm sure I'll be entertained by the rest.
My two stories are kind of tame compared to some here.
- my then-husband and I were backpacking around Europe in 1970 and landed in southern Spain to wait out the worst of the winter, December/January. We rented a little house just outside Marbella with other travellers. My husband always wanted to climb to the top of things. So one day, we set off with him determined to climb to the top of the mountain behind the town. My memory is fuzzy, but I believe he took a friend with him. I climbed up as far as a normal hiker would go--up a dry arroyo until we were quite high. Then he took off with his friend to climb to the peak, with me sitting there waiting for them. And waiting, and waiting. The winter sun was westering, and I was imagine how we would get back down that arroyo in the dark, when I wasn't imaging worses things. I was terrified that he had fallen, and more terrified that I really didn't know what to do. Finally he appeared, I guess with his friend, and we practically ran down the mountain, climbing down the dry river bed in the dusk. His friend's wife was waiting at the bottom with their VW van, with the lights pointed up the mountain, waiting for us.
- being driven into Mumbai at night from the north. People living in shacks close to both sides of the road, springing out in front of us. And, trying to cross the road in Mumbai--I'm a good jaywalker at home, but there I trusted my Indian friends and stayed very close to them when crossing. Oh, and then there was the autorickshaw ride to work every morning, dodging rocks, huge potholes, mud, children, and of course the odd cow.
Oh, and one more. Driving south from Dubrovnik in the former Yugoslovia, turning inland into what is now Montenegro. Very wild road, winding, with huge drops on one side. We saw several cars overturned at the bottom of canyons, wheels up. Men who looked like bandits riding horses along the road, guns slung in their saddles. This route to Greece was notorious back in the 70's; there was a mountain pass at a place call Pec that everybody tried for, and most people failed to find. We went around, through lots of the territory that later got blasted by war, down to Skopje which was just recovering from a massive earthquake, people living in tents. We were very happy to reach Greece, I'll tell you!
Oh man, you gotta bring cipro with you! It's a must in any third world travel I do.
For sure, and Imodium. And Depends!!!
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. Turned out to be a very uneventfull trip.
