PLAN FOR THE UNEXPECTED

Stories from Columbus Travel Insurance customers

• Below are a selection of stories from Columbus Travel Insurance customers.

  The following stories have been un edited and Columbus can accept no responsibility for the accuracy or content.

   

  I had arrived at Brisbane airport, and was sniffed by a rather meddlesome beagle called Baxter. I was frisked by unfriendly staff and taken to a side room as it was suspected that I had drugs in my bag. I kept saying I had nothing of that nature in my bag, but they emptied it out, anyway. Obviously, they found nothing, and after 10 minutes of me sweating with anxiety, they discovered that Baxter had infact been interested in the sandwiches which were in my bag! The staff apologised profusely and I was sent on my way. Thanks Baxter.

   

  Way Back in the 80s my great aunt decided at the last moment that she wanted to take part in her brothers surprise birthday party but then he lived in New York so she packed and popped down to Gatwick airport. Always one for a bargin she appraoched the airline sales desk at the aiport and enquired for a "nice price" to New York, The salesperson was delighted to tell her that she was lucky because that day were some "Stand By Seats" left at 99 pounds to which she repiled with a rasied eyebrow that she couldn't possibly stand all that way for 7 hours because she had a back problem!!

   

  We once took a holiday in France with our friends, the Pugh family - who are renowned for their bad luck. They lost all their luggage on the way to the ferry - it all flew off their roof-rack on the M4. After an unscheduled pit-stop at M&S to re-stock, we only just caught the last ferry. In France they were stopped for speeding and fined. Once at the villa, two of the children paddled out to sea in a dinghy until they were out of sight, causing mass hysteria from their mother. They were safely rescued only to go down with measles the following week. All this plus some more minor hitches - such as lost travellers cheques - meant we didn't venture on holiday with them again - Just in case!

   

   

  On holiday in Kos, we always went to a slightly more secluded beach to escape kids screaming and music blasting out of ghettoblasters. On the third day, my boyfriend stepped into glass in the sea and his foot did not stop bleeding so we had to drive for an hour on the motorbike to the nearest A&E for him to get 11 stitches and a protecting sock which meant the end of swimming for him in 38 degrees in the shade. So reluctantly he hoppled to the beach every day on one foot and melted away in the shade. To make matters worse at the end of the holiday we decided to go for a walk by the beach and he must have stepped into some sort of insect nest because the next day both his feet were so swollen with nasty looking bites that he could not get into his trainers and we had to visit the A&E back in the UK straight away on our return.

   

   

  Whist checking in at Colombo airport Sri Lanka, one of my bags went missing. I'd noticed a large entourage of people in Middle Eastern dress in front of me. It was a sheik from Saudi and his eager staff had picked up my bag by mistake (it was only a cheapy from M&S!) The airport staff managed to trace it and it was returned to me a week later, along with a fantastic bouquet of flowers as an apology.

   

  I went to Canada last year to live (after selling my house/car/possessions!) but decided it wasn't for me. Therefore, 2 months later my fiancée and I decided to come back to England, drop off a case each & then go round the world. Within 2 weeks of deciding to do this, we had left Canada, come back to England & embarked on our journeys to new zealand/australi/usa/singapore. We had an excellent time, racked up 40000 air miles & about 10000 road miles. An experience we will always remember. Now we are both back in England - I am a bank manager & my partner is a b/society employee.

   

  "Don’t follow the smoke" while on holiday in KOS we hired a jeep to see more of the island, we spent the full trying to find were the smoke was coming from on the very top of KOS. After a few days of trying we eventually found it, but to our disappointment it was a refuge dump were they were burning all the rubbish. Had a nice time all the same.

   

  While holidaying in Europe I had to visit the US embassy. As I entered a man had began to protest about another man jumping the queue. The first man was most grieved about the 'infringement of his human rights in the home of freedom!’ He was asked by the embassy staff to be quiet but he continued to voice his disgust at 'the lack of liberty in the Infidel's castle!’ He was frog marched to the front door at gun point and ordered to leave.....He did!

   

  hi i was coming back from Ibiza few yrs ago and there was an announcement on the airport saying-flight delayed due to plane hitting a coach vehicle, well we boarded the plane and it was lashing down plus thunder and lightening, as we boarded my friend spotted a crack in the wing. We thought oh my god!!!How flight was rocky with the bad turbulence and felt like we were on Blackpool pleasure beach (one of the rollercoasters...anyhow we landed safely in Manchester...in one piece!!!What an experience....never to forget

   

  "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid we have a technical problem that precludes us from crossing the Arabian Sea..We’ll be landing in Mumbai shortly..." Minutes before, we had taken off from Goa airport. We were sat in the very back seats of the plane, next to the emergency rear door. The cabin crew had gathered behind our seats, appeared somewhat flustered and were speaking in hushed, urgent tones. Water was pouring down the emergency door and the staff had taped a huge bundle of towels across the hatch with sticky tape. Terrifying mechanical gratings cresendoed and subsided as we made our distinctly wobbly descent. Our plane was met by fire engines and ambulances. We were evacuated on landing at an isolated part of the landing strip. In the searing heat on the tarmac, we were informed that a suspicious package had been found. A lady who had been staying at our hotel leaned over to me whispering: "ssshhhh...i found it under my seat! - it was covered in semtex and there were wires sticking out!" We were struck silent as we discovered that, in line with airline policy, the package had been placed in wet towels and taped to the partly loosened door directly behind our heads - for aircraft damage limitation purposes. After the plane was stripped by security and many hours later we were able to re-board and reassured by the excellent captain that we were now in the 'safest plane in the hemisphere.' It was until a couple of days later when the story was reported in the tabloids that we discovered the true extent of our peril. The headlines read "jet makes emergency landing", "four hours of checks on tarmac at Bombay", "bomb disposal experts uncover...a vibrator!"

   

   

  When I took a trip to the USA I was nervous because I was driving in America for the first time. I really concentrated hard and thought i was doing quite well. Then I realised that I'd crossed a solid yellow line. I was trying to remember what a solid yellow line was, when I realised I was going into a tunnel - the wrong way! Luckily American drivers seem to drive more slowly than British ones and all I got from the oncoming cars was a few beeped horns. I was glad it was only a short tunnel, I was never so glad to cross a yellow line again and return to traffic that was going in the same direction as me!

   

   

  When my brother-in-law moved to Frankfurt, we decided to fly to the city to pay him a visit once. We needed to leave home for Stanstead airport while it was still pitch black in order to get a 'really good deal' of Ryan Air flight. We dragged our luggage out of our home and went to our more than 10 years old red Ford Fiesta to open the back and throw ourselves and luggage. I put the key and started engine, then I slowly moved out of the parking lot. Then I saw my car with very distinctive sticker on the back was just sitting next to our house. 'Out of body experience!?' I quickly looked around the inside of the car, found car stereo was missing as it was stolen while ago, and everything is completely same! Moreover, I started driving this ghost car. I just couldn't believe what happened but somehow we put the car back into where it was and got into our own car which interior is exactly the same. Stereo is still missing. Do all Ford Fiesta have the same key?

   

   

  I went to Madeira for a week with my partner. We enjoyed lovely walking everyday for a week, looking up the fig tree in the house right next to our hotel. On the last day, I decided to pick one fig to taste, then there was a man in football costume suddenly appeared from nowhere and said, 'that's the best fig you know.' I smiled to him and my face turned to pink when I saw the man walked into the house with the fig tree. That was his fig. I saw it everyday and only once when I picked it, he saw me. How embarrassing...

   

   

  When i was 18 i went on my first holiday abroad with my friends. When we got there the sun was shinning and everything was going great until a few days into the holiday i woke up with terrible stomach pains. After a few hours i instructed my friend to contact reception to get them to contact a doctor. When the Doctor arrived he explained that i was bleeding internally and had to be taken to hospital. When we arrived at the hospital i was seen by a few doctors who couldn’t tell me what was wrong. Then i was sent for an ultrasound which revealed I was 7 months pregnant and in labour! I was in complete shock and couldn’t believe what was happening i had no idea i was expecting a baby. Two hours later i gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in perfect health.

   

  Was in a hotel room at a certain Hotel in Glasgow....was cleaning my teeth and one of the tiles on the ceiling smashed down into the sink.... missing me by about a cms..I was extremely lucky.... I spoke to the hotel manager, who although very apologetic, refused to give me any refund or compensation.... I have never since used this well known hotel group since!!!!

   

   

  Me and my boyfriend went on a dream holiday to Egypt in July. We had been there for 5days and were having such a good time. On Friday 22nd July I was woken up to a huge bang which shook the entire room. I woke my boyfriend up, to which he told that I must have been hearing things. I laid in bed wondering what it could be. About 15mins later I got a txt on my phone from a colleague at work who had just heard about the bombs in Egypt. I jumped up and put sky news on and found out that she was right and the bombs had gone off 10mins from us in Namma bay. We were really scared and my mobile wouldn’t stop ringing with worried family and friends! We had another week left and decided to make the most of it. What an experience that was. We were relieved to get home safely!!

   

  when the kids were young we went overnight on the coach to Italy. Stopping at a service station about midnight we left one sleeping daughter to go for a coffee.On returning to the coach we found we had crossed the roadbridge to the other side of the motorway and were boarding a coach ,same company ,but returning to England.Boy,did we run back fast!!!

   

  During my wild child phase mid way through my university years. I went on a kerouac inspired fly drive around the USA with some equally fearless friends. At some point we decided that we must head for Tijuana on the border of the US and Mexico. We arrived at the border late and decided to sleep in the car in the dusty border car park and drive over the next day. We were rudely awakened at 5am in the pink dawn light by several armed police patrol officers shooting bullets past out windscreen. Being an art student my friend got out his handheld camcorder to record events for the roadtrip movie he was hoping to make on our return to the UK. I candidly informed him that when he was hit and lay bleeding I would record that too .....which brought him to his senses. We crouched in the bottom of the car until the shooting stopped. When we eventually felt brave enough to emerge (with our hands in the air)....we were surprised to see a Mexican looking man spread-eagle and motionless at the top of the 15ft border fence surrounded by guns pointed by scary border police. We retreated and never did see Mexico on that trip. On the same trip I made friends with a homeless hobo on Venice Beach in LA. I decided to get the full experience and joined him and his friends sleeping rough, making campfires, playing guitars and writing poetry on the beach. There were some pretty scary types on the streets of Venice, but also some really interesting characters who had just slipped through the net of city living. One night (actually Friday 13th if I remember correctly)we slept on the beach which was great......I can still smell the wild sage and smouldering embers that wafted in from under Santa monica Pier. Unbeknown to me sleeping on the beach is an offence in California......and we were arrested (handcuffed) and taken to a downtown jail. I was put in a cell with a tatooed hooker until the officer in charge checked my arms for trackmarks. He quickly realised I was a middleclass English gap year tourist and dismissed me incredulously. I had to walk halfway across LA back to my friends hotel without shoes. On the same trip we hired a classic white cadillac to drive from LA to Vegas via Palm Springs. We did the drive in movie thing ('Thelma & Louise' and 'Body Parts'double bill if I remember correctly), stopped at country and western joints and spent whole days in Wet 'n' wild avoiding the dry heat. On the way we saw a petrol station on the other side of the freeway. Our driver decided to head straight for it across the freeway. Unfortunately for us our driver had not realised that the forecourt of the gas station was actually at a level approximately 6ft below that of the road we were on. We landed in the forecourt (literally) after driving off our road in the direction of the gas station sign. A startled pump attendant thoroughly checked the occupants of the car before filling us up. None of us uttered a word...... this was just another moment in our jaunt across America when we always seemed to have some amazing adventure to giggle and wonder about over our coffee, bacon and pancake diner breakfast

   

   

  Me and my partner don't really speak any Spanish at all. However, after spending 2 weeks travelling across northern Spain, we had quickly picked up some useful phrases and sentences along the way, spending nights in different hotels in different towns. We then arrived to a small town in Galicia, checked into our hotel by saying the few phrases we knew in Spanish: 'Good evening', 'We have a reservation on the name so-and-so for one night' and so forth. Everything went smoothly, and as the owner lady walked us up to our room she started talking to us in a very friendly way in Spanish - of which we understood nothing whatsoever. She noticed very soon that we were just looking at her with more or less blank (and apologetic) expression, so she eventually switched on to English. "I was just complimenting how fluent your Spanish was!" Well, we managed to fool them for a while, didn't we?!

   

  While on holiday in Dubai recently, myself and my fiancee received a phone call from a journalist in Dublin enquiring whether my fiancee was Dolores Mcnamara(euro lottery winner). She Shares a surname and not her millions. How did they track us down?

   

  Laos at first sight I first heard of Laos when I read a novel called ‘Villa Incognito’ by Tom Robbins that described the country so lyrically that I had to see it for myself. Even before I arrived I was already enamoured of this country of whose existence I had been ignorant of until then. After spending three weeks in Malaysia and Thailand where I had travelled with tour groups, I was looking forward to being alone for a while and doing things at my own pace. Going to Laos from Thailand, as I did, invited inevitable comparisons between the two countries. Whereas Thailand is jaded by tourism and shamelessly vaunts its kitscher-than-kitsch, Technicolor-gone-bonkers image, its more modest neighbour Laos has only recently started to reveal her charms after emerging from a past that included a flirtation with socialism and the unseating of the former king. Vientiane is the capital but Luang Prabang (LP) is the main destination for travellers (whose numbers are on the increase – there IS a Lonely Planet guide in case you were wondering). Situated on the banks of the Mekong River it is the former royal capital; the royal palace is now a museum and there is a display of gifts from other nations to the now-deposed monarchy which includes a boomerang from the Australian government and a fragment of the moon from the US – cheapo offerings in my opinion, especially when viewed alongside more lavish artefacts from China and India. Every evening the main street (Thanon Pothisalat) transforms itself into a night market where locally produced silk and cotton textiles, handicrafts and jewellery are spread on the ground. Haggling, of course, is de rigueur. If you are after skirt length silk pieces of unique design though, the place to buy is the Jar Makers Village perched on the banks of the Mekong, about 40 miles east of LP and accessible by both boat and tuk-tuk (an opened-roof pick-up truck with a padded bench on each of the longest sides). If however, waterfalls are your thing, then a visit to the Kuang-Si falls is a must-do – this is a pretty oasis with turquoise waters which are a deliciously cool relief from the heat and humidity. And if you’re into caves, then Pak Ou is the place to go. There you will see the pot-bellied Buddha-like statue which apparently represents a handsome nobleman who deliberately got fat to ward off unwanted attention from the ladies! After 5 days in LP I travelled to Phonsavan by long-distance bus where I was planning to visit the Plain of Jars. Laos’ roads are, understandably, not the smooth wide highways we are used to in the west. I could have taken flights from LP to Phonsavan, but then I would have missed out on a seriously beautiful landscape of mist, mountains, smoke and blue-green valleys. So the 8-hour back wrenching, twisty-turny bus journey was a small price to pay for seeing rural Laos in its as yet unspoilt charm. Arriving in Phonsavan I was met by Lee (whose real name was something more polysyllabic) who had been contacted by the travel agent in LP from whom I had bought my bus ticket. Lee was holding up a sign saying ‘Miss Lumina’ a Lao interpretation of my name. He dropped me off at his newly-opened hotel and I soon realised that I was the only guest there as, as Lee put it ‘We are not in the Lonely Planet yet!’ I came to realise that Lee was typical of the Laos people, gentle and affable but at the same time quite a canny operator when it came to making money from Laos’ burgeoning tourist trade – he also owned a travel agency in town. Because it was low season and few group tours were running I ended up taking a private tour to the Plain of Jars with a guide – at $45 this was six times the cost of a place on a group tour – but as I had come to Phonsavan specifically to see the Jars I didn’t mind. After a delay the driver arrived in a communist-era Russian jalopy with a red, patent leather interior and broken wing-mirror. We then drove off, picking up the guide from his brother’s farm on the way! The Plain of Jars is a mysterious collection of stone jars, many with lids, scattered across various sites around Phonsavan and whose origin and true purpose are still unknown: they could have been used for anything from brewing liquor to preserving dead bodies. Whatever the true explanation, the jars are remarkable and testaments to human craftsmanship - well worth a visit for those who like puzzles or just to appreciate. All in all I loved Laos and despite being on my own, apart from when sharing the occasional meal or tuk-tuk ride with other travellers, I never once felt scared or threatened. I went to Laos on a whim - I’m so glad I did. (828 words) <photos available>

   

   

  Late one afternoon on holiday on the island of Eigg, Scotland, a farmer we had passed earlier that day when walking asked us how far we had walked. (We had gone quite far). He then asked if we'd happened to see his herd of cows that day as he had lost them! Unfortunately we couldn't help.

   

  A safari in Zambia is not for the faint hearted.After the tour guides were late the whole day shifted so we were stuck on the Zambezi in the dark with nowhere to sleep. The guides paddled us over to an island where we stuck up tents (no showers, loos etc)lit a fire and then met a group of locals who tried to turf us off saying we had no permission to be there. In the morning we found, in the middle of our camp, a steaming pile of hippo dung so I guess we had visitors!!!!

   

  When I was 26,I travelled to Australia on a years work permit. I travelled up the east coast of Australia from Brisbane and lived in Cairns for three months. I was a cocktail waitress in a club.I made good friends with an Australian couple who both worked at the club. One day we decided to do a spot of sunbathing on a beach north of Cairns. We chose a beautiful spot on the beach. The sea spread out before us and we were backed by a lagoon. It was extremely beautiful and we were feeling carefree and happy. So happy that we decided it would much more fun to sunbathe naked. So off came all of our clothes and we stretched out in a line to worship the sun. We were beginning to look like lobsters when I heard a rustling noise directly behind us. I looked round and was faced with an extremely large crocodile approximately 10 feet away. It wasn't looking very happy and I was absolutely terrified. It had crawled out of the lagoon. I couldn't believe that my friends had not known that the lagoon was crawling with them. I said very quietly, "I think it's about time we made a move!" My friends turned around, saw the croc and all three of us just got up and ran butt naked as fast as we could. Luckily Andy had grabbed his jeans and the car keys were in them so we sprinted as fast as we could back to the car. We were so scared that we left all our clothes and drove home! Andy had to get clothes from the house for us so that we could get back into the house without the neighbours wondering what the hell we were up to!

   

   

  Travelling in China, put my passport wallet in my pillowcase for safe keeping... Next day I was on a tour bus 100km away before realising it was still there. They retrieved it but not before it had gone into the laundry. Passport was still useable but my exit visa had been cleaned off it's page completely! Had some explaining to do at border control!

   

   

  Some years ago, when times were tough, we took the children on a "cheap as possible" holiday, by coach, to Benidorm,nightmare experience. On our arrival my wife and kids took a badly needed nap, I, like the rest of the family, was pretty shattered but decided that a little "day-cap" was what was needed,so after day-caps eventually turned into night-caps I was totally guttered and was assisted back to my holiday home by a very lovely young Welsh girl and her partner who, wisely dumped me at the room door and retreated from the inevitable wrath which awaited me. I faced up to the wrath OK but the effects of the happy juice and the lack of sleep left me feeling somewhat uneasy in the lower regions so I, with extravagant dignity, retired to the toilet where I proceeded to "drive the porcelain bus" where it seemed that I divested myself of every morsel I had eaten in the previous two months including the essential equipment I ate it with, my DENTURES. I looked down through tear filled eyes during one of the respites from the muscular spasms and although I could see them I felt no inclination to retreive them so I spent the rest of the holiday eating soup, chicken and laughing into my hand.

   

  Whilst travelling in New Zealand i found some of the traditions there a little odd. The bus company i was travelling had some barmy drivers with some what you could call 'odd' rules. One particular bus the driver had a plastic baby doll. The last person to set foot on the bus had to carry this doll around with them for the duration of the day. A punishment for being late if you like... On a couple of occasions i was the last one on the bus. Unfortunately it was the last stop of the day so i had to take this creepy little doll out whilst watching the Lions vs. Southland rugby match at a pub in Napier! It gets better, the next day we end up Hydro Zorbing in Rotorua, the bus driver, a friend, myself and this creepy baby doll were bundled into this Zorb full of water and launched down a gurt big hill. Possibly one of the strangest holiday experiences of my life.

   

   

  Many years ago when travelling in India my wife and I where travelling for over 28 hours by bus from Bombay down to Goa, on our arrival I was what could only be described as desperate for the toilet when we arrived at our destination . I was quick off the mark to find a toilet and when the man said it was around the back of the guest house I ran as fast as I could to find what could only be described as a palm tree telephone box .it was dark and I needed to use a torch to see where I was going, the toilets are are affectionately called squat and squirt so I resumed the position and to be honest I could not have been happier until I heard the the loudest most horrible screeching screem from between my legs, I looked down to see a pigs head at the base of the toilet, I almost went through the roof needles to say going to the toilet over there was never the same again

   

  When in Bali, I was stopped by the local police. They asked to search the car, which we agreed to. Once they had gone, we found that they had taken our camera. Try reporting the police to the police for theft!

   

  I was lying in a cabin in Sumatra when the wall suddenly shot out flames. We found out it is difficult to explain what fire is when you don't speak the language but got help to put it out. Turns out that the guy in the next room had left candle burning that superheated the wall, causing the 'explosion'

   

  I went to New York in the February after 9/11, because the price had dropped dramatically, and it was one of ambitions to go there. I found a hotel for $40 a night, but when I arrived there, the girl had no record of the booking, so as it was late I paid for a night. What I hadn't realised was that the 'hotel' was in Spanish haarlem, and was more like a flophouse. I slept fully clothed that night, with all my belongings next to me, and as soon as it got light the next morning I walked 60 blocks to the YMCA close to central park, got a room with a tv for around the same price, and felt much safer there. When I got back to the UK, I contacted the hotel booking company, and they refunded my money as it was their mistake that the booking wasn't made.

   

  Viva Las Vegas!! We recently went on a truly 'life changing' holiday to the US to get married in true Vegas style. Our first destination was St Petes Beach, Florida. As we landed we lierally 'hit' the ground running with the help (if you could call it that!) of Hurricane Dennis!! The palm trees were bent at 90 degrees and it rained consatnly for 2 days -but it was warmer than UK. After the storm past the holiday was fabulous-just enough time to get a suntan before our onward trip to Sin city for the wedding. We had two days in Vegas before the big day (to arrange the chapel etc) and we must say Vegas was awesome - no city like it in the world. At 11am the day before the wedding we got a limo to a dress hire shop (courtesy of the chapel) for the brides dress. The shop was huge with thousands of white dresses. We picked some to try on and settled on one that needed a few nips and tucks. The seamstress pinned the dress and informed us that the dress would be altered and delivered (again via limo) to our hotel before 5pm of the same day! After getting dropped off back at the hotel in the courtesy limo we received a call in our room at 3pm. The hotel bell desk informed us that a dress had been delivered, and would we like it to be sent to the room. The dress fitted immaculately and my bide looked beatiful! all in the space of four hours and one - yes only one fitting! The big day arrived and we had the most fantastic day of our lives-just me and my bride. The family watched it live at home via a live webcam!! The service we received in America was excellent, and the holiday will never be forgotten - and I suppose we've always got the ultimate anniversary present - further trips to Vegas!! Regards, Tom & Zena Dickinson (travel insurance booked with Columbus Direct - good efficient service)

   

   

  I am not young but I decided to take my driving test so myself and my two friends could drive through Arizona and New Mexico after attending a conference in Phoenix. None of us were experienced drivers and we left the UK for the States two weeks after I passed my driving test. We decided to avoid all main highways and just stick to minor roads and that worked quite well. One day in New Mexico, my friends decided to take the bus to visit the art galleries in town. I had other plans and it involved secretly taking the car. I was going to visit a massage parlour high in the hills of New Mexico called 10,000 waves. I made my preparations. I plotted the route. Just one road would take me to my destination five miles away. I checked with a member of the hotel staff that my route was correct. So I set out. I'd never driven by myself before and it was an exhilirating feeling to be alone in the car. For the first two miles everything went well. Then I inexplicably took a right turn and as soon as I did I realised I was on a motorway. Bearing down on me was a sign that read 70 or 80 m.p.h. I picked up speed. I had to. I was terrified. I had no mobile, no map and no idea how to get off a motorway. I knew I could end up in another State. After about 45 minutes I suddenly spotted a sign. All it said was "church". I knew I had to get to where that sign was pointing. I made an illegal maneuveur and within minutes I was in the church carpark. Thirty minutes later, I'm walking down the steps with the church warden. He has agreed to drive me back to my hotel. He in his car and me following behind in mine. As soon as we set out the most incredible thing happened. The skies opened up and a downpour began, the likes of which had never been seen in New Mexico. The church warden was driving like the wind. And I was right behind him. He was swerving and dodging in the rain and I was right behind him. You see I knew I couldn’t lose him otherwise I'd be stuck on the motorways for ever. And then I noticed something. All the fear had gone. My arms were steady on the wheel, my eyes were focussed and my mind was calm. I felt this incredible inner strength and I wondered where it came from. Back at the hotel, I watched as my friends got off the bus. "Oh", they said, "we're so glad you're here, we were afraid you may have taken the car in this rain". "Oh I did take it", I replied, "but it was fine, I just parked when it started to rain." And to this day my friends still dont know what happened.

   

   

  ''Were all going on a girly weekend'' My sister & best mate and I was all looking forward to a great weekend away to celebrate my sister's birthday but unfortunatley I got hit in the rear of my vehicle 3 days before going away & I had suffered a whiplash injury which resulted in me having to wear a neck collar & as you can imagine this is not a desired look for the occasion. Then the day before we were about to leave my best mate phoned me up with Bad news that she was looking like a hamster with huge cheeks as she had a mouth absese. This was turning out to be a nightmare and then on the day of leaving for the airport, my sister woke up to find her face covered in red patches which looked like chicken pox -so she went to the doctors that morning & he prescribed her some anti-histamine cream as she had an allergic reaction to something '' luckily for her it wasn't chicken pox but still not quite the birthday present she was after. We didn't know what to do laugh or cry, our girly weekend couldn't have turned out any worse but we made the most of it even if we did all look silly with me in my white neck collar & my sister looking red in the face and my best friend looking like a hamster 'needless I have to say None of us pulled that weekend but instead we all had a experience we will all never forget.

   

   

  I managed to give myself a black eye - I was on a ringo (like an inner tube) being towed behind a speed boat. As the boat cornered and I crossed the wake, I hit myself in the face with my knee!

   

   

  On arriving late on night at a Greek resort, I realized I'd forgotten my mosquito repellent. My blood is particularly delicious to these pesky parasites, so I asked friends if any of them had thought to bring anything to fend them off. Nothing was forthcoming and the shops were shut, so I resorted to wrapping myself, mummy-style, in my bed sheets in order to ward off any irritating invertebrates. Sadly the plan back-fired quite spectacularly! My body was indeed mozzie bite free, sadly the same couldn't be said for my face. The mosquitos, finding they couldn't attack below the neck, dive bombed my exposed visage with a vengance; leaving me with plague-like lumps all over my face. My friends counted at least twenty in the same spot. The week was spent ineffectually slapping on concealer and growling with annoyance everytime a concerned waiter asked: 'What is wrong with your face?'

   

   

  I used to live in hong kong and used to frequently travel backwards and fowards between the two. This was in the days of 24 hour flights with many stops. We landed in Bombay (now mombay) for one of our scheduled stops. It was very early in the morning and as we went to take off we lifted and then hit the ground really heavily, brakes and people screaming. What happened was one set of wheels "fell" off on take off which meant that the pilot took the option of putting us back down. In doing so he damaged the plane, the runway and our nerves. The result was that we were put up in a fantastic hotel for 5 days. However slight problem- as a result of the forced landing they couldn’t get the luggage off so we spent the next 5 days in our uk winter clothes in 35 degree heat. I was only 17 at the time and my parents didnt bother with travel insurance so I was stuck, rather smelly with no money or clothes. To this day I always travel with a change of clothes and my swimming costume, in my hand luggage.

   

  Following an advert at work I contacted Columbus Direct online for my insurance. I found the rates to be very good for money and for the last 3 years I have done my travel insurance through Colombus, also my family now do their insurance through Columbus too.

   

  in the early 70s, in Crete, on the mountain roads, donkeys were the popular mode of transport. in the mid 70s, in Cairo, we spotted a donkey pulling a cart on which the body of a bus was balanced. Earlier this year, again in Crete we came across a donkey riding in the back of a Toyota Pickup. Donkeys still had to work on the beach at Weston Super Mare this summer. Don’t tell the British Donkeys they may feel they are living in the third world

   

  We'd been to Lake Tahoe, CA for Thanksgiving 2004, and twenty other times on roadtrips with my buddies from Cal - the University of California at Berkeley. 20 of us headed up there each time, staying in beautiful snow-covered cabins meant for 8 people. Skiing, partying; it was heaven. We saved a lot of money, and besides - cramming that many people in a hot tub is much more fun. But when my boyfriend and I decided to use up our lift pass one last time back in January, we went alone, and decided to drive the 4 hours in his battered up Acura (rather than the 4WD minivans we usually take). The whole left side was crumpled like an old receipt, from a crash on fraternity row when he'd been up all night exam-cramming and moved house the next day on no sleep. It sometimes affects the electric, or maybe the beam will temporarily go off, but it's probably not worth fixing. We leave after work from Berkeley, California, and heading East at dusk on the I-80 along with the commuters making their way back from San Francisco to their homes in the valley. Some fresh-off-the-burner mix CDs, a few snacks, an old, mud-covered torn map, and our printout of a great discount at a top Reno resort hotel was all we needed to get off to a fine start. It's when we've worked our way through the CDs that the problems start. The radio gets turned on - and we hear the words that send our hearts into our stomachs. Major snowstorm to hit the Lake Tahoe area. Fresh ski snow, at least? Hm. We pray we make it before it hits. We chug along, rising out of the miles of flat, super-farms of the Central Valley, gradually into the mountains. It's getting dark, and suddenly we realise, it's getting cold. Really cold. Even with the hot air on high, and a whirring sound that, well, we'd presumed to be the heater? We deduce that no, the heat had failed. There was no more air coming out so we'd just have to put another jumper on. And maybe some socks from our bags. And a t-shirt secured with some tight boxers around our head, and maybe another pair of trousers. This is ok. It starts to snow, pretty heavily. But it could be a lot worse, and the others cars, decked out in their snow chains, snow tires, and "I'd Rather Be Skiing at Heavenly" license plates, didn't seem to notice us. Crap! Snow chains! How could we forget snow chains! Or miss the huge electronic signs over the freeway warning that in 10 miles no cars would be allowed to pass without snow chains. Must have been the elastic from the boxers on our heads - we couldn't see that high. Suddenly, we realise it's really snowing - hard. We gradually make our way up the winding mountain roads with all the other trucks and cars, delivering their beef jerky or gasoline (really, what else is there in Truckee, CA?) to the roadside stores. We come to a clearing in the road, barely seeing the procedure being undertaken through the pounding snow against the windows and the desperate wipers trying to keep up. There's a ranger making sure no one passes without snow chains. We see signs by entrepreneurial truckers offering to sell and install the snow chains, but it's so extortionate we turn around and head back to the nearest gas station. We get our chains, head back up the hill and I start my well-planned defence of how I can't actually get out in the freezing snow and affix them, what with my lack of experience, and my being a girl. At the start of the journey of course it was outrageous that I couldn't drive, because apparently girl's have less spatial awareness, but you know, sexism is not quite dead that we can't still use it to our advantage. So when we get there, it's my job to turn the wheel according to his snow-covered waves in the general direction he needs them angled. It looked pretty easy from the instructions - and we weren't going to pay some guy to do what we could figure out from simple instructions. He was a mechanical engineer, and me, well I'd gone to uni; built Ikea furniture. He lays them out, instructing me to drive forward. It's freezing out there, and I want to get going. I drive forward. He has to take his thick snow-gloves off to operate the finickity details of the chains. He waves back and forth, and I steer back and forth. The snow's coming in through the open window, and the cold air is just what we need filling up the car. It's seems to be taking some time and it doesn't help that some bulky valley truckers are finding it all pretty funny, the way we're kitted out and the banged up car, and the snow rapidly covering up whatever he had just figured out. He waves again to the right, kneeling back down in growing frustration. I steer to the right and suddenly hear a agonised yelp. Apparently he meant left. I've caught his finger. The chains are just about on, and so he jumps back in the car, clutching his hand with a distraught look, covered in snow from head to toe. "Well, your hands must have been pretty numb, anyway", I offer. It doesn't really help. Layering up again, we head through the checkpoint and stay at the legal new limit of 15 m.p.h calculating that it'll probably take another 4/5 hours to Reno. We've been on the road that long, and getting pretty ticked off and hungry. And I'm not going to start eating beef jerky, however long I've been on study abroad in the US. The roads are becoming very precarious - it's windy, it's high, and there are enormous drops to the right; a tree-covered descent to a black hole that is terrifying and ominous, but at 15 mph we don't feel too threatened. There's occasional steel barriers, and the space in between those - well, we agree that the taxes are better spent on a new Bay Bridge to SF, the homelessness problem, investing in Silicon Valley.. We've been drinking for a while now in the darkness, fumbling our way forward with the beam on. All of a sudden, we don't see so far ahead anymore. The beam's gone. Of course. Actually, we realise, we don't see at all ahead any more. Surely..no... the headlights have gone? We slow down, clicking the warning lights in place to go out and check. My turn now, to stand out on the mountain wandering in front of and behind a car that has no lights on while he flicks the switches back and forth. Nope. They're pretty dead. We pull off a small exit to figure out what we're going to do, pulling up the hood to check the electrics, and briefly they work again. We have to take our chance and get to the next gas station. Back in the car, and we steer out towards the ramp back to the road. We start to hear a tapping sound, as the wheels rotate, and are having trouble climbing ramp. Reversing back down to check it out, we lose the headlights again, and realise that the chains have come off. No, no wait - they've broken. We've lost the heat, the headlights, <I>and<I/> the chains? And there's an 800 ft drop 2 feet away? There's nothing to be done, with no cell phone coverage up here, and so we get some pins, tape and wire from around the car and make-shift a fix. It's not far along, things are going a little better with the chains quickly broken again, but working well enough, without any other options, and the headlights intermittently deciding to come on. There's a store up ahead, thank goodness. But it's not a garage, and can't help us, except they say - regarding the smoke coming out of the hood. We didn't even notice that, but it's nothing a little coolant won't fix. Our spirits still strained, but laughing a lot about how much we'll laugh about this when we're back home, - or, hopefully (it was but a hope now) in front of a roaring fire at Squaw Valley ski resort. We're laughing when it happens. I only recognise the mental jump from laughter to terror and nothing in between except where exactly do I put my head. I'm confusing the airplane instructions with what to do when you're skidding on a mountain road with no headlights or chains and a ginormous big-rig heading towards you in each direct. He's shouting - "turn into it!" to himself, we both know in the micro-seconds before that would have been helpful, but it's too late, and we're spinning out of control - the blurring landscape passing us, just thinking how, what, what do we do? I've never been so grateful as when we smashed into a steer barrier on the right side of the hill. That it was there; that we hit it; that I knew we hit it, and it had stopped us. Looking ahead, we realised we were facing the wrong way - into the well-travelled, mega-American trucks of California. He quickly tried to turn the car around, warning lights still flashing. We get to Reno. Somehow it all worked out. Somehow, more astonishingly, the garish neon of America's Biggest Little City, though tacky with it's lack of impressive spectacle like Vegas, looks welcoming to us, and we're grateful for it. We're resigned to the gods of the trip as we're put in a motel strip at the back of the Atlantis Resort - without hot tub or pool privileges, instead of a tower room. We accept the fact that my new earrings get stolen from the desk, that the lamp doesn't work, and the sheets are stained. By the next day when our ski passes aren't accepted because of some unknown term or condition; we didn't have the energy to contest. We both traipsed back to the motel to go to bed - we had a base case of the flu anyway. So next time you think it'd be nice to head out to mountains for a few runs down the slopes and some romantic apres ski, think again. Or at least, don't be dopey like us, and at least plan a little!

   

  I once went to italy and a cat peed on my leg

   

  We met a couple when on holiday in St Kitts this January, first at the airport, then shared a taxi to our hotels and a few days later by chance in a restaurant where they joined us for a drink and a chat. We shared a love of travelling and talked about different places we had visited. We discovered during this conversation that in January two years earlier we had all been on the same flights (one of which was unforgettably traumatic) to and from the Maldives on the other side of the world. What a coincidence!

   

   

  Valencia - the City of Thieves. I flew into Valencia to meet my Australian girlfriend who was doing a Spanish course in Salamanca. We'd agreed to meet in one of the squares and, fresh from the plane, I arrived really excited. I'd just put my rucksack and shoulder bag down when I guy with a map approached and asked me for directions. Feeling good, and confident I could help, I looked at the map and sorted him out, only to turn round and find that shoulder bag had been half-inched and that I'd been the victim of a classic sting operation. I felt really foolish, not only because I should have known better (being an experienced traveller), but also because my girlfriend would turn up at any minute and I'd have to tell her we were heading to the police station as my return plane ticket was in the stolen bag. Three hours later we'd emerged from the police station and I had a police report. And then the second one happened. My girlfriend and I decided to have a picnic in the park and, whilst we were engaged in an embrace, we failed to notice that someone had crept out of the bushes and had stolen our picnic bag containing one Swiss Army knife, one nice bottle of rioja and...the police report from the previous theft. Back we went to the police station, and you can image the embarrassment...

   

   

  I was on holiday in Gran Canaria, and a little bit worse-for-wear after a night out. I woke up in pitch black darkness, and was convinced that I was on the balcony - so was too scared to move in case I fell off. I eventually found a door and hammered on it for anyone to let me in ... my friends opened the door and I discovered that I had shut myself in the bathroom with the lights off... oops.

   

   

  After a month of travelling around Brazil, my cousin and I boarded a plane set for Rome. Accompanying us on this mad-capped extravaganza was a pair of trainers that since our departure from British shores had rarely been disturbed from their location. Indeed through rainforest and city these shoes had remained steadfast – snuggled against the feet of my cousin. Without even the buffering of a pair of socks, they had soon become the most hostile of environments to all but the noisome bacteria that partied within. So you can imagine my horror when, as we settled down to a twelve hour flight, I spotted the offending items upon his feet. “NOoooo!” I exclaimed, hoping not to have alarmed my fellow passengers. Like a girl possessed, I delved into the seat pocket in front of me and retrieved a pair of flight socks. “Put these on!” I instructed, my hand already grabbing a second pair of flight socks from the seat in front of him. By now, one or two passengers were clearly noticing my near hysteria. Upon my deep in-breath, my cousin (whose name is to be protected to save him from the impending humiliation) removed his footwear as I besieged his feet with a fragrant but distinctly flowery female deodorant. In a matter of seconds, I had him bedecked in several pairs of flight socks and sent him trotting down the aisle to an overhead locker, four or five rows away. Rolling his eyes, he resumed his place beside me just as the Italian air-steward conducted his final checks of the over-head lockers. “Whose are the shoes?” He inquired in his native Italian, his voice an all-encompassing boom. Having recently passed my G.C.S.E. Italian I could just about handle that one. “He’s asking who the shoes belong to?” I nervously relayed. “Raise your hand” I urged. Sheepishly, my cousin raised his hand. “They are a hazard in here, please remove them and place them under your seat,” growled the air-steward, still speaking Italian. “What did he say?” probed my cousin awkwardly. As earnestly as I could, I responded. “He said their smell is so horrific that it has caused a small boy in row 5 to have an asthma attack. They will have to be incinerated.” Needles to say my cousin has since learnt some conversational Italian and now travels exclusively in flip flops.

   

   

  wnet to china on my six month visa for the second time in that period and did not realise it was a single visit visa Id never heard of that before and was very very surprised when not admitted, but this did not apply to hong kong where I had landed thank goodness. Hope this asves any one else this problem

   

   

  Three years ago on holiday in the Gambia. We were driven out to a crocodille reservation on a hot an stuffy coach from 6am in the morning. So it was a blessing to walk in the shady bush listening to our guide drone on about the reservation and its in habitants. My friend and I were so hot and tired that we were almost sleep walking. So it became a major shock to find that we were standing/walking in the middle of the resting crocodilles, who had just been fed, thankfully. I'll not forget almost stepping on a sleeping crocodille in my shock or that tour. Ever again!

   

   

  Inspired by the romantic surroundings during a weekend break to Paris, I proposed to my then girlfriend. Unfortunately I had given no thought to how I would pay for an engagement ring. On the Sunday afternoon, and still no nearer to knowing how I could buy a ring, we were walking in the Monmartre area of the city when we were passed by a taxi in which there was a huge row going on. As it drove by, something was thrown from the window of the cab and it landed in the gutter beside me. I couldn’t believe my luck; it was a small solitaire diamond ring. I presented it to my very surprised fiancé! When I had it cleaned and the size altered in London, I was told it was worth a little over £1500. Unfortunately the ring may have been cursed as we broke up before getting married – and I didn’t even get to keep the ring.

   

   

  My most wonderful experience was when on holiday in Austria.There was deep snow ,icicles hanging from the rooftops and it was pitch black outside.About 50 people in our hotel set off for a candlelight walk down the mountainside.Can you imagine how lovely it looked .

   

   

  A few years ago in Egypt I got the Egyptian equivalent of the dreaded ' Delhi belly'. Not much fun when you are travelling by and living on a felucca for 3 days and the only toilet is the bank of the Nile!! One evening I became so sick that urgent medical attention was needed. I was rowed across the Nile by moonlight by 2 Nubian Egyptians which was a surreal experience in itself!On the other side there were no tourists- only villagers. I was deposited on this outdoors wooden bed and fed strange drink concoctions ( don't know to this day what they were!), then thrown in the back of a pick up truck and taken to a doctors surgery. At the surgery I had the humiliation of an injection in the rear while people were just milling around.....no privacy like over here! I was then taken into the female only waiting room full of women wearing traditional islamic dress where I was laid down on a couch and had a drip inserted. It was a really bizarre experience lying there on a drip with all eyes on me, and unable to speak the language all we could do was smile and nod at each other (when all I really wanted to do was roll over and throw up!) I wish I had been in a better state when I underwent this experience as here I saw the true Egypt rather than the more normal tourist trail......

   

   

  Several years ago I was returning from a fantastic snowboarding holiday in Les Deux Alpes with my fellow boarders. We were due to fly from Lyon in the early evening and all seemed well and on-time as we taxied to the runway. Time for take-off so the normal routine ensues: accelerate, accelerate, front wheels lifting up. Then an unusual routine: bang, wheels down, plane stopping _very_ fast, skidding to a halt almost sideways. Think I might have been the only person who adopted a brace position - everyone else was sitting upright with an astonished expression on their face. The pilot then announces "those of you on the left side of the plane may notice we've had a slight problem". Cue the all passengers looking left and realising that one of the engines is on fire with flames and smoke billowing from it. Slight problem! The pilot very calmly explains that about 100 yards from the point of no return (I forget what it is called - the point beyond which you have to either take-off or crash - you can't abort) the left engine exploded. 100 yards at take-off speed is some fraction of a second. He continues to explain that the plane can happily fly on a single engine but is not able to take off so really we were very fortunate to still be alive, being literally milliseconds away from serious peril. The captain then explains (again in a completely calm, reassuring voice) that those passengers who would like to leave the plane could now do so and take a bus to the terminal. However he continues to explain that the microwave dinners are set cooking on take off and once started cannot be stopped so there is now an abundance of Cumberland pie for anyone wishing to remain on the plane. My memory is of panicked people pushing along the aisle to leave the plane, engine still smoking, and Si and myself tucking into several delicious Cumberland pies. Mmmm, pie... The story wraps up with a continued tale of woe. We were put up overnight in a very plush hotel to wait for a slot the next afternoon. Just before take-off the captain (the same one) explains that although we are in the same plane as the previous day the engines have been tested all night and so are probably even safer than normal. Cue a panic attack from one of the passengers, whose luggage then has to be removed before we can take off. This further four hour delay means we arrive in London minutes too late to get the last flight back to Edinburgh. Another hotel is offered but I insist on sleeper train tickets - there is something incredibly nice about relaxing in the bar watching the night speed by. We arrive some 40 hours late, with a new found fear of take-offs (to this day my palms moisten!) but really quite glad to be alive and to have experienced such fine Cumberland pie!

   

   

  Mijn dochter Aagje zou zaterdag 10 sept. j.l. om 12,30 uur vanaf Schiphol naar paramaribo vliegen met vluchtnummer kl0713 voor een werkstage. Eerst kwam er een melding dat de vlucht vertraagd was naar 3 uur 'smiddags. Daarna een nieuwe melding dat ze pas de volgende dag om 9 uur 'sochtens zouden vliegen. Ze kregen pas om 16,30 zaterdag te horen dat ze naar en hotel gebracht zouden worden. De volgende morgen vertrekt ze dan eindelijk, maar na een half uur moest het toestel wegens een technisch mankement terugvliegen naar Schiphol. Na brabdstof geloosd te hebben staat ze dan na een uurtje weer op Schiphol. Weer wachten op informatie!!!! Uiteindelijk vertrekt ze dan om 15,00 uur naar Suriname. Meer dan een dag vertraging!!!!! KLM zegt niet verantwoordelijk te zijn voor vertragingen die het gevolg zijn door technische problemen. Ik heb KLM schriftelijk verantwoordelijk gesteld voor alle materiële en immateriële schade die zij heeft geleden, omsat zij meer als een dag vertraging had, meerdere malen uren lang op informatie heeft moeten wachten en omdat ze behoorlijk geschrokken was van de plotselinge terugkeer naar Schiphol. Ze dacht dat het echt verkeerd af zou lopen. Ik moet nog een antwoord van KLM terug krijgen, maar van een maatschappij als KLM zou je toch op z'n minst enige coulance van hun zijde moeten kunnen verwachten toch? A.A.G.M. Noordhuizen

   

  My daughter Aagje was supposed to fly from Schiphol to Paramaribo for a work experience period  with flight number KL0713 on Saturday 10/09/05 at 12.30am (or pm, not sure...). First of all there was a message that the flight was delayed until 3pm that afternoon. The next message was that they would fly only the next morning at 9am. They got told only at 4.30 pm on the Saturday that they would be brought to a hotel.

  The next morning they finally set off, but after half an hour the plane had to return to Schiphol due to a technical defect/problem. They were back at Schiphol after an hour after they got rid off the fuel. Finally she leaves at 3pm on her flight to Surinam.More than a day delayed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  KLM advised they are not responsible for travel delays due to technical problems.

  I have held KLM responsible in writing for all material and immaterial damage she has suffered, as she was more than one day delayed, had to wait several times for information for a couple of hours en because she was shocked when they all of a sudden had to return to Schiphol. She really thought it would end all very badly. I have to await an answer from the KLM but at least you would expect some understanding/good will from a company like the KLM, don't you think so?

   

   

  Het is 1 augustus 2004, de eerste dag van mijn vakantie. het is prachtig weer, de kinderen spelen buiten. Mijn man is bezig om het dak op de schuur te monteren, op 7 meter hoogte. De honden lopen in de kennel ( mechelse herders). Tegen de tijd dat we een koffie zullen gaan drinken, hoort mijn man 1 van de honden tekeer gaan, en tegelijk gaat onze dochter van 4 jaar gillen. Zij komt naar het huis toegelopen, met haar handje tegen haar oor gedrukt. Ik vraag haar om haar oortje los te laten. Tot mijn grote schrik zie ik dat 1 van de honden haar linker oorschelp heeft losgebeten, en tevens diepe wonden rond haar oortje en op haar wang. We hebben haar gelijk meegenomen in de auto naar het kinderziekenhuis. Daar bleek een 2- uur durende operatie door de plastisch chirurg noodzakelijk om alles weer te corrigeren. We zijn inmiddels een jaar verder, gelukkuig is de wond erg mooi genezen, toch vergeet je dit nooit meer!

   

  It is the 1st of August 2004, the first day of my holiday. The weather is great and the children are playing outside. My husband is fixing the roof onto the shed at a height of 7 meters. The dogs (Belgium Shepherds) are walking around in their kennel. By the time we had planned to have a cup of coffee my husband hears one of the dogs barking like mad and at the same time our 4 year old daughter starts to scream. She comes walking to the house with her hand against her ear. I ask her to take her hand away from her ear. I got a shock when I saw that her auricle has been bitten off (it's kind off hanging down) en she has deep wounds around her ear and on her cheek as well.

  We jumped into the car and went to the children's hospital. She needed  2 hour  plastic surgery in order to get everything fixed. It is a year later now and luckily everything has healed perfectly. It is still something you will never forget!!!!!

   

   

   

  My wife and I who are in our 40's went to Rome for our very first holiday, And stayed at the Domina Roma Cassa 4 Star Hotel just outside of Rome. When we got there I notice that every floor had name to it, And the floor wee stayed on was the Piano Floor, But after a few days I noticed inside one of the cupboards, It had a name plate on the wall saying that wee were staying in the Camera Room, For which I came a bit suspicious, I have read a bout people being on holiday and getting filmed Whilst in there rooms, For one I certainly did not want to be the star of some hidden X Rated camera show on the continent, After all Rome is a very romantic place you know, Just the place to rekindle your love life, So I storm off down to reception with my wife, And I asked the young Male receptionist to explain to me about the camera room, And told him there better not be any hidden cameras in that room, And he look at me in horror and said " No, No, Sir Whilst waving his hand in the air, You have go the wrong idea it doe's not mean what your thinking " " It means the style of the room you are in " He said. Well when I turned around my wife and a few other people who heard me ask this daft question were in fits of laughter, And I had a bit of a red face, So it must have got around the staff about the daft Question I had asked the receptionist, For the remaining time at the Hotel I was getting few funny looks and grins from other members of staff when they saw me after that.

   

   

  I took a gap-year before going to university and after saving some money I went off and spent six months travelling overland across Africa. I started in Morocco and eventually flew back from Cape Town. Whilst in Nairobi one morning I popped into a little cafe for some breakfast. The next thing I know there's the sound of gun fire and people are running into the cafe for cover. After initially freezing for a split second the survival instinct kicked in and I ran and hid in a tiny cloakroom cupboard. It was pitch black, very squashed and all I could hear was the sound of gun fire and people around me praying. My mind was racing. I figured it must be some madman with a gun and any minute now we were going to be discovered and shot. We found out afterwards that there'd been an armed robbery at the bank next door to the cafe and the exchange of gunfire took place when the police arrived as they were making their getaway. Certainly the most eventful breakfast I've ever had.

   

   

  Een bekend Nederlands gezegde is: "Niets is zo veranderlijk als het weer." Wie gaat zeilen op de Friese Meren zal dat aan de lijve ervaren. Al laverend doorkruisten we een smal kanaal in Friesland. De wind was vlagerig, windkracht 4. Halverwege het kanaal was een lage brug gebouwd. Dat betekent: zeilen innemen, mast strijken, hulpmotortje aan en onder de brug door. Echte zeilers hebben een hekel aan de hulpmotor, dus zodra we onder de brug door waren ging direct de motor uit, werd de mast rechtop gezet en de zeilen gehesen. Helaas... eventjes geen wind. Langzaam dobberden we naar lager wal richting een prachtig luxe jacht waar vier gepensioneerde mensen een wijntje aan het drinken waren. We werden in de gaten gehouden! Opeens... wel wind, veel wind! We kregen snelheid, maar wel in de richting van het prachtige jacht. Er was maar één oplossing: overstag gaan richting de brug waar we nog maar 15 meter vandaan waren. Als een haas sprong ik op het achterdek, en trok aan het starttouw van de hulpmotor; zonder resultaat. Nog 5 meter tot de brug. Nog een keer trekken, de motor slaat aan, gas geven, zeilen bedienen, roer omgooien, adem inhouden... Schuien zeilend draaiden we vlak voor de brug langs, de zeilboot in de goede richting draaiend. Binnen een enkele minuut: bijna een motorjacht geramd, bijna een brugdek geramd, bijna een kromme of gebroken mast gehad. Niets zo veranderlijk als het weer. Niets zo veranderlijk als het weer. Niets zo spannend als een zeilvakantie!

   

  A famous Dutch expression is: 'Nothing is as changeable as the weather.' Whoever goes sailing on the lakes in Friesland (county in Holland) will experience that. We maneuvered through a small canal in Friesland. There were gusts of wind, wind-force 4. Halfway the canal there was a low bridge. Which means; lower the sail and the mast, and switch on the auxiliary engine. Real sailors do not like using the auxiliary engine, so as soon as we got from under the bridge we switched off the engine, put up the mast and hoist the sails. What a pity....no wind...Slowly we drift towards the bank toward a beautiful luxurious yacht on which 4 old age pensioners are enjoying a glass of wine. They watched us! Suddenly....there is wind, a lot of wind!! We got a lot of speed, but in the direction of the exquisite yacht. There was only one solution; tack (about???) towards the bridge which was only about 15 meters away(behind). I jumped quickly on the after-deck and pulled the start cable of the auxiliary engine; no result. Only another 5 meters to the bridge. Pulled again and the motor starts, accelerate, control the sails, overturn the rudder and hold our breath.... Sailing slanting we turn just in front of the bridge, managing to turn the sailing boat into the right direction. We nearly collided into a yacht, a bridge and we nearly had a broken mast within one minute....

  Nothing is as changeable as the weather!! Nothing is as adventurous as a sailing holiday!!!

   

   

  Good and Bad Fire We had confused ourselves, getting in a hurry, by catching a taxi from a bus stop to get to the bus station at Nuweiba where we waited for the bus we could have caught at the bus stop. Two other backpackers were waiting, a voluble middle-aged American, and a not much younger French woman who looked resigned to a less than contemplative journey to Cairo. She had that 'don't even ask' air about her. Thankfully we were catching a different bus. We were going south to Sharm-El-Sheikh to catch a ferry and the only other passenger was a twenty four-year Egyptian man who was working as a courier. Yes, important documents go by bus in Egypt. He quietly complained in English to us about the American" He thinks I am from Somalia, "I've told him eight times I am from Ismalia". It was quite funny - if you look at a map you realise that Paris is as close to where we were as Somalia and the likelihood of a Somalian catching a bus from an Egyptian beach resort is on a par with finding English First Division football results in a North American newspaper. Once on the bus we fell into conversation and did all the things the guidebooks tell you not to, talking politics, social attitudes and religion and sharing food. Although I did balk at discussing Manchester United, I don't think he noticed it was a taboo subject with me. I warmed to his opinions on Thierry Henry though "He moves with the ball like a dancer on the pitch"; it was not the only time this appreciation of the Frenchmans skill was discussed on our journey through Egypt. We moved onto music and I tried to impress with my scant knowledge of Oum Kalthoum and Cheb Khaled. All Egyptians love Kalthoum but he found Khaled too radical " I like Craig David, very pleasant music" he said and I could understand the polite restraint of the music appealing to the prudent Egyptian sensibility though I wondered whether he understood all the sexual subtexts of the lyrics. I looked down from the bus window as the familiar light blue of a United Nations car overtook us. "Nothing more than watchers" he commented and sure enough the sign on the side of the car proclaimed they were part of the observation team in Sinai. Strange how I had found such peace for three days on a beach from where I could see Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia when newspapers back home lead you to think all here was unsafe. I mused on how the fish swimming round the coral reef could have no possible knowledge of the potential for missiles flying over their heads. He asked whether we had heard about the plane crash, which we had not. "169 dead, mainly French holidaymakers" and there was sadness in his voice as he told us and not just because of the damage to the tourist trade. Later a taxi driver would point towards where it happened off the coast near Sharm with the same disbelief that so many lives could just disappear. So three hours later and after a stop in Dahab he changed buses in Sharm to continue his journey back up the west cost of Sinai and we left him to make for the port. I can't recall whether at 24 I had such a good piece of commentary as his "There are two types of holy man, one brings fire into your home to keep you warm, help you cook and give light. The other brings fire into your home to burn it down"

   

   

  I turned up at Bologna Airport only to be turned away at passport control - crying my eyes out and unable to speak a word of Italian I was kept in a room full of policeman who were threatning to fine me or so I thought.. was kept in there until some nice person rescued me and put me back on flight to UK. I suppose the moral of the story is always check your passport is in date cos the people at check in and customs don't but you can be sure the customs at the other end will!!

   

   

  Having driven 8000 uneventful miles in four weeks around the Yukon and Alaska, I was looking forward to handing back the keys of my 4x4, and jumping on the buses for another month. As I drove through Vancouver on the last evening, I rounded a bend into a low sun. I suddenly spotted a pointless step-out in the kerb. I couldn't swerve because of the bus alongside me, so I hit the kerb, ripping out the sidewall of the tyre. I was glad I paid the extra for the Collision Damage Waiver.

   

   

  I went to India last year and during the full 4 weeks that I was there, I suffered from severe diarrhoea, stomach cramps and vomiting. It was only during the last 2-3 days that I could enjoy myself. My 12 year daughter also suffered the same

   

   

  The heat is on... We recently took a year to travel the world, insured by Columbus, and the highlight of out trip was provided by elephants. We were in Chitwan National Park, in the South of Nepal, spending a week surrounded by funky wildlife. On the first day of our visit we embarked on a jungle walk - two of us and two guides - to see if we could find any interesting animals. About 2 hours into our walk, having seen nothing except a wild chicken (really!) in the dense undergrowth, we were planning how to make a chicken sound exciting to our friends when our lead guide, who'd gone scouting ahead, suddenly sprinted past us at top speed. We looked at each other for a second and sprinted after him - the look of fear on the guide's face as he shot past us was enough to confirm that this wasn't some joke to amuse the tourists. A good few minutes later and we all stopped exhausted as our second guide climbed a tree to make sure we weren't being followed. The lead guide caught his breath and explained to us that the rustling and stomping sound that we had heard ahead in the jungle, and that he had gone to investigate, turned out to be a wild bull elephant. Normally this would be an amazing sight, and one the guides would have been proud to share with us. Not this time! We never actually saw more than a flash of the elephant's grey hindquarters in the bushes but the guide filled us in on the details - apparently the wild bull elephants come into the national park park to 'service' the lady elephants in the nearby Breeding Centre. Unfortunately all the females were currently pregnant which meant that many tons of very frustrated, and highly irritable, male elephant was left roaming the park. And this was the beast we had aprinted away from! After that we were secretly relieved that we never came face-to-face with the elusive Bengal tiger or Chitwan rhino - despite our guide's subtle tracking efforts. "When I throw this rock into that bush we'll see exactly what it is in there. If it's a tiget he'll probably just slink away, if it's a rhino he'll come out at us". Must have been a tiger then, thank God. I'm glad to report, however, that our faith in the pachiderm world was restored the next day when we did an elephant safari (this time we were riding one) where we got an amazing, close-up view of a mummy and baby rhino. Amazing how much smaller they look from an elephant's back! After which we took the elephant for a bath in the river - only too late did we realise wot the guide was shouting at the elephant was "Go on, use your trunk to throw them off".

   

   

   

   

  Whilst climbing up to the hill to the old cathedral/castle (can't remember what it is) in Ibiza Town. My son and I stopped to admire the view. We noticed a hole which appeared to be an old well. I suggested he dropped a stone down it so we could tell how deep it was. He did. We never heard it land, so he found a much bigger one and dropped that down. A few seconds later we heard the voice of a very annoyed Spanish man shouting up the hole...like 2 small children (and my son was a teenager), we both ran off up the hill, like startled rabbits, hands over mouths trying not to laugh.

   

   

  When my children were small we had a holiday in Sri Lanka. My children were fair skinned, my sons being blonde and my daughter having red hair. Every village we stopped at all the children would swarm round the car and try to touch the children’s faces. They were very friendly and we not used to seeing fair skin. When we parked in a car park it was very hot and my daughter was only three and was very tired. She woke up to find an elephant had put his trunk through the car window and was licking her.

   

   

  In Feb 2005 I went sking for the first time with my son, he is 18 and I am 52. Having heard that hospitals in Bulgaria may not always be as well equipped as they are in the UK I made sure that we had comprehensive travel insurance. Bulgaria was great and now we are both hooked on skiing.

   

   

  Whilst travelling around Europe, backpacking, for a month, my cousin and I found passport control a bizarre affair. With terror attacks in London so recent and a supposed crack down on immigration, I was fully prepared for extreme checks but none seem to occur. Leaving the UK was done by a flash of the 'British red' to the Lady behind the desk and no one seemed to mind me entering France. A train to Spain and an annoying stop on the border where a single man checks about one in 10 passports simply looking at the picture with no comparison to the Bearer. Morocco was a similar affair with an amusing x-ray machine turned off and a guy reading a magazine. The scariest for me was returning to Europe from Morocco. Al queeda are well known to have strong links to Morocco and Moroccans are not permitted to Europe without a Visa and yet the Border control on Southern Spain allowed me to walk past with no show of any documentation! I could easily have travelled for most of my trip without even owning a passport and am going to consider whether it is worth forking out for a new passport when Mine Expires in October!

   

  my husband and I plus 2 children (all we could afford) decided to take our first holiday ever aboard a cruise ship to the pacific islands for 14 days, sounded dreamy, with all the arrangements made(flying grandma in to mind the other children 6 in total)Our cruise ship broke down we spent 2 days stuck in port with promises of getting undersail, we finally left harbour only to have to limp back into port our cruise canclled. The cruise line then messed up our accommodation and return flights (what a mess) I cried for days, all the build up and children’s expectations everything ruined We still have not had our first holiday.

   

   

  was invited to a barbeque on a lake in kose, south of Tallinn, Estonia. The food was wonderful to company was better but the highlight for me was the sun setting during the time of the "white nights" in june this year. It was perfect

   

   

  We stopped at Santa Cruz in California for one night, but were urged to stay a 2nd for the town's Halloween celebrations. Seemingly, the whole town turned out - all in weird and wonderful costumes - and mostly adults, we noted! We had never seen such amazing sights. There was 'Bo Peep' with two tiny pug dogs on leads wearing little 'sheep' outfits and a man covered from head-to-toe in minature neon traffic cones. A group of hippies started drumming; a sitar whined and everyone swayed to the music... it was all totally surreal and very fitting for a town where surfing, floral VW camper vans and long-haired 'flower children' still exist.

   

   

  SIGN OF THE TIMES? On a trip to NZ recently we had never seen so many signs. Signs that said 'if you parked your car by the beach for more than half hour with a FOR SALE sign in, it would towed away. And remote signs, miles from anywhere warning not to take stones off the beach to 'if there was an earthquake then there could be a Tsunami so run for high ground'.

   

   

  hotel pueblo barcelo benidorm september 2005 smell of drains on entering the 'room' which was filthy called housekeeping who 'cleaned' it came home one evening and found a mouse in the bath! we were all inclusive but the staff were so rude we were frightened to go to the bars! we spoke to a spanish gentleman in a cafe, who asked where we were staying he said the hotel was 'very old and in desperate need of re-furbishment' it was a horrible holiday!

  International Stories

• We were visiting Cornwall with some of our German friends last year. When we arrived at Land's End we had been explaining the concept of getting sponsorship from individuals for our forthcoming Breast Cancer Campaign Charity Trek, and some of the difficulties in extracting money from several people who had sponsored us. As we walked into the cafe, my husband strode over to a couple in the corner, announcing "You owe me a fiver." Unknown to us, a colleague from his London office was holidaying in the area - she thought he had gone a bit overboard to collect his money!

   

  In 1997 my friend and I went on our first far away holiday to Goa. The hotel was only a 2 star, however it was clean and secure (so we thought). A week into the holiday, we were drugged whilst sleeping (the thieves had sprayed something into our room) they then entered the room and stole money, camera, jewellery etc. Fortunately they did not harm us. For insurance purposes we had to report this to the local police station. Once the officer had written out the report, I had to accompany another officer in the cab that my friend and I had waiting outside the station to a shop 5 miles away to get a photocopy of the report. My friend had to stay at the station. On route back to the police station, the police officer told the cab driver to pull over, the police officer then proceeded to arrest a man at the side of the road and pull him into the cab onto his lap in the front of the cab. This was a most bizarre experience. Meanwhile my friend was being chatted up by the other police officer back at the station. All in all this was still a fantastic holiday and we did not let this ruin the rest of the holiday or any other holiday we went on.

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  beware of leaches! on a amazing tour of sri lanka our group stopped for an al fresco pic-nic lunch beside a beautiful, fast-flowing river. after a lovely lunch of fresh buffalo yogurt and fruit the ladies retired to the bush to spend a penny (as one does), before clambering back into the mini bus. on arrival at our base for the night, a tea plantation, i visited the bathroom only to discover a huge red blood spot on my white linen trousers. on further inspection, and to my horror, i discovered that a leach had attached itself to my bum and had not only hitched a ride but also a free lunch!

   

  On a rafting excursion while in India - we hit a number of rapids to enter settled water on the river Kali - Kanataka - with the searing 40 degree heat my friend and i decided to have some fun and jump into the river to cool off . On entering the water -we emerged to a see a screaming and terrified team of fellow rafters beckoning to us - we looked to the shore line to see two 15ft crocs entering the water . To say the least ,we walked water that day to get back in the raft !!

   

  My family and i visited portugal this august this year, it was my first time abroad so flying was wow!. This was the best holiday ever for me and my daughter everything was clean, food was excellent weather 30 c all week i will have to go back i would recommend it to everyone.

   

  In the beginning of the year we went on a relaxing trip to Egypt. It was a lovely week and we did not really want to leave at the end of the week. However, as we were on a late flight back we enjoyed the last couple of hours by the beach. I then decided to go for a last snorkelling session to catch one more view of the beautiful fish and corals. Well, it seems I was a bit too keen and forgot the plastic bag holding my credit cards and the last bit of cash that I have stored in my shorts pocket for safekeeping. Therefore we spend our last hours of the relaxing holiday in not such a relaxing manner...cancelling credit cards

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