15+ People Who Proved You Can Bring More Than Just a Souvenir From Your Travels

Every journey is an opportunity to plunge into a sea of colorful emotions and keep a lot of positive moments in the memory. We dream that every trip should go off without a hitch, as if according to a script for a commercial. But life knows how to surprise — some things amaze us for many years ahead.

• We had a holiday with my husband in Turkey. On the second day, I got sunburned and decided to stay in my room, while my husband went to the pool. 5 minutes later, I heard a knock on the door. I thought he forgot something.
  I opened the door and there was a girl in a swimsuit. She says, “Oh, I thought Vic lived alone!” I broke out into a cold sweat. She looks confused as well.
  And at that moment, the door of the neighboring room opened, a man looked out of it and said, “Nataly, I’m here.” It turned out that his name was Victor, just like my husband’s. And the girl just got the number wrong. Whew, I almost had a seizure.
• Recently I travelled by train. A cute kid was roaming around the compartment. He came and sat next to me while I was taking photos.
  He asked, “Do you have games in your phone?” Me, “Sorry kid, I don’t have any games as I don’t play games on my mobile phone.” Kid, “It must be boring not to have any games.” © Sahana Nagaraja / Quora

• I accidentally became engaged to a local in Vietnam. I was exploring this little village, and stopped at a restaurant for a drink. A guy comes up and starts talking to me in very broken English. Within 5 minutes, he asks, “You married?” I say no, so he then says, “You marry me?” with a big goofy grin on his face.
  I assumed he was joking, because we’d known each other for 5 minutes, so I said yes. He was not joking. He immediately began yelling something in Vietnamese, then grabs my hand and starts waving it around in the air.
  Within minutes, we were surrounded by dozens of people who are all cheering and smiling and shaking my hand. He then took me to his house to introduce me to my future in-laws. I broke that poor boy’s heart when I left for another city the next day. © quailgirl / Reddit
• I was riding in a sleeping compartment on the train once. I’m always lucky with co-passengers... And this time I got an old man as one. The snoring in the compartment was so loud that it seemed that even the window was shaking.
  Headphones didn’t help. I turned and tossed till late in the night, and there was nothing left for me to do but to turn to this man, reach out my hand and pinch him with all my might. Then I turned to the wall and pretended to be asleep.
  I lay there, laughing to myself. The man woke up instantly, not understanding what had happened. But the main thing is that the snoring stopped, and I had enough time to fall asleep. © Chamber 6 / VK
• My son and I were flying with a friend and her children. The kids took 3 seats in front of us. They sat down, and we were putting the bags in the overhead compartment.
  I see, people began to turn around. I listen, and my son says, “Sometimes, Lisa, there’s not enough fuel or leakage in the tank happens. But the pilots find out about it only if the alarm system doesn’t fail.” Lisa is crammed into her seat and looks with horror: she was afraid of flying in general.
  It turned out that my friend had spent a week reassuring her daughter that nothing bad could happen in the flight. But my son decided to show off. © Tatiana Lobanova / ADME

• Backpacking in Europe, I missed my ferry from the Netherlands to England. It was late, I was in a small town, and I had nowhere to go. A cute little local couple who happened by asked me if I needed help, and proceeded to offer me a place to stay. They even made dinner for me and paid for my taxi the next morning.
  I thanked them profusely and was on my way. Flash forward 5 days later. I’ve finally made my way to England, and am doing the touristy thing and visiting Westminster Abbey in London. I’m about to walk out when I hear my name being called. Lo and behold, it’s the same little Dutch couple, on holiday. © SunsetB / Reddit
• In 1978, I was travelling through the Isle of Skye in Scotland on foot. It was late evening when I reached the coast, where I hoped to check into a hostel that was marked on my map. However, when I finally arrived at the place, it turned out that my hostel had burnt down a year ago, and I knew nothing about it.
  To avoid staying out in the open at night, I had to cross the island once more to find a place to stay. When I reached the highest point of my route, the sun was preparing to sink into the sea. From where I stood, I could see the entire northwest point of the island protruding into the sea, and the sky was beginning to turn red. A magnificent sight, timeless and excruciatingly beautiful, made even more perfect by the serene sight of a large bird of prey gliding over the mountain and water. © Frank Stevens / Quora
• I was at a hotel and having breakfast. I poured some tea and the sugar was nowhere to be found. So I asked the waiter for it and was waiting for crushed sugar that I’ve been using my whole life. Instead, he came back with small cubes of sugar.
  So I took one and put it in my cup of tea and started stirring to dissolve it. But unfortunately, my tea got cold, and the sugar cube was still intact. And that’s when someone told me that I was supposed to keep the cube in my mouth and just sip my tea over it. © Shifa Mujahid / Quora

• When my father first moved to Oslo, Norway back in the late 70s, he lived in this terrible cellar apartment that was in a very nice part of town, so he’d always go for evening walks just to get out of the dump. On his walks, he would occasionally run into this old man walking his dog, and sometimes they would stop and talk about the dog or the weather or whatever.
  Turned out that the old man was actually the King of Norway, something my father only found out after later, being completely new to the country. Innocent times... © RightWhenWrong / Reddit
• Traveled to Thailand a few years ago. Beautiful country, though I got into a lot of adventure. On the first day I got heatstroke, then got into a fight with a gibbon.
  In the middle of the trip, I went to the lake with some huge fish, they said it was prehistoric. They tied a small fish to a stick with a rope, you put it down, and this huge fish eats it. Except mine almost ate me along with the fish when it yanked me down. But the trip to the waterfall was the most fun, because I fell into it. © Overheard / VK
• Since childhood, my dream has been to see a real live whale. Recently, my husband gave me a trip to Norway as a gift. There he suggested we go on an excursion to see whales. I squealed with joy.
  When we arrived at the agency that provided this service, the guide began to dissuade us, saying there were no whales in the harbor at this time of year. But we persuaded them to go anyway. After staying in the cold in the harbor for an hour, we were about to leave.
  We turned the boat round when I saw some movement under the water and a whale came up to the surface! Moreover, it was with a baby! There was no limit to my happiness! © Caramel / VK

• When traveling solo in Vietnam, I boarded a public ferry in the lower delta. I noticed that everyone on board was white and dressed kind of fancy, but I figured it was just Europeans traveling in SE Asia. Then, 15 minutes into the ride, someone started pouring champagne and passing it around to passengers. I was impressed with the service on a public ferry...
  The person pouring champagne got to me and gave me a puzzled look as I reached for a glass. It was then I realized I got on a private boat. We had a good laugh, and they dropped me off at the next public ferry dock. © Unknown author / Reddit
• I was returning to Shenzhen on a Sichuan airline flight from Chengdu. Sitting in the emergency row, the flight attendant explained to me the standard responsibilities, to which I gave verbal confirmation that I understood. Before she turned away, she said coldly: “One last thing, please hold off anyone who tries to open the emergency door.” I suddenly felt the weight of my responsibilities. © Chiang Scala / Quora
• During my holiday in Turkey, I got into the habit of swimming in the morning, at 7 or 8 o’clock. So, one morning I was swimming and looking at fish, sand, shells, everything as usual. At one point, I turn my head and see a huge sea turtle!
  Sparks, storm, madness, I look at it, it looks at me, and the next second I’m rushing toward the shore. I don’t know what I was scared of at that moment, because the turtle wasn’t interested in me at all, but I’ve never swum that fast in my life. © Overheard / VK
• Once I arrived to a hotel and I saw something disgusting. Someone had tried to cook soup in the electric kettle in the room.
  Needless to say, it no longer had water, had just these dried tomato soup pieces stuck inside the kettle. I was so angry. Some people think they are geniuses, but they have no brains. © Unknown author / Reddit

• We had a holiday in Vietnam. The sunbeds on the beach were for a fee. A woman in her sixties comes up to us and asks, “May I lie down nearby?” We were confused but agreed.
  It turned out that in order to save money, she laid down next to our sunbed in the shadow of our umbrella. She lied there all day, asking us to talk quietly from time to time, because we disturbed her. So, she had the money for an expensive trip, but not for an umbrella. © Overheard / VK
• I was hiking in the rainforest on the Brazilian/Argentinian border near Iguazu Falls with one of my best friends. It was a stunning landscape, and we were having a great time until I heard a shriek come from behind me.
  My friend had wanted to take a picture of something slightly off the path, and walked directly into a spiderweb. This wasn’t just any spiderweb, it was about 6 feet tall and spanned between 2 large trees across a 4-foot distance. Her entire body was coated in web. We all laughed at her and cleaned her off...and luckily never saw the spider that went with it. © Unknown author / Reddit
• My friend was going to Tamil Nadu with me. He was a complete American and didn’t know “Indian stuff.” We went to one of the local restaurants and ordered a full set of meal. In Tamil Nadu, food is served on a banana leaf. So when we went there, he was perplexed but didn’t ask me a question.
  When we had finished our meals, I told him to stay here and take care of our belongings while I go to the washroom, and then we swap. While I was not there, he started chewing the whole banana leaf. P.S. He never came to India after that. © Yash Mehta / Quora

And in this article, people shared stories about their most shocking holidays. Check it out.