13 People Share The Scariest Thing That’s Ever Happened To Them When Traveling Alone
1. Sounds like the beginning of a horror movie
Met a guy who was a crack/meth connoisseur while smoking with alright people I just met. He (23) was hooking up with his best friend’s (26-27) younger sister (16) behind his back, and everyone (including me…and I just met them) knew.
They left together to get something from her car, and she came back cracked out hoping her brother wouldn’t notice…they shared stories of doing fucked up shit to strangers they just met and fucking up their cars…They were cool to me but I was scared as fuck.
2. Wake up!
Driving late at night really tired, blinking/nodding off for half a second and jolting back up when I heard the rumble strip on the side of the road. The adrenaline was insane.
3. Alone in a foreign country
It’s not too scary but: Istanbul metro, at midnight, a lot of creepy guys.
4. Nightmare checkpoint
Was travelling on a bus in Guatemala on my way to El Salvador when the bus was stopped at a check point. I did not think much of it since checkpoints are common. The soldier came on the bus and started looking everyone over, he stared at me for a few seconds and then checked the rest of the bus. After he was done he came back to me and told me to get off. I got off and the bus driver put my bag out too. I thought it was some random drug search, I was a little pissed but was more annoyed than scared. The soldier told me to go into a small two room building. As I walked my bus sped off. I was like… “why is it not waiting for me” The soldier just looked at me blankly and said that I could catch the next one.
He then took me into a room, and started looking through my backpack. He started asking a bunch of questions about why I was travelling. As he fingered through all my clothes, and seeming to pay a bit too much attention to my underwear and bikini for someone looking for a drug package. He asked if i was married or had a boyfriend, I lied and said I had a boyfriend. I realized that he seemed to be the only person manning this remote guard station.
He then ordered me to stand against the wall so that he could search me. I demanded a female guard or police officer but he ignored me. I was scared shitless, but there was really nothing I could do so I did as he said. He then patted me down quite slowly and told me to take my clothes off. I again asked for a female guard. He just shook his head and told me again to take off my clothes. He was pretty much just staring at my breasts at this point and I had resigned myself to being raped. I took my top off and had started to take off my shorts when I heard a bunch of cars drive up in front of the building honking and people yelling. He told me to stay and he went out front.
I stood there for about 3 minutes when a little old woman with a mop came in the room and told me to put my clothes back on. As I did she threw my stuff in my backpack and handed it to me. She took my hand and led me out front, where the soldier was arguing with a group of men in two pickups. The woman led me about 100 meters away and waited with me. After the pickups left the guard came back to us and told me to get back in the strip search room. The old woman yelled at him something I did not understand and he left. The bus came about 10 minutes later.
5. Worst position to ever be in
I was once in Italy without a wine bottle opener.
6. Doesn’t know the local language
Lost in a German airport. 14 years old. Spoke no German.
7. Creepy Aussie woman
Most rapey Aussie woman ever came into the boys area at the hostel I was at, she was looking for me in my bed and I woke up to her essentially going “oooo waaarriiooorrssss, come out and plaaaaayyyy.”
8. No cell phone or road signs
I grew up in the rural US with no exposure to big cities, other cultures, etc.
Driving in rural Germany at about 10pm in the rain totally lost about 2 hours from my hotel. This was before cell phones. Road signs in Germany didn’t say north, south, east or west. They just said the name of the town the road took you to. No help if you aren’t from the area.
Alone and lost in Italy. I don’t speak Italian. Couldn’t figure out how to use the pay phone. Couldn’t reach AMEX. No one spoke English. Horrible.
9. Blocked
Not alone, but creepy: Moving 1500 miles across the country with boyfriend. We stopped at a rural rest area so I could pee. When I came out of the restroom stall there was a man standing in the bathroom (women’s room). I stared for a minute and immediately tried to leave. He blocked my way. I think I started yelling and cursing for him to move, leave me the fuck alone, etc. I don’t really remember what I said. He didn’t say anything the entire time. Eventually my then boyfriend came in looking for me and I ran past the guy. We drove off and didn’t call the police, which I regret. Cellphones weren’t common at all, and we didn’t even know where we were…
10. Almost knifed in London
First time on the London Tube. Big Rasta guy with massive dreads and a Matrix Jacket is standing very close to me (I’m seated). I make eye contact and he splurts out angry rant about me being a racist mofo. Made no sense, I was in Shirt tie and usual boring business attire. He turns and opens his jacket and there is a large knife strapped inside.
I was getting off next station so just ignored him for a short while. Was very much terrified as I was a 65kg little bloke with a paralysed arm and no defence against big black Matrix nutters.
He also got off but lost him in the crowd.
As it all went down, every passenger pretended nothing was happening.
11. Out of gas and totally lost
I went to a foreigner bar in China with my brother and other foreigners. I decided I would take this cute girl home on my little motorbike that had peddles, but was motorized, in hopes of getting lucky. She directed me to a dingy dirt road with some pretty run down living complexes. She didn’t know enough English and I didn’t know enough Chinese to ask to go up, but as I sat there watching her disappear into the building I realized how bad it could have gone. I hightailed it out of there and connected to the highway only to realize I wasn’t quite sure where I was. I rode around hoping to find a landmark I recognized but it was dark and the empty urban landscape all looked the same. I had 5% charge left on my bike and I had already turned my phone off to conserve energy and things were looking bleak. I rode/pushed/peddled that bike while trying to follow vague instructions from a phone call I just made. Then, I turned onto a street, stopped, looked behind me to find a group of people all on bikes. They descended upon me and to my surprise, it was my brother and the fellow expats. I had to peddle that bike half way home. Scariest thing being absolutely alone in a foreign country having heavily relied on work to help live and get around. Didn’t stay there for much longer.
12. Operated on in a foreign country
Not alone, but me and my ex were on vacation and she got appendicitis and had to operate there. We were 18. I did not feel good when she was in the operating room.
13. Cut off
I delivered for an Auto Parts distributor for a year and a half with absolutely no accidents or tickets or anything. I was always a safe driver, very cautious and attentive. One day I was driving on the highway to pick something up from our warehouse and I was in the high speed lane. Some jerk cut me off and slammed on his brakes so my only way out was to swerve in between that car and the highway barrier. I could have reached out my window and touched the barrier, that’s how close I was.
Ahead of the jerk was now a ton of traffic so I couldn’t get back over so I kept riding the lane, about a half mile ahead of me there was inactive construction going on and the whole left lane had to merge over to the middle lane which meant I had about 2 minutes to get over or fall off the bridge into the sea. I sped up and at the very last second I managed to get over clearly with almost no problems. The asshole that cut me off followed me to the warehouse and demanded to talk to someone in charge. My manager had to write me up and I never got my good driver bonus.