Triphap - Funny Travel Stories and Travel Horror Stories

It was a regular Sunday morning. Mani and I had returned to the camp after seeing off a bunch of friends at the airport. Two new guests had checked into our white water river rafting camp at Rishikesh (India) meanwhile, while we were busy doing our run over the Ganges river.

We slumped down at the campsite to unwind after doing two hectic days of river, beach and the rapids. Then, sooner than we had expected, it started drizzling. About half an hour later, an eerie silence prevailed, and the wind started to blow again --- gaining horsepower, every passing minute. I recalled having read somewhere, that a strange calm always precedes, a mighty storm.

The strong wind swept the sand from the beach and began to create weird, swirling patterns on the calmly flowing river. I had never witnessed anything like this before; a squall of this magnitude in all three years that I'd been going to the mountains. I surveyed the campsite and saw tent poles clutching at the strings. Most tents lay in a collapsed state, and before we could assess the full damage, the wind returned with brutal force, making us scamper for cover under the... read more >>

My thirteen year old granddaughter, Angela, and I were touring Northern Australia. We were on the train from Sydney to the Lightening Ridge Opal Mine, chugging through pastures of sheep, sheep and more sheep. I was describing the landscape into my hand-held recorder while Angela sat gazing out the window. The conductor came around to check our tickets and gasped. “You’re on the wrong train, miss.”

I could have swallowed my tongue. “How do we get on the right train ─ to Lightening Ridge?” I asked.

“Sorry, miss, you’re out of luck. I’ll have the engineer radio ahead to the bus depot. Take the bus to Warris Creek where you’ll pick up another bus to the nearest town of Dubbo. You’ll have a one day layover until the train to Sydney comes through again.”

We stood beside our luggage at the side of the narrow, deserted highway and watched the bus chug away in a puff of smoke. I took in our surroundings. Warris Creek was exactly that…a creek with musical frogs. I glanced down at Angela’s stricken face, gave her a hug and told her the next bus would be arriving soon…not to worry. But what if it... read more >>

There are always funny, ironic things that happen when you are traveling. You really can’t escape it. However, when something a little bigger happens in the scheme of things, you may laugh a little tentatively while you and your travel partner suck in your collective breaths.

Kevin, my husband, and I were in Rome. We were actually on a cruise that landed in Civitavecchia and we drove in from the coast. It was the first cruise that we had been on and not our preferred method of travel, but that is another story. Nonetheless, we were going to Rome for the day, which is never enough in that fabulous city and we were eager to get there.

As we drove closer to the city, we decided on a whim that it would be best to park somewhere near Vatican City and hoof it from there. As soon as we made that decision, the sky started to cloud over. We thought nothing of it, but hoped that the rain would hold off throughout our day in the Eternal City.

We found a place to park and started to walk towards the beautiful columns that mark the perimeter of... read more >>