WTF: Travel Fails Part 1

Sometimes our adventures don’t work out exactly as planned. Not unlike the night spent in a Malawian truck stop brothel or when the bus toilet sprayed toilet water on your only pair of trousers. But, you know, you walk it off cause you’re not a little bitch.

  

This week we hear from one of our readers who had a rough time of it on a trip to Jamaica. I think the lesson we all learn from this one is: vomiting on yourself is a sure sign that it is time to go home. (Apply that to your life as you will.)

 Nine years ago I went to Jamaica with a fellow au pair. Firstly we booked our flight to the wrong airport so we’d have to take a cab 4 hours across country from Kingston to Negril.  We flew from Boston to Miami and then on to Kingston.  I should have seen it as a bad omen, but I threw up all over myself once we got to Miami.  We had to stay at the airport overnight and I couldn't shower.  Anyway, the next morning we caught our flight to Jamaica and found a cab driver that would take us across the country

The ride was actually really nice and our cab driver, Shane, let us blaze the whole way.  So we got to our bed and breakfast and headed straight to the beach. My friend decided not to wear sunscreen.  Later that night we went to dinner and she found out that her debit card had been cancelled because her bank thought that it was stolen. That meant we only had $500 between us to get through the week. Afterwards we went to a party and then got some jerk chicken from the side of the road on our way back to the B&B.  The next day my friend woke up with raging diarrhoea, and blisters on her body from the previous day on the beach. When she took a shower that morning she managed to break the shower head, which we had to pay for from our limited funds.   It’s safe to say that she had a miserable time. 

At the end of the week Shane picked us up and drove us back to the airport in Kingston. We went to check in and found out that the flight we booked no longer existed, so we had to wait 4 hours until they found us space on another flight.  We finally got to Miami late at night but were stuck on the tarmac for 2 hours as there was a hurricane.  The plane’s ventilation system stopped working and the entire aircraft smelt like pee.  There was also no food provided on the flight and we hadn't eaten for hours.  When they finally let us off the plane we tried to find food but every restaurant in the airport was closed.  We had obviously missed our flight to Boston and had to sleep in the airport overnight, which was miserable. And then when we finally got back to Boston, our bags did not – we had to wait a week for the airline to locate them. It wasn't the trip we planned, but one we will definitely remember.