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Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories

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While a vacation usually means fun adventure time or relaxing at a beautiful location, one unexpected accident can quickly make everything turn sour. And while some occurrences are nothing more than an inconvenience, others can be seriously terrifying.

Members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community recently opened up about the latter type of experiences when the user ‘ujin-’, also known as Sebe, started a discussion about it. They asked fellow netizens what was the scariest moment they’ve had on vacation and they had plenty of spine chilling stories to share. Scroll down to find them on the list below, but bear in mind that some of them might be rather disturbing.

Below you will also find Bored Panda’s interviews with u/ujin-, the redditor responsible for starting the thread, as well as a Professor in the Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management at the University of Florida, Dr. Heather J. Gibson, who was kind enough to answer a few of our questions about safety and traveling.

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#1

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Lost my baby brother at seaside boardwalk. My family went crazy for about an hour. Finally found him sitting on the bar at outside saloon surrounded by bikers & their chicks. Bowl of popcorn and a tall soda. They were all facing the boardwalk & walking people go by waiting to see if he recognized anyone looking for him.

Rosanna44 , Romina Ordóñez Report

Final score:

219points

𝙻𝚞𝚗𝚊⋆𝚝𝚑𝚎⋆𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚢 5 months ago

Bikers may look scary, but they’re really some of the nicest people. Same with emo/scene/goth/alt people. They deserve more credit than they’re given.

196points

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#2

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories I was with my family in Jamaica when I was 16. I was swimming in the ocean with my younger brother when a local man literally grabbed me and started swimming me out to sea towards a boat with other men on it. He kept saying I was going to be his “American girl.” He got pretty far out before my brother was able to get help from other adults. It was terrifying.

Dependent_Airport_83 , Umar Andrabi Report

Final score:

140points

𝙻𝚞𝚗𝚊⋆𝚝𝚑𝚎⋆𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚢 5 months ago

The further down this list I get, the more terrified I am of humankind. Jesus Christ, this must have been traumatising to say the least.

87points

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#3

I was seven and on my first family vacation to Disney World. In the Orlando airport, we were waiting for the tram to take us to the other side of the airport (I’m assuming from our arrival gate to baggage claim, but I’m not sure because I was seven).

A tram came and my mom said, “Let’s get on this one,” so I remember literally hopping on. The doors closed behind me and my family wasn’t on the tram. I began sobbing uncontrollably and this woman pulled me close to her family; she held me close on the tram and at the next station until my family arrived on the next tram.

I never got her name, but if she reads this by chance, please DM me so I can thank you thirty years later.

ScottyToo9985 Report

Final score:

124points

SCP 4666 5 months ago

How could this even happen?

10points

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In a recent interview with Bored Panda, the OP admitted being quite surprised about the amount of responses the thread received. “People’s answers were so interesting and cool to see,” they said, adding that they loved how much interaction everyone had with each other.

“I was surprised to see how many responses there were, a lot of people had some crazy experiences,” u/ujin- continued. “The most surprising thing to me was the community responses, and how most people respected and showed care to those problems.”

#4

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Not me, but in high school my friend was on vacation with his family in Costa Rica. He went out surfing pretty far before he noticed someone even farther out waving to him for help. As he got closer, he realized the guy had kids with him. The man asked my friend to bring his kids to shore and then come back to help him. My friend got the kids in safely but by the time he got back to the man, he had drowned from exhaustion. My friend had to paddle this guys body back to shore where his family was waiting. My friend was never really the same.

mileyisadog , Arun Kr Report

Final score:

118points

Anxiousguest 5 months ago

That's so traumatising . Sad for everyone involved

64points

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#5

My appendix ruptured while on vacation in England. Full perforation. I was on a school trip and my classmates had to continue their trip, so I got left behind. Day 2 in England and I spent 13 days alone in hospital before getting out and I had 2 days left and flew home. I was puking my guts out, s******g my brains out. Tubes down my throat, oxygen in my nose, catheter down my pipe. I was 15 and my parents didn’t have passports so I just had to handle it all myself. Had one amazing nurse who we are still friends with to this day (19 years later) and that alone made the whole ordeal worth while.

PigeonFace Report

Final score:

101points

FloC 5 months ago

I don't understand how a minor can be left alone in a foreign country without any support. If it was a school trip, a teacher should have been there, or someone from the Embassy.

91points

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The OP shared that they came up with the question after thinking about something many people have experienced, but don’t speak about that often. “Vacations are memorable, but bad occurrences are even more memorable. So combining those two together makes a really good attention grabber. But other than that, I was also genuinely curious because I’ve had a couple bad vacation experiences myself,” they said.

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#6

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Went vacationing in Mexico with my family when I was 9. Lost my parents in a marketplace in Cancun and tried to tell a guy I was trying to find my family. He told me he’d find me a new one, moments before my father arrived.

DoorstepCult , Timur Weber Report

Final score:

92points

𝙻𝚞𝚗𝚊⋆𝚝𝚑𝚎⋆𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚢 5 months ago

Goodness, that must have been terrifying! Especially for a 9 year old. Jeez, I probably would have run around having a panic attack and forgotten all basic survival skills.

36points

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#7

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories On an overnight bus from Delhi to Dharmsala. (I am female and was 26 at the time.) We stopped at a gas station in the night so we could use a restroom. I was the last in line, and when I came out, the bus was taking off and headed back onto the highway. I sprinted after it screaming “No!” over and over at the top of my lungs. Someone must of heard or seen me and the bus stopped. I truly do not know what I would have done had I really been left behind.

liabt , Ceren T Report

Final score:

91points

tee-lena 5 months ago

I had this happen to me. All my stuff on the bus. No money. A female cop paid for a hotel room and the bus company got me to my stuff the next day and on my way. I was very, very lucky during that trip

58points

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#8

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Woman next door to me in a hotel was murdered.

I heard her screaming "Get out of here" a lot. Called the cops first and then the front help desk to tell them the situation. Cops show up and start questioning me, asking if I knew her, was in the room, or if I saw anyone else. I didn't know her, never left my room except to answer the door for the police, and never saw anyone else.

Turns out she was running from her (ex) boyfriend as he was a known abuser and he finally tracked her down. I didn't learn any of this until I saw a news article about the hotel about a week later. F*****g crazy.

Psych_Riot , Pixabay Report

Final score:

86points

Laura Gillette 5 months ago

This is why "why didn't you leave him" is a bad question to ask abused women. They know leaving is the most dangerous thing they can do. They're not weak-willed--they're smart and trying to stay alive. The question shouldn't be "why didn't she leave" but "why did we, as a society, not hold abusive men accountable".

115points

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Discussing scary vacation moments, the OP shared that they’ve experienced quite a few themselves, ranging from almost missing cruises, to getting attacked by monkeys, and slipping off cliffs. But there was one that stood out the most:

“I was somewhere around 14 years old, and was playing on the beach with my brother. We met a couple other boys from our cruise and decided to play with them. They decided to build a ‘water fort’ with large rocks to make a circle around us. These rocks were sharp and heavy, and they were very rowdy.

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My brother left to help my mom, and that’s when they decided playing baseball with the rocks was a good idea. Turns out my head was going to be the bat… because they threw the gigantic sharp rock straight at my forehead. For a second, it hit me and I didn’t feel anything. I even asked if I was okay and they said I was fine, until the blood started to pour out.”

#9

I don’t usually post , just lurk, but I feel like this question was made for me. On a 3 week tour of Thailand with my Muay Thai instructors, we happened to be in Krabi in Dec. 2004. We took an early boat ride about 2 hours out to a little uninhabited island called Bamboo island for snorkeling and hanging on the beach. We had been noticing a weird feeling in the water like something stinging and got out for awhile, and then noticed, “wow that is a really weird loud wave coming in.” Next thought was “wow that big wave just keeps coming, wonder if that’s related to how all the water receeded a few minutes ago making the shoreline like a thousand feet wider?” Then we climbed the highest point on the island and sat there for about 12 hours watching the next two tsunami waves come in and leave, while wondering if the highest point was actually going to be high enough to not be in the wild a*s waters of the ocean. The pre-smart phone days were kinda rough, we had no idea what was happening. After being rescued by the Thai coast guard and getting back to the mainland 12-15 hours later, finding out that 400000ish people died was a shock. Overall not just the scariest vacation moment but the scariest day of my life.

Azagsloth Report

Final score:

86points

Lion King baby 5 months ago

Wow! That's really scary! Good that OP survived!

18points

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#10

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories I was at wedding in Mexico and the groom leaned on a railing and it broke. He fell 30+ feet and survived with a traumatic brain injury. It was so awful. He is an entirely different person now. Don't ever trust a railing! Ever. .

Gazzerbatron , Harry Cooke Report

Final score:

81points

Paul Brown 5 months ago

I had a friend who was leaning against the trunk of a car, person in the car did something causing the car to roll forward. When it did she lost her balance, smacked her head against the bumper, broke her neck and she died on the spot. Horrific.

20points

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#11

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Be me. Five year old on a beach vacation w family. In a typical gift shop in a tourist trap beach town. Was looking at the novelty license plates w kids names. See mine, and for once, it's spelled the way I spell it!!!! Freak out. Ask mom for it. She agrees (I think). The novelty wears off, and I get bored as they look at the stuff and I ask if I can wait outside. On the steps this old guy comes up and using my name said, "hey, X. Your parents said to come w me and we're going to meet them later. Come on X. Let's go". I'm super confused. Cousin comes out seconds later, and the old guy disappears as I am distracted talking to a cousin. I realized later that he had gotten my name off the license plate display exchange—this close.

27_crooked_caribou , Tanya Gorelova Report

Final score:

71points

arthbach 5 months ago

For this sort of situation, teach children to ask for a password. If the person doesn't give the password, then scream and shout, run to the nearest shop, or adult in uniform.

57points

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“It started bleeding out like a waterfall and everyone ran away so fast, so I was alone bleeding out on the beach. I remember running into shore screaming for help from random beach goers while trailing blood all over the sand,” the OP continued.

“Eventually someone nice took me to see the paramedics, because I couldn’t see at all from the blood. When I got there, they tried to wash and stop my bleeding but the wound was pretty deep. Not to mention the medical bills in a foreign country were going to cost a whole mansion if I needed anything.

“Hours had passed when finally my parents showed up, finding me when my brother tracked down the teens that abandoned me to ‘die’. By that time, the bleeding lessened quite a bit but I was woozy and had a gauze on my face. My mom was rightfully mad at those kids for ditching me after injuring me, and immediately scolded them and their parents; I love my mom. It turned out okay but I needed to leave the gauze on for the rest of the cruise, and have a scar on my head from it to this day.”

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#12

Was backpacking on Catalina island with a girls group. Set up camp for the night, then huddled in a tent while a herd of buffalo stampeded right to our spot, ran around the tent, then settled for the night. Just about pooped my pants.

Apparently the males are kind of aggressive as they are on birth control for population control on the island. Poor horny souls.

Immediate-Prize-1870 Report

Final score:

68points

René Sauer 5 months ago

poor horny souls 😂

53points

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#13

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories In 1995 I was in Europe for the summer. The last week was for travel, and I was by myself, a 21 year old female. As a broke college student, I took advantage of as many freebies as possible, and with my Eurorail pass, I got a free cruise on Lake Geneva. It ended up being much longer than I thought it would be, and it was a really hot day. Because of this, I switched from being on the sunny deck to going inside several times.

After I had made the switch a few times, I noticed that a couple was mirroring my movements, but they weren't sitting together. I thought I was being paranoid, so I started moving even more frequently, but the couple followed my every move. Assuming they just wanted to take advantage of a young girl alone (maybe to get my passport or plane ticket??) I decided that I would just let them disembark first. At the end, we were the only 3 people on the boat.

At this point, I was actually starting to get scared. It was a Sunday, and all my parents knew was that they needed to pick me up at the airport on Friday. If something happened to me, there was no way to track my movements, and there would be a delay of nearly a week.

Finally, I noticed that there was a police officer near the end of the ramp. I got off the boat and stood by him. The couple actually hung around for a bit but finally must have figured out that I wasn't going anywhere by myself.

I still had about 6 hours until my train was going to leave and had planned to do a bit of sightseeing in the town we were in, but decided to play it safe and just stay in the train station where there were other people around

I have no clue what they wanted, but I still have no doubt that they were up to something.

motormouth08 , William Oris Report

Final score:

67points

Ace 5 months ago

Great picture of Niagara Falls, Now relocated by BP to Switzerland.

64points

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#14

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories I shared this on here recently because it happened recently:

Was snorkeling with my wife and son. My wife was actually free-swimming so she went ahead of us, while my son and I took our time gently paddling over to the main snorkeling area. So she was probably about 50 yards away, everyone else in the area was probably about 30 yards away. So I'm swimming and suddenly I feel something start pushing me down into the water. I recover and realize my son, who is 17 and bigger than I am, is holding onto me. He took water into his snorkel and started panicking, so he grabbed onto me. Well, I'm trying to tread water and hold up another full grown man and figure out how I'm supposed to get somewhere safe where we can stand or get to shore and I can't manage two people. I start dipping in and out of the water because my arms and legs start getting tired and I'm treading for my son's life (if I'm not trying to hold him up I can just dead-man's float until I can catch my breath). Finally, I get the other snorkeler's attention and call for help and a group of them come over. Someone with a paddleboard gets my son, and then I float and paddle as much as I can while a dude who's there pulls me toward a boat.

By the time I got on the little boat I just about passed out from exhaustion. I legit thought both my son and I were goners. The crazy thing is we're both good swimmers. If he wasn't panicking he could have just swam to shore, which wasn't that far away, or just blew the water from his snorkel and continued swimming. And since he was pulling me down, I'm now panicking and not thinking straight to tell him what to do. One of the scariest experiences of my life.

SweetCosmicPope , Miles Hardacre Report

Final score:

66points

Laura Lou 5 months ago

Panicking can make people do odd things. I can't even imagine what was going through the son and father's mind! The son is terrified and the father has the wherewithal to know they could both die from this.

31points

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While foreseeing something as unexpected as kids playing baseball using your head as a bat might not be possible, some dangers can be—and should be—anticipated and prepared for.

According to Dr. Heather J. Gibson, travel risk is multidimensional, so it can be divided into the macro risks, which are destination-specific and are likely to be outside of the control of the traveler (such as getting caught in a natural disaster—be it a hurricane, an earthquake, or something else—political unrest, or terrorism) and micro risks, which are more manageable for the tourist, such as health risks (getting the necessary vaccines for the country they are visiting, knowing if the water is safe to drink, being sun and heat safe, and taking similar precautionary measures).

#15

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories My uncle decided to f**k around on a trail in Yellowstone near some hot pools. He was walking backwards on the trail and f*****g FELL OFF right onto the crust near the hot pools. By sheer luck, he didn't fall through. It was horrifying. I thought we were witnessing a man die.

alizabs91 , wikipedia.org Report

Final score:

58points

Sara Frazer 5 months ago

Man, why does Yellowstone seem to continuously be the epitome of stupid tourists in America... -__-

88points

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#16

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Struck up a convo with a man at the pool bar of the hotel I was staying at and accidentally told him I was traveling alone….later that night I woke up to knocks and the door knob shaking….I never got out of bed to check the peep hole I just called the front desk but I’m pretty sure it was him.

MajesticallyMila Report

Final score:

55points

𝙻𝚞𝚗𝚊⋆𝚝𝚑𝚎⋆𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚢 5 months ago

Jesus Christ, smart move calling the front desk.

41points

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#17

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories First day of my first international trip, traveling alone. Went to a pub in London, had a few pints. Walked out the door to go back to my hotel and was attacked by a young man with a razor blade. He cut open my face down to the bone and then slashed me on the temple. Spent the next three days in the hospital bandaged up like the invisible man, not knowing what my face looked like underneath. When I finally left the hospital I had to borrow clothes, including underwear since mine had all gotten saturated with blood.

H1king33k , engin akyurt Report

Final score:

52points

Andy Williams 5 months ago

No 'gentleman' criminals in London anymore

12points

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Other things one can do in order to have a safe and pleasant trip, according to the expert, are being mindful of local laws and customs that might get you into trouble if you break them, and registering with your own country’s international traveler program. Knowing about any potential crimes that tourists are subject to (for example, pickpocketing or areas of town that are not safe at night) might also come in handy, as well as doing some research about how to reach your hotel safely (particularly if you are arriving late at night or by yourself).

“A lot of this is common sense, particularly for the experienced traveler,” Dr. Gibson suggested, adding that travel insurance—particularly to cover the unexpected costs—is also a good idea.

#18

On our way to the New Orleans airport at like 4am, the vehicle next to us on the highway shot at us for no reason. The bullet went through the windshield and rearview mirror, lodging in the roof right between my wife's and my heads.

Guerilla555 Report

Final score:

52points

Diolla 5 months ago

That's scary!!!! I got s**t at while in z train but the bullet didn't penetrate the fortified window.

9points

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#19

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories When I was 21 my friend and I backpacked through Belize. Started a conversation with a local who eventually told us he was part of the crips and proceeded to show me all of his abdominal stab wound scars. He told us his gang likes to kill people for fun and then asked us if we wanted to go with him on a boat ride. I had to act like I was considering it for a second before I turned him down. Didn’t want to make him too mad.

FluffyMuffin21x , WoodysMedia Report

Final score:

50points

Marcellus II 5 months ago

What is the comfortable level of mad you want to make a gangster?

27points

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#20

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories I slipped hiking in the Grand Canyon and ended up dangling chest down over a huge drop-off. I was 8.

Canyon_and_Co , Ray Bilcliff Report

Final score:

49points

Joanne Earle 5 months ago

Isn't that a pic of Antelope Canyon? Or one of the other slot canyons in the region?

8points

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Prof. Gibson suggested that some of the most common risks for people on vacation typically relate to their health and well-being, whether it’s food poisoning or breaking a bone, which is why she advises familiarizing yourself with the local medical facilities in the destination you are traveling to and taking a basic first aid kit with you.

“Petty crime is another common risk, as pickpocketing, as well as losing purses, phones, or passports is pretty common,” she said, adding that it’s beneficial to have a backup plan. “Know your credit card numbers and who to call. Carry a copy of your passport. Know something about the local laws and customs.”

#21

My first year abroad in China, 2002 - 19F at the time. I'm in the northeast in the dead of winter, not too far from Siberia. I didn't speak a word of Mandarin then. Myself and some other foreign kids decided to take a 3-hour night train to a nearby city to check it out one weekend. The trains at that time were like cattle cars - people packed in wall-to-wall, lots of loud yelling. There was no sign that indicated when you reached your stop, instead, a train employee would come into the car and scream the name of the next stop over the noise. Well, none of us heard it when the name of our stop was called. We only realized we might have missed our destination when we realized we'd been on the train for an hour longer than the trip was supposed to take.

We approach the train staff member and try to explain ourselves with hand gestures, repeating the name of the place we were going over and over. He points back the way we came, indicating we were indeed supposed to get off the train earlier. Then he gestures at us to wait, and when we reach the next stop, he calls over some other guy - we have no idea who this guy is - and motions for us to go with him. The guy leads us off the train, and we emerge into an empty, silent, snowy train yard. The guy starts walking up and down the trains, we presume trying to find the one that is going back the way we came, and we're all trudging along behind him.

All of a sudden, the door of a building near the train station bursts open, and two military-uniformed guards bolt out, run over to us screaming, grab our guy and hit him in the mouth. He's cowering and apologizing and talking a mile a minute. We have no idea what's going on but this seems very bad. It dawns on us that absolutely no one has any idea where we are - we don't even know where we are. There are no cell phones. If we disappeared, or something happened out there, no one would ever find us. Our parents and our school would look for us in the city we were supposed to be in, not way out in the middle of nowhere.

The guards take us into a full-on interrogation room. One bare light bulb hangs on a string from the ceiling, cement walls, barred windows, metal desk. They start yelling at us, we don't know what they're saying. They start yelling at this guy, he's obviously scared and trying to explain something. This goes on for an hour. They point at us at yell, they point at him and yell, they bang the desk. They make us dump out our bags, go through our stuff. We think we're about to get tossed in a gulag, never to be heard from again, because maybe they think we're spies?

Turns out they just thought we were sneaking around in the train yard because we were trying to dodge paying the return train fare, which was a whopping 8 RMB, which is around 1 US dollar. I stayed in China for many years after that and rode many trains, and understood later that we were supposed to go into the train station, buy another ticket and go back through the check-in (in retrospect, duh), but we were just dumb kids following some random guy around. Wasn't his fault either, my guess is that the train employee probably told him to just find us a return train. And I understand why the guards were so mad, that was a restricted non-passenger area and we weren't supposed to be out there, though a punch in the mouth was overkill.

Still: All of that over a dollar. We couldn't get our wallets out fast enough. As soon as we paid, they immediately chilled out. They didn't even try to extort any more cash out of us except the cost of the train fare (which often happened back then). Then they helped put us back on the right train with a smile.

Edited to add context that someone asked for in DMs.

Ides_of_Meh Report

Final score:

48points

Eroe Infinito 5 months ago

In soviet Russia, train rides you.

22points

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#22

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories My family took a Christmas vacation to Honduras. It was 1994, and my sister was serving in the Peace Corps at the time.

New Year’s Eve, our last night there, we went out to eat in San Pedro Sula.

No more than 10 minutes after we sat down, our restaurant was held up by three gunmen.

We were ordered to get under the table and place cash and valuables on top.

They took cash, booze, and knocked the phone off the wall before departing.

I was 11.

NullainmundoPax1 , Helena Lopes Report

Final score:

46points

Menacing Duck 5 months ago

that must have been a possibly traumatic experience for a kid to go through

14points

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#23

Last day of my friends and I’s San Diego trip we called an Uber for brunch, and a car pulls up that doesn't match the app description at all. Wrong model, wrong license plate. The driver yells out my name, acting super casual like "it's your Uber, come on in!"

My phone rings and It's the actual Uber driver I requested, and he's confused why I haven't gotten in the car yet. I tell him I don't see his car and he says "Uber hasn't updated my car model or license plate yet" - but the person in the car clearly isn't even on the phone! He looking straight at me!

I tell the person on the phone I'm cancelling and next thing I know the driver in the car is yelling at me through the window to get in. He even gets out of the car at this point.

My friend and I run back into the hotel lobby. We explain the situation to the front desk and thankfully, the staff jumped into action. We also reported it to Uber.

I am grateful we were close enough to the hotel to run away. If we weren’t idk what would have happened.

Moon2078 Report

Final score:

46points

Menacing Duck 5 months ago

glad OP thought first before jumping in

18points

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“Know the rules about photography,” the expert continued. “In some countries, it is against the law to take photos of certain places or peoples, which may also be cultural. Ask before you take photos of children or local people. Check out the safety credentials of any operators you are using; this is particularly important with adventure sports such as paragliding or bungee jumping.

“You need to do more research than just where you are staying and what tourist sites you are visiting,” she emphasized.

#24

Fell asleep on a pedal boat, woke up a few hours later in the middle of nowhere, completely dehydrated with no water with me.

Luckily enough i was wearing a watch so i was able to figure out where north was, and there was a sticker on the pedal boat with some sort of map of the area, so i managed to figure out how to get back to land, and i got back to the resort at sunset after pedaling for a little over an hour.

First thing i did was break into the restaurant where the personnel was getting things ready for dinner, only wearing my swimsuit, and yelled (not really cus i was exhausted and dehydrated) “WATER!!!!!!! I WANT WATER!!!!!”.

Absolutely loved the fact that nobody asked questions or came up with “sir you can’t be here now” and the receptionist/manager immediately realized something was wrong and she ran to the fridge and brought me some Gatorade equivalent.

There were a couple times that i was pretty sure i was going to die, i kept thinking “dude i can’t believe i’m going to die like a f*****g a*****e”. It started getting scary towards the end because it was getting dark and there were no lights on the beach, and i was pedaling so slowly, so i was afraid i would lose track of where i was going.

tabascobukkake Report

Final score:

45points

Kristal 5 months ago

How does one fall asleep on a pedal boat? Narcolepsy?

16points

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#25

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Me and my mom were driving cross country, 3k miles. We stopped off at a motel that backed up into a forest and got a room.

Now I'm a compulsive people pleaser. I don't like to make a fuss. But I only got a few feet into the door before turning around and telling my mom we needed to go somewhere else.

What did I see, you ask? SPIDERS. EVERYWHERE. It was like a scene from a f*****g horror movie. And they weren't the good kind of spiders, either. Black widows.

The room was clean so I assume that it had simply been left for a while.

invisible-bug , wikipedia.org Report

Final score:

44points

Elyse-the-Squid 5 months ago

nOpE

26points

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#26

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Sitting around the fire pit in camp before sunset, I scooted my lawn chair back and heard a noise. I said what was that to my mom. I turned around and there was a bear about 10ft. behind me on the other side of a picnic table. We grabbed some pans and started clanking them and it took off.

its_just_flesh , Janko Ferlic Report

Final score:

43points

LaserBrain 5 months ago

Assuming it was a black bear although the photo shows otherwise.

22points

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According to Dr. Gibson, it’s really important to follow local guidance, signage, laws and customs. “You are a guest in the other country, so being a responsible and respectful visitor is of utmost importance. This is getting more important as communities around the world push back against tourism,” she told Bored Panda.

“Put the shoe on the other foot; how do you feel if visitors to your community come and disrespect your laws and customs? Responsible tourism is key.”

#27

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories When I was 12, my dad took me to the Grand Canyon. He had bad arthritis and couldn’t walk well, so I asked if he wanted to walk down a trail and he said he’d stay put but I could go.

I walked down the trail, like a switchback, only a little ways. Then I turned to see if I could see my dad, and was waving to try to get his attention. I kept waving and backing up and waving, then turned and my back heel was right at the edge of the grand CANYON. I was not the smartest kid.

DueEntertainer0 , Noelle Otto Report

Final score:

38points

Sia Parekh 5 months ago

I'm glad you didn't fall off... that must have been really scary.

7points

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#28

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Faced an earthquake of 6 magnitudes in the mountains. Horrific and harrowing.

slasherthrasher , Wilson Malone Report

Final score:

35points

ValdaDeDieu 5 months ago

And to think... All these posts are from the people who SURVIVED...

14points

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#29

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Riding a travel bus along a narrow cliffside road in the Cordillera Central mountain range in the Philippines.

tacosandsushimi , quaintplanet Report

Final score:

34points

Hugh Cookson 5 months ago

Too many roads in SE Asia are potential death traps. Always do your research before you get there.

8points

#30

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Survived a tornado while on vacation with my grandparents in 2010. Path of the tornado was within 100 yards of my location. Thankfully nobody was hurt, but it reached its peak EF2 intensity right near my location. Considering the damage it did it’s amazing nobody got hurt.

KentuckyWallChicken , Tokuo Nobuhiro Report

Final score:

34points

Tamra 5 months ago

I grew up in the part of our country (US) called Tornado Alley. Tornadoes scare me like nothing else. One can tear down a street and demolish houses on one side, and leave the ones across the street intact. The utter silence before it hits is creepy as hell, then the massive sound of rushing, charging wind... terrifying.

21points

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#31

Montana - Glacier National Park.

My husband wanted to climb down to get a closer look at a steep, rushing gorge. I mean, this wasn’t just a stream - this was immense amounts of powerful crashing water that would’ve taken him away in a second. I warned him not to go down there but he insisted. I watched him while holding my breath, and sure enough his foot slipped and he almost went down. I seriously thought for a moment I was about to lose my husband.

Thankfully he caught himself but then looked up with the eyes that said “oh s**t, you were right.”.

tbridge8773 Report

Final score:

26points

Kristal 5 months ago (edited)

I hope OP gave the biggest eyeroll ever, cause I sure did with that last sentence. Freaking guys not taking their wives seriously cause they "know better". Ech.

12points

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#32

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Almost died last year. Halfway through vacation I started having pain in my groin/colon after taking my morning dump. Thought it was just something I ate. Several bloody poops and pain like I’ve never had before later and I’m in the ER at 12:30 am being told they thought I was septic and I had a 104.5° fever. After taking pain meds stronger than morphine apparently I passed out for like 30 min and they thought I was gonna have a seizure and die according to several doctors. Turns out I had several infections from unchecked leukemia.

Weird thing is we were vacationing in outer banks NC when I got my cancer diagnosis. Back when I was a kid my dad was diagnosed with cancer after vacationing there. Safe to say my family is avoiding it like the plague from now on.

thatoneguy2252 , Pixabay Report

Final score:

25points

𝙻𝚞𝚗𝚊⋆𝚝𝚑𝚎⋆𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚢 5 months ago

“If I had a nickel for every time a family member got leukaemia after vacationing in outer banks NC I’d have 2 nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice.”

37points

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#33

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Me and my mother were having coffee in a market in Nicaragua in 2013, minding our own business sitting right by the road when suddenly a motor bike pulled up at the intersection where a group guys were just chatting, motorbike guys pulled out a semi auto looking gun and shot all four before pulling off.

SwimmingGun , Sam Lion Report

Final score:

22points

Lil Miss Hobbit 5 months ago

Horrifying

2points

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#34

I was about 4 or 5, camping party for my birthday over in Moab. Whole group probably had about 20 or so people, including a couple dogs. We were about an hour or so through a hike and we came across a drop with a ladder going down about 20 or so feet to continue the hike. My dad sat me down on the edge of the cliff, and he was going to start heading down the ladder and grab me as he was traveling down. That didn’t go as planned and my friend’s dog slammed into me and I slid off head first and began to plummet down. Thankfully, my dad had the reaction time to catch me by my ankles. If his reaction time would have been a millisecond late I would not be here now. My mom was at the back of the hiking group, but once she figured out what happened to me, she lost her s**t on my dad. Funny thing, my dad wasn’t even going to tell her, another person in our group had to tell her that I almost fell to my death. My mother refuses to ever go on that hike again.

Edit: One ankle. He caught me by one ankle.

JERKKKKKKKKKK Report

Final score:

22points

Donald 5 months ago

Dad reflexes for the win.

7points

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#35

My sister died of a brain aneurysm while on vacation in Ireland in November. We had to get emergency passports and last minute plane tickets to go see her. Getting her back to the US for burial was a clusterfuck.

1DietCokedUpChick Report

Final score:

21points

Kristal 5 months ago

Oh, that's so sad.

8points

#36

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Found a huge scorpion on my bed in a hotel in Acapulco Mexico.

Necessary_Orange4892 , Sippakorn Yamkasikorn Report

Final score:

21points

Menacing Duck 5 months ago

he just wanted a hug!

12points

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#37

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories I was mountain biking in Bolivia (on the death road) and stupidly wiped out on some loose gravel. I slid out and stopped right at the edge of a gigantic cliff... so close to going over the edge. I badly bruised my knee but was otherwise okay and able to finish the ride. I am a lot more cautious about my mountain bike trail surfaces now.

DazzlingxAngel205 , Darcy Lawrey Report

Final score:

20points

Bell-icose Premium 5 months ago

It only takes 1/2 a second of lost focus and it can all be gone. Be careful my friends.

2points

#38

A tie between the time I got lost in Florence, before cell phones and the time they stopped our plane on the runway and pulled all the luggage off, and then came onto the plane with guns to arrest two guys. Ohhhh, and the time I was on a plane and the whole damn thing shut off and just fell. Like it, fell straight down, everyone and everything not tied down hit the ceiling. Complete with the masks coming out and an emergency landing at the nearest airport.

Madameoftheillest Report

Final score:

20points

Menacing Duck 5 months ago

how does a plane just shut off and fall?? aren't there safety measures in place?

5points

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#39

When I was studying abroad in NZ, I took a solo trip to the South Island. I was supposed to go with a few friends but they ended up cancelling last minute. This was my first solo trip ever and I booked a few hostels along the way. There was a French man who I immediately noticed upon arriving to my hostel in Queenstown. I remember him saying something odd to me. Then after a day of being at the hostel he gets moved into my room. He then spends an entire afternoon in the room staring at me while I watch you tube in my bed. Then later when I went to grab dinner in town, I spot him off in the distance as if he had followed me. Then later that night when I finished showered he was waiting in the room and again wouldn’t stop staring. I told him off and had a worker at the hostel change me to a private room. Gathered my s**t and booked it out of there the next day. I was 20 and it was my first solo travel experience. Sucked.

shimmysticks Report

Final score:

20points

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#40

We were actually on our way back from a small trip. My mom had texted that my kiddo was sick so we were doing our best to get home fast. It was only about a 3 hour drive but all back roads but with few places to actually pass. We got stuck behind 2 semis. My partner just kept insisting I go past them. But something tells me not to. He kinda pushes it for about 5 minutes but I just will not. Something in me just says No. Suddenly the first semi stops to turn and the semi behind it has to slam the brakes and swerve to stop in time. You could see the smoke coming off the tires. If I had tried to pass like I normally would have done and my partner had said, we would have been hit. I fully believe we would have died. It was a silent ride home.t.

Megnuggets Report

Final score:

18points

Divyansha Shukla 5 months ago

Gut feeling is real .

2points

#41

I went to Mexico when I was 19 with a group of friends. We were lucky enough to have an older relative of theirs that had a house in Rosarito, so we stayed there instead of a hotel.

Everyone was friends, nobody was dating anybody else, it was just a big group of teenage boys and girls on our first trip to Mexico.

The day that we're leaving, two of the guys come up to me and tell me to get in the car. Not to pack the rest of my stuff, not to go say goodbye to the older relative just get in the car.

So I get in the car and everybody else has their gear loaded so we take off and I'm kind of confused cause I don't know what's happening and they tell me the host was not planning on letting me leave. He had talked overnight about keeping me and said he had a place to put me.

Turns out he was previously deported felon, and he really liked 19-year-old me.

home_in_pleiades Report

Final score:

18points

ILoveMySon 5 months ago

I attended a seminar regarding human trafficking and learned it often happens with acquaintances. Frightening.

5points

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#42

Drove up a famous Turkish mountain with my dad, mom, grandma and cousin. After a couple of hours we drive back down and my dad realized the brakes don’t work anymore. If we drove straight down we would probably fall a whole kilometer and die in a wreckage/explosion. My dad just calmly drove into the mountain wall and the car flipped completely and came to a halt with the tip of our car dangling down the edge. We somehow all got out safely and waited for the police. I was 6-7 and was frantically searching for my lost sandal. Even got a picture of me holding up the sandal, doing poses. What a memory.

Soon_Money_54 Report

Final score:

17points

Elchinero 5 months ago

down-shift

7points

#43

Buenos Aires this year in April in the Palermo district.

I was beaten up by a group of men and my knee was broken and my head was smashed. Long story but I think I ran into a street gang and part of the gang even walked me back to my hostel (?) keeping in mind “street gangs” are mostly older teenage/young 20s guys and I think what happened went too far for a few of them Or something otherwise I would be worse off and possibly dead…

I have ptsd from that night.

SunnySunflower6 Report

Final score:

16points

HangryHangryHippo 5 months ago

This is awful! Crime in Buenos Aires has been worsening year after year. Palermo is a touristy neighborhood so unfortunately like in most big cities pickpocketing is the norm... But something so violent is not "normal". Poor guy

0points

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#44

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories March 12, 2020, Marriott in bogota by the airport. We’re flying back home to the states the next day and my wife comes down with food poisoning. I’m watching mayhem at Ohare on CNN and the staff is terrified to hand me room service food at the door. Thoughts running through my mind include missed flights and closed borders.

We made it on the flight fine, they were just waving everyone through customs at the Atlanta airport and Colombia shut down international flights like 12 hours after we left, iirc.

fluufhead , Sora Shimazaki Report

Final score:

16points

Upstaged75 5 months ago

I sometimes wish I had been stranded somewhere tropical during quarantine. ;)

2points

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#45

Our son used to have seizures when he was young. We were visiting the mini Grand Canyon at Yellowstone park when out of the blue he had one and fell literally 1’ from tumbling 1500’ feet down…. Still makes the hair go up on my neck.

Zestyclose_Match2839 Report

Final score:

15points

Regina Holt 5 months ago

Why would you take a young child with seizures to such a dangerous place? Original Touron?

0points

#46

I worked in Mexico and went out drinking with some close friends/coworkers who live there. I got so drunk that I blacked out and was unable to basically function. Cue the next afternoon, I wake up in my underwear in a chicken coop covered in chicken s**t and feathers. I thought someone had kidnapped me. Nope. I just wanted to make chicken friends and they were too drunk to stop me. But the 5 minutes I thought I got kidnapped in Mexico was f*****g terrifying.

yes-rico-kaboom Report

Final score:

15points

Sara Frazer 5 months ago

On the flip-side there must be a reddit post out there asking "what's the scariest random encounter with another person you've experienced?" where the owner of the chicken coop had a random, delirious, 80%-naked person in their chicken coop.... 🤔

29points

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#47

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories My mom and cousin (her nephew) traveled abroad. He had a severe allergic reaction to a pill he took and suffocated/died. My mom had to perform CPR on him, go to the hospital after getting exhausted, then arrange to have him flown back to America for burial.

Illustrious_Hotel527 Report

Final score:

14points

Elchinero 5 months ago

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#48

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories I got really drunk in New Orleans. Phone died and I couldn’t get an Uber. Decided to walk back to my hotel. Could see it from where I was so just started walking. Two women saw me walking and asked if I needed a ride. I said sure. Told them where I was going and jumped in the back seat (obviously
Idiotic drunk move). They drove me and I could tell we weren’t heading to my hotel. They were acting very strange, making phone calls, stopped at a gas station to “get some gas.” I was sobering up REAL quick as this was all going down. At the gas station, they said the station “wouldn’t take cash” and were just stalling. I managed to get $20 out of my pocket, put it on the center console and luckily got out of the car, ran inside the gas station, and waited there for 15 minutes. After a while I took off running toward my hotel and made it there safely.

I only ever told one person about this and I wonder all the time what they had planned for me.

MattThomas0808 , Selcuk S Report

Final score:

14points

nancthetank 5 months ago

Organ donor?

4points

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#49

In Vegas during the shooting. Walking down towards Mandalay Bay after a Knights/Kings pre-season game. My wife got a sudden 'sick' feeling (not like a cold or stomach issues just very uneasy.) We crossed over just after Tropicana and started making our way back to our hotel further up the strip. Went to bed after hearing about a shooting, but didn't know until we woke up about the carnage we would have certainly walked through. Pretty certain her grandfather (who passed just months before this trip) was telling her from above to not continue on the path we were going. Still get chills about what may have been and feel so terrible about the innocent lives lost that night.

bannedacctno5 Report

Final score:

14points

#50

Remember that 2018 Hawaii Ballistic Missile (False Alarm). That. I was visiting my brother and sister in law and my girlfriend and I thought we were going to die. Called our loved ones to say goodbye, cried in the closet taking shelter waiting for our imminent doom.

Funny thing is we were supposed to have left days prior but I decided we should stay an extra 3 days since the 7 day flight round trip ticket was the same as the 10 day one. Took 45 minutes or so for the correction to go out. Everyone in public looked like they went on with their day just fine. We remained shell shocked the whole day and my girlfriend and I needed therapy when we got home.

Final score:

14points

Upstaged75 5 months ago (edited)

I wonder whatever happened to the person who was responsible for sending that out? I'm guessing they lost their job - and were possibly tarred and feathered by the people of Hawaii. ;)

6points

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#51

Semi vacation, summer college trip to Andres island in the Bahamas. Range Rover we were in flipped, almost ended upright, but slammed back down to 3/4. No seatbelts, one guys ear was in three separate pieces, I had some glass chunks in me. We were flown to Nassau to get x-rays and treatment without ID or money. I was just 18 and I was told “You have to go with this other guy because we think he might have a brain bleed and die and we need someone to bring the body back” 😳

Spoiler alert, nobody died. At least not physically.

RhodiumPl8ed Report

Final score:

14points

Shine Chisholm (they/ them) 5 months ago

Seatbelts save lives!

2points

#52

Was in DC during 911. Woke up in the hotel downtown, just a couple blocks from the capitol building, saw the news, wondered if we were going to die.

Ended up wandering the city after they sent all the workers home. Got to see all the monuments without any people around. Had lunch in one of the rare open restaurants across the street from a courthouse that was being guarded by a ridiculous number of cops.

Originally scary, until we thought it was over. Surreal all day though.

Final score:

14points

Jesha 5 months ago

One of my good friends worked at the Borders at the base of one of the towers, and had called in sick that day because she felt a horrible anxiety. So from her apartment a bit away, she got a window's view of the towers going down instead of being at work. I'm eternally grateful I got to keep my friend because of whatever intuition hit her.

5points

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#53

I was snorkeling off the beach at Club Med Martinique, close to shore. Suddenly it felt like I was caught up in a blender and thrashed all over the place. Dazed, I came up to see a small powerboat MUCH too close to shore moving away from me. It happened so fast! I had a lot of bruises all over me. Pretty sure I almost got caught up in the propellers. I was almost fish food.

LadyA052 Report

Final score:

14points

LaserBrain 5 months ago

Unfortunately there is a high degree of overlap between idiots and powerboat owners.

21points

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#54

I had been on tour with a band for a month. I flew from the UK to Qatar to Dubai for the Dubai international jazz festival.

We were staying in the host hotel for the jazz festival, which is normal.

The hotel was full of men in the traditional dress of the area, which, considering that it was an international jazz festival. I found a little odd. As the band manager, I was onsite for a week before the festival even opened , as we were doing rehearsals for a solid week before the festival. I never saw anyone in national dress at the festival site.

We did the festival, checked out of the hotel, and in the lobby, I noticed a newspaper that had multiple faces of men and one woman plastered across it. However, it was an Arabic, and I couldn’t read it. One of the women oddly resembled me.

We got to the airport, and I went to the newstand to get a newspaper. As I was reading it, I realized that a high level operative from a group that would be anti-certain other countries had been assassinated in our hotel the day we got there. The reason that there were 70 men in National dress was because they were basically the FBI of the country.

Think of it like the head of the CIA was assassinated in the United States. It would cause a furor. I don’t want to get more specific, because it’s possible to identify me

To confirm my suspicions that I wasn’t dreaming, they literally had a photo of our hotel room in the newspaper, and a photograph of one of the women with the men that they said were the other terrorists in the elevator. So I knew it was our hotel. And it was scary.

I was just reading this paper at the airport, but I was suddenly called up to the front, as we were in the boarding area, and there are these very large men inspecting my passport.

All of a sudden, there were multiple men running down the gangway to the area where we were waiting to the plane, and they were all in military dress, and they had machine guns. They grab me, and a tiny woman in a hijab and abaya job told me that I needed to come with her immediately. I didn’t argue. Neither did the guys in the band, as I had told them don’t mess with security in Dubai. Lol.

They took me into a small room, and the woman in the hijab shooed the men out. The translator, she started asking me questions, How long have I been in the UK, what were my political affiliations, what was I doing in Dubai? What was my religion? Did I have any animosity towards Muslims? So many questions.

I answered them all. I was honest. She finally shook her head, knocked on the door, and they let me go.

Evidently, I remarkably resembled one of the women who had assassinated their political figure. And I had spent the same amount of time in the UK as she had, as she was trying to cover her tracks, as she has traveled from Ireland to kill this man. I found this out via some of the people involved in the music festival, because my detention almost caused an international incident.

So. I always read newspapers when I travel internationally now, and find someone to translate for me if I think there’s something weird going on.

RareBeautyOnEtsy Report

Final score:

13points

HangryHangryHippo 5 months ago

Holi $hit!!! Speak about being in the wrong place at the wrong time 😳

0points

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#55

1981 Hawaii. I listened to my best friend who wanted to go see surfers on other side of island. We were told not to drive some road from rental car company. Nope, didn’t listen. That feeling of driving that dirt road along the cliffs as a dumb*s 18 year old will NEVER be forgotten!!!! Just typing this gives me anxiety thinking about it. I finally found this one spot I could Austin Power my u-turn back. Meanwhile friend was almost in tears and peeing her pants. We literally kissed the ground when we made it back to the regular road. Took pics, too, of each other doing so.

Once our family car while towing our trailer crapped out, (alternator bad), coming home from a camping trip on highway 395, in the middle of the desert at sunset with 5 kids in tow. We managed to pull over in time to get off road. Everyone’s phone was dead except for one which had very little battery. I called AAA and told them the situation and approximate location as semis and other vehicles drove by really close. Yes, AAA found us!!! The closest hotel we stayed at was so nasty. That’s another story in itself!

LagunaLala Report

Final score:

13points

lookinforlists15 5 months ago

Either Kings Highway or road to hana.

5points

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#56

Got caught in a crush on an escalator at a train station in Bengalaru. A woman's sari had got caught in the machine and she'd tripped. Luckily I was close to the top and was able to ditch my suit case over the side then help her up with another couple people. The weird part was that the crush was actually caused by everyone at the top moving around her and then just stopping to watch instead of helping her. Bizarre.

kexlexia Report

Final score:

13points

Elchinero 5 months ago

Bengalaru

0points

#57

Driving in Maui, I noticed a dump truck headed toward me getting closer and closer to the lane line. Kept watch and we passed each other no incident. Looked in my rear view 10s later and it collided head on with a car behind me in our lane.

jwangy84 Report

Final score:

11points

#58

I was taking the train in Milan with my gf at the time and this man sat in front of us and locked eyes with me. He took a photo of me and after a few moments on the phone, he hung up and he took out a knife and began gesturing to slit his throat, all while maintaining eye contact with me. He then began yelling in Italian and slammed the blade of his knife into the chair and the window behind him as he got increasingly angry at us for who knows what. We got up and sat at the end of the train. The guy stayed where he was but maintained eye contact.

We got off at the next stop but in the moment I thought I was being mistaken for a person that had a hit on their head.

LoopyWaffleman Report

Final score:

9points

Ursula S. 5 months ago

Call the conductor?

0points

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#59

I was playing with a couple kids on a beach when I was younger, and they threw a giant sharp rock on my head. They abandoned me after I started to bleed and I had to run around the beach crying for help. They took me to the medical station where my family ran to find out where I was, real scare was the possible financial bill for my mom lol.

Final score:

9points

Bartlet for World Domination 5 months ago

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#60

In January of 1971 my friend and I were walking to the hammam in Mashhad, Iran across the border from Herat, Afghanistan when we began to be followed by a gang of teens and kids chanting “Heepie Americaine, Heepie Americaine”. We looked behind and several were holding burning torches. They began throwing garbage and frozen excrement as we turned the corner to find we were on a dead end alley. We both looked at each other and without words, as one, we spun around and ran at them as the group of about a dozen turned the corner. We burst through them punching and kicking and blindly ran as fast as we could until we were in an area we recognized and then on to our room.

I remember being struck by the fact that the torches were actually cardboard tubes like wall to wall carpet would be rolled on! It’s funny what goes through your mind in moments of extreme stress. I won’t say time slowed down, but I did have time to notice that, and to choose the smallest kid to hit first…… I was 17 and probably only a few years older than them.

Two4theworld Report

Final score:

9points

Elchinero 5 months ago

"Mashhad, Iran across the border from Herat, Afghanistan". makes sense /s/

1point

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#61

Long story. We booked a trip to the desert in Egypt through our hostel in Cairo. Ended up being some random guy, he takes us 2 hours out of town to his house, we have lunch with his (non-english speaking) family in what looked like a bombed out apartment (not exaggerating here). Then we depart to the desert with his brother, 2 hour drive, middle of nowhere. He had grabbed a freshly murdered chicken for our dinner in the desert on the way, and thats what we had, chicken and rice. Stayed overnight on basically a rug with a blanked surrounded by harmless (we didnt know that at the time) desert foxes. Departing back they dropped us off at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere and we had to take the bus with locals all the way back to Cairo and passed through several military bases.

steyrboy Report

Final score:

9points

Robert T 5 months ago

We had an armed police escort when we went through the desert on a coach to get to Cairo. Bandits are real.

7points

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#62

At a mid-tier resort in Cuba, my young son cut his leg on a rock. It quickly became swollen and infected. The resort doctor laughed when we asked if antibiotics were available. We tried to move up our flight home but it was not possible. The two day wait to get back to North American healthcare was a long one.

simongurfinkel Report

Final score:

9points

R.A. Haley 5 months ago

I thought Cuba had great healthcare. Maybe that was then and this is now.

2points

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#63

I (young female) was alone walking at 3AM back to my hostel in Montevideo - Uruguai (which was supposed to be one of the safest places in Latam), and right in the last turn there was 3 guys (homeless I think) separated, two at one side of the street and one on the other side, so I already felt the threat.

They noticed me and started to sing some creepy song together and I caught myself on that situation, having to walk in the middle of the street to try to avoid getting any closer to them.

When I was passing by, one of them crossed the street right behind me singing, and I felt something that I’ve never felt before. I felt the true instinct of a prey who’s being hunted by a predator, a horrible chill on my spine and I just kept on walking as faster as I could to get to my destination.

They didn’t do anything other than scaring me on purpose… I cried all night questioning myself if was a good idea to continue my backpack journey…

Ps: I had no problem walking on the streets of other neighborhoods late at night, so I was not feeling unsafe until this happened.

1998summer Report

Final score:

7points

HangryHangryHippo 5 months ago

Glad to read that OP is ok, but I can't get over the typo, is Uruguay 🇺🇾

0points

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#64

Instead Of A Relaxing Vacation, These 30 People Were Left With Frightening Stories Nearly choked to death on a tortilla chip, I was 8 years old. To this day, I dont each chips.

WoodedSpys , Andres Ayrton Report

Final score:

5points

#65

My mom had a heatstroke and she fainted in a small town in Mexico, in the middle of nowhere.

HikariLupe Report

Final score:

4points

Miglė Miliūtė

A writer here at Bored Panda, I am a lover of good music, good food, and good company, which makes food-related topics and feel-good stories my favorite ones to cover. Passionate about traveling and concerts, I constantly seek occasions to visit places yet personally unexplored. I also enjoy spending free time outdoors, trying out different sports—even if I don’t look too graceful at it—or socializing over a cup of coffee.

A writer here at Bored Panda, I am a lover of good music, good food, and good company, which makes food-related topics and feel-good stories my favorite ones to cover. Passionate about traveling and concerts, I constantly seek occasions to visit places yet personally unexplored. I also enjoy spending free time outdoors, trying out different sports—even if I don’t look too graceful at it—or socializing over a cup of coffee.

Gabija Palšytė

Gabija is a photo editor at Bored Panda. Before joining the team, she achieved a Professional Bachelor degree in Photography and has been working as a freelance photographer since. She also has a special place in her heart for film photography, movies and nature.

Gabija is a photo editor at Bored Panda. Before joining the team, she achieved a Professional Bachelor degree in Photography and has been working as a freelance photographer since. She also has a special place in her heart for film photography, movies and nature.

What do you think ?

Jennifer Ottley 5 months ago

Two stories my parents used to tell when I was growing up are: When I was about 4, my family went to Mexico for a holiday. My dad had been working outside all summer and had developed a significant tan, so when we went to cross the border to go home, they didn't believe he was actually American. Got it sorted, but it was a funny story to hear growing up. The next one is not funny at all. My parents' friends vacationed in Mexico in the 70s or 80s. Their 5 year old son went missing and they couldn't find him, so they went to the local police. The police then kept an eye at the border for their son. A few hours after their son initially went missing, a man was stopped carrying a sleeping child matching the description through the border check. When they checked the child they found that the boy had been unalived, his stomach had been cut open and he was being used to smuggle dŕugs into the USA.

9points

Dumb teenager 5 months ago

who the actual f**k uses a kids corpse, the corpse of someone they murdered to smuggle d***s?!

10points

Load More Replies...

Darth Kittius 5 months ago

My mom and I had just exited the subway in Washington, D.C. when a man approached us. He smelled strongly of tobacco. He asked my mom if she could spare some money so he could eat. My mom offered him a free McDonald's voucher we had. However, while she was getting it out of her purse, the man saw that she had a $20 bill in her wallet and demanded the cash so he could get a pizza. My mom refused and rescinded her offer. The man started accusing us of being racist (he was black) and started to escalate, but there was a police officer nearby whose presence stopped any real harm. Not the scariest, but definitely unnerving

8points

Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 5 months ago

This wasn't scary for me, but it was for everyone else. My language teacher would take students abroad every summer, about ten days. Parents had to pay, of course, but she did the whole tour thing. My parents let me go when I was 16. We went to Paris, Nice, drove through part of Italy, and ended in Geneva. Our group of five (teacher and four students) was on a bus with a group of 27, four of whom were adults. I forgot to check my watch at the souvenir shop, and missed our bus leaving. I waited at the souvenir shop for about 90 minutes, but eventually had to leave to find a restroom. After, I walked to the subway station, and bought a ticket to a station a few blocks from our hotel. I remember a man playing guitar on the subway, which was awesome! I got off at my stop, went to the hotel, and caught up my travel diary. About an hour later, the others got back. My teacher hugged me SO hard! We'd just missed each other at the souvenir shop. Thinking I'd find my way to the hotel, they kept calling. Our room phone had a broken ringer. Teacher could hear the ring when she called, but it never rang on my end. So I was lost in a foreign city where I knew none of the language. That poor teacher! I can't imagine the scenarios going through her mind all that time. The funny thing was, the leader of the other group was the one who noticed I was missing. You know, the group of 27, not 5.

3points

Keith Lancaster 5 months ago

I live in England and when I was a child we used to visit a seaside town called Blackpool. Well one day when I was in the sea (I couldn't swim yet, so I had arm bands on) a strange man suddenly grabbed me. I started screaming and other people rushed towards us then backed away again. It turns out that just behind me in the water was a huge amount of un-treated human waste. I was too low down in the water to see it but luckily this guy did see it and got me away from it. Soon after that the local council declared that swimming there was illegal. Still never been in the sea off the UK to this day and never will.

3points

Robert T 5 months ago

I ran out of air on my first scuba dive on holiday in Greece. Hadn't been taught how to read my own gauge, and was fortunate they the instructors came around and checked on us individually. I had to surface early and swim back to shore. I can't believe just how much trust we placed in the dive company!

3points

Nancy Whiting 5 months ago

My American in-laws were traveling in India in the late 1950's. On a remote dirt road, they hit a big rock and ripped out something critical. Another traveler came along and said he was on his way to a weekend house party at the home of a British ex-pat. They went--had a wonderful time, made arrangements to have their car repaired. One of the guests was film director David Lean, who happened to working on "Lawrence of Arabia." My father-in-law had some unusual connections in the Middle East and was able to both provide background material on Lawrence and contacts for more connections.

3points

Jackie Duvall-Smith 5 months ago

This was before I was born. Back in the 1960’s, my parents went camping with friends who were a married couple, but had no children. My sister was just a baby at the time. A few years later, the husband from the other couple was accused and convicted of abducting and unaliving a little girl. He had set his truck in fire the day she went missing, and he lived in the same trailer park. My mom believed he was innocent and would occasionally write letters to the governor to have him pardoned. I found out later that he was suspected of this crime on at least one other girl. So, my family went camping with a serial killer.

2points

JB 5 months ago (edited)

2004, I went on vacation to Antigua with my now-ex husband. I don’t recall what day it was but one of them was cloudy, chilly and rained all day, so we just hung out at a bar enjoying the all-inclusive booze. He got hammered, I wasn’t much better. But then he figured out by overhearing a couple of other guests’ conversation they were Navy. As an Army veteran, he decided to verbally abuse them in an attempt to start a fight. I sobered up real quick when the bar tender told us to leave and threatened to have us thrown out of the resort. Coaxed ex back to our room, whereupon he turned on me for “interfering and causing the whole situation”. He spent the next 1/2 hour battering me around the room, screaming insults and telling me how much he hated me. Then he got the notion that the solution was to drag me onto the third floor balcony and chuck me off. I’ve never fought so hard and, if he hadn’t been falling down drunk, there’s no doubt he would have been successful. Two things I don’t understand. Nobody called the front desk to report the ruckus but someone thumped on the wall to tell us to shut up. My husband was literally trying to kill me, I’m shrieking for help, but yeah, keep it down you’re disturbing us! I can’t explain why when he finally passed out drunk, I didn’t grab my passport, head to the front desk to report him and ask for the police. Nor why I didn’t leave the following day, fly home and start divorce proceedings. If I could go back in time, I’d have a lot of choice words to say to younger me about not forgiving that AH because he claimed he didn’t remember anything and cried when he saw the bruises.

2points

Nancy Whiting 5 months ago

My ex-husband was flying from Israel back to the US when Black September hit. His plane was grounded in Athens and sat on the tarmac for 16 hours.

2points

distant_echo 5 months ago

Not as exciting and scary as others but I was on the top deck of a tour bus in Rome. Roman drivers are....scary. I was sitting on the edge of the seat to look around and right after my husband told me to sit back, the driver slammed on the brakes hard enough that I went flying into the windshield. Thank goodness there was a windshield. Luckily only took home a black eye.

0points

Steve Hall 5 months ago

Just think what you might have had if you hadn't wasted your money on a vacation.

0points

Jennifer Ottley 5 months ago

Two stories my parents used to tell when I was growing up are: When I was about 4, my family went to Mexico for a holiday. My dad had been working outside all summer and had developed a significant tan, so when we went to cross the border to go home, they didn't believe he was actually American. Got it sorted, but it was a funny story to hear growing up. The next one is not funny at all. My parents' friends vacationed in Mexico in the 70s or 80s. Their 5 year old son went missing and they couldn't find him, so they went to the local police. The police then kept an eye at the border for their son. A few hours after their son initially went missing, a man was stopped carrying a sleeping child matching the description through the border check. When they checked the child they found that the boy had been unalived, his stomach had been cut open and he was being used to smuggle dŕugs into the USA.

9points

Dumb teenager 5 months ago

who the actual f**k uses a kids corpse, the corpse of someone they murdered to smuggle d***s?!

10points

Load More Replies...

Darth Kittius 5 months ago

My mom and I had just exited the subway in Washington, D.C. when a man approached us. He smelled strongly of tobacco. He asked my mom if she could spare some money so he could eat. My mom offered him a free McDonald's voucher we had. However, while she was getting it out of her purse, the man saw that she had a $20 bill in her wallet and demanded the cash so he could get a pizza. My mom refused and rescinded her offer. The man started accusing us of being racist (he was black) and started to escalate, but there was a police officer nearby whose presence stopped any real harm. Not the scariest, but definitely unnerving

8points

Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 5 months ago

This wasn't scary for me, but it was for everyone else. My language teacher would take students abroad every summer, about ten days. Parents had to pay, of course, but she did the whole tour thing. My parents let me go when I was 16. We went to Paris, Nice, drove through part of Italy, and ended in Geneva. Our group of five (teacher and four students) was on a bus with a group of 27, four of whom were adults. I forgot to check my watch at the souvenir shop, and missed our bus leaving. I waited at the souvenir shop for about 90 minutes, but eventually had to leave to find a restroom. After, I walked to the subway station, and bought a ticket to a station a few blocks from our hotel. I remember a man playing guitar on the subway, which was awesome! I got off at my stop, went to the hotel, and caught up my travel diary. About an hour later, the others got back. My teacher hugged me SO hard! We'd just missed each other at the souvenir shop. Thinking I'd find my way to the hotel, they kept calling. Our room phone had a broken ringer. Teacher could hear the ring when she called, but it never rang on my end. So I was lost in a foreign city where I knew none of the language. That poor teacher! I can't imagine the scenarios going through her mind all that time. The funny thing was, the leader of the other group was the one who noticed I was missing. You know, the group of 27, not 5.

3points

Keith Lancaster 5 months ago

I live in England and when I was a child we used to visit a seaside town called Blackpool. Well one day when I was in the sea (I couldn't swim yet, so I had arm bands on) a strange man suddenly grabbed me. I started screaming and other people rushed towards us then backed away again. It turns out that just behind me in the water was a huge amount of un-treated human waste. I was too low down in the water to see it but luckily this guy did see it and got me away from it. Soon after that the local council declared that swimming there was illegal. Still never been in the sea off the UK to this day and never will.

3points

Robert T 5 months ago

I ran out of air on my first scuba dive on holiday in Greece. Hadn't been taught how to read my own gauge, and was fortunate they the instructors came around and checked on us individually. I had to surface early and swim back to shore. I can't believe just how much trust we placed in the dive company!

3points

Nancy Whiting 5 months ago

My American in-laws were traveling in India in the late 1950's. On a remote dirt road, they hit a big rock and ripped out something critical. Another traveler came along and said he was on his way to a weekend house party at the home of a British ex-pat. They went--had a wonderful time, made arrangements to have their car repaired. One of the guests was film director David Lean, who happened to working on "Lawrence of Arabia." My father-in-law had some unusual connections in the Middle East and was able to both provide background material on Lawrence and contacts for more connections.

3points

Jackie Duvall-Smith 5 months ago

This was before I was born. Back in the 1960’s, my parents went camping with friends who were a married couple, but had no children. My sister was just a baby at the time. A few years later, the husband from the other couple was accused and convicted of abducting and unaliving a little girl. He had set his truck in fire the day she went missing, and he lived in the same trailer park. My mom believed he was innocent and would occasionally write letters to the governor to have him pardoned. I found out later that he was suspected of this crime on at least one other girl. So, my family went camping with a serial killer.

2points

JB 5 months ago (edited)

2004, I went on vacation to Antigua with my now-ex husband. I don’t recall what day it was but one of them was cloudy, chilly and rained all day, so we just hung out at a bar enjoying the all-inclusive booze. He got hammered, I wasn’t much better. But then he figured out by overhearing a couple of other guests’ conversation they were Navy. As an Army veteran, he decided to verbally abuse them in an attempt to start a fight. I sobered up real quick when the bar tender told us to leave and threatened to have us thrown out of the resort. Coaxed ex back to our room, whereupon he turned on me for “interfering and causing the whole situation”. He spent the next 1/2 hour battering me around the room, screaming insults and telling me how much he hated me. Then he got the notion that the solution was to drag me onto the third floor balcony and chuck me off. I’ve never fought so hard and, if he hadn’t been falling down drunk, there’s no doubt he would have been successful. Two things I don’t understand. Nobody called the front desk to report the ruckus but someone thumped on the wall to tell us to shut up. My husband was literally trying to kill me, I’m shrieking for help, but yeah, keep it down you’re disturbing us! I can’t explain why when he finally passed out drunk, I didn’t grab my passport, head to the front desk to report him and ask for the police. Nor why I didn’t leave the following day, fly home and start divorce proceedings. If I could go back in time, I’d have a lot of choice words to say to younger me about not forgiving that AH because he claimed he didn’t remember anything and cried when he saw the bruises.

2points

Nancy Whiting 5 months ago

My ex-husband was flying from Israel back to the US when Black September hit. His plane was grounded in Athens and sat on the tarmac for 16 hours.

2points

distant_echo 5 months ago

Not as exciting and scary as others but I was on the top deck of a tour bus in Rome. Roman drivers are....scary. I was sitting on the edge of the seat to look around and right after my husband told me to sit back, the driver slammed on the brakes hard enough that I went flying into the windshield. Thank goodness there was a windshield. Luckily only took home a black eye.

0points

Steve Hall 5 months ago

Just think what you might have had if you hadn't wasted your money on a vacation.

0points

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