Disastrous journeys

Part 2 of a disastrous journey was when travelled from Arica, Chile to La Paz, Bolivia again, ended up there twice.

The locals in Arica were warning me and my mate to take some altitude sickness pills as to go from sea level to over 3,000 metres above can be quite breathtaking literally.

We ignored their advice, laughed it off and said we'd be alright.

It was only just after we crossed the Bolivian boarder that suddenly I found myself fighting for breath. It was one of the most horrible feelings I've ever experienced.

Eventually, it settled down and i started to feel better.

It was getting dark and suddenly the bus stopped. Everyone looked bemused. The driver seemed to be shining a torch at the front of the bus. If the bus was fucked, it wasn't the best place to break down as we were in the middle of nowhere.

So, the driver gets on and says the headlights are fucked. We've got two options stay on the bus and wait until they fix it the day after or wait for a vehicle to pass and follow its lights in the dark. It was a majority vote for option 2.

I've never been on a bus that's gone off road so many times and have so many near misses with oncoming traffic.

At one point, everyone at the front of the bus got up and walked to the back seats. Me and my mate looked at each other when suddenly a bloke tells us, if I were you, I'd move to the back of the bus because if we crash, you've got more chance of surviving. So we got up and joined the others at the back while the bus driver was peering out into the darkness trying keep up with the car in front.

Anyway, so we managed to get to the outskirts of El Alto which is the town before La Paz when suddenly the bus driver stops again. Here we go again we thought. He told everyone to get their stuff and get off and find our own way to La Paz.

He said that police checkpoints usually start a few miles ahead and that the bus driver and all the passengers would be fined for travelling on a bus with no headlights.

So we got off in a shitty little town with rats running everywhere at 10pm at night and around 2 hours from La Paz.

We flagged a few cars down and asked for a ride to La Paz but they wanted silly money. In the end we just stood in front of an oncoming bus in an act of desperation and offered the bus driver the 20 bolivianos each we had on us and luckily he accepted.

So we arrived to La Paz just after midnight, got some more Bolivianos and got in a taxi to the hostel. Our bottoms hadn't even touched the back seats when he was trying to sell us a packet of cocaine to which I declined. Bienvenido a La Paz muchachos he told us.
 
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Took a sleeper from Bucharest to Timisoara. I was in 1st class on a relatively comfortable compartment. Unfortunately, I was next to the shitter and nobody bothered to flush. there was shit and piss all over the floor by the end of the journey.
 
Not disastrous, but surreal, took the hydrofoil from HCMC to Vung Tau, weather seemed ok, all the Vietnamese were chowing down on their sticky rice and swamp food. The river part was fine, but you could see the clouds in the distance, we hit the sea portion, waves all over the shop battering the boat. After only a minute i'd say, it was a full "Stand by me" barfarama, only 2 toilets and a narrow opening to the outside, so the majority couldn't go anywhere, they were puking into plastic bags, out the window tops, on the floor, into their seats, the boat was getting hammered, puke was everywhere, i just held my nose as the stink was vomit inducing itself.
 
Not disastrous, but surreal, took the hydrofoil from HCMC to Vung Tau, weather seemed ok, all the Vietnamese were chowing down on their sticky rice and swamp food. The river part was fine, but you could see the clouds in the distance, we hit the sea portion, waves all over the shop battering the boat. After only a minute i'd say, it was a full "Stand by me" barfarama, only 2 toilets and a narrow opening to the outside, so the majority couldn't go anywhere, they were puking into plastic bags, out the window tops, on the floor, into their seats, the boat was getting hammered, puke was everywhere, i just held my nose as the stink was vomit inducing itself.
Asians can't handle travel at the best of times.
 
This is true, in the early days in Vietnam, we had to go by car with the windows down if the site staff were with us, windows up with AC on, they were puking into the little plastic bags they carried around for such occasion.
I saw it on buses, planes and boats. Adults and kids.
 
I hit a lot of traffic just outside of Coventry last week. I was nearly late.
 
Travelled on the first flight after 9/11 2001 - chaos as expected so was at the airport at 4am.

Arrived at my destination late in the evening and got up for a 2 1/2 hour drive to the meeting I was attending. The secretary told me the guy was at home ill. Drove back to the airport and spend the day travelling back - arrived at 4am after 48 hours of stressful travel for nothing.
 
Currently in the middle of mine

Drove to France to campsite with packed car and family arrived no bother. Went to go to the supermarket for some wine last Friday and found the hydraulic fluid had leaked out me clutch.
Called the breakdown company I took cover with before I left they sent a recovery vehicle who recovered my car to a garage 14km away. Obviously with it being a Friday there was nothing going to happen to it until Monday when we were due to leave the Campsite and drive to Eurodisney. I therefore hired a car from the same town which my car was in with the hope it would all be fixed by Wednesday(today) when we were due to drive home so I could drop the hire car off and collect my motor all shiny and fixed. How wrong I was.

So off we went to Disney in the hire car. I called the breakdown company on Monday afternoon to get an update on my car for them to tell me the hydraulic leak required the whole clutch replacing at a cost of 1400 Euro. I advised that in no way did I believe the clutch needed replacing and even so 1400euro is an astronomical price. I therefore requested to start the repatriation process of both us and my car back to the UK.
Finally yesterday afternoon I was advised we were booked on a flight from Paris to Manchester at 5pm today picking a hire car up when we got there. So had to drop my hire car back then get a taxi back to our Disney hotel and finally a taxi to CDG airport at 1pm at a cost of 320euro. And to put the final nail in the coffin we had a 5 hour delay and are still sitting in CDG due to leave in the next hour.

Oh yeah and as SEB I stood barefoot on a wasp on Sunday.
 
Currently in the middle of mine

Drove to France to campsite with packed car and family arrived no bother. Went to go to the supermarket for some wine last Friday and found the hydraulic fluid had leaked out me clutch.
Called the breakdown company I took cover with before I left they sent a recovery vehicle who recovered my car to a garage 14km away. Obviously with it being a Friday there was nothing going to happen to it until Monday when we were due to leave the Campsite and drive to Eurodisney. I therefore hired a car from the same town which my car was in with the hope it would all be fixed by Wednesday(today) when we were due to drive home so I could drop the hire car off and collect my motor all shiny and fixed. How wrong I was.

So off we went to Disney in the hire car. I called the breakdown company on Monday afternoon to get an update on my car for them to tell me the hydraulic leak required the whole clutch replacing at a cost of 1400 Euro. I advised that in no way did I believe the clutch needed replacing and even so 1400euro is an astronomical price. I therefore requested to start the repatriation process of both us and my car back to the UK.
Finally yesterday afternoon I was advised we were booked on a flight from Paris to Manchester at 5pm today picking a hire car up when we got there. So had to drop my hire car back then get a taxi back to our Disney hotel and finally a taxi to CDG airport at 1pm at a cost of 320euro. And to put the final nail in the coffin we had a 5 hour delay and are still sitting in CDG due to leave in the next hour.

Oh yeah and as SEB I stood barefoot on a wasp on Sunday.
:lol:
Sorry mate. It was the wasp that did it.
 
Currently in the middle of mine

Drove to France to campsite with packed car and family arrived no bother. Went to go to the supermarket for some wine last Friday and found the hydraulic fluid had leaked out me clutch.
Called the breakdown company I took cover with before I left they sent a recovery vehicle who recovered my car to a garage 14km away. Obviously with it being a Friday there was nothing going to happen to it until Monday when we were due to leave the Campsite and drive to Eurodisney. I therefore hired a car from the same town which my car was in with the hope it would all be fixed by Wednesday(today) when we were due to drive home so I could drop the hire car off and collect my motor all shiny and fixed. How wrong I was.

So off we went to Disney in the hire car. I called the breakdown company on Monday afternoon to get an update on my car for them to tell me the hydraulic leak required the whole clutch replacing at a cost of 1400 Euro. I advised that in no way did I believe the clutch needed replacing and even so 1400euro is an astronomical price. I therefore requested to start the repatriation process of both us and my car back to the UK.
Finally yesterday afternoon I was advised we were booked on a flight from Paris to Manchester at 5pm today picking a hire car up when we got there. So had to drop my hire car back then get a taxi back to our Disney hotel and finally a taxi to CDG airport at 1pm at a cost of 320euro. And to put the final nail in the coffin we had a 5 hour delay and are still sitting in CDG due to leave in the next hour.

Oh yeah and as SEB I stood barefoot on a wasp on Sunday.
I hate CDG
 
I missed my train yesterday from Sunderland to Kings X because I thought it was 15 minutes later than it was but turned out to be lovely as I just went over the Yates' and played some pool, read a book and had some really good chicken wings and sweet potato fries before getting the next train a few hours later.
 

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